davidbowerkingwood

The word love in the English language is very broad in its applications; one can love bananas, apples, cats, dogs, people, and God among many other things. Generally the only way one can understand how the word is being used is to hear the context of the word.

When one says I love bananas no one thinks that this love will be an enduring long-term relationship; rather one eats the banana and throws the skin away. The same thing applies to the apple and the apple core; part is eaten the balance is disposed of.

Hopefully something entirely different is intended when one says I love my wife or other members of the family or perhaps a dear friend, but only the context can provide a more precise meaning.

One of the beauties of the Koine Greek language, the original language of the New Testament, is its precision and the wealth of its vocabulary. There are three forms of the word love that appear in the New Testament; each has its own meaning and more precisely expresses the intentions of the Holy Spirit.

The most frequently occurring form is the word transliterated agapao which is found around 320 times in the New Testament in one of its many forms. The second most frequently used is phileo which occurs around 45 times in the New Testament. The phileo form is the familiar “brotherly love” from which we get the name Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love.

The Lord provides a marvelous assist to understanding His usage of the word agapao when, in I Corinthians 13:4-7 He provides a definition for us to read. “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;  bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

In the margin of my study Bible I have written, “Attitudinal love, not emotional love.” There is no reference to emotional love contained in this definition. We are not commanded to develop an emotional attachment to everyone we meet; this is not possible.

No matter how hard we try we will simply not be able to do it; there will always be some individual toward whom it is impossible for us to develop a positive emotional response.

You may recall in the older King James Version the word was translated charity; in this context it is probably the better translation. While it may be impossible to feel an emotional warmth toward every other human being, we can maintain a charitable attitude toward every other person.

Over the years I have watched as well meaning Christians tried to develop a positive emotional response to every other person; without exception they have failed, and in at least one instance with fatal consequences.

I believe, however, that all Christians, in the power of the Holy Spirit, can develop and maintain the attitudinal love described in I Corinthians 13:4-7.

Paul concludes the 13th chapter with the words of the title, “the greatest of these is love.” Once we have joined our Lord in heaven we will not need faith for we will be eternally in the presence of the object of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We will not need to hope because we will be living the actuality in our eternity with our Lord. We will however still love in both the phileo and agapao sense of the word as we enjoy our new lives free of sin.

As we love others we develop a better understanding of how God loves us. As we love God’s created beings it clarifies in our minds the love God has for us. It is gratifying to realize that if we, with our flawed natures, can love God’s creation, how much more does God really love us.

 This thought blesses me every day and is the rightful privilege of everyone who loves God.

Deuteronomy 29:29 begins with these words, “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God.” That thought is often with me as I study the Bible; I’m sure there are many of us who wished the Lord would have provided just a bit more information on this or that subject.

A case in point for me is the antediluvian world, the world before the flood as described in the first six chapters of the Old Testament. There are marvelous hints as to what it may have been like but not nearly so much information as I would like. Another is the nature of the eternal state, what does God have planned for our eternity, what will heaven really be like and what will we be doing?

Perhaps I’ll address my speculation on those two areas in later blogs but today I want to mention another part of Scripture that has caused me to ponder “the secret things of God.”

The part of Scripture to which I refer is the amazing statement made by Job in the 19th chapter, verses 25 – 27. “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my heart be consumed within me.”

This is an astounding statement; where did Job’s knowledge of the end times come from, where did he learn about the living redeemer that would be physically present in the latter day and the physical resurrection of his body that he might see his redeemer with his own eyes?

Nothing that I know of in the Old Testament, especially during the days of the patriarchs, suggests this level of understanding of end time events so where did Job learn this information? It’s also interesting how casually it’s mentioned, as if this was the sort of thing everybody knew.

I do not have an answer to those questions; this is in the category of God’s secret things. By God’s grace we now have more information on those end time events and know the name of Job’s redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We also know more about the resurrection of God’s saints and know that Job will be resurrected at the second advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. The accuracy of Job’s statement is impressive; at Job’s resurrection the Lord will have returned to earth whereas at our resurrection, the resurrection of the church, we shall meet the Lord in the air.

We can also be confident in our assurance that we too will see our redeemer for ourselves as will our loved ones in the Lord who have experienced physical death. What a glorious occasion that will be!

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words.” I Thessalonians 4:16-18

Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

When we think of “the good news” we usually think of the good news for the unbeliever; there is salvation in Jesus Christ by accepting Him as one’s Savior. God, in His abundant grace, has provided even more good news for the believer after salvation; good news that welcomes you afresh to every day of your life and that is what Romans 8 is all about.

Paul has laid a solid foundation for Chapter 8 in the preceding Chapters 5 – 7 wherein he describes the source of mankind’s problem with sin; God’s final solution to the sin problem in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ; and the believer’s challenge of living a life of faith in Satan’s world; at war with a foe within and a foe without.

Chapter 8 starts with that glorious paen of praise and rejoicing; “There is therefore, now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”

I love classical music and always think of Romans 7:15-25 when I hear the last part of the third movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. As you may recall this section of Romans is where Paul describes the tension and frustrations caused by the struggle between the two natures within him.

Near the end of that movement the music starts building a palpable tension that keeps on increasing until the dramatic release of the opening chords of the fourth movement which then remind me of Romans 8:1-2; it becomes a musical setting for those powerful verses.

On more than one occasion I have joyfully shouted out the words to Romans 8:1 as those dramatic chords which open the fourth movement flooded my den with glorious music.

The 8th chapter of Romans has been described as the towering spire on the cathedral of Christian doctrine. A careful study of those verses will only confirm the experiences enjoyed by others as they have rejoiced in the majesty, the glory, the grace and love of God as displayed by the truths contained in this chapter.

If I were to try and summarize the message of Chapter 8 it would be the absolute certainty of the believer’s place in God’s family as His children based on God’s faithfulness to us, not our faithfulness to God.

We can have complete assurance we have the victory in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ even though we must face the challenges presented by sin as described in Romans 5 – 7.

It is not our eternal destiny but our effectiveness as a soldier in the spiritual warfare and our quality of life as a Christian which is in question. God has graciously provided us all of the resources we need to wage this battle successfully.

To use an analogy we have the biggest, fastest, and strongest player on the field on our team, the Holy Spirit, so if we want to win we had best not send him to the bench.

How do we send the Holy Spirit to the bench you may ask; we send Him to the bench by unconfessed sin in our lives which automatically sends our sin nature in to play the Holy Spirit’s position. I think we can all readily agree this is a bad decision.

We can restore the Holy Spirit to the game by utilizing I John 1:9 where God promises to forgive our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness if we will confess our sins to Him. God has made it easy on us; we don’t have to crawl on our knees to church or whip ourselves on the back, just confess our sins before God.

 In Part 2 I will discuss the amazing gift of sonship, God’s plan for our lives, and the wondrous future in store for those who are in Christ Jesus.

There is reputedly an old Chinese curse that says “May you live in interesting times.” The idea here is interesting times will be troubled times and a source of discomfort and concern. I doubt that I’ll get much argument when I say we are living in interesting times.

If one checks the news, one is inundated with reports of mayhem and disaster wherever one looks. Rioting, famine, war, death and numerous other types of terrible things seem to be happening all over the world.

How should we, as Christians, view all of this calamity? We have two clearly defined options; we can walk by sight or walk by faith. Walking by sight is life under the control of the sin nature; walking by faith is life under the control of the Holy Spirit.

Paul points out in the 14th chapter of Romans that “whatever is not of faith is sin.” If we are fearful or even apprehensive of events being described in the news then we are sinning and need to confess our sins and restore the control of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

The Spirit controlled life is described in Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

Notice particularly in the context of this article the inclusion of the quality of peace; although there is no peace in the world you can have peace within.

One of my favorite choruses is “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.” The words of the refrain are, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”

These words are always with me and serve as a constant reminder of where my priorities should be placed; I’ve found it impossible to rejoice in the Lord and worry about world events at the same time. We have the choice of looking at life from the divine viewpoint or the human viewpoint and I’ve found the divine viewpoint works much better.

I am convinced the return of the Lord for His church is imminent. If that is true the things of earth will never again be the same. Although Luke 21:28 specifically applies to the Second Advent, I believe the principle can be applied to the church today. “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth near.”

“Rejoice in the Lord always; and again I say, Rejoice.” Philippians 4:4 – If you’re rejoicing in the Lord, you won’t be worrying about the world.

Over the years I have often considered the will of God and why it is He does certain things certain ways. The Bible reveals some of those reasons but does not reveal others. If it had pleased God He could have taken a believer, at the point of salvation, immediately into His presence but He chose not to do that; He chose instead to leave the new believer on earth.

As I’ve mentioned before, living on this earth as a born-again Christian introduces some challenges; this is Satan’s world and at our salvation we become Satan’s enemies. At several points Paul describes the believer as being at war and engaging in warfare; he describes the offensive and defensive armor we should use and cautions us that this war is not carnal but spiritual.

In Ephesians 6:12 we are told: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” We are now part of a war that started before Adam was created and placed in the Garden.

Not only have we joined an ancient war, we have brought along a private war which is being waged within us, our own internal civil war.  

In Romans chapter 7 Paul described his internal war with sin; a war which all believers must wage. Let’s review the big picture; we, as believers, are engaged in an ancient spiritual war and we’ve got a member of the opposing army within us.

That sounds like a scenario in which we would require a lot of help; thankfully God has already provided all of the resources we need to be victorious, we must, however, claim and put on the resources God has made available to us.

Paul begins Romans 7 with an explanation of our relationship to the Mosaic Law; God knew that mankind would fail to obey the law and the purpose of the law was to show the absolute need for a savior, one who could deliver mankind from the penalty of death.

The law was never intended to be a path to righteousness and justification before God; its purpose was to show us we needed God’s help. Paul expresses this thought with great clarity in Galatians 2:16, “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.”

There’s that knowing word again; do you see how Paul keeps focusing on our knowledge and not our feelings? Keep in mind Paul had been a Pharisee, one whose dedication to the law was deep and personal and here he is saying by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. We can certainly agree the Holy Spirit had done a mighty work in the life of this man.

In Romans 7-14 Paul describes how the law had given him an awareness of his sinfulness. The Pharisees were expert at reinterpreting the law to a point where they could see themselves as obeying their version of the law. The problem came with the 10th commandment, “Thou shalt not covet.” Even a reasonably honest Pharisee could see their failure when it came to coveting; they coveted many, many things as described by the Lord in His confrontations with the Pharisees.

In Romans 7:8 Paul writes, “But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of coveting. For apart from the law sin is dead.”

From verse 15 to the end of the chapter Paul describes the frustration he experiences in his internal battle with his sin nature; I take comfort from these verses. If someone of Paul’s stature in the faith had to fight this battle how then can I expect to avoid it? 

Chapter 7 is a touching revelation of the spiritual battle waged by a faithful man of God within himself. From this chapter we should find encouragement as we deal with our own civil war within.

The chapter ends with praise to God for His presence in this civil war within and provides the bridge to Romans 8. Romans 8 has been described as the grand cathedral of Christian doctrine and Romans 8:1 as the spire on the cathedral. In my next blog we will discuss this grand chapter of Christian hope and joy.

In Romans 6:6 Paul tells us some important information about our sin nature which he refers to as “our old man.” “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”

A key, really important word used by Paul is the word knowing; nowhere in the 6th chapter does Paul refer to feeling. All is based on knowing; knowledge of the Bible’s revelation to us. Feelings are ephemeral, unpredictable and undependable; the knowledge of God’s word is unfailing and eternal. This alone is the truth that shall set us free.

Our old man, aka our sin nature, was crucified with Christ on the cross “Knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.” Romans 6:9-10

Since this is the case with Christ, it should also be the case with us: “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Romans 6:11. In this case the word reckon is used in an accounting sense as in calculate or compute, count or count over.

Paul goes on to urge us not to let sin rule us that we should obey it in its lusts and present our bodies as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but to present ourselves to God as instruments of His righteousness.

We now have that option; we can choose to serve sin and receive the consequences or serve God and reap the rewards as one alive from the dead. We have the freedom to choose, but we do not have the freedom to escape the consequences of our choices. Although from an eternal perspective all of our sins have been forgiven; from a temporal perspective the choices we make will have consequences which will inevitably play out in our lives.

Paul elaborated on the ongoing problem of the sin nature in Romans chapter 7 and described his feelings of frustration as he struggled with the power of sin. Although sin is still with us, it no longer has dominion over us because we are no longer under the law but under grace. Paul urges us to deliberately choose to serve God rather than sin.

It is this concept of crucifixion which Paul had in mind when he wrote Galatians 2:20 which starts with “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live.” If we would live the successful Christian life the daily starting point is to see ourselves as crucified and our living out the life of Christ. Christ is the driver, we are the passenger.

If we maintain this perspective everything else falls into place in the proper order; the world, the flesh, and the devil are relegated to their proper place and Christ becomes all things to us, the alpha and omega of our lives.