Compelled by the Love of Christ

Forty years ago this week, President Jimmy Carter brought together leaders from Egypt and Israel to conduct peace talks.  After thirteen days of negotiations the summit resulted in what was officially titled the “Framework for Peace in the Middle East,” and is commonly known as the Camp David Accords.  Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin remarked, “Peace now celebrates a great victory for the nations of Egypt, and Israel, and all mankind.  Egyptian President Anwar Sadat stated, “We are looking forward to the days ahead with an added determination to pursue the noble goal of peace.”  The next year in 1979 the two countries signed a peace treaty that ended over three decades of war between the two countries.  It was an encouraging step towards peace in the region of the Middle East, but lasting peace in that region of the world has not been achieved in the forty years since that time.  Can peace that lasts be found in this world?

Over two thousand years ago an even greater peace treaty was enacted in the Middle East, the only peace treaty that brings about lasting peace.  This treaty did not end the state of war between two countries, but the state of war between God and humanity.  Ever since Adam and Eve chose to rebel against God in the garden in Eden, humanity has been at war with God.  But God made a way to end the hostilities and bring about lasting peace through sending the one mediator who could bring peace between God and mankind: his Son Jesus.

When Jesus entered the world, the angels sang “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14).  But peace between God and men was not achieved simply by Jesus’ entrance into the world.  There was much that Jesus had to do – not only in his life on the earth, but also in his death – in order to bring about lasting peace.  The night before his departure from the world, Jesus told his disciples about the peace that he would achieve.  He said to them, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27).  This peace would not be a fragile and uncertain peace like that found in the world, but a strong and certain peace.

But how would Jesus bring this peace about?  Through a peace treaty between God and man signed with Jesus’ own blood.  Jesus brought about peace between God and man through his death on the cross.  At the cross, Jesus paid the just penalty for the crimes of man against our holy God.  Jesus took upon himself the just wrath of God for the sins of those Jesus represented.  In this way, Jesus ended the hostility of God against all who place their faith in Jesus Christ.  As the Apostle Paul writes, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

This peace results in a restored relationship between God and those who trust in the work of Jesus Christ in bringing about this peace.  And this restored relationship of peace lasts not only for life on this earth, but all the way into eternity.  It truly is a lasting peace.  Do you have this lasting peace?

John Miller
Grace Baptist Church
Carlisle, PA

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Lasting Peace

Forty years ago this week, President Jimmy Carter brought together leaders from Egypt and Israel to conduct peace talks.  After thirteen days of negotiations the summit resulted in what was officially titled the “Framework for Peace in the Middle East,” and is commonly known as the Camp David Accords.  Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin remarked, “Peace now celebrates a great victory for the nations of Egypt, and Israel, and all mankind.  Egyptian President Anwar Sadat stated, “We are looking forward to the days ahead with an added determination to pursue the noble goal of peace.”  The next year in 1979 the two countries signed a peace treaty that ended over three decades of war between the two countries.  It was an encouraging step towards peace in the region of the Middle East, but lasting peace in that region of the world has not been achieved in the forty years since that time.  Can peace that lasts be found in this world?

Over two thousand years ago an even greater peace treaty was enacted in the Middle East, the only peace treaty that brings about lasting peace.  This treaty did not end the state of war between two countries, but the state of war between God and humanity.  Ever since Adam and Eve chose to rebel against God in the garden in Eden, humanity has been at war with God.  But God made a way to end the hostilities and bring about lasting peace through sending the one mediator who could bring peace between God and mankind: his Son Jesus.

When Jesus entered the world, the angels sang “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14).  But peace between God and men was not achieved simply by Jesus’ entrance into the world.  There was much that Jesus had to do – not only in his life on the earth, but also in his death – in order to bring about lasting peace.  The night before his departure from the world, Jesus told his disciples about the peace that he would achieve.  He said to them, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27).  This peace would not be a fragile and uncertain peace like that found in the world, but a strong and certain peace.

But how would Jesus bring this peace about?  Through a peace treaty between God and man signed with Jesus’ own blood.  Jesus brought about peace between God and man through his death on the cross.  At the cross, Jesus paid the just penalty for the crimes of man against our holy God.  Jesus took upon himself the just wrath of God for the sins of those Jesus represented.  In this way, Jesus ended the hostility of God against all who place their faith in Jesus Christ.  As the Apostle Paul writes, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

This peace results in a restored relationship between God and those who trust in the work of Jesus Christ in bringing about this peace.  And this restored relationship of peace lasts not only for life on this earth, but all the way into eternity.  It truly is a lasting peace.  Do you have this lasting peace?

John Miller
Grace Baptist Church
Carlisle, PA

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Life, Law, and Love

How can you live the good life?  In this question, the “good life” is not referring to a life abounding in material comforts and luxuries, but a life that is truly good – a life that is pleasing to God and leads to eternal life.  This was the question a rich young man asked Jesus when he said, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” (Matthew 19:16).  The young man was already living “the good life” according to the worldly definition of the phrase, for he already had “great possessions” (Matthew 19:22).  But his inquiry was about what good he must do to have eternal life.

As Jesus so often did, he responded to the young man’s question with a question of his own: “Why do you ask me about what is good?”  (Matthew 19:17).  Jesus points the young man to an issue of critical importance: how can you know what is good?  Many people in our own day would answer that individuals define what is good for themselves.  People are taught to look within and to follow their heart.  But such counsel is folly and disastrous.   Instead, Jesus points the young man and us to the only source of good who is able to truly define what is good: “There is only one who is good” and that one is God.

This good God, the one true and living God, has clearly defined for humanity what is good.  As Jesus goes on to say, “If you would enter life, keep the commandments” (Matthew 19:17).  In particular, Jesus points the young man to the Ten Commandments, listing five of them (cf. Exodus 20:12-16) along with a summary statement known as the second great commandment (cf. Matthew 19:18-19):

• “You shall not murder” (6^th commandment)
• “You shall not commit adultery” (7^th commandment)
• “You shall not steal” (8^th commandment)
• “You shall not bear false witness” (9^th commandment)
• “Honor your father and mother (5^th commandment)
• “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (from Leviticus 19:18)

God has revealed what is good in His Law of Love – the Ten Commandments.  The young man would certainly have been taught the Ten Commandments as a boy and probably could recite them.  But being able to recite the commandments does not mean that one understands them or keeps them.  Because the young man had a superficial understanding of God’s law he said, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” (Matthew 19:20).  He did not understand that God’s law goes deeper than mere external conformity.  God’s law penetrates all the way down to the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.  To keep the commandments and really do good is to obey the commandments from a heart that loves God supremely and loves others truly.  The young man had not truly kept God’s law.

Jesus cared too much about this young man to let him go on in his delusion.  As Mark writes, “And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me” (Mark 10:21).  Sometimes love means saying the hard thing.  In love, Jesus exposed the young man’s failure to keep God’s law.  This young man loved his wealth and possessions more than he loved God or his neighbors.  His heart was exposed as a lawless heart devoid of true love.  If we examine our own hearts against the standard of God’s Law of Love, we must all admit that we fall short of keeping God’s commandments as well.

So how can we who are not good live the good life?  How can we inherit eternal life?  Jesus gave the answer to the young man when he said, “come, follow me.”  To live the good live and have eternal life we must follow and put our trust in the One who actually lived the good life: Jesus Christ.  He is the only one who has perfectly kept God’s law and perfectly loved.  As Jesus said, “I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father” (John 14:31).  In his greatest act of love, Jesus lovingly obeyed his Father by laying down his life at the cross to pay the penalty for our lawless lives, so that all who believe in him may have life in his name (John 20:31).  Do you have the good life that is found in Jesus Christ?

John Miller
Grace Baptist Church
Carlisle, PA

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True Freedom

In recent weeks, many young people have experienced the joy of completing another milestone in their education.  At countless high school graduations, thousands of students have heard commencement addresses and valedictory speeches.  Such speeches from students sometimes include reminiscence about the time together with a hint of sadness at its coming to an end, while the overwhelming focus of the speeches is upon the bright future ahead and the excitement of newfound freedom that comes with the next phase of life. 

But what is meant by this freedom?  For many, it is the freedom of going to college and living on their own away from home.  For those who recognize that with greater freedom comes greater responsibility, it can be a time of great growth in maturity.  But for others, who view it as the freedom to do whatever they want or the freedom from any moral restraints, it can be a sad time of self-destruction. 

Forty years ago in a commencement address at Harvard University, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn warned against this abuse of freedom: “Destructive and irresponsible freedom has been granted boundless space. Society appears to have little defense against the abyss of human decadence, such as, for example, misuse of liberty for moral violence against young people, such as motion pictures full of pornography, crime, and horror. It is considered to be part of freedom and theoretically counterbalanced by the young people’s right not to look or not to accept. Life organized legalistically has thus shown its inability to defend itself against the corrosion of evil.” 

Solzhenitsyn’s words point to humanity’s deepest problem and our greatest need.  We need not merely to be freed from tyranny from without, but from the raging tyranny within each of our hearts: the tyranny of sin within.  Ever since the fall of Adam and Eve into sin through their disobedience in the garden in Eden, humanity has been enslaved to evil desires, even from birth.  As the psalmist declares, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5).  These sinful desires develop into sinful attitudes and actions, which have enslaved us all.  As Jesus says in John 8:34, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.” 

But the glorious news is that Jesus Christ has come to meet our greatest need and to bring us true freedom!  As Jesus says in John 8:31-32, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  The truth is that we are all born with wicked hearts of rebellion against God, and we all have committed evil sins against him and deserve eternal punishment.  But Jesus has come not only to take the penalty that our sins deserve, but to free us from the tyranny of sin in our own hearts by giving us renewed hearts that love him, that are truly free.  For true freedom is not the freedom to do whatever we want, but the freedom to want to do what is right and true, namely, what is pleasing to God.  Do you have true freedom?

John Miller
Grace Baptist Church
Carlisle, PA

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The Grace of Spiritual Vision

The most famous hymn in the English language is “Amazing Grace” written by John Newton in the 18^th century.  But what exactly is the grace of which Newton speaks?  One of the ways he describes the impact of this grace is how it transforms a person’s spiritual vision: “Was blind, but now I see.”  Consider some of the ways this grace moves a person from spiritual blindness to spiritual sight.

First, apart from the grace of God we are blind to the true meaning of Scripture. Many people who have read the Bible confess that they do not understand what it means.  One of the main reason for this is spiritual blindness.  The Bible is the very Word of God given to us from apostles and prophets who “spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21b).  But as the Apostle Paul explains, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). 

When John Newton began to read the Bible for himself he recognized that he could not understand it on his own, but he found help when he read the words of Jesus in Luke 11:13, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”  Newton wrote in his journal concerning this verse: “I have need of that very Spirit, by which the whole was written, in order to understand [the Bible] aright.  He has engaged here to give that Spirit to those who ask: I must therefore pray for it; and if it be of God, he will make good on his own word.”  The grace Newton experienced was the grace of the Holy Spirit enabling him to understand the Scriptures. 

Second, apart from the grace of God we are blind to the reality of our sin against God.  John Newton described his life of sin and rebellion against God in these words: “I was capable of anything; I had not the least fear of God before my eyes, nor (so far as I remember) the least sensibility of conscience.”  In this state of blindness, a person may experience bad feelings at being caught in their sin (such as lying or sexual immorality) or having to face some of the consequences of their sin (such as public shame or having to leave public office), but there is no genuine sorrow over having offended God, the Creator and Sustainer of all life. 

But when God in His grace gives spiritual sight, such people see that heinousness of their offense against the Holy God.  As Newton states in the second stanza: “‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear.”  The grace of spiritual vision opens the eyes to see the glory and awe of Almighty God that leads to a holy terror that exclaims with the Prophet Isaiah “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5).

Third, apart from the grace of God we are blind to the only way of salvation in Jesus Christ.  In their spiritual blindness, people try to save themselves from the coming wrath of God by their own efforts and good works, but all to no avail.  They do not see the only way to be saved from the ravages of sin and its eternal consequences is through the work of Jesus Christ.  As Paul states, the devil “has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4). 

But when God in his grace opens blind eyes, Jesus Christ is seen for who he truly is: The only Savior of sinners.  This was Newton’s experience while reading the Scripture at sea: “Thus far I was answered, that before we arrived in Ireland, I had a satisfactory evidence in my own mind of the truth of the Gospel, as considered in itself, and of its exact suitableness to answer all my needs…. I stood in need of an Almighty Savior; and such a one I found described in the New Testament.”  The grace Newton experienced was the grace of faith in the Lord Jesus, a “grace my fears relieved.”

The grace of spiritual vision truly is amazing grace, a grace still available to be experienced today to all who like John Newton ask the Lord for it. 

John Miller
Grace Baptist Church
Carlisle, PA

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How Can We Live Biblically?

What does it mean to live according to the Bible?  The new TV sitcom Living Biblically seeks to explore this question in a humorous way.  Chip Curry, the main character, is shaken by the death of his best friend and further stirred up to be a better man by the news that his wife is expecting their first child.  In pursuit of this goal of becoming a better man, Chip decides to live strictly in accordance with the Bible.  The problem is that Chip does not really understand the Bible, and therefore misapplies the Bible (which supplies part of the humor for the show).  Nevertheless, the question of how we can live biblically is vitally important and deserves careful reflection and a serious answer.  This brief article can only begin to scratch the surface by pointing to two further questions we must rightly answer if we are to live biblically.

First, what is the Bible?  Some people see the Bible as a rule book for how to live a good life.  Others see it as a collection of interesting stories that teach moral lessons like Aesop’s Fables.  Still others see the Bible as a record of the religious thoughts of ancient peoples.  But what is a biblical view of the Bible?  In other words, what does the Bible say about itself?  The Bible’s testimony to itself is that it is the very word of the Living God, revelation from God given to humanity.  As the Apostle Paul writes, “All Scripture is breathed out by God” (2 Timothy 3:16a).  Certainly, God used the instrumentality of His Apostles and Prophets to give us this revelation, “but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21b).  God used men from various times and places who wrote in different styles and types of literature to communicate His revelation.  Behind the numerous human authors of the Bible stands One Divine Author, God Himself, and in the Bible He gives us His revelation. 

This leads to a second question, what is the Bible about?  Does God merely reveal helpful tips for a better life or rules to follow to improve yourself?  Not according to the Bible itself.  Jesus taught the disciples on the road to Emmaus that the Bible is primarily about Him.  As Luke states, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27).  Later with other disciples, Jesus “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:45-47).  In summary, the Bible is primarily about God’s great plan enacted throughout human history to save sinful and rebellious people from the judgment they deserve by the work of Jesus Christ in his righteous life, atoning death, and life-giving resurrection on behalf of all who repent and believe in Him. As Paul states, the Scriptures “are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15).   

While much more could be written, these brief thoughts show that if we would live biblically, we must first have a biblical view of the Bible and its message that true life is found only in Jesus Christ.  As the Apostle John reminds us, the Scriptures “are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:31).

John Miller
Grace Baptist Church
Carlisle, PA

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Joy inexpressible and filled with glory

Are you a person who is filled with joy? And if so, is it a joy that lasts?

Do you know a joy that abides even through great difficulties and hardships?

Though we live in a land that declares the right of every citizen to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” it seems as though many people are pursuing happiness but find it to be elusive or fleeting. For example, a recent article in the New York Times reports that a new course at Yale University is the school’s most popular class ever, a course titled “Psychology and the Good Life” that teaches students how to live happier lives.

According to one of the students in the article, the reason for the unprecedented popularity of the course is that “a lot of us are anxious, stressed, unhappy, numb.” The course seeks to remedy the unhappy state by teaching students to develop habits like “showing more gratitude, procrastinating less, increasing social connections.”

Perhaps such lessons will help alleviate some of the stress and gloom in these students’ lives, but will it show them where to find joy that lasts?

One astounding example of those who experienced a deep and abiding joy that endured even through trials is the recipients of 1 Peter. In this letter, the Apostle Peter writes to Christians who have been scattered throughout the Roman Empire by persecution. They have lost their homes and previous social connections, and yet Peter describes them as those who “rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory” (1 Peter 1:8).

How is it that they are able to have such joy in such difficult circumstances?

Part of the answer is that they had learned the great lesson about lasting joy: joy that lasts cannot be rooted in the ever-changing circumstances of our lives in this world, but only in the unchanging God and the salvation that has come through His Son, Jesus Christ.

They had come to understand that Jesus, by his life, death, and resurrection, had secured the forgiveness of their sin, reconciliation with God, and eternal life for all who trust in Him. They knew that though they lost homes in this world, their true home is in the presence of the Lord where they have “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:4).

And they knew that while they were in midst of trials, God Himself was with them by the Holy Spirit, guarding them by His mighty power “through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:5).

So they were able to rejoice, not in the trials, but in their ever-faithful Lord and their secure salvation in Him. This abiding joy is still available to all who enroll in the school of Christ, and learn these lessons taught by His Spirit in His Word.

John Miller
Grace Baptist Church
Carlisle, PA

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