Tag: More Than a Carpenter by Josh and Sean McDowell

Faith Foundation #6: Inclusive Exclusivity

Neatly pressed tablecloths rustled as we walked past them on the way to our table. Starched napkins stood at attention flanked by place settings arranged with perfect symmetry. The hostess smiled as she showed us to our seats and handed us menus. A wall of windows nearby gave us a perfect view of the pristine beach where the club’s lounge chairs and umbrellas were stationed in neat rows. Beyond them, the Pacific Ocean gleamed as the sun sank low on the horizon. Although I’d seen the exclusive beach club from a distance many times, I’d never had the privilege of stepping inside it before. I felt honored to be there.

At the time, I was in college and had been invited to a birthday dinner for a friend whose parents belonged to the club. Because of her, I’d been allowed access to all of the amenities enjoyed by the members. As her guest, the staff treated me warmly and attentively.  I felt welcomed, included, and accepted, at least for the night.  I knew full well that if I’d returned the next evening on my own, I wouldn’t have been allowed past the front door.

Have you ever had a glimpse into an exclusive place that you knew you couldn’t gain access to on your own? Ever known that your only way to get acceptance was riding on the coat tails of someone with more clout than you?

Well, if you know how that feels, then I have good news for you: God made it possible for you to gain access to the one place that is more exclusive than any other.  It is a place reserved only for those who are perfect, holy and sinless. Anyone without these qualifications would simply be destroyed. Where is this place, you ask? It is in the presence of God for eternity.

If you’ve been following along, you may remember that the last few posts in my Faith Foundations series have been discussing four key truths that are crucial to understand in the Christian faith. Here’s a quick review:

  • Truth #1 God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
  • Truth #2 There is a problem, sin separates us from God.

Today’s post explains Truth #3: Jesus Christ is the only way we can have eternal life and experience God’s love.

Romans 5:8 explains our pitiful state and God’s solution to it: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  And Jesus says it clearly in John 14:6 “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

In our pluralistic society, saying there is only one way to connect with God is outlandish and even offensive to some people.  The irony, however, is that God’s grace makes the Christian faith more inclusive than any other religion.  God knew His standard of perfection could never be reached by sinful humans. No matter how “good” we try to be, we will never be good enough to “earn” a place in heaven.  In human terms, this makes God’s “club” the most exclusive ever, with no one being allowed entrance. And yet, because of His desire to be in relationship with us, God made a way into His exclusive “club” through His Son, Jesus. For anyone seeking a direct relationship with God and hoping for eternal life in His presence, Jesus is the only conduit.  All we have to do is admit we need Jesus to save us from our sins. This is God’s grace, His free gift to us. Anything “good” we do after we accept Christ is simply an expression of our gratitude, not an act done to earn God’s love or to rack up spiritual brownie points.

Thinking back to that night I was a guest at the beach club, I smile as I remember the name of the friend who took me there: Grace. Just as my relationship with her enabled me to experience the pleasure and privilege of her parents’ exclusive club, a relationship with Jesus enables us to receive the joy and honor of knowing His Father.  Anyone that comes to God through His son receives grace, forgiveness and acceptance. He is indeed, the one true God who made a way to be inclusive despite His exclusivity.

The song “One True God” by Steven Curtis Chapman elaborates on this idea and uses some key phrases from Scripture to show Jesus as the one true path to salvation.

For further reading on this topic, consider one of the following:

  •  The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel
  •  More Than a Carpenter by Josh and Sean McDowell

Photo courtesy of www.pixabay.com, Scriptures from the NIV translation

Faith Foundation #5: Why Did Jesus Have to Die?

Have you ever wondered why, exactly, Jesus had to die for us? Ever thought, “I didn’t ask for a Savior, so why do I need one?” Maybe you’ve questioned if “good” people really deserve to be labelled as “sinners.” My last post explained the first of four key concepts: God Loves You. Today’s post explores the second truth: There is a problem, sin separates us from God.

The Concept of Covenant

Before we can answer these questions, we need to understand the concept of a covenant, which defined simply is “a binding relationship based on a promise.”  In his book The Marriage Ref, pastor and author Tyler Scott explains: “In order to fully appreciate the meaning of this new covenant [made by Jesus in the New Testament], we need to understand what the old covenant meant.  The old covenant first began to take shape in Genesis 2.  There, God makes a covenant with Adam in language that is strong, clear and definitive:

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.’” (Genesis 2:15-16, NIV)

The Covenant is Broken & Sin Enters the World

Genesis 3 describes Satan in the form of a serpent tempting Adam and Eve to break their covenant with God, thus bringing sin into the world.  He planted seeds of doubt about God’s goodness, and caused them to think He was holding out on them by not letting them eat from a certain tree in the garden.

The choice Adam and Eve made to sin and break the covenant with God had a ripple effect that changed the world for all time.  The consequences of their choice changed the relationship between God and humans and forever altered the course of human history.

Author Josh McDowell explains, “The Bible indicates that God created man and woman so he could share his love and glory with them.  But Adam and Eve chose to rebel and go their own way.  They left God’s love and protection, contaminating themselves with that self-willed, grasping, prideful nature we call sin.” (More than a Carpenter p. 153)

The Problem of Sin

McDowell goes on to explain, “God dearly loved Adam and Eve– even after they spurned Him—he wanted to reach out to them and save them from the deadly path they had chosen.  But God faced a dilemma.  Because God is not only loving but also holy, righteous, and just, sin cannot survive in his presence.  His very holy, just, and righteous nature would destroy the sinful couple.“ (Josh McDowell, More than a Carpenter p. 153)

Romans 6:23 makes this concept clear: “The wages of sin is death.”

God is not mean, cruel, unkind or exclusive. But because He is perfect and holy, sin is consumed in His presence, just like the flames pictured above would consume anything in their path.  We don’t think of a fire as being cruel for burning things; that is simply its nature.  God’s pure holiness and goodness is like this.  It simply destroys anything in His presence that is not pure and holy.

God’s Solution to the Problem of Sin

The Father, Son and Holy Spirit made an astounding decision in light of Adam and Eve’s choice to sin: “[Jesus] made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:7-8, NIV)

Josh McDowell explains, “Because He was not only finite man but also infinite God, He had the infinite capacity to take on himself the sins of the world.  When Jesus was executed on the cross more than two thousand years ago, God accepted his death as a substitute for ours.  The just and righteous nature of God was satisfied.  Justice was done; a penalty was paid. So at that point God’s love nature was set free from the constrictions of justice, and He could accept us again and offer us what we had lost in Eden—that original relationship in which we could experience his love and glory.” (p. 154)

McDowell sums up Romans 3:25-36 explaining, “When Jesus died on the cross, he died not only for us, but he also died to meet the holy and just requirements intrinsic in the basic nature of God.  The contamination was removed so we could stand clean in his presence.” (p. 155)

“When God looks at us, in spite of his tremendous love for us, he has to bring down the gavel and say death because He is a righteous and just God.  And yet, because he is also a loving God, he was willing to come down off his throne in the form of the man Jesus Christ and pay the price for us, which was his death on the cross.” (p. 156)

Why Did Blood Have to Be Shed?

Remember the idea of covenant I defined earlier? In the Old Testament, the two parties of a covenant would cut animals in half and walk between the divided carcasses. This was the symbol of stepping into a covenant relationship with one another. “When the parties of a covenant walked between the pieces of bloodied animal flesh, they were saying, in effect, ‘I will fulfill this covenant—and if I break it, may I be cut into bloody pieces like these dismembered animals.'” God made a covenant like this with Abraham in Genesis 15 when He promised to give him descendants and to bless the world through them. He did this “knowing full well that Abraham and all human beings were incapable of keeping the covenant.” (Tyler Scott, The Marriage Ref p. 34-35)

Later in the Old Testament Abraham’s ancestors were instructed by Moses to make animal sacrifices to God to atone for their sins. Author Florence Littauer explains, “There was no access to God without first making a sacrifice. Sin could only be forgiven by the substitution of an animal for the sinner himself—an innocent animal had to die in the place of the guilty man.” (Journey to Jesus, p. 210)

The final blood sacrifice for the atonement of sins was made in the New Testament with Jesus’ death on the cross: “God, through His Son, allowed himself to be torn to pieces—not because He broke the covenant, but because we did. He knew we couldn’t keep our end of the bargain, so he said, ‘I’ll do it for you.  I’ll pay the debt you can never repay.’ God fulfilled both the old covenant and the new covenant.”  (Tyler Scott, The Marriage Ref p. 34-35)

As graphic and awful as the description of blood covenants and sacrifices sounds, our sin is even more horrific to God. Yet, in His mercy, Jesus made it possible for us to be washed clean and made new. And this is good news, indeed. Click on the link and celebrate this tremendous truth with the song “My Victory” by Crowder.

 

References and suggestions for further reading:

  • Littauer, Florence, Journey to Jesus, Hensley Publishing, 2004
  • McDowell, Josh, More Than a Carpenter, Tyndale House 1977, 2005, 2009
  • Scott, Tyler, The Marriage Ref, Condeo Press, 2012

 

The Prequel to Easter

Our first exposure to the Christian faith focuses on the fact that Jesus died for our sins. But without context, we may not understand why we even need a savior. If we don’t understand the significance of all that came before it, the story is not complete. To understand the deep meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we must go all the way back to Genesis to examine the “prequel.”

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Who doesn’t love a good prequel? Imagine you’ve savored every page of an amazing story and are sad when you come to the end. To your surprise, you discover the author has subsequently published a prequel that gives the whole backstory. While you read, you’re delighted to find that it brings greater meaning to the events in the original story.

As a child, I fell in love with The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. They were introduced to me in their original order, which started with Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter first stumbling into the magical land of Narnia in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. It was not until book six in the series, The Magician’s Nephew that I discovered how Narnia had been created, where the evil white witch came from and how a lamppost ended up in the middle of the forest in Narnia. These details had context and meaning for me because I’d already become captivated with the setting and characters in earlier books.

For many Christians, the New Testament is like reading a great story that happens near the end of a series. We often hear about Jesus before we learn anything else. Our first exposure to the Christian faith focuses on the crucial fact that Jesus died for our sins. But without context, we may not understand why we even need a savior. If we don’t understand the significance of all that came before it, the story is not complete. To understand the deep meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we must go all the way back to Genesis to examine the “prequel.”

To start, we need to understand the concept of a covenant, which defined simply is “a binding relationship based on a promise.” Pastor and author Tyler Scott explains: “In order to fully appreciate the meaning of this new covenant [made by Jesus in the New Testament], we need to understand what the old covenant meant. The old covenant first began to take shape in Genesis 2. There, God makes a covenant with Adam in language that is strong, clear and definitive:”

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die’.” (Genesis 2:15-17 NIV)

Scott continues: ‘This is covenant language. God says, in effect, ‘I will give you this, if you keep the conditions of this covenant, I will do these things for you—but if you violate the conditions of this covenant, you will suffer certain consequences.’ That’s God’s covenant with Adam in Genesis 2…From the covenant with Adam and Eve, we move through the Old Testament and we see God making different types of covenants…and each of these Old Testament covenants anticipates the ultimate covenant, the new covenant, as it would be established and secured through the blood of Jesus Christ.” (The Marriage Ref pages 26-27)

Genesis 3 describes Satan in the form of a serpent tempting Adam and Eve to break their covenant with God, and ultimately bringing sin into the world. He plants seeds of doubt about God’s goodness. He influences them to be ungrateful for all that God has given them and to think He is holding out on them by not letting them eat from two of the trees in the garden.   Verse 15 describes the enmity between humans and snakes. “The offspring of the woman would eventually crush the serpent’s head, a promise fulfilled in Christ’s victory over Satan—a victory in which all believers will share.”   (Zondervan NIV Study Bible notes)

The choice Adam and Eve made had a ripple effect that changed the world for all time. The consequences of their choice changed the relationship between God and humans and forever altered the course of human history

Author and apologist Josh McDowell explains: “The Bible indicates that God created man and woman so he could share his love and glory with them. But Adam and Eve chose to rebel and go their own way. They left God’s love and protection contaminating themselves with that self-willed, grasping, prideful nature we call sin… God dearly loved Adam and Eve– even after they spurned Him—he wanted to reach out to them and save them from the deadly path they had chosen. But God faced a dilemma. Because God is not only loving but also holy, righteous, and just, sin cannot survive in his presence. His very holy, just, and righteous nature would destroy the sinful couple. “ (Josh McDowell, More than a Carpenter p. 153)

Romans 6:23 makes this concept clear: “The wages of sin is death.” God’s holiness cannot coexist with sin. His holiness is like a fire that burns anything unholy in its presence.

God had a problem to solve when Adam and Eve chose to sin. Although He loved them, their choice to sin separated them from Him. “The Godhead—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—made an astounding decision. Jesus, God the Son, would take upon himself human flesh.” (Josh McDowell, More than a Carpenter p. 153)

“And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:8, NIV)

“Because He was not only finite man but also infinite God, he had the infinite capacity to take on himself the sins of the world. When Jesus was executed on the cross more than two thousand years ago, God accepted his death as a substitute for ours. The just and righteous nature of God was satisfied. Justice was done; a penalty was paid. So at that point God’s love nature was set free from the constrictions of justice, and He could accept us again and offer us what we had lost in Eden—that original relationship in which we could experience his love and glory.” (Josh McDowell, More than a Carpenter p. 154)

“When Jesus died on the cross, he died not only for us, but he also died to meet the holy and just requirements intrinsic in the basic nature of God. The contamination was removed so we could stand clean in his presence.” (Josh McDowell, More than a Carpenter p. 155)

“When God looks at us, in spite of his tremendous love for us, he has to bring down the gavel and say death because He is a righteous and just God. And yet, because he is also a loving God, he was willing to come down off his throne in the form of the man Jesus Christ and pay the price for us, which was his death on the cross.” (Josh McDowell, More than a Carpenter p.156)

“But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8, NIV)

“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:20-22, NIV)

Jesus made right what Adam and Eve had made wrong. Anyone who accepts the sacrifice He made can be reconciled with God.

“Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:18-19, NIV)

Understanding the prequel to Jesus’ death and resurrection makes it so much more meaningful to me. In the next few weeks I’ll wrap up our discussion of Why Do You Believe That? Then, in future posts, I’ll examine some of the other Old Testament covenants that pointed the way to Jesus. I hope reading the “prequels” will bring you a deeper understanding for what Jesus did for us. At the same time, I hope your appreciation for Scripture will grow as you see the many ways the Old and New Testaments weave together to make a complete story showing God’s incredible love for us.

(Side note: If you’ve never read the C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia go and get them from a library or bookstore and start reading!)

Click on the link to hear Kari Jobe’s song “Forever.” It’s a great reminder of what Jesus accomplished for us through His death and resurrection.

References:

Lewis, C.S.; The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe & The Magician’s Nephew; HarperCollins; 2010.

McDowell, Josh & Sean; More Than a Carpenter; Tyndale House; 1977, 2005, 2009.

Scott, Tyler; The Marriage Ref: God’s Blueprint for a Happy, Healthy, Enduring Marriage; Condeo Press; 2011.

NIV Study Bible, Zondervan, 2008