Exclusivity

I recently read a posting from one of my pastors regarding the exclusive nature of our faith.  I would highly encourage you read this posting in its entirety here: Swallow the Pill of Exclusivity

Christianity is particularly controversial, just as the world today does not like the concept of absolute right and wrong, the Bible calls people out on their sinful nature and that very fact is unpleasant, and therefore controversial.  I am glad however that Christians are charged with promoting the gospel, preaching it to others in a spirit of lovingkindness.

I think its important that we as Christians get our head around this concept.  Our God is not an inclusive god.  Take special note of how Peter responds to Jesus' question in John 6:68-69.  Peter understood well that there was no other source for eternal life.  It is Christ who holds the power over sin and death, and it is Christ whom we are to serve if we have any hope of salvation.  That is, we take on faith what has been written about a perfect man that was fully God and fully human, who fulfilled the law to the letter, died a sinners death, and rose again, conquering the power of sin and death for all time.  It is only through Jesus, by God's grace that we are saved, that sounds pretty exclusive to me.  So go out and enjoy that exclusivity, but never forget your charge to preach the gospel to all tongues, tribes, people and nations.

Flawed Logic

I was listening to Stuart McAllister fill in for Ravi Zacharias on the radio during my lunch break today.  He made an interesting observation that I thought I might pass along to the rest of you, via paraphrase of course, because I'm not cool enough to quote things verbatim. 

The point was made that every belief system, be it Christianity, Buddhism, Islam or Marxism, provides answers to the fundamental questions we as humans ask, and it is our responsibility to discern which system answers these questions best.  He went further to say that every system created by men (in the human sense for you egalitarians out there) is bound to fail in some aspect or another. 

Consider government, it is a system that is in many ways flawed and riddled with loopholes and exceptions.  Compare that to God's legal standard and his uncompromising justice.  A justice that was satisfied in Christ, allowing for us to be declared righteous.  That is a legal term, a defendant is declared to be either innocent or guilty by a judge, weather he is actually innocent or not is something that must be proved by an advocate.  Christ is our advocate, he lives to make constant intercession on our behalf, just read Romans 8.  God's justice is a perfect system and under this court we require a council that is without sin.  Therefore, oh Christian, take joy knowing that you have the ultimate defense attorney to plead your case, and take joy knowing you have been declared righteous under the justice of God.

Fine Silver

Recently my fiancee and I have been working on lessons concerning communication.  I don't need much conviction to know that I'm a sinner, but to be made to actively hunt down sin and reflect on my pride-filled nature it becomes very obvious just how wicked I am.  I'm am so grateful that God is using my fiancee to expose my sinful disposition and I am even more joyful that she is willing to show grace and forbear with my sin.  I think I can speak for her when I say we are both uncomfortable with this exposed feeling but I think we are both equally joyful that God is using this time to bring out the dross in our hearts.  Isiah 1:25 says:

I will turn my hand against you and will smelt away your dross as with lye and remove all your alloy.

I've never had a lye burn, but from what I understand it's searingly painful.  What I have experienced however, is God, through his Spirit, working in my heart to dredge up all these secret, pride filled sins.   That exposure of my heart is an experience that is significantly less than pleasant.  Scripture likens God to a metalworker on more than one occasion because we are indeed filthy creatures.  He takes us in as raw ore, dirty and worthless in its current state, and begins His work in us.  It is said that a skilled silversmith can tell when the metal is most pure when he can see his own image perfectly reflected in its molten surface.  Malachai 3:3 has this to say about why we must be broken before we can be built up:

He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD. 

Read that again and note the order of how we respond to our refinement process.  God must first purify us before we can bring offerings in righteousness to Him.  This should cause us to rejoice knowing that in Christ we have ultimately been purified, but we don't yet mirror our refiner perfectly.  So, while we have cause to be glad, knowing we have received God's grace, we can also be aware that there is lots of dross in our hearts and we'll need to sit in the crucible until we're given our new bodies in glory.  Take joy knowing that God is interested in seeing his own image in us, even if the process is often painful.

Inexplicable Kindness

Our God is one of inexplicable kindness.  I've devoted a significant amount of thought regarding this subject.  I'm going to have to paraphrase something I've recently heard that pertains to this subject because I can't remember the exact words, but the statement went something like this:  Even if God were to give us no gifts, he would still be kind, loving and abundantly generous through the grace He has extend to us. 

Take a second to think about that.  Even if we were devoid of every blessing, every good and perfect gift, we still have Christ.  If we really think hard about that, it quickly becomes apparent that God has indeed gone above and beyond in his kindness towards us.  Consider the words Paul wrote in Romans 5, where he points out that scarcely will one man die for another righteous man, but God in his mercy sent his own Son, who would be beaten, tortured and killed, yet remained without sin, all the while we were seething with hatred towards Him.  Going back to my original statement, even if we received no blessings aside from grace granted by the Father we have been shown infinitely more kindness than we could ever merit or deserve.

What joy that should inspire!  What a sense of gratitude we should be stirred to on account of God's matchless and inexplicable kindness.