QotW: Why do I still struggle?

It is Wednesday so that means that I will answer a question that you asked. So here it is, “Hey Matt, I know that I am a Christian, that my sin has been forgiven but why do I still struggle with doing the wrong thing? Will I ever not have to deal with sin?” Thanks for the great question.

This is a question that I have been asked a number of times in various forms. The struggle against sin is one that the Christian will face every day of her life on earth. However, the day will come when she passes from earth to heaven and sin will be no more. She will dwell in the presence of Jesus and will finally be free from the tentacles of sin. I was reading another chapter in the book (Faithfulness and Holiness) we got at the Real Retreat this past weekend and came across this statement by Ryle on this subject. It was a great encouragement to me and I hope that it will be the same for you.

“We may take comfort about our souls if we know anything of an inward fight and conflict. It is the invariable companion of genuine Christian holiness. It is not everything, I am well aware, but it is something. Do we find in our heart of hearts a spiritual struggle? Do we feel anything of the flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, so that we cannot do the things we would? (Gal. 5. 17). Are we conscious of two principles within us, contending for the mastery? Do we feel anything of war in our inward man? Well, let us thank God for it! It is a good sign. It is strongly probable evidence of the great work of sanctification.”

QotW: God is jealous?

It is Wednesday so that means that I will answer a question that you asked. So here it is, “Hey Matt, I was reading a book and wondering why it said God is jealous?” Thanks for the great question.

To answer this question I have pulled some excerpts from a book called Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem. I often turn to this guy for answers and quickly realized that his unpacking of God being a jealous good to be much better than anything I could come up with…

“Although the word jealous is frequently used in a negative sense in English, it also takes a positive sense at times. For example, Paul says to the Corinthians, ‘I feel a divine jealousy for you’ (2 Cor. 11:2). Here the sense is ‘earnestly protective or watchful.’ It has the meaning of being deeply committed to seeking the honor or welfare of someone, whether oneself or someone else.

Scripture represents God, as being jealous in this way. He continually and earnestly seeks to protect his own honor. He commands his people not to bow down to idols or serve them, saying, ‘for I the LORD your God am a jealous God’ (Ex. 20:5). He desires that worship be given to himself and not to false gods.

Thus, God’s jealousy may be defined as follows: God’s jealousy means that God continually seeks to protect his own honor.

People sometimes have trouble thinking that jealousy is a desirable attribute in God. This is because jealousy for our own honor as human beings is almost always wrong. We are not to be proud, but humble.

It is not wrong for God to seek his own honor, however, for he deserves it fully. God freely admits that his actions in creation and redemption are done for his own honor (Isa. 48:11)…It is healthy for us spiritually when we settle in our hearts the fact that God deserves all honor and glory from his creation, and that it is right for him to seek this honor. He alone is infinitely worthy of being praised. To realize this fact and to delight in it is to find the secret of true worship.”

QotW: Does God love Satan?

It is Wednesday so that means that I will answer a question that you asked. So here it is, “Hey Matt, If God calls us to love our enemies, does God love Satan? I know that God can’t love sin and pure evil, but what about the fallen angel Lucifer?” Thanks for the great question.

Jesus words in the Sermon on the Mount are very challenging, “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who ask you, and if anyone take what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you (Luke 7:27-31).” Jesus is establishing the way that people who love Him should live towards those who don’t love Him. These types of statements are guidelines for human interaction. They are dramatically different from what you would typically run into at school. This of course can be one of your best evangelistic tools, to not respond with vengeance, to give to those in need and treat others they way you would want to be treated. Loving your enemies may be the door that opens for them to experience the ultimate love of Jesus.

At this point we can not apply the same relationship parameters to God and Satan. Lucifer has no desire to ever experience the love of God. He has completely turned his back on God in pursuit of his own greatness. He is destined for destruction there is zero chance of him turning back to God. Therefore, God does not and cannot love Lucifer because He cannot accept sin. That is why we are given such sobering warnings in the Bible, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. (1 Peter 5:8-9).”

QotW: Justified by Faith?

It is Wednesday so that means that I will answer a question that you asked. So here it is, “Hey Matt, What is justification by faith?” Thanks for the great question.

I will answer this question in two parts. The brief response is that as Christians we are declared “not guilty” by God for all the things that we should not have done and things we have left undone, when we are trusting in Jesus. There is nothing we can do to alter the status of this declaration by God because it is all wrapped up in what Jesus has done for us that we receive by faith. We have been justified.

One of my favorite authors is a guy named Jerry Bridges, he has written a book called The Gospel for Real Life. This is a brief excerpt from his book on the topic of justification.

“Through His representative union with us, Jesus assumed our obligation to perfectly obey the Law of God and obeyed it to the letter. Through the same union Jesus assumed our liability for not obeying the Law and paid that liability to the utmost. He fully and completely satisfied the justice of God on our behalf as our substitute.

Therefore everyone who has trusted in Christ as Savior can say, ‘God’s justice toward me is satisfied.’ In our judicial system, when a sentence has been fully served, justice is satisfied. If someone who has been sentenced to ten years in prison fully serves that time, he can walk out of prison a completely free person. Justice no longer has a claim on him. It has been satisfied.

As believers we must steadily keep in mind that Christ has satisfied the justice of God on our behalf. Never again should we fear the retributive justice of God. Yet many believers do live under a sense of fear of God’s justice. We know we sin continually, and sometimes the painful awareness of our sin almost overwhelms us. At such times we still are prone to view God as our judge meting our absolute justice. We fail to grasp by faith the fact that Christ Jesus has fully satisfied God’s justice for us.

One morning in my private devotions I was reflecting on my sin, which for some reason seemed particularly painful to me that day. In my discouragement I blurted out, ‘God, You would be perfectly just in sending me to hell.’ Immediately, on the heel of those words, though, came this thought: ‘No, You wouldn’t, because Jesus satisfied Your justice for me.’

That is the stand we must take as believers. We must not allow the accusations of Satan or the condemning justice of our consciences to bring us under a sense of God’s unrequited justice. Instead, we should by faith, lay hold of the wonderful trust that God’s justice has been satisfied for us by our Lord Jesus Christ.”

QotW: No God for 3 days?

It is Wednesday so that means that I will answer a question that you asked. So here it is, “Hey Matt, When Jesus was dead for three days, does that mean the world was without God for three whole days?” Thanks for the great question.As we approach Good Friday and Easter Sunday this weekend this is a very timely subject to think about. Part of what is hard to understand about Jesus coming to earth is wrapping our arms around the nature of God. If Jesus is God was God still in heaven during Jesus life on earth? Is Jesus talking to himself when he prays? Why does the Holy Spirit have to descend on Jesus if he is already God? There are many other things that can drive you crazy if you let your mind wander around. These types of questions make us realize that God is mysterious and beyond our complete understanding. At the same time we are not left completely in the dark.

To help make sense of this we have to remember that there is one God who is three persons. The Shorter Catechism provides some guidance. Question 5: “Is there more than one God? There is only one, the living and true God.” Question 6: “How many persons are in the one God? Three persons are in the one God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The three are one God, the same in substance and equal in power and glory.”

The answer to your question of was the world without God for three days is, no. It is unclear what exactly was going on with Jesus during his three days in the tomb. However, there is no question that God the Father was still in charging and orchestrating all of the events of human history according to His good plan.

QotW: Bad Music?

It is Wednesday so that means that I will answer a question that you asked. So here it is, “Hey Matt, does the Bible forbid listening to ‘bad’ music? What’s the deal, what does the good book have to say about what I listen to?” Thanks for the great question.

This question makes me feel old. It has been in my lifetime that “Contemporary Christian Music” has really come to the surface as a genre of music. There has been Christian music for a long time….like the gospel music my parents listened to when I was growing up. But semi-cool Christian music really started appearing in the late 80’s and early 90’s. I actually remembering borrowing my friends Michael W. Smith cassette tape (that’s right I told you I feel old), listening to Go West Young Man and thinking it was the most incredible thing I had ever heard (in retrospect that is why I qualified this as “semi-cool”). The first time I heard DC Talk I giggled like a school girl in delight. I had never heard Christian music that I actually liked…DC Talk was not semi-cool they were unbelievably cool. At this point you are probably rolling your eyes at my old man reflections and thinking that I am avoiding the question…so let me focus.

You want me to give a black and white answer. I think your question is really good and loaded with all types of implications.

Music is a gift from God and is a reminder that when humans express themselves creatively, we are reflecting the fact that we are made in the image of the ultimate Creator.

The Bible does not tell us that we have to listen to Christian music just because it is available. At the same time, the Bible does not tell us that we should just listen to whatever we want like as if it has no influence upon our souls…because it does. I am not going to give a black and white answer to this question because I really think it falls in the gray category.

We must be very careful about what goes through our ears, into your brain and ultimately resonates in our soul. Everyone one of us knows how influential music can be. If you are feeling sad you dial up an emo band on your iPod, hug your pillow and reflect on how hard life can be sometimes. I get that and have those days too. What we have to ask ourselves are questions like:

• Am I finding comfort and help from Jesus or my music?

• Is the music I am listening to causing me to thing about topics that lead me away from God?

• Has my music become an idol in my life?

QotW: Literal Interpretation?

It is Wednesday so that means that I will answer a question that you asked. So here it is, “Hey Matt, how literal of an interpretation of the Bible should we hold?” Thanks for the great question.

There has been a lot written on this subject and I have space to only give you the cliff notes. However, if you would like to read more then I would recommend that you pick up a copy of Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem. It is a big book, but don’t be intimidate, I promise that it will be valuable resource for you Dr. Grudem has the ability to make complex subject simple. All quotes in this posting are from this book. Now on to the question.

When we talk about interpretation of the Bible we have to begin with a basic assumption that says, “All the words in the Bible are God’s words, and that therefore to disbelieve or disobey any word in Scripture is to disbelieve or disobey God (2 Tim. 3:16).” The technical term for this is inerrancy, “The inerrancy of Scripture means that Scripture in the original manuscript does not affirm anything that is contrary to fact.” The Bible always tells the truth about everything it talks about. That doesn’t mean that it answers every single question that we have about any subject (like how to change the oil in your car) but what is says about any subject is true. “The truth of the Scriptures does not demand that the Bible report events with exact, scientific detail (thought all of the details it does report are true). In addition, because it was written by ordinary men in an ordinary language with an ordinary style, it does contain loose or free quotations and some uncommon and unusual forms of grammar or spelling. But there are not matters of truthfulness. The Bible does not, in its original form, affirm anything contrary to fact. If the Bible does affirm something contrary to fact, then it cannot be trusted. And if the Bible cannot be trusted, then God himself cannot be trusted. To disbelieve God himself is to place yourself as a higher authority with a deeper, more developed understanding on a topic or topics than God himself.”

Question of the Week

Just to the right of the “Photo of the Week” you will see a spot for you to “Ask a Question”. Each Wednesday I will answer a question that you submit. It can be something related to the Bible, every day life, relationships…you get the point. My hope is that we can all continue to think about how God’s Word impacts they way we think, feel and act. So start asking