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Session 3 – The God Who Creates out of Nothing

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It’s good to be back in Genesis. We’ve had a couple interruptions the last few weeks — holidays, a baptism for one grandson, then another baptized on Easter — but now we’re settling back into our study.

My goal as we move through Genesis is to go slowly. Not tediously slow, I hope, but slow enough to see what’s really there. We’ll keep making connections to the New Testament and to truths that help us see the greatness of God more clearly.

Today, I want to begin in the New Testament before returning to Genesis.

“What Is Seen Was Not Made Out of Things Which Are Visible”

Turn to Hebrews 11.

Hebrews 11 is the faith chapter. Let me read the opening verses:

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.” (Hebrews 11:1–3)

That last line is what we’re focusing on: “what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.”

As someone who taught chemistry and physics for 25 years, that verse always meant a lot to me. The more you dig into almost any subject, the more it ends up glorifying God. If you grow flowers, you plant a seed in the same dirt as everything else — potatoes, corn, tomatoes — and yet each plant comes up tasting like what it’s supposed to taste like. That alone is amazing.

But let’s talk about something even smaller.

A Little Science — and a Big God

Everything in the material world is made of atoms. Atoms are too small to see. There are over a hundred elements — iron, copper, zinc, oxygen, hydrogen — but most of what we deal with every day is made from maybe ten or twelve of them.

Every atom has three parts: protons, neutrons, and electrons. The sacks in the picture represent the idea that God made everything from those three components. (In actuality, it’s a lot more complicated than that, but I think it gives you a mental picture.)

  • Protons carry a positive charge.
  • Neutrons have no charge.
  • Electrons carry a negative charge and move around the outside of the atom.

Protons and neutrons are packed tightly together in the nucleus. Electrons move around that nucleus. Opposites attract — positive and negative — so the electrons are attracted to the nucleus.

Now here’s where it gets interesting.

Take carbon. Carbon has six protons and six neutrons in its nucleus, and six electrons outside. That’s what carbon is. Graphite in your pencil is carbon. A diamond is carbon.

Add one proton, one neutron, and one electron, and now you have nitrogen — an odorless gas that makes up a large part of our air. And if you were to add three hydrogen atoms, also an orderless gas, to one nitrogen, you have ammonia, which is anything but odorless.

Add another proton, neutron, and electron to nitrogen, you have oxygen — the air we breathe.

It’s the number of protons that makes an element what it is. God, in creating, used these basic building blocks — protons, neutrons, electrons — and from them came everything.

Let’s talk about iron.

Iron has 26 protons and 30 neutrons in its nucleus, with 26 electrons outside. That’s iron.

If you hold a common nail in your hand — mostly iron — that nail contains 26 billion billion atoms.

Now stretch your mind a little.

If we could expand one iron atom so that its nucleus was the size of a ping pong ball, the nearest electrons would be about 26 feet away. The outermost electrons would be about a third of a mile away.

And between the nucleus and those electrons?

Nothing.

Empty space. Not air, because air is made of atoms and there are no atoms within other atoms.

That means an atom of iron — something that seems solid and hard — is mostly nothing. The next atom would be another third of a mile beyond that.

So this nail, which holds buildings together and will hurt if you drive it into your finger, is mostly empty space. It’s made of things you cannot see — and most of it is nothing.

When you hit a nail with a hammer, the atoms of the hammer never actually touch the atoms of the nail. The electrons around each atom repel one another. It’s like magnets pushing away from each other. Forces are involved, but nothing truly “touches.”

And God did that.

The God you worship designed matter that way. The God who made you made a world where solid iron is mostly empty space held together by forces we cannot see.

That’s what Hebrews 11:3 means in part: “what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.”

Now go back to Genesis 1.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
“The earth was without form and void… and darkness was over the surface of the deep… and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.”
“Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.”

Before God spoke, there was no light.

He commanded something that did not exist to exist.

That’s not magic. That’s authority. He spoke to what did not exist and said, “Light, exist.” And light obeyed.

Paul picks this up in 2 Corinthians 4:6:

“For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

The saving work of Christ is like creation. God says, “Let there be light,” and light shines in a dark heart. He creates spiritual life just as He created physical light.

Romans 4:17 says He is the One who “calls into being that which does not exist.”

That’s what God does.

Separations, Naming, and Order

As we move through Genesis 1, notice what God does.

After creating the heavens and the earth and bringing light into existence, much of what follows is separation and ordering.

  • He separates light from darkness.
  • He names the light “day” and the darkness “night.”
  • There was evening and there was morning, day one.

On the second day, He creates the expanse — the firmament — to separate waters from waters. He calls the expanse “heaven.”

The Hebrew word for that expanse, raqia, comes from a word meaning to beat out metal into a thin sheet. Ancient people looked up and saw what appeared to be a solid dome. That’s the language being used.

God separates waters above from waters below. Then He gathers the waters below so dry land appears.

Up to this point, after the initial creation and the creation of light, He hasn’t created new materials. He has been separating and ordering what He already brought into existence.

Light and darkness. Waters above and below. Sea and dry land.

He is dividing, naming, structuring.

The Sovereign God Who Does It All

Let me close with Isaiah 45.

God speaks to Cyrus, a pagan king. Cyrus did not know Him. Yet God says:

“I am the one who forms light and creates darkness, producing peace and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these things.” (Isaiah 45:7)

There is no other.

He forms light. He creates darkness. He produces peace. He creates calamity. He raises up kings. He brings down kings.

This is the God who created iron atoms that are mostly empty space. This is the God who spoke light into existence. This is the God who shines light into human hearts.

And this same God gave us a Savior.

He could have judged us all. We have all rebelled against Him. But He desired to save. He desired to glorify Himself in mercy. So He sent Christ. The God who calls things into existence that do not exist called us into spiritual life.

That’s the God we’re studying in Genesis. And that’s the God we worship.

Back to the Beginning – Session 1

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What Was God Doing Before “In the Beginning”?

 Several months ago in our adult Bible class, We began a series called “Back to the Beginning.” I chose that name because I think we need to return to the opening pages of the Bible. Genesis gives us the foundation of our Christian faith and a great deal of the thinking that shaped Western culture. We’re going to look at the text more carefully than most people do when they remember the stories from childhood.

Let’s start actually before the beginning.

Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” My immediate question is: the beginning of what? The creation of the earth. Creation itself. Time. The beginning of everything.

Before we walk into verse 1, I want us to consider what Scripture says about what was happening before time began. The Bible does speak about a “before time began,” and it’s worth asking: what was God doing before He started creation?

Fellowship in the Trinity Before Anything Existed

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit existed in perfect fellowship before time began. There was communication and love among the three Persons of the Godhead long before any creature was made.

Look with me at a few passages.

2 Timothy 1:8–9 “…according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.”

Before time began, God already had a purpose and grace in place for us in Christ Jesus. The plan of salvation wasn’t an emergency response; it was already settled.

Titus 1:2 “…in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began.”

God promised eternal life before the world existed. There was no one yet to receive the promise, but He made it anyway.

Ephesians 1:4 “…he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.”

Something concerning us and Christ’s saving work was already determined before the world was founded.

John 17:24 (Jesus’ high priestly prayer) “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to behold my glory that you have given me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”

The Father loved the Son before anything was created. There was love, glory, and relationship within the Trinity.

1 Peter 1:20 “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you…”

Christ was foreordained before the foundation of the world.

From these passages we see that before time began, God had a structured plan. Some call it a covenant between the Father and the Son (with the Spirit’s involvement) to accomplish our salvation. Jesus speaks of doing only what pleases the Father and of not losing any whom the Father has given Him. That plan was agreed upon before time started.

God Did Not Need to Create

This matters when we think about why God created at all.

Unlike what some teachings say about Allah—that he created because he was alone and needed fellowship—the true God is Triune. There was already perfect fellowship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God had no need, no lack, no missing piece. He doesn’t need anything.

So why create? He wanted to. He desired to display His glory, to receive praise from creatures—angels and people. He wanted to show mercy and grace, which are part of His character. But even that wasn’t a need; it was something He freely chose to do.

He didn’t need glory—He already had it in the Trinity. He didn’t need needy people to be merciful toward—He simply wanted to demonstrate who He is.

Time Itself Had a Beginning

Time started when God created the heavens and the earth. Before that, there was no time.

Even people who hold to the Big Bang (and who don’t believe in God) say there was no time before that event. On this point, they agree with the Bible: time had a beginning.

That means there was no “Thursday” on which God suddenly decided, “Today I’ll create the universe.” There were no days, no sun, no moon to mark time. Asking why God “suddenly” created at a particular moment is a question that doesn’t make sense in eternity.

God never changes His mind. He never learns anything new. Nothing ever surprises Him. Adam and Eve’s sin was not a derailment that forced a backup plan. Christ was foreordained as Savior before the foundation of the world—before Adam and Eve were ever made.

When the Bible speaks of “before” or “after” or “the fullness of time” (Galatians 4:4) or “when the day of Pentecost had fully come” (Acts 2:1), it uses language we can understand. God accommodates our experience of time. But with Him there is no before or after. He simply is. He exists outside of time.

I sometimes picture it like a parade. If you’re standing on the sidewalk, you experience one float at a time. The beginning passes you, then the middle, then Santa at the end. But if you’re high above, you can see the whole parade at once—the start, the middle, the finish—all in view together. God is like that, only perfectly so. He sees every moment of history simultaneously. When He promises to be with you tomorrow, He is already there. You just haven’t arrived yet.

Scripture keeps saying the same thing:

  • James 1:17 — no variation or shadow due to change
  • Colossians 1:17 — Christ is before all things, and in Him all things hold together
  • Exodus 3:14 & John 8:58 — “I AM”
  • Psalm 90:4 — a thousand years are like yesterday
  • Hebrews 13:8 — Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever
  • Malachi 3:6 — “I the LORD do not change”
  • Revelation 4:8 — “who was and is and is to come”
  • Isaiah 57:15 — “I inhabit eternity”

He fills eternity the way He fills the earth.

Eternity in Our Hearts—and the Sin Problem

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says God has put eternity in our hearts, yet no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. We sense there is something bigger than ourselves. We make plans, we have aspirations, we think in terms of lifetimes. Romans 1 tells us everyone knows there is a God and understands something of His eternal power and divine nature. But we don’t want to bow to Him. That’s the root sin: we suppress the truth and worship the creature rather than the Creator.

That suppression leads to a downward spiral. You see it in culture, in history, in current events—wars, injustice, rebellion. It all flows from refusing to acknowledge who God is and what we owe Him.

Not Religion—Reality

A lot of religion is about jumping through hoops: read your Bible—check; pray—check; go to church—check. That’s how people often treat pagan gods: do the right things, appease the deity, and maybe he’ll leave you alone.

That’s not Christianity.

Christianity is about the real God who exists, who is exactly as we’ve been describing. He doesn’t need to be appeased by our performance. He has already provided propitiation—appeasement—through Jesus Christ. God Himself came as a man, died on the cross, and paid the actual penalty for our sins. Not symbolically. Not religiously. Actually. The debt is paid. There is nothing left to do to make God accept us.

Because of that, we’re free. And in that freedom we bow, we worship, we give thanks. It’s not obligation anymore; it’s opportunity. We get to serve Him because of His grace and kindness toward us.

A Quick Look at Genesis 1

Next time we’ll pick up right here: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

For now, listen to the opening verses and notice a few things.

The earth was without form and void, darkness over the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Picture that.

Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. In Hebrew it’s more like a command: “Light—be.” He spoke to something that didn’t exist, and it obeyed instantly.

God saw the light, and it was good. He divided light from darkness, called light “day” and darkness “night.” Evening and morning—the first day.

He made a firmament to separate waters above from waters below, called it heaven. And it was so.

Notice how much God does in this chapter. I’ve asked people to list every action: God said, God saw, God made, God called, God separated. It’s striking.

Also notice: God created light on day one, but the sun, moon, and stars don’t appear until day four. Light existed before anything to hold or emit it.

There’s a lot of separating—light from darkness, waters above from waters below, sea from land. Much of the work is division rather than making something out of nothing.

Read Genesis 1 yourself this week. Jot down everything God does: “God created;” “God saw;” “God made;” etc. It will give you a different perspective of God’s creative work.

* Some articles on this publication or website are adapted from my recorded Bible teaching. I use transcription and editing tools (including AI-assisted editing) to convert spoken lectures into readable written form. The ideas, interpretations, and theological conclusions are my own and come directly from my teaching.

In the Beginning – Thoughts and Reflections – Part 1

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As I have studied the Bible over the years, I sometimes want to go back and think about the beginning. We who have been raised in the church know a lot about the Old Testament through the Bible stories that were read to us as children. But I don’t think that we take enough time to really take in what the Bible says about the relationship and interaction of the True God with His creation. I’m going to take time over the next weeks and months to do that for myself to better inform my thinking and teaching.

The Bible starts out with the statement, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” My mind then wanders to questions like, “What was going on before time?” and “Why did God decide to create the universe at that particular place and time?”

Time itself deserves some attention. Time did not begin until God created it at the beginning. According to 2 Timothy 1:9, God’s purpose and grace were given to us “before time began.” With God there is no “before” or “after.” He just is. He is outside of time. I believe that when God speaks to us in terms of time, such as “before” or “after,” He is accommodating the fact that we as humans live in time.

Colossians 1:7 speaks of Jesus Christ like this: “He is before all things.” I think we would expect the word “was” in that context. Apparently, God is not just present everywhere in the location sense, He is present everywhere in time. That doesn’t just mean that God has always been present. It means that He is present right now at all times. He is as much present with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob now as He is with us. We don’t understand that of course, but the Bible seems to be pretty clear about that. At the time Jesus was walking the streets of the Holy Land with His disciples, He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58).

Isaiah tells us that God inhabits eternity (Isaiah 57:15). Isaiah also quotes God as saying, “Even from eternity I am He” (Isaiah 43:13). Revelation 4:8 explains that Jesus is the one who “was, is, and is to come.” For God, a day is no different than a 1000 years (2 Peter 3:8; Psalm 90:4).

But, in my own feeble way, I still want to know what was going on before time began – before “In the beginning”? The Bible does give us some clues. In John 17:24, Jesus acknowledges that God loved Him before the foundation of the world. This means that love existed before there were any people. There was love between the Father and the Son. In Proverbs 8, wisdom is personified and says, “From everlasting I was installed,” and “Before the mountains…I was brought forth” (Proverbs 8:23, 25).

What else was going on “Before”? Titus 1:2 tells us that God promised eternal life before all time. Jesus was foreordained and considered slain before the world was created (1 Peter 1:20, Revelation 13:8). And we know that the kingdom was prepared for God’s people before the foundation of the world (Matthew 25:34).

So in the mind and heart of God, plans were in place to accomplish the complete work of redemption that would be needed to restore a broken world and broken people to Himself. You should never think that God must have a plan B or C depending on how we respond to events and circumstances. God encompasses it all.

I think I’ll wrap up my thoughts about the “Before” at this point. Next time I have a chance, I’ll write some of my thoughts related to the first few verses of Genesis 1.

Welcome!

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(Most recent blog posts are below this welcome)

Welcome to the Faithful Men website hosted on The Tuinstra’s URL. I (Roger) have had the opportunity to teach adult Sunday School classes and Bible studies for almost 60 years. Before I retired, I seemed to have enough time to post to my blog here quite regularly. For a while, a very short while, I thought I could post once a day like Challies does. But that dream didn’t last a week! Since retiring, I have even less time to write regularly, although I have kept up with my Bible study and teaching responsibilities.

As many of you retired folks can attest, we men often struggle with our goals and purpose in life after retirement. God reminded me of what Paul wrote to the Philippian Christians in Phil. 1:25. Here is my paraphrase: Since God has me still here, I know that I will remain and continue here for the progress and joy of faith in the lives of my brothers and sisters in Christ.

Continue reading →

New Year’s Bible-reading Goal

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The start of a new year is often the time when many Christians commit to being more disciplined about their Bible reading. Bible reading plans abound, and you can easily find one that will help you read the Bible through in a year if that is your goal.

Some of you may be like me, in that you fall behind in a very short time and are tempted to give up. You may get to late February and March and get bogged down in Leviticus or Numbers. After you get a week or two behind, the temptation is to shelve the whole project and make it your goal to start anew next January. You become very familiar with Genesis and Exodus, but the rest of the Bible is still sort of in the dark for you.

A missionary friend of mine gave me the simple solution to this dilemma. Use a book mark! Use a book mark like you would when reading any other book. If some time has gone by, just open the Bible to the book mark and begin reading again. Don’t worry about how many days you are behind. Just keep at it and read as much or as little as you want on any given day. You’ll eventually make it through and it will be well worth your while.

Let me tweak that advice a little more. Many Bible reading plans have you reading something from the Old Testament, something from the Psalms and Proverbs, and then something from the New Testament. What I do now is use three bookmarks. One goes at the beginning of Genesis, another at the beginning of Psalms, and the third at the beginning of the New Testament. Then simply rotate through the sections as time and interest allow. Use the Psalms bookmark to work your way through Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. Then move it back to the beginning of the Psalms again.

If you can develop the habit and routine to read the Bible like this, it won’t matter how long it takes you to read through the entire Bible, but you will do it, and your spiritual life will be strengthened as a result.

Next time we’ll talk about how to take it a little deeper.

The Righteousness of Faith

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Paul writes the following in Romans 10:2-3: “For I testify about them [his Jewish people] that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For not knowing about the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.”

He’s writing here about his desire to see his Jewish friends and relatives come to know the salvation that is found in Jesus the Messiah. But what he teaches us here about their error in thinking, could be said of most religious people, no matter what the religion.

He says that they “have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.” The Christian faith is built on truth and on knowledge of that truth. God has acted in history by sending his son Jesus into this world for the purpose of dying on the cross to pay the price for the sins of the whole world. The events surrounding all of what took place, happened on this earth in space and time. On the day Jesus was executed, the sun came up and a new day had arrived. When Jesus died, it was a specific time of day and his heart stopped beating. On the third day his heart began to beat again, and his entire body came alive. These are real events. Having a zeal for God outside the truth of these events is futile. Our faith must be according to knowledge of the truth, not just religious wishful thinking.

What did these religious Jews not know? They did not know about the righteousness of God. This is the plight of all human beings. We know a god exists and we also know we are not perfect, but we do not recognize or realize how righteous and perfect God is. That’s the problem. Further, these people, not knowing the righteousness of God, sought to establish their own. And that’s what we do. We establish our own standard of righteousness, making sure that it is a standard that we can attain. We say we treat others fairly and kindly, but what we mean by that is that we treat them as fairly and kindly as our own standard specifies. We never compare ourselves to the standard of kindness God requires.

And here is what Paul writes as the conclusion of the above passage: “They did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.” We subject ourselves to our own righteousness which has a standard we can meet, but we don’t subject ourselves to the righteousness of God because we know that we can never reach that level of perfection. We recognize immediately that if we are subject to God’s standard, we are doomed! In Romans 3:23, Paul tells us that everyone has sinned and falls short of God’s glory. That’s the truth that we have to accept to be able to receive God’s solution to our problem.

What is God’s solution? The Bible speaks of the righteousness of faith. In Romans 10:9-10 he says, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord  and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, leading to righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, leading to salvation.” According to the Bible, God counts believing as righteousness. What we do is try to earn our salvation by trying to be righteous enough. But as we have seen, that is an impossible goal. There is a righteousness separate and apart from the list of rules. Romans 3:21-22 tells us that “the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and upon all who believe.”

God’s righteousness is given to all who believe what God has said. This is a crucial thing to understand. When we believe what God says about himself and about the accomplishment of his son on the cross; and when we believe the solution God has provided in Jesus the Messiah, our believing is counted by God as righteousness. It’s a gift from God because of his amazing grace toward us.

Here’s what Paul writes in Philippians 3:9 with my comments added in brackets: “I want to be found in Him, not having my own righteousness [because my righteousness will never ever measure up] which is from the law [the list of rules God has laid down for us to obey], but [the righteousness] which is through faith in Christ [believing that Jesus Christ bore all of my guilt on the cross], the righteousness which is from God by faith [by believing God and his word].

In other words, when we believe what God has said about his son Jesus, God declares us righteous and we are assured of Jesus’s life living through us here and now, and a home in heaven when we die, and the promise that there will be no condemnation for us ever! (See Romans 8:1). Rule-keeping plays no part in this righteousness. It is righteousness as a free gift from God when we believe the record that God has given of his son. Do you believe this?

Ephesians 6:17

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“and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,”

The helmet of salvation….

The helmet protects the head, the brain, the control center for the body. Certainly one can’t live without the heart and other vital organs of the chest cavity intact, but neither can one function effectively if the brain has been damaged. So, the helmet is an essential piece of equipment.

In this verse, Paul tells us to take up the helmet of salvation. I think there are two aspects to this. The first is that certainly we need to be saved, otherwise we are not even in the battle. But in addition to that, we need to have confidence, assurance, and hope of our salvation. Taking up the helmet means we are purposely studying, understanding, and taking to heart the reality of the salvation God has given us. It has to be something that we are convinced of, otherwise we will be wimpy in battle and not fight with our full assurance of the victory God has given us.

There are a couple of parallel passages that are worth quoting here. In Isaiah 59, the Bible says that there are none righteous and that all have gone astray in every way. In verse 15 it says, “Then the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no justice.” Since there was no human solution, God took matters into His own hands, and the Bible tells us in verse 17 that He “put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation in His head.”

God’s head didn’t need protecting, but as a picture of a conquering, saving captain, clothed with righteousness and salvation, He proceeded to do the saving Himself. It’s an image of God on the move, taking charge, and accomplishing salvation on our behalf.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:8, Paul writes, “But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.” There it is, the hope of salvation. It’s not just the salvation itself, but the hope of it, the anticipation of it, the confidence of being saved now and throughout eternity. This hope and confidence of our salvation gives us a level of bravery, and discernment, and wisdom to engage ourselves in the battle against the enemy of our souls.

So what is this salvation of which we speak? If someone is saved from drowning or from a burning building, what does that mean? It means that the person is removed from the danger of drowning or being burned to death. They have been rescued.

All of us were born in a lost and condemned condition. By nature, we are enemies of God and subject to His condemnation in Hell forever. To us that seems like an awfully severe and perhaps unjust sentence. But we think that way because we don’t understand the seriousness of our violations against the rule of God, and we don’t realize the holiness of God. His character is amazingly, and almost frighteningly pure. One violation is enough to condemn us forever. But we commit way more than one violation. We simply don’t even desire to submit to His rule and authority. In spite of that, God graciously gives us life and breath and all things.

How is salvation obtained then, if the standards are so high? God came here to earth in the person of Jesus Christ, lived a perfect life, and ultimately was executed even though He had done nothing worthy of death. Here’s the good news: God offers to credit Jesus’ perfect life to us and to count our disobedience and rebellion as though Jesus was guilty. The sentence of death was executed on Jesus in our place, and we are set free. How are we to receive such an offer? God simply asks us to believe Him, to accept His offer by faith. We believe God’s statements about who Christ was and what He has done for us, and we yield to His reign and follow Him. When these things are true of us, God forgives all of our sins because the penalty has been paid, and He promises to come into our lives by His spirit and guide us as we live here on this earth.

This is what it means to have the helmet of salvation. As we fight the battles of life, we have the confidence that we are on the winning side because God has promised victory to those who love and serve Him.

Ephesians 6:16

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I’ve just noticed the date of my last post and I can’t believe it’s been over two months. I guess I need to put my nose to the grindstone and be more faithful in my meditation and commentary on God’s Word. Hopefully you all have had a good summer so far and are learning and growing in the faith. Today we look at Ephesians 6:16

“In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;” (Ephesians 6:16, ESV)

We have now come to the shield. This, of course, is the piece of armor that protects the chest and abdomen where the vital organs are. But, it is a moveable piece of armor. the breastplate is in permanent position, but the shield can be turned one way or another to defend against incoming arrows from many directions.

The Christian’s shield is faith. It is interesting to me that these various pieces of armor must be taken up or put on. A Christian isn’t just automatically equipped and fitted with this armor. It must be consciously and purposely put on or taken up. So in the case of the shield, when is it to be taken up. The Bible says in all circumstances or at all times. We remember that the enemy is constantly on the prowl to defeat the Christian. We must be ready with the shield at all times.

This is the shield of faith. Faith, in its simplest definition, is believing God, believing what He has said. Abraham was “fully convinced that what [God] had promised He was also able to perform” Romans 4:21. God has given us “exceedingly great and precious promises” (2 Peter 1:4), and faith is personalizing and believing those promises. Believing something is true produces response in us. It produces anticipation, hope, assurance, and a number of other feelings. In addition, believing a promise produces action. As James says, “Faith without works is dead.” This is true of all faith whether it is Bible-based faith or simply believing something someone has said. Believing always produces a response.

In our passage, then, taking up the shield of faith means believing what God has said and acting on it. Satan is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). In every situation, we are to believe God and reject what the devil and his world system are saying. The darts he shoots at us are fiery. They are set aflame by hell itself, and because of there ferocious nature, it’s easy to be intimidated into believing them. Taking up the shield of faith means that in every circumstance, with every lie hurled at us no matter from what direction, we are to claim God’s statement of truth and act on it. This is a purposeful, conscious, intentional action. It is “taking up the shield of faith.”

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 9:38 AM August 22, 2022.

How Can a Man be Righteous Before God?

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“How can a man be righteous before God?” (Job 9:2). In my opinion, this is one of the most important questions that needs to be answered. When you stand before God, and if He were to ask you, “Why should I receive you into my heaven?”, what would you say?  In our heart of hearts, we know that a god of some kind exists. All around us we see the evidence of an intelligent being who is the architect of all we see. Instinctively, we also know that this being is much more powerful than we are. The Bible tells us that it is appointed for us to die once and then face judgment. The fear of death and what comes next is universal. We also know that whatever this god’s standards are, we don’t measure up. What will happen to us when we face the judge of the universe? All of this is why Job asked, “How can a man be righteous before God?” The Bible actually gives us the answer to this question.

The Bible describes God as being perfectly good, righteous, and just. That has implications we are not comfortable with. I think most of us really hope that God is like a grandpa. Grandpas won’t let kids get away with terribly naughty behavior but will, if necessary, apply some moderate sanctions to keep their grandchildren from getting hurt or damaging the furniture. But, for most things, they will overlook behavior that is wrong but basically normal childhood character showing itself. We want a god like that – a god that will punish people like Hitler or Stalin but let us off the hook when it comes to the everyday sins normal good people commit. The problem is that that god doesn’t exist.

The real God loves us more than grandpa does, but He is also a perfectly just judge who must make judgments from the bench that are perfectly consistent with His character and laws. We are not used to that. There is leniency in almost every area of life where rulings are made. As students we often receive opportunities to retake a test or have a tardy ignored. Police sometimes just give us a warning instead of a ticket. Even though I’m not a sports enthusiast, I’ve noticed that rulings on the court or field are generally pretty strict and the rules held to fairly consistently. But in many areas of life there is leniency. Yet even in this kind of culture, what would our reaction be if a judge releases a serial killer or even a serial thief saying something like, “I really care about this guy’s needs, and he seems remorseful, so even though he has committed this crime 20 times, I’m going to let him off this time too”? There would certainly be outrage. We expect our judges to be just and not ignore crime. Yet, at the same time, we expect God to give us a pass and ignore our countless infractions of His law.

God is just. That is what is so scary about facing Him at the judgment. The Bible says, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31). It is this knowledge that caused Job to ask the question, “How can a man be righteous before God?” Trying to keep the law won’t work because we are unable to keep it. God says that if a person keeps the whole law and yet breaks it in one point, he is guilty of all of it (James 2:10).  With that kind of standard, who is going to be able to stand? In fact, the writer of Psalm 130 asks this very question, “If you Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” (Psalm 130:3).

God has designed an amazing answer to this question and solution to His “dilemma.” (God doesn’t really have a dilemma, but in our minds his dilemma appears to be how to forgive people he loves while at the same time maintaining justice and His own righteous character.)

What He has done is to come here to earth Himself in the second person of the trinity. He took on actual human flesh and lived here among us as the God-man, Jesus (John 1). Having lived a life without sin, perfectly keeping the law and loving God and neighbor as the law commanded, He was mocked, tortured, and killed. God has said that the punishment for sin is death – physical death and separation from God. Jesus endured those consequences of sin, even though He had never committed a single sin in His life.

God has promised to count Jesus’ death as the death penalty that we deserved. The Bible says in Ezekiel 18:20 that the soul that sins must die. But God is willing to count Jesus’ death as my death and as your death. He is willing to say that when Jesus died, you died. The death penalty has been carried out. Because of the curse on our physical bodies, we will still die physically. It’s spiritual death we’re focusing on here. Spiritual death involves being separated from God and sent to Hell to be punished forever. It is, indeed, a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. God is promising to count Jesus’ death on the cross as the eternal spiritual death that you and I deserve. Even more amazingly, God declares that He will credit you and me with Jesus’ perfect record. In other words, when God would look at our record, He would find that we had obeyed every law and every standard perfectly. Those with a perfect record are welcomed into heaven.

The Bible says, “He made Him (Jesus) to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).

“Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness – by whose stripes you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24).

But who is this for? Who gets credited with Jesus’ perfect obedience, and for whose sins did Jesus get blamed and executed? The answer is simple: For those who believe. We’re not talking about believing in God. We’re talking about believing the facts He has given us and believing and accepting that the offer He is making is true.

God has given us this promise in what is called the Gospel, the Good News. He is making this offer of complete forgiveness of all sins, past, present, and future. With that comes the offer to credit us with Jesus’ righteousness. It is a gift. You can’t work for or earn a gift. If you work for it, it is no longer a gift. Paul says it this way, “And if by grace (a free unearned gift), then it is no longer of works; otherwise, grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise, work is no longer work” (Romans 11:6).   

Believing is the key, It’s not saying that we believe, but actual believing. “But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness” (Romans 4:5).

“If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).

“He who believes in the Son (Jesus) has (present tense) everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:31).

Jesus, Himself, said, “Repent and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). To repent means to change your mind about who Jesus is and about what it takes to be accepted by Him. You realize that all of the good deeds in the world, all of the church-going, all of the money-giving, none of that is going to earn you a place with God. You can’t do any of it with pure motives or to the level that would be needed to earn your way in.

It’s believing. It’s not having faith in faith or a generic I-believe-in-God faith. But it is believing the testimony that God has given concerning His son (1 John 5:10). If you repent, and accept Jesus’ testimony that He is the son of God, and you believe that His death satisfied God’s death requirement for you a sinner, then God promises that all of your sins have been removed and paid for by Jesus, and you are declared righteous and will go to heaven when you die. The judgment for you has already been administered against Jesus on the cross.

That is the answer to Job’s question as to how a man can be righteous before God. He can be righteous by repenting of his former rebellious life and accepting God’s free gift by faith.

“But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed…, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a [substitute sacrifice] by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate … at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:21-26).

There you have it. God can be just and still declare us righteous because of what Jesus Christ has done for us on the cross.

Battle Plan Strategy 10 –Identity in Christ

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Strategy 10:  I realize that I died with Christ, and I am now a new creation. I am living and ordering my life as a resurrected person, not as the old person I used to be.

This is one of the most important strategies when attempting to win the fight against sin. We can make all sorts of resolutions and put into play all of the self-disciplines that we can muster, but real victory becomes possible when this truth is embraced and put into practice.

In Romans 6:2, Paul asks the question, “How shall we who died to sin, live any longer in it?” He then goes on to explain what he means by this. If you’ve been baptized into Christ – in other words, if you’ve been born again – you were baptized into Christ’s death. What this means is that when God saves us, He so thoroughly unites us with His Son that there is a oneness established that makes Christ’s history our history. For example in Ephesians 2 we read, “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” (Ephesians 2:4–6, NKJV).

We see here that God raised us up with Christ and has even seated us with Him in heavenly places in Christ. So Jesus’ death is our death. His resurrection is our resurrection. His ascension is our ascension.

What does that mean, then, when it comes to the battle against sin? It means that just as Jesus, when He died, died to sin, so we also, when we died with Him, died to sin. Jesus didn’t sin before His death, but He was subject to all of the temptations that we go through. His death put an end to that. We are to reckon ourselves dead with Christ to sin and we are to see ourselves on the resurrection side of things. This is the way Paul puts it:

“Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” (Romans 6:11–13, NKJV)

The key word here is reckon. We are to count it as true because God says it. We died to sin when we died with Christ, and we are to reckon on that being true as we face the many temptations of life. We’ve died and our life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3).

He finishes the section in Romans with the words, “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.” This is not a command for you not to let sin have dominion. It is a statement of fact. Sin shall not have dominion. Its rule over us has been broken. It has no authority over us even though its power seems awfully strong. We are to believe that and act accordingly.

When temptation comes, even when it is a strong one, you acknowledge the fact that you have died with Christ. You claim the truth that you have been buried and raised with Him, and that this sin has no authority over you. Your heart will tell you that that’s not true, and that you must listen to the temptation and bow to it. But just as our Lord did when He was tempted, you must use scripture to claim your ground on the resurrection side.

Priority Goal 10: Moment by moment I will reckon and consider and claim the fact that I died with Christ, and I am on resurrection ground, and therefore sin does not have any authority or power over me no matter how strong it feels.