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That Should Be Me… Copy

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One reminder I think I should put as my lock screen picture to see each day when I wake up to see the time are the words, I am human.

It is easy to get caught up in living life as a Christian and daily seeking to glorify Christ that we forget it is only when He returns that we shall be transformed, and leave behind these tents of clay that so easily fall to the pressures of the world and effects of sin. We are Christians, yes, bought, redeemed and continually being made into the image of Christ, but we are still humans, and we will experience human emotions for as long as we are still breathing.

Let’s zone in on one of these emotions for this post; probably (who knows?) I might do a series of these, but let me not get ahead of myself. Let’s talk about envy, mainly because it is one emotion I have struggled and still struggle to work through in my journey of sanctification.

Envy, by Wikipedia’s definition, is an emotion which occurs when a person lacks another’s superior quality, achievement, or possession and either desires it or wishes that the other lacked it. Aristotle defined envy as pain at the sight of another’s good fortune, stirred by “those who have what we ought to have”.

Remember that time the top student in Class 3 got a new pencil and sharpener for being top in the English exam, and you felt a voice in your head saying, that should be me, while something bitter formed in your throat and settled in your stomach like a heavy stone? That is the simplest I can be able to describe envy, because as children, we somehow are able to feel emotions at a much more visceral level.

Let’s not confuse envy with jealousy; jealousy is the reaction to the fear of losing what you already have to someone or something else, like, again, when your friend in Class 3 started to spend more time with another person, and you felt like this other person was going to destroy the friendship you already had. There can be a good jealousy, like how God doesn’t want our souls to find satisfaction in anything other than Him (Exodus 20:4-5), but there can never be a good envy.

As we grow older, we learn to regulate how to respond to our emotions, but somehow, we can succumb to them. Our classmates from high school get to go study abroad while we attend a university within our neighbourhood. Our friends get married and start families while we are still trying to wade into the waters of dating and relationships. We see colleagues get promotions, adulations and all manner of benefits while we still trudge on in the same place year in, year out. In all these scenarios, we cannot sometimes help but feel, that should be me. I should be the one driving that car. I should be the one who got that promotion. It should have been me dating that guy/girl. I should have been the one who got the scholarship… and on and on it goes, until we find ourselves in a deep hole of despair we know we dug ourselves into, but cannot find a way out of.

Dealing with envy has been a difficult fight for me. I always wanted to be like that super athletic classmate of mine in high school, to have the intricate, agile vocal techniques of my musical friends, or to be like that friend at university Bible study who could make a difficult theological concept so easy in less than five sentences. The list could go on and on; stuff I wanted to be then, and even things I want to be that I see so full and overflowing in others now.

The Bible has a lot to say on envy. What is the most striking to me is how it is rendered in Proverbs;

A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh,
but envy makes the bones rot.

Proverbs 14:30 (ESV)

Yikes! Rotting bones! I can only imagine the anguish and pain that would bring to my body. Going further, I can imagine the devastation it can bring to my soul and my heart when I choose envy over contentment. It will not only kill any relationships I have with people, but also would make me question why God doesn’t love me as much as He loves that person who has that which I so desire. Cain fell into this trap, and so great was his envy and the anger that followed it that it clouded his thoughts and caused him to kill his brother Abel (Genesis 4).

Like Paul, at times I have cried out, what a wretched soul I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?, when it comes to my fight with envy. Sometimes the anguish gets so dark, so overpowering and heavy that it causes me to cry and wish it be over with having its tentacles encircling my being.

What follows is the reminder, Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:25a). We are dead to sin (Galatians 2:20), and as much as we will feel the deeply reaching effects of envy in our lives, we can thank God that through Jesus, we have access to His Holy Spirit who dwells within us, and helps us with the fight against envy and many other spiritual ills that plague our humanity.

In my walk, I have found what to employ, by God’s help, to deal with envy. It strikes envy at it’s root; discontentment. Envy says, you want what they have, and causes you to not see what you already have with you. Envy colours what others have with dazzlingly beautiful hues, and makes what you have seem drab, grey and unappealing. Envy is birthed by discontentment, and discontentment is found in a heart that does not delight in God, but in the things of this world.

To delight in God is to see Him as the all satisfying Being beside whom nothing else can compare. When our hearts are tuned in this direction, we see Him as the only one who could have saved us from the debt of sin we owed. We see that all the gold, accolades, riches and adulation would not be enough to fill the deep, restless gap in our souls but the fully atoning sacrifice of Jesus. When this becomes as clear as day, we learn to be content that what we have; peace, joy, rest, the Spirit within, salvation and many other gifts, could not have been acquired in any other way. We learn to say, as long as I have Jesus, I have all I need. Therein lies the key to contentment, and major blow to envy.

When I feel the clouds of envy rise in my soul, I recall the words of David in Psalm 73:

25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
    And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
    but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Psalm 73:25-26, ESV

Listening to and following the longings of my very human heart that cause me to envy those around me will only lead me to destruction, emotionally, spiritually and even physically at some point.

However, if I daily recognise that there is nothing else who compares to my God, my Saviour, in heaven or earth, then even the most glittering of earthly things that someone else has will, as the popular hymn goes, grow strangely dim.

Thanks for reading, it is my hope that this post blesses and encourages you as it has for me as I wrote it and researched for it. Below are a few resources I used when penning this down:

That Should Be Me…

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One reminder I think I should put as my lock screen picture to see each day when I wake up to see the time are the words, I am human.

It is easy to get caught up in living life as a Christian and daily seeking to glorify Christ that we forget it is only when He returns that we shall be transformed, and leave behind these tents of clay that so easily fall to the pressures of the world and effects of sin. We are Christians, yes, bought, redeemed and continually being made into the image of Christ, but we are still humans, and we will experience human emotions for as long as we are still breathing.

Let’s zone in on one of these emotions for this post; probably (who knows?) I might do a series of these, but let me not get ahead of myself. Let’s talk about envy, mainly because it is one emotion I have struggled and still struggle to work through in my journey of sanctification.

Envy, by Wikipedia’s definition, is an emotion which occurs when a person lacks another’s superior quality, achievement, or possession and either desires it or wishes that the other lacked it. Aristotle defined envy as pain at the sight of another’s good fortune, stirred by “those who have what we ought to have”.

Remember that time the top student in Class 3 got a new pencil and sharpener for being top in the English exam, and you felt a voice in your head saying, that should be me, while something bitter formed in your throat and settled in your stomach like a heavy stone? That is the simplest I can be able to describe envy, because as children, we somehow are able to feel emotions at a much more visceral level.

Let’s not confuse envy with jealousy; jealousy is the reaction to the fear of losing what you already have to someone or something else, like, again, when your friend in Class 3 started to spend more time with another person, and you felt like this other person was going to destroy the friendship you already had. There can be a good jealousy, like how God doesn’t want our souls to find satisfaction in anything other than Him (Exodus 20:4-5), but there can never be a good envy.

As we grow older, we learn to regulate how to respond to our emotions, but somehow, we can succumb to them. Our classmates from high school get to go study abroad while we attend a university within our neighbourhood. Our friends get married and start families while we are still trying to wade into the waters of dating and relationships. We see colleagues get promotions, adulations and all manner of benefits while we still trudge on in the same place year in, year out. In all these scenarios, we cannot sometimes help but feel, that should be me. I should be the one driving that car. I should be the one who got that promotion. It should have been me dating that guy/girl. I should have been the one who got the scholarship… and on and on it goes, until we find ourselves in a deep hole of despair we know we dug ourselves into, but cannot find a way out of.

Dealing with envy has been a difficult fight for me. I always wanted to be like that super athletic classmate of mine in high school, to have the intricate, agile vocal techniques of my musical friends, or to be like that friend at university Bible study who could make a difficult theological concept so easy in less than five sentences. The list could go on and on; stuff I wanted to be then, and even things I want to be that I see so full and overflowing in others now.

The Bible has a lot to say on envy. What is the most striking to me is how it is rendered in Proverbs;

A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh,
but envy makes the bones rot.

Proverbs 14:30 (ESV)

Yikes! Rotting bones! I can only imagine the anguish and pain that would bring to my body. Going further, I can imagine the devastation it can bring to my soul and my heart when I choose envy over contentment. It will not only kill any relationships I have with people, but also would make me question why God doesn’t love me as much as He loves that person who has that which I so desire. Cain fell into this trap, and so great was his envy and the anger that followed it that it clouded his thoughts and caused him to kill his brother Abel (Genesis 4).

Like Paul, at times I have cried out, what a wretched soul I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?, when it comes to my fight with envy. Sometimes the anguish gets so dark, so overpowering and heavy that it causes me to cry and wish it be over with having its tentacles encircling my being.

What follows is the reminder, Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:25a). We are dead to sin (Galatians 2:20), and as much as we will feel the deeply reaching effects of envy in our lives, we can thank God that through Jesus, we have access to His Holy Spirit who dwells within us, and helps us with the fight against envy and many other spiritual ills that plague our humanity.

In my walk, I have found what to employ, by God’s help, to deal with envy. It strikes envy at it’s root; discontentment. Envy says, you want what they have, and causes you to not see what you already have with you. Envy colours what others have with dazzlingly beautiful hues, and makes what you have seem drab, grey and unappealing. Envy is birthed by discontentment, and discontentment is found in a heart that does not delight in God, but in the things of this world.

To delight in God is to see Him as the all satisfying Being beside whom nothing else can compare. When our hearts are tuned in this direction, we see Him as the only one who could have saved us from the debt of sin we owed. We see that all the gold, accolades, riches and adulation would not be enough to fill the deep, restless gap in our souls but the fully atoning sacrifice of Jesus. When this becomes as clear as day, we learn to be content that what we have; peace, joy, rest, the Spirit within, salvation and many other gifts, could not have been acquired in any other way. We learn to say, as long as I have Jesus, I have all I need. Therein lies the key to contentment, and major blow to envy.

When I feel the clouds of envy rise in my soul, I recall the words of David in Psalm 73:

25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
    And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
    but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Psalm 73:25-26, ESV

Listening to and following the longings of my very human heart that cause me to envy those around me will only lead me to destruction, emotionally, spiritually and even physically at some point.

However, if I daily recognise that there is nothing else who compares to my God, my Saviour, in heaven or earth, then even the most glittering of earthly things that someone else has will, as the popular hymn goes, grow strangely dim.

Thanks for reading, it is my hope that this post blesses and encourages you as it has for me as I wrote it and researched for it. Below are a few resources I used when penning this down:

Soli Deo Gloria | #TheSolae

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Here we are, the last section of our journey. It is my hope and prayer that you have enjoyed the ride almost as much as I have. I started in October, hoping to have finished by end of November, but it seems I had a lot more to learn and a lot more to surrender to God before I could do every post. Maybe after this post, I’ll do a behind the scenes and breakdown of what more I have learnt, but all in good time.

When I started the Solae, as I do with all other series I have done on this blog, I pray it be for God’s glory. Surprising now I have to do an article on what that is, the glory of God alone. If you’re like me, the glory of God is usually a phrase we hear, sing and speak about, but seldom give much thought to. What is it? Why do we ascribe everything to the glory of God? How do we glorify God? These questions and more begin to rise up once we give them the due attention they deserve, and rightly so.

The word that has been recurring in this series is alone; five things that alone are the pillars on which the doctrine of salvation stands. We are saved from our sinful, dead state and our position as legally guilty before God, and now continually being cleansed of our sinfulness, having been made alive by God to seek Him, and pronounced righteous before Him.

All this came to be through the work of Jesus Christ alone, no other person could have so perfectly obeyed God, and by Him taking our place on the cross, bearing the punishment meant for us, we are justified (having His righteousness covering us), made alive from sin, and effectively being indwelt of the Holy Spirit who constantly makes our consciences desire to please God in all we do, say or think.

If to summarise everything we have gone through, we are justified before God by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ’s atoning work alone for the glory of God alone as authoritatively taught through Scripture alone. In this final article, we will look at how all these tie up to the overarching glory of God.

The glory of God alone, overarching and supreme over all

What is the glory of God? John Piper defines it as, the radiance of His intrinsic worth, beauty and greatness of all His manifold perfections. Let’s try to demystify that. In Isaiah’s vision (Isaiah 6), the angels cry out,

Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.

Isaiah 6:3b, ESV

Before we dive into how holiness and glory relate, let us ask ourselves, what is God’s holiness? When we say God is holy, it means He is set apart from all other created things; His love is unlike any other, it is a holy (separate, God-unique) love. His majesty is holy; His justice is holy. Everything Scripture says to be true about God are what are known as His attributes, His holy attributes. If we were to describe God as a diamond, His attributes would be the facets of the diamond; each individual facet shines forth with holiness, and the brilliance with which all facets collectively shine is His glory. This might be a very weak example, but I hope it somewhat gives a perspective of what God glory is.

If we closely look at all God does, it is with the aim of displaying His beauty and greatness; His glory. A song I love, Creation Sings the Father’s Song, has this line saying, His fingerprints in flakes of snow. Psalm 19:1 says that the heavens tell of God’s glory. Have a look at the stars at night, the phases of the moon, the dramatic sunsets and cries of birds in the morning; all these are testament to His greatness. His glory is also shown in our own redemption (Romans 15:9); the manner with which He wrestles with a sinner’s heart and reveals the worth of Himself to the simple is beautiful. Yet, all these things are inended to give man the most basic idea of God’s grandeur and majesty. If He can create all we see and all that will ever be down to their molecular levels, just how powerful and awesome is He?

So, this points us back to Soli Deo Gloria as a tenet of salvation. How does the glory of God fit into the work that leads to our salvation? For starters, it gives us a hint of His supremacy, His greatness and His holiness above all that ever was and will be. In light of this majesty, we then begin to see the extent of our own inadequacy and depravity. Think of it as walking on a dark, muddy road toward a friend shining a light at the end of it; the closer you get to the light, the more you see the filth with which you are covered. The natural reaction would be to turn away so as to hide the mess you are from whoever will see you, and more so, to hide the fact that you are dirty from yourself. However, we see God’s holy love displayed through Christ in whom we have our sins washed away, and our minds renewed and progressively conformed to His desires and will. In turn, we delight to do what His desires are and find joy in seeking Him through His word.

And that is what He has intended, dear one, that through salvation we may be reunited to Him to enjoy being in His presence and under His love, as it was in the Garden of Eden before the fall. The Psalmist says,

You make known to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fulness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forever more.

Psalm 16:11, ESV

God is glorified, that is (as we have inferred), beautified, when those who see His worth and greatness delight and find their source of joy in it. And as we are continually sanctified, we look forward to the day when we too shall become glorified, taking up new bodies that are incorruptible and as intended to be before the effects of sin. That shall be the day when we will fully be satisfied in God, and He will be most fully beautified (glorified) in us.

Why then should we glorify God? It will naturally flow from all we have seen this far. All the other solae are from Him, through Him and to Him. There was and is nothing at all, even if given the opportunity, we could do for ourselves to save us from the wrath of God intended for us; from initiation to execution of salvation, it all was Him and Him alone.

Our response, then? We see our own depravity and corruption, and as much as it grieves us, it shows us that it is only God who can help us, and as such, prompts us to live a life of morality where we, guided by the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures, carry it out with a keen awareness of accountability to God alone. Our words, our deeds, our thoughts; all are held under the microscope of, how can I daily show the beauty and greatness of God?

My friend Ngome often says, be the walking version of a Bible (or the Gospel) to the non-believer. Show the wonder of God in your life that has been made new by the work of Jesus Christ alone, and not to attribute it to what you are able to do now, but what God has thus far enabled you to do it. This is how we live out Soli Deo Gloria.

The Reformers did much to make known these truths, some even dying for what they knew to be true as taught from Scripture. I must admit, at times I wish it could be as what the Catholic church was fighting against, and still fights against today; to attribute part of the work of salvation to human effort and tradition. It would make salvation feel deserved and rightly won, and easy to attain, right? Pray a prayer, do some rituals, and eventually you will outweigh the bad you’ve done and be granted access back to God’s presence. So easy, and so satisfying to the ego.

However, if I look at the depth of my wretchedness, oh, how I am torn apart! And it suddenly becomes blindingly clear that there is nothing that can wholly and fully cleanse me rather than the blood of Jesus; everything I do is coloured by sinful and selfish pride, a desire to be better than my neighbour and eventually God Himself. That couldn’t save me no matter how many times I would try it.

So I look to Christ. Who else lived perfectly, no sinful ulterior motives in everything He did, thus obeying the command set out by God to a tee? And I pray for you, dear reader, that your state doesn’t cause you to flee from God, but that you may be drawn in by His grace, be cleansed and live out the life full of joy that comes with seeing God’s beauty in His word and walking daily with Him, and showing that beauty to all around you in deed, word and thought.

Thanks for sticking it out this far and walking this road with me. I pray you have come to a fuller understanding of salvation as we followed the guideposts, and a greater appreciation for God’s great work.

What next? Well, as much as I would want to hang up my boots and take a breather… Sounds inviting, but more lies in store. For now, I will take a slight break to prepare an announcement on the future of this blog. Hopefully, it won’t be too long, maybe a week or so. Keep me in your prayers as I chart the way forward.

Grace and peace to you. Stay safe, and remember to wash your hands.

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Now These Three Remain (#KnowMore Part 10)

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Welcome to the final post of this series! We have had the privilege of looking through Scripture to see what God has declared to be true about Himself, our own wrongdoings that have caused a separation from Him, and what He did through the Person of His Son, Jesus, to reconcile us back to Himself. We glimpsed at the effects of salvation, that is, regeneration, sanctification and justification, and the work of the Holy Spirit as our counsellor and comforter in our new life.

Previously, we saw how God is one, but exists as three distinct, co-equal Persons. Today, we look at three gifts of the Holy Spirit which ‘remain’. This will hopefully be the wrapping on the entire series, as it presents what our future expectations are, while giving reflection to all that we have seen earlier.

When we looked at the role of the Holy Spirit, I might have missed mentioning an important work He does in us. He grants to each believer a gift that enables each of us to be an ambassador to the world, glorifying His name and showing His grace. 1st Corinthians 12 outlines these gifts; prophecy, serving, teaching, encouraging, giving, leadership, mercy, word of wisdom, faith, healing, working of miracles, distinguishing of spirits, speaking in tongues, interpretation of these tongues, and helps. Some of these gifts were temporary signs to aid in the apostles’ ministry and are no longer dispensed today; many others are still present with us that aid in promoting the teaching and interpretation of the truth.

The Corinthians to whom the letter was addressed were having problems with these gifts they were granted; they categorised some gifts as ‘better’ than others, therefore the church was in great disarray, with speakers of various languages (tongues), prophecy and other attention-getting gifts given the highest esteem and others with seemingly ‘lesser’ gifts like mercy were disregarded. Paul wrote to remind them (and us) that we are all one in Christ, and each one has been granted a different gift that helps build us all up in the preaching of the Gospel. As the eye needs the ear, so does one with the gift of giving need a person with the gift of teaching to build each other up.

Paul then concludes the chapter with these words;

To the Corinthians, this might have seemed like a revelation to some gift greater than those which were seen as great. Higher gifts than prophecy, miracle working and healing? What could they be? What follows in chapter 13 is one of the most beautiful discourses in the Bible, one that leads us back to what we would call foundational. Let’s look at the first, which is

Love

Paul begins the 13th chapter by showing how all the esteemed gifts, if applied without love, become meaningless. He then goes on to say what love is; patient, kind, never arrogant nor rude nor boastful. He then states that love is eternal; all the others such as prophecy, knowledge and tongues will cease and pass away, but love at the end will remain.

Love will last forever, indeed, as it is a part of God’s nature (1 John 4:16). We saw how the Trinity exists in a community of love, making us see even more clearly this God who is love in full. But what exactly is love? Is it just the feeling of a knotted stomach when you see your crush? Or is it the rush of blood to your cheeks when you see an irresistibly cute kitten or puppy?

The word used to speak about love in this passage is the Greek word agape. It is a word that describes an action, not a feeling; going out of one’s way to seek the wellbeing of another without expecting anything in return. The best evidence of this agape love is shown in Romans 5;

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person–though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die–but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:7-8 ESV

While we were rebellious to God’s plan for us, and defining good and evil for ourselves and causing a great mess of things, God demonstrated His love for us by giving of Himself to die in our place, face the wrath reserved for us and be the ultimate atoning sacrifice. For a good person, one would dare to die, but for the ultimately good, sinless Person to die in the place of the wicked shows just how great this love God has for us is. Therefore, what is our part?

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

1 John 4:11 ESV

If God could show so much care for our own salvation by sending His Son, what more could be expected of us rather than to show the same kind of love to those around us? That is what Paul was encouraging the church at Corinth to do; instead of seeking for a gift that glorifies them, desire to love as God did so that the preaching of the Gospel would be evident.

Thus, love remains, because it is who God is, and because it is through self-sacrificial, others-focused love is God’s nature shown, enabling the Gospel to be greatly effective.

Ok, now two more remain, so let’s first take a look at

Faith

This is a belief in, trust in and devotion to God. Faith is belief in the one true God of the Bible without actually seeing Him. It is important because without faith, we have no place with Him and makes it impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:6). Faith is a gift from God, meaning we can do nothing on our part to earn it or deserve it (Ephesians 2:8-9). It is this faith granted to us that causes our sinful hearts to realize that Jesus is indeed the Son of God, made flesh and dwelt among us in order to die and take our sins upon Himself. It is this faith that, to say the least, saves us. That is why it is so much a precious gift to every believer everywhere.

Faith remains. How so? When we are finally resurrected and given new bodies that are uncorrupted, and finally see Jesus, does our faith in Him then stop? Not at all; in fact, it will be greater than it was while we were on earth. Seeing that all we had fully believed to be true revealed clearly before us will strengthen our trust in Him.

Our trust in Him will remain, even when the other gifts of splendour will be in distant memory. The apostle Peter beautifully says;

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

1 Peter 1:8-9 ESV

Hope

Hope can be defined as the assurance that something good that will happen, as well as the state of anticipation in the outcome of this assurance. Biblical hope isn’t shaky, like I hope so, but rather has a sure foundation. Hebrews 11:1 says that faith is the assurance of things hoped for, meaning that both are closely knit together. Before we look at the tie between them, let’s look closely at what hope is.

When we say have hope, it means there is something we confidently expect and wait for, even though we cannot yet see it. Just like faith, hope is a great gift that is essential to our walk as Christians. We have our hope placed in God’s promises and Jesus’ words. We place our trust in Jesus’ promise of return (John 14:3), and we then hope to be reunited with Him (John 14:19); this is therefore our ‘blessed hope’ (Titus 2:13).

Hope is built upon faith. We trust in Jesus’ promises (faith) and are confident that they will come to pass, even though we can’t see them just yet (hope). To illustrate this further, I can give an example. Growing up, our parents would often promise to take us out for lunch the following day, or to a place where we could have the time of our lives. We then naturally trusted their words and believed that we would be taken out (faith) while at the same time filled with expectation of the promise being delivered (hope).

Hope is then a wonderful gift, but how does it remain? When our blessed hope, Jesus, appears, does it mean that our expectations, now come into fruition, will no longer exist? In the eternal state, our expectation of even greater things will continue. We will be drawn into the glories of God deeper and further, and as He is infinite, there is so much more to expect from Him that our hope cannot die. Hope remains grounded in the eternity of God, and the greater adventure that awaits us when we finally meet Him.

Faith, hope and love remain, both here on earth and when we are reunited with Christ. But, Paul says, the greatest of these is love. And rightly so.

Faith is wonderful, but how can we place our trust and belief in God if we do not love Him? Hope is glorious, but how can we expect His future return if we have not placed it in our trust in Him? Love is what crowns our hope and faith in God.

As we conclude this series, seeing as how much God loved us, and has thus granted us these gifts to show His goodness and grace, my prayer for all you who have followed till the end is this;

That’s it! The core of Christianity, by the help of the Holy Spirit, laid out in ten parts. This far we have come, much further still we have to go. If by any means this series has impacted you, big or small, we thank God for giving you the insight needed.

I’ll make a postscript in my next post, mainly because I’ve run out of white page. So, until then, may God keep you and sustain you. Peace.

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I Will Send You A Helper (#KnowMore Part 8)

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Hey, great to have you back! I hope your week has so far been full of wonder and goodness. As we edge closer toward the end of this series, I look back and I’m thankful to God for His grace to carry me through all this. It has been my prayer that each and every person who reads through this series, or even a single post within it, will be led to seek Jesus and get to know of His amazing work and His desire for us to know Him as He does.

Earlier this week, my friend Jay shared on sanctification; how we are to consistently put the works of our former dead, sinful self away from us and progressively become like the author of our faith, Jesus Himself. Somewhat, it may have seemed like a hugely impossible task; we are still clothed in our bodies which are drawn to do those things we ought not to, and do not want to, yet still are expected to walk in the light (1 John 1) and forsake these very deeds of darkness.

No doubt about it, it’s impossible. There’s no way in our own effort can we come to grown into the likeness of Jesus. We can try, yes, but in one way or another, we’ll fail. The greatness of such a task can cause one to lose hope, and even think of the walk as salvation as futile.

Thankfully, God, who is the initiator of salvation, has already set up ways, in this case, a Person of His being, to guide us in the walk. Amazing, isn’t it? The same God who creates us, then offers up Himself as the pardon for our own failure, and gives of Himself to guide us in the walk is indeed a reflection of the great love with which He loves us.

The one who is to guide us in this is the Holy Spirit, the third Person in the Godhead (we shall look at this in the next post; stay tuned!). Before we look at what exactly He does, let’s see who He is. The ‘Holy Spirit’ is what is used to refer to God’s personal presence, the Hebrew word being ruach (literally, wind, breath).

First and foremost, the Holy Spirit is God, meaning He shares the same attributes with the God we looked at earlier in the series; He is all-powerful, holy, eternal, unchangeable. In Psalm 139:7-8, the Psalmist refers to the Spirit as ever-present, a definitive attribute of God;

Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

Psalms 139:7-8 ESV

Judging by the use of the pronoun ‘He’, the Holy Spirit is a Person, just as we saw God is. Even though the word ruach gives a sense that He is simply a force, He isn’t. As a Person, it means He has a mind which can think and know (1 Corinthians 2:10), emotions as evidenced by the term ‘grieving the Spirit’ (Ephesians 4:30), and a will through which He makes decisions (1 Corinthians 12:7-11). The fact that He was present at creation (Genesis 1:2) goes further to strengthen this fact; a person must be present for a work to be done.

Now that it’s settled that He is a Person, we can now place Him in the line of all that we have been seeing from the beginning of this series; God reconciling man back to Himself. We saw God as the initiator of salvation, and Jesus, His Son, as the one who carries out this plan of salvation. The Holy Spirit then carries out the sustenance of salvation. When we looked at sanctification, we saw that through the help of the Holy Spirit are we able to progressively grow into the likeness of Jesus.

This is why Jesus promised His disciples that He would ask God His Father to send them a helper (John 14:6) who would perform the functions He Himself would do if He was with them personally, because along the way, we will definitely need help and comfort, encouragement and exhortation.

The Holy Spirit aids us in attaining the holiness (set apart-ness) God intended for us through many ways, but we shall look at four of these.

Conviction of people in regard to righteousness

The Holy Spirit is what helps men everywhere come to the realisation of their sinfulness, that is, their failure to attain God’s requirement of being holy as He is (John 16:7-11) by applying the truths of God to their minds. Even though we are so far fallen and wretched, there’s still the conscience within us that make us know that we are flawed and wrong. When we hear the truths of God’s word spoke to us, or when we read them ourselves, we then are presented with the reality of our wrongs and He causes us to turn to God for forgiveness.

Reveal the truth, most importantly of who Jesus is

Jesus said the Holy Spirit would ‘guide us into all truth’ (John 16:13). Essentially, He will guide us in knowing what is right and what’s wrong, what the entire counsel of God is, and making all things that God intends to be plain and clear. He convinces us of Jesus as the Son of God, His life, death and suffering, as well as His exaltation as the judge of all men (John 15:26, 1 Corinthians 12:3). Without Him to guide us in truth, we would be prone to error and accepting comforting lies.

Fruit producer

Galatians 5:22-23 give some of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, attributes that form in us as He lives in us and shows us the model image of Jesus; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Seal of the eternal pledge as God’s children.

Once saved, the Holy Spirit dwells within us, as evidenced in Romans 8:9;

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

Romans 8:9 ESV

The Holy Spirit is God’s own personal presence, which is always by our side to not only guide us in truth, but to also assure us of our eternal state as God’s children.

Nothing is more comforting than the knowledge of this; that we have done nothing to accord God’s grace towards us, and even though we deserve to be punished and justly rewarded for wronging Him, He still calls us His own. How amazing is that?

These are not the only roles He plays in our lives, but I felt that those were worth sharing in this little white page I have. It’s such a great thing to know that the God who has set up the path of salvation for us has also given His very own personal presence to guide us, comfort us and assure us of the truths in Scripture. A helper indeed.

The whole Bible is full of explanation of who the Holy Spirit is and what He does, and there are tons of resources available to answer your questions. Two I’ve found of great value are Got Questions and The Bible Project; find out more by clicking the links.

Next week, we shall look at the last two posts in this series; one on the triune nature of God (big word there) and another on three of the gifts of the Holy Spirit which are said to ‘remain’. Fingers crossed!

Have a great week(end) ahead.

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Considered Righteous: Justification (#KnowMore Part 6)

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Hey hey! Welcome back to the next part of our series #KnowMore. Part 6! Wow, I am glad we have made it this far, and it is my hope that we all are growing in the knowledge of these truths.

The beauty of the Gospel is that it is simple enough for a child to understand, yet has some aspects of it that defy our own logical ways of thinking and predetermined paths of reason. All it takes is faith in God to impart the wisdom to understand and accept the truths as they are. It is difficult trying to fit the round truths and teachings of God into our square shaped ideals and thought patterns; what can be done is to allow God Himself to shape our minds and hearts to then allow these truths to fit into our daily lives.

We looked at regeneration last week, the first of three guest posts in this series. We saw how God takes our hearts that are dead to sin and makes them alive through His Son, Jesus Christ. In no way are we able to quicken ourselves to acceptance; rather, we are given new life to be able to believe in Him and walk in His ways.

Today is the second post, done by a very good friend of mine. He has expressed the need to remain anonymous, and as a gesture of my respect for him, I will keep his identity unknown. It is his desire that God be glorified in his post, and not him as the writer, which is something I really commend him for.

He has been instrumental in my walk with Christ, and has helped me return to God’s word regarding my own sinful state and my continual need for Jesus’s strength. I pray this post on justification will be of great help to you.

Blessed Are Those Whose Lawless Deeds Are Forgiven, And Whose Sins Are Covered; Blessed Is The Man Against Whom The Lord Will Not Count His Sin.

The doctrine of justification has caused tremendous controversy in the history of Christianity. It provoked the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, where the reformers stood for the Biblical truth that justification is by faith alone.

It addresses the most serious plight of fallen human beings-their exposure to the justice of a holy God. The truth of the matter is that God is just, and we are not. David, in Psalms 130:3, prays, “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquity, O Lord, who could stand?”

In fact, none could stand. “None is righteous, no not one…no one seeks after God…no one does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:10-12, ESV). Most of us would think that when we work hard enough to be good people, then we could survive when we appear at the judgement seat of the righteous God. That we could earn our merit before God is a great myth, and the truth is that we are debtors who cannot pay our debts.

The implication is that only another could pay the debt for us. Only God could pay the debt in our stead. Having paid the debt, He would be just, in justifying us. But what really is justification?

We consider this in parts: the nature of justification, the basis of justification, the means of justification and the result of justification.

The nature of justification is that it is an instantaneous legal act, and not an actual impartation or infusion of righteousness. God declares sinners as just before His sight, while yet, they continue to sin. It describes what God declares about the sinner, and not what He does to change the believer (but indeed, He does something to change them). Romans 8:33-34 contrasts “bringing a charge/condemning” with the justifying work of God. Just as bringing a charge is a declaration of judgement according to some standard, so is justification.

Is then God unjust when he declares sinful men righteous in His sight? Certainly not! Paul explains in Romans 3 that He upholds His justice when He declares sinful men righteous.What, then, is the basis of God declaring sinners as just? The answer is that sinful men are “justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith.” (Romans 3:24-25 ESV).

This is to say that the righteousness of any man is not from himself. Rather, it is an imputed righteousness from Christ. Moreover, it is to say that Christ took upon Himself the sins of the elect. For the sake of the elect, God “made Him [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV).

In upholding His justice, God punished for all the sins of the elect, and Christ bore this punishment on Himself, being the propitiation-appeasement of God’s righteous wrath due to sin.

The implication of the basis of justification is that Christ’s work on the cross must be applied, for any man to be justified. By what means are the works of Christ be imputed to anyone? Scripture consistently shows that the works of Christ are received by faith. “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.” (Romans 3:28 ESV). Paul says, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of our own that comes from anything we do, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Philippians 3:8-9 ESV).

Faith looks outward, to receive the free gifts from heaven, pure and undeserved as they are. “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.”-truly, the wages of all works is death because they are sinful-“And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness” (Romans 4:4-5 ESV).

The result of justification will be that the believer will bear fruit. They will seek to obey the master who has bought them at a price, because they love Him. John rightly says that “we have come to know Him if we keep His commandments.” (1 John 2:3 ESV). A believer will not continue to make a practice of sinning, because the God who justifies them also tunes their hearts to love what He loves, and to hate what He hates. It is not to claim that they will be without sin, but that they will continue to grow in sanctification.

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Made Anew: Regeneration (#KnowMore Part 5)

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Hey there people! Glad you’re back for more knowledge from the Word. Congrats for making it to half of this series! I hope you have been growing more as you learn about what God’s plan for us is; to reconcile each and every one of us back to Himself for His glory.

Last week, we saw how Jesus Himself is God in flesh, died on the cross as an atonement for our sin, and therefore being the just God He is, His wrath is appeased against sin and mercy is effected towards us who do not even deserve it.

You might be wondering, what next? If I have come to the realisation of my sinfulness, and have fully trusted in Jesus as the one who paid it all for me with His sacrifice, there has to be a continuation in this story, which will ultimately work for God’s glory and my good as well as of those around me.

The three guest posts in this series seek to answer the question, What changes happen in my life after I have believed in Jesus through faith?

Today’s post was written by my friend Frederick. His way of life; semper reformanda. Always being reformed and made more into the image of Christ by the Word. His mission; to help people see the beauty of God’s Word, and how it is indeed profitable in equipping us for every good work. Did I mention he’s a multi-instrumentalist? You can follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram , and probably buy him some coffee.

At this point, I (gracefully) bow out, and introduce our speaker for the day.

∴∴∴∴∴∴∴∴

A certain man had a very old car lying in his backyard (okay, Kenya hakuna nyumba nyingi ziko na backyard…). Hopeful of using the car again, he approached a mechanic and asked him to make the car move again. The mechanic assessed the car – it was in a very bad condition; no engine (perhaps stolen by some gang in the hood), no seats, no transmission system. The mechanic asked the man if he could go with it to his station to see whether he could restore it to a better state, at least. After about two weeks, the mechanic returned the car to the man, driving it into his compound – proper paintjob, beautiful wheels, na kahewa. The man was startled – he never would have thought that the mechanic could have taken such a short time, and as well restore it to that standard; the car was now fit to be used on any type of road.

From the analogy above, we see that the mechanic was able to “bring” the car “back to life”, or in other words, “make it anew”. This is what regeneration looks like; God’s regenerative work is even much greater as compared to this analogy.

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Let us go to the Scriptures to find the truths concerning what regeneration is, how it occurs and to whom it is granted to.

Man is dead (dead man walking, literally…)

From first principles, man is born spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1; Titus 3:3), and his actions and thoughts are naturally inclined towards sin. This is as a result of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve rebelled against God and ate the fruit they were instructed not to eat (Gen. 3; Rom. 5:12). Sin then corrupted the very being of man, so that the heart of man has since become desperately wicked (Jer. 17:9). Apostle Paul even continues to mention that the mind set on the flesh cannot submit to God’s law (Rom. 8:7; 1 Cor. 2:14). Because of this, God’s wrath is upon all sin (and the sinner, too) (Ps. 7:11; Rom. 1:18).

Jesus and Nicodemus (John 3)

Nicodemus was a Pharisee. Pharisees were strict followers of the Law, and most did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah. Nicodemus, however, believed that Christ was a teacher from God (v. 2) because of the signs He did (John 2:23). In this narrative, Jesus talks about being ‘born again’ – regeneration. He begins by saying that unless one is born again (other translations say ‘born from above’), he cannot see the kingdom of God (v. 3). This is a response to Nicodemus’ statement in the previous verse. The idea of a new birth was out of the ordinary to Nicodemus, having thought of it in a physical sense (v. 4). But Jesus moves on to clarify what it means to be born again – it is to be ‘born of water and the Spirit’ (v. 5). Being born of water signifies cleansing, and being born of the Spirit implies newness that leads to obedience (cf. Ezek. 36:25-27).

Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2)

After the Holy Spirit had descended on some and they spoke in other tongues, people were amazed that they could each hear in his own native language (v. 8), but others said that they were drunk (v. 13). Apostle Peter proceeds to speak, saying that they were not drunk, but rather that the Scriptures were fulfilled (or came to pass) as the prophets had foretold. Peter delivers a sermon about Jesus – His death, resurrection and promise of the Holy Spirit which was manifested in that sign (v. 33, 37). This made the people (those who were listening to the sermon) respond – they were cut to the heart (v. 37). The phrase ‘cut to the heart’ implies that they got deeply convicted (of their sin), and led them to ask the question, “…what shall we do?”

Indeed, the Spirit is the one who brings about the new birth by convicting (John 16:8-9) the sinner of their sin (state of rebellion against God); and the only thing man does (in response) is to repent and be baptized (v. 38), having been changed by God.

Recipients of this New Birth

Regeneration is for whoever believes; “The wind blows where it wishes…” (John 3:8; cf. John 3:16). Whereas this is true, the new birth is for those whom God foreknew – those whose names were written in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain (Rom. 8:29; Rev. 13:8) – His chosen people. The elect (the chosen ones) are the recipients of the new birth – they are from (and will come from) every tongue on earth according to God’s sovereign choice (Rom. 9-11). Nobody knows those whom God has chosen for Himself – and therefore, ours is to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth (Matt. 28:18-20), and God will change the hearts of those whom He chose (Eph. 1:3-6, 11-12).

At the point of regeneration, a Christian is given the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13-14) to help him/her to follow Christ in obedience (Col. 3:5-17). God has also provided to us a community of other believers to aid us walk in obedience to Him – the church, whose head is Christ (Col. 1:18; Heb. 3:12-14, 10:19-25).

Conclusion

No one is righteous, and no one seeks for God (Eph. 3:9-12). Only God can draw one to Christ (John 6:44). But whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Rom. 10:12-13) after hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Rom. 10:14-17). O sinner, your sin calls on God to pour His holy wrath on you; only Christ can take away your sin by faith in him. He is the perfect, sinless Lamb of God who died in place of mere mortals to bear the wrath of God on their behalf, only if they believe (1 John 2:2). Believe in Him, and He will make you a new creature (2 Cor. 5:17). O Christian, shall we take the Gospel to the unreached? Shall we respond to God’s great love upon us and care to share the good news to the poor?

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Titus 3:3-7 ESV

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