Do Regenerate Men Cheat On Their Wives?

“Regenerate” means “born again.” It comes from John chapter 3, where Jesus told Nicodemus, a deeply religious Bible teacher, that unless a man is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. Jesus also said to him, “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’”

So even deeply religious Bible teachers need to be “born again,” or regenerate. We can’t assume that they already are. But how can you tell if a man is regenerate?

It is not always easy. We cannot read minds, and we don’t know a man’s secrets. Only God knows them. The Bible says that Jesus did not entrust himself to everyone “because he knew all people. He did not need testimony about anyone, for he knew all men” (John 2:24-25). The best example is Judas. Only Jesus knew that Judas was bad. He said to his disciples, “Have I not chosen you 12, and one of you is a devil?” (John 6:70). The other disciples had no idea that an evil man walked among them. Presumably Judas preached the kingdom of God as well as the rest. When Jesus said that one of them would betray him, they humbly asked, “Is it I?” (Matthew 26:22) rather than point suspicious fingers at Judas.

Sincere Christians can be fooled by imposters. I have been badly fooled myself a number of times. In many cases the deception will probably only be revealed in the afterlife, when we appear before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account to God (2 Corinthians 5:10; Romans 14:12). St. Paul said that on that day, “according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men by Christ Jesus” (Romans 2:16). Jesus gave fair warning: “There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known” (Luke 12:2).

In the meantime though, we are not completely in the dark. Certain clues reveal a man’s heart. The simplest is this: a bad man does bad things. Jesus said, “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit...by their fruits you will know them” (Matthew 7:17-20). St. John said, “Whoever says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4). Unregenerate men reveal their spiritual condition by their disobedience to Jesus’ commands. It does not matter if they preach well, manage big churches, instruct seminarians, or write influential books. What does matter is if they obey Jesus.

Last month the Reformed Evangelical community was shocked to hear that Rev. Steve Lawson, 73, had been abruptly fired by his church and the seminary where he was academic dean. Until his firing Lawson had been highly regarded, and few within his circle doubted his integrity. This married father of four authored about 30 books and was much in demand as a speaker and elder statesman in the branch of Christendom to which he belonged. But then we learned that for the last five years he has been involved with a woman in her late 20s. His conscience never provoked a confession or repentance. He only admitted the affair when threatened with exposure by the woman’s father.

When The Roys Report gave the story I responded in the comment section with just these eight words: “Regenerate men do not cheat on their wives.”

That drew a mostly hostile response from fellow Christians, though a few agreed with me. I give no quarter on this issue. I attribute the pushback to a lack of familiarity with the Bible, a tendency to cherry-pick verses interpreted to mean that we can hold God in contempt while remaining confident of his favor, and anemic preaching that has dulled the ears of our generation. So it seemed good to make my case in fuller detail.

In the Old Testament, the prescribed penalty for adultery was death. Not “offer a lamb sacrifice and say you’re sorry and you’ll be restored,” but, “Die.” Some sins could be atoned for (symbolically at least) with the blood of an animal. But adultery was something you paid for with your own blood.

Some think that the New Testament is nicer to adulterers, but in fact it is more severe. Old Testament adulterers were merely stoned to death; New Testament adulterers are told they’re going to hell. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 says that adulterers are among those who will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21 also says they will not inherit the kingdom of God. Ephesians 5:5 says that they have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Revelation 21:8 says that they will be confined to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. If those verses frighten us, they should. They are good verses to contemplate when tempted to marital unfaithfulness. If you are close to cheating on your wife, ask yourself, “Do I want to be in the kingdom of God or the fiery lake of burning sulfur? Am I born again or am I not?”

I know the counterarguments, because I have heard them over and over again for the last 40 years. They never change, and they never seriously engage the texts cited above. Most critically, they betray a fundamental misunderstanding of what salvation is, and what born-again people are saved from. I will respond briefly to three common challenges to my affirmation that regenerate men do not cheat on their wives.

(1) King David was an adulterer, and obviously he was saved.

David took his friend Uriah’s wife Bathsheba and arranged to have him killed in battle. It is hard to imagine that a man of God could do such a thing. But it’s right there in the Bible, so, why shouldn’t megachurch preachers today indulge their dark side from time to time while still maintaining a happy, eternal fellowship with God?

First, it is monstrously inappropriate to compare a king from 3,000 years ago to modern-day Christians. David had none of our advantages. The New Testament had not been written. Jesus had not been born. The Holy Spirit had not been given to the church. “To whom much is given, much will be required,” (Luke 12:48), and we who live this side of the cross have been given so much more than David that it is absurd to think we will behave no better than he. We don’t compare the basketball skills of an 8-year-old to those of a Division I athlete. A third grader might be a prodigy if he can do long division and manipulate fractions, but those operations are second nature for a graduate student in mathematics. We ought not compare David to ourselves but to his peers: Iron-Age Middle-Eastern absolute monarchs. In that realm of villainous despots, the amazing thing is that David had a conscience at all.

Second, David repented immediately when rebuked. He wept, fasted, worshiped, and wrote a psalm of heart-breaking confession (Psalm 51). After that, as far as we know, he never again took another man’s wife. This is in marked contrast to today’s adulterous preachers (Bill Hybels, Ravi Zacharias, Steve Lawson, etc.) who defy God for years – decades even – and never show the slightest lament.

Third, David paid the price. He was not stoned to death as the law demanded, so in that narrow sense he was forgiven. But God made it clear that things would not go on as before. “Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.” (2 Samuel 12:10). In the wake of David’s sin there followed within his household the abominations of incestuous rape, fratricide, and the usurpation of his throne by his own son Absalom that made him, for a time, a homeless fugitive. David was not welcomed to God’s side like the prodigal son of Luke 15 with a party and rings and a fattened calf and great rejoicing. He spent the remainder of his days under the dark cloud of God’s discipline. He knew he deserved it.

So enough already with these fatuous comparisons to King David every time a big-name preacher acts like a son of hell. There is a good reason why defenders of adulterous pastors always trot out the example of David rather than New Testament apostles. That is because there are no known examples of the disciples of Jesus committing adultery. They go to prison for Christ, they get beaten for Christ, and they die for Christ - but they don’t get filthy rich and cheat on their wives.

(2) Jesus forgave an adulterous woman and let her go free.

Maybe. The famous story in John 8 of the woman caught in adultery (“Let him that is without sin among you cast the first stone...Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more”) is not found in any of the oldest and best Greek manuscripts. Modern translations rightly put it in a footnote, or bracket the text and put it in italics with an explanation that there is good cause to doubt that it was originally part of John’s gospel. This account should not be assumed to be authentic.

But suppose for argument’s sake that it is authentic. Even if true, no Christian should apply its seeming leniency to himself. The adulterous woman was not a disciple of Jesus – she was a stranger dragged in off the street. We have no reason to think she was born again. She made no such claim. The words “Neither do I condemn you…” are best applied to unconverted sinners who are candidates for the kingdom, not to pastors who say they have been following Christ for years.

Further, Jesus’ concluding words “Go and sin no more” (or, “Now leave your life of sin”) must be taken seriously. They match what he said to the lame man he healed in John 5:14: “Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you.” One wonders what Jesus would have said if the same woman had been brought back a week later having been caught in adultery all over again. God’s grace is not a license to sin. The lesson of John 8, if authentic, is, “Even lowlife sinners can repent, be forgiven, and become followers of Jesus”; not, “Born-again pastors can cheat repeatedly and not fear a word of condemnation.”

(3) All sins are the same in God’s eyes.

No they’re not. The Bible makes this point repeatedly. Some sins are worse than others. Jesus said to Pontius Pilate, “He who delivered me over to you has the greater sin” (John 19:11) – that is, “Your sin is bad, but his sin is worse.” In Matthew 23:23 Jesus referred to “the weightier matters of the law,” which pertained to “justice and mercy and faith.” (Lighter matters of the law in that text were about tithing.) In Matthew 12:31 Jesus distinguished between blasphemy that will be forgiven and blasphemy that will not be forgiven. I am not here trying to interpret this difficult text, but simply noting that, according to Jesus, not all blasphemies are equally severe.

While Jesus was merciful to sinners, he was not universally and unconditionally so. For example, when it came to the sin of corrupting little ones who believed in him, Jesus did not talk about how loving and forgiving God was toward these exploiters but rather how much better it would be for them to have millstones hung around their necks and be cast into the sea (Matthew 18:6).

All sins are not equally bad. In the Old Testament, some sins were atoneable, but when a person sinned “with a high hand” (or in some translations, “deliberate defiance”) that person was to be “cut off from among his people” (see Numbers 15). In the New Testament, while we are encouraged to be “tenderhearted, forgiving one another” (Ephesians 5:32) in recognition of the fact that no one is without sin (Romans 3:10, 1 John 1:8), we also understand that some sins are so outrageous that those who persist in them are to be expelled from the Christian community (1 Corinthians 5:13: “Expel the wicked person from among you.”)

Cheating on your wife for years in the manner of Steve Lawson and other religious hypocrites is not a regrettable misdemeanor - a “hiccup” in an otherwise blameless life - but a true spiritual felony, a fatal corruption, a stark outward manifestation of an unregenerate heart. Lawson and his ilk must be born again.

I know that some will say, “But can’t Christians sin away and still be saved? After all, nothing can separate us from the love of God. And we cannot be plucked out of the Father’s hand.”

I’m afraid that this response betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of Christian faith and practice. Perhaps some of the mist of confusion may be dispelled by asking the simple question, “What do you think Christians are saved from?

“Hell,” “damnation” or “the wrath of God” is only part of the answer. The Bible says that Jesus “will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Not merely God’s wrathful response to sin, but the sin itself. What’s the point of being delivered from the penalty of sin if one remains enslaved to its practice? How could a person enjoy (or even tolerate) the presence of God if he spends his life defying God with unholy abandon?

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matthew 5:6), and I believe it is significant that he did not say, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for eternal bliss.” Everyone and his brother wants that. Who doesn’t want salvation from unhappiness? But the Lord favors those who seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, not those who seek pleasant security without personal cost. “Blessed are the pure in heart,” Jesus said, “for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). A wise preacher once commented, “Only the pure in heart will want to see God.”

As for the promise never to be plucked out of God’s hand (no matter what sins we commit?), it is important to note to whom that promise is given in John 10. It is given to Jesus’ spiritual sheep. Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). Sheep who follow Jesus cannot be plucked out of the Father’s hand. But a man who chases skirts is not following Jesus, and so this promise has no meaning for him or application to him.

As for the promise that “nothing can separate us from the love of God,” (Romans 8:39), who are the “us” to whom that promise is given? The “us” are defined in verses 28 and 29: those who love God and are conformed to the image of his Son. But men who cheat on their wives hate God (though they might claim otherwise), and are being conformed not to the image of his Son but to the image of the devil. So they don’t meet the conditions of the promise. They don’t belong in the group that rejoices in the assurance of being united eternally to the love of God.

God loves to redeem the most wretched of sinners, save them from their sin, and make new people out of them. But they have to want that. They cannot reject regeneration and still cherish hopes of salvation. The message that must be preached to Bible experts like Steve Lawson and to vile sex traffickers like P. Diddy is the same: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repent of your sin, throw yourself upon his mercy, and beg for the grace of a new life as you are remade in the image of Christ. Marvel not that I say unto you, ’You must be born again.’”

A Christian Response to Drag Queens on the Bridge

Offense and outrage seem to characterize the Christian responses I have heard so far to the drag queen reenactment of The Last Supper at the opening festivities of the Parisian Olympics yesterday. After dancing about provocatively, participants assembled themselves into a live tableau intended to mimic Da Vinci's famous work of art. A loud chorus of denunciations across all media soon followed. The bit was a tasteless, ugly, mean-spirited, blasphemous mockery of a sacred event that Christians hold dear.

I have a word to say to my fellow Christians on this matter.

We Christians should be used to mockery. Our Lord Jesus experienced derision and contempt in spades, and set us an example for how to respond to it. 1 Peter 2:23 says, “When they hurled their insults at him he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats.” Jesus was spit upon, verbally taunted, and beaten to a pulp. His enemies put a crown of thorns on his head and a scepter in his hands, and then bowed to him in mock worship: “Hail, King of the Jews!” His response was to pray, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Jesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44). So even if we regard ourselves as victims of drag queen persecution, that just means we should love them and pray for them.

The apostles of Jesus learned this lesson well and passed it on to their readers. Peter wrote, “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing” (1 Peter 3:9). Paul wrote, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse” (Romans 12:14). He also wrote, “When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly” (1 Corinthians 4:12-13).

That is the Christian way. If it is important for you that your religion be esteemed and respected, then perhaps you need to pick a different religion. Biblical Christianity isn’t for you. Real Christians carry a cross as they follow a much-despised Messiah. Hebrews 13:13 says, “Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.” Opposition along the way will come as no shock. 1 John 3:13 says, “Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.” And 1 Peter 4:12 says, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you.”

Calm love, thoughtful engagement, earnest prayer and humble indifference to scornful contempt are the best answers to blasphemous reenactments on display at the Paris Olympics. Who knows? Maybe some day some of those drag queens will bow the knee to Jesus Christ, and take to themselves with trembling hands the bread of blessing and the cup of hope.

In The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, when young Edmund set out on a traitorous mission he came across a statued lion that he thought was Aslan turned to stone. He scribbled a mustache and spectacles on the figure and sported with it contemptuously, saying, "Yah! Silly old Aslan! How do you like being a stone?"

Later, of course, the real Aslan showed up, and submitted to death on the Great Stone Table so that the one who mocked him might live.

Eulogy For My Brother Dave

My brother’s effect on my life was only ever positive.

For example, when I was in 8th grade he gave me two vocabulary books, "6 Weeks to Words of Power" and "How to Increase Your Word Power." Such gifts epitomized his logophilic beneficence, but he was never overly conspontuous about it.

My brother knew that words are the media of thought, and the more you mastered words, the better you could absorb the wisdom of ages, and appropriate for yourself the beauties and the delights of thinkers and poets who felt grand sentiments and knew how to convey them.

Words are the carriers of thought, and my brother was never at a loss for them. He was always ready to tell you a story that just might shape your soul.

For example, at the time of our father’s funeral, when I was 17, he pulled me aside to tell me about an incident that occurred sometime around the year I was born. Our father had volunteered to paint the church basement. He finished it one Saturday and was so exhausted that the next day in church Dad fell asleep. An usher passed by and nudged my 13-year-old brother Dave, grinned and pointed at Dad, as though to say, “Get a load of your old man, asleep in the pew.” That made Dave angry. You don’t make fun of my dad. Then it got worse. Because from the pulpit the pastor thanked the man who contributed the money to buy the paint, but made no mention of dad’s donation of labor. By this point Dave was ready to hit somebody. Afterwards he asked dad, “Dad, doesn’t it bother you that the guy who gave the money gets recognized and thanked, but nobody knows what you did or thanks you.”

And Dad replied, “Son, my reward is not here.”

You can’t imagine how many times over the past 44 years those words have resonated in me, rebuked my vanity, and rejoiced my heart to know that I was not raised by a man whose mind was set on earthly things, but whose citizenship and treasure were in heaven. It was my father who said those words and lived a life worthy of their expression, but it was my brother Dave who remembered them, and put the whole account into words, and even wrote it down, and made sure it got passed along and could bear ever-ripening fruit for decades to come.

Those of you who knew Dave are aware that his delight in noble and transcendent thoughts existed side-by-side with a personality that would say, “Here, pull my finger.” I fell for that one when I was 11 years old. I remember Dave erupting with laughter when he said, “Yeah, Marsha fell for it twice.”

Quite a few times in my own marriage when I’ve been irresistibly tempted to make some comment that lacks decorum but that I find funny, I have said to my wife, “You should be glad I’m not my brother! He has no filter at all.”

Isn’t that right, Marsha?

Poor Marsha is the one who had to endure my brother’s comic flights of lunacy. Like the time he got really bored in a worship service when they were singing, slowly, over and over again, “Hallelujah, hallelujah...” Dave decided to make up his own lyrics and he sang them out loud. “This is boring, can we go now, pass the offering, this is boring…”

The rest of us when we heard Dave relate that story laughed so hard our heads hurt. But of course we didn’t have to stand next to him, mortified, while he was doing it.

So, this is as good a time as any to say publically what I have long felt in my heart. I know that my brother Dave was a great man. A great, wise and generous man. But I also know that great men can be impossible to live with. I know that from reading biographies and from personal observation. Therefore I tell you the truth, one greater than David is here. And we need not wait for a far future funeral to acknowledge that. So, Marsha, on behalf of all Lundquists, living and dead, thank you for loving, enduring, and putting up our brother Dave.

Proverbs 17:22 says, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine, but a broken spirit dryeth the bones.” I know that my brother’s heart was not always merry. But more important, he made the hearts of others merry with his antics and wry observations and outright slapstick.

A few years ago my wife found a meme online - a poster picture of 6 or 7 apples, each with a single bite taken out. The caption read, “Life with a toddler.” It was probably put up by some exasperated parent whose child had taken one bite apiece out of several apples. And Lisa said to me, “This reminds me of your brother Dave!” She was referring to a story Dave liked to tell, where on Teacher Appreciation Day some kind soul had put an apple in each of the teachers’ cubbyholes. Dave went up and took a bite out of each apple, then put the apple back with the good side facing out. And then he sat down to watch teachers come in so he could enjoy the results of their appalling discoveries.

There it is, life with a toddler. My brother had a brilliant mind and a toddler’s sense of fun. Few things are more joyful than hearing the laughter of a small child. Dave could cackle like a toddler well into his 70s.

And nothing was off-limits. Like the time he suffered a gruesome injury, losing a finger to a malevolent garage door. It took Dave almost no time to realize that that was comedy gold. Because for one thing, it was the same finger on the same hand at the same knuckle joint of the famous missing middle digit of Jerry Garcia. And for another thing, it gave Dave the opportunity to write some light comic poetry about now only being able to flip you half a bird.

Dave could laugh in the face of injury. But can you laugh in the face of death? Many draw the line there. Death is the ultimate taboo topic for many. There are people who pride themselves on their ability to engage any subject at all but they will shudder at the mention of death and say, “Please talk about something else! Change the subject!”

But not in our family. In-laws have noted with amazement that we are the “death family” because the topic does not phase us at all. In April of 2001, my brother came to the Chicago area for our mother’s funeral. While there he dropped in on an old friend whose wife met Dave at the door. She was in tears, distraught. She explained, “I’m sorry you caught me at this time Dave. I’m upset because my dog died.” And Dave listened for quite some time as she spilled out her grief. He sympathized with her, thinking all the while, “Boy I bet I can top this!” Finally came that magic moment when she said, “So, Dave, what brings you to Chicago?”

Once again, as Dave related that story to me with uncontrolled chortling, I laughed so hard I thought I was going to have stroke and die myself.

Now I don’t believe that it is mere morbidity or a perverse delight in dark humor that accounts for the ease with which our family broaches the topic of death. There is more to it than that. It’s a matter of our knowing something about death so glorious as to extinguish all fear of it. Hebrews chapter 2 verse 15 talks about those who all their lives were held captive by their fear of death. But followers of Christ need not fear it. Because Jesus Christ, Son of God, conquered death, rose again from it, and he gives eternal life to all who trust in him. For those who trust in Christ, the Bible says, “Nothing, not even death, can separate us from the love of God.” As the hymn-writer Christian Gellert wrote, “Jesus lives, and death is now but my entrance into glory. Courage then, my soul, for thou hast a crown of life before thee. Thou shalt find thy hopes were just. Jesus is the Christian’s trust.” Or as St. Paul said, on death row, awaiting trial under Nero Caesar, “I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far. To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

I’m sure my brother would approve my quoting John Donne at this point:

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and Dreadful, for thou art not so; For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me... One short sleep past, we wake eternally. And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

Over the years my brother gave me many books to read. One of them was a thick book of anecdotes, taken mostly from historical sources. When he gave it to me he opened it up and pointed out a story about Joseph Addison, 18th century British scholar and statesman. It said that on his deathbed Addison called for his stepson, Lord Warwick, and said to him his final words: “See in what peace a Christian can die.”

Ever since Dave showed that to me I have wanted those to be my final words too. They probably won’t be my final words, because if I die suddenly there won’t be time to say them, and if I die slowly my brain will be too addled and my body too wracked with pain to say anything significant. But even if the words themselves cannot be expressed, may the truth and the reality still hold: “See in what peace a Christian can die.” And for that matter, see in what peace the body of a Christian can be laid to rest.

Let us pray.

Father, thank you for the life that was Dave Lundquist. Thank you for his generosity of spirit, and for the privilege I had of growing up under his broad shadow. Thank you for the mercy you had on his soul through your Son Jesus Christ. If there are any here who fear death, and rightly fear it, because their sins have hidden your face from them, grant them even now faith by which they repent and cry out to you for mercy, and then receive the glad assurance that all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. And as we await the consummation of that deliverance, please give us a special measure of grace to honor and imitate everything about Dave in which he honored and imitated Jesus Christ, his Savior and ours. Amen.

Holy Communion For The Abused And Disillusioned

This is a simple communion devotional given at a gathering devoted to concerns about corruption and abuse in the Church:

Scripture text: Acts 8:26-35:

Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.” Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.” The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

Thus far the reading of God's Most Holy Word.

Can you find your way to God if you have been abused?

Many have done so. The Ethiopian eunuch had suffered a sexual violence so horrific that any man would shudder to think of it, and some would rather die than experience it.

Can you find your way to God in a corrupt church controlled by evil men?

Many have done so. Acts 8:27 says that this eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship. What would he have found there? At the temple he would have seen a sign in Latin and Greek warning Gentiles like him to proceed no further under penalty of death. He would have heard the shouts of greedy vendors who no doubt set their tables up again soon after Jesus had driven them out. Murderers led temple worship - foul fiends of darkness who had delivered Jesus up to Roman crucifixion.

How can one find God in a place so spiritually decadent that, as Jesus prophesied, it would soon be destroyed under divine wrath, and not one stone would be left upon another? By God’s mercy, the eunuch extracted from that depraved house of worship an ancient holy book with truth about Jesus Christ. He could not understand it. But in the mist of his confusion he read these words: He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth. The eunuch wondered, “Who is the prophet talking about?”

Philip explained that it was about Jesus, who stepped into our corrupt world and took upon himself its most severe abuse: death by torture. Jesus bore the wrath of man, but much more important, for us and our salvation, he bore the wrath of Trinitarian God. God, in love, bore the penalty for our sin against him.

For those of you who have been abused, remember that Jesus is no stranger to brutal treatment. Poet Edward Shillito wrote,

The other gods were strong, but Thou wast weak.
They rode, but Thou didst stumble to a throne.
But to our wounds only God’s wounds can speak.
And not a god has wounds, but Thou alone.

For those of you who have been the abusers, know this: if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Songwriter Bob Bennett wrote,

There are those who are among us who believe they are not worthy.
We offer you the Word of Life, we bid you come and dine
Upon the mercy we have tasted, and the love given so freely.
Come take your place at table now; Jesus in our time.

And for all who have grown weary and cynical because of false brothers, wolves in shepherds’ clothing, corrupt and compromised fellowships - fix now your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. He committed no sin, nor was any guile found in his mouth. Jesus is holy. And he swears by himself to render his loved ones holy as he conforms them to his image through sorrow and joy. You who love Jesus Christ, the crucified and resurrected Son of God, come now, partake of bread of wine as you remember him in reverent worship. Let us pray.

Lord God, by your mercy, remove every impediment of sin, confusion, disillusionment and unbelief, and shine the light of your Son so brightly in our faces that we can do no more than fall down before you and give thanks. Amen.

Evangelicals Are Wrong Concerning The Most Important Thing About You

I disagree with a quote so widely accepted in evangelicalism that I’m beginning to wonder if I am the lone living Christian who opposes it. Hating my isolation, I write now in hope of persuading somebody to dismiss with me a thoughtless cliché that has gained creedal status in our tradition.

I refer to the words of A. W. Tozer: “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” If you don’t go to church or listen to Christian radio or read Christian literature then you may not know what I’m talking about. But if you do those things then you are probably familiar with that quote. It is regularly cited with warm approval in Christian settings.

But what comes into my mind when I hear it is, “Oh no – they have not read C. S. Lewis’s ‘The Weight of Glory’!” Or worse, they have read it and disagreed with it. If you have not read “The Weight of Glory,” please stop reading this and go read that. Or listen to a recording online. After you take in Lewis’s sermon you won’t want to read anything else soon after. You will need time to ponder, weep, rejoice perhaps, and bow the knee to God.

Welcome back.

Near the beginning of “The Weight of Glory,” Lewis says:

I read in a periodical the other day that the fundamental thing is how we think of God. By God Himself, it is not! How God thinks of us is not only more important, but infinitely more important. Indeed, how we think of Him is of no importance except in so far as it is related to how He thinks of us.

There it is. The most important thing about you is not what you think of God but what he thinks of you.

There are individuals who have accurate thoughts about God but it does them no good. Demons are orthodox monotheists. James 2:19 says, “You believe that God is one. Good for you. The demons believe that too, and shudder.” One of the first affirmations of Jesus’ identity came from a demon: “I know who you are, the Holy One of God!” (Mark 1:24). The devil was so knowledgeable about God’s redemptive plan in Christ that he tried to derail it (Mark 8:31-33). I would bet that the devil could even explain subtle differences between infra- and sub-lapsinarianism-- whereas as I, a Bible major, forgot what both words mean a long time ago.

Don’t get me wrong. It is good to have right thoughts about God. But Lewis is certainly correct in saying that what is infinitely more important is what God thinks about us.

And that is a problem. How can we possibly know what God thinks of us? We have ready access to our own minds, but “Who has known the mind of the Lord?” (Romans 11:34). The Bible quotes God as saying, “My thoughts are not your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8). Job’s friend Zophar asked him, “Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens above—what can you do? They are deeper than the depths below—what can you know?” (Job 11:7-8).

Faced with the difficulty of discerning the mind of God, many people simply project larger-than-life images of themselves onto deity and assume that he is like them. Psalm 50:21 exposes this folly. God says to the wicked, “These things you did and I kept silent. You thought I was just like you.” Few sins are more beguiling than that of extrapolating our corruptions onto God and convincing ourselves that he is as indulgent of our behavior as we are. I see other people do this all the time. How do I know I’m not doing it myself?

We ought not underestimate our ability to self-deceive. The Bible says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Saul the Pharisee thought he was doing good when he tried to extinguish an upstart religious sect. His conscience affirmed him, and his understanding of Scripture made it clear that God was on his side. But then Jesus knocked him down and turned him around with such compelling force that he became a zealous advocate of the Way he once despised. His proud opposition became his deepest shame, and drove him to acknowledge that he was the worst of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15).

So how do you know that you are not now as deceived as he once was? How do you know that you are not - from the perspective of the Eternal and Holy – a foul villain and a moral outrage?

I’m afraid there is objective data to suggest that we view ourselves much more highly than we should. In 1997, U S News and World Report asked a thousand people, “Who do you think is most likely to go to heaven?” Celebrities were ranked. Sixty-six percent thought Oprah Winfrey was going there. Michael Jordan was close at 65%. Bill and Hillary Clinton came in at around 50%. Dead last was O J Simpson at 19%. First overall among popular figures was Mother Teresa, whom 79% of respondents tagged as heaven-bound.

But there was one obscure, unknown person who clobbered Mother Teresa in the ratings. And that was...whoever was responding to the survey! When asked, “Are you going to heaven?” 87% said yes. That is, the average person felt more secure about his favorable standing before God than that of any public figure, sinner or saint, on planet earth.

If you listen to modern evangelical preaching, you would never guess this tendency to “think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think” (Romans 12:3). Today we are told the opposite – that we beat ourselves up with guilt and shame and need to learn how to rest in the confidence that God is tickled pink with us. A few days ago I heard a preacher say to his congregation, “You’re one of those that says, ‘Pastor, if you knew what I’ve done or where I’ve been, what’s gone on in my life – God could never love someone like me.’” I've heard that line countless times from dozens of preachers in the last few decades. Preachers today assume that their listeners are racked with guilt, doubtful of God’s love, and in desperate need of assurance. But I'm afraid that far more people are racked with pride, presumptuous of God’s love, and in desperate need of warning.

The songs we sing in church attack self-doubt like it was sin, and assure us that God has only nice thoughts about us. A couple Sundays ago at my church we sang,

What if I saw me the way that You see me?
What if I believed it was true?
What if I traded this shame and self-hatred
For a chance at believing You?

Wait a minute. The lyrics assume that my shame and self-hatred are bad things, and that they can be traded for a reassuring faith that God sees me in a favorable light. That is not biblical. In the Bible, better men than I hated themselves more, and felt far deeper guilt. Righteous Job, confronted by God, said, “I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:6). The prophet Isaiah saw the Lord and said, “Woe is me – I’m ruined!” (Isaiah 6:5). St. Peter said to Jesus, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man” (Luke 5:8). St. Paul said, “I know that nothing good dwells in me” (Romans 7:18). St. John said, “When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man” (Revelation 1:17).

I cannot for the life of me understand how “seeing myself the way God sees me” could be a comforting rather than dreadful thought. I'd prefer not to know what he sees. God sees all, and he is holy.

Despite my sin and that of my fellow congregants, modern evangelicalism beats into our heads the notion that "God is for us, not against us!". In one popular Hillsong worship anthem we sing (over and over and over again),

You are for me, not against me, I am who you say I am!

What pops into my mind when I hear that monstrously presumptuous affirmation are Bible passages where God says the opposite. For example:

Jeremiah 50:31: “Behold, I am against you, O proud one," declares the Lord God of hosts, "for your day has come, the time when I will punish you."

Psalm 34:16: The face of the Lord is against evildoers, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.

1 Samuel 12:15: If you will not listen to the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the command of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you.

God isn't for everybody. He is for some people and against others. The Bible says that many, many times. The most important thing about you is which category you're in, and that is something God knows for sure and that you can be deceived about. Therefore be humble. Quiver. Doubt yourself. Repent of known sin, and beg God to reveal to you those sins which alienate him but have yet to alight on your malfunctioning conscience. Presume nothing, but cast yourself upon the mercy he has made available through the sacrifice of his Son Jesus Christ. I don't know, right now, if God is for you or against you. But I do know that God "opposes the proud, yet gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5). Be the kind of person to whom he gives grace rather than the kind of person he opposes. Remember that his evaluation of you is the only one that matters. As for you, well, it would be better to fear you're going to hell and wind up in heaven than to assume you're going to heaven and wind up in hell.

When God Gets Mad At You

(The text of yesterday's sermon)

Scripture texts: Deuteronomy 3:23-27; Deuteronomy 32:48-52; Hebrews 12:5-6. (Full Scripture texts are at the end of this message.)

Three times in the book of Deuteronomy Moses says, “The Lord was angry with me.” We read one of those verses in Deuteronomy 3:26. The other occurrences are in Deuteronomy 1:37 and 4:21. "The Lord was angry with me... The Lord was angry with me... The Lord was angry with me."

Is it possible that God is angry with you? Right now, today, this morning, is God mad at you?

I know that many people answer emphatically, “No! God is not mad at you.” I heard that for the first time 35 years ago, when a worship leader said to everyone in the sanctuary, “God’s not mad at you.” I have heard it many times since. Joyce Meyer has a book by that title: God’s Not Mad At You. A preacher on WMBI, Steve Brown, has a ministry called "Key Life." If you go to his website, right under the logo you will find the words, “God’s not mad at you.” In preparation for this sermon I googled that phrase and found that many preachers have sermons with that title. And then, just a few weeks ago, my best friend from college messaged me saying, “We have a worship director who will occasionally tell entire groups of people that God is not mad at them.”

What should you do if you are in a worship service and the speaker says, to everyone, “God is not mad at you”?

I don’t recommend doing what was done at a large public gathering on March 27th of 2022. At that gathering comedian Chris Rock said something that actor Will Smith disagreed with, and Smith went up and slapped him hard across face. Don’t do that. Be like Jesus instead. When Peter spoke words that Jesus disagreed with, it is not recorded that Jesus slapped him hard across the face. (He called him “Satan,” but he did not slap him, as far as we know. Matthew 16:23.) We are a nonviolent people. When Peter himself got violent one time on Jesus’ behalf Jesus said to him, “Put your sword away. Those who draw the sword will die by the sword.” (Matthew 26:52). But though we do not draw a sword of steel when one of God’s representatives speaks heretical words from the pit of hell, we do unsheathe a spiritual sword, the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17).

That is what I want to do this morning: draw a biblical sword and with it stab to death a Satanic teaching woefully prevalent in many pulpits to the effect that God is never mad at people. Does the Bible say that God gets mad at people? Yes it does – hundreds of times, both Old Testament and New Testament. In the Old Testament, God’s wrath is mentioned by name nearly 600 times, and many more times than that it is referred to though the word itself does not appear. But the most arresting depictions of God’s anger are not in the Old Testament. They’re in the New Testament, and still future to us. God’s anger was expressed in the past, it is being expressed in the present, and it will be expressed in the future - for all eternity, so long as there is sin. It is quite possible then, that in this room, there is someone, or several people, with whom God is angry indeed.

I do not exempt myself. I am no better than Moses. God forbid that I should consider myself above Moses. Moses, after all, was granted a glimpse of the glory of God in Exodus 33. And when his siblings rebelled against him, God said, When there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, reveal myself to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face.(Numbers 12:6-8).

God does not speak to me face to face, I don’t think he does that with any of you either. If God was angry with Moses, how dare we think that he would never be angry with us? Who do we think we are?

Do you know why God became angry with Moses? Ultimately it was for the same reason that God ever gets angry with anyone. Sin. We all know people who get angry for no good reason - people who are touchy, irritable, easily provoked. You have to walk on eggshells around them because they’re always ready to go off about something. God isn’t like that. The Bible says that God is love. It says many times that he is slow to anger. It says that he is merciful and compassionate. But precisely because God is love he must get angry. For example, because God loves all races he gets angry over racism. Because God loves children he gets angry when they are abused and exploited. Psalm 17:11 says that God displays his wrath every day. That is because there is sin every day.

Now with regard to the specifics of Moses’ sin, there are elements worthy of a deep dive into the Scriptures, because they provoke questions that have captivated the minds of Bible scholars. But I am not going to dive deep into those waters now, because the details would consume the rest of this sermon, and my purpose is more general. I will just say this much. In Numbers 20, God tells Moses to speak to a rock to draw out water for the people who are complaining of thirst. Moses says to the people, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” Then he strikes the rock twice and water pours out.

Some find significance in the fact that Moses struck the rock when God told him to speak to it. Others think the problem lay in the fact that Moses said, “Must we bring you water out of this rock?”, and they infer that Moses and Aaron were claiming credit for that miracle rather than attributing it to God. There are other suggestions as well. What is not in dispute is this: in some way, Moses dishonored God before the Israelites. That’s what the text says. Numbers 20:12: the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”

Then, 48 chapters later, in the next book over, Deuteronomy, when Moses was about to die, God reminded him of this incident. Moses, despite all his pleadings and his earnest desire, would not be permitted to cross the Jordan and plant his feet on the soil of the Promised Land. He would only get to see it from a mountaintop far away. Deuteronomy 32:50-51 God says:

There on the mountain that you have climbed you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people. This is because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites. Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.

Among the conclusions that can be drawn from these sober events are these two: Moses, righteous as he was, angered God. Secondly, there were consequences to Moses’ wicked actions. Irrevocable consequences that were directly enforced by an angry, loving, holy God.

Sometimes we may have the mistaken impression that being forgiven means suffering no consequences. This is often indicated with the kind of rhetoric we hear that says “When you’re forgiven, the past is past! It is completely forgotten, and you’re given a clean slate. And the word ‘justified’ means ‘just-as-if-I’d' never sinned.’” But biblically there is a much different nuance. Consider King David.

When David took Uriah’s wife Bathsheba to bed with him, had Uriah killed, and then was confronted with his sin, he confessed it and repented of it. Was he forgiven for his sins? Yes, he was. That’s what the Bible says. In 2 Samuel 12:13, when David said to the prophet Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord,” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin.”

Wonderful. Great. Perhaps you can imagine David breathing a deep sigh of relief as he wipes away his tears. “Amazing grace how sweet the sound! I have done the worst thing in the world and God has forgiven me. Praise God! Well then, glad that’s over. The slate is wiped clean, and now I can go back to normal.”

Not so fast. Nathan’s next few words indicate just what is meant by “forgiveness.” He says to David, “You are not going to die.” Death would have been the just penalty. The punishment for adultery was death. The punishment for murder was death. David had committed two capital crimes, either one of which could have justly resulted in his being stoned to death by his fellow Israelites, or being supernaturally extinguished by God – as God did to Onan, Uzzah, Ananais, Sapphira, Herod Agrippa I, etc. David was forgiven in the sense that his life was spared. Neither God nor the Israelites were going to kill him for it. But there were still consequences. Devastating, heart-breaking consequences that would last for decades. In the very next verse, Nathan says to him, “But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die.”

And that was not the only son born to David who would die before his time. Sometime later David’s son Amnon would violate his half-sister Tamar, and one of David’s other sons, Absalom, would kill him for it. Later on Absalom would rebel against his own father and wage war against him, and die in battle. Later on Solomon would kill another of David’s sons, Adonijah, in a power struggle between those two. If you are keeping track, that’s 4 dead sons of David. The prophet Nathan had said, “The sword will never depart from your own house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own” (2 Samuel 12:10).

When you are tempted to sin (and who is not tempted to sin?), never let creep into your mind the beguiling thought, “God will forgive it. That’s what he does. He won’t even get mad. He never gets mad. He’ll just wipe the slate clean and forget that it ever happened, and we’ll go on as before.” That’s not the way it works. Forgiveness is a lot more sober than that.

Bob Bennett has a wonderful little song – it’s worth looking up - called A Hand of Kindness. In that song he writes,

Forgiveness comes in just a moment.
Sometimes the consequences last.
And it’s hard to walk inside that mercy
When the present is so tied up to the past.

Indeed, the present is tied up to the past, even as the future will be tied up to the present. The sin that you contemplate today, even if forgiven, will tie up your future in irrevocably tragic ways. Moses found that out. David found that out. They both experienced it. And by God’s grace they left a record to instruct us in those truths. Those who maintain that you cannot provoke God to wrath and will suffer no consequences for your sin are false teachers who do not know their Bible and have no business instructing God’s people.

Some might say, "But didn’t this bit about God’s wrath all change when Jesus came?" I know that some people teach that. They will acknowledge that God used to get angry in the Old Testament but once Jesus came and died on the cross that exhausted all the wrath of God, so there is none of it left. Therefore they tell us, “Don’t worry about God’s wrath. It’s over!” Nine years ago today, June 18 of 2014, Pastor R W Glenn of Redeemer Bible Church in Minnetonka Minnesota tweeted the following: “Christian, you don’t have to fear God’s wrath any more than you have to fear a tornado that happened 2000 years ago!”

You see his point. Tornados are terrifying and destructive, and if one is on the way we take efforts to avoid it. But none of us are afraid of a tornado that happened 2000 years ago. Well, Christian, Pastor Glenn said, “God’s wrath is like that. It expired 2000 years ago at the cross of Christ.” So now you’re free to get up and walk about. Nothing but blue skies ahead for you. Nothing to fear.

Is that what the Bible says? About 25 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Apostle Paul addressed some sinners at the church in Rome, and he said this to them in Romans 2:5-8,

Because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God “will repay each person according to what he has done.” To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.

A few years later when Paul wrote to the Ephesian church, he said, in Ephesians 5:5-6,

No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.

God’s wrath comes upon the disobedient. Only a fool refuses to fear the wrath of God. Fools like R W Glenn. When he tweeted that we don’t have to fear God’s wrath any more than a 2,000-year-old tornado, he was at that time cheating on his wife. His infidelity was discovered, and in September of that year and he was fired from his church. Thankfully, the last I heard he is no longer in the ministry.

I plead with you not to listen to the lies of R W Glenn, Steve Brown, Joyce Meyer, or that worship director at my friend’s church. If you sin, you better believe God is mad at you. That’s all over the Bible.

Does that mean that all is lost and you’re going to hell? Not necessarily. Not yet anyways. But indeed there are some people who reach a tipping point in their rebellion against God such that no amount of consequences ever get through to them to teach them a lesson. They never get it. They never repent. Revelation 9 speaks of such people. It says that even though they suffered horrible plagues as a judgement of God, verses 20 and 21 say that still they did not repent, still they did not stop worshiping demons, committing murder, or indulging in sexual immorality.

Then there are people who reject the voice of God that calls to them through conscience and nature, and keep rejecting his voice until God says, in effect, “Very well. Have it your way.” That too is an expression of God’s wrath, and we read about it in Romans 1:18 and following. Romans 1:18 says

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

Then that passage goes on to say how God’s anger is revealed in such people. It is a matter of them being given over to their sin. It says that 3 times: Verse 24, “God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts.” Verse 26, “God gave them over to shameful lusts.” Verse 28, “God gave them over to a depraved mind.”

Beware of ongoing sin. Do not treat it lightly, lest God, in anger, turn you over to it. I have found to my horror that you can often tell when a person has been given over to their sin. It’s when they’re not even ashamed of it. They feel no guilt. They feel no fear. They often regard themselves as victims rather than perpetrators of evil. They’re even proud of their sin.

But as I said, if you have sinned, and God is mad at you, and disciplines you with long-lasting consequences, that is not necessarily the end of the world. It wasn’t for Moses, it wasn’t for David, and it need not be for you. Do what they did. Confess your sin. Repent. Acknowledge that God is holy, and whatever he does is right.

Hebrews 12:5: says “Do not lose heart when God rebukes you.” And it goes on to say that God disciplines those he loves. He punishes his sons and daughters for their own good just as any wise father does to his own children.

I do not know how any of you experience the rebuke and discipline of God. I can tell you how it comes to me. It comes through his Word, the Bible, and faithful preaching from it. That is where I hear God’s holy rebuke, and I know it is good for me. I have very little tolerance for teaching that is showy, entertaining, light on Scripture, designed to make me feel good about myself. I also am revolted by the teaching of men whose personal lives are so chock-full of hypocrisy and wickedness as to make a mockery of whatever good they are trying to say. But when I hear Scripture faithfully explained by humble men of God who stand under its authority – men like D A Carson, James Montgomery Boice, Warren Wiersbe, then I feel those yearnings that make me mourn my sin and desire to be a better man before God.

I close with this. God got angry with Moses and told him that he would not get into Promised Land. I’m sure that broke Moses’ heart. But he accepted it, and acknowledged that God’s way was right. And he died up on the mountain viewing the Promised Land off in the distance.

But his death was not the end of the story. Are you aware that after his death, he got to the Promised Land after all? I don’t mean metaphorically – I mean for real. We see it in Luke chapter 9, the Mount of Transfiguration. Three of Jesus’ disciples, Peter James and John, went up with him to a mountain top where Jesus’ glory was revealed. It was as though, for a brief time, a window opened and heaven broke through on earth. And part of that transcendent experience included appearances by Moses and Elijah. Verses 30 and 31 say this: Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.

Among the many things that could be said about that extraordinary occurrence is this. Though Moses sinned by dishonoring God before all the Israelites, though he provoked God to anger, and though God punished him by prohibiting his entrance into the Promised Land, that punishment was for this life only. It did not carry on into the next. It is as though God said to Moses, “My child, you will someday get to the Promised Land. But it will be after your death. And it will only be in the company of my Son Jesus Christ.”

Let us pray.

Lord God, we sinners acknowledge with sorrow that we have provoked you to your face and invited your righteous anger. By your mercy, do not hand us over to our sin. Soften our hearts to receive the painful lessons of rebuke, and grant us repentance unto life. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Hold before our minds that future joy of beholding the face of Jesus and fellowshipping with him just like our fellow sinners Moses and Elijah. Thank you that Jesus’ death and resurrection on our behalf can make that happen. Amen.

Scripture texts:

Deuteronomy 3:23-27: At that time I pleaded with the LORD: 24 “Sovereign LORD, you have begun to show to your servant your greatness and your strong hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do the deeds and mighty works you do? 25 Let me go over and see the good land beyond the Jordan—that fine hill country and Lebanon.” 26 But because of you the LORD was angry with me and would not listen to me. “That is enough,” the LORD said. “Do not speak to me anymore about this matter. 27 Go up to the top of Pisgah and look west and north and south and east. Look at the land with your own eyes, since you are not going to cross this Jordan.

Deuteronomy 32:48-52: On that same day the LORD told Moses, 49 “Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo in Moab, across from Jericho, and view Canaan, the land I am giving the Israelites as their own possession. 50 There on the mountain that you have climbed you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people. 51 This is because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites. 52 Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.”

Hebrews 12:5-6: And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”

Reflections On A Christmas Song's Embarrassing Slip

In Matthew 23:29-32 Jesus condemned Pharisees with words that seem unnecessarily harsh. He said,

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, “If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.” So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets."

Why did Jesus put a negative spin on good actions and noble sentiments? The Pharisees built tombs for righteous men. That’s good. Instead of commemorating conquerors they honored brave souls who were killed for telling the truth. Shouldn’t the Pharisees have been commended for disavowing murderers and embracing martyrs? Jesus seems impossible to please.

Some time ago it dawned on me that there is a damning subtext to the words that Pharisees used when honoring the worthy dead. Jesus alluded to it, but for a long while it escaped my notice. Now I have detected the same theme cropping up in other contexts too, and it makes me wonder about the ways in which our words betray inner corruption even when we’re trying to be good.

The Pharisees said, “If we had lived back then, we would not have killed the prophets.” Good. But wait a minute. Why didn’t they say instead, “If we had lived back then, we hope that we would have endured persecution like our fathers the prophets”? That thought did not occur to them. It seemed that they knew which group they really belonged to. Ultimately, they identified with murderers, not murderees. They acknowledged their affiliation even when they were trying to say the right thing. They were so at home in the camp of authoritarian persecutors that holy men of God were still “them” and not “us.”

Jesus was saying (if I may paraphrase), “Deep down, you know who your spiritual ancestors are. Your words betray you. And, as a matter of fact, you are cut from the same cloth as they. Despite your disavowals, you are going to do just what your killer ancestors did.”

Jesus’ strong words might awaken us to subtle ways in which we reveal our own corrupt affiliations. Maybe these embarrassing slips of infelicitous expression will help us uncover and repent of character flaws we did not know we had.

Take for example some curious wording in the third stanza of the Christmas hymn “Oh Holy Night”:

Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is Love and His gospel is Peace;
Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother,
And in His name all oppression shall cease,

These are wonderful sentiments right? Especially when you consider that they were written in 1855 when slavery was legal in much of America. Author/translator (and stout abolitionist) John Sullivan affirmed that, under the Lordship of Christ, oppression was to cease, chains were to be broken, and slaves were to be regarded not as property but as brothers (as in Paul’s letter to Philemon, verse 16).

That is great as far as it goes. But ask yourself, “Who is singing this Christmas carol?” I’m afraid the answer is, “Masters and those who identify with them.” The song does not say, “The master is our brother,” which a slave could sing. Nor does it say, “The slave is a brother” or “Masters and slaves are brothers,” which both could sing together. The lyric is written in the first-person voice of masters and their ilk who by their magnanimity grant brotherhood to the enslaved. While seeming to express equality before God, the form of expression actually excludes slaves from joining in the song! It did not seem to occur to the author that they might want to be in the choir too.

Oops.

My lovely (and longsuffering) wife has gotten used to hearing me respond to assorted aphorisms and rhetorical flourishes with, “Why didn’t they put that the other way?” or, “How would it sound if we flipped that perspective?” This technique is useful in undermining popular bits of sage counsel that are supposed to inspire us but that in my mind just fuel self-regard. Take for example that old piece of relationship advice that begins with the words, “Fall in love with someone who wants to know your favorite color…” and there follows a list of the ways in which the person worthy of your love is obsessively focused on you. I like to ask, “Why doesn’t that list instead begin with the words, ‘Fall in love with someone whose favorite color you want to know…’?”

Recently I heard a popular parable in which an undervalued object is dismissed by the ignorant but prized by the knowledgeable. The moral was that you should associate with people who know your true worth and reward you accordingly. You’re a diamond in the rough, so you should gravitate toward people who “get that” about you and are in a position to give you nice things. Hmm. It seems to me that narcissists will find that advice easy to heed. But a humbler approach to the same parable places oneself in the role of one of the evaluators. Then the moral becomes, “Strive to find value in those whom others overlook or dismiss.” (That, by the way, is what Jesus did in Luke 21:1-4 when he exalted a poor widow.)

In the Chicago area where I live there is a very large institution founded by sex abusers that regrettably calls itself a “church.” For many years it has run an annual Leadership Conference in which it pays wealthy people large sums so they can tell us how to be important. I’m still waiting for them to run a Followership Conference. (“Followership?” I imagine them saying. “Is that in the Bible?” Yes, it is, actually. Quite a bit.)

I imagine that bookstores in the Kingdom of God will undergo a serious revamping. The largest section will be labeled “Other-Help.”

If you are a Christian and eager to be a good follower of Jesus Christ, then strive to be aware of and to root out your subtle identifications with murderers, masters, egoists and leaders. Take your place instead with the persecuted, the servants, the self-forgetful helpers and the humble followers. God will take care of your exaltation at the proper time.