What Is Your Boast?

“He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” From I Corinthians 1:31

Which is greater, your sin or the forgiveness of God? Which is heavier, your wrongdoing or the body of Christ-who was dead but who lives forevermore? Glory to the Hebrews was heaviness, weightiness. Do you glory in your guilt regarding your sins? Do you add more weight to them than you should? There is something that weighs more than your sins: The forgiveness of God weighs more than your sins.

It is the work of God to bring you sorrow, yes. But, this is only the beginning of his work. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom has a beginning. Scripture also teaches that perfect love drives out fear (I John 4:18). God takes you to two places in your journey with him. He comes to where you are and simply turns you around, and picks you up, and carries you to his home.

You begin with the knowledge that he is your shepherd, and that he guides you away from all danger. You end with dwelling in his house forever (Psalm 23), a place where no danger may approach, forever. God wants you to see your need long enough to meet that need. Mercy is without restraint with him. God is good to all.

Sometimes you might get caught up in your guilt so much that you might forget the end of his work. Why is it that of: faith, hope and love; love is what remains? It is because perfect love, God’s love towards you, that love drives out fear.

So if you glory, if you boast and if you gloat, let your glorying, your boasting and your gloating be in one being: the Lord. And glory in his love for you, his love for the for the world,  his love for your neighbor. Make your boast in the Lord who loved you, the world and your neighbor. And gloat, gloat against the devil about the real Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, and affirm against what Satan claims, that the real Lord is greater than sin, stronger than death, and has mastery over hellfire. God has saved you from hellfire. You are free from death, you live forever in blessedness, and the body of Christ Jesus the Lord, which once was dead but is alive forevermore, bought that for you in a sacred purchase.

What is your boast?

“He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”

 

In My Freedom

I write the following words in my freedom.

I could be resting now. It is night time. There is limited light in which to work. Evening and morning are God’s design.

“The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.” These are the words of the Book of Proverbs chapter eight verse 13.

Consider the things God says he hates: pride, arrogancy, the evil way and the froward mouth. Not only is it ok to hate evil, “the fear of the Lord is to hate evil.”

Saying that there is nothing God hates is contrary to his revelation. He hates these things he has mentioned in this verse. Being an everlasting Father, who by the giving of his everlasting Son, adopted sinners, may help explain why God hates these things. The pride, arrogancy, evil way and froward mouth of man is a liability to man’s salvation. These things destroy while God is the Creator.

So God’s words are to me and to all who believe not a liability but freedom itself. I sin, and Jesus says he who sins is a slave to sin. I am a slave to sin. And yet, the Son is setting me free. My sins are being forgiven. I am being given my freedom indeed.

One ought not be so proud, arrogant, evil and froward so as to deny the power of God unto salvation: the gospel of Jesus Christ. Though I am a sinner, the righteousness of God is greater than any sin I could ever commit. And it is the same for all who sin. The Son sets free.

In my freedom I can remember. I can remember that God forgets. He forgets sin. And it is my job to remember that he forgets sins. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity. (Psalm 32:2, Romans 4:8).

Your sins are forgiven. My sins are forgiven. Thanks be to God.

God has got an answer for all of your concerns.

He does, and he makes this known in his revealed communication to the beings he has made. He says, “Give no thought for the morrow” and “Come you who are weak and heavily burdened and I will give you rest.” God knows your concerns.

God invites you to pray to him: his natural Son Jesus Christ explained that those who were instructed by him are to call out with him “Our Father” in prayer. You are not some aberration of existence, some phenomenon of the cosmos. You are with all who believe the worth of Jesus Christ the acquired sons of God. God’s got family covered.

And as for what you need. God is giving you now exactly what you need. You might be looking at things, a lot of things, maybe most things in terms of lack. Well then, these too you lack: damnation, abandonment, destruction. You lack the devil’s superiority over you. You lack the ignorance inherent in not having heard the words of God. You lack the worthlessness of having vain hopes, because your hope is solid: Jesus Christ.

And yes, there are details, this, that and the other thing. Enough. God is working a good work in you. He is working your salvation. And as you have been let down by other sinners and yourself, you are not being let down by God. He cherishes you and the faith he has given you. He has taken away your sins. He regards you as a gained son. And since your Father, with Christ, is God the Father, let any thought of him failing dissolve from your mind. For he has dissolved your sins in the baptism which buried you with Jesus Christ. Therefore you can expect to be raised in the likeness of his resurrection.

When To Obey, When To Resist

Jesus taught that people are to love their neighbor like they love themselves. One is to treat others the way they treat themselves.

The information age, if one might call it that, a time of near instant, almost worldwide communication, is no different. In such an age the teaching of Jesus remains in effect: Love your neighbor like yourself.

For those in the world who have been promised by their rulers that they will be protected by laws and justice there exists a proper expectation that such rulers will rule in accordance with law and justice. And as the powers that be exist in accordance with God’s doing, such powers are to be obeyed. The powers that be are always to be obeyed.

Lawlessness however must be resisted. And here one is required to be of a discerning mind. You are not to comply with illegal actions, and illegal actions that endanger your neighbor are a threat to the state.

One can not claim authority granted by legal construction while at the same time conducting himself in an illegal manner. Laws themselves are of “the powers that be” and circumventing them is disobedience and criminal.

Authority and ability are quite often confused. They are not the same. Authority is the right to do a certain thing. Ability is the strength to do a certain thing.

One is to obey those who have been conferred with the authority to rule them. And where such authority ends or is in check, no claim of authority can be made further.

When a ruler rules in accordance with law such ruler is to be obeyed. When a ruler gives command contrary to law such a ruler is to be resisted.

Laws are not a guise to cloak the activities of the powerful. They have consequence. The Lord Jesus Christ did not circumvent the reality that the “wages of sin is death,” letting sinners go and transforming the severity of sin. He himself died in their place, releasing sinners by his substitution and he, knowing no sin, “became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” He held himself accountable to his own law and did not place himself above it.

If God tells you to do something in Holy Scripture, do it. If your president, governor, mayor or husband tells you do something in accordance with law, do it. And if any of these (God will not) tell you to do something unlawful, resist them. Where lawlessness begins obedience ends and resistance is God’s expectation for you.

Governments Do Not Sin

Officials sin.

Just as one would not say that the Ministry, a gift of Jesus Christ to the Church, sins; so also government, and governments, do not sin.

Occupiers of office however do sin. When such step out of their role of governing to do that which is contrary to governing, they sin. Whether it be supporting actions contrary to law, or taking actions that undermine laws and governing, officials sin.

Evil is falsely attributed to governments, just as goodness is falsely attributed to rebels and tyrants. The responsible citizen who believes on Jesus Christ is to uphold law and to resist lawlessness-wherever these are found.

Scripture prophesies of Jesus Christ, “The government shall be upon his shoulder.” How, and in what way this has been, is being, or will be fulfilled, we learn from God. In the Book of Daniel, when the stone which was cut out without hands was cast at the feet of the idol, smashing the idol into pieces, and the stone growing into a mountain that filled the earth; it is explained that the coming one’s kingdom would never pass away. Jesus has come and he will come again.

The Apostle Paul gives warning in chapter 13 of the Book of Romans, “The powers that be are ordained of God.” The context is the bearing of the sword. Fathers, mothers, government officials, these are to be obeyed. And should any of these not father, not mother or not govern at any point, such are to be resisted on that point. This is what the Apostle Peter did in Acts 5 when the council questioned him-the council citing its command to not teach-he said, “We ought to obey God rather than men.” Should any command from men conflict with a command from God, God is to be obeyed.

Governments do not sin. Officials do. The Ministry does not sin. Ministers do. All of God’s instruments work. Only where there is an admixture of lawlessness is anything amiss. But this admixture will in due time be removed.

Until then we conduct ourselves in the tension between standing upon the solid ground of God’s Word and living in this fallen world. It is not easy but patience will serve us well as we observe the will of God (God wants all to be saved) unfold.

Peace to you in Jesus Christ the Lord and blessings as you affirm him and serve your neighbor in him.