The New Bereans

When a project in the engineering world goes bad, there is a decision that needs to be made in order to correct the failure.  That decision is whether or not to scrap the project and start all over, or to attempt to fix the problem on the project already in process.  For example, from my own line of work, if I design a cabinet and build it to the specification I made and come across information later that enlightens me to a flaw in my design, I am forced to choose to try to fix the flaw during the manufacturing process, or I have to start all over again.  The temptation to start over is often overwhelming.   When there seems to be no way to “stretch” the cabinet that is ruined, there, on occasion, is little to no recourse but to do exactly that…start over.  On occasion, a solution may be found, but it is often the lesser of two evils.  Rarely does a catastrophic mistake or a failure translate into a positive situation (though when they do it is much welcomed.)   A good engineer is always an individual who can anticipate eventualities in any given process.  They have a seemingly innate ability to “see” a project to completion in their minds.

As I contemplate this, I find myself in awe at a God who chose to redeem man, rather than to “start over” with a new creation (at least not until grace has had its fruition in this and the next epoch.)  At the first sign that His creation (man) “failed,” God did not punch a hole in the wall of his heavenly Temple in anger and go back to make a new blueprint.  Rather he promised those failures a hope.  He promised them redemption through the one who would “bruise” the serpents head.  Not only would he redeem man through crushing the serpents head, but he would redeem him through the very act of the serpent piercing His heel.  This means that the greatest offence ever committed against the Creator became the very agency by which all the flaws in creation become ultimately corrected.   From a novice engineering point of view, this concept is beyond staggering.  It is like saying the flaw in my messed up cabinet is going to become the very means by which we (as a business) inherit all the cabinet work in the world and never have to compete again for business, and even that is a pale shadow of grace.  Recovering from an engineering flaw in day to day life in the business world is messy and complicated work.  So also is redemption.   Praise God that he redeems messed up people, instead of writing them off and displaying them as failed exhibits of poor engineering.

“Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound!” -Romans 5:20

No statement ever turned the apple cart over and spoiled the produce and fruit of life greater than these words, “Hath God said?” It is a marvel how little attention we pay to the first known words of the greatest deceiver ever to tread the same soil which sops up the spilled blood of the righteous.   There is no knife of lies sharper and able to penetrate through the conscience of a human being than one honed at the wheel of circular divine doubt.   A doubt that casts a pall upon the veracity of something God hath indeed said.

In light of this, I find a very interesting parallel as it pertains to a way I commonly have heard, and have been personally guilty of, where we fail to seek council from God on particular moral issues.  The conversation usually goes something like this…”doing X is probably a bad thing…” Opponent responds by saying, “I disagree, the Bible never says that X is wrong.”  The exhorted one remains stymied and doesn’t know where to go because Opponent is ‘technically’ right. What we need to realize however is that the nature of sin prevents God from being all inclusive in His written descriptors.  The Ten Commandments cover a vast array of themes and modes of sin, but how those idolatries are articulated are as unique and complex as the array of stars in the night sky.

When faced with a moral decision in life…it is silly and pointless to approach what many would call a “gray area” with a technicians attitude.  Rather, a Christian will be a follower of Christ and this was what Christ’s attitude at all times was, according to Hebrews 10:7, “Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.”  It was upon this foundation stone that the establishment of the New Covenant was erected (read the context) through Jesus Christ.  In so doing all of the Kingdom of Heaven is most blessed by the exhilarating power in even the merest splash of his blood.

Jesus’ life, as an example for us, was a positive demonstration of the power and might of submission to the will of God.  Rather than thinking the absence of technical exhortation against our personal self-destruction is carte blanche to live selfish lives…we ought to approach every day with a peace that simply asks, “What is thy will O Father?”

If, in contrast, we approach any moral decision with an attitude that says, “Hath God said,” we are eating fruit from the mouth of an adder blacker than the deepest singularity.  The black fangs of which will darken your hardened heart with the poison of sin, and you will be blind to the will of God…you will be hidden from His call in the cool of your day.

Recover Eden, seek the will of the Father.

Chris White from Nowhere To Run compiled this sermon from David Guzik on the First Word of the Gospel.  Guzik, as many preachers before him, have re-connected missing aspect of today’s gospel preaching.  If you leave repentance out of your evangelism, you are simply ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I am not typically a fan of Christ being represented in art, however I think this is a video worth posting.