Christ’s perfection means much more than sinlessness

Posted on November 5, 2024 by Pastor Foley

In Hebrews 7:28, the author says, “For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.“

Let’s talk for a minute about that word “perfect”.

When we use that word in our everyday lives, we often use it to mean that something is ideal, flawless, faultless, sinless, having no problems. But that is not what the Greek word here means. It means something more like ‘brought to completion’, ‘functioning at full strength’, or ‘achieving the goal/purpose’.

So the author’s point here is not merely that the high priests were sinful but Jesus was sinless, though that is of course true. The author’s point is that neither the high priests (in Hebrews 7:28) nor the law (in Hebrews 7:19) could bring God’s plan/purpose to completion; but Christ has brought God’s plan/purpose to completion.

This is an absolutely essential point for Christians to understand, believe, and live according to: Christ has brought God’s plan/purpose to completion. Christ defeated his enemies on the cross. Christ established the new covenant in his blood. The gospel is the announcement of Christ’s victory. Christ presently holds all power and authority in heaven and on earth.

This is different than what many Christians understand, believe, and live according to. They wrongly see Christ’s death on the cross as “one more step” in God’s plan, which they think remains incomplete. Some wrongly believe that Christ will not triumph until his second coming. They wrongly believe that when Christ came the first time it was simply to pay the price for our sin, and that it is when he comes the second time that he will defeat his enemies and establish his kingdom. So these Christians live in perpetual uncertainty about whether the church is winning or losing at a particular moment. They continue to put their hopes wrongly in various “next steps” that they believe are necessary for God’s plan/purpose to be brought to completion. They believe that the work of the church is necessary to complete God’s plan. They believe that Christians must go out and protest against things and vote for certain things and pray for this and pray for that and give this much and do that much in order for God’s plan and purpose to move forward.

The picture that they have in their mind is the one that you find in the tract that shows us on one cliff and God on another cliff and a big gap between the cliffs that is labeled “sin”. Then the next picture shows a cross filling the gap, which represents Christ’s “perfect” sacrifice. The idea in the tract is that Christ dies for our sins, which then makes it possible for us to have a relationship with God. So now (this wrong thinking goes), God can love us and have a relationship with us, whereas before he could not. And now (this wrong thinking goes), we are one step closer to God’s plan/purpose being achieved, and now the church needs to do its work, and so we are the hands and feet of Jesus now that Jesus is no longer here, and God is going to guide us and give us power and wisdom and strength to complete our part of the work while he also works on completing his part of the work.

But this is not the gospel. It is not the teaching of scripture. It is based on a wrong understanding of the word “perfect”, and what makes it wrong is that it gives us a very small Jesus. This small Jesus (wrongly) is one more chapter in the story of God, and now we’re in another chapter, and everything in God’s plan depends on us doing our part in this new chapter.

This is neither the God of scripture nor the Christ of God. The Christ of God is perfect not only because he is sinless (which he is), but because only he can bring to completion the plan of God (which he has).

In scripture, bringing God’s plan and purpose to completion is not a team effort. It is a one-man job. And the only man capable of completing the job is the God-man, Jesus Christ.

When Christ ascends to heaven, he doesn’t leave the church to continue his work. Instead, he ascends so that his authority extends over all people and all places for all time. The work he once did only in one location and among one people—Israel—he now carries out everywhere. His church is not given the job of being his hands and feet. Instead, we are given the privilege of being his witnesses, which means that we announce his victory on the cross and his continuing rule as Lord over what Paul in Ephesians 6:12 calls “the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms”.

The Christian message is that Christ holds all power and authority. It is not that nothing happens in the world unless the church does something (with God supplying the wisdom, strength, and power in response to the church’s request). It is that Christ is always active in the world, at all places and in all times. What the church does is to announce Christ’s activity in the world, not replace it, add to it, or complete it. Our job is to live in this present world according to his victory until he returns, and that victory is revealed to the world.

Until then, the world, because of its disbelief, will continue on its evil path. The world will continue to think there are many Lords who hold much power. But scripture shows us, as we just read in Ephesians 6:12, that no matter what all these supposed “Lords” do with their power, they ultimately can only accomplish Christ’s purpose, no matter what they intend to do. That’s because Christ has brought God’s plan/purpose to completion, which is to say perfection–a fact nothing can change, undo, or delay.

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For what reason do we put on the full armor of God?

Posted on October 22, 2024 by Pastor Foley

Both Jesus and Paul say that one of the main ways we fight against the rulers and authorities of this world is by never fighting against other human beings. No matter what, we always stand with other human beings, even when they are against us. The battle is not “church versus world” but “church on behalf of the world versus the principalities and powers who are enslaving those in the world who are not yet freed by the gospel”.

Persecuted Christians understand this well. That is why Pastor Wurmbrand always loved his torturers and prayed for them, forgiving them even as they tried to destroy him.

But scripture says that Christ defeated the principalities and powers on the cross. If that’s true, then why does Paul talk in Ephesians 6 about a battle, and why does he call us to put on armor?

Answer: Satan and the principalities and powers are defeated in Christ. When we enter into Christ’s death through our baptism, we experience the defeat of Satan and the principalities and powers. But in this old fallen creation, Satan and the principalities and powers still rule, in open rebellion against God.

Now, the good news is that even in this fallen creation, Christ holds all power and authority. So Christ uses even their disobedience to accomplish his purpose. But in this old creation the only way to be free from slavery to Satan and the principalities and powers is to be in Christ. So when the church moves outside of Christ with its political strategies and protest marches and trying to “win people for Christ” by giving them money and material things, the church again falls under the power of Satan, because it is actually no longer the church. It is just a religious organization in the old creation.

So the armor Paul writes about in Ephesians 6 is armor to keep us in Christ. The battle that the church faces is whether it is going to try to live in this old creation, according to the powers available to it in this old creation—things like money, nice buildings, church coffee shops, using human wisdom instead of preaching the gospel, using idols like celebrities to attract people, using protest marches to show its power—or whether it will live in the new creation even while still existing in the old creation. That means giving up the things the old creation values and using the armor of God.

Now we can understand the reason for and nature of the armor:

How does the church fight its battles? Through mutual submission to each other in all our relationships, and by relying only on truth, righteousness, the gospel, faith, salvation, the word of God, and prayer. Those are the only weapons and the only armor the church should ever use in any circumstances. And they are the only weapons and the only armor that the church ever needs in any circumstance.

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Administering the Christian movement…from prison

Posted on October 8, 2024 by Pastor Foley

In Ephesians 3, Paul talks about three big topics: the love of God, the power of God, and the knowledge of God. In scripture, all of these big topics are about the cross. You can’t talk about God’s power, wisdom, and love without talking about the cross.

In fact, the cross redefines these three things. The cross shows us that everything that we thought we knew about power is wrong. Everything we thought we knew about love is wrong. Everything we thought we knew about God’s thinking is wrong. In fact, God’s power, wisdom, and love are opposite of the way the world–and us–think about power, wisdom, and love.

If you read Ephesians 3, you might have seen that it doesn’t use the word “cross” at all. But the cross is present in Ephesians 3; it is being carried by Paul himself. This is the part of Ephesians 3 that readers often miss.

You can see the cross at the beginning in Ephesians 3:1.

EPH 3:1  “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—”

Here is the cross!

Paul is writing from prison. Paul is in prison for the sake of the gentiles. But he doesn’t say, “I am a prisoner of the Romans.” He says that he is a prisoner of Christ.

EPH 3:2 “Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you—”

These Ukrainian brothers tour Jilava prison, where Pastor Richard Wurmbrand was imprisoned. The tour was a part of VOM Korea’s Underground University training.

Paul is in prison. But he doesn’t see his imprisonment as the work of the enemy. The enemy that put Paul in prison is just the means that carried out God’s plan. This is a fundamental principle of the Christian life: God works just as well through His enemies as He does through His servants. Like Joseph said to his brothers: “You meant it for evil. But God meant it for good.” Or like Jesus to Pilate, “You would have no power over me except the power that my Father grants to you.”

Paul’s imprisonment is not in spite of the love or power of God. Paul is not saying, “I am in prison now. But just wait until you see the power of God get me out of here.” Paul’s imprisonment is the love and power of God. Paul said that his imprisonment is God’s plan for the administration of the mystery.

God has a plan to end the old creation and birth the new creation through Jesus Christ. And he has given Paul the administration of this mystery. And the way that God gives Paul to do this is through prison. This is God’s choice. It is the way that God wants it done.

So you can see from this one verse just how different God’s understanding of power and love is from our worldly understanding of power and love. God is all-powerful and all-loving. The man God chose to carry out God’s plan is the man who was trying to stop the plan from spreading outside of Jerusalem at all costs. God chooses the persecutor, the one who doesn’t believe in plan and even objects to the plan. And God says, “You’re going to administer this plan. I’m going to put you in charge of it. And you’re going to do it from prison. And all of creation depends on this plan.”

That is why Paul calls this a mystery. It is something that you could never know according to human thinking. That is why Paul writes as he does in verse 3:

EPH 3:3 “that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly.”

These days, Christian ministers say that they cannot preach the gospel yet because they are “preparing the soil”, which typically means that they are building relationships, distributing aid, and generally doing things other than the direct preaching of the gospel.

But think about how God prepared the soil for Paul. How did God “prepare the soil” so that Paul would receive the gospel? Paul’s “preparation” was to become a murderer bent on destroying the Christian movement through violence. God looked at Paul in the midst of these acts and said, “He is prepared. He is ready.”

God’s way of preparing people to receive the gospel is so opposite of human thinking. God’s way of administering the mystery of the gospel relies on imprisonment rather than human freedom. God’s gospel knows only the cross. The cross redefines the love of God, the power of God, and the knowledge of God.

That’s what we learned from the administrator of the mystery…while he was in prison.

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