Bible in 90 Days Question

The people of Our Father have answered the Bible in 90 days challenge. We have more than two hundred people reading through the Bible. It is really a neat and fun program. This week marks week two. For this week's blog post, I decided to use a question that was e-mailed to me earlier this week.

Q: I was not aware that the Israelites had to sacrifice their first born (I think it was specifically their first born sons.). Why? Ultimately I have trust in the Lord and realize my ways are not His ways and what he ultimately does may/may not be understood by me. But here is the first thought in my head when I read that last week, “So You in a plague do this to the Egyptians for not letting your chosen people go . . . and then you turn around and ask the very people you took out of Egypt to (as atonement) sacrifice their first born . . . I don’t get it Lord!”

As I said, overall I can see the point as what one must endure to have their sin forgiven in the OT . . . but if you look at the , “He did this to my enemy and now he is asking me (who is part of his chosen people) to sacrifice my first born son to the Lord?”

What a great question. This question refers to verses like Exodus 34:19-20. What is happening here is not that God is requiring that his people sacrifice the first born, but rather that they redeem them. That is that they buy back the firstborn. Of course this raises the question, "from whom are they buying them back?" The answer is God. You see when the last plague of the ten plagues of Egypt took place, the lives of the firstborn were taken. Except in those households that had the lamb's blood on the door frames. And so in this way, God laid a claim on all the firstborn. So then, we get to this verse latter in Exodus and God is saying to the people. "Because I have claim on the firstborn they belong to me, and they need to be redeemed, or bought back by you. This then is how you are to do this..."

So this serves as a reminder of the importance and place of God in the lives of his people. Everything that they have, really ultimately belongs to God. And this redeeming them back is a way of keeping that in the front of their minds. The other thing that this does is point forward to when God would send his own Son who would redeem all of humanity from sin, death and the devil. He did this on the cross. And so, we can see in these verses a kind of foreshadowing taking place.

Here is another question. I am reading Numbers 3:40 – 51 and I am confused. So is the Lord saying I will take the Levites in place of requiring all Israelites to give up their first born? Also is He saying that a collection of 5 shekels must be given?

What is happening here is the establishment of the priesthood. God is saying that instead of having all the firstborn serve as priests, that the tribe of Levi would serve as priests and what so he makes arrangements to be sure that they will be provided and cared for.

This did not stop the redeeming back of the first born, it had more to do with the setting up of the priest hood. It is interesting that in the beginning of Luke's gospel we see Jesus being redeemed at the temple by Joseph and Mary.

I hope this helps. Please continue to ask questions. Blessings.

Pastor CJ

Thanks for your comments.

This is the ultimate good news! Although we can never live up to God's expectation, we are justified by our faith in Christ. When God looks at us in our sinful state, he sees his sinless Son.
It's hard to understand how people accept other religions than Christianity when all of the others require the person to do something to impress God in order to be saved. How can a mere human do anything to impact their being saved?

While you are right, it is important to have a little perspective on this. Part of the teaching on original sin says that in our sin we are enemies of God and hostile toward him. In other words, we don't want God to save us, we can save ourselves thank you very much. This is important in order to understand why people would reject the goodness so freely offered by God in his son Jesus.

It is also important to point out, that in remembering this, we are moved to compassion and not self-righteousness. If we remember this and somehow see ourselves as better than "those people," we have not responded in a way that reflects God's love and grace and mercy.

It is true that God is to be taken seriously and that we are not to merely look the other way when it comes to sin, but our dealings with sin needs to be gracious. There is a fine line and a big difference between good judgment/discernment and being judgmental. We want to exercise the former while not getting caught up in the latter.

Question, please. Some reformed churches (e.g. Baptist, Church of Christ) believe "once saved, always saved." Most traditional denominations (e.g Lutheran, Roman Catholic) believe that one can lose ones salvation through intentional acts.
At first blush, it appears that the reformed doctrine is very similar to Cheap Grace. Is this correct or am I missing something?

No. The reformed teaching of "once saved, always saved, " I believe, is connected to double predestination. Therefore, if God has chosen you to be in the saved group, then no matter what you do or what happens you will be saved. Cheap Grace is grace that is offered whether it is wanted or not. It is grace that is used cheaply so that we do not have to have accountability or any difficult discussion with one another about the way that we live our lives. Cheap Grace says that sin is not really sin and so let's just not worry about it. Cheap grace is you not asking me about my life and I will not ask you about yours.

Do not get me wrong. Cheap grace is no laughing or joking matter. It is one of the most horrific evils that has ever fallen on the church. Because what it ultimately does is to make a mockery of Jesus and the death he died for the sake of the world.

The bottom line in all of this, is that our God loves us. God's love for us is so great that we can barely even begin to comprehend it. God does not love us because of how good or right we are. God loves us because of how good and awesome He is. God is faithful and wants all creation to be restored. That is the bottom line. It is wonderful news and I pray that this is a constant source of strength and comfort for you. God's peace and blessings.

Sincerely,

Pastor CJ

Part III Article XIII

This week's article can be found here.

What more is there to say to this other than "Amen"? So I guess there is a short blog post this week.

This is so simple and sweet. Our salvation, our being right before God is not based on us. It does not come from us. We have it, to be sure. But we have it for the sake of Jesus. We have it because of him. We have it because God is gracious. And he freely gives us this.

This is not a license to sin and do whatever seems good to us. What it means is that when we repent, we can know and be sure of how we stand before God. Because the forgiveness is not based on our merit or worthiness.

This is good news, because we tend to mess things up pretty good. I mean what else would you expect from a sinful human being. We like for things to be good and to depend on us. We like to be able to take credit for them. But the fact of the matter is, that we can't do this on our own. And so God, in his grace, does it for us. And in that we can live in freedom, confidence and hope.

This freedom, confidence and hope is in what God has done in Jesus and not in our own works, that is why there is no room for boasting. That is why we cannot deal with sin in other way than humble. Because that Grace of God is needed by and extended to everyone.

And then, out of this grace comes good works. Good works are necessary. They are not necessary for salvation. They do not earn us anything before God. They do not make him love us more or give us anything special. They are necessary simply because our neighbors need them.

This is a very simple and profoundly beautiful article. I pray that the truth it describes is a source of joy and hope and peace for you.

Sincerely,

Pastor CJ

The Conversation Continues

I apologize for not getting to this sooner. It has been a rather busy week as we are preparing for the fall programming that is headed our way. I thank you for your comments and look forward to this conversation moving forward. Blessings.

Pastor CJ

Old Lutheran said...

I understand your response to the first question and I appreciate the additional insight you provided. What really intrigues me is your comment that Luther and the other Lutheran church fathers felt that the Great Commission had been given only to the Apostles and had been fulfilled through them. How and when did our current view of the Great Commission come about?

August 26, 2009 5:25 PM

Our understanding of the Great Commission came about when we realized that the world we live in is completely different than the world they lived in. For Luther and the church fathers the world was Christian. A citizen of the state was also a member of the church. True, there was this new world that had been discovered, but missionaries would only visit the territories that belonged to the countries they lived in. In other words, you wouldn’t have a German missionary going to work in a territory that belonged to England.

I would argue that they misunderstood this verse. And when you consider their context it is understandable. However, the fact remains that the world we live in today is a very different place.

Old Lutheran said...

If I'm interpreting your answer to the second question correctly, you're saying that even though the Mormons didn't exist at the time of the Smalcald Articles, that once they did come into being, their systematic denial of the basic articles of the Christian faith as defined in the articles means they are by definition not Christian. Boy is that a long sentence.
Is that about it or did I miss the boat again?

August 26, 2009 5:29 PM

I think you got it. Mormonism would even agree with that. Because if you look at the story of Joseph Smith and his encounters with the beings from heaven, he was told that all of the creeds of the current churches were an “abomination.”

The confession of faith is important. But even that is a different way of looking at church than what was going on in Luther’s day. There it was much more political. So it didn’t matter if you knew what the church taught, as long as you played the game. Read Luther’s Preface to the Small Catechism. Very interesting stuff.

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August 26, 2009 5:29 PM

Old Lutheran said...

The phrase "live in sin" was meant to convey the ELCA's conscious and wanton disregard for the Scriptural prohibition against homosexuality in the priesthood. We have all sinned and fall short of the Glory of God, but most of us do not sin intentionally by thumbing our noses at Scripture. There must be a special place in Hell for people who are supposed to be Christ's emissaries on earth (Pastors) and who intentionally deceive their "flocks" by teaching doctrine that is clearly contrary to Scripture.
I wasn't implying that LCMS, WELS, Catholics and other Christians who continue to prohibit open homosexuals from holding the position of Pastor are better than those who don't. But this is a slippery slope that can't be good for Christendom.

August 26, 2009 5:37 PM

I agree that there is a slippery slope here. My point is simply this: when we are talking about such things, we should have those conversations humbly and respectfully. Disagree with another person does not give us a right to be mean or harsh. Even if we are correct and they are incorrect, that still does not give us the right to be harsh. We are obligated to speak the truth. But we must always speak that truth in love. And when we do speak it, we do so without sacrificing truth or love.

This is important for two reasons. One, it reflects how God treats us. We are dead in our sins. We are even enemies of God. He has the right to destroy us and wipe us off the face of the earth. And yet, he chooses to deal with us graciously. He doesn’t look the other way, but in his dealing with us, there is grace. The other reason is that we want people to be reacting to and struggling with the truth of God’s word, not our delivery of that truth. So if the deliver gets in the way, then there is no opportunity for the word to work, because it will not even be heard.

I hope this helps to clear things up.

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday on Friday!

August 26, 2009 5:39 PM

Thank You!