theology-christ

The Soon-Crushed Serpent

/ Richard Bargas / Leave a comment

“I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”

Romans 16:17–20, ESV

This morning as I was getting into my car, I noticed a large weed growing at the edge of my front lawn. Not far was a large patch of clover that has continued to spread throughout my yard. As I began to look around, I began to notice more and more weeds. I take a bit of pride in my yard, and the battle against weeds seems to be never ending. I had a small shrub die recently, and I can’t figure out why, but I never tend to the weeds and they still flourish. All of this reminds me of the curse of sin.

As the Apostle Paul closed out his letter to the Romans, he thanked a litany of saints that had been a blessing and encouragement to him in the ministry of the gospel. However, in verses 17-20, after having thanked the hard workers in the church, Paul diverted his words to address the danger of false teachers who will work to break up that unity through their deceptive speech that makes it seem like they care for the church, but in reality they only care about themselves.

I don’t know of a pastor that hasn’t come face to face with a false teacher who has sought to divide the church, and many times under the guise of what is best, in their eyes, for everyone. As a pastor, it hurts to watch this poisonous deception spread like weeds in the hearts of those who listen to the smooth words of these liars. Paul had seen it happen, and he warned the church to watch out for this among themselves as well. He knew that when division comes, the work will stop. Satan knows this too.

Today I asked my wife to call a company to come and spray weed killer and fertilizer on our lawn. The weeds will be kept at bay while the grass will have time to thicken and grow stronger roots, enabling it to fight off the weeds as it grows more robust. But the fight against the weeds will never end…that is until the Lord Jesus returns.

Paul sees this as well. Paul wrote, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet…”(v. 20). The “peace” is the eternal peace given to the children of God through the atoning work of Christ. There will be no peace accord with the enemy. This God who brings peace through Christ will crush Satan, that serpent of old, not only under the feet of Christ, once and for all, but he will crush Satan under our feet as well. We will share in the victory that was won at the cross and which culminates at the Second Coming.

So for now, we fend off the brood of vipers, and we seek the welfare of the church through the fertilizer of the Word, knowing that it will help keep the liars at bay. But we also recognize that until the Serpent-Crusher comes to make all things right, we can take courage in knowing that he has already won the victory through the cross of Jesus Christ.

Fruitless Religion

/ Richard Bargas / 3 Comments

“And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “ ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?””

“In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.”

(Matthew 21:14–16, 18-19 ESV)

While the people are rejoicing and celebrating the coming of Jesus of Nazareth into Jerusalem, the chief priests and scribes stand by in disgust at the display of the people.

These rabble, the people who are diseased, these uneducated children, the peasant disciples of Jesus–they are all so ignorant to the form of religion that they uphold! And Jesus, whom they assumed should know better, is unwilling to correct his misguided followers! Instead he continues quoting Scripture that affirms their worship of Jesus as the Messiah.

The next morning Jesus did something that is puzzling to many people. He came upon a fig tree along the side of the road and he found that it was barren of any figs. It had lots of leaves, but no fruit. With a word, he cursed the tree so that it withered and died.

Why did Jesus kill a tree? He did it for a profound reason. He killed the tree to show that those who make a show of their religion who have no evidence of the grace of God in their lives are worthless to Christ and they shall be judged. They might appear to be fruit filled because of the outward show of their religion, like a fruit tree with thick, green leaves. But leaves are not impressive to the hungry. And religious activity without a relationship with the Lord does not fool God.

In another place Jesus said these chilling words:

““Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

Matthew 7:21–23, ESV

Religion doesn’t save. Only Jesus does. Church attendance, Bible reading, giving money, volunteering your time to good causes, being kind, saying prayers, all of these things do nothing to impress God.

When Christ gives new life, it is out of this new life that good works will flow (Ephesians 2:10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10, ESV)).

But those who start with good works and then add God have dead religion that will not save them. It is like stapling figs to a tree. Make sure that your good works are the overflow of a life of worship and your relationship with the living Christ.

Seeking and Thinking Upon the Right Things

/ Richard Bargas / Leave a comment

With the new year ahead of us, many people are making all sorts of New Year’s Resolutions—new diets, new Bible reading plans, new commitments to exercise more. We have all heard of the truism: “You are what you eat.” In many ways, this statement is true! If you feed your body well, you will generally have better health and more energy. If you feed your body a steady diet of junk food, then the results are somewhat predictable. But think with me for a second about this saying’s spiritual counterpart: “How we think effects how we behave.” Perhaps in this new year, we as Christians could use a little re-focusing on how we think.

Consider the truth of Romans 6:11: “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:11, ESV). If we think about the reality that we as Christians have died with Christ on the cross to the power of sin, then we can find victory as we strive to live holy lives. This sort of thinking will have a serious impact on the way we live our lives.

In a sense, we are living corpses. We are dead to ourselves and alive in Christ (Col. 2:20). We have been buried with him (Col. 2:12), have been raised up with him (Col. 3:1) and have been seated with him in the presence of God the Father (Col. 3:1). If we can get our heads around what this means, it will have a huge impact on the way that we live life now.

Colossians 3:1-3 says, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:1–3, ESV)

In this blogpost, I’d like to look a little more closely at this idea of seeking the right things and how that affects our thinking as Christians.

Background

As we begin, it would be helpful to take some time to remember the situation the church of Colossae faced. They had this false teaching that was spreading what was a mix of Jewish ceremonialism and a false teaching that would later be called Gnosticism.

Jewish ceremonialism demanded that they follow all the rules and regulations of the Old Testament, while failing to see that those ceremonies pointed to Jesus Christ (Col. 2:16-17).

Early Gnostic mysticism demanded ascetic living, angel worship, and visions while simultaneously taking the focus off of Christ (Col. 2:18-19).

One form of Gnosticism failed to see the symbolism of the Old Testament ceremonies and rituals that pointed to Jesus Christ, while the other form placed the focus on lesser beings and self-affliction to gain greater access to God. Both forms of this false teaching led the people away from God through rituals, ceremonies and false philosophies. The motivation for seeking God was man-made traditions and rules. And both failed because they did not address the heart and the mind.

So, Paul, in these four verses (Col. 3:1-4) turned from these false teachings to the true motivation given for pleasing God and living a victorious Christian life that replaces man-made rules and traditions. This brings us back to the truth I stated at the beginning: How we think effects how we behave. In Colossians 3:1-4 we find two keys that will unlock for us the real motivation for living for Christ that deals with the heart and the mind before it deals with the flesh.

1. Seek the Things That Are Above (v. 1)

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” (Colossians 3:1, ESV)

Paul begins by giving to us the counter to the false teacher’s approach that he has just finished discussing in Colossians 2. “If then” is a conditional statement that really could be translated “Since.” Since you have been raised with Christ. What has happened as a result of being raised with Christ? We died to sin according to Romans 6. And according to Colossians 2:12, we were buried with Christ in baptism (“having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.” (ESV))

The very next verse (Col. 2:13) adds that not only did we die to our sins with Christ, but we were also made alive together with him at his resurrection. Paul once again reminds his readers of this fact in 3:1. Since we have been raised with Christ, Paul is saying, seek the things that are above. Really, Paul’s grammar tells us that he means, “Keep on seeking!” This isn’t a one-time deal. We are to keep on seeking. Paul is saying that since we are those who are truly spiritually alive, who have our lives in Jesus Christ. Therefore, let us place our goals, aspirations and dreams upon those things that are above, where our lives are at—with the Savior who is not on earth, but sitting at the right hand of the Father.

Whereas the false teachers were placing their sights upon earthly goals, Paul says that what we ought to seek is far above—in heaven. In other words, our values system changes when we see ourselves as being alive with Christ in heaven. We stop seeking primarily after the things on this earth because our lives are not here on earth, but in heaven with Christ. Our attachment to earthly things will be evaluated with this truth. We will have a different standard of value for material possessions because we have treasure laid up in heaven. We will not be concerned about gaining honor from men, because we are enthroned with Christ—and there is no greater honor than that. We will not seek after earthly power, because we have all power in Christ. We will not chase after fame because we have already gained the loving approval of our heavenly Father.

All of these things that men seek after are earthly things and the one who grasps the reality of what he or she has in Christ will not seek after them with the same hungering and passion as the unredeemed man. We may need and use earthly things while we are here, but we will not spend an inordinate amount of time or energy chasing them because we see their true value in the light of what we already have in Christ.

2. Set Your Mind on the Things that Are Above (vv. 2-4)

“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:2–4, ESV)

Like the command in verse 1, this is also given in the same tense and could be translated, “Keep on thinking on the things that are above.” Keep on thinking about heavenly things. Some people say that some Christians are “Too heavenly minded to be any earthly good,” but I think that the real problem is that too many Christians are not heavenly minded enough to be any earthly good. Our eyes are on this world and not on heaven.

Paul reminds us why we ought to have this heavenly focus in verse 4. Christian, you are dead, he writes. You are no longer a citizen of earth. Sure, you need to live here for a few more years, but this planet is not your home. You are a visitor. Don’t unpack your bags! You are an alien, a foreigner in a strange, distant land, so don’t get too comfortable! This isn’t your home. Your old life—it is gone! You died. You are no longer the same person. You died and have been reborn a different person. So, don’t focus your mind on the things on this fallen earth, rather think about the things in your true home where Christ is.

When I was little boy, I went to a Christian camp in California called Indian Village. It was the first time that I had been away from home by myself, not counting staying over my grandparent’s house. I got so homesick at camp. I thought about the food at home and my toys and my bed. I especially thought about my mom and dad and my little brother. I was so unsettled, that I refused to take a shower for several days. That is until my camp counselor helped me get over the embarrassment by letting me shower after everyone had left camp for an activity and I was allowed to shower in my swim trunks. That teepee tent I slept in at night for a week was not my home, and I was not going to get used to it. I eventually settled down some and even had a good time, but I was ready to go home when the buses came!

Colossians 3:3 says that our real life is hidden with Christ, who is in heaven. Life is not here—it is waiting for us in heaven. We are somewhere between heaven and earth, as Jonathan Edwards said, not a part of either heaven or earth right now. Our feet are on earth, but our heads and hearts are in heaven.

What is our motivation for this change in our thinking? Verse 4 tells us that the motivation for living in this truth is that when Jesus Christ comes (and this is sure, although the timing is unknown), then our real life will begin, and we will really start living. We will appear with him in glory. Just as we died with Christ and were buried and were raised up with Christ, when he returns, we will share in the glory. We will see the unifying of this strange existence into one. Heaven will come down and we will no longer be torn between heaven and earth. We will then be with Christ in heaven where our hearts and minds are. Everything will be made right. We, as pilgrims, will finally be home.

What are you seeking after? Heavenly things or earthly things? If you are seeking after earthly things, you will eventually leave them all behind. You can’t take them with you, and even if you could, they would be worthless in light of the treasures of heaven.

What are you thinking on? Heavenly things or earthly things? Have you unpacked your bags and begun to settle in? Have you forgotten your true home? Are you home sick? You should be. You should have a mental picture of heaven and the Lord and it should be so vivid that you can’t be truly happy to remain here on this broken planet. May we all be like the Apostle Paul, who would stay here for the blessings that he could bring the church, but he would much rather go home to heaven (Phil. 1:21-24). Paul’s eyes were set heavenward. Where are yours?

“I believe in…” the Nicene Creed and Christmas

/ Richard Bargas / Leave a comment

The idea of ‘belief’ is tossed around a lot at Christmas time. In this spirit, I thought I’d throw out the Nicene Creed (325 A.D.) as a starting point for what separates Christianity from other world religions and many cults of Christianity. Although not sufficient to address all issues of faith and doctrine, the Nicene Creed is beautiful for its high Christology. This Christmas morn, may our hearts be steeped in the richness of these truths. Merry Christmas!

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.

Who, for us men for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets.

And I believe one holy catholic* and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

*catholic refers to the universal church, not Roman Catholicism.

Humble Submission to Christ the Lord

/ Richard Bargas / Leave a comment

“And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.”

Luke 1:38, ESV

This morning I read from the book of Jonah. I have been pondering the incarnation for the last several days and the wonder of Christ’s birth, and then I read Jonah. To put it lightly, Jonah had problems. Massive spiritual problems. I’ll come back to him in a bit.

All too often in Protestant churches, Mary, the mother of Jesus, has scorn heaped upon her because there are some who have taken this woman of God and have worshipped her. But that isn’t Mary’s fault! From my reading of the New Testament, Mary was a gracious and beautiful example of incredible faith that we should emulate–such as the passage I cite in Luke 1:38 above. Yes, Mary was a sinner, and she too needed a Savior. But look beyond this and see her humble submission as well.

I’ll let the scholars handle the age of Mary, but I think most agree that this woman was still very young. But her words, particularly in what has been called the Magnificat (Lk 1:46-55), show a spiritually mature child of God. She is not a scholar, nor of the priestly line. She is a simple, humble woman from a back-woods town who is preparing to marry a humble carpenter. That is why her words should stop us in our tracks: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

She is saying through the angel to the Lord God, “I am yours. Do with me whatever you see is right. I am nothing, you are everything. Whatever you want, I will submit to you wholly.” O, how we need more people of God with this heart! But she isn’t alone in the Bible.

In the Old Testament, we find Abram willing to leave everything he has ever known–land, family, language, comfort, safety, the familiar, the safe. He leaves it all because he is following his God (Gen 12:1-4). Again, the spirit of Father Abraham is that the Lord is Sovereign. He commands, and we joyfully follow; even into the unknown darkness. Later, when he has received his son Isaac after many years of waiting, Abraham is asked to sacrifice this beloved gift (Gen 22:1-19). There is no argument, or pleading with God to reconsider what he is asking. Genesis 22:3 simply says that Abraham rose early in the morning and set out to obey his Master.

I saw this same commitment to humble submission when I recently re-read the book of Hosea. In Hosea 1:2-3 it says:

“When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.” 

(Hosea 1:2–3, ESV)

We can understand the purpose of God in doing this because the Bible is clear about the reason for this request–to be a shockingly visible illustration of the way that Israel was toward the Lord God. But that didn’t make Hosea’s obedience and heartbreak any easier. The shame he endured as God’s man must have been unbearable at times as his unfaithful wife continued to bear children fathered by other men. Yet, Hosea continued to faithfully and humbly submit to all that the Lord asked of his servant.

That brings us back to Jonah.

Mary endured shame, scorn and great pain in order to bring the Savior into the world. Abram left everything and was willing to sacrifice his most beloved son. Hosea walked his entire life in the darkness of a broken relationship for the cause of illustrating the enduring love of God in the face of rebellious and idolatrous Israel.

And Jonah…he sulked and ran and was enraged because he wanted to be the master of his life. Jonah wouldn’t rejoice at the repentance of the lost. He wouldn’t rejoice at his salvation from the fish’s belly and a new opportunity to be used by God. He wouldn’t even enjoy life, but would rather be struck dead because he was such an angry little man.

John Paton

I recently read the biography of the great missionary to the Pacific, John Paton. In Paton’s day, the church had taken on the attitude of Jonah. They loved their comfort and ease. They didn’t like it when men and women of God wanted to take the gospel to the world because they didn’t want their comfort to be unsettled. Some were bribed with money to stay. Some were belittled and treated with contempt–being told that God would’t use them because they were ungifted. Some said that the primitive people would never be able to appreciate the fine education they had earned, so why waste it? Others were so fearful of the dangers of cannibalism and disease that they forbid anyone from going to these people. Serve Jesus in England, where it is safe. You can serve Jesus here. WE need him too!

But Paton, and a few others accepted the call and braved the hardship and ridicule heaped on them back home and face the dangers in the Pacific. They humbly submitted their lives to the Sovereign they loved more than life itself. Most died, but the Lord raised up many more servants until the Pacific was won for Christ.

But the Jonah spirit is alive and well in many hearts and churches today. I take comfort in the fact that there are also still in Christ’s church Mary’s and Abraham’s and Hosea’s among us. Those who will submit to the Lord their God with joy and humility. If that is you, don’t allow the Jonah spirit in the church to dissuade you. See the joy in the hardship. Know that the Lord is greater than any hardship you may endure. As Luther wrote,”Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also; the body they may kill, God’s truth abideth still. His kingdom is forever!” 

And if you see too much of Jonah in your own heart, then Jonah’s message to Ninevah is God’s message to you too. Repent. This life isn’t for you. It isn’t about you. It’s about Jesus. Humble yourself before the mighty hand of God, and he will lift you up (1Pet 5:6).