We are not saved by works. We all know this — Jesus Christ is the only path to salvation and we are saved as a gift of God. We can’t earn it. We agree on that, but not every Christian agrees on what our role is in this process. Are you saved when you accept Christ? When you covenant with Him at baptism? some other time? Is salvation a permanent state or can it be withdrawn? Does salvation require good works, result in good works, or have nothing to do with works at all?
God offers salvation freely as a gift, but we aren’t forced to accept the gift. It’s a choice that’s part of Him giving us free will. Choosing salvation involves more than a verbal acknowledgement of Christ as savior. God doesn’t just care about what we say. He cares about the state of our hearts and how that translates into the way we live our lives. The Bible is very clear that there will be people who think they’re following God, but who won’t be in His kingdom because they’re not following Him in the way He commanded.
The Gift of God
The key passages discussing grace and freely given salvation also have quite a bit to say about works. In Romans, for example, we’re told “the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many” (Rom. 5:15). It doesn’t stop there, though. Paul anticipates his readers’ questions, asking, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” and “Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?” Both are answered with an emphatic “Certainly not!” (Rom. 6:1-2, 15). This phrase is also translated “God forbid!” (KJV), “By no means!” (NIV), and “May it never be!” (NASB). When the gift of God frees us from servitude to sin we become servants of God, and servants are expected to work (Rom. 6:15-23). Freedom from sin gives us the ability to obey God, not license to disobey Him. (more…)
Check out this article I wrote for Femnista’s Shakespeare issue (and perhaps a few of their other articles while you’re at it)! It’s always a pleasure to write for and read this online magazine/blog.
I have no trouble answering the question, “What’s your favorite Shakespeare play?” (though it sadly isn’t asked very often). My answer has been Henry V since I first read it in high school. I grew up immersed in classical tales of adventure and heroism–stories by Robert Louis Stevenson and Jules Verne, legends about Robin Hood and King Arthur. In that context, my affection for Henry V comes as no surprise.
“Noble Harry,” as Shakespeare dubs the character, is the quintessential heroic figure. He’s a man of action, a brilliant soldier, a king committed to justice only where he cannot show mercy, a believer in God’s sovereignty, and a romantic figure in his wooing of Kathrine. Shakespeare is far too talented a storyteller to leave even his heroic figures one-dimensional, though. There’s much more to Henry’s character than being a perfect king.
We’ve all gotten lost in thought and stubbed our toes or run into something because we weren’t paying attention (or is that just me and my friends?). But for some of us, keeping track of what’s going on in the outer world is actually quite a challenge. People who are Sensing types in the Myers-Briggs system are naturally “wired” to interact with the real world of sensory information, but Intuitives are more concerned with abstract thought and possibility. It can be quite a strength, but it has its downsides as well (perhaps there’s a reason only 30% of the population is Intuitive).
When Sensing isn’t your preferred function (or, in the case of INxJs and ENxPs, isn’t even your second or third function), it can be easy to loose touch with the outer world. Dominant Intuitives may forget to eat or exercise when they’re distracted by non-sensory concerns. We might zone-out and miss important things going on in the outer world. Sometimes we even get hurt and can’t remember how (if I had a dollar for the bruises, cuts, and bumps I notice and wonder “How’d that get there?” …). Yet as challenging as it is, getting in touch with our inferior function, and even befriending it in some way, offers rich opportunities for growth and stability. (more…)
Almost 80 degrees and Tiger wants to snuggle with me in a blanket.
Today’s post is a bit different than usual. During my Tuesday morning Bible study, my cat looked so comfortable snuggled up on my lap that I spent some extra time meditating on the Word. I’d been in Genesis writing about our Creator, and a thought popped into my head. I want to share this idea with you today and ask for feedback. Please comment! Diving deeper into God’s mysteries shouldn’t be done in a void — I believe God wants us to grow together and “sharpen” each other (and also to call each other out if we notice someone studying something that’s not in line with scripture).
Okay, so we know that God has had a plan in mind since before creation and that plan involves building a family (Eph.1:3-6). We also know that the church is described as the bride of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 11:2; Rev. 19:6-9) and we’re told that human marriage is a “great mystery” that points to the relationships between Christ and His church (Eph. 5:22-33).
What if God began revealing these aspects of His plan from the very beginning in the way He chose to create man and woman? or, to put it another way, what if the way God created man and woman teaches us that He didn’t want to be alone and that He’s fashioning a helper comparable to Him? (more…)
This past week, Boundless.org shared two posts related to Joshua Harris and courtship culture on their Facebook page. One was an NPR interview with Harris and the other was a link to Harris’ call for feedback on the ways I Kissed Dating Goodbye has affected you. It’s a popular topic, since so many people in the churches blame courtship culture for problems in their relationships and hurt in their lives. They say the church’s attitude towards dating and courtship made them feel ashamed of their bodies and their sexual desire, that it set up intimidating expectations for relationships, and it is why they’re still single (or, for some, unhappily married).
The complaints aren’t all directed at courtship culture, either. Another article I saw this week was published by Relevant Magazine and didn’t mention courtship at all. How Christians Ruin Dating is specifically addressing ways that singles in the church feel their fellow Christians are ruining their dating lives. There’s too much obsession with romance, too much gossiping about couples, too much emphasis on marriage. We just need to chill, they argue.
For those of us who are single young adults in the church, there’s no denying that the culture we grew up in influences how we view dating and relationships. But we’re also grown-ups and it’s time to stop blaming the church for all our relationship problems and take responsibility for the choices we’re making. We can’t keep using the argument “Christians ruin dating” as an excuse for not finding relationships. Courtship culture, church gossips, the pressure to get married … those don’t keep us from finding a spouse. We do that when we use the problems surrounding Christian dating as an excuse to not ask someone out, or to turn someone down when they ask us out, or to sabotage potential relationships.(more…)
The people of God are set apart, with different priorities, habits, and festivals than the rest of the world. We may celebrate national holidays of our homelands, such as July 4th for Americans, but those are not the observances that shape our identities as God’s people. The kingdom we belong to under Christ’s authority has a different calendar.
A couple months ago, I read Desiring the Kingdom by James K.A. Smith. In “Chapter 5: Practicing (for) the Kingdom,” he discusses “rhythms and cadences of hope” that Christians observe in weekly and annual practices. For him, this means Sunday, Easter, Lent, Advent, Christmas and others. He connects the observances to a rich history of “a people gathered to worship the Messiah, who does not float in some esoteric, ahistorical heaven, but who made a dent in the calendar — and will again” (p. 157).
However, when you read the Bible, you won’t find the days Smith talks about on God’s calendar. Even the one mention of Easter in the KJV is a mistranslation of pascha, or Passover (Acts 12:4, Strong’s G3957). Rather, we find the church from the Torah to Revelation on a calendar even more unique than the one Smith claims for Christians. I know it puzzles many Christians that I would keep the “Jewish holidays,” but I find it equally puzzling that they would continue a tradition of co-opting pagan holidays and attaching them to Biblical events God gave no instructions to observe. When we search the scriptures looking for God’s version of liturgical rhythms, we find a worship pattern far more richly layered and deeply rooted in God’s plan than what man has invented.
The observance of time in the Bible begins at Creation. On the fourth day, God said, ““Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs to mark seasons, days, and years” (Gen 1:14, WEB). On the seventh day God rested “from all his work which he had done.God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, because he rested in it from all his work of creation which he had done” (Gen. 2:2-3, WEB; see also Ex. 20:11; 31:17).
From the very beginning, God set up a world that allowed for marking time in weekly, monthly, and yearly rhythms. The Sabbath was established from the foundation of the world, and there’s no scriptural evidence that it was ever moved from the seventh to the first day (click here for my Sabbath post). The other holy days were set in place as God revealed His plan and established His covenants, but the Sabbath was there since the beginning and will be with us forever (Is. 56:2-7; 66:22-23; Mark 2:27-28; Heb. 4:9).
The months were marked by new moons, making the Hebrew calendar lunar (which is why the holy days “move around” on the Gregorian calendar). Exodus establishes which month begins the year (Ex. 12:2) and calls it Abib (Ex. 13:4). The new moons aren’t counted as Sabbaths and we know very little about how they were observed. We’re told there was trumpet blowing and offerings (Num. 10:10; 28:11-15), we read about people gathering together (1 Sam. 20:5, 18, 24, 27; 2 King. 4:22-23), observance is mentioned in a Millennial setting (Is. 66:23), and once they’re mentioned in the New Testament alongside holy days and Sabbaths (Col. 2:16-17). Most of us aren’t sure what to do with them today and ignore them, and I confess I’m guilty of that as well.
Image by Jantanee from Lightstock
Remembering Our Savior
The first month, Abib, begins the holy day cycle with Passover on the 14th. Originally, the Passover (Pesach in Hebrew) was kept as a memorial of God rescuing Israel from Egypt and sparing their firstborn by passing His vengeance over the houses covered by the blood of a lamb. Jesus Christ fulfilled what was pictured here when He died as our Passover lamb, and He up-dated Passover observance for His new church.
Many churches today keep the Passover, but in many Christian denominations it has been replaced with Easter and the ceremony Jesus instituted on His last Passover is done regularly as Communion. However, Jesus never tells us to mark His resurrection day with a yearly observance. Rather, He says during the Passover ceremony, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19, NET). Even if we did remember Him in communion throughout the year (there are some scriptures you could use to support that practice), it would not eliminate the need to observe Passover the way that Christ did. The resurrection was incredibly important, but Jesus didn’t want us to stop keeping Passover and replace it with Easter.
In his book Surprised by Hope, N.T. Wright laments how little time is spent in celebrating Easter and argues “it ought to be an eight day festival” (p. 256). If he were to step back from Easter and take another look at Passover, he would see God did indeed set up eight days of observance. Passover starts things off, then the following day begins the seven-day festival of Unleavened Bread (Chag HaMatzot). If we look at a timeline of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we find that He rose from the dead when the sun set on Saturday, ending the weekly Sabbath and starting the first day of the week. He ascended to His father the following Sunday morning (John 20:1-17), which corresponds to a special ceremony outlined in Leviticus 23:9-15 called the Wave Sheaf or First Fruits. This ceremony marked the beginning of a 50-day count to Pentecost.
Set back in the context of the Biblical holy days, our remembrance of Christ’s Passover sacrifice kicks-off a week long festival where we remember that because “Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed in our place” we are being made into a people untainted by the yeast of sin (1 Cor. 5:6-8). It should be a time of rejoicing and appreciation for all that’s pictured in His sacrifice and in His resurrection. When we mark the Wave Sheaf as the day He ascended to His Father following His resurrection and start counting to Pentecost (Shavuot), we have a reminder built into God’s holy calendar that without the resurrection of Jesus the church wouldn’t have the holy spirit. And so we celebrate Pentecost, the day God poured His spirit out on the New Testament church (Acts 2:1-4) as a direct result of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the work He’s currently doing in and with His church to make us firstfruits.
On the first day of the seventh Hebrew month, the Lord commanded Israel, “you must have a complete rest, a memorial announced by loud horn blasts, a holy assembly” (Lev. 23:24, NET). Many interpret this day as picturing the return of Jesus Christ because “the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with God’s trumpet” (1 Thes. 4:16, NET). In Jewish tradition, trumpets were blown the entire month leading up to the Feast of Trumpets (Yom Teruah). Messianic rabbis teach the trumpet calls proclaim, “The Bridegroom is coming! get ready to meet Him.” What could be more relevant for the church today as we draw ever closer to Jesus’ second coming?
Ten days after Trumpets, we cycle through to a solemn, serious holy day called the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). This day is marked by fasting, prayer, and a complete Sabbath rest from all work. Judging by the amount of scripture space devoted to its observance (Lev. 16:1-34; 23:26-32, and others), this day was very important to God, and it still is. Atonement was called an “everlasting statute” and Paul was still marking it in the New Testament (Acts 27:9). Unfortunately, it’s been so stereotyped as a Jewish holiday that most Christians don’t even consider the depth and meaning this day takes on following Christ’s atoning sacrifice, His resurrection, and His exaltation to the role of High Priest. Instead, they’re distracted during the fall season of the year by thoroughly pagan Halloween and non-scriptural All Saints and All Souls days.
The holy day cycle, like the plan of God, culminates in a celebration. Every weekly Sabbath looks forward to the time when Christ will reign on this earth as present, powerful, King of kings and Lord of lords, but the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) takes the picture further. We dwell in temporary shelters as a reminder that we are sojourners here on this earth awaiting the return of our Lord and looking forward to a time when His kingdom will be here on earth. Sukkot also looks back, at the children of Israel who God made to live in tabernacles, or “temporary shelters,” when He “brought them out of the land of Egypt” (Lev. 23:42-43, WEB). Jesus kept this Feast (John 7:2-10, 14, 37) and it will be kept in God’s future kingdom (Zech. 14:16). We can’t argue it’s irrelevant to the church today; it hasn’t even been fulfilled yet by God’s Millennial Kingdom. Wrapping up the holy day cycle, the Feast ends with an eighth day, the Last Great Day, pointing to the final judgement day and the New Jerusalem (Revelation chapters 20-22).
Aligned With The Lord
So why aren’t all the Christian churches on God’s calendar? I’ll be honest, this is something I really don’t understand. To be clear, I under stand why people who never learned about God’s holy days and who are members of churches that dismiss these days don’t keep them. Unless you study God’s holy days for yourself, you’re unlikely to hear about them in most churches. But I don’t understand how Bible teachers justify the omission. Why distance yourself from the rhythms of worship God says belong to Him? In Leviticus, before outlining all the holy days, God says, “These are the Lord’s appointed times which you must proclaim as holy assemblies—my appointed times” (Lev. 23:1-2, NET). They are days Holy to our great God, not something just for a specific group or time. So why abandon them for days with observances rooted in pagan holidays like the worship of Ishtar/Astarte (for Easter) and mid-winter Saturnalia (for Christmas)?
I’m not just talking about Christian leaders today. This substitution of man’s days for God’s days goes back centuries–so far that Easter and Christmas are called “Christian” traditions and the days Christ Himself kept are a distant memory. It’s time for the church to ask itself some tough questions. Is God pleased when we use pagan holidays to “worship” Him, even after we pretty them up and associate them with events in the Bible? Or would God be more pleased if we value the holy days He set aside for His people from the establishment of His covenants? The way we live our lives matters to God, and He’s watching to see whether we’ll cling to traditions of men or whether we’ll cling to His word, His kingdom, and His plan.
I hope no one feels like I’m attacking them or their beliefs. I’ve thought long over how to phrase this post, and even debated whether or not to share it. I truly feel, though, that the closer we align ourselves with God’s word, the more He will reveal of His plan and the closer our relationships will be with Him. May God’s blessing rest on you all, my friends.
Featured image by José Roberto Roquel from Lightstock
