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Sabbath-Keeping and Rest
for God’s People in the New Covenant

The first thing God did after finishing His creation was REST:

Gen.2
[2] And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. [3] So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all his work which he had done in creation.

And this rest is referred to as the model for the Sabbath commands that we read in the OT Law:

Exod.20
[10] but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates;
[11] for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it.

Does this mean that the command to rest was from the beginning, that keeping the Sabbath was a ‘creation ordinance’?

How many commands did God place on Adam and Eve at the point of creation? Just one: Don’t eat the fruit of that one tree. Does not the doctrine of original sin hang on our understanding that God demanded just one thing — and they broke that one?

But even more significantly, consider

Neh.9 :[14] and thou didst make known to them thy holy sabbath and command them commandments and statutes and a law by Moses thy servant.

God revealed His Sabbath to Moses. And in fact, the first use of the word ‘sabbath’ in Scripture is in Exodus.

Exod.16

1. [23] he said to them, “This is what the LORD has commanded: `Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy sabbath to the LORD; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay by to be kept till the morning.’”
2. [25] Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a sabbath to the LORD; today you will not find it in the field.
3. [26] Six days you shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is a sabbath, there will be none.”
4. [29] See! The LORD has given you the sabbath, therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days; remain every man of you in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.”

The Sabbath is first presented as a gift from the Lord, that 6 days of work would be enough. He gives them a break from their labor. What a wonderful thing! They’d been slaves in Egypt for generations — and slaves rarely get free days off.

But very soon the Law came. What had been a gift from God to man became a debt man owed to God. And there were dire consequences for disobedience:

Exod.31

1. [15] Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall be put to death.

But the refreshing gift aspect didn’t completely disappear:

Ex 31: [17] It is a sign for ever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.’”

God was refreshed and He wanted mankind and even the rest of creation to share in it.

Exod.23: [12] “Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your ass may have rest, and the son of your bondmaid, and the alien, may be refreshed.

Deut.5

[12] “`Observe the sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you.
2. [14] but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, or your manservant, or your maidservant, or your ox, or your ass, or any of your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you.

Everybody gets to rest æ even the slaves. Yet, there is mixed in this sense of debt we must pay to God:

Duet 5:[15] You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out thence with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

Even the land gets to rest:

Lev.25

1. [2] “Say to the people of Israel, When you come into the land which I give you, the land shall keep a sabbath to the LORD.
2. [4] but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the LORD; you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard.
3. [6] The sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired servant and the sojourner who lives with you.

Here is God’s great mercy — that 6/7 of work will be enough to sustain them. The Israelite’s would get most of a year off every 7th year while the land enjoyed its sabbath. Yet this was also a demand from God, with severe punishment if they failed to do it. [Captivity while the land enjoyed the Sabbaths that had been withheld.]

The Sabbath is for rest — rest given, rest commanded, rest demanded on behalf of the powerless. [A slave could not rest if the master did not keep the Sabbath.] We rest because God rested. Clearly rest for God did not mean complete inactivity. He rested from His work of creation, but continued activities that sustained it. What does rest mean for creation?

We don’t know how long Adam and Eve enjoyed Eden before that awful day with the Serpent. But we do know how much unrest appeared on the scene then. Gen 4: 12-14. Cain has murdered his brother, and the judgment of God makes him a RESTLESS wanderer. His crops would fail, and he would be without rest. Gen 3:17-18 Part of the curse of original sin is working terribly hard for food. When God gives food and says rest on the 7th day, He is graciously giving a reprieve (respite) from part of the curse and effects of sin.

The same is true for the Sabbath rest of the land æ a reprieve from the curse on the ground. During the occupation of Canaan, God promises a place of rest in the Promised Land. This refers specifically to peace — rest from their enemies. Again we see a reprieve from some of the effects of sin.

But such earthly respites are brief. Neh 9:28 tells us that physical rest for the Israelites did not result in spiritual well-being. External rest wasn’t enough. God wants us to rest in Him! Ps 62:1,5 Ps 116:7 and Isa 30:15

Respites are wonderful, but temporary. The root problem remains and real rest eludes us. But hanks be to God! The Lord of the Sabbath arrived in person and offers us real and lasting rest. Mt 11:28-29 Rest is Christ’s promised gift in relation to Himself.

In fact, Jesus made the Sabbath the central arena (Wimbledon Center Court) of his conflict with the Pharisees.

Mt 12: 1-2 See also Mk 2: 23-28
Mk 3: 2-4 Lk 6:1-9
Lk 13: 14-16
Lk 14: 1-5
Jn 5: 9-18
Jn 7:22-23
Jn 9: 14-16

Jesus could have done these things any day of the week. He didn’t have to make the Sabbath such an issue. WHY???
They were turning His rest into persistent miserable burdens for the people of God.

Col 2: 16 Let no one pass judgment on you.

Heb 3 and 4 There remains a Sabbath rest . . .
We’re still waiting for full and final release from the curse and the effects of sin. We already have no more condemnation, but creation is still groaning.

Foundation of New Covenant life:
We live in the unceasing, permanent presence of God the Father.
We live in constant, permanent union with Christ.
We are constantly and permanently indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

We are God’s temple. The division between the sacred and the mundane is more and more blurring. We experience much respite from the curse all the time. This is why there is no special day.

LIVING IN FREEDOM

Cindy Lee Myers

Which way do we go today?
We follow the cloud.

How will we divide the Promised Land among the tribes of Israel?
Joshua will cast lots (Josh. 18:10)

Questions like those underscore that God’s leading in Old Testament times was much more external. Certainly not all of it was that way, but consider: the pillar of cloud and fire, casting lots, even the details of the Torah. These things were on the outside. Everybody could look at them and pretty much agree. The cloud was either moving or it wasn’t. It was moving in one direction and not another. The lot was cast and everyone could see the result.

And then there was the Law of Moses. The people knew exactly when to fast, when to feast, when to celebrate a holy day. They knew what to sacrifice, when to sacrifice, what to wave, what to kill, what to eat, what to chase into the wilderness.

External guidance.

The scene in the new covenant is considerably different. Guidance now is much more internal. And that’s why freedom is a hallmark of New Testament guidance. Galatians 5:1 is the New Testament equivalent of ‘Let freedom ring!’

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

“For freedom Christ has set us free.” Apart from Christ, people live in bondage: trapped in the indomitable clutches of Satan, crushed under the insurmountable debt of sin, and overwhelmed by the unachievable demands of the law. We were in bondage, cut off from God. And then Christ came into the world. He conquered Satan, paid the debt of sin, and fulfilled the law. Christ accomplished for us what we could never do ourselves and by doing so has set us free.

“For freedom Christ has set us free.” The point now is to live in this freedom, refusing to retreat again to a place of slavery — to Satan, to sin, or to the law.

To help us understand what Paul means by living in freedom, let’s look back at chapter 4 and read the first paragraph:

I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no better than a slave, though he is the owner of all the estate; but he is under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father. So with us; when we were children we were slaves to the elemental spirits of the universe. But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir.

“God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts.” To live in freedom, then, is to live in fellowship with the Holy Spirit — intimate, personal fellowship. God has sent his Spirit into our very hearts. That means our guidance system is on board! And God has not just given us a set of directions or a map. He hasn’t even installed a highly sophisticated, carefully calibrated computer program. No, no, no, no, no, it’s much better than all that. Our Guide is a real, divine person who is with us constantly.

The aspect of our fellowship with the Holy Spirit that’s emphasized most of all in this paragraph is that it’s adult fellowship — intimate, personal, adult fellowship. The point here is that the minor heir comes of age, quits his slave status, and enters into the full privileges of sonship.

Because of our 20th-century American understandings, two parts of this paragraph can be exceptionally confusing for us. The first is the whole idea of adoption. Nowadays, we tend to adopt infants and pre-schoolers. It’s quite uncommon in our society to adopt older children, much less adults. But in the Roman Empire during New Testament times, the reverse was actually true. People rarely adopted infants. They adopted more mature people, people who were capable of willingly accepting and loyally carrying out the social and religious responsibilities of sonship. So the concept of adoption is about adulthood.

And then there’s our heart-cry: “Abba! Father!” You’ve probably heard that “Abba” is an Aramaic word equivalent to our “Daddy!” Linguists suspect that it developed out of a form of baby-talk along the lines of our ‘Mama’ and ‘Dada.’ “Abba.” Children no doubt used this term “Abba,” but the question for us now is: Was the use of “Abba” limited only to children?

In the New Testament, the term “Abba” occurs just three times: here in Galatians, in Romans 8 (which is another passage about adoption) , and in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 14. When Jesus was in Gethsemane, he prayed, “Abba, Father, all things are possible to thee…(vs. 36)” When Jesus cried, “Abba, Father,” he wasn’t praying from a place of immaturity. The point in the Garden — and the point here — is that “Abba” is a term of privileged intimacy.

A quick modern example: My brother Joseph is 6 feet 4 inches tall; he’s a big man. And I assure you there’s only one person in the whole world who gets to call him “Joey.” His little sister gets privileges. Did this “Joey” business start out in childhood? Yes, it did. But the point now is that it hasn’t stopped. It hasn’t stopped because of privileged intimacy. And it’s the same way with “Abba! Father!”

To live in freedom is to live in intimate, personal, adult fellowship with God the Holy Spirit. Why is it important that this is adult fellowship? In the new covenant, God has privileged us to an astonishing degree. It’s not just a matter of getting the marching orders and going forth to conquer. God has called us to participate — not as equals by any means, but to genuinely participate — in the specific fashionings of His work in the world.

One of the astounding aspects of the new covenant is not only that God would use us at all, but that He so often uses our unique personality traits, our personal backgrounds, our interests, our abilities. He uses us! Does God sometimes sovereignly override these things for His own purposes? You bet! Just drop by the road to Damascus and ask the apostle Paul if he was interested in becoming a champion of Christendom throughout the Roman Empire.

But isn’t it even more amazing that God chose a man thoroughly knowledgeable in the Scriptures, a master of the Judaic law and of the Pharisees’ interpretation of it, a Roman citizen with citizen-rights and access throughout the Empire, a trained debater fluent in Greek and ready to appeal to the diverse cultures of his time? Isn’t that phenomenal? And I’m convinced that God has chosen us just as carefully.

Our joint participation with God is emphasized in the other ‘Abba, Father’ passage in Romans 8:

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (vs. 14-17)

Notice in particular: ‘bearing witness with’ (vs 16), ‘fellow heirs with’, ‘suffer with’ and ‘glorfied with’ (vs 17). Each of these is a single word that starts with what comes out in English as the prefix ‘sym/syn’. We use this same prefix in words like ‘sympathy’ — shared feelings, ‘synergy’ — shared energy or power where people working together generate more than each of them alone, and ‘symphony’ — shared, harmonious sound. The point is a shared, joint activity of some sort.

The word for witness comes into English as ‘martyr’, because the martyrs insisted on bearing witness to Christ despite the consequences. We’re told here that the Holy Spirit Himself is bearing witness with our spirit — not a one-way bearing witness to our spirit, but rather a joint witness: God’s Spirit and our spirit bearing witness together. How do we know we’re children of God? We can’t just look it up in the Lamb’s Book of Life. We consider the information — the gospel and our heart’s response to it — in prayerful fellowship with God, and there grows in us a conviction that truly we do belong to him.

As we walk in fellowship with God, this joint witness grows stronger and more sure. We’re brought to know more and more of God’s will as we know God Himself more and more.

So, what does adult fellowship mean about guidance? First, that guidance is more about growing in fellowship with God than about specific directions. It’s a bit ironic, in fact. The more we know God, the more confident we become that He is full well able to lead His people.

Second, it casts us much upon prayer. We pray for wisdom from above. We pray for the help of our ever-present Guide. We pray for discernment to understand the Scriptures, to accurately assess our circumstances, and to know the mind of God concerning the wide variety of people and situations that we’re involved in day after day.

Lastly, adult fellowship with the Holy Spirit makes us wary of anybody’s simple one-size-fits-all, works-first-time-every-time schemes for getting God’s guidance. Authoritarian leadership, legalism, and even dogmatic applications in preaching can be subtle traps. I’m not by a long shot saying that such preaching is never true! What I am saying is that it’s important that we pray and consider matters before we accept them as God’s policies or marching orders for our lives.

When I was in college and the next few years afterward, guidance was quite simple: Whatever you wanted, God did not. Everyone in the campus fellowship knew it for sure. Tell God you’ll submit to His will and you’ll be on the next boat to China. Unless of course, you’ve got your heart set on a mission station in Tibet. In that case, you can expect to ship out for South America in the morning. I’m exaggerating here, but only slightly . The basic teaching was just that clear — and just that devastating. Whatever option was most difficult, most costly, least likely, and least pleasant was definitely God’s will.

Warning! Danger! Flashing red lights! All these simple, knee-jerk approaches to guidance invariably short-circuit fellowship with the Holy Spirit! I beg you, don’t ignore your beloved Guide.

Before we close, it’s important that we consider the premier danger inherent in this whole understanding of guidance. Doesn’t this approach leave us wide open to sin, to make it up ourselves as we go along?

If we’re seeking to walk with God, to be led by His Spirit as his own adopted ones, then consider the character of our Guide. There are some places He just won’t lead us. His revealed character puts some paths out of the question.

And then consider the goal — the destination — of His guidance. It’s easy sometimes to feel like the crew of the Starship Voyager, lost in the far reaches of the Delta Quadrant with people everywhere wondering if we’ll ever make it home. But when God saved us and adopted us as His own, he planted in our hearts a homing signal. The transmitter sits on the throne of heaven, and the Holy Spirit dwells within us as a homing signal taking us to live forever in the intimate presence of God. Remember, the best possible guide is the one who’s headed home!

Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of his glory with rejoicing, to the only God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and for ever. Amen.

Today I understand Thomas better than I ever have before. I’ve always wondered about that doubting thing. What was that all about anyway? He was an apostle after all. Of all people, why couldn’t he just believe?

Today I know. He didn’t dare believe. He didn’t dare because it was the very thing he wanted so very much. He had lost his beloved Master. And more than anything else, Thomas wanted him back. Oh, how he wished for that! All week his heart ached to walk again with Jesus on the shores of Lake Galilee. And his friends kept saying they’d seen him alive, actually touched him. And his heart broke . . . oh, if only it could be true.

But Thomas wasn’t going to give in. Just wanting something — fiercely wanting it — doesn’t make it true. He wouldn’t let his longing heart con him into thinking for a minute that it could really be true. Thomas refused to settle for what he feared was group hallucination. He wanted the real thing — or nothing at all. Better to live with real grief than fake comfort.

Jesus brought real comfort: “Touch me, Thomas. Put your hands on my wounds. See that it’s really me.” With these words, he freed Thomas to believe.

‘PERFECT’

In modern English ‘perfect’ usually means ‘flawless,’ and especially ‘conforming flawlessly to an external standard.’ Is this its primary meaning in the New Testament also?

Hebrews 2:10 teaches that God made Jesus “perfect through suffering.” But Jesus was Himself flawless from the beginning. The chapter goes on to explain the point of Jesus’ suffering: “He had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people” (2:17,18).

The effectiveness of His priesthood is restated in chapter 5: “once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (vs 9). The permanent efficacy of Christ’s priesthood and entire new covenant (versus the old covenant provisions) are emphasized again and again throughout the next several chapters. In fact, perfection was unattainable through the Levitical priesthood (7:11). Stated bluntly, “the law made nothing perfect” (7:19). But Jesus, “who has been made perfect forever” (7:28), “sacrificed for sins once for all” (7:27) — effectually.

To consider in more depth how the word ‘perfect’ is used in context, note how it is contrasted with:
• the weakness of the law (7:18) and of the old covenant high priests (7:28),
• the uselessness of the law (7:18), and
• the impermanence (’shadows and copies’) of the old sanctuary (8:5) versus ‘the more perfect tabernacle’ (9:11). [See also the ’shadow’ of the law (10:1).]

Most of all, the law could never “make perfect those who draw near to worship” (10:1). But Christ accomplishes His purpose: “by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (10:14).

The essential meaning of ‘perfect’ is ‘to effectively accomplish a purpose or goal, to realize the full potential of something or someone.’ The English word ‘entelechy’ comes from this same Greek root and means ‘actualization of potential.’

This perspective applies directly to several other uses of this word in the New Testament.

• Romans 12:2 God’s will is good, pleasing and perfect. God’s will accomplishes God’s purpose.

• 2 Corinthians 12:9 “My power is made perfect in weakness.” Again, God’s power is itself flawless. For God’s power to be made perfect is for it to be activated and accomplish its purpose within the context of human weakness.

• James 1:25 Is the “perfect law that gives freedom” being contrasted with the old covenant law that couldn’t accomplish its purpose?

• 1 Corinthians 13:10 The perfection that is to come is contrasted with the temporary and partial things of our present experience.

How does this perspective shape our understanding of other uses of ‘perfect’ in the New Testament?

• Matthew 5:48
• Matthew 19:21
• 2 Corinthians 7:1
• Philippians 3:12
• Colossians 1:28
• Colossians 3:14
• Hebrews 12:2,23
• James 1:17
• James 3:2
• 1 John 4:18

How does this perspective enrich our understanding of true worship?

Hebrews 7:18,19 is a pivotal teaching regarding true worship. The law was “weak and useless.” It made nothing perfect and thereby impeded true worship (Hebrews 9:9; 10:1,2). The law could not accomplish the purpose and so has been replaced by a “better hope.” By implication, this “better hope” does accomplish the purpose: “by which we draw near to God.” Drawing near to God — that is, worship — is the goal of our perfect High Priest’s sacrifice.

And most important of all, we do have a perfect high priest (Hebrews 8:1). “We do have” — an ongoing present tense, a continuous state and privilege for us! We have in Christ the genuine, permanent, efficacious foundation for true worship. The old covenant could not get the job done. Only in Christ is the required once-for-all sacrifice accomplished.

Specifically because we have this high priest, we are bidden to draw near to God. “Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence” (Hebrews 4:14-16) and “let us draw near to God with a sincere heart” (Hebrews 10:21,22) flow directly from “since we have a great high priest.”

The goal of Christian perfection, then, does not focus on personal flawlessness. The goal is to draw near to God and truly worship Him.

NOTES:

1) All but two of the uses of ‘perfect,’ ‘perfection,’ and ‘perfecting’ in the NIV New Testament are translations of teleios and its related forms. The word used in 2 Corinthians 13:9 and 11 (katartisis and its related verb) means ‘restore or make complete.’

2) The word ‘perfect’ appears more often in Hebrews than in any other book of the New Testament.

Welcome with Christ

Cindy Lee Myers

Jesus bids us come to Him. And lest we hold back, wondering whether His invitation really includes us in particular, Jesus calls us repeatedly both by His words and through His examples. Again and again throughout the Gospels Jesus welcomed people whom others discouraged and even despised.

The woman who had been hemorrhaging during the course of twelve years must have known the Law of Moses declared her unclean. Maybe that’s why she snuck up on Jesus, hoping to go unnoticed, yet desperately wanting just to touch His garment. Jesus promptly rejected her unspoken request for anonymity and insisted she identify herself. He wanted her to know for sure that she hadn’t somehow hijacked her healing from Him without His permission. No, no, she was welcome with Christ.

The lepers certainly knew they were unclean. They weren’t allowed to be anywhere near healthy people. Still they came to Jesus and He welcomed them. He even touched them when His mere word would have been plenty sufficient to heal them! And besides these, Jesus welcomed the lame, the maimed, the dumb, the blind, and even demoniacs — people with every kind of disease and disfigurement.

Sometimes the crowds tried to hush people. Blind men crying out for mercy from the Son of David were rebuked, happily to no avail.

The scribes, the Pharisees and rulers of the synagogues were hands-down champion discouragers. Indignant that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, they demanded that the people go away. Was it with mocking that they instructed them: ‘Come to be healed any other day of the week’?

At a dinner in his own home, Simon the Pharisee watched a woman wet Jesus’ feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair. He watched as she anointed His feet with ointment. He watched with disdain, knowing she was a sinner. He knew she was unworthy to be around righteous people, and he judged Christ as no prophet because He was obviously ignorant of her disqualified status. But Jesus knew full well who she was. He turned the tables and confronted Simon with her evident nobility! She had shown Him genuine honor, while His host for the meal had neglected the most common courtesies of the day. Christ forgave her much and welcomed her “much love.”

Tax collectors must have embodied the essence of all that was despicable. The religious elite of Israel practically spat their hatred of Jesus: “He eats with tax collectors and sinners. He doesn’t even wash His hands!” Yes, Jesus welcomed these horrid people. He invited Himself to dinner at Zacchaeus’ place and called Levi, better known as Matthew, to join Him as an apostle. When the scribes and Pharisees kept on accusing Him of fraternizing with these riffraff, Jesus told three beautiful stories.
He told them of a shepherd who jeopardized his own safety to search out and bring safely home his one lost sheep — even when he had ninety-nine more who were far less trouble to care for. There’s a place for each of us on the Good Shepherd’s shoulders. He welcomes us all — even the one-percenters. He spoke about a woman who swept and swept, searching diligently for her one lost coin. Jesus welcomes us all — even when He has to search through the dirt to find us. And then He told them that astonishing story about the lost son. Did the prodigal son luck out? Did he just happen to come home on the one day when his father was feeling nostalgic and extraordinarily forgiving? No way! The father was ready to forgive every day. And so is Christ. Jesus welcomes us all — no matter where we’ve been, no matter how much mercy we’ve already squandered. He bids each of us in repentance and faith to come home to Him.

Even the disciples, who had themselves received Christ’s mercy firsthand, still wondered whether some people should be welcome with Him. They marveled that He conversed with the Samaritan woman, but didn’t mention their reservations out loud. Even so, several times they actually took a shot at sending people away from Jesus. They thought the children should be denied an audience, but Jesus overruled them. They urged the Lord to “send the crowds away” to get food, but instead He welcomed thousands with an astonishing meal.

And then they were indignant with the woman in Bethany who broke the alabaster flask and poured expensive ointment on Jesus’ head. They saw only a waste of precious assets. But Jesus overruled them again. He received her sacrificial expression of lavish love as “a beautiful thing” and promised that her devotion to Him would be long remembered “wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world.” Jesus went on record forever to make sure that every generation knows how completely He welcomed her.

Jesus went on welcoming people even as He hung on the cross. Matthew and Mark record that both thieves reviled Him on Golgotha that day. Yet later, as the sky darkened and death drew near, one of them confessed the justice of their punishment and simply asked that Jesus would remember him someday, eventually “when you come into your kingdom.” But someday, eventually was no way soon enough for the Lord Jesus. Instead, Christ granted him “today . . . in Paradise.”

Come to Jesus. Know for a certainty that you are welcome with Christ. He has engraved your invitation on the palms of His hands.

“With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

The usual understanding of “one day is as a thousand years” is that God is infinite and we are finite. And of course, that’s true. But is Peter saying here that God is in another dimension, entirely beyond our understanding in this regard? Sometimes we’re called to bow before God’s mysterious ways, to believe what we cannot grasp.
Is that true in this case?

Notice how many times Peter emphasizes comprehension:
“aroused your sincere mind by way of reminder” (vs. 1)
“that you should remember” (vs. 2)
“you must understand this” (vs 3)
“They deliberately ignore this fact” (vs. 5)
“But do not ignore this fact, beloved” (vs. 8 )

In this context, the FACT that “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years” is something we’re to understand — and act on. The paragraph continues: “The Lord is not slow about His promise as some count slowness.” It’s about counting. God counts differently than we do.

First, God counts with forbearance, “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” It’s like when I used to play hide-and-seek with a friend’s son. “You count to ten, Aunt Cindy, and I’ll go hide.” He was two-and-a half and not going very far, so I’d count: “One . . . two . . . three . . .” Or when he got a little older and I’d give him to the countof three to comply — or else. “One . . . two . . . two and a half . . .two and three-quarters . . .” I deliberately extended the count, first because he was a child, and I wanted to find a way to meet him where he could be. And then because my heart just didn’t want to bring down the gavel. Our Heavenly Father is counting super-slowly to give EVERY opportunity for people to come to faith in Christ and be saved.

And even beyond that, God is counting without any numbers at all. The word for ‘count’ here — Hegeomai — is also used in II Peter 2:13 and 3:15. It means to consider, regard, or look upon something as something else. It means to deem things to be equivalent. So it’s not about counting with numbers, but of recognizing value. It’s a matter of perspective, of seeing things as they really are. God’s not saying that the arithmetic is exact. He’s saying that refracted through the lenses of His patience and grace, a day and a millenium are equal in His sight.

Why? Why does He proceed at a mere fraction of a snail’s pace? GOD LOVES THE WORLD — enough to give His only Son. He freely offers salvation. Again and again He pleads with unbelievers: “Repent and believe . . . Come unto Me and be saved. ” And GOD’S LOVE IS PATIENT. God is so patient that He counts time in millenia! In patience, God withholds His justice. In patience, God offers His mercy in the gospel. In patience, God extends His grace for an outrageously long time.

But not forever. The day is most certainly coming when God will withdraw His mercy and unleash His wrath in judgement. That’ll surely be THE DAY — when all the millenia to follow will be joy for all who believe on His Name and doom for the scoffers who called God ‘Pokey’ and thought His appointed time would never come.

GOD’S CALL TO UNIQUENESS

God’s intent is that His people be unique, that they be distinguished, marked as His own. God chooses a people for His own possession and then separates them from others who do not belong to Him. They were not chosen because they were different to begin with; rather, they become different precisely because they have been chosen. “The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all the peoples.” (Deut. 7:6-7)

This love of God for His people, especially evident in His presence with them, is their particularly distinguishing mark. When Moses appeals to God that His presence continue with them, he pleads: “How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” (Ex. 33:16)

God’s own presence with His people has been both His desire and theirs since the beginning of creation and covenant-making. God wants a unique, intimate relationship with His people so much that throughout Scripture He repeats a promise that encompasses this longing of His heart: “they shall be My people and I shall be their God.” (Ex. 6:7; Lev 26:12; Jer. 11:4; 24:7; 30:22; 31:1,33; 32:38; Ezek. 11:20; 14:11; 36:28; 37:23,27; Zech. 8:8; Rom. 9:25,26; 2 Cor. 6:16; Heb. 8:10)

How does God make His people different?

In the old covenant, one significant purpose of the law was to separate the Israelites from the surrounding nations. God used His law as a means of distinguishing a people whom He called His own, that they by that very uniqueness would bear witness to Him. Of the laws and decrees that God had given them, the Israelites were instructed: “Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, ‘What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us when we pray to him? And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?’” (Deut. 4:6-8)

Within the law itself were general commands to keep Israel separate as well as specific requirements that would result in — or sometimes result from — their separation. “I am the Lord your God who has set you apart from the nations. You must therefore make a distinction between clean and unclean animals and between unclean and clean birds. Do not defile yourselves by any animal or bird or anything that moves along the ground — those which I have set apart as unclean for you. You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.” (Lev. 20:24-26)

Elsewhere in the law it’s made clear that some foods are perfectly fine for others to eat; nonetheless the Israelites are forbidden to do so. Why? Because they were a people separated unto the Lord. “Do not eat anything you find already dead. You may give it to an alien living in any of your towns, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. But you are a people holy to the Lord your God.” (Deut. 14:21)

God took this separation very seriously. We see in the prophets how much it grieved and angered God that His people sought to be like the other nations. And even when they were acting like the others, God punished Moab for failing to notice that His people were really different! “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘Because Moab and Seir said, “Look, the house of Judah has become like all the other nations”, therefore I will expose the flank of Moab, beginning at its frontier towns — Beth Jeshimoth, Baal Meon and Kiriathim — the glory of that land. I will give Moab along with the Ammonites to the people of the East as a possession, so that the Ammonites will not be remembered among the nations; and I will inflict punishment on Moab. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’” (Ezek. 25:8-11) The failure to recognize that God’s people are different — even when to all appearances they’re not acting like it — is a failure to recognize that God is the Lord. Uniqueness is God’s serious priority for His people.

In this respect, as in so many others, the new covenant is more internally focused that the old. Nonetheless, God’s priority is still that His people will evidence distinguishing character marks that will bear witness to Him. Jesus underscored this priority as He spoke to His intimate followers on the night before He was crucified. “A new commandment I give you: Love one another . As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (Jn. 13:34-35)

And later He prayed: “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (Jn. 17:20-23)

Love and unity. By the nature of their relationships both within the Christian community and outside it, God’s new covenant people will make Him known.

And so both the Old and New Testaments present us with God choosing a people and then marking them as His own. God’s priority has been continuously to create and maintain and defend and insist upon uniqueness for His people. For Christians to back-pedal away from uniqueness, then, is NOT an act of faith.

What does it mean to embrace the uniqueness to which God calls us? It includes a conviction of faith that where God’s people are willing to show themselves to be His, He is pleased to be present with them. As we abide in the Lord, as we seek and follow His leading, as we live in union with Christ empowered by the Holy Spirit, the Lord will make clear how the distinctives of the gospel are to be embodied and made manifest in us.

FEELING SAFE

Cindy Lee Myers

I will rise and go to Jesus.
He’ll embrace me with His arms.
In the arms of my dear Savior,
Oh there are ten thousand charms.

During the 1930’s a man in Australia saw the whole world heading inevitably toward war. To avoid it, he moved his family to a remote island in the Pacific — a little place called Guadocanal. One of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific war took place in his dooryard. All he wanted was to be safe.

I was in high school during the 1960’s at the height of the Cold War. One of our Earth Science projects was to imagine an atomic bomb were to be dropped on San Francisco. By studying the prevailing winds and weather patterns, we were to identify where we could move in the Continental U.S. to be most out of the way. The whole assignment essentially questioned, ‘Where could we go to be safe?’

People want to feel safe. And since the sharp escalation of terrorism in the September 11th attacks and the malicious spread of anthrax, people are keenly feeling this concern: How can I ever feel safe again?
First, the bad news. We live in a fallen world. Jesus said to His disciples, “In the world you have tribulation” (Jn 16:33). He speaks of an ongoing condition; this world is fundamentally unsafe. Tribulation is perpetually characteristic of our fallen environment. We have to face the bad news squarely. We can never in this world be completely safe.

What a lonely realization! But we don’t face it alone. A Christian is never alone. With His next breath Jesus bids us, “Take heart.” Why? “I’ve overcome the world.” Jesus stands victorious over the world, over danger, sin and death. We’re connected to the Conqueror, so ‘take heart,’ ‘have courage,’ ‘be of good cheer.’

When I was a senior in high school, someone called in a bomb scare. Ours was a small school — K through 12 in one building. The principal came on the PA system and said he was addressing at first just the junior high and high school. He told us what was happening and asked us to wait a few minutes while he cleared the elementary grades downstairs. Very soon he was back on the speaker, asking every highschooler with a brother, sister or cousin in the elementary classes to go to them right away. I found out later what had happened. The week before we’d had a civil defense drill. The teachers had said a bomb could fall on the playground, so we must stay inside, duck under desks and cover our heads. Having learned and practiced that just a week ago, the children were now being told that there was a bomb and they needed to go out onto the playground. No way! We had mass panic in the elementary school.

The teachers stepped aside. The older kids took their family and friends by the hand and led them outdoors to safety. Those little kids trusted their brothers and sisters and cousins and felt safe with them. They could hold a hand when they couldn’t grasp the facts.

Meanwhile, I was upstairs forming my own basic survival plan. Our principal, James B. Ramage, was on the speaker. Right away, I glanced behind me and to the left. At a desk in the next row, just a few feet away, sat James B. Ramage, Jr. I knew Jim’s dad was going to make decisions that would keep his son as safe as possible. So there was my plan: Stick with the son.

So there’s my safety plan as a Christian, too: Stick with the Son. He’s overcome the world. Stick with the Conqueror and ‘take heart.’

Our safety, then, is not about geo-positioning; it’s about Christo-positioning. Safety is ultimately about relationship. No matter where we are on the planet, no matter how weak and vulnerable we may feel in this fallen world, we’re standing on solid Rock, victorious with Christ, who has overcome it all.

In fact, in Christ we’re not merely conquerors; we’re ‘more than conquerors.’ As Paul wrote to the Romans:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, “For they sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nothing — absolutely nothing — can drive a wedge between us and the love of Christ. Not tribulation, not distress, not material need, not terrorists, not anthrax or any other kind of peril . . . not death itself, not human authorities or spiritual powers, not the present, and not the future æ nothing at all in all creation can separate us from the love of Christ.

Is he saying that we’re surrounded by some kind of force field, that these things can’t touch us? No, in all these things we are through Christ more than conquerors. Through Christ we overwhelmingly conquer.

The word that comes out in English as ‘more than conquerors’ or ‘overwhelmingly conquer’ begins with the same form that we use in hypertension, hypercritical, hyperventilate, and hyperactive. It means very large, extra-large. The same idea came to us from Latin as ‘super’: supermarket, superhighway, superman. We don’t conquer just a little bit! Through Christ we’re superconquerors, hyperconquerors.

That sure sounds great! But sometimes the opposition can seem mighty convincing. Sometimes we find ourselves in a tornado. What then?

Notice Paul says “I am persuaded that neither death nor life . . .” He’s sure. He’s seen the opposition. He’s felt the opposition. He’s lived right in the heart of the tornado. And still he says, “I am persuaded.” What kind of persuasion is this that he stands his ground in the face of such danger?

It’s a certain persuasion. He’s got the facts straight æ and he knows it. But it’s more than a repetition of facts . . . far more serious than math equations or vocabulary definitions. And people can get those facts straight, too.

It’s a thoroughgoing, deep persuasion. He faces with confidence all of life and death itself. He faces principalities and powers. In the midst of danger he stands firm, and nothing in the entire universe can shake him.

It’s an extensive, wide persuasion. His conviction reaches far beyond his personal experience! Paul had faced a lot — persecution, distress, famine, and peril. But he’s also convinced about death and the future and ‘anything else in all creation,’ and he hadn’t experienced all those things yet.

A wonderful thing, this persuasion! But how did he get it? Notice he says, “I am persuaded . . .” He has become convinced. In other words, he hasn’t always known this. He learned it. He wasn’t born with this extraordinary conviction. It didn’t just grow naturally out of his strength of character.

He learned it. The Holy Spirit has persuaded him at the deepest levels of his personality. The Spirit has taught him, bore witness to him comforted him, worked in him this certain, thoroughgoing assurance. To stand before life and death, before the powers of hell and everything in all the universe and know they can never separate the child of God from the Father’s love in our Lord Jesus Christ. There’s the wellspring of his confidence: fellowship with the Holy Spirit.

And that means we can have it, too. The Spirit who taught Paul teaches us. As the Holy Spirit leads us into truth, He will persuade us of its reality. Ours is the privilege of fellowship with the Holy Spirit in every circumstance. And in the course of that fellowship, He deepens our confidence in God. As we rely on the Holy Spirit to teach us the truth, so let us rely on Him to persuade us of its reality.

A child of God and the love of God are completely inseparable. He has promised: “I will never fail you nor forsake you” (Heb. 13:5). Never — not ever. I remember a neighbor boy back home who was always vigorously denying everything. He was always ‘not neither’ out when we played baseball. And you did ‘not neither’ tag him in hide-and-go-seek. So we’d tease him about his grammar — two negatives make a positive — and the whole thing would become a squabble about higher level math. Well, he finally checked into our crazy arithmetic and, sure enough, the teacher said we were right — two negatives do make a positive. Then he learned just enough to become truly dangerous. He found out about three negatives making a negative again. So he was back on the scene full force. From then on, he was ‘no way, not neither’ out!

He would’ve been just fine with New Testament Greek. Stacking negatives was exactly the way to make the point. And this promise, “I will never fail you nor forsake you” uses five of them. Five negatives in a row! The Holy Spirit uses the most emphatic construction available in the Greek language to deny any possibility that God would ever leave us. It’s totally out of the question — absolutely unthinkable.

Remember those ads? “You’re in good hands with Allstate.” We’re in far better hands — omnipotent hands. Actually, it’s even much better than that. As our pastor in the late 1980’s used to tell us over and over, “You’re not just safe in the arms of Jesus. You’re safe as the arms of Jesus. You’re united with Christ. You’re His body. He won’t abandon you. He’d have to cut off His arms to abandon you.” God will never, no chance, no way, not neither abandon His people. We’re safe with Him.
The old hymn says it much more elegantly:

The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose
I will not, I will not desert to His foes.
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.

Most of the time, I need courage to take on the day æ and whatever comes along with it. I need, as Jesus said, to “take heart”. “Have courage!” This word is spoken seven times in the New Testament, always in the imperative and almost always from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Himself. It comes to us as a divine call to courage, even a divine command to courage.

To a paralytic, Jesus said, “Take heart, my son, your sins are forgiven” (Mt 9:2). To a woman who had been hemorrhaging for twelve years, He said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well” (Mt 9:22). And at Jesus’ bidding, people said to Bartimaeus, the blind beggar, “Take heart; rise, he is calling you” (Mk 10:49). Their human resources were thoroughly inadequate. Yet, to a paralytic, to a hemorrhaging woman, and to a blind beggar, Jesus said, “Take heart” — and He cured them. This call to courage comes to us as a message of hope from another world. God has resources far more than we see.

The command to ‘take heart’ is not God saying, ‘Well, Polyanna, it’s time to make some lemonade.’ It’s not a matter of putting a positive spin on bleak circumstances. It is, rather, an active expression of our confidence in God Himself and in God alone. With faith we face the facts squarely, fully recognizing the limits æ and often the hopelessness æ of our situation from the perspective of this world. That’s what Abraham did when God told him he would have a son. “He considered his own body, which was as good as dead because he was about a hundred years old,” and ‘he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb” (Rom 4:19). Yet, “no distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised” (Rom 4:20-21). Because of faith we face all the facts, recognizing most especially God’s presence and character, His purposes and promises.

And the Lord builds up our faith. Along with several of the commands to ‘take heart,’ Jesus gives strong reasons to do so. As He was walking on the sea, Jesus urged his disciples to ‘take heart’. And the reason? “It is I” (Mt 14:27 and Mk 6:50). An active awareness of Christ’s personal presence fills believers with courage. The night before He was crucified, Jesus told His disciples to expect tribulation in this world. Then he added, “Take heart, I have overcome the world” (Jn 16:33). An active reliance on Christ’s thoroughgoing victory fills believers with courage. And when Paul’s life was being threatened in Jerusalem, the ascended Lord appeared to him and assured him, “Take heart, for as you have testified about me at Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also at Rome” (Acts 23:11). An active submission to God’s eternal will fills believers with courage.

Day after day we face challenges of every description. Our need for courage is great indeed. At the same time, we stand in a place of large privilege. The Spirit of God is already building our courage, working these things into our hearts, and fixing them in our minds. We can know more and more that Christ is with us, and take heart. Stand more and more in the victory of Christ , and take heart. Trust more and more that God is accomplishing His perfect will, and take heart. As we meditate on the Scriptures, as we ask the Spirit to persuade us of its reality, as God continues in every way to work His grace in us, more and more our hearts will fill with courage from heaven.

Even so, some days I just want to curl up and cry. I feel so weak and vulnerable. That business about being ‘earthen vessels’ is so easy to believe then. I have no trouble seeing myself as a clay pot, so fragile than a mere pebble or two could reduce it to shards. “But we have this treasure in earth vessels . . . (II Cor 4:7). We, who are only earthenware pots, are God’s treasure boxes. And being a wise King, He guards His treasure boxes well.

God guards us by His power. “By God’s power” we’re “guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (I Peter 1:5). The power that created all things, the power that now holds everything together, the very power that raised Christ from the dead æ power beyond all we can pray or even imagine æ guards us. We’re guarded by Omnipotence Himself. As the old hymn asks:

Who, who shall in thy presence stand
Or match omnipotence;
Unfold the grasp of thy right hand
And pluck the sinner thence?

God guards us by His peace. “And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:7). The peace of God comes to us and works in us only through Christ. It is Christ’s gift to His people. Christ secured this peace by His sacrifice (Rom 5:1, 6-11). He communicates this peace to us by His Spirit (Jn 14:25-27). Not surprisingly, then, this peace is guarding our hearts and minds ‘in Christ Jesus,’ maintaining and sustaining us in union with Him. And what wonderful peace! Even amid the turmoil and tribulation of the world, it prevails. God’s peace overcomes the world because God’s Son has overcome the world (Jn 16:33).

God guards us from evil, and especially from the evil one. “But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from evil (or the evil one)” (II Thess 3:3). We’re not sitting ducks, not mere prey for Satan and his cronies. We’re guarded. Our confidence in this protection rests four-square on the faithfulness of God. The text is emphatic. Literally, it begins: “Faithful is the Lord . . . “ God’s protection is as certain as His faithfulness. And His faithfulness is absolute.

God guards us from falling. He “is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of His glory with rejoicing” (Jude 24). When we’re feeling weak, run to the Lord. He keeps us from stumbling.

And God guards us until the need for guarding is no more. Our Divine Protector will go on guarding us until He presents us to Himself ‘jubilant and above reproach’ (Jude 24), until our salvation is ‘revealed in the last time’ (I Peter 1:5), until we are fully and finally safe with Him in heaven.

Shepherd God

Shepherd God, who makes me rest
By babbling brooks on grassy slopes,
Restores my soul and leads me home.

Shepherd God, who with me walks
Through valleys dark and shadows grim,
Preserves my life and leads me home.

Shepherd God, who lets me eat
In peace though foes look on in hate,
Anoints my head and leads me home.

Shepherd God, who bids me live
In love and goodness evermore,
Assures me life and leads me home.

– Cindy Lee Myers