Putting God to the Test

Satan challenged Jesus with scripture trying to get Him to act upon a promise in scripture without the Father's guidance to do so.

The devil took Him along to the holy city, Jerusalem, and stood Him on the pinnacle of the Temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here. For it is written that 'He will charge His angels concerning you, to protect you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest your foot be striking on a stone.'" (Matthew 4:5-6, Luke 4:9-11)

Commentary 1:
How often have we fled to scripture instead of to the living God & said, "the promise in this verse is for me!" then had nothing come of it? We may have followed Satan's tempting rather than God's guiding in doing this. Satan, as he did with Jesus, may take a scripture & say, "This promise is for you right now! Go act upon it now!" just so you'll end up being disappointed with God, trusting Him less. What we did was trust in the scripture more than the living God inside of us. We trusted in past impersonal promises more than the personal & present Prince of Peace & ended up with less peace.

Commentary 2:
This was Satan's response to Jesus quoting scripture saying, "Man will not live on bread alone, but upon every word coming out from the mouth of God.” Satan thinks, "Ok if He's going to say He lives by God's word I'll get Him to act on one of the written promises." Interestingly Jesus called this "putting God to the test." Jesus didn't need to see God pass the test because He already fully trusted Him in truth. In the NT a test is often a method to gain reason for accusation (ie if the test is not passed). But Jesus wasn't playing Satan's game.

Things New Testament scripture describes as putting God to the test:
Acting upon a written promise of God (most likely apart from the Father's real time guidance).
Demanding God give you a sign.
Making demands of God.
Asking God (scripture) morality questions so you can criticize the answer.
Requiring yourself or others to keep the law.
Being dishonest about your giving.

When you really trust someone you won't even think about making demands of them. You will rest knowing that they will take care of everything. You will trust that they are good & loving to you.

Saved Through Fire?

"We are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire." (1 Corinthians 3:10-15)

Which Works Burn?
Paul said He laid the foundation of Jesus Christ with the grace of God. People take grace to be interchangeable with the word power, thinking God's grace is God's power or allowance but the grace of God is actually God's loving-favor for us. The foundation of Jesus Christ was laid by showing that He is the perfect revelation of God's love towards mankind. So the works that build on this foundation don't picture sin vs lack of sin, they refer to how you present the character of God. If you build on Jesus by presenting the truth of His loving-favor your "works" are gold & so on. If you misrepresent the character of God your works will burn up.

Paul addresses in this chapter (v4, 21-22) people attaching themselves to Paul or Apollos. He says, "Let no one boast in men." Thus another type of works that burns up is when you displace or replace the importance of Jesus by promoting adherence to a human (leader, teacher, whatever). The context is about how people represent the character of God in what they say. We don't build on Jesus by being personally moral, we build on Him by speaking the truth of His love & who He is. We also build on Him by showing that love.

Saved Through Fire?
The idea that a Christian is "saved through fire" can bring up pictures of God punishing us because of our works. That itself is a misrepresentation of God's grace. When we see the word saved in the bible we almost always link it to salvation. But saved is a normal word that can apply to many things. So let's replace the word saved here with the alternate wording of "kept safe." "If any man’s work is burned up.. he himself will be kept safe, yet so as through fire." This doesn't picture God punishing us for our works. It pictures God's grace despite our works. First off it is the works that are tested by the fire, not the person. The bad works, the ways you've misrepresented or spread falsehood about God with good intentions, all of those works are the things that are burnt up. But the person is kept safe. The person is kept safe even though his works go up in flames. The person is completely kept safe through the flames as his bad works burn up. We are kept safe in Christ, saved, despite our bad works because of His great love for us.

God Will Destroy?
"Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are." People are easy to take this as a threat from God, as God threatening His children with punishment or destruction. In 1 Corinthians 6:19 Paul tells us to honor God with our body (temple) & avoid sexual immorality. He makes no threat that God will destroy or kill a Christian for being sexually immoral with their body. If this is saying God destroys us because we destroy ourselves He would also have to destroy Himself because "anyone who destroys the temple of God will be destroyed by God." Paul is reinforcing the fact that God will not destroy His own people by stating that He defends His people so it would be clear that the flames someone is "saved through" is not punishment. God holds nothing we His children do against us but it says here He does reward our works that revealed who He truly is to people.

My Paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 3:16-23
"Don't you know that you're God's temple & that His Spirit lives in you? Your works going up in flames doesn't mean God is going to harm you or punish you because if any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy Him. God is not going to destroy His own temple nor will He destroy Himself. His temple is holy, you're His temple. Since you are holy your bad works cannot defile you but good works, letting people know who Jesus really is by telling them & loving them, bring good things.

Don't deceive yourself. The wisdom of this world makes God out to be a bad guy who would never love us like He did through Jesus. The so called wise are crafty in getting you to believe their views but God knows their "wisdom" is useless. So don't brag about how smart men are, not even me, Paul, because Jesus Christ is our wisdom from God & He has given us all things. All things belong to you, Paul, Apollos, & Peter, we're yours. You don't have to be ours, we can all be each other's. You don't have to put yourself under someone to get things, you already have all things. Use what you have. You have life, power over death, victory over the world, all things present & all things to come; they all belong to you and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God."

Thoughts on Portions of Romans

• The Good News of Christ is the power of God for salvation for everyone who trusts. In it is revealed God’s righteousness from trust to trust. (Romans 1:16-17)
• The gospel is the revelation of God's righteousness. God's righteousness is Jesus Christ & His body (2 Corinthians 5:21). We become a part of His body & thus righteous by trusting in Jesus. This means the Gospel contains God's eternal purpose which is to bring people into the union & relationship that the Father, Son, & Holy Spirit share.
• The righteousness of God is revealed to us who trust in His trustworthiness.
• His righteousness begins & ends with trust.
• Because people chose to worship & serve false Gods, because they refused to have God in their knowledge, God respected their free will & let them wallow in their lusts & ungodly mental states. Once they gave up on the idea of acknowledging God & His goodness there was no reason for God to force them into morality so He let them do all the devastating things they wanted to do. (on Romans 1:22-32)
• Their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural function of the woman, burned in their lust toward one another, men doing what is inappropriate with men, and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error. (Romans 1:26-27)
• Even in Old Testament times God did not wipe out homosexuality. Paul says God let them "receive in themselves the due penalty of their error." They suffered the physical, emotional, & mental consequences of their choices. This further shows the absurdity of those who say God will "judge" a nation because of how they handle homosexuals. We live in an age after the law. "Sin is not charged when there is no law" (Romans 5:13). God will not pour out wrath in this age on anyone. He doesn't count any one's sins against them in this age (2 Corinthians 5:19-20). All wrath is reserved/stored up for the day of wrath & judgment (Romans 2:5) exclusively for those who reject Christ.
• If you trust in Christ all of your sins are taken away forever (Psalm 103:12) & God will never have any wrath for you. So while a homosexual lifestyle is more destructive than most of us realize, Christ has put away all sin. He is not especially mad at anyone. He does not look at mankind based on sins. To apply your hatred or offense to God misrepresents Him to the uttermost & shows that you are clueless about the reasons why Christ came to die for us.
• You therefore who teach another, don’t you teach yourself? You who proclaim that a man shouldn’t steal, do you steal? You who say a man shouldn’t commit adultery. Do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who glory in the law, through your disobedience of the law do you dishonor God? (Romans 2:21-23)
• Paul's point here is not to get the Jews to straighten up & stop acting hypocritical. He is making a point to them that no one can keep the law even if they firmly support & promote the law. "For you who judge practice the same things" (Romans 2:2). The law virtually requires you to judge others. Paul is establishing his point that the law is powerless to bring righteousness because no one can keep it. Those who uphold the law as a means of righteousness "despise the riches of God's goodness."
• Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law. (Romans 3:31)
• Paul & his co-workers in Christ established the true purpose of the law which was to "shut every mouth and make it so the whole world has to answer to God." So to establish the law was not to put themselves under the yoke of bondage of obedience to its commands but to make the need for a savior evident to the Jews.
• "The law is good, if a man use it lawfully" (1 Timothy 1:8). The only lawful way to use the law is to point people who have a need to the Savior. The Law is God's way of revealing to people their need. It is powerless to make provision for that need. It is the Gospel that provides the power to produce salvation.
• Once the need of righteousness & salvation has been fulfilled the law is no longer needed thus "the law is not made for a righteous man" (1 Timothy 1:9).
• Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will by no means charge with sin. (Romans 4:8)
• The strongest possible language is used here in the Greek, "by no means." Those who trust Christ will never have sins held against them, more so they will never be charged with sin.
• Notice he didn't just say "did not" or "does not" but "will not," implying that even future-tense sins have been dealt with through the sacrificial offering of Jesus, once for all (Hebrews 10:10,14).
• All our sins--past, present, and future--were forgiven (removed from us) through the one offering of Jesus.
• If God can't forgive future-tense sins, then none of us can be saved, because Jesus only died once, nearly 2,000 years ago, before we had committed any sins. All our sins have been forgiven, they have all been taken away from us.
• While we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. (Romans 5:10)
• "God gave us the good work of reconciliation. This work is to tell people that 'God was in Christ on the cross reconciling the world to Himself and He is not charging anyone with sin because of it.' He has given us this word of reconciliation. We beg you on behalf of Christ, 'Be reconciled to God.'" (2 Corinthians 5:19-20)
• We can see that God has reconciled everyone to himself but that reconciliation does not mean everyone is saved. To be "saved by His life" one must "be reconciled to God."
• Jesus said in John 17:3, "This is eternal life, to intimately know God the Father and Jesus Christ whom He has sent." Salvation is the entrance into an eternal relationship with God.
• Mutual reconciliation is required for salvation. Both parties must agree to be in relationship. God is already extending relationship to all mankind. He is giving out kindness to all in the hopes that they will respond positively.
• We died with Christ. Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. For the death that He died, he died to sin one time. Remember this, you have likewise died to sin one time. You are permanently freed from sin & you do not need to "die" again. Now we live with Him in spirit & one day face to face. Death has no power over Christ. The life he lives, He lives to God. Remember this, you are alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. You have an unbreakable bond because you are now one spirit with Him. (Romans 6:8-11, Paraphrase)
• You Jews were married to the law, obligated to keep its commandments for life. But you have died. You were made dead to the law through the body of Christ so that you would be married to another, to Jesus the Messiah who was raised from the dead. Thus you are not under the burden of the law anymore but instead are joyfully joined to Christ Jesus our loving Lord. (Romans 7:4, Paraphrase)
• Whatever is not from trust is sin (Romans 14:23). The law is not from trust (Galatians 3:12). Is the law sin? Certainly not! (Romans 7:7)
• Most take Romans 14:23 to mean, "Whatever is not from trust is counted as a sin" but it actually is saying "whatever is not FROM trust is FROM sin." A person cannot operate by trust & by law at the same time. Galatians 3:12 is saying, "Obedience to the law does not come from trust in Christ because Christ has freed you from the law & He will not put you under it." The law itself is not sin & the law does not come from sin but from God. However obedience to the law is not based on trust thus sin is who convinces a person to keep the law.
• From sin's point of view "Rules are made to be broken." From God's point of view "Rules were made to show you that you are broken." Trust in Christ fixes you permanently. Sin seeks to make you feel broken by convincing you to put yourself under the law. Under the law sin uses the law to produce evil desires in your flesh.
• The law came from God. You cannot adhere to the law & trust in Christ because He has ended the law & you have been released from it. If you feel as though you must keep the law it is not Christ giving you that feeling but sin itself seeking to deceive you & produce evil desires in your flesh that will hurt you.
• Why didn't Israel arrive at righteousness? Because they didn’t seek it by trust, but by works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. As it is written, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense; and no one who trusts in him will be disappointed.” (Romans 9:32-33)
• Those who seek to become righteous or even just feel righteous by their own works stumble over Jesus & are offended at Him.

My Thoughts on Jesus Washing the Disciple's Feet in John 13

John 13:1-14:1
It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

“Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
“I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfill this passage of Scripture: ‘He who shared my bread has turned against me.’
“I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will trust that I am who I am. Do not let your hearts be troubled. You trust in God; trust also in me."

My Thoughts
A reason Jesus washed their feet was that everything He had the Father gave to Him.

Jesus said Peter could have no part with Him if he did not let Jesus wash his feet. Peter then tells Jesus to wash his hands and head also. Jesus tells Peter that a man is totally clean if only his feet are washed. I think this pictures our response to God's grace and forgiveness. He makes us totally clean but we think that He needs to clean us even more.

I also see an idea of "Ok God since you are going to serve me then I want you to do this, this, and this too. I don't want you to serve me just how you want. I want you to do it my way too." But we can see by Jesus' response that He knows what we need when He serves us. We ask for things that are unneccessary at best. Peter had good motives and strong desire but good motives and strong desire do not equal wise motives and wise desire. That wisdom comes from God.

Another interesting thing is that Jesus says "You don't what I am doing now but you will know.." How often does Jesus "clean" us, meaning change our character and heart, and we have no idea what He is doing? When we get out of the circumstance then we see how God was cleaning us.

Notes on Jesus' Teaching on the Mount: Why Jesus Taught the Law, The Two Builders

Intro from 3/8/12
I was going through The Merged Gospels, an excellent harmonized translation of the 4 gospels that puts it in one narrative (I liked it so much I bought the eBook and the audio), and these notes are me figuring out and being taught by the Spirit that Jesus taught the law before the cross to show people their need for a savior. God revealed this to me through a pure reading of the scriptures with revelation from the Spirit because I had heard no one teach this truth before this. My thoughts here are specifically of those from Jesus' lengthy teaching on the mount. Along with my notes I recommend reading Matthew 5-7 & Luke 6:20-49 or buying The Merged Gospels and going through Stories 54-79.

Intro from 4/21/11
It is very difficult to determine the context Jesus is speaking in here. He is teaching His disciples in front of a crowd before He brings grace through the cross. Jesus knows that 11 of His disciples will remain in Him. It seems to me that in parts of this Jesus is clarifying the old covenant laws. He gives many works to attain righteousness ideas including forgiveness being contingent on forgiving others. Many of these things only make sense before the cross which is from when He speaks. We too often run to applying everything scripture says to ourselves. At least we can take comfort in the fact that Jesus' 12 disciples usually didn't understand what He was saying either. Still there is a lot more mystery than our prideful academic minds wish to admit about scripture. We try to say, "Well this is what He really meant.." to fit our preconceived view of things. So there are some wonderful things I see here and plenty of wonderful things I have yet to see.

Notes on Jesus' Teaching on the Mount
Why Jesus Taught the Law
Jesus starts this off with talking about the law and how He has come to fulfill it. I think Jesus is saying that He is so important that even if heaven and earth were no more the law would still be in effect. He is the only way for the law to be fulfilled and the only one who can accomplish all things.

To me Jesus is more showing us how hard it is to keep the law than He is giving us new commands to live by. Jesus basically points out "You think you can keep the law? Well it is much more than the externals. It is much harder than you think. These commands go to the heart. If you can't keep them you are in danger." He repeatedly points out that we are in danger if we can't keep the commands. He shows us God's even higher standard of love and compassion. He raises the bar higher to make it even more clear that we cannot keep His commands and to show us our need for Him.

Pluck out your eye, cut off your hand, allow an enemy to strike you. Under grace our actions do not put us under danger of fire. So Jesus is talking to people under the law before His sacrifice. He is showing that it is even more impossible to keep the law than had ever been thought. The scribes and Pharisees are externally perfect but Jesus' standard is internal also. So how can anyone be saved? With man it is impossible but with God all things are possible!

Jesus said that no one comes to the Father but through Him. This means there is no other way. It means that you cannot know the Father by keeping the law.

We usually look at commands as what to do but God is also showing us what we cannot do. We need His mercy, favor, forgiveness & strength.

I see this scripture as Jesus setting up people's need for His grace more than anything else. Jesus turned the cheek to the point of death on the cross. Yes it can be good to do what Jesus talks about here but we can never do it without Him living it first as He did. He fulfilled the law and now He fills us full with Himself which is the only way for us to keep the commands He desires us to keep. He writes His law on our hearts because He Himself is there in our hearts to do so.

The Two Builders
Jesus finishes His discourse saying, “Therefore, every one who comes to Me, who hears My words and does them, I will show you what he is like. He is like a wise man who built his house, who digs deeply and places a foundation on the rock. And the rain descended, and a flood came to beat the rivers violently. They came, and the winds blew, and they beat on that house, and it was not strong enough to shake it, and it did not fall, for it had been founded well on the rock. And every one who hears these words of Mine, and does not do them, will be compared to a foolish man who builds his house on the sand - earth without a foundation. And the rain descended, and the rivers burst through, and the winds blew, and they beat on that house, and immediately it fell, and its fall and the ruin of that house was great.”

Anyone who 1. comes to me 2. hears my words 3. does them.
Jesus wraps all of this up very well. Hearing His words and doing them are useless without first coming to Him. Jesus is the rock not the hearing and the doing. Hearing and doing is the "digging into the rock."

Notice Jesus says "Whoever hears my words and does not do them."
The wise builder came to Christ, heard His words, and did what Jesus said. The unwise builder heard the words of Christ and didn't do them. The unwise builder never came to Christ! The hearing is present in both builders. Not only is the doing missing but, more importantly, the coming to Christ is missing. Even after we know Christ we must still come to Him before doing what He said. We must trust Him for the who, when, where, and how of doing what He asks us. The Bridegroom should not be thrown away in favor of the book. The Spirit should not be thrown away in favor of the scriptures. They work together. The living Word works with the written words. The Spirit works with the scriptures all for our benefit and purification.

Loving the Law More than Others

On a Sabbath Jesus entered into a synagogue and taught. And, behold, there was a man there who had his right hand withered. And the scribes and the Pharisees were watching Him, whether on the Sabbaths He would heal him. And they questioned Him, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbaths,” that they might find an accusation against Him. But He Himself, knowing their thoughts, said to them, “What man among you who has one sheep which falls into a ditch on the Sabbath, would not lay hold on it and lift it? He said to the man who had the withered hand, “Rise up and stand here.” And rising, he stood. Then Jesus said to them, “I will ask you about something. How much better, therefore, is a man than a sheep? Is it lawful on the Sabbaths to do good, or to do evil; to save life, or to kill?” But they were silent. “So it is lawful on the Sabbaths to do good.” And looking around on them all with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their heart, He then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored whole as the other. But they were filled with anger. And the Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel with the Herodians, and spoke with one another against Him, about what they might do to Jesus, how they might destroy Him. (From Matthew 12:9-14, Mark 3:1-6, Luke 6:6-11)

This is one of the most heartbreaking accounts I've come across in scripture. The Pharisees hearts are so hard that they are more dedicated to the law than they are to loving others. Their heart conditions become obvious when they go on to plot to kill Jesus. They care more about their self-righteousness, praise from men, & the written law than they do about God and others. It is no wonder that Jesus was so harsh with them. Jesus Himself was angry and grieved because of their hardness of heart.

Scripture makes it clear that love summarizes the law. Legalism then is when law exists without love. Jesus asked if it was lawful to do good or heal on the Sabbath. In the Pharisees minds not working on the Sabbath trumped love & compassion. The law was more important than love to them which is absurd in God's eyes as the law was all about love. They viewed the law as arbitrary at best and a vehicle for their own self-righteousness at worst.