Consider Christ

Last month, the youths had a combined meeting with several other B-P churches with the theme – Consider Christ, and I am sure many of you can recall the dramatic presentation on the death and resurrection of Christ that they reproduced at Communion Sunday two weeks ago. During the combined meeting, each group was taken back in time and transformed into the group of disciples who followed Jesus and were closest to Him during His earthly ministry. Each game station was organised to walk them through the life of Jesus as it might have been had they lived in His midst, witnessing His miracles, His teachings, His triumphal entry, and finally His humiliation and crucifixion. The aim of this whole theme was to help remind the youths afresh of the person who was Christ – God Himself walking on earth as a man, and the incomprehensible work that He accomplished when He obeyed the will of the Father by being made willing to suffer and die undeservingly on the cross. Oftentimes when meditating on Christ and what He has done for us, especially in preparation to partake of the Holy Communion, what is the picture that comes to mind?

Christ the Contradiction
If you were to have met and interacted with Jesus in person while He was on earth, have you ever wondered what aspect of Him would strike you the hardest? What would it have been really like to follow multitudes upon multitudes to hear Him speak words of faith and conviction, and witness miracles performed before your very eyes? Or how it might have felt if perhaps you were one of the despised of society with whom He bothered to sit down to have a meal with, or one of the disciples whose dusty feet our Lord knelt over to wash and make clean? Jesus was able to identify with those He came into contact with, with such penetrating intimacy. Yet He was also radically different from the rest of the religious teachers of His day with His authoritative claims to be God, and words and actions to back His assertions. Would it have been Christ’s meekness or majesty that drew crowds to Him? His manhood or deity? Or the explosive fusion of the “perfect harmony the Man who is God”, as the familiar song goes… Such is the apparent contradiction of Christ because there is no other, and never will be any like Him who is fully God and fully man in essence and being. In Philippians 2, this is the Christ “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.”

Christ the Covenant
Not only was Christ an enigma when He entered this world in the form of a human, but He also had a larger purpose to accomplish through His suffering, death and resurrection that even Peter, one of His disciples who were closest to Him and were probably His most trusted, could not understand and tried to oppose unwittingly, earning His harsh admonishment of “Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me” (Matthew 16:23). Christ Jesus came, not only to reach out to His creation and demonstrate His power, but more importantly to accomplish and fulfil the Old Covenant of ritual and sacrifice by becoming the Mediator of a better covenant – the New Covenant of grace. What does that mean to us as Christians today? It means that our status before God has changed completely, and we now stand worthy to claim the awesome privilege of a direct, intimate relationship with Him. The insatiable wrath of God that threatened to consume us has been appeased once and for all, and we no longer have to contend with meeting the unattainable, absolute standard of the Mosaic Law…

Cost of Christ Crucified
The penalty has been taken. We crucified Jesus with our sins – for such was the heavy price to be paid so that a beautiful new chapter could be written in God’s salvation plan for you and me. However the question is, are we short-changing ourselves by still choosing to go down the old road that the Pharisees continued to blindly and stubbornly follow instead of seeing the new path the Christ has laid down for us with His precious blood? We often picture the Pharisees as the obvious “bad guys” in opposition to Jesus. But actually, their good intentions of desiring to please God and obey Him are often overlooked. Their intended end point was the same, but they were totally wrong and misguided in their method of getting there. They were sincere, no doubt about it. But they were sincerely wrong. Now how does that relate to us? Simply this: God will not fault us for our sincere desire to please and honour Him, but the crucial point that Jesus tried to bring across time and again in His encounters with the Pharisees was that the means of reaching God is just as important as the end, or Christ’s death would be for naught. Service and sacrifice are part of Christian living, but that should follow a living, breathing relationship with Christ or we would stand just as guilty as the Pharisees before God when we meet Him face to face one day; guilty of rejecting Christ as the Mediator of the New Covenant. So, let us resolve like Mary to, “choose that good part, which shall not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:42), and choose to sit and listen at our Master’s feet.

Free with a Cost

Just think for a second…what does it really mean to be free? A quick check on the internet throws up a common definition: “not being controlled by obligation or the will of another”, and terms such as “freedom of choice” and “free act of the will”. We often label ourselves as having freedom in Christ but is this the definition that often dictates our perception of this freedom? Does true freedom constitute being able to do things our own way without obligation to anything? Without being controlled by the will of God?

Free, not to do what we want. We think to be free means the ability to choose what we want for ourselves. But God says with true freedom, we are free to do what God wants. Isn’t that an inherent contradiction, you ask? No. Freedom, as with other elements such as love, jealousy, and anger, is perfectly embodied in God, but has been marred and distorted by the sinful nature of man. Freedom to do whatever we want would ultimately lead us back into slavery to our selfish, depraved desires. This false freedom leads to death, both physically and spiritually. However, by the amazing grace of God, we are now truly free to be able to do what was impossible before – living lives in obedience and surrender to God. Freedom is not independence from God but rather dependence on Him. The wonderful fruit that is produced by living in harmony with God is all the things that pertain to life abundant!

God’s laws free us. “Free” would probably be one of the last words we would use to describe laws and regulations. “Restrictive”, “limited” and “constrained” are but some of the words that would come to mind more easily! However in Psalms 119:45, David says this, “I will walk at liberty: for I seek Thy precepts [laws].” In a talk that he gave last Thursday, Ravi Zacharias illustrated this using a game of tennis – rules are there to protect the game so that we can derive true enjoyment and fulfillment in playing the game. Similarly only when we live by God’s rules, will we then be able to experience the true wonder of life for all its worth!

Free with a Cost. Yes, we can be truly free in Christ, but let us bear in mind the heavy price that was paid so that this freedom can be made available to us. The Son of God, God Himself, came down to earth, emptied and humbled Himself to bleed and die on the cross for you and me! Can there possibly be any thought that is more overwhelming than this? Jesus Himself is the truth that sets us free – “ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free…if the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” (John 8:32, 36). He is the source of truth, the perfect standard of what is right.

Because Christ came to set us free, we are now free to obey out of love, not necessity through power that is not our own, but that of the Holy Spirit.

Because Christ came to set us free, we are now free to follow God. Freed to be all that God intended for us to be when He created us in His image. Freed to fulfill our true purpose in life.

Because Christ came to set us free, we are free to choose life; not death.

C.S. Lewis puts it this way in The Great Divorce: “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’”

Now would you rather be free to choose or choose to be free?

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Galatians 5:1

Why Study Doctrine?

Why bother studying about doctrine?

The CEII Doctrine Class that we are currently having may seem to some, challenging at best, and intimidating at worst. Instead of trying to grapple with teachings that appear to fly by the top of our heads, wouldn’t it just be easier to not have to learn about difficult, “cheem” issues, and just be content with living life with simple faith? Don’t get me wrong, not that simple faith is not something desirable, but the question here is that is developing our theology, or the study of our beliefs about God, a total necessity for us as Christians? Or is it an option, perhaps for those at a “higher level”, or those who are “more intellectual” or “more spiritual”?

I believe we all agree that we are living in the last days; in perilous times where men are “lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” (II Timothy 3:2-4). The picture that Paul paints in his letter to Timothy is a pretty accurate depiction of the times we are living in. However, contrast this with what God has made to stand firm even to the end of time in verse 15 of that same chapter. It is His Word – “the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”

In a post-modern world where everything is deemed to be relative and everyone is entitled to their own opinions about issues such as religion and moral standards, it is the Word of God that will give us as Christians, the surety of our values and beliefs. We need more than ever, to go back to the Word of God, to study it, to understand and draw our beliefs and convictions from it. Whether we like it or not, this is the universal standard that all man are bound by – the standard which we appeal to when we deal with our own lives, our fellow human beings, and just about everything else! We need to honestly examine and find out for ourselves if the world, the media, our environment, or the Word of God, has a greater influence on our notion of right and wrong...

This brings us back to the question raised in the first paragraph: is it necessary for us to study and understand our beliefs about our God – the Creator of all things in whose image we were made in? Given the privilege of opportunity and the privilege of resource, I believe the study of doctrine is not reserved solely for scholars and pastors, but it is also our responsibility as true believers. Just as Paul exhorts Timothy to “continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them” (II Timothy 3:14), we too are to do likewise.

However, that being said, we must not fall to the other extreme of being preoccupied with gaining mere head knowledge about God. Paul says of “having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away” (II Timothy 3:5) and similarly James exhorts us in James 1:22 to “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only.”

Our study of the Word must ultimately lead to reverential worship – worship of the most High, with our bodies, our service, our lives, our all; to the glory of God in whom we breathe and move, and have our being.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God,

and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,

for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be

perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

II Timothy 3:16-17

Spending and Being Spent

Christmas Sales, GST Hike Sales, New Year Sales, Warehouse Sales… Especially during these couple of months, we have been bombarded left right centre by lures to splurge our money on ourselves and our loved ones. Spending is very much a part of our materialistic culture here in Singapore and we hardly think twice about how many of our ‘wants’ have become more like ‘needs’ to us. But aside from the spending of material resources that we are all too familiar with, let us ponder for a moment the real true meaning of being spent; of being emptied, and Christ Jesus as that biblical model.

Christ was spent
What exactly does it mean for the Son of God to empty Himself and become poor for our sakes? J.I Packer in “Knowing God” summed it up as “a laying aside of glory; a voluntary restraint of power; an acceptance of hardship, loneliness, isolation, malice and misunderstanding; finally, a death that involved such agony – spiritual, even more than physical – that His mind nearly broke under the prospect of it.”

Matthew 27:46 - “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”.

Out of obedience to the Father, Jesus Christ “made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:7). He was born in a manger to common folk and later hung on a cross bearing the scorn of men so that we now can have a hope of reconciliation and eternal fellowship with our Creator God. All that Christ took upon Himself to endure is just something that we cannot spend too much time meditating upon.

Being spent like Christ
Fulfilling our side of the bargain simply ought to mean the replicating of the character of Christ in our lives, in word and deed. The priests and the Levites in the parables of Jesus still can be found in our communities today – people who see the needs of others around them, but perhaps after a little guilt trip and a short prayer, walk on by and carry on with life. Out of sight; out of mind. Living in our affluent, middle-class homes, it is definitely a challenge to truly identify with the widow who gave everything down to her last penny to the Lord or the Samaritan who went out of his way to help a stranger. Given our privileged circumstances in life, few among us really know what it means to give till it hurts just as Christ did for us.

The Christian spirit of being spent is the spirit of living out our entire lives based on the principle of making ourselves broken and spilled out to minister to our fellow humans out of love for Jesus. It is the sacrificial giving of service, time, effort, care and concern whenever the need arises. If the one thing we desire for ourselves in the new year of 2004 is spiritual renewal, one step we should take is to seek to cultivate this spirit in ourselves – to be emptied and spent so that He might fill us completely.

For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that,
though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor,
that ye through His poverty might be rich
2 Corinthians 8:9