Confidence. What a nebulous word! Oh, it is easy enough to define. Noah Webster said confidence is: A trusting, or reliance; an assurance of
mind or firm belief in the integrity, stability, or veracity of another, or in
the truth and reality of a fact. Ok,
that’s not so hard. But what Webster
doesn’t say is how to achieve such a state.
Some people seem to have boundless confidence; at times to a fault. Others have almost none; almost always to a
fault. But how does one go about gaining
confidence? Is there a step-by-step
process we could follow if we desired to acquire greater confidence?
Well, as we
continue to move through 1st John chapter 5, we are going to
discover in verses 13 to 15 that John says emphatically YES! There is a method to having confidence in
life. In fact, he considers this so
important for us that he makes it a part of his stated purpose for writing this
entire letter. As has been his pattern
so far, this is not a new topic for John.
He has already mentioned confidence, in Greek “parrhesia”
(par-rhe-see’-ah), three times.
In 2:28,
3:21, and 4:17 the apostle has given us pieces of the puzzle of how to have
confidence. What is particularly
noteworthy is the context he places this confidence in. In 2:28 he writes: now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away
from Him in shame at His coming. In
3:21 we find: beloved, if our heart does
not condemn us, we have confidence before God. And in 4:17 another aspect is revealed: by this, love is perfected with us, so that
we may have confidence in the day of judgment. We can see from these three verses that John
categorizes the elements that make up a biblical confidence into three
components:
- abiding in Christ
- listening to the Holy Spirit and examining the righteous fruit of our Christian conduct rather than listening to our heart
- abiding in love.
But what is
most significant to me about these passages is their focus, or theme. Every time John brings up the issue of having
confidence, his approach is to relate that confidence to God. In other words, the only confidence that matters
to John is that which we have, or do not have, before the Lord. I believe this is diametrically opposite of
how Christians typically view situations.
You see, I
think that probably for most of us, when we consider the issue of having
confidence, our instinct is to associate it with how it relates to other
people. For example, at the prospect of
giving a public speech is it the Lord God we are concerned about messing up in
front of and being embarrassed, or is it all the humans in the audience? If we find ourselves in a situation where
loving confrontation is necessary, what are we most fearful of: having conflict
or drama with the other party, or disobeying God’s extremely clear teaching on
how to go about reconciling an offense with a brother or sister in Christ?
I think that
with very few exceptions our concern is over the human interaction that is at
stake rather than the divine relationship that is on the table. But for John it seems to be exactly the
opposite. In his teaching throughout this
letter he relates the entire conceptual understanding of confidence to the divine
relationship. In other words, John’s
approach is to ground his confidence in his relationship to the Lord first, and
only then give any thought whatsoever to how that confidence might relate to
the various situations he finds himself in and the experiences he has.
And if that
wasn’t noteworthy enough, consider this.
As already stated, John has touched on this topic on three separate
occasions in this letter alone. But his
pattern throughout the book has been to revisit teachings repeatedly, offering
some additional nuance or insight to our understanding each time. I think John is demonstrating in his epistle
that he is a master of repetition teaching.
He gives us bite sized chunks of truth to chew on, one at a time, in a
methodical and structured manner. The
reason is so that by the end of the letter, assuming we read slowly and
carefully, digesting just a portion at a time, we will have a much fuller grasp
and understanding of what he is teaching.
John is
going to stay true to that approach here in verses 13 to 15. And as we will see in a moment, he is going
to up the ante considerably by making it clear that having confidence before
God is so critically important for a believer that it is tied to his entire
reason for writing the letter in the first place! He accomplishes his task by identifying two
major components or elements of having confidence before God: knowledge and
assurance.
We will pick
it up in verse 13 with the knowledge angle: These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son
of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is nothing less than John’s purpose
statement. This is, at the end of all
things, his attempt to summarize the whole letter. Setting aside all the individual teaching he
has given us: being honest about our sin, walking as Christ walked,
understanding apostasy, rejecting the world and the things in the world, loving
one another, discerning between false prophets and authentic Bible teachers,
and conquering the world. All of those
elements are of vast importance to a Christian.
But if you walk away from this letter only remembering one single thing,
this is what John wants it to be. He
wants you to know that you have eternal life.
He wants your confidence in Christ to soar like an eagle and cause you
to sail far above the troubles and turmoil of this evil world we live in.
At the very
beginning of our consideration of John’s epistle, we examined the relationship
between his gospel and this letter. In
that connection there is a fascinating flow of logical purpose and intent. It’s worth a reminder now. John 20:31 reveals the purpose statement for
the gospel of John: these have been
written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and
that believing you may have life in His name.
I find this
to be an utterly compelling and fascinating sequence. John wrote his gospel for the express purpose
of facilitating the Holy Spirit’s work of bringing people to faith in Jesus and
the necessary repentance that must follow it.
All of the miracles, all of the teaching, all of the historical details,
all of the horrifying reality of the crucifixion. John intended every drop of it to ultimately
coalesce into faith and trust in Christ.
Then, once that was accomplished and someone had become a believer, he
wrote his first epistle so that they would be able to follow on the heels of that
saving faith with a concrete and unshakeable assurance of their security in
their savior. What a beautiful package
of sound teaching and instruction for us to partake of 20 centuries later.
On the topic
of John’s purpose, consider this. The
phrase “have eternal life” at the end of the verse may be proper English, but
it’s not quite right according to the original text. First of all, every major English translation
places this phrase at the end of the verse, after the clause about believing in
the name of the Son of God. But the
original phrase that John wrote places “have eternal life” in the middle of the
verse. The verse reads approximately
like this in Greek: these things I have written to you in order that you may
know that life possess eternal, these that believe in the name of the Son of
God.
What you
need to understand about the Greek language of John’s day is that it was very
flexible. Word order was extremely
important. In English we have a very
methodical structure of subject – verb – direct object. But in New Testament Greek subjects and verbs
were not determined by placement in a sentence or relation to each other. They were communicated through altering the
way the word was written by using different case endings on the ends of the
nouns. In other words, you could
conceivably have a verb at the beginning of the sentence and the subject at the
end, separated from each other by multiple other words. This presented a wonderfully freeing
opportunity for the NT writer to place particular emphasis on the words they
thought were most important in the verse they were writing. They accomplished this by putting the more
important words earlier in the sentence and relying on the case endings to
enable readers to determine subject, direct object, etc.
So for verse
13 this means that John considered the clause of a Christian knowing that they
have eternal life to be of primary significance. This is why I said a moment ago that it was
absolutely central to him that you not just be saved, but that you are
absolutely, unswervingly convinced of the reliability and trustworthiness of
that salvation. He wrote a whole letter
to you for the purpose of convincing you of that fact! Have you been and are you listening?
Beyond that,
let’s go back and once again compare English and Greek. The English phrase “have eternal life” is a
translation of the Greek “life possess eternal”. What’s the difference you might be
thinking. Aren’t both versions saying
the same thing? I don’t think they are. Think about it like this.
The modern
English structure conveys the idea of eternal being an adjective that describes
life. To be sure, eternal is in fact an
adjective by definition. And the life
that we now live in Christ is most certainly one that will be lived
eternally. But the structure paints a
picture of this life being just one of a variety of different flavors of
life. We might have reduced life, wasted
life, vibrant life, etc. to go alongside eternal.
Now compare
that with the way John actually wrote it: life possess eternal. His original structure says that because of
belief in the Son of God, we now have life eternally. The negative implication of this is that
apart from that belief in the Son, catch this, life is not possessed at all. It may be true that physical life exists
apart from Christ. But this biblical
concept of John’s is accurate because such life is only partially realized, in the
physical sense only. If one possesses
physical life but lacks spiritual life can one be said to be truly alive? I don’t think so, and I submit to you that
neither did John.
Consider the
very beginning of this same letter. 1st
John 1:2 reads: and the life was
manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life,
which was with the Father and was manifested to us. John is describing Jesus here. He calls Him “the eternal life” and he
mentions His manifestation, in other words, His incarnation in human flesh to
the human parents Joseph and Mary. And
although that manifestation is time bound, Jesus was born, he grew, he died, he
lived, his quality of eternal life is not.
He was possessed of this quality prior to being manifested. So His eternal life cannot be bound up in a
chronological time sequence. John 1:4
echoes this point: In Him was life, and
the life was the Light of men.
Christ’s quality of being alive was present as a part of His character
long before the night He was born in a stable.
What’s my
point? Simply this. The biblical concept of life, as it applies
to Christ, has nothing to do with length of years. Rather than dealing with the quantity of life
possessed, it has the idea of the quality of life that is possessed. And this is the same quality of life that
being granted to us through faith and trust in Him. It is the same life that John wants us to be
absolutely convinced that we now have.
So I think
what he is getting at here is the idea that to even be truly alive in the first
place you must express belief in the name of the Son of God. And not only will you be granted life when
you do, but that life will be of an eternal, imperishable, undefiled, and
vibrant nature. Reading 1st
John 5:13 as “possess eternal life” rather than “life possess eternal” does not
convey this sense nearly as well. Do you
see why it is so important to work hard and study and dig to attempt to
ascertain the author’s original intent?
And on that
note, I need to side track for a page or two.
I discovered something troubling as I was studying this verse. All of the major modern English translations
of the Bible basically line up with each other on this verse in structure and
flow. All, that is, except for one. The King James translation is as follows:
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of
God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the
name of the Son of God.
Now compare
that with the NASB that I bolded several paragraphs back, or read it in your
own Bible, assuming you have a translation other than the KJV. Do you notice the difference? There is an entire clause hanging off the end
of the KJV that is not present in any other English translation: and that ye
may believe on the name of the Son of God.
Why do the other versions of the Bible not include this crucial piece of
information? Were the modern translators
lax in their efforts? Were they not as
thorough as their 17th century equivalents?
The answer
is really quite simple. That clause at
the end of 5:13 in the KJV does not exist in the original text. It is simply not there. It was straight up added out of thin air by
the team of translators that England’s King James put together to translate the
Scriptures. Now then, is this a huge
issue? Not really, no. The overall intent of John’s writing is not
altered. In fact, we already know from
the aforementioned John 20:31 that he definitely did want us to believe on the
name of the Son of God.
But here’s
the problem. That is not what he was
trying to accomplish right here, right now, in the 13th verse of the
fifth chapter of the first letter to the church that he wrote. His purpose for this letter begins and ends
through these three verses with confidence.
He had already covered the belief issue with his gospel. He didn’t need to revisit that topic
again. In fact, I think John’s
assumption was that you had already read his gospel and come to faith in
Christ. Otherwise, why in the world
would you bother to read a letter about unpacking that faith and relating it to
daily living.
And please
understand, I am not trying to dump all over the KJV here. It is a very good word-for-word translation
of the original texts. But no English
version of the Bible is perfect because no translation from one language to
another is perfect and no team of translators is perfect. I have yet to find any English Bible that is
free from issues of one sort or another.
There are better and worse efforts.
Some are more accurate and others, not so much. But none of them is a literal rendering of
the original text that the Holy Spirit authored through human writers.
Ok then, you
might ask, “After jumping the KJV’s case and then rushing to assure me that
it’s not alone in its errors, what in the world are you driving at? Am I supposed to just not trust
anything?” Nothing could be further from
my mind. The English Bibles we have are
extraordinarily accurate, especially in light of the translation issues they
all face. I would submit that the more
modern versions, such as the ESV and the NASB are better, simply because
textual criticism (the science of interpreting dead languages) is more refined
today than it was in 1611. But again, none
of them are completely free from issues and the problems with the KJV are not
sufficient enough to cause me to not ever use it.
No, my plea
is not to turn away from our Bible translations. Rather, my plea is to be careful, discerning,
and studious in your attempt to understand God’s word. But how can you do that if you don’t know the
original languages? Simple. Just compare English translations every time
you study. Many web sites are available
to help you do this, such as www.biblehub.com.
Look for anomalies. Watch for
sore thumbs and red flags that stand out from the rest. And when you find them avail yourself of the
Internet, your pastor, or other Bible teachers to help you investigate and
attempt to get to the bottom of it.
I will not
apologize for that intentional rabbit trail because I believe it was
important. But we do need to get back to
our text and look at the other aspect of John’s unpacking of confidence; that
of assurance. Verses 14 and 15 read: This is the confidence which we have before
Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever
we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.
Here we have
our word; confidence. This word is the
theme we are looking at today. So we
need to spend a few minutes observing how John uses the word elsewhere to be
sure we have a firm grasp on it. This is
not all the occurrences in the New Testament of John using “parrhesia”, but it
is enough of them to paint a picture for us.
I will underline the relevant word in each passage:
- John 7:13 – Yet no one was speaking openly of Him for fear of the Jews
- John 7:26 – Look, He is speaking publicly, and they are saying nothing to Him. The rulers do not really know that this is the Christ, do they?
- John 10:24 – The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, “How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
- John 11:14 – So Jesus then said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead.”
- John 11:54 – Therefore Jesus no longer continued to walk publicly among the Jews.
- John 16:25 – “These things I have spoken to you in figurative language; an hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but will tell you plainly of the Father.”
- John 16:29 – His disciples said, “Lo, now You are speaking plainly and are not using a figure of speech.”
There are
three distinct images of “parrhesia” in these verses: openly, publicly, and
plainly. To exercise “parrhesia” in your
actions is to perform them openly. You
are unconcerned about whether anyone observes what you are doing. Not only that, but it is to do those actions
publicly. You are so committed to your
lack of concern for outside opinion that you intentionally place yourself in a
visible and public arena so that others may witness your deeds. And then when the time comes to conduct your
business you ensure that it is clear and obvious both what you are doing as
well as the why behind it. “Parrhesia”
is nothing less than an unembarrassed and self-assured confidence.
Perhaps the
thought on your mind at this point is that this description doesn’t sound very
much like the way you conduct yourself in your interactions with other people,
let alone your posture before the Lord.
Even the most self-assured among us face the daunting prospect of
situations where we lack confidence.
Perhaps for you it’s public speaking.
Or maybe you have a debilitating fear of confrontations. Possibly you are convinced that you sound less
intelligent than others, causing you to shy away from social interactions,
tending to stay in your shell rather than risk exposure to perceived
embarrassment. Whatever your hang-up, I
can with a high degree of certainty predict that you do have one or more.
Where does
my confidence come from? Further, if I
am correct why are we like this? Why are
we cursed with this basic lack of confidence and assurance? Both questions can be traced to the same
source. It all stems from mankind’s core
state of mind in a fallen and corrupted world.
Because of the curse of the fall we are, without exception, shackled by
a predilection to shame and embarrassment coupled with uncertainty and fear.
Let’s trace
it back to its biblical roots and piece together the image of where our shame
comes from and what it looks like from God’s perspective. Genesis 2:25 tells us that: the man and his wife were both naked and
were not ashamed. Prior to the
entrance of sin into the world there was no concept of embarrassment. There was no understanding of shame. Some theologians refer to this as the
dispensation (a fancy term for age) of innocence. But have you ever thought about how odd it
was for Moses to include this seemingly random detail? We previously discussed that the Bible
contains no accidents and no authorial flights of fancy. This particular piece of information about
Adam’s and Eve’s nakedness is no exception.
Notice the connecting detail in the next chapter. Verse 7 describes the man and woman’s
immediate response to their sin: then
the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and
they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.
God is
specifically demonstrating a contrast here.
He wants to take a single detail, that of nudity, and display the
difference in how man viewed it both pre and post sin. And in that post sin response we notice an
interesting point. Why would they seek
to cover themselves as one of their first actions? Verse 10 gives us the answer: he said, “I heard the sound of You in the
garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”
Adam was
afraid. His fear was caused by a
previously unknown awareness of his nakedness.
At a primal and perhaps even subconscious level, one of the divinely
decreed effects of sin was to be uncomfortable with even the idea of someone
else seeing us without clothes on. This
basic premise of the new human condition was placed into the Mosaic Law as
well. In Exodus chapter 20 God is giving
Moses instructions about how to properly worship Him. One of the requirements was that altars to
worship Him not be placed on high. The
reason is found in verse 26: “and you
shall not go up by steps to My altar, so that your nakedness will not be
exposed on it.” Even with that
restriction in place it still was not sufficient for God’s chosen people to be
acceptable in His sight. In Exodus 28 we
find instructions for the priestly garments that Aaron and his sons would
wear. Verses 42 and 43 are particularly
relevant: You shall make for
them linen breeches to cover their bare
flesh; they shall reach from the loins even to the thighs. They shall be on Aaron and on his sons when
they enter the tent of meeting, or when they approach the altar to
minister in the holy place, so that they do not incur guilt and
die. It shall be a
statute forever to him and to his descendants after him.
I believe
the Scriptures are clear that nakedness and the associated humiliation are a
crucial element in our quest to understand where our lack of confidence comes
from. This is only one aspect of shame,
but I think it stands as a surrogate representative of the root cause of why we
can even experience disgrace in the first place. The negative connotations associated with
nakedness are pervasive and influential.
It is more than merely an embarrassing cultural more taught to us by our
parents. This stigma was put into place
by God Himself as a visible and tangible reminder of our rebellious and
alienated condition of separation from His perfect holiness. So I believe, based on Scripture, that
inhibitions regarding nudity are hard-wired into our brains.
Now hold on
some might say. What about people around
the world who live in nudist colonies, perform nude photo shoots, or otherwise
seem to glory and revel in their nakedness.
Frankly, these facts hold no weight with me whatsoever. It is a solid biblical truth that God’s laws
are written onto every human heart (Rom. 2:14-15). Furthermore, it is clear that apart from God
man will, by nature, do everything in his power to suppress the truth in
unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18). So I find
it to be utterly inconclusive that some folks have trained themselves to ignore
the warning bells their consciences are sounding.
In fact, we
all do this exact same thing to some extent, although probably not with
nudity.
But whatever the private sin is
that we struggle with, have we not at times trained our consciences to be
silent about it? We know what is a
correct course of action yet we blindly and stubbornly choose to go a different
direction anyhow. Further, the more we
engage in the binding and gagging of the Holy Spirit does it not become easier
and easier to do the same thing the next time?
Of course it does. No, offering
up our modern culture’s infatuation with sex and nakedness as supposed proof of
the Bible’s irrelevance is no proof at all of anything.
Now, with
all that in mind, consider for a moment what it would be like to actually be
free from humiliation, from disgrace, and from dishonor. Can you imagine how it will feel to have that
veil or barrier of shame finally removed from your relationship with God? Would it not make a massive difference in
your attitude toward Him to be completely unafraid, unashamed, and unembarrassed
in His presence? Does it make you long
for your heavenly glorification in the presence of the Lord?
If it does,
then you have misunderstood John’s point in this verse. Because that is not what he is saying. John used the present active form of “echo”,
or to possess, to describe our “parrhesia”, or confidence. He is not talking about “someday” or “in
glory”. He is literally stating that
right here, right now, you own a confidence before God that is open, public,
and plain.
I think the
obvious question hanging in the air right now is this. If you lack this confidence. If you have no idea what John is talking
about. Why? To attempt to answer that for you without
knowing any of the private details of your life let me put it this way. Based on our study of “parrhesia” earlier,
what would it look like for someone to have that level of confidence before
God?
First of
all, this person would have no need to try to hide any of their activities from
God because all of them honor and glorify Him.
In other words, they would be completely transparent about their
life. Second, they would feel no trepidation
at allowing anyone else into the privacy of their life to view what they do
behind closed doors because their activities in private mirror their activities
when others are around. In other words,
they would be very public about their life.
Finally, there would be no need to dance around topics with words, or
attempt to side-track conversations to avoid discussing issues, either with
themselves as an internal monologue, with the Lord in prayer, or with other
people in conversation.
That is what
the life would look like of a person who has real confidence before God. So if you feel that you lack that confidence,
examine your life and compare it with what I have just written. Better yet, match it up against the life of
Jesus that we read about earlier. I have
a feeling, if you feel disgrace before your God, your life will reflect the
reason why. And I have a further
suspicion that you know exactly what it is that needs to change in order to
effect an alteration of your perceived standing before your King. The question most likely isn’t “what is the
problem?”. Rather, the question is
probably “what are you going to do about it?”
Now then,
those last few paragraphs are probably enough for you to chew on that I could
stop writing right now. But we haven’t
finished our passage yet. And there is
another question that I think leaps out of verse 14. Namely, how do we know that we are asking
things according to God’s will? This is
one of the top questions on people’s minds across Christendom. Believers typically fret and worry over
whether they are truly acting according to the will of God. They lose sleep over decisions that are
coming up or have already been made.
They seek counsel from pastors and teachers, desperate for someone to
tell them what to do.
And to
everyone who may be struggling with that same dilemma, I have tremendous words
of encouragement from Scripture. The
answer to the question of how to know if you are in God’s will or not is
actually astoundingly simple. I will use
three passages, all from the gospel of John, to explain.
In the fifth
chapter of John, Jesus is explaining His relationship with the Father. And in verse 30 He says the following: “I can do nothing on My own
initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My
judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who
sent Me.” The key component of
Jesus’s ministry, power, and effectiveness was His dogged determination to
never seek His own will. One hundred
percent of the time, He was committed exclusively to accomplishing whatever the
Father asked of Him. So the first piece
to knowing God’s will is to determine right off the bat whether you are going
to follow suit. Is the will of God truly
and honestly what you want most of all?
A while
later, in chapter 9, we find a man who had been born blind. Jesus has healed him and the man is being
interrogated by the Jews. In a
delightfully sarcastic response to their repeated stubborn insistence that
Jesus could not be from God the man says in verses 30 and 31: “Well, here is an amazing thing, that you
do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes. We know that God does not hear sinners; but
if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him.” Adding onto what we already read in 5:30, we
now find that once you set your will to be in submission to God’s greater will,
you are absolutely guaranteed beyond question that He will hear you.
But how do
we know if we are truly conforming our wills to His? Is there any evidence or test we can measure
ourselves against to be sure of this? As
a matter of fact, there is. It is found
in John 15:7: “If you abide in Me, and
My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” John has made it clear, all the way back in 1st
John 2:6, that if we want to know whether we are abiding in Christ we need to
examine whether we are walking in the same manner as He walked. And now we find the glorious truth that if we
are walking like Him, then we know that we are placing the will of God before
our own because that is exactly what Jesus did.
And finally, if all that is true so far, then we are guaranteed by
nothing less than the promise of Almighty God that He will grant our requests
when we speak to Him.
If you have
a petition for your God and you want to know if it’s according to His will,
don’t look at the request itself. Examine
the rest of your life. If it matches up
with Christ’s life then ask away, and ask that God’s will be accomplished. In effect, the biblical method to always have
your prayers answered and your requests granted is to pray for His exaltation. He will always give you what you want if what
you want is what He wants!
Perhaps that
is not the answer you were hoping for.
Maybe you feel that this is rather self-serving of God. And it is.
But you were not created to satisfy yourself and the Bible was not
written to tell you how to accomplish such an aim. You were created to worship God and the Bible
was written to tell you how to accomplish that correctly.
I have one
final point to make about this passage.
It is an observation rather than a question. I find John’s wording in verse 15
fascinating. He begins with “if we know
that God hears us”. First we must become
convinced of our place before Him and that His “ears” are inclined in our
direction. Then we know, it is a
guarantee, it is an absolute assurance, that He will grant our request. And once again John uses our little word
“echo” to indicate that God doesn’t just give us what we want. He makes it so that we possess the petition
that we have asked from Him.
This implies
that God’s character is such that a petition heard is automatically a petition
granted. There is an obvious flip side
to that of course. God sometimes does
not hear. This is figurative language
because God always hears everything. The
point is that God chooses not to hear. And
when He responds in this manner it is because we have not asked according to
His will as Jesus did. So in effect, it
is as if He did not hear us. But if we
always ask for everything in the context of whether God wants us to have it or
not, then we are guaranteed to always receive what we asked for.
But beyond
all that, it is interesting to me that John’s description of God’s character in
this verse is such that He automatically grants requests. What does that say about who He is on a
fundamental core level? I think it
communicates to us the reality that God is a god of generosity, of love, of
mercy, of tenderness, of compassion. He
delights in giving out wonderful and beautiful and useful and priceless gifts
to His children. In fact, He is of such
an incomprehensibly magnanimous nature that He is even pleased to give an
absurd level of gifting to those who are in active and open rebellion against
Him? What does this look like? It looks like all those unrepentant sinners
continuing to draw breath every day and enjoying the fruits of their
labors. It looks like God not
obliterating them all in an instant with the fiery consuming wrath of His
anger.
This piece
of who God is causes me to think of James chapter one. James has just described to us what the
process of lust, temptation, sin, and death looks like on a practical
level. And he wants to assure us that
this is all of our doing and none of God’s.
So in verses 16 and 17 he writes: Do
not be deceived, my beloved brethren.
Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down
from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.
Not some
good things. Not a part of the perfect
gifts we receive. Every. Single.
One. If there is anything good in your
life (and we have looked in previous chapters at the truth that all things are
for your good if you love God) then it is one hundred percent of the time,
totally and completely, without exception, the Lord God who is responsible for
giving it to you. This is an absolutely
glorious truth beyond reckoning! God is
so good as to defy human comprehension.
Jeremiah writes in Lamentations 3:22-23: The Lord’s loving kindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions
never fail. They are new every morning;
great is Your faithfulness.
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