Bringing Many Son’s to Glory
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
(Rom 3:23-24)
The Jewish Bible phrases verse 23 as ‘For all have sinned, and come short of God’s praise’. As true believers we have to realize that God have saved us not just from sin, but beyond that is that God is able to recognize a nature of Himself imputed in us that will catch His attention. With that heavenly notice follow a heavenly approval of being well pleased (Matt 3:17). Jesus didn’t die for us merely that we will be saved from hell only, but to bring us to glory, a state where the very heavens can open and Father’s eye watches with delight (2 Chron 16:9). We have to know and know that God didn’t save us just to get into heaven. It is a divine led pilgrimage from glory to glory, see it as a privilege!
And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
(Rom 8:17-18)
Our ‘glorification’ can be achieved through suffering. What then is the suffering that we have to endure that brings glory? The suffering the apostle speaks of the nothing else but denying of the ‘self-life’ and taking up our cross daily (Matt16:24). Following Jesus inevitably leads us to the cross. It is the cross that He will give us, not a self-assigned one nor given by any individual (even our pastor). For our heart is deceitful above all things and since none on earth can understand it, only Jesus knows what cross we need to bear, so that that sin nature that rules over us will die and we live to glory.
Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.
(1Pe 1:21)
Jesus’ glory was bestowed upon Him after He was raised from the dead. Likewise since we are not greater than our Master, the God given glory is to be dead to self or the sin-life first and it takes a supernatural act of God that we be born again (John 3:3) to be a new creature (2 Cor 5:17). In Jesus conversation with Nicodemus, He made it clear that we don’t have to die bodily to be born again. We have to see the whole council of God to understand that self have to die in order to be born again. It is not just by reciting a mechanical ‘sinners-prayer’ that we are raised to glory, the first step is Jesus giving us our cross.
Therefore glory is not a cheap thing to behold. It’s a painful journey that God wants us to take. Jesus laid down His will in Gethsemane, so must we. The suffering is the struggle within us to submit or yield to God’s will. Our strong will (or self) opposes the will of God because if God’s will take over we are no longer ours. Meaning our whole being belongs to God.
Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
(Rom 6:13)
To yield to God is just as presenting our entirety to God. That means our hands, eyes, and any other faculty is no longer ours. Watchman Nee in his book, ‘The Normal Christian Life’ mentions about a brother on a long train journey in China. During the length of the long journey, there was a group of 3 gambling and needed a fourth partner, thus the Christian brother was invited to join in. The brother gave a rather strange answer by replying that he didn’t bring his hands with him. Of course this seemed ridiculous to the other 3. He then explained that his whole life has been yielded to Christ and so his hands, therefore gambling is not possible at all. If we have yielded all of ourselves to God, can our eyes watch pornography or can our hands steal or can our hearts wander and commit adultery? Paul frequently uses the word ‘Heaven Forbid!’ in Romans when teaching about our new life as God’s new creation.
Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
(Rom 6:8)
What does Paul mean ‘if we be dead with Christ’? Didn’t Jesus die about 2000 years ago and rose from the dead? Isn’t this a historical event or a thing of the past? I believe Paul wrote this truth with the ‘be dead’ as a current reality because the cross for us is also a current reality. In order to mature from glory to glory, looks like we have to take up many crosses dealing with one sin-nature than another. God is merciful in the sense that it is a serial giving of a cross not parallel lest we can’t handle it (Duet 7:22).
How do we know that we have progressed from glory to glory?
For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
(Rom 6:14)
We know that our pilgrims’ progress is in the right direction when we know that the cross we carried have put to death that particular sin nature has lost it power to enslave us. Just as a drug addict who has decided to come out of addiction, he or she goes through a process of cleansing. Being clean of drugs isn’t enough. The person has to come to a stage where all kinds of drugs and cigarettes are considered tasteless or useless or dead to them, even like dung. Paul was a man that has truly died and lived for God as he was able to count all things as dung (Phil 3:8) in order to win or gain Christ.
For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
(Heb 2:10)
The perfecting or completeness of our salvation through the cross Jesus will give us in our following Him daily will take us to son-ship in God. Only sons inherit of the Father, in that we have God’s glory embedded in us that we might be found pleasing to Him.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Friday, April 11, 2008
The Normal Christian Life
Oswald Chambers' meditation below tows the same line as what I've been reading in Watchman Nee's 'Normal Christian life', together with these few days reading with the children on Romans really brings a lot of light to this matter on dealing with Sin (the nature thereof) and Sins (expression of sin nature). It is the blood of Jesus for our justification; cleansing us from Sins and our crosses dealing with the Sin nature for our sanctification. This has also been my personal experience to declare that this is true, albeit still many crosses ahead as the Lord desires that we grow from glory to glory.
We need to be crystal clear in the differentiation between Justification and Sanctification. Without which we can swing into either legalism or antinomianism (salvation by works and not by faith or Christianity without discipleship). Rejecting the cross could lead us to antinomianism which will loose the truth of the cost of discipleship thus breeding cheap grace. Conversely, if assemblies of believers pursue holiness without the cross, legalism could step in for the force behind the religious system during Jesus time was precisely that. Legalism breeds condemnation but the Apostle teaches in Rom 8:1 that we won’t be condemn if we walk not after the flesh (1 John 2:15-17) but after the Spirit. The letter kills but the spirit of the Gospel gives life (2 Cor 3:6).
Watchman Nee's book is a must read to understand what Ps Susan and Ps Wong has been preaching on the cross (at the Station of Life). The centrality of the cross of Jesus in a Christian’s pilgrimage will determine our desire to follow Him (Luke 9:23). Our desire for neither selfless service in activities nor any form of self zealousness is not the plumb line of following Jesus.
But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
(Rom 6:22)
The fruit of following Jesus and taking up our crosses is Holiness. This means that we don't have to be hung up on pursuing holiness, it's about following Jesus. From this verse it appears that holiness and everlasting life are not mutually exclusive. Therefore living a life of sanctification will determine our salvation at the end… as Watchman Nee put it aptly; our pilgrimage of sanctification and willingness to take up our crosses is the normal Christian life. May we not live sub-normal lives.
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Oswald Chambers
Complete and Effective Decision About Sin
http://www.rbc.org/utmost/index.php
. . . our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin —Romans 6:6
Co-Crucifixion. Have you made the following decision about sin— that it must be completely killed in you? It takes a long time to come to the point of making this complete and effective decision about sin. It is, however, the greatest moment in your life once you decide that sin must die in you-not simply be restrained, suppressed, or counteracted, but crucified— just as Jesus Christ died for the sin of the world. No one can bring anyone else to this decision. We may be mentally and spiritually convinced, but what we need to do is actually make the decision that Paul urged us to do in this passage.
Pull yourself up, take some time alone with God, and make this important decision, saying, "Lord, identify me with Your death until I know that sin is dead in me." Make the moral decision that sin in you must be put to death.
This was not some divine future expectation on the part of Paul, but was a very radical and definite experience in his life. Are you prepared to let the Spirit of God search you until you know what the level and nature of sin is in your life— to see the very things that struggle against God’s Spirit in you? If so, will you then agree with God’s verdict on the nature of sin— that it should be identified with the death of Jesus? You cannot "reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin" ( Romans 6:11 ) unless you have radically dealt with the issue of your will before God.
Have you entered into the glorious privilege of being crucified with Christ, until all that remains in your flesh and blood is His life? "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me . . ." ( Galatians 2:20 ).
Oswald Chambers' meditation below tows the same line as what I've been reading in Watchman Nee's 'Normal Christian life', together with these few days reading with the children on Romans really brings a lot of light to this matter on dealing with Sin (the nature thereof) and Sins (expression of sin nature). It is the blood of Jesus for our justification; cleansing us from Sins and our crosses dealing with the Sin nature for our sanctification. This has also been my personal experience to declare that this is true, albeit still many crosses ahead as the Lord desires that we grow from glory to glory.
We need to be crystal clear in the differentiation between Justification and Sanctification. Without which we can swing into either legalism or antinomianism (salvation by works and not by faith or Christianity without discipleship). Rejecting the cross could lead us to antinomianism which will loose the truth of the cost of discipleship thus breeding cheap grace. Conversely, if assemblies of believers pursue holiness without the cross, legalism could step in for the force behind the religious system during Jesus time was precisely that. Legalism breeds condemnation but the Apostle teaches in Rom 8:1 that we won’t be condemn if we walk not after the flesh (1 John 2:15-17) but after the Spirit. The letter kills but the spirit of the Gospel gives life (2 Cor 3:6).
Watchman Nee's book is a must read to understand what Ps Susan and Ps Wong has been preaching on the cross (at the Station of Life). The centrality of the cross of Jesus in a Christian’s pilgrimage will determine our desire to follow Him (Luke 9:23). Our desire for neither selfless service in activities nor any form of self zealousness is not the plumb line of following Jesus.
But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
(Rom 6:22)
The fruit of following Jesus and taking up our crosses is Holiness. This means that we don't have to be hung up on pursuing holiness, it's about following Jesus. From this verse it appears that holiness and everlasting life are not mutually exclusive. Therefore living a life of sanctification will determine our salvation at the end… as Watchman Nee put it aptly; our pilgrimage of sanctification and willingness to take up our crosses is the normal Christian life. May we not live sub-normal lives.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oswald Chambers
Complete and Effective Decision About Sin
http://www.rbc.org/utmost/index.php
. . . our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin —Romans 6:6
Co-Crucifixion. Have you made the following decision about sin— that it must be completely killed in you? It takes a long time to come to the point of making this complete and effective decision about sin. It is, however, the greatest moment in your life once you decide that sin must die in you-not simply be restrained, suppressed, or counteracted, but crucified— just as Jesus Christ died for the sin of the world. No one can bring anyone else to this decision. We may be mentally and spiritually convinced, but what we need to do is actually make the decision that Paul urged us to do in this passage.
Pull yourself up, take some time alone with God, and make this important decision, saying, "Lord, identify me with Your death until I know that sin is dead in me." Make the moral decision that sin in you must be put to death.
This was not some divine future expectation on the part of Paul, but was a very radical and definite experience in his life. Are you prepared to let the Spirit of God search you until you know what the level and nature of sin is in your life— to see the very things that struggle against God’s Spirit in you? If so, will you then agree with God’s verdict on the nature of sin— that it should be identified with the death of Jesus? You cannot "reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin" ( Romans 6:11 ) unless you have radically dealt with the issue of your will before God.
Have you entered into the glorious privilege of being crucified with Christ, until all that remains in your flesh and blood is His life? "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me . . ." ( Galatians 2:20 ).
Friday, April 04, 2008
Yet I will rejoice in the LORD
Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.
(Hab 3:17-19)
In some Bible’s this portion of Habakkuk’s writing is sub-titled as a ‘Hymn of Faith’ and it was written as a song indicated in the last sentence. When a man or a woman go through trying moments of life, what better way to express oneself than in a song. That could explain why there are many songs sung through out the ages that were birthed out of a searing pain of loss.
A sister emailed me of a pastor’s family who recently went through the tragedy of loss. There was loss of the family home from devastating fire and most painful of all the loss of the youngest child among five. While the rest of the children suffering from severe burns. Where is God in painful circumstances of our lives?
The prophet reminds us that even if we are emptied and poor there is that inner joy of the Lord that can be our strength. The quiet joy comes from a relationship with the God of our salvation. This means that we won’t be able to harness the strength of this joy without first experiencing true salvation.
And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.
(1Sam 30:6)
David and his men suffered much loss after the Amalekites took everything away with them. All were grieved for their loss but only David, the man after God’s own heart could prevail to strengthened himself. Not fearing death by stoning because he feared God. Encouraged himself because he had a history of relationship with his God of his salvation, evident from many of the beautiful Psalms he penned.
Upon realizing the strength of the Lord there is the swiftness (hinds’ feet) of restoration (walking upon mine high places). The word ‘mine’ surely speaks of our inheritance from our Heavenly Father. For the pastor’s family, the son can not be restored, but our Father knows best how to provide from the sufficiency of His grace (2 Cor 12:9).
May the pastor, his family and those who go through the searing pain of loss sing the song of Habakkuk… the hymn of faith that God is in control and will see them through their suffering.
Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.
(Hab 3:17-19)
In some Bible’s this portion of Habakkuk’s writing is sub-titled as a ‘Hymn of Faith’ and it was written as a song indicated in the last sentence. When a man or a woman go through trying moments of life, what better way to express oneself than in a song. That could explain why there are many songs sung through out the ages that were birthed out of a searing pain of loss.
A sister emailed me of a pastor’s family who recently went through the tragedy of loss. There was loss of the family home from devastating fire and most painful of all the loss of the youngest child among five. While the rest of the children suffering from severe burns. Where is God in painful circumstances of our lives?
The prophet reminds us that even if we are emptied and poor there is that inner joy of the Lord that can be our strength. The quiet joy comes from a relationship with the God of our salvation. This means that we won’t be able to harness the strength of this joy without first experiencing true salvation.
And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.
(1Sam 30:6)
David and his men suffered much loss after the Amalekites took everything away with them. All were grieved for their loss but only David, the man after God’s own heart could prevail to strengthened himself. Not fearing death by stoning because he feared God. Encouraged himself because he had a history of relationship with his God of his salvation, evident from many of the beautiful Psalms he penned.
Upon realizing the strength of the Lord there is the swiftness (hinds’ feet) of restoration (walking upon mine high places). The word ‘mine’ surely speaks of our inheritance from our Heavenly Father. For the pastor’s family, the son can not be restored, but our Father knows best how to provide from the sufficiency of His grace (2 Cor 12:9).
May the pastor, his family and those who go through the searing pain of loss sing the song of Habakkuk… the hymn of faith that God is in control and will see them through their suffering.
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
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