How Can We Know God?

Posted on March 31, 2017 by Editor

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John 3:1-17

Often, we treat John 3:1-15 like a candy wrapper. John 3:16 and 17 are the candy and all of the other verses are the candy wrapper: we eat the “candy” and throw away the “wrapper”.

Many of us know John 3:16: “for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Even the Nicene Creed quotes this verse, saying that Jesus is “eternally begotten of the Father.”

But read alone, John 3:16 and 17 raise more questions than they answer. For example, why would they need to emphasize that God loved the world? Who would argue against that? And why would they need to say that “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world?” These questions can be answered by reading the whole passage in context, beginning with John 2.

In John 2, we see Jesus enter the temple during Passover. The temple is crowded—people are hawking oxen, sheep, and pigeons. Others offer to convert foreign money to local currency. John 2:15 tells us that Jesus made “a whip of cords” and used it to “drive [the hawkers] all out of the temple with the sheep and the oxen.”  Then Jesus “poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.”

Because of this, many Jews confront Jesus.

They ask, “what sign do you show us for doing these things?”

“Destroy this temple,” Jesus says, “and in three days I will raise it up.”

The Jews are shocked.

The author of John explains to us that Jesus was not talking about the temple building. He was “speaking about the temple of his body.” He was telling the Jewish people, “destroy my body and I will raise it up in three days.” But the Jews did not understand what he was saying.

To them, Jesus was a blasphemous, violent man who had chased salesmen from the temple (with a whip), upturned tables, and insisted that he would rebuild the temple in three days if it was destroyed.

From their perspective, the Son was violent. He did hate men and was eager to condemn them.

But John 3:16 asserts that precisely the opposite is true. Our own knowledge—based on sight, tradition, and reason—can completely deceive us.

Ultimately, John 3:1-17 is about more than a loving God or a Son who came to redeem humanity; it is about knowledge—the limits of human knowledge, and how one can overcome those limits.

After Jesus has caused commotion at the temple, Nicodemus, a Pharisee, comes to Jesus during the night. As a Pharisee, Nicodemus was a very important person and a very powerful person. Yet he humbles himself before Jesus.

“Teacher,” Nicodemus says, “we know you come from God, for no one can do the things you do unless God is with him.”

But Jesus rebukes him, saying, “Truly, I say to you, unless anyone is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

At first glance, this response seems to be beside the point. After all, Nicodemus is asserting that God must be behind Jesus’ actions. How does Jesus’ response relate to Nicodemus’ statement?

Jesus is responding to Nicodemus’ claim that he “knows” Jesus came from God.

Jesus is saying, “Nicodemus, you could not possibly know where I come from. The only one who can know anything about the Kingdom of God is the person who has been born again.”

We are born into a fallen Creation. We are fallen and our eyes are blinded from the Truth. To combat our fallen nature, we use our reason to discover truth. Reason can show us many things about the world, but like us, reason is fallen. When we try to rationalize the character of God, for example, we will become very confused. This is why Jesus tells Nicodemus that we must be born again.

The character of God is not something that we can figure out on our own. Even if we read the entire Bible, we would be unable to understand God’s character. We lack the proper faculties. Reason, although a gift, is not enough to bridge the gap of our understanding. If we, like Nicodemus, said to Jesus, “I have read the entire Bible and have concluded that you must be the son of God,” Jesus would rebuke us too!

Almost as if to prove Jesus’ point, Nicodemus misunderstands Jesus’ admonition.

“How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asks. “Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

But if everything born into creation is fallen, then even a mother’s womb is fallen!

So Jesus must correct Nicodemus’ understanding. He explains that this new birth must happen through water and the Spirit—not through a mother’s womb. Water and the Spirit hearken back to Genesis 1: “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

All was born from water and the spirit. But humans fell into sin and dragged all of creation down with them. All of Creation has been groaning since this moment, awaiting restoration.

Then came Christ, the restorer.

How does he restore? Through water and the Spirit, the same materials through which all was created.

You may remember our study of the Baptism of Jesus.

Many sinners came to John to repent of their wrongdoings. Despite being without sin, Jesus joined these people in line. When his turn came, Jesus walked up to John and requested to be baptized. John was shocked.

“I need to be baptized by you!” John said. “Why do you ask to be baptized by me?”

“John, baptize me,” Jesus replied. “For my baptism is an important step in the process of fulfilling all righteousness.”

Jesus descends into the water. When he ascends from it, we see water and spirit for the second time in scripture: the Holy Spirit descends upon Christ. In this occurrence, the Spirit isn’t hovering over all of creation; it hovers on Christ alone. This is an important distinction: The redemption of creation happens in Christ himself. Reborn, then, means to be born a second time—through baptism—in Christ.

Only through Christ can we know God, for Christ is the only one who “knows” heaven because he descended from it.

After explaining all of this to Nicodemus, Jesus references a story from the Old Testament: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”

When the Israelites were readying themselves to cross the desert, God directed them on a rather counterintuitive route. Frustrated, the Israelites spoke out against Moses and God.

“Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?” They cried.

When they complained, God sent venomous snakes among the people. The snakes bit and killed many of those who had complained. As a result, the Israelites came before Moses and admitted they had sinned. They pleaded with Moses, “Please pray to the Lord, that he will take the serpents away from us!”

But God did not take the serpents away.

Instead, God says to Moses, “Make the image of a serpent and place it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”

And that is precisely where John 3:1-17 brings us: To the recognition that the world is so completely fallen, so snake-bitten, that our instincts to navigate through it successfully (even religiously) will certainly leave us dead. We plead with God to remove the sin. But the problem is deeper than the sin-snakes that surround us: Something must happen to us—in us—in order for us to be saved. That something is a second birth, through the baptism of water and the Holy Spirit. Only in this way can we know God and be saved by him.

Anything less leaves us stumbling around in the night.

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Salt, Light, and Human Beings: Doing Matthew 5:13-20

Posted on March 28, 2017 by Editor

Before reading this post on doing Matthew 5:13-20, please make sure to read our post on hearing Matthew 5:13-20. You can also see a quick overview of our DOTW Bible study method.

What action does God take in Matthew 5:13-20?

In verse 17, Jesus explains his own action of incarnation by saying,

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

Jesus came to this earth in order to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. The fact that Jesus didn’t come to abolish the law has great significance on what actions we are to take.

What action does God call me to take toward God? Toward others?

In verses 13 and 14, when Jesus says you are the salt of the earth and the light of the world, Jesus doesn’t give us commands as much as he describes already present realities in our lives.

The first command we see from Jesus occurs in verse 16, which says,

Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Later in verse 19, Jesus gives a warning to not relax any of the commandments, but instead we should be doing them and teaching them.

What actions did I take? Or, what actions will I take?

Our saltiness and light stand in juxtaposition to the sinful decay and darkness that surrounds us. As far as we are concerned, the answer to this decay and darkness is not to increase the demands of the law as the Pharisees did, nor is it to decrease the significance of the law as did the Gnostics.

What is it then?

In exegeting 2 Corinthians 3:18, John Chrysostom said,

For as soon as we are baptized, the soul beameth even more than the sun, being cleansed by the Spirit; and not only do we behold the glory of God, but from it also receive a sort of splendor. Just as if pure silver be turned towards the sun’s rays, it will itself also shoot forth rays, not from its own natural property merely but also from the solar lustre; so also doth the soul being cleansed and made brighter than silver, receive a ray from the glory of the Spirit, and send it back. 

In other words, when Christ commands us to let our light shine, we understand that our light comes from Christ alone and any light we possess is merely a reflection of Christ. And this is exactly our purpose as human beings!  We are to be a mirror that reflects Christ into the world.

After Jesus says to “let your light shine,” he says so that “they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” We cannot mirror Christ into the world if we are only hearing God’s word. We must be doing the same word that we hear (Matthew 7:24-27), and we must do it in such a way that it causes people to give glory to God.

It’s clearly not the case that God wants us to cease doing his word and to cease following his commandments.

However, if our good works cause people to praise us . . . then we are not letting our light shine before others.

One of the practical ways that I’ve done this is to clearly share with people how my motivations were wrong . . . even though the final result of what I did was praiseworthy.

A few years ago while traveling to a different country, I was given a hotel room that was nicely warm. Although the room didn’t have central heat, I had a portable heater that made the room comfortable. Consequently, there was a neighboring room (with a guest), that didn’t have a portable heater.  I found this out after I had gotten in bed, and although I didn’t mind being a little chilly, I had no desire to get out of bed and go down the hall and offer my heater. After struggling with my selfishness for a little while, I decided to get out of bed, get changed, go down the hall and give the heater to my neighbor.

When I did that, my neighbor was very pleased and thanked me profusely. I could have accepted the praise and allowed my neighbor to think that I was a pretty good guy. Instead, I admitted that I didn’t want to give him the heater, but the Lord prompted my heart to do it, so I was simply obeying the Lord.

This gave me the opportunity to tell him that all thanks should truly go to God, because my intentions were not righteous.

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Satan Tempts Jesus, Accidentally Reveals the Character of God

Posted on March 23, 2017 by Editor

To watch other Voice of the Martyrs videos, visit the Voice of the Martyrs Video Page!

Matthew 4:1-11

When scholars examine and classify different religions, they often ask, “Does this religion have a supreme being?” A scholar studying Christianity might identify God as this “supreme being,” but they would be mistaken. Christianity does have “supreme” beings…but none of these are God.

In Acts 17:28, Paul explains that “we live and move and have our being” in God. God is not a supreme being; He is the creator and source of all being. As the Nicene Creed maintains, God is “the maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen.” Naming him a being—even the “supreme” one—is to make a serious category error.

Supreme beings do exist in Christianity, if by that we mean beings that are higher and more advanced than all other beings. We call such supreme beings “angels”.

Scripture tells us that angels are both beautiful and terrifying. When angels appear, humans are filled with so much awe and fear that angels must begin their messages by saying, “Do not be afraid.” In Revelation, an angel appears to John. The angel is so wonderful that John falls down and begins to worship him. But the angel rebukes John: “Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers and sisters who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God!”

But not all angels are fellow servants with us.

Before the world was created, an angel turned away from God. He was attracted to himself–drawn by his own beauty and power. Ultimately he would lead a third of the angels in his train. We call this angel “Satan”.

Satan once dwelled in the very presence of God. As a result, he is very familiar with God’s character. Like us, he knows that God is no mere being. So when Satan observes Christ’s baptism, he is perplexed.

During the baptism, Jesus, a human being, is baptized and the Holy Spirit rests on him. The voice of the Father says, “This is my beloved Son.” But how can this be? How can the creator and source of being become, himself, a being?

Intrigued, Satan follows this God-being into the desert and tempts him.

Often, we underestimate the degree to which Christ was tempted.

“Well, of course Christ would not give into temptation,” we say. “He’s Christ.”

After all, Jesus was a supreme being, right?

Not according to the Nicene Creed. The Creed tells us that Christ was “born of the virgin Mary” and “became man”—an average, ordinary man. An average, ordinary man who walked through the desert for forty days. After wandering through the desert for long, Jesus must have felt hungry, thirsty, and worn. The temptation he felt must have been more, not less, powerful than our own!

Although Satan tempts Christ as a human being, he specifically tailors the content of these temptations to the character of God. In this passage, we can learn much about God’s character through Satan, who would have known better than anyone how to tempt God.

 

The First Temptation: “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

Satan knows that God alone is capable of creating, and re-creating. When God created the world, Satan saw him do it. Compared to the world, re-creating a stone into bread would be a very simple thing.

And during his ministry, Jesus would go on to reshape and re-create many objects. He transforms water into wine and feeds five thousand people with five loaves and two fish. Often, he speaks about creating or re-creating. For example, Jesus tells his disciples that he will “go to prepare a place for them.” In Revelation he declares that he is “making all things new.” Jesus was a carpenter by trade; just like his Father, the Creator—and Re-creator—of heaven and earth.

But Satan’s first temptation reveals more about God than his nature as creator; it reveals his nature as caretaker. Satan also knows that God cares about our physical needs. Thus, he coaxes Christ to make bread. If God did not care about physical needs, making bread out of a stone would not be a temptation for Jesus.

Jesus, himself, is always moved by physical needs. When a Roman Centurion informs him that his servant is “lying at home paralyzed and dreadfully tormented,” Jesus says, “I will come and heal him.” When four thousand people have listened to Jesus for three days without eating, Jesus says, “I have compassion on the crowd … if I send them to their homes, they will faint on the way. And some of them have come from far away.” Throughout his ministry, Jesus sees physical suffering and alleviates it.

 

The Second Temptation: “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written ‘He will command his angels concerning you.’”

In Isaiah 55:11, God says that his word “will not return empty, but will accomplish what [he] desires.” Unlike our words, God’s words never lie nor deceive nor conceal nor obscure. When he speaks, his words change the world in their image. Because scripture is God’s word, God fully intends to fulfill it. Satan knows this and uses it as the source of his second temptation.

In this temptation, Satan selects two lines of scripture and insists that God must fulfill them. He knows that God’s word is about Christ and is fulfilled by Christ. So how can Christ not fulfill the word? But Jesus refuses. The word is not his to fulfill in his own way, according to his own thinking and timing. During his ministry, however, he fulfills all of God’s word, in God’s way, in God’s timing.

 

The Third Temptation: “All these [kingdoms] will gave you, if you fall down and worship me.”

Through this temptation, we learn that God has not given up on the world. We often think that the world is hopeless and vile. We look forward to a day when we are free from it. But Satan knows that God has never given up on the world and intends to bring it under his subjection.

Unlike us, God will never say, “This world must be destroyed! We must withdraw from it!” When Satan offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, he knows that God looks at them and sees what they one day will be, not only what they are or how they presently appear. Even when God decides to flood the world, he sees an opportunity to redeem the world through Noah.

God will never give up on his creation. Satan draws on this as a temptation.

Despite being fully human, Jesus overcomes the devil.

This teaches us two things. First, God’s word is supremely powerful. When Jesus is tempted, he does not turn to prayer or willpower to overcome the devil; he recalls scripture. God does not expect us to “try hard” or to “pray hard”. He expects us to overcome temptation by recalling his word properly and trusting in it. Thus, to overcome temptation, we must learn—and apply—as much scripture as we can.

The second insight we receive is that Jesus completely understands what it means to be human. He has been tempted in the same way that we are tempted today—and yet he has overcome, as a mere man like us. Through his victory, Jesus has shown that we mere humans can and should expect to overcome temptation as well. All that is needful is God’s word, and our response of faith.

Through the word and faith, one ordinary man was able to overcome a supreme being.

But faith isn’t something that we can create; it’s something that we need to ask God for. The Bible says when we ask God for faith, he will always give it to us. As Satan reveals to us inadvertently through his tempting acts, God intends to fulfill every promise. So if we do not yet have faith, then we should continually ask. God will give it to us.

In many ways, Satan knows God better than we do. We doubt that God cares about us physically. We doubt that God will fulfill his word. We doubt that God will restore his rule over this broken world. But Satan does not doubt these things for a moment.

If even Satan does not doubt these things, why do we?

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