The Substance is of Christ

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Everything in the Old Testament of the Bible points to and is fulfilled in Christ.  The more I read the Bible, the more I see this. 

Holidays (feasts instituted by God) were important to Israel.  They were a time of worship and remembrance.

In the New Testament church there was evidently some debate over whether they should continue to observe the ceremonial law.  Paul encourages believers to give one another grace and reminds them that whether they keep the feasts or not (and whether they continue abiding by the dietary laws or not), the point is to recognize that they have all been fulfilled in Christ.  What the Jewish and Gentile believers had in common was salvation by grace in Christ.  And if they were going to continue in the ceremonial law, it should not be observed in a legalistic way in order to make other believers feel less devout, but celebrated as a memorial to Christ's completion or fulfillment of it.

So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.  Colossians 2:16-17

I love thinking about this.

Christ became our Passover lamb when Israel "selected Him" at His triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday was the 10th of Abib, same day each family in Israel was to select their unblemished lamb.)  Four days later, 14th Abib at twilight, Israel was to kill their passover lambs.  It was no accident this is the day Christ went to the cross.

Christ became our Firstfruits when He rose from the dead, three days after His sacrificial death.  The Feast of Firstfruits was when Israel was to bring an offering of the first of their crops and the priest would wave these sheaves above him so that Israel would be accepted by God (Leviticus 23:9-14).  Guess when Firstfruits was celebrated-  three days after Passover, 17th Abib (Nisan).  So we are accepted by God because Christ offered Himself up for us (He is our priest and our offering)! 

The Feast of Weeks, also called Pentecost, was celebrated 50 days after Firstfruits.  The law was given to Moses 50 days after Israel's crossing of the Red Sea and the Holy Spirit was given 50 days after Christ's resurrection.  The two loaves of bread that were waved in the Feast of Pentecost present a picture of the church with Jews and Gentiles united together.  When we accept Christ as our Savior, we're united in His body, the church, and are given His Spirit.

The Spring holidays outlined above were all fulfilled in Christ's first coming.  The Fall holidays (Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and Feast of Tabernacles) are prophetic of His second coming.

The holidays given to Israel were like a roadmap that led to Christ.  It's the gospel, in the Old Testament.  Why I grew up in the church and never learned any of this, I don't know!  Some great resources that I've found helpful are A Family Guide to the Biblical Holidays With Activities for All Ages by Robin Sampson and Linda Pierce and Jesus, Awesome Power, Awesome Love by Kay Arthur, especially chapter 3.

Abounding in faith

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I'm still plugging away at memorizing Colossians this year, two verses per week.  It's been over a month since I memorized the following verses, but I can't seem to get them off my mind.

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus your Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.  Colossians 2:6-7

It's all good, but what I keep coming back to is the "abounding in it with thanksgiving" part.  You see, I think of faith as either you have it or you don't.  Have you responded to the gospel of truth with belief?  Then you have faith in Christ.  Either you believe in Christ or you don't.  We even use the term believer to refer to a Christian. 

Abounding refers to having something in a great amount or full supply.  There can be an abundance or dearth of salt in the salt shaker, for instance.  So it seems to be with faith.  We can have a little faith in Christ or we can have a great deal of faith in Him. 

What's even more interesting is that believers are responsible, to some degree at least, for the amount of faith we have.  Paul couldn't very well tell the Colossians to abound in their faith if they had no control over that! 

This brings me to the question of how we increase our faith until it's overflowing in abundance.  Only God can open our eyes and unstop our ears, but once He's done that, once we've been "established in the faith", we are free to abound in it, or not.

So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Romans 10:17

Could it be this simple, yet profound?  The more immersed we are in God's Word, the more our faith is strengthened.

I'm sure there are other things we can do that will strengthen our faith, like keeping a prayer journal, surrounding ourselves with godly friends, or studying molecular biology (it did for me, anyway).  But, I believe the primary way God builds our faith in Him is through the ministry of His Word.  Take these promises, for instance.

My God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 4:19

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.  Psalm 23:6

No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.  Psalm  84:11

I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.  Isaiah 41:10

For those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.  Romans 8:28

Do we really believe these promises?  John Piper says that "this faith is the power that severs the root of sin."  (Piper, Battling Unbelief p 15)  "We throw against the promises of sin the promises of God.  We kill sinful deeds before they happen by cutting the root of their life:  the lies of sin.  Doing this "by the Spirit" means that we trust in the power of the Spirit and then wield the "sword of the Spirit", which is the word of God (Ephesians 6:17)."  (Piper, Battling Unbelief, p 16)

This brings us back to the Colossians verses above.  When viewed this way, "abounding in faith" enables us to "walk in Christ".  It seems Paul is saying to abound in faith so that we can walk in Christ.  And this is just what Piper is saying.  If we really believe God's Word, if we really believe all those promises, then sin will lose its appeal.  When our faith in the Lord is overflowing, or abounding, we're equipped to walk in obedience.  God has revealed Himself to us in His Word.  All of His promises, many already fulfilled, are recorded in the pages of Scripture.  His Word feeds our faith in Him and the measure of our faith in Him determines the degree to which we'll walk in obedience.

So let's abound in faith together!

A week of new challenges- I must be insane!

As if life with 6 kids weren't challenging enough : ), this week I've embarked on a few new challenges.

I learned about the 60 day Insanity total body conditioning program from Roan at Joyful Always, that crazy woman who just finished her first marathon despite falling in the midst of it!  That should tell you something about this program.  I'm now two days in and feeling quite out of shape, but challenged, definitely challenged.

I'm not a video workout kind of person.  The last time I remember working out with my tv was trying to dance along to my mom's Jackie Sorenson aerobics video.  I think I was 11.  Just when I would get down a move she would have gone on to the next one.  Frustrating.  I'm a simple person.  A simple, uncoordinated person.  Running and swimming are more my speed, albeit a slow one.  This is fun, though, and let's not forget challenging.

The second challenge I'm taking up yet again this week is the 90 day Bible challenge.  Last summer I read through the Bible in June-August, but August was really tough because of homeschool planning and starting the school year a bit early.  I decided to read in May-July this year which will give me August off to get our school year planned. 

This will be my 4th time to read through the Bible in the last year and a half.  This challenge has meant so much to me!  It's the boost I needed to get into God's Word enough to make me really hunger for it.  It's allowed me to make meaningful connections between the Old and New Testaments and provided a framework for the in-depth studies I participate in.  For instance, this year in CBS we studied the history of Israel and the minor prophets.  Have you ever studied books like Nahum, Zephaniah, and Habakkuk?  Thanks to the 90 day Bible challenge I already had the context in which these men of God prophesied.  More importantly, I've grown in my knowledge of God, which has brought me closer to Him.  I see that He's the same God yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  That He is both the covenant maker and covenant keeper.  That He is a God of love and mercy, but also a holy and just God who will judge the world.

And I'm still plugging away at the challenge of memorizing Colossians in a year, working on verses 3 and 4 of chapter 2 this week.  It's almost harder to keep at something for a year than just 2 or 3 months.  I'm loving meditating on the deep Christological passages in Colossians, though.  What a Savior we have! 

I'm grateful for the accountability these challenges provide.  Discipline is tough.  It requires work, whether to bring my body into submission through Insanity or my mind and will into submission through reading and memorizing God's Word.  Please keep the encouragement coming my way and I'll try to pass it back to you!  Sharpening one another is what it's all about, right?

What new challenges are you embarking on?

The power to... obey?

One of the great things about being in Christ through faith is having access to God's power.  Think about it.  The God who made the heavens and earth, who sustains our lives, who holds the heart of the king in His hands, who resurrected Christ from the dead,we're talking about this God.  As believers, indwelt by the Spirit of God, we have access to the great and glorious power of the omniopotent God of the universe!  Wow!

I don't know about you, but the first thing that comes to my mind when I ponder access to this kind of power is to think of all my friends and loved ones in need of physical healing.  God's power is certainly able to heal.  If God's power were like a genie in a bottle, granting me three wishes, my next wish would be to end world hunger.  Next I would bring world peace. (Do I sound like a beauty contestant?)   Most of us probably think about these visible realities around us in need of fixing.  We want to bring God's power to bear on these terrible problems, thus creating utopia.  Paul helps me to see a different purpose in God's power.

Paul prays that the Christians in Colosse will be "strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;"  Colossians 1:11

I don't know exactly what difficult circumstances the Colossians were facing, but I find it telling that Paul doesn't ask God to remove those circumstances from them or to solve their problems.  Instead, Paul prays that God will strengthen these believers with all might, the kind of might only available according to God's glorious power.  But what is the purpose of this outpouring of power?  Are we going to see great signs and wonders to evidence the Colossians faith?  No.  Paul asks God to give them the power to be patient.  They need the power to endure whatever trial they're going through with longsuffering and get this, joy.  The power to be patient and endure difficulty with joy certainly doesn't seem like a glamorous display of God's power on par with my three wishes, but let's take a closer look.

What is the opposite of patience and longsuffering?  Anxiety?  Worry?  Not trusting God?  These are sins, are they not?  And if we don't endure with joy, what's the alternative?  Grumbling against God?  Complaining? Cursing God?  Again, sin.  Could it be just this simple?  Paul is praying that God will grant the Colossians the power to obey.

Now let's think back to my three wishes:  I wanted to use God's power to heal diseases, end hunger, and bring peace to the world.  The three problems I mentioned share something in common with one another and with every other problem in the world today- the root cause is sin.  Adam's sin brought about a curse on this world.  Disease and hunger are but two manifestations of the curse.  And peace?  There is no peace apart from Christ.  Our sin created a great gulf between us and our holy God.  Only Christ's atoning sacrifice is sufficient to bridge that gulf and bring us peace with God.

The problem is sin.  The solution is obedience.  Only Christ lived a perfectly obedient life, even to the point of receiving the wrath of God poured out on our sins, which He bore for us. 

We all begin our lives enslaved to sin.  When God saves us and places us in Christ, He delivers us from the power of darkness and conveys us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:13)  So, in Christ we are no longer controlled by the power of darkness.  We are no longer slaves to sin.  In Christ, we have the power to obey.  And while our personal obedience may not affect our outward circumstances, it is the answer.  When we walk in obedience we fulfill our destiny.  When we obey the Lord, we act like His people who are in Christ.  It may not seem glamorous, but obedience to God takes supernatural power that only He can provide.  May we be faithful to pray this for ourselves, our families, and our churches.  May God grant us the power through Christ to obey Him. 

The important role of knowledge in sanctification

Somewhere along the way the church abandoned knowledge. Maybe it was after Darwin's theory of natural selection gained such popularity that the church began to see science as its enemy and knowledge by extension. Just walk the aisles of any Christian bookstore and read the titles. Books that feed our emotions sell a lot better than books that feed our minds.

Spirituality is considered by many to be dependent upon our subjective determination of how close we feel to Christ. (This obsession with feelings has also plagued other of our relationships with marriage topping the list.) Does our relationship with Christ have anything to do with feelings, His or ours? Is our holiness based on how close we feel to the Lord? Even our worship, which is supposed to be about pleasing God, is usually evaluated by how it makes us feel.

I've been memorizing Colossians this year, just two verses per week, and have been meditating on Paul's prayer for the church in Colosse. Here's what Paul says about sanctification and notice there's no mention of feelings anywhere.

"For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God..." Colossians 1:9-10 (emphasis mine)

According to Paul, our sanctification begins and ends with knowledge. It starts with the knowledge of God's will. So many believers want to know God's will for their lives, but they aren't willing to search for it in His Word. The knowledge of God's will is revealed in His Word. How can we be obedient to that of which we are ignorant? So, our spiritual growth must begin with knowledge of God's will.

This knowledge is not knowledge for knowledge sake though. It has a purpose- "... that you may walk worthy of the Lord." Have you heard it said that right thinking leads to right living? Right thinking could certainly end there in cold indifference, but right living must begin with right thinking. Obedience begins in the mind! Then get this, our fruitful good works that were made possible by learning God's will, cause a further increase in the knowledge of God! (v. 10)

Each round of sanctification begins and ends with knowledge of God. It's as if an onion is being peeled back, layer by layer, knowledge by knowledge, with spiritual growth ("being fruitful") sandwiched in between.

God made our emotions and when bridled they can be used for God's glory, but it doesn't appear that they play much of a role in spirituality at all.

What a great prayer- that we would be filled with the knowledge of God's will, that we would walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God! I'm loving Colossians!