Tag: holiness

A Vision of the End (Revelation 14:1-11)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment
The Great Day of His Wrath, by John Martin, 1852

Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they remained virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among mankind and offered as first-fruits to God and the Lamb. No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless.

Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation, tribe, language and people. He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

A second angel followed and said, “‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great,’ which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.”

A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.” (New International Version)

Throughout the book of Revelation (The Apocalypse of John) the Apostle John communicates visions of the end, of God’s wrath and human suffering. Yet John also pauses throughout his vision to offer encouragement for the faithful followers of Jesus in the present time who are undergoing suffering, even persecution.

The assurance believers have is that God sees their struggle, their devotion; the Lord will protect them – not from suffering and death – but from the effects of divine judgment and punishment on the earth. The Lord will not abandon the believers. Instead, they will share in God’s new realm.

The Lamb and the Redeemed

The ultimate destiny of Christ’s faithful followers is not in judgment but in triumph – even though many of them had to face extreme circumstances and died the martyr’s death. Christ, the Lamb of God, stands in the center of God’s kingdom with the 144,000, who sing a new song to God.

It could be that these 144,000 persons are representative and symbolic of all redeemed humanity. Or, they may likely be Christian martyrs, the ones who were the victims of evil (Revelation 13). Whoever they actually are, their description is figurative in order to convey that these faithful persons are morally and spiritually pure; they did not defile themselves with the wickedness of the world’s systemic and structural evil.

These redeemed persons are the first fruits, believers who have sacrificed their lives for God and maintained their witness to King Jesus, and not to Ceasar as Lord. In the Old Testament, every firstborn (both human and animal) belonged to the Lord. The first fruits (the initial yield of crops) were set aside specifically as a sacrificial offering to God.

In the New Testament, the concept and practice of first fruits is used as a metaphor for something given to God in advance. So, in the book of Revelation, this refers to the harvest at the end of the age; the first fruits are the 144,000, the ones who are the anticipation of Christian resurrection. In other words, there are many more converts to come – people redeemed by the Lamb and set aside for resurrection and new creation. A great harvest of souls comes; because of Christ’s resurrection, his followers shall also experience resurrection.

The Message of the Three Angels

The Apostle John spoke of three angels, each of whom proclaim a coming judgment of God. The first angel has a call to repentance and a warning of imminent judgment. The second angel announces the fall of Babylon (Rome). And the third angel pronounces judgment upon those who gave themselves to the powers of this fallen world, who participated in organizational wickedness through oppression, abuse, neglect, disrespect, and dishonor of others.

It is with the third angel that the “mark of the beast” upon a person’s forehead is the mark of judgment on them. Although the language and picture of this, and what happens to them, was (and still is for some) used to scare the hell out of people so that they would embrace heaven, we must very much distance ourselves from such disgraceful rhetoric.

Again, the vision is full of symbolism and is not to be taken literally; it is John’s attempt to convey an otherworldly experience he had, in terms which his readers could grasp. The big idea is that those who have become devoted members to the machinations of evil in its various forms on this earth will experience the judgment of God.

As they sought glory in this world by any means possible – including using people to keep and hold power – so, they will face an inglorious end when God holds them accountable for their wrongdoing and for letting their own hearts become shriveled and dry.

This is neither the time to participate in evil, nor to procrastinate in making things right – while you still have time to do so.

For those holding on to bitterness, it is time to forgive.

For the ones giving in to their anger through hating others, it is now time to humble yourself, repent, and turn to right and healthy ways of dealing with that anger.

For the persons allowing themselves to be used by others for perpetuating evil in their workplace, neighborhood, or church, it is high time to find your voice, renounce the damaging practices, and speak truth to power.

We all must suffer. What it is we suffer for, is up to us.

Almighty and everlasting God, the rightful Judge of all things and all people, help us, your people, to be rightly prepared for Christ’s coming, through a right confession and right practices in this life. Enable us to walk in a manner worthy of our calling so that we might cast the bright beams which radiate from the approaching day of glory into those dark days and nights of suffering.

Sovereign God, draw us, we pray, near to Christ and in union with him. May we taste and see the goodness of the Lord; be strengthened in faith for the trials and tribulations which lie before us; bask in the love of Jesus; and hold fast to divine promises, and our confession, especially since the end of all things is at hand. Amen.

Living Stones (1 Peter 2:4-10)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
    a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
    will never be put to shame.”

Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,

“The stone the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone,”

and,

“A stone that causes people to stumble
    and a rock that makes them fall.”

They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (New International Version)

The Apostle Peter describes Christians as “living stones” that form the temple of the Lord. In our worship we are like priests, carrying the sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving into the presence of God.

This is who we are; it is our identity. Christians belong to God in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. We have been formed – and continue to be formed – into the people of God as one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.

The word for stones in today’s text (Greek λίθος) specifically refers to large stones that have been hewn into shape. So Christians, as God’s holy people, have been set apart and shaped for the purpose of worshiping Jesus Christ. Instead of offering the blood of bulls and goats, like the select group of Old Testament priests did, we are all priests who now offer spiritual sacrifices because Jesus has taken care of the sin issue once for all. 

Christians continually offer to God the worship of Christ, and a holy life, in grateful response to Christ’s sacrificial death on our behalf. Jesus Christ is the Christian’s cornerstone and center, and is to be the Church’s passion and priority. In worship, God builds us into a community of faith who dedicate ourselves to knowing Jesus and making him known.

All of life (and not just a Sunday worship service) is to be a daily rhythm of God’s revelation to us, and our response to God in faith, thanksgiving, and an obedient life.

We were chosen to serve God, and to exist for worship. Worship is grounded in the triune God and centered in Christ. Worship is the heart and life response to the revelation of God in Christ. Genuine encounters of God’s revelation to us, and our response to those experiences, form us into disciples of Jesus.

For those who refuse God’s perspective, Jesus Christ is experienced as an obstacle. He becomes the rock which causes them to stumble and fall. Although the early Christians for whom the Apostle Peter addressed were often humiliated and ostracized, they are nevertheless God’s elect, honored, and precious people.

Peter, who was named “Rock” by the Lord himself, wanted his audience to know that they, too, are known by God as rocks, as precious living stones. So, he explained their identity by pointing out the parallels between them and Christ:

  • Christ is the living cornerstone—Christians are living stones
  • Christ was rejected by humans—Christians are strangers in the world
  • Christ is God’s chosen One—Christians are God’s elect
  • Christ is venerated by God—Christians are esteemed by God

Jesus has so closely identified with us, God’s people, that we are in a vital union with him. On account of Christ’s rising from death, Christians are like living stones who are acceptable to God through Christ.

As the late salesman on television from decades ago, Ron Popeil, used to say, “But wait, there’s more!” Christians have been born again, experiencing rebirth into a new life. Our identity has given us great privilege as building blocks into the following:

  • Incorporation into a new community, a temple that shares in God’s honor and symbolizes God’s presence and power
  • Membership in a holy and royal priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices of holiness and love (1 Peter 1:15, 22)
  • Inclusion into the chosen people—a disparate people who share together in common values, patterns of living, and redemption
  • Citizens of a holy nation who enjoy a covenant relationship with God and worship the Lord who brought them out of darkness and into light

God has created a community of people in Christ who did not previously exist. Together as Christians and people of God, we celebrate Jesus in worship and revel in his saving mercy, which has given us fresh hope and new life.

Therefore, I humbly and proudly adopt the identification of “Christian.” I am here because of Jesus Christ and all the faithful believers who came before me on the firm foundation of the apostles and prophets. I am part of the great stone structure called the Church. I know who I am. I know who my people are. And that sense of belonging no one can ever take from me.

Soli Deo Gloria

Lord of heaven and earth, we pray that you will bring justice, faith and salvation to all peoples. You chose us in Christ to be your people and to be the temple of your Holy Spirit; we pray that you will fill your Church with vision and hope. In the baptism and birth of Jesus, you have opened heaven to us and enabled us to share in your glory: the joy of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. May your whole Church, living and departed,

come to a joyful resurrection in your city of light. Amen.

Free to Live a New Life (Romans 7:1-6)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

You shouldn’t have any trouble understanding this, friends, for you know all the ins and outs of the law—how it works and how its power touches only the living. For instance, a wife is legally tied to her husband while he lives, but if he dies, she’s free. If she lives with another man while her husband is living, she’s obviously an adulteress. But if he dies, she is quite free to marry another man in good conscience, with no one’s disapproval.

So, my friends, this is something like what has taken place with you. When Christ died he took that entire rule-dominated way of life down with him and left it in the tomb, leaving you free to “marry” a resurrection life and bear “offspring” of faith for God. For as long as we lived that old way of life, doing whatever we felt we could get away with, sin was calling most of the shots as the old law code hemmed us in. And this made us all the more rebellious. In the end, all we had to show for it was miscarriages and stillbirths. But now that we’re no longer shackled to that domineering mate of sin, and out from under all those oppressive regulations and fine print, we’re free to live a new life in the freedom of God. (The Message)

The goal of salvation is to be delivered from oppressive bondage so that we are free to live a true and beautiful life – a holy life, set apart for good.

Romans chapters 6-8 are the Apostle Paul’s pointed discussion of how we become holy in a real and practical way. The theological word we typically use for this is “sanctification,” which means “to become holy,” and “set apart” for God. To be delivered from sin, death, and hell through the person and work of Jesus Christ is not the end of the story; it is just the beginning.

Becoming holy and good in our everyday lives boils down to this: identity and belonging.

One of the healthiest ways of looking at the entirety of the Bible’s message is that we belong to God. Our identities are thoroughly wrapped around Jesus. The process of realizing this, and coming to grips with it, is how we grow as people in holiness and righteousness.

Because of Christ’s finished work on the cross, we have been delivered from the realm of sin. Our change in status from condemned to accepted provides us the awareness to make daily affirmations of faith and live a new life.

Yet, the sinful nature (flesh) or the old person is still there. Although it is now toothless, our past can, and may often, exert a powerful influence on us. Even though there is a medium-rare T-bone steak on the table for us to enjoy, there are times we go back to the old bologna sandwich with stale white bread.

We no longer need to fall short of our true humanity. That’s because we belong to God. We are adopted into God’s family, having been orphaned by sin’s cruel influence.

However, just because we have been saved from the power of sin, sin itself is not extinct. We still must deal with it. We are alive to God and need to take up this great spiritual reality and live into it, for the force of sin still exerts a powerful influence in the world.

We deal with sin’s continued presence (the world, the flesh, and the devil) through embracing God’s grace versus trying to overcome it with the law.

Paul used an illustration from marriage to expand our understanding of grafting grace into our daily lives. By law, a married woman is bound to her husband (keeping in mind this sense of belonging was the predominant view of marriage in the Apostle’s day). But if the husband dies, the wife is released from the legal marriage. If she were to give herself to another man while her husband is still alive and they are married, then she becomes an adulteress. However, if she is a widow, then marries again, she is not an adulteress.

Paul applies this understanding to our relationship with the law. Death has separated us from the law. We died with Christ. Therefore, we have been set free from the law and have become alive to grace. As believers in Jesus, God’s grace and love changed our lives:

  • We now “belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead.” (Romans 7:4)
  • “When Christ’s body hung upon the cross, when God spared not his own Son but gave him up for us all.” (Romans 8:32)
  • “Christ took on himself for us all the curse of the law which inflicted all of us.” (Galatians 3:13)
  • We died to the law. God’s grace has made the death of Jesus the death of all from the realm of sin. (2 Corinthians 5:14)

As a married man, let me use Paul’s illustration to get down to the gist of his teaching. Yes, I am legally married and belong to my wife. I made vows to my wife on our wedding day which bind me legally to do what I said I would do. Yet, if I fulfill those vows in a strictly legalistic manner, I can vouch for my wife that this would not qualify as an acceptable situation for her. You see, my wife (and, me, too!) are freely bound to one another in love and grace. I care for my wife because I love her deeply, and not because it is my legal duty to do so.

The Christian life was neither designed nor meant to serve as a bare legal contract or covenant between us and God. God forbid such a thought! Jesus died to clear us from all the legality stuff so that we could freely love and serve God with joyful abundance and gratitude.

I am follower of Jesus because I love him deeply. What impels and motivates me is God’s grace. The law is there and has its place. However, it is not the law that causes me to be a Christian; it is the love of Christ which saved me from myself and compels me to live like Jesus.

May the God of peace make you pure, belonging only to him. May your whole self—spirit, soul, and body—be kept safe and blameless when our Lord Jesus Christ comes. The one who chose you will do that for you. You can trust him. Amen.

Not Ashamed (2 Timothy 1:8-12)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord. And don’t be ashamed of me, either, even though I’m in prison for him. With the strength God gives you, be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the Good News. 

For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus. 

And now he has made all of this plain to us by the appearing of Christ Jesus, our Savior. He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News. And God chose me to be a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of this Good News.

That is why I am suffering here in prison. But I am not ashamed of it, for I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day of his return. (New Living Translation)

Guilt and Shame

Shame is a nasty feeling. Whereas guilt is a function of the conscience, and helps steer us toward making things right with others, shame lays an unnecessary heavy burden on the soul. Guilt says that I did or said something that wasn’t good. But shame says we did or said something because I am a failure.

The Apostle Paul insisted to his young protégé, Timothy, that there’s no basis for shame when it comes to proclamation of the gospel. In fact, the Good News confronts shame by putting a wooden stake through its heart.

Shame is a vampire that lives in the shadows and feeds on secrets. But the light of the Gospel penetrates life, disintegrating shame and putting it to death.

God’s word is alive and powerful! It is sharper than any double-edged sword. God’s word can cut through our spirits and souls and through our joints and marrow, until it discovers the desires and thoughts of our hearts. Nothing is hidden from God! He sees through everything, and we will have to tell him the truth. (Hebrews 4:12-13, CEV)

Not a Failure

From a particular perspective, Paul would seem like a failure to many. He was an up and coming star in Judaic circles, but gave it all up to follow Jesus. And then, his life was marked by continual hardship, even persecution. To top it off, he landed in prison. Ironically, Paul found himself in a bad place just for being a preacher of good. He never left his imprisonment, and was eventually killed.

Yet Paul had no shame about any of it. Rather, he embraced the suffering, the difficulty, and all the circumstances that went sideways. Why? Because he had complete faith in who he was serving and what he was doing.

A lot of people, especially church pastors, struggle with shame. Most of them don’t have “successful” ministries when looked at from a certain angle. They see themselves as failures, and end up leaving the ministry and never going back.

Our strength and our help, however, no matter whether we’re clergy or laity, is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth; our assistance is found in the Good News we proclaim, in Jesus Christ, who himself was not ashamed of being tortured and killed.

Let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-3, NLT)

No More Shame

Christ has defanged the vampire of shame. And because of the work achieved on the Cross, we can now live in confidence, knowing who we believe, and trusting that the shame-busting Good News of grace will have it’s penetrating way in the world.

Salvation entails being delivered from something so that we can live for something else. We have been saved from the terrible grip of shame – which then allows us to live a vulnerable and confident faith in Jesus through the power of the Spirit.

Deliverance from shame enables us to respond to our holy calling from God.

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. (Ephesians 1:4, NIV)

God chose us to be holy. He does not want us to live in sin. (1 Thessalonians 4:7, ERV)

“Salvation” is a wonderful word which needs to be reclaimed as so much more than going to heaven someday. In reality, it is the divine purpose by which God makes us just, right, and holy, forgiving our offenses and transforming us by the Spirit into the image of Christ.

Christ, in his incarnation, life, ministry, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension has redeemed us. Jesus has torn down every wall, removed each barrier, and built bridges in connecting us to a life without shame and with everything we need to live well.

Christians embody the life of Christ within them by living a holy life, free of the weight of shame, and boldly proclaiming a message of grace, forgiveness, and freedom from the dark secrets we all carry.

This isn’t merely an ethereal gospel; it is Good News of great joy that has real impact for the nitty-gritty of our everyday lives.

O God, the author of peace and lover of harmony, to know you is eternal life and to serve you is deliverance and freedom: Defend us, your humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in your defense, may not fear the power of any adversaries, through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen