Did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom?
tom_bombadil
Where is God my Maker,
Who gives songs in the night,
Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?
I've been teaching 1 Peter to the Highschool Class. We concluded chapter 4 and started chapter 5 today.
One repeated idea caught my attention while preparing for the class:
For the glory of Christ.
We minister for the glory of God through Christ. We suffer for the glory of Christ. Elders serve, not by compulsion, but willingly.
The average Christian wants to go to heaven. The desire for heaven motivates him to do the things that are necessary to be saved.
But the desire for heaven alone does not produce leaders or exceptional Christians. In fact, it is harder for a leader to "get to heaven" than for a mere follower. Teachers will incur a stricter judgment (James 3:1). Elders will have to give an account for how they rule (Heb. 13:17).
An Elder must have something more motivating him. He must desire a good work (1 Tim. 3:1). He must serve willingly (1 Pet. 5:4). He must desire to glorify Christ through that work. Preachers have a similar motivation. In fact, all who serve in any capacity do so to the glory of Christ (1 Pet. 4:11).
When someone asks, "what do I have to do to get to Heaven?", I know how to answer up to a point. I can instruct him on the plan of salvation, on first principles, on the church, on faithfulness, and on purity. But what about doing MORE than that? When it comes to questions like, "How often do I have to serve my brethren?", "How much do I have to give to the poor?", "How often do I have to teach?", "How often do I have to go to gospel meetings?", etc., I do not know how to scripturally draw a line and say, "This is how much you have to do to get into heaven."
But I can answer the question, "Does _______ glorify Christ?"
Since my study of 1 Peter, I'm looking at this being a Christian thing very differently. Yes, I want to go to Heaven. But that's not enough to motivate me to do the "extra" things. There is one thing that can drive me onward to perfection and spiritual excellence: the desire to glorify Christ.
When a family member of mine died 2 years ago, my family was trying to decide what to put on her headstone. We had to say it in three words. How do you summarize a life in three words? "Wife, Mother, Friend"? "Live it up"? "Rest in Peace"? "Safe with Jesus"?
One day, when others are trying to decide what to put on my headstone, I intend to give them reason to sum up my life with these three words:
I had an excellent high school class on Romans. The whole time we came back to trying to answer the question, "If we can't earn salvation, then why do we do good works?" In the last class we finally reached an understanding of "Gratitude, Gratitude, Gratitude."
Your "For the glory of Christ" is an excellent concept to be teaching the high schoolers. It is so much more substantial than many Bible classes ever reach with the checklists of right and wrong and gets to the heart of the matter.
Or as some of you might know them,
"If that's true, then..." arguments. And no, "If that's true, then I'll eat my hat" isn't a counterpositive.
Think 1 Cor. 15, "If the dead are not raised, then Christ was not raised." But Christ was raised, therefore the statement "the dead are not raised" cannot be true.
Paul uses proofs that I didn't learn until my math classes in my Junior year of College. Y'know, those classes that come after Calculus.
Counterpositives are found fairly frequently in Plato's Dialogues. It seems that the classical mind was familiar with them. They're probably in other books of ancient reasoning, as well, but I'm not very well read in that area. It makes me sad to see how stupid people in general are today compared to the classically educated.
It takes a true communicator to make these things easy for a general audience to understand. It takes a true geek to enjoy using them. Paul, my fellow geek, I salute you.
"But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel in those days," declares the Lord, "I will put my law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'know the Lord,' for they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the Lord, "for I will forgive their iniquities, and their sin I will remember no more."
This verse is quoted in Heb. 8:10. We are told there that it speaks of a new, better covenant delivered by Christ the mediator and enacted on better promises than the Mosaic covenant. (Heb. 8:6)
The idea of writing a law upon a heart goes all the way back to the Mosaic law. Deut. 6:6 says, "These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart." Similarly, Deut. 11:18 commanded the Israelites, saying "You shall therefore put these words of mine on your heart and on your soul...". The concept of law is emphasized, not diminished by the inclusion of the heart. A law written on the heart is a law that is remembered. A law written on the heart governs not only actions, but thoughts as well. The condemnation of sinners in Psalm 14 begins with a verdict on the heart, "the fool has said in his heart,'there is no God.'"
The better law under Christ is also to be written on the hearts of believers, as Jer. 31:33 says. It is a law that believers remember. It is a law that governs not only actions, but the thoughts of the heart as well. It is a law that convicts and judges, as the mediator of that law has said, "The word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day" (Jno. 12:48).
Furthermore, it is only under this new law that there is forgiveness of sins. As Jer. 31:34 stated with regards to the new covenant and the law written on the hearts of believers, "I will forgive their iniquities, and their sin I will remember no more." Not only is the New Law able to convict, it is also the only law under which there is forgiveness of sins. The fault of the Old Law was that the sacrifices offered under that law could not take away sins (Heb. 10:4,11). Under the new law, there is a sacrifice that can take away sins:
For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified, And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws upon their heart, and on their mind I will write them," he then says, "And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." (Heb. 11:14-18)
In fact, it is only by being subject to the New Law that we can escape subjection to the Old Law. Rom. 8:2 says, "For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the Law of sin and death." God does not give us the choice of being under law or not being under law; He gives us a choice of which law we will be under:
The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ, or
The Law of sin and death.
As I was reading, I was thinking, "He's building to Romans, he's building to Romans". And then...BOOM! Romans! Would you say that freedom in Christ refers to freedom from sin and freedom from a law that cannot save?
