Posts Tagged ‘judgment’

Day 117: I Samuel 2:25 — “It was the will of the Lord to put them to death.”

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

I love this passage! It is one of the passages in the Old Testament that shows the “good news” and “grace” of our God. You see there is a false teaching that has infiltrated our world, our lives, and our church. It is the false teaching that God is not just. You see it in those who would teach we have grace without consequences. These are code words for “God is not just”. If this passage of God’s will to put someone to death shocks you, it is a good sign that you have been infiltrated by this false teaching. I would suggest that you do not understand justice. You do not understand God. You do not understand the creator. This is a story of sin and its consequences. Eli’s sons are sinful and even Eli warns his sons (1 Samuel 2:22-25). I love this passage because just like so many other sin and consequences stories if you look for it there is judgment and the grace of God involved and vice versa. We, like Eli’s sons, deserve death but in 1 Samuel 2:26, we see there is one who is growing in stature with God and man. This is grace and hope. In the midst of judgment God has a plan to redeem us.

I love this passage because in God’s justice, we are all deserving death, yet God our creator chooses to prolong our relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. God sends His son through history to save us and pay the price for our crimes. I deserve death but the good news is that I am still alive.

However, we must not be fooled…having a relationship with God is both demanding and dangerous. Those who would serve God place themselves under both God’s grace and God’s judgment. I love this story because God is just. I don’t have to make sense of a world gone bad but I know who is in control and who is worthy to be worshiped. I don’t have to seek a warm fuzzy feeling to know God. To know God is to be judged by Him and to be judged by Him is to receive His grace. Grace and judgment are intertwined and to try to separate one from the other is foolishness. Do we really want justice (1 Samuel 2:25) or have we gotten used to injustice (we should be able to sin like Eli’s sons with no consequences)?

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Posted in 1 Samuel, Creation, Sin, Worship | 2 Comments »

Day 92: Luke 3:15-18 — Judgment, Justice, and Jesus

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

John the Baptist has never been one of those biblical figures that attracts many people. He was popular in his day and many people wondered if he was the coming Messiah (Luke 3:15). He ate locusts and had what we might call an eccentric wardrobe. If anyone needs to go on the television show “What Not To Wear,” it has to be John. John uses phrases like you “brood of vipers” and a “fruit of repentance.” I don’t know but this is not a man that knows how to win friends and influence people, at least not in our culture. It is a shame too, because, John has something to say. John’s preaching contains three important messages. First, he provides a prophetic warning against the coming judgment (JUDGMENT). Second, he calls people to practice justice and compassion in our dealings with others (JUSTICE). Third, he focuses on the real Messiah that is coming (JESUS).

I think churches have been taught to become all things to all people and many have lost their identity. Are we really supposed to become a fashionable identity that bows to the god of political correctness and popularity? Or, are we supposed to be the embassy guard that protects our beliefs so rigidly that we forget about souls? This has been the great debate for years. I wonder if we ought not to heed John’s message of JUDGMENT (Luke 3:7-9), JUSTICE (Luke 3:10-14), and JESUS (Luke 3:15-18). I would really like to know what people think! I have heard the good news that is out there and I am sorry but there needs to be some biblical good news. Thanks, John, for reminding us that God is a God of judgment and that Jesus will separate the good from the bad (Luke 3:17). God is a God of justice and it is important how we treat each other. God is a God of grace, He sends us Jesus to come and save the world and He sends us the church to preach judgment, justice, and Jesus.

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Posted in God, Jesus, Judging, Luke | 1 Comment »

Day 90: Luke 2:21-40 — Old Dead Limb Or A New One Sprouting?

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

dead limbJoseph and Mary went about fulfilling the requirements of Jewish law. They had Jesus circumcised and named (Luke 2:21); Mary was purified (Luke 2:22); they took Jesus to Jerusalem to be presented to the Lord and offered a sacrifice (Luke 2:22-23); and they received God’s blessing at the temple (Luke 2:27-32). These rituals of commitment to God’s law appear to be a blessing for this young family. It is not the place of Jesus’ birth that seems to be important. It is not the wealth or status of the family that presents the King of Kings. Instead, there was just this ordinary couple going about doing the things of God. Here in this story of Jesus being presented at the temple is a nugget of the Gospel story. In Luke 2:34-35, we find that Jesus will be a sign. A sign of what? Later in Luke 11:29-30, we find that just as the sign of Jonah was judgment against Nineveh, the sign of Jesus will bring judgment to this generation. In Matthew 12:39-41, the sign is Jonah in the belly of the big fish for three days. As Jonah was spit out or vomited up, death will not hold Jesus and He will rise. I wonder what would happen if we were content to live our lives according to God’s Word? Would we find blessings along the way in the people we meet? Would we find the Gospel story of grace and judgment?

I was out in the yard working this past week. Clearing the old dead limbs out of tress. Some just hung there rotting away. I notice new limbs sprouting with new life. In this ordinary act of everyday work, I began to see grace and judgment. There was judgment as I cut the old limbs and threw them off in a burn pile. They had long been separated from the real live branch. I saw grace in the new life beginning to grow as spring approaches. I was left wondering which one was I?

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Posted in Discipleship, God, God's Word, Jesus, Luke | 1 Comment »

Day 49: Leviticus 10:1-3 — Aaron held his peace

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

I struggle with grace and judgment. I’ll tell you why. Like the German Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I believe we live in a culture that worships a god of cheap grace.

“cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ.” – The Cost of Discipleship

“costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. It is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”- The Cost of Discipleship

strange fire before the LordOur reading is from Leviticus 10:1-3. Nadab and Abihu experience the judgment of God. I have often heard this passage used to describe God as a mean and unforgiving God. I read it a little different. I see God’s grace in saving his people in the stories of Genesis and Exodus. Now God has given His law about worship and in chapter 9, Aaron makes an acceptable offering. In Leviticus 9:24, a fire consumes the offering and all the people “fell on their faces.” Nadab and Abihu did worship their way and God’s fire consumed them (Leviticus 10:1-2). This sad story ends with Moses telling Aaron that those who draw near to God, He will be sanctified and glorified. Aaron held his peace (Leviticus 10:3). I think Aaron knows this is a just thing. You don’t mess with God. His grace is great and it saves us but our God is not to be trifled with, and to follow Him is costly.

Do we worship a god of cheap grace? Where worship costs nothing and is about the god of narcissism (ourselves)…we worship via entertainment and getting what you want? If so, be careful about the fire you bring before the Lord.

Or do we worship a God of grace and judgment? We are sinners lost and God’s judgment is true and we are guilty. The grace is He places His son on the cross instead of us. We are forgiven and called to worship with a cost.

I struggle with grace and judgment. I deserve judgment and have received grace. I deserve the Lord’s fire that should consume me and I be dead before the Lord. Yet, His grace allows me to fall on my face to worship not the god of narcissism but the God of Grace and Judgment. Without judgment there is no grace.

Aaron held his peace after his sons died and he continued to serve the Lord. It saddens me that as I look around and in my own life, we quit God, or His people over shallow circumstances. If we understood the cost of grace maybe we would practice covenantal commitment, sacrifice, love, forgiveness, redemption, patience, holiness, etc.. Which fire do we bring before the Lord?

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Posted in Discipleship, Grace, Leviticus | 2 Comments »