Paul's Epistle to the Romans, Part 2: No Excuse

Romans 1:18-32

Paul has given us a summary of the gospel and its impact in his own life. Now he begins to unpack and defend it. The first order of business is to eliminate human preconceptions of self-righteousness that we inevitably bring to the table. Paul needs his readers to understand that they have nothing of worth to offer God, because all of humanity has failed to live up to God’s standards and are therefore guilty.

Here in the last half of chapter one we see the first leg of Paul’s argument; that all men have dishonored God by refusing to give Him the acknowledgement He deserves. Instead of worshiping their creator, men worship creatures that He has made. This is particularly heinous, because God has given enough revelation in nature for man to at least admit that He exists. Yet, they refuse to do so, preferring a lie to the truth.

As punishment, God has given man up to dishonor and depravity. They have been cursed with every form of evil practice imaginable. Noteworthy is the fact that God did not cause these reprehensible behaviors in man. He simply removed His divine restraints and allowed man to indulge in his own penchant for wrongdoing to the maximum measure possible.

This section is a sobering commentary on the deplorable state of humanity. It is simultaneously a glorious vindication of God’s righteousness in condemning man. Often, when God must pass judgment on us for wrongdoing, our self-focused flesh would seek to rise up and accuse God of injustice. Paul’s argumentation here eviscerates any such attempt to call God’s honor into question. It is a scathing rebuke upon men and women for their heinous natures.

And, for Christians, who have been granted respite from the whirlpool of destruction that Paul describes here, it is a stinging reminder that even we who have been born again are often guilty of the core evil that is at the heart of man. That is, we fail to value our Creator more highly than what He has created. We elevate the things of this world to a level of importance they do not deserve, and in the process, we deprecate God’s worth in our affections.

We do not have to fear the horrific divine judgment Paul describes here. But, that very act of grace that has freed us from such a fate should drive us to give God His due out of gratitude for what He has done for us.

Paul's Epistle to the Romans, Part 1: An Apostle's Motivation

Romans 1:1-17

Paul opens his letter to the church at Rome by getting straight to the point. That is, he immediately launches into what is most important in life to him; namely, the gospel of Jesus Christ. He opens by clarifying both Christ’s qualifications to be the object of the gospel and Christ’s mission for all His followers who are in service to the gospel. Jesus is a son of the flesh, of the lineage of David. He is also the son of God, testified to by the Spirit of God. This uniquely marks Him out as especially worthy of the full attention of the gospel. Furthermore, Christ’s desire for His disciples is that they obey Him. To that end, He has designated servants to promote and teach this pattern of behavior.

After giving this overview of the mandate of the gospel, Paul goes on to describe how he himself is engaged in that mission. He prays for his fellow Christians and he longs to be with them so that he can bless them with his ministrations. Paul keenly feels an intense burden to do this by preaching the gospel to anyone who will listen.

This single-minded devotion to his task allows Paul to be completely unashamed of the gospel. He recognizes that this message of good news is literally the power of God on display in creation. God’s unfathomable power is applied to the supernatural work of transformation in the human heart and mind. What follows is nothing less than the righteous character of God being displayed front and center in the lives of the faithful. It is this gospel that Paul is motivated by.

How can we apply this? The great Apostle gives us a model to emulate with his stirring introduction. He describes a level of fervor and determination to see the Kingdom of God accomplished that few of us can match. It is a high and noble calling worth striving for. Anything less than the passion of Paul is not worthy of the name of Jesus. Any effort given that does not match what Paul describes here does insult and injury to Christ’s unimaginable sacrifice on our behalf.

The Gospel of John - Outline Part 50 - Focused Love

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John 21:15-25 – Focused Love

EXPLANATION

After breakfast, Jesus had a final test for Peter.  The Lord asked him three times if he truly loved Him.  Peter responded affirmatively each time, and he was given the charge of caring for Jesus’s flock of Christians.  By the third time Peter was truly bothered by the implication of Jesus’s repeated questions.  The three-fold repetition seems to have been designed to make a point to Peter, by reminding him of his three denials on the night of Jesus’s arrest.  Jesus wanted to instill humility so deep into the bones of Peter that he would never forget these lessons.  To really cement that in place, Jesus then prophesied that Peter would die a martyr’s death.

Peter, ever one to let his mind wander, turned and asked Jesus about John, and how he would die.  Jesus responded that if he wanted John to remain alive until He returned, that was none of Peter’s business.  All he needed to concern himself with was following his Master.  John, the author, was careful to point out here that Jesus did not explicitly state that John would remain alive until Christ returned.

John closes his gospel by confirming his identity and by clarifying that this was only a small portion of the works that Jesus did.

APPLICATION

As already mentioned, Jesus drilled into Peter three times the need to stay on mission.  Poor Peter was a slow learner.  This is evidenced by the fact that, almost as soon as the words were out of Jesus’s mouth, Peter turned and got distracted by worry about what was going to happen to John.  So, Jesus gave him a little verbal slap and reminded him to remain focused on his task.

I think there is another way that Jesus layered into this lesson the kind of conduct He expected out of Peter in the future.  There are two Greek verbs for love in this section: phileo and agapao.  They both refer to an affection that one has for another.  But, phileo has a connotation of familial love; of the love for a sibling or a parent.  This is almost an instinctual affection.  Agapao, on the other hand, is a deliberate conscious affection, typically involving sacrifice on the part of the one displaying love.

The first two times Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him, the Lord used agapao.  He was asking if Peter truly had affection for Christ that was an intentional act of the will.  And, both times, Peter responded that he loved Jesus with phileo love.  In other words, he had affection for Jesus, but not to the point of sacrifice.  Either Peter was not catching Jesus’s point, or he was balking at what was being asked of him.

The third time Jesus asked the question, both He and Peter used phileo.  I think the point was this.  Jesus wanted to know if Peter was ready to sacrifice for him.  Peter claimed to have brotherly affection for Christ.  So, Jesus pointedly said that if Peter truly had such affection for Him, like he claimed, then he would be willing to sacrifice in order to tend the Lord’s flock.

This is such a great question for us today.  Those of us who claim Christ as our Savior often express love for Him.  Whether in song or in word, we talk like we love Jesus.  But, do we walk like it?  When the chips are down, the gospel is on the line, and we are being called on to die to self and follow in the footsteps of Christ, are we willing to demonstrably prove our affection for Jesus by giving up whatever we hold dear?  Whether it is possessions, our pride, our prerogatives, or anything else, Jesus’s clear instruction to Peter here is to lay it all down for the cause of Christ.  His admonition to Peter echoes across the centuries to us today as the gospel of John comes to a close.

The Gospel of John - Outline Part 49 - Fishers of Men

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John 21:1-14 – c

EXPLANATION

Some time later, the disciples were together once again at the Sea of Galilee.  They went fishing during the night, but caught nothing.  In the morning, Jesus was on the shore.  They did not yet realize it was Him.  He asked if they had caught any fish.  Upon hearing their negative reply, He suggested that they cast their nets again, on the right side of the boat, and they would find fish.  Immediately, their nets were filled with such a huge quantity of fish that they could not pull it in.  Yet, in spite of the immense weight, their net was not torn.

John realized that it was Jesus on the beach, and he said so to the others.  Peter leaped into the sea and swam to shore while the others came along behind.  Jesus had a breakfast of fish and bread over a fire waiting for them.

APPLICATION

Jesus had one final lesson for all of His disciples.  He had already told them that He was sending them out as witnesses, just as the Father had sent Him as a witness.  Their witness would result in the saving of many souls and the birth of the Christian church.  As Jesus had told some of them when He first called them, at the beginning of His ministry, He intended to make them fishers, not of fish, but of men.  However, He wanted these men to clearly understand that it was only through His authority that any succcess would be had by them.  They could spend all their efforts, laboring to the point of exhaustion.  But, unless Jesus granted His power to the circumstance, it would end in failure.

This is such a difficult lesson for us to learn.  It is so seductive to work with one’s own strength and abilities.  In fact, this is so alluring and so indoctrinated into our self-centered frame of mind that we often do not even think about the fact that we are doing precisely what these disciples spent an entire night working on.  They exhausted themselves to find fish, to no avail.  How often do we expend our efforts in ministry or evangelism, in a similarly pointless fashion, because we have not taken what we are doing before the Lord?  God willing, and through the example found here in John, we will refrain from such in the future.

The Gospel of John - Outline Part 48 - The Peace of the Savior

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John 20:19-31 – The Peace of the Savior

EXPLANATION

The evening of the very same day, the disciples were together, behind locked doors, because they were afraid of the Jews.  Jesus appeared among them and said “Peace be with you.”  He showed them the wounds in His hands and His side.  Then, Jesus forecast the giving of the Holy Spirit that would occur in a few weeks’ time, at Pentecost.  He charged them with the mantle of leadership, in correctly diagnosing sin, and He gave them their mission of being sent to the world to proclaim the Gospel.

Thomas, one of the twelve, was not present at this meeting.  When the other disciples told him what had happened, he refused to believe.  In fact, Thomas stubbornly insisted that he would only believe Jesus was alive if he could touch the wounds on Jesus’s body.  And so, the following week, Jesus appeared to the men again.  This time Thomas was with them.  Jesus challenged him to believe.  Thomas of course did.  Then, Jesus gave a blessing to all those in the future who, having not seen Him, still would believe in Him.

At this point John also revealed his purpose in writing his gospel.  That is, he wanted his readers to truly believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and through their belief that they might have eternal life through Him.

APPLICATION

It is interesting to me that the first thing Jesus said upon being reunited with His disciples was “Peace be with you.”  This was an echo of His sentiment to them back in chapter 14, verses 1 and 27.  It seems that front and center in Jesus’s concern for His followers was that they would know true and lasting peace.  He knew the trials and tribulations they were to experience in the future.  Almost every one of these men would suffer the death of a martyr, just like their Master.  And, in the midst of all that, Jesus wanted them to be content.

He has desired the same thing for every Christian who has ever lived, including us today.  Like Paul would later find out (2^nd Cor. 12:7-10; Phil. 4:11-13), we can find true and lasting peace and contentment by truly embracing our relationship with Christ as the ultimate treasure of our lives.

The Gospel of John - Outline Part 47 - Seeing Is Believing

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John 20:1-18 – Seeing Is Believing

EXPLANATION

Three days after the crucifixion, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb.  She saw that the stone had been taken away.  Mary immediately ran and told Peter and John.  They both visited the tomb, and saw that the burial cloths were still there, but Jesus’s body was not.  Typical, thick-headed humans, just like the rest of us, they did not understand nor did they believe.

Mary also struggled to have faith.  She went back to the tomb to look again, weeping.  This time there were angels present.  They asked her why she was crying, and she responded that someone had taken away her Lord.  Turning, she saw Jesus, but did not recognize Him.  He also asked why she was crying.  But then, when He called Mary by name, recognition suddenly dawned on her.  Jesus advised her not to hold onto Him, because He would only be with them for a short time longer.  And, He instructed her to go and tell His disciples that she had seen Him.

APPLICATION

Human beings are visual creatures.  We typically insist upon seeing something with our eyes before we will believe it.  In spite of the repeated explanations before Jesus’s death that He would suffer, die, and rise, His followers still had a hard time accepting this as truth.  We will see this represented again in the next section with Thomas’s doubt.  Remember, some of these had actually watched their Lord die on the cross just a few days before.  We can perhaps understand how difficult it was for them to grasp the reality of His resurrection.

Yet, we ought not to cut either Mary and the disciples or ourselves too much slack.  The simple fact of the matter is that God has made promises to us.  He has revealed Himself in Scripture.  The 64-thousand dollar question we must ask is “Do we believe Him?”  Not only about Christ’s resurrection, but about the thousands of other promises and guarantees scattered across Scripture.

God has promised that we have an inheritance waiting for us in Heaven (1^st Pet. 1:4).  He has promised that nothing in all of Creation can separate us from His love (Rom. 8:38-39).  He has promised that He will never leave us or forsake us (Heb. 13:5).  He has promised that He will give us a peace that surpasses all understanding (Phil. 4:6-7).  He has promised that He will never give us a trial that we cannot bear (1^st Cor. 10:13).  Again, the question is, do we believe Him?  Well, do you?

The Gospel of John - Outline Part 46 - The Crucifixion

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John 19:17-42 – The Crucifixion

EXPLANATION

Now we come to the singular event in all of history; the crucifixion of the Son of God.  This stands as the most paradoxical moment of all time.  It was a day of heinous evil, because the precious God man, Jesus, was executed unjustly.  It was a day of glorious goodness, because His death became the perfect timeless atonement for the sins of every person in the world who would put their faith and trust in Him.

The Romans took Jesus out of the city to a place called Golgotha.  He was crucified there, along with two other men.  Pilate had an inscription written to place above Jesus’s head.  It read “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”  The Jewish leaders wanted Pilate to change the inscription to “This man said, I am King of the Jews.”  They did not want to appear to give any sort of credence to Jesus’s claim of Messiahship.  However, Pilate refused to change the sign.  At this point he was probably frustrated with the Jews for forcing his hand in the matter of Jesus’s crucifixion.  After Jesus had been crucified, the soldiers divided His clothing among themselves.  But, His tunic they gambled for. 

Standing nearby, watching, were several women who had followed Jesus, including His mother, Mary.  John was there as well.  One can only imagine the intense anguish Mary must have experienced, in watching her firstborn son treated so horrifically.  Jesus, even in the midst of His pain, still thought of others.  He made sure that John was going to take care of His mother, now that He was going to be gone shortly.  Eventually, Jesus surrendered His spirit and died.

The Jews wanted the condemned men disposed of quickly, because it was the day of Preparation for the Passover.  So, the Romans came to break their legs, so that they would quickly suffocate to death.  However, when they came to Jesus they realized He was already dead.  They pierced His side with a spear to make sure, and both blood and water came out of His body.  Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, who both seemed to have been disciples of Jesus by this point, arranged to have the body taken down, prepared for burial, and placed in a new tomb. 

APPLICATION

There are two elements I think we should focus on in considering the crucifixion of Jesus.  The first is the amazing fulfillment of prophecy that surrounded His death.  As one reads the text, John the author really tries to drive home how prophetic this entire sequence was.  He repeatedly writes “to fulfill the Scripture” or something similar.  In this passage alone, as John recorded it, no less than five Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled, in verses 23-24, 28, 33-36, 37, and 39.  And, that is not to mention the other prophecies that John does not mention.  These include Isaiah 53:9, fulfilled in verses 18 and 41-42, as well as the manner of His death, by crucifixion, which was itself a fulfillment of Jesus’s own prophecy of His impending death in John 3:14, that He drew from Numbers 21:8-9.

It was not only Jesus’s death, of course, that fulfilled prophecy.  Every step of the way, from His birth, to His childhood, to His adult ministry was saturated with prophetic fulfillment from the Hebrew Scriptures.  It is good for us to dwell on this, to remind ourselves of the sovereignty of God in which He meticulously planned and executed every detail of the life of Christ.  This is the same God who is in charge of our own lives.  If He was this careful with Jesus’s life and death, should we not expect Him to exercise similar care and concern for our lives? 

It is certainly true that we are not the Christ of God.  So, some might reason, God does not exercise the same attention to detail with our lives that He did with Christ’s.  Yet, Scripture is abundantly clear both that we are in Him (Gal. 3:26-28) and are heirs of all that He has (Rom. 8:17).  As such, the implication is that we are important to God as well, and worthy of His attention.  This is both a privilege and honor that we can scarcely comprehend the value of.  At the very least, we should be massively encouraged and lifted out of depressed states by this glorious truth.

The second point I want to mention is simply the horror of Jesus’s death.  It has been recorded in many other places, by people vastly more qualified than myself, just how terrible a Roman crucifixion was.  But, I want to spend a few moments dwelling on it because I think it is important to gain some understanding of what Jesus went through for us, so that we can appreciate His sacrifice.

 

In the previous section John recorded that Jesus was scourged.  This was a barbaric practice.  The goal was to exact punishment on the human body that was as cruel and painful as possible, while not causing death.  The guards used what was called a flagrum.  It was a short handled, multi-thonged whip.  Each thong had bits of metal or bone embedded in it, so that when the whip struck the body of the prisoner it would rip out enormous chunks of skin when pulled back.  The express purpose of this tool was to remove as much flesh from the body as possible, as quickly as could be done.

The crucifixion itself was no less dreadful.  The condemned person was stripped naked, so as to maximize their shame and embarrassment.  If they had been scourged first, of course their body was a wrecked mess of blood, missing skin, and exposed organs.  They were nailed through the wrists and feet to a large wooden cross that was then mounted in the ground so that the prisoner was in a vertical position.  The body’s weight, pulling down upon the wrists, would produce excruciating pain.  In addition, this unnatural position produced extreme difficulty in breathing.  So, in order to relieve the pressure on the wrists as well as facillitate breath, the crucified person would instinctively push up on their feet.  This of course caused agony in the feet because they were nailed to the cross.  The result was a situation in which the condemned alternated between extreme pain in the wrists and the feet, punctuated by asphyxiation.  They could not rest, they could not escape the pain, and the will to live only prolonged their agony, sometimes for days.  If they had not already expired from a variety of other medical trauma, eventually the prisoner would not have the strength left to lift up any more, which would lead to death.

This is all horrific enough.  And it is probably the aspect of Jesus’s execution that we can identify with the most.  Not that most of us have endured this level of pain and humiliation.  But we do at least have a concept of physical pain.  However, I believe there was another side of Jesus’s death that was even more terrible for Him.  And, it is one that we have a difficult time grasping.  That is, God the Son was, for a time, separated violently from God the Father.  This might not seem like such a big deal to us.  But consider.  These are two persons of the Trinity, who have always existed in perfect harmony and unity.  If you are married, think of the best day with your spouse that you have ever had.  There were no fights, no arguments, both of you agreed on everything you wanted to do, you complimented each other by completing tasks in unison, etc.  Perhaps you have never had a day like that.  But, try to imagine it.  Now amplify that image by 10,000.  Then try to conceive of every day, from the moment you met, to the day you both died together, like that.  That might give us a taste of what it means for the Father and Son to be one.

Now imagine that you were violently ripped away from this other person.  Even with our finite minds, we can grasp the concept of becoming used to another person to such a degree that when they are gone there is a massive emotional and mental hole that they used to occupy.  Furthermore, this would be worse than their death.  Because, you are separated from them due to the fact that they planned ahead of time to personally torture and kill you.  You agreed to this, submitting humbly to their will.  And, during the torture, they poured out all the anger they had ever experienced in their life into the ravaging of your physical body, as if they had bottled up every drop of wrath and saved it for you.  Can you even imagine the intensity of this emotional and spiritual horror?  Is it then any wonder that Jesus cried out, while hanging on the cross, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”  Jesus obviously knew ahead of time what the plan was.  He knew what the outcome would be.  Hebrews 12:2 says that He knew the joy that was before Him.  Yet, in spite of this knowledge, the terror of what He was going through was of such magnitude that it caused Him to scream at His Father.

With all this having been said, I do not have a deep theological point to make with this application.  But, what I hope is that by dwelling for a time on what Christ endured on our behalf, we can in some small way appreciate His sacrifice for us, and worship Him in heartfelt gratitude.  I think that is the deepest of theology in itself, and it is the very least that Jesus deserves from us, His adopted brothers and sisters.

The Gospel of John - Outline Part 45 - The Madness of Men

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John 19:1-16 – The Madness of Men

EXPLANATION

After this Pilate had Jesus flogged.  We will look at this further in the next section, but this was much more horrible than these polite English words make it sound.  It was a horrific physical experience that Jesus went through.  The flogging, followed by the thorns being driven deep into His scalp, would have left Him extraordinarily weak.  It is a wonder Jesus was able to stand before Pilate again at all, let alone speak coherently to him.  Nevertheless, speak the Lord did.  He did not bother to answer Pilate’s further questions, except to correct him on one point.  Jesus pointed out that Pilate had no authority to do anything at all to Him, other than what God had already permitted.

Whether he was irritated by this or not, both before and after that dialogue, Pilate sought to have Jesus released.  He knew he was not guilty of any crime deserving death.  But, the ferocity of the Jews was overwhelming.  They demanded that Jesus be condemned.  They insisted upon His crucifixion.  They submitted themselves to the authority of Caesar, in affect abandoning Yahweh and following after a mere man in their mad frenzied zeal to see the hated rabbi from Galilee murdered.

Finally, seeing no way out of this impossible situation, Pilate submitted to the will of the Jews.  He ordered for Jesus to be crucified.

APPLICATION

The heights of lunacy and depths of depravity that sinful man will pursue in order to see his selfish agenda fulfilled is staggering to behold.  These Jews were completely addicted to the idea of having Jesus killed.  They were blinded by stubborn and wicked hearts as to His deity.  This should have been patently obvious to anyone who had beheld Jesus’s miracles and was familiar with the Hebrew Bible, as these men were.  These Jews stubbornly disconnected themselves from the reality that was right in front of their faces.  There is a word we use to describe someone who cannot or will not see reality as it is.  It is called insanity.

This is the effect of sin.  This is what has driven Satan to fight against God for thousands of years; a fight he cannot possibly think he has any hope of winning.  Yet, fight on he does, in complete defiance of all sense and reason.  So also with the Jews throughout the gospel of John.

Do we see sin for what it is?  It is the enemy of all that is good and right and true.  Do we recognize sin as seeking to destroy us?  I am afraid that often we do not.  Often, we fail to resist sin as we ought.  Sometimes, we Christians are guilty of a form of the same madness that infected these 1^st century Jewish opponents of Jesus.  God forbid that we should behave in this way.

The Gospel of John - Outline Part 44 - What is Truth?

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John 18:28-40 – What Is Truth?

EXPLANATION

Having found Jesus guilty of blasphemy, but unable to execute Him according to Roman law, the Jews took Him to Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea.  It is noteworthy to realize that Jesus had specifically engineered this entire sequence of events so as to ultimately be placed in the hands of the Romans.  He knew that their method of execution, crucifixion, was what was prescribed in the Scriptures as the kind of death the Messiah needed to endure; that of being “lifted up.”

Jesus and Pilate then had a short conversation.  Jesus revealed to him that He was in fact a king, but that His kingdom was not of this world.  His was a spiritual kingdom.  And, He had been born for the purpose of bearing witness to the truth of that kingdom.  Furthermore, everyone who was receptive to truth would listen to His voice.  In response, Pilate utters a rhetorical and sardonic question: “What is truth?”

Pilate then returned to the Jews, having found no guilt worthy of execution in Jesus.  But, in accordance with Scripture, the Jews refused to accept Jesus’s acquittal.  Instead, they asked for a known insurrectionist named Barabbas, probably a member of the Jewish zealots, to be released.

APPLICATION

Pilate’s hopeless question is stunning in its despondency.  He apparently did not think much of the concept of absolute truth.  Even if there was such a thing, it seems that Pilate did not think anyone could actually know what it was.  Therefore, it was an irrelevant concept for him.

How things have remained unchanged in the human heart after thousands of years!  The denial of a standard of truth as a philosophical concept is still alive and well in the 21^st century culture of this world.  People are of the impression today that they can invent whatever truth suits them.  Furthermore, as long as one version of truth does not infringe upon another, even if they flatly contradict each other, then many people are perfectly happy to live with this logical fallacy.

I think the point for Christians is not to be discouraged by this.  Sometimes we tend to look bleakly at the world, supposing that the wickedness of mankind has reached its zenith with our generation.  However, the biblical record clearly illustrates that this is simply not the case.  Men like Pilate were questioning truth long before the modern age.  Cultures like the Romans were just as bloodthirsty and savage as the worst sorts of criminals today.  As Solomon said, “There is nothing new under the sun.”  Rather than being depressed by this, we should take heart.  God has seen all of man’s debauchery before.  He was quite capable of dealing with it then, and He remains able to take care of things now.

The Gospel of John - Outline Part 43 - Ruled by Fear

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John 18:12-27 – Ruled by Fear

EXPLANATION

Now things were beginning to move more rapidly.  Jesus was taken to Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest.  After having initially run away, John and Peter returned and followed Jesus all the way to the courtyard of the high priest.  There He was questioned by Annas.  Then they sent Jesus to Caiaphas’s house for further questioning.

Meanwhile, Peter was outside in the courtyard warming himself.  He was asked on three separate occasions whether he was with Jesus.  Peter, apparently acting out of fear, denied having any association with His Master.  Immediately after denying Jesus for the third time, a rooster crowed, fulfilling Jesus’s prophecy of a few hours previous, when He said that Peter would deny Him three times before the rooster crowed.

APPLICATION

One of the things Peter has been known for down through the centuries is his denial of Christ.  I am sure he would have preferred otherwise, but this single point of failure became one of the defining moments of his life.  However, Peter’s story did not end in shame.  Out of this miserable low point Peter arose, strengthened by his Master and emboldened by the Holy Spirit, to become a titan of the faith and arguably the leader of the early church.

From Peter’s example we can learn at least two important points.  First is that of humility.  One of Peter’s problems early on was that he was too headstrong.  He thought far more of himself and his capacity for strength and loyalty than he ought to have.  This failure of character on his part on the night of Jesus’s arrest was just the sort of graphic object lesson he needed to be brought down to size.  Because we all struggle to some extent with pride, just as Peter did, this is a lesson we all need to learn.  Perhaps, by the grace of God, some of us may be fortunate enough to learn it without the mortification that Peter endured.

The second point is to remember that even though, on a human level, this was a horrible betrayal of trust by one who had sworn to stay by his Master’s side, in the hands of the Lord this denial was a powerful teaching and training tool.  God would go on to use it in the life of His servant, Peter, to grow the character of Christ in him. 

So then, on the one hand we ought to strive for integrity and blamelessness of conduct.  But, on the other hand, when we do inevitably act dishonorably, it should not cause us to become depressed or feel defeated.  Rather, we should look for the lesson that God will be pleased to teach us through our failure, and press on toward the prize of glorification.

The Gospel of John - Outline Part 42 - Human Versus Divine Strength

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John 18:1-11 – Human Versus Divine Strength

EXPLANATION

Having finished His final instructions to the disciples and having concluded His prayer to the Father, Jesus entered the Garden of Gethsemane.  He knew that the time had come for Him to be arrested, and so begin the sequence of events that would lead to His crucifixion.  Judas, being one of the twelve, also knew that this garden was a favored meeting place of Jesus and His disciples.  Anticipating that the Lord would be there, he brought soldiers from the chief priests to capture Him. 

Jesus boldly went forward and asked whom they were looking for.  The soldiers responded, “Jesus of Nazareth.”  This One who was God in the flesh simply said three words, “I am He.”  The power and authority implicit in Jesus’s words must have been astonishing.  The crowd facing Him fell to the ground.  Almost as if He was taunting them, Jesus again asked who they were looking for.  When they gave Him the same answer He indicated that He had already told them once that He was who they were looking for.  There is an implied hint of “What’s wrong, what are you waiting for?” in the Lord’s dialogue here.

Then Peter, ever the headstrong and impulsive one of the group, drew a sword and attacked.  He accomplished the severing of a servant’s ear, but not much else.  Jesus quickly rebuked His wayward disciple and indicated that He had to proceed according to the will of the Father.

APPLICATION

I think there is a tremendous contrast here between Jesus’s response and Peter’s response.  Jesus responded with a word.  Peter responded with a sword.  Jesus placed His faith in His lips and trusted to His Father for strength.  Peter placed his faith in his sword and trusted himself for strength.

Obviously, Jesus followed the correct course of action here.  It has always been through the word of God that His power has been made manifest.  It was by His spoken word that He created the heavens and earth and revealed Himself to Abraham and Moses.  It was by His written word that He revealed Himself to the nation of Israel.  And, it was through His incarnate Word that God has revealed Himself to all mankind.

There is a tremendously important principle for Christians in this.  It is not through strength of arms that the apostles achieved victory over the world.  Rather, through the proclamation of the word of God they set the world on fire for the gospel.  Nothing has changed in 2,000 years regarding how we should conduct ourselves.  It is the word of God we should preach, not the word of physical strength, belligerence, and revenge.

The Gospel of John - Outline Part 41 - The Prayer of Prayers

TITLE

John 17:1-26 – The Prayer of Prayers

EXPLANATION

I am going to go out on a limb and call this chapter the greatest prayer in the Bible.  This is not to take anything away from other great prayers in Scripture.  However, this is God the Son intimately and privately pouring out His heart to God the Father.  This is a snapshot, a window, into the inner circle of the Trinitarian counsels of God.  Jesus’s high priestly prayer is an immense skyscraper of theology that towers above the biblical landscape like a behemoth.

Jesus, having finished His instructions to the twelve, then lifted His eyes to Heaven and began to pray.  His prayer was in four successive stages: the glory of God, the witness of God, the protection of God, and the unity of God.

He began by unpacking the mutual glory between Father and Son that had been accomplished in the Son’s ministry.  Jesus asked that His Father now glorify Him, in order that He could in turn glorify the Father.  The Son would accomplish this by granting eternal life to all whom the Father had chosen and given to the Son.  The eternal life granted was nothing more and nothing less than a genuine experiential knowledge of God and His Christ.  This was the manner in which Jesus glorified His Father; by accomplishing this work.  As such, Christ now asked the Father to glorify Him in return, in the same way He had been glorified prior to His incarnation and even prior to Creation.  This is an incredibly beautiful portrait of love.  In the relationship between Father and Son there is a beauty of mutual symbiotic dedication to each other that is almost completely foreign in human relationships.

Next, Jesus discussed the work of bearing witness to God that He had performed.  He had accurately represented the Father to the ones who had been chosen for eternal life.  It was through words, the very words of God, that such knowledge had been imparted and would continue to be delivered.  This totally accurate work of revealing the Father that the Son accomplished had its expected result.  That is, the ones to whom this revelation had been given, in this case the disciples, after having come to the knowledge of the truth, had been made mutual possessions of both the Father and Son.  This is the effect that a true witness of Christ has, when applied to someone who has been elected to salvation.  They become one with God.

Having passed into this state, Jesus was well aware, and had previously warned His disciples that this would cause worldly trouble for them.  As such, He next prayed to His Father for protection.  Jesus had already fulfilled His responsibility of keeping all whom the Father had given Him.  Not one of them had fallen away, except for Judas, who had never been permanently chosen in the first place.  Jesus wanted this protection to continue, both during His torment and death as well as beyond.  So, He petitioned His Father to seal the believers in the impenetrable protective shell of the power of God.  Significantly, what was on Jesus’s mind here was not a removal of His disciples from the threat of danger and persecution.  He was not asking His Father to take all trouble away from His own.  Rather, He wanted His own to be sustained through the midst of their struggles.  This was absolutely necessary, because the disciples were going to be expected to take up the mantle of witness for God that Jesus would have to lay down when He ascended back to the Father.  If believers were lifted out of the world, then they could not be sent into the world by Christ to bear witness to the truth.

To this point we might be forgiven if we thought that all of these blessings and requests did not have much to do with us.  It is pretty clear that Jesus has His personally selected apostles in mind with His prayer to this point.  But now, magnificently and wonderfully for us, Jesus applies His prayer to all future generations of believers who would be spiritually born from the fruit of the apostles’ ministry.  The Lord’s steadfast desire was for all believers to be perfectly united in harmony and oneness with each other and with Him.  The relationship of believers with God should be such that the world literally could see the character of God in the life of the one walking with Him.  Furthermore, if each Christian was exuding this lifelong witness, then when they came into contact with each other, the expectation would be for automatic and immediate harmony to exist between fellow image bearers of God and His Christ.

APPLICATION

I think we could truly spend a lifetime unpacking the truths present in John 17, and the ways and means by which they apply to us.  In short form, however, I think this prayer should serve as a blueprint for our lives.  Consider the following. 

We are in the business of walking in Christ’s footsteps.  He was focused upon glorifying His Father.  Therefore, we should do likewise.  The exaltation of God should be the foremost agenda on our minds and it should consume all of our resources. 

By engaging in this greatest of all lifetime achievements, we automatically bear witness to God, just as Christ did.  The only way available to us to bring glory to God is to proclaim His character to the world through our own character.  As such, when we glorify God we are literally revealing who He is to anyone and everyone watching. 

Now then, as Jesus has already so eloquently pointed out, this is going to cause us trouble.  We can expect adversity, mockery, revulsion, imprisonment, torture, or even death.  How could someone possibly face such difficulty if they were not confident of their protected status?  This is not a protection of flesh.  It does not imply that we will have lives of ease and comfort.  What it does mean is that we will never fall away from God because we are safe and protected in His loving embrace.

This entire process requires being one with God.  There is no way we can live to the glory of God unless He is at work within us.  That is really one of the major points of the gospel of John, I think.  No man can come to Christ unless He is placed in Christ by God.  It would be impossible for us to resist persecution and persevere through the worst of it unless we were indwelt by the very Spirit of God Himself.  Left to our own devices, we are frail and flippant.  We will not endure without God.  Thus, in a very real sense, both the means and the end result of living like this is a oneness with the Father, through the person of the Son, according to the witness of the Spirit.

The Gospel of John - Outline Part 40 - Ascending to the Mountaintop

TITLE

John 16:16-33 – Ascending to the Mountaintop

EXPLANATION

Hind sight is always so clear to we humans with our limited myopic perspective.  In verse 16 Jesus offered a riddle to His disciples.  To us, it seems rather simple and obvious.  In a short time, the disciples would lose sight of Christ, when He died and went into the tomb.  Then, a little while after that, they would see Him again, after He arose from the dead.  But of course, the only reason we know that is because we know how the story ended.  The disciples, lacking this perspective, were understandably confused by their Master.

Yet, in spite of their confusion, Jesus revealed how they would feel when the time came.  They would mourn intensely.  They were going to see their Lord arrested, tortured, and murdered.  However, this agony was absolutely necessary, because it was the only way for all righteousness to be fulfilled, according to the Father’s plan of redemption.  And besides, the grief of the disciples was only temporary.  Their sorrow would turn into joy when Christ was resurrected.

Then Jesus, the master of illustrations, gave them one for the record books.  The experience of the disciples was going to be like that of a pregnant woman who is about to give birth.  Her labor pains intensify until the point of utmost agony.  But then, the birth comes, and the former pain is forgotten in the relief of birth and the bliss of new life.  This was how it was going to be for the disciples.

And, upon attaining to that future state of joy, the disciples could look forward to an intense joy that would be unmatched by anything else in the world and that was incapable of being stripped from them by any form of persecution or trial.

The disciples, of course, were only human.  A typical tendency of our species is to be over-confident and think we have a handle on things, when in reality we are far from such a state of control.  True to form, the disciples thought they understood.  They felt confident, with the Lord still by their side.  He disabused them of their arrogance by prophesying that they would all desert Him in a little while.  Yet, in spite of this failure, their joy was going to be complete.  They were going to be persecuted by the world.  But they were able to take courage from the fact that Jesus had already overcome the world.

APPLICATION

It is easy to read the Bible clinically.  It all seems so far removed from us, sometimes.  We are reading about historical events that occurred thousands of years before we were ever born.  It is hard to treat this record of the past as different than any other ancient history we may read about.  In lives of comfort and ease, for those Christians God has blessed in that way, we run the risk of not empathizing with the people in Scripture.

Because of this, I think it is very helpful to try our best to put ourselves in the shoes of the disciples.  We should imagine what it would feel like to be them.  These men were thoroughly perplexed at much of the teaching of their Messiah.  They trusted Him, but their trust only went so far at this point.  They were frail and fallible in their faith, which would be demonstrated conclusively in a few hours.  And, when the time came, they would be utterly discouraged, thinking that their world had completely fallen apart.  Every hope and dream they possessed would seem shattered and torn to pieces.

It would be in this context that they would eventually come to the stunning realization that everything that they had dreamed of, everything they had poured themselves into for the past three years, everything they had staked their reputations and future on, was all true.  Not only was it true, but it was so in a manner wonderfully richer and deeper and surer than they ever could have imagined.  In about four days time, these men would truly ascend to the mountaintop of joy.  In order for us to join them there, we must try to see through their eyes and experience the depths to which they would sink before rising above the clouds.  Only by doing this, only by recognizing the gravity of our own hopeless condition prior to coming to Christ, can we possibly value and appreciate what we are in Him appropriately.

The Gospel of John - Outline Part 39 - The Job Description of the Spirit

TITLE

John 16:1-15 – The Job Description of the Spirit

EXPLANATION

Jesus has taught these truths to His disciples for the purpose of strengthening them.  When they would be faced with the opposition that He knew was coming, He did not want them to lose heart and give up.  They could expect expulsion from the Jewish Synagogues and even martyrdom by those who would pervert the name of God.

These lessons had not been necessary for the disciples to hear previously, because Jesus was with them.  But, now that He was going away, He wanted them to know and remember His lessons later.  Even though the Helper was coming, it would not be the same as when the Lord was right there with them in the flesh.  In spite of that, Jesus was very clear that this is the way things must be.  He had to go away, and in fact it was to the disciple’s advantage that He did.  With Jesus being gone they would be free to grow in the Spirit, which would not otherwise be possible if Christ was still among them.

As to this Spirit Helper, Jesus at this point gave the disciples a very clear picture of what His work would entail.  The Spirit’s job description is broken down into three aspects.  First, He was to convict the world concerning sin.  The only avenue available to the human race to escape the clutches of sin is belief in Jesus as the Christ.  Thus, anyone who does not currently hold such faith is guilty of sin and must be convicted by the Spirit if they are to be saved.  Second, the Spirit was to convict the world concerning righteousness.  Jesus was and is the perfect model of the righteousness of God.  With Him having departed this world in the flesh, only the record of His works contained in the Scriptures, and illuminated by the Spirit, would be available to reveal the way of righteousness to mankind.  Third, the Helper was to convict the world concerning judgment.  The unavoidable specter that looms on the horizon for all men who have rejected Jesus is that their doom approaches, in the form of the judgment of God.  God absolutely will eliminate sin from His creation one day.  All who are enslaved to it will be ejected from God’s presence along with the sin they love, into the lake of fire, to suffer endless eternal spiritual and physical torment.

Having outlined the Spirit’s work in the world, Jesus then gave the disciples a glimpse of the Spirit’s role in their lives.  Specifically, He would guide them into all truth.  Jesus Himself is the literal truth.  Therefore, the Spirit’s leading into truth would be accomplished by revealing and glorifying Christ to believers. 

APPLICATION

Sometimes we might unwittingly diminish our estimation of the importance and work of the Holy Spirit.  God the Father, although a spirit Himself, is represented so voluminously throughout the entire Bible that His presence tends to feel tangible.  God the Son, being in the form of a man, is clearly and obviously sort of the front man of the Trinity.  He is the representative of God among men.  And, as such, He is probably fairly well formed in our mind’s eye as well.  But the Spirit is less visible.  In fact, His role is to cast the spotlight away from Himself and onto the Son.  So, it may be possible for us to misunderstand and unjustly devalue His importance.

Because of that tendency, Jesus’s detailed instruction regarding the role of the Spirit in this section is extraordinarily helpful.  In the Pauline epistles it is written that it is by the Spirit that we must put to death the deeds of the flesh (Rom. 8:13).  Well, in order for us to succeed in reliance upon the Spirit we must have some idea of who He is.  He must be a real and relevant and tangible person to us.  By dwelling upon His work, we can increase our appreciation, our understanding, and our dependence upon Him.  I think this is exactly what Jesus wanted for His disciples and what He wants for us as well.

The Gospel of John - Outline Part 38 - God’s Witness Protection Program

TITLE

John 15:18-27 – God’s Witness Protection Program

EXPLANATION

Having given His disciples a truly exciting look ahead and the expected heights to which they would aspire in the future, Jesus now brought things back down to earth by reminding them that all will not be rosy.  He bluntly told them that they would be hated by the world.  The world, represented during Christ’s life mostly by the Jews, had abundantly demonstrated their hatred of and rebellion against God.  The disciples were certainly not greater than Jesus was.  Therefore, as His representatives, they could expect the same treatment as their Master.  However, even in this the Lord would not leave them alone.  The Spirit, when He came, would be the front rank of witnesses for Christ.  He would be with the disciples and would accompany them on their mission of representation.

APPLICATION

One who represents another is typically given much of the same response as the one they are representing would receive.  If people love someone, they will typically grant favor to their representatives.  On the other hand, if someone is reviled, those who stand in for them can expect to be ill treated.  This is exactly the state of affairs that Christians have to look forward to.  The world, meaning the mass of unbelieving humanity, hate God, according to the Scriptures.  They cannot and will not tolerate His truth or His good news.  Therefore, they will persecute those who come in His name.

Yet, notice one of the very first things that Jesus told His disciples in this section.  In verse 19 He points out that He chose them out of the world.  There is an implication of protection in that statement.  Christ chose those upon whom He would set His favor.  He selected them out of the world in which they lived.  Although the text does not explicitly state this, I think there is a sense of protection built into this imagery.  If Jesus went to all the trouble to choose us out of the world, He is surely not going to allow us to be destroyed.  Of course, we could reinforce this point with a multitude of Scripture passages that do explicitly state such truth.  But even here, as subtle as it is, I think there is tremendous reassurance for us to grasp hold of.  When we are faced with the hostility of the world in which we live, we can take comfort and be of good cheer.  Our Master has chosen us.  We are His and He is ours.  He will in no wise leave us alone.  And, our future is secured.  We will triumph one day because Christ will triumph one day.