No Difference!

Struck hard by Rom 3.22, the verse before the more famous Rom 3.23. "Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:"(KJV)

1. What do we need? The righteousness of God.
2. How does it come? By faith of Jesus Christ.
3. To whom does faith come? Unto all and upon all them that believe.
4. Why does it come to all that believe? Because there is no difference (between us all); for as Rom 3.22 will tell us, we are all sinners.


- "Grace is the glory of God, not the merit of him who has been freed." Prosper of Aquitaine

Location:Laguna Woods

Expound, Testify, Convince

Luke uses several interesting words to describe Paul communicating the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Jewish community in Rome (Acts 28.23). He writes: When they had appointed a day for him, they came to his lodging in greater numbers. From morning until evening he expounded to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the Law of Moses and from the prophets.

"To expound" means "to convey information by careful elaboration," so Paul took all day, and we are probably talking 10 to 12 hours, to try and get his hearers to understand his message; that Christ was the Messiah and the fulfillment of the Tanakh (OT Scriptures). This is why we refer to the elucidation of the Scriptures to an audience as "expounding" the text; and why we teach expositorily. We are trying to convey information from the Scriptures by careful elaboration.

"To testify is "to make a serious declaration on the basis of presumed personal knowledge." This is not to imply that Paul had secret knowledge or knew more than his hearers. He had a new application for them by the personal knowledge of Jesus Christ and the events surrounding his life and death, and their application to the Tanakh.

Finally "to convince" is "to convince someone to believe something and to act upon that belief." One can see how good the word is that Luke chooses. Paul wasn't calling the Jews in Rome to an intellectual understanding of the Scriptures; he was calling them to a belief that would rock their world and change the way they lived.

KJV Word of the Day: Helps

I take this word from Acts 27.17: They used helps, undergirding the ship. No one is quite sure exactly what this means, suspecting that it is a technical term for some part of the ship.

Jacob Sets up a Standing Stone

Jacob has an incident—as he is fleeing to Haran, some 1000km away—that so impresses him that he sets up a stone as a memorial of the event. Indeed, in the Hebrew in Gen 28.11, it is referred to three times as "the place," emphasizing its importance.

"The place," Jacob will rename Bethel—the house of God. In order to remember where God reiterates the covenant he made with Abraham (and which he also made with Isaac), Jacob sets up a stone on it's end (in Hebrew a matseba) as a pillar of remembrance. The word means "a standing stone," and it was common to set one up as a reminder of something important. Moses will erect 12 of them around Mt. Sinai as a reminder of the 12 tribes (Ex 24.4). Jacob will set up one at Rachel's tomb (Gen 35.20). We begin to understand the importance of that place to Jacob when we see that he set up a matseba. The night will change his life.

KJV Word of the Day: Stave

A "stave" was a strong wooden stick used as a pole or weapon (OED). I take it from Matt 26.47: "And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people."

Watch and Pray

Christ's instructions to Peter, John, and James after they had fallen asleep while he was praying. He tells them: "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matt 26.41, KJV).

This is truth which obviously extends to every believer—the disciples would learn this lesson well. The antidote to falling into temptation is to watch and pray and we should pay very close attention to this statement. The word that the KJV translates "watch" means "to stay on the alert," which was an obvious reference to them falling asleep. However, I think that Christ has a double meaning here of both "watch so you don't fall asleep," but also "watch yourselves so that you don't fall away from following me."

The twin antidotes to falling into temptation is to carefully watch your life so that you turn away from every from of evil, and to pray. We would do well as followers of Christ to listen to his words and act.

The Least of These

Every time I read Christ's words in Matt 25.45, I'm haunted in a good way; in a challenging way. Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me (KJV), Christ says. In other words, "If you do not serve those who are naked and poor and hungry and in prison, you do not serve me, AND YOU ARE NOT A FOLLOWER OF MINE." Sobering words, indeed.

I'm challenged each time I read through this passage (twice a year) that I need to better live up to what Christ calls me here. Before reading Tim Keller's excellent book on what mercy ministry looks like, I was inclined to be too judgmental and overly critical of those in need of mercy. Thanks to the work of the Holy Spirit through Tim, I'm beginning to overcome that judgmental approach and take a much more grace-driven approach.

So I've felt free to buy a homeless guy breakfast in Los Angeles, and a different one lunch. Now I'm starting to want to hear their story if they're willing to tell it. Do we need to be discerning in mercy ministry? Sure. I STILL don't just hand out cash to the homeless, lest they spend it on their addictions. However, a grace-filled approach allows me to better see them as individuals and better serve them as a follower of Christ. I'm not where I should be yet, but I'm moving in the right direction.

KJV Word of the Day: Sod

Sod is the past tense form of the archaic word seethe, which means to cook by boiling. The metaphorical use of "seethe" is still in use in the English language—"when the IRS audited my tax return, I was seething with anger."

I take the term from Gen 25.29: “And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint: ” (Genesis 25:29, KJV 1900).

Paul to Felix: "I am in Agreement with the Pharisees...sort of"

In Paul's defense before Felix (Acts 24.14ff) he acknowledges the areas of agreement with his accusers (who now seem to be Pharisees, or at least some of the Pharisees). He says that:

• I worship the God of my fathers
• I believe all things that are written in the law and the prophets
• I have hope toward God
• I believe in the resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust
• I work to always have a conscience void of offense both to man and God

In other words, Paul is saying that he agrees almost completely with his accusers. The area of disagreement is on the person of Christ. Paul says that Christ is the Messiah, his accusers disagree, and want to see him killed.

All in all it is a brilliant defense from Paul, and Luke clearly weaves into the narrative Paul's innocence, both from his own perspective and from the perspective of Felix, the one who could set Paul free.

Ruth as an Example of God's Grace

Reading in Neh 13.1, this morning, in which it says that, as they were reading the book of Moses, they read that the Ammonite and Moabite should not come into the congregation of God forever. Ruth was a Moabite, what gives?

It seems pretty clear that the prohibition was for the Moabites as a people, not as individuals. So you have God in essence cursing a people, but then we see him paving the way for individuals to be accepted into the congregation of God. This is grace in action. Ruth was accepted by grace, even though she was a Moabite. I take this to mean that any other Moabite who left their (false) god and turned to the true and living God would be accepted as well.

KJV Word of the Day: Stead

This word is taken from Gen 22.13: And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. It is an archaic word for place, which is still used in the words "homestead" or "farmstead."

God Did Tempt Abraham

Reading in Gen 22.1, this morning, where the KJV reads: And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham. The Hebrew word there is better rendered "to test," or "to cause or allow hardship in a situation." So the ESV translates it (better): God tested Abraham.

It was a severe test, no matter how one translates the word, perhaps the most severe apart from Christ going to the cross for our sins. "Take your son and offer him up as a sacrifice! Yes, the one through whom I promised you a multitude of descendants, as numerous as the stars in the heavens."

One struggles to find adequate words to describe Abraham's anguish as he climbed Mt. Moriah with the boy. Hebrews 11 tells us that Abraham believed that God could raise Isaac from the dead, so we can assume that Abraham thought that he would have to go through with what the angel of the Lord had commanded. It is a dramatic moment, one of the most dramatic in the Scriptures, and obviously a type of the full and final sacrifice of Christ at the cross.

KJV Word of the Day: Implead

I take this from Acts 19.38: Wherefore if Demetrius, and the craftsmen which are with him, have a matter against any man, the law is open, and there are deputies: let them implead one another. As KJB Word Book points out, implead is an archaic word for "sue in a court of justice," or "bring charges against." It is a lonely rendering, for the prior translations had “let them accuse one another” and the revised versions returned to that. RSV has “let them bring charges against one another” and “we are in danger of being charged with rioting today.”

The Great, the Mighty, the Terrible God

KJV actually does a more interesting translation of Neh 9.32 then the ESV does. KJV translates it: Now therefore our God, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God, who keepest covenant and mercy. On the other hand, the ESV renders it: Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love.

Which is better terrible God or awesome God? The translated Hebrew word is "to fear." It means "to be in fear of," "to shudder at," "to be awed by," "to overawe, or alarm." It is difficult to get an exact correlation from Hebrew to English because we are not supposed to fear God as we would fear danger, for instance. On the other hand if we were to translate it "to reverence" God, I think that is not strong enough, and awesome God is a nice try from the ESV, but I don't think that is strong enough either. Thus the difficulties of biblical translation.

This is the very reason that C. S. Lewis so brilliantly captures the character of God by using a lion in the Narnia Chronicles. The lion is kind and gentle (most of the time) to Lucy, Edmund, Peter, and Susan. When he needs to be the lion is absolutely fear-inducing. He is strong. He is terrible. This sort of gets at the truth of "awesome God" or "terrible God" here in Nehemiah. The minute we start thinking of God as a kindly, old grandfather, is the minute we start to go astray.

As Lucy points out to Mr. Timnus, "He is not a tame lion."

Mr. Timnus responds, "No, but he is good."

Just so.

The Great God

Thinking about Neh 8.6, this morning: And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God (KJV). I like the way the KJV translates this passage. It's interesting that the ESV figured it couldn't improve on the translation since it translates the passage the exact same way. Indeed the Hebrew reads pretty much the same except the order is: And he blessed, Ezra, the great God, which conforms to Hebrew word order.

The salient point is that we serve, we love, we worship, the great God. The Hebrew is not "a great God," but "the great God." The people who heard the words of the Scriptures that day were profoundly moved by having them read and then explained to them. Oh that we would be so moved as we read and understand them day by day.

KJV Word of the Day: List

I take this from Matt 17.12, where Christ says, "But I say unto you, Elias has already come and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed."

The word means "to desire" or "to wish." The KJV Word Book says that it is archaic now, but survives in the word "listless."

Paul at Athens

Reading in Acts 17.22-31, this morning where Paul gives his speech at Athens. I'm struck by Paul's boldness in flatly declaring: "Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you" (KJV). My sense is that Paul knew what he was doing when he started off this way. I'm guessing that he was getting their attention by, in essence, calling them ignorant (which as it so happens, they were).

The other thing that stands out to me here is how Paul describes the character of God, which stands in contrast to what he emphasized when he was speaking to a largely Jewish audience who were familiar with the Tanakh. He points out that:

1. God made all things

2. God is Lord of heaven and earth.

3. God does not dwell in any house made of human hands.

4. God does not need anything from man.

5. God gave life to all things.

6. God made all men from one person.

7. All men should seek the Lord.

8. God is not far from any man.

9. In God we live and move and have our being.

10. God is calling all men everywhere to repent.

11. Judgment is coming.

12. Christ, the risen, will be the judge on that day.

Lydia

Reading about the conversion of Lydia in Acts 16.14. Luke tells us three things about her: She is from Thyatira; she is a seller of purple; and she was a worshiper of God. Ben Witherington in the Anchor Bible Dictionary says that she was a Jew; Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible says that she was a Gentile who had not converted to Judaism, but joined in worship with the Jews—an interesting disagreement.

At any rate she comes to faith—and here Luke is very careful with his words—The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul (ESV), or as KJV puts it: Whose heart the Lord opened that she attended unto the things which were spoken by Paul.

Lydia, who as a seller of purple cloth was probably quite well to do—purple cloth was the color of royalty so it was worn only by the privileged classes—comes to faith, the first convert that Luke mentions in Europe. The first church in Europe is rapidly (the same day apparently) established in her own home. It is with good purpose that Luke mentions her by name in Acts.

We cannot all be entrepreneurs like Lydia; however, we can have our hearts opened to the gospel by the Lord. Like Lydia, our duty is to listen and allow the Holy Spirit to come to bear on our hearts.

When Christians Disagree

Acts 15.36-41 is an interesting passage. There is a sharp disagreement between Paul and Barnabas over whether or not they should allow John Mark—he had abandoned them during their first missionary journey—back onto the missional team. Barnabas, the son of encouragement, wanted him back on. Paul disagreed. Luke points out that the disagreement grew so sharp that Barnabas and Paul had to separate over it.

Notice, however, their separation. Both continue in the work of the gospel; both go their separate ways; Barnabas takes John Mark and goes to Cypress; Paul takes Silas and heads to Syria. In God's ever sovereign way, he uses the disagreement to effectively double the force of missionaries.

Paul will later realize that John Mark is fit for the ministry (Col 4.10). The salient points here are that, first of all genuine, faithful Christians are going to have disagreements about how ministry should be done. This is not in itself a bad thing. Second, God can use these disagreements to further the gospel. Third, it's perfectly okay to explore solutions to problems that stem from these disagreements. There is no evidence that Paul and Barnabas hated each other, or that their conflict was unresolved. The difficulty was resolved by them agreeing to separate, and continue further ministry.

KJV Word of the Day: Charger

"Charger" is taken from Matt 14.8; And she, being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me John Baptist's head on a charger.

A charger was a platter large enough to be loaded with roast meat and served.