Nice Guys Finish Last

I am a very competitive person.  I love to win and I love to be the best.  As such, I have high standards for myself and for other people as well.  Some might even call me a perfectionist and perhaps you are a perfectionist yourself.

                But deep down inside, I think we all yearn to be the greatest.  I haven’t met a single person who likes to lose or wants to just be average.  Everywhere we look we have role models and icons and people who we aspire to be, rich and successful and powerful people.

                Is it any wonder, then, that Jesus’s disciples argued amongst themselves over who might be the greatest in the kingdom of God?  Some of us here today would even call ourselves Disciples of Christ because Christ is our inspiration and role model, among many other things.  Who doesn’t want to be the greatest disciple?  Is it wrong to want to be the best Christian?  As it turns out, this is a very dangerous idea, but what makes it so dangerous? What does it mean to be great in God’s kingdom?

To find the answers to these questions, turn with me to Mark 9:33-37.  That’s Mark 9:33-37.

                ³³ Jesus and his disciples came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” ³⁴ But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.

 ³⁵ Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

 ³⁶ He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, ³⁷ “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”

So what’s really going on here?

                If we look at Mark 9:1, we might get a sense of why the disciples are arguing.  There Jesus states, “I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.”  The disciples know that a kingdom is coming, but they have no idea what it is.  It seems they are arguing about who will have high positions in the new Kingdom of God.  However, when Jesus confronts them, the disciples’ silence says everything and the mood suddenly grows tense.

                Imagine you are at work and your boss discovers a group of you stealing from the company.  Your boss would likely hold a meeting with all those involved and then go over company policy and procedure concerning what has happened.  We see in v35 that this is exactly what Jesus does.  He calls together the disciples and everyone sits down and as we would expect Jesus then goes over company policy.  You could almost feel the nervousness of the disciples as they await Jesus’s verdict.  Based on how Jesus handles the situation, we can say with confidence that this was no trivial matter to Him.

                With the disciples fate in the balance, Jesus opens his mouth and says this, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last and the servant of all.”  Jesus repeats this idea three times in Mark, once in Mark 9:35, once in Mark 10:31, and again in Mark 10:42-45.  It is clear that this is a point that bears repeating.  The first will be last and the last will be first.

                You may be confused about what he means the first will be last and the last first, but if you’ve ever stood in a line the meaning becomes easier to understand.  Say for example, that there was a long line at Dunkin Donuts. If you march right up to the front of the line as if you were more important, the cashier would send you to the back of the line anyway.  So not only do you still end up last, but you are also humiliated in the process.  On the contrary, if you would have just waited patiently at the end of the line, eventually you would become first.  It is not until everyone before you is served that you can be served.  In the same way, you cannot force your way to greatness in the Kingdom of God or you will be humbled.

                But what if instead of waiting in line, you strapped on an apron and started serving everyone in front of you?  The manager wouldn’t pay you a wage, but of course would take notice of you and praise you with words or gifts.  In the same way God takes notice of those who serve faithfully without expecting a reward or recognition and exalts them.  The only way, then, to become great in God’s kingdom is to be a servant. So in the Kingdom of God, Jesus values the least the most.

                So now we know how to be great in God’s Kingdom, but logically, to be great in the kingdom, you have to be part of the kingdom.  The question then is, “How can I become part of God’s Kingdom?”

                In verses 36-37, Jesus sets a little child to be our role model.  Now children have absolutely no status or material possession.  Everything they have has been given to them and they have no legal rights to make their own decisions.  Jesus makes clear that whoever does not accept or welcome children in His name does not accept Him.  If we do not accept Jesus we also do not accept the one who sent him, God.  And if we do not accept God as our King, how can we say we are part of his kingdom?  Only those who welcome the least in Christ’s name are welcome in the Kingdom of God.

                But not only do we welcome those of little status but we are to become like those of little status as well.  Mark 10:13-16 is the sister passage to Mark 9:33-37.  Both contain references to children, both show Jesus hugging children and both are about Jesus receiving children.  These two passages were meant to be read together.  Here Jesus says in v15 that whoever will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter into it.

                We see then, the dangerous idea behind wanting to be the greatest in the kingdom of God.  If we consider ourselves to be of privileged status above others, we threaten our own salvation and citizenship in God’s kingdom.  If we turn away those in our society who are considered inferior in some way, we also have no part in Jesus Christ, apart from whom no one can be saved.  Just some examples of people we might consider inferior are the homeless, prostitutes, gays, people of different race or gender, immigrants, women, children, the physically and mentally handicapped, and the list goes on.

These are the least that Jesus values the most.  If we wish to take part in God’s kingdom, we are to be the least by serving the least.  Jesus came not to be served but to serve.  He became the least among us by humbling himself to death on a cross and so God has exalted him to the highest place.  If we wish as well to be exalted by God, we must first humble ourselves in obedience to God and servitude to our brothers and sisters.  Think about it.  If you consider yourself already high, God can’t exalt you much higher.  It is only when you consider yourself lowly that God can then lift you up.

So what have I said?  In order to be the greatest Christian, we must become humble, so I should try my best to be humble, right?  You missed the point.  If being humble was something you could do, then it is also something you can compete with other Christians about.  “I’m more humble than Sally.” “Scott is a better Christian than me because he’s more humble.”  Being a Christian is not a competition, but it’s more like cheese.    Some are more mature than others and some smell a bit weird, but in the end it’s either bread or cheese.  There’s no “sort of cheese” or I-can’t-believe-it’s-not cheese. 

It’s not about how good your cheese is.  It’s not about how many people you can save or about how much you pray or how much you read your Bible.  Being humble is nothing you can do, rather it is knowing your place at the end of the line and not cutting up to the front.  There is no Christian who considers himself greater than his brothers.  Paul himself considers himself the worst sinner, and yet we venerate his life and teachings today not because Paul was any different than us, but rather God has made him great.  He considered himself last before all men in service to them so that God might be glorified.  So you see, Jesus works the most through the least because Jesus values the least the most.

Let us pray.

Sin doesn't matter, because "Love wins"

Sorry, but I am jumping on the Rob Bell bandwagon.  I don't usually have a problem with Universalists provided they can actually defend their position.  I've waited until manuscripts of his book have come out for review before making comments on what might or might not be in it.  Reviews can be found here: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2011/03/14/rob-bell-love-wins-review/
http://www.challies.com/book-reviews/love-wins-a-review-of-rob-bells-new-book
My comments are based upon these reviews being accurate to what is in Rob Bell's book.

Here is a summary from the first review I posted, "Here’s the gist: Hell is what we create for ourselves when we reject God’s love. Hell is both a present reality for those who resist God and a future reality for those who die unready for God’s love. Hell is what we make of heaven when we cannot accept the good news of God’s forgiveness and mercy. But hell is not forever. God will have his way. How can his good purposes fail? Every sinner will turn to God and realize he has already been reconciled to God, in this life or in the next. There will be no eternal conscious torment. God says no to injustice in the age to come, but he does not pour out wrath (we bring the temporary suffering upon ourselves), and he certainly does not punish for eternity. In the end, love wins."

His redefinition of Hell causes a few problems for me.  Theologically, by reducing Hell into an option you can choose for yourself, that logically means you can opt out of salvation to live in Hell (I am using Bell's definition).  Conversely, if you can opt out of salvation, you MUST also have a choice to opt in.  Saying one implies the other.  However the problem lies in the fact that if you can choose salvation, then it is no longer God's grace but your choice i.e. a thing you can do i.e. salvation by works and the Law.  If Bell wants to stick by his guns, he must also deny that salvation is by grace and that it is not God's choice (and technically not in God's power) to save anyone.

Save them from what is another question.  If all hell is is temporary suffering here and a bit in the next age, just put people out of their misery now and watch them go to heaven.    But even Atheists believe that once you die, suffering is over and that sin has no real consequence and in fact boast in them.  I am not sure why you would even bother with God or Christianity if your main concern was the injustice of eternal suffering.  Atheism is much cleaner than this castrated God and theological nightmare. Why not rather say, "If God didn't want anyone to be punished eternally, maybe he should relax a bit and stop getting all bent out of shape every time someone does something he doesn't like.  Yea sometimes we hurt each other and suffering exists in the world, but God loves us and doesn't want to hurt us anymore than we've already hurt each other."

You don't need Jesus the Son of God to go out of his way to die on a cross for that because ultimately, sin doesn't matter because love wins.  God didn't need Jesus to die to forgive sins.  God's been forgiving the sins of David and countless others in his forbearance way before Jesus died on a cross.  Jesus died on the cross to that God's righteousness would be proven because in his forbearance he had left the sins of Israel unpunished and thus appeared to be unjust to the victims in his mercy and compassion to the sinners.

Herein lies the irony:  If in fact everyone is saved by God in the end (love wins), then no can be as God does not have that power to bring you to salvation (love fails).  By attempting this method to universalism, he in fact achieves the opposite: only those who are able to opt in are saved but since no one is righteous, no one is able to opt in.  Jesus's death had no power to save and we are back to life under the Law of Sin and Death once again.

Of course, Bell would deny this, but he cannot have his cake and eat it too.  If it is Jesus's sovereign choice to bring people to salvation, it must also be his choice to condemn them.  He has that right and it will not and cannot be taken from him.  It is God who hardens hearts and softens them for his purposes.  Either Jesus is Lord and Savior, or he is not, but not even Bell would go so far to deny Christ for the sake of universalism (which is pointless without Christ anyway). Romans 9:14-24 says:

14 What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15 For he says to Moses,



“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,

and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

16 It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. 17 For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

19 One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” 21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?
22 What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? 23 What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— 24 even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?

It's hard to argue anything other than God's choice in salvation.  Bell wrestles with the same question as Paul's imaginary debate partner, "Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?  God is good and wills that no one should perish so he must bring everyone to salvation."  We already know Paul's answer to Rob Bell contained in vv.20-24.

Bell argues from a perspective that "God is Love" and "God is good" so therefore "God would never subject anyone to eternal punishment", but he uses human argument and logic to circumvent what he cannot accept.  He limits God on what God can or cannot do based on what sense of justice, love, and goodness he imposes on God.  God is love only how I want him to love, God is good only by what I think is good and God is just only by my definition of justice and last I checked personal gods made in one's own image are worthless idols.  You cannot rob God of his sovereign choice.  Whatever His judgments, I trust they are fair, good, and righteous as God has proven himself to be time and time again.  If God were not righteous than no one has any hope, but I for one trust God knows what he is doing better than I do.


PS  If you want to read a bit more about some of the thoughts I've had on salvation, you can read my previous post here: http://jqdao3.blogspot.com/2011/03/secular-salvation.html

Secular Salvation

Did you watch the video?  Please take 3 minutes and do so now.  You won't regret it.

Done?

Doesn't this video disturb you?

I mean after you get done being moved to tears because of the beauty of what is going on here.  You might be wondering what I am talking about.  When I see this man, I so clearly see Jesus in him, the way he cares for those outcasted by society, those who no one cares about.  In addition, he is going against the orthodox tradition of his family in associating with these "forgotten ones", so he is committing social suicide to do this.  Among Christians I hardly see the gospel so clearly, so beautifully displayed as in this man.  The only problem is, as far as I can tell, he is not a Christian.


Now why is this a huge problem for me?  If this man were to die tomorrow, never having been baptized, never having sang a worship song, never having praised the name of Jesus Christ and accepted Jesus into his heart, by all conventional means, he's going not going to heaven.  We say it is by faith and faith alone that a man can be saved, not by his works.  Can we honestly say that this man has faith in Christ?  More than likely he does not.  Salvation through Christ alone, no one can come to the father except through him.  But how do we explain Narayanan Krishnan's (the man in the video) Christ-like behavior?  Is not man depraved?  How is it that he captures the essence of the law and the prophets worlds away from the context and teaching?

But what if God has revealed himself apart from Scriptures and missionaries and churches?  What if God, seeing that old man eating his own human waste out of hunger, was so moved to compassion, he enacted his will on the nearest, most effective person who would be able to help his children suffering, a chef at a classy Hotel?  Perhaps God has written His law on his heart and has completely bypassed human action that he might be saved first before he could feed the hungry.  Is such a thing unheard of with God?

If God were limited to only using Christians to enact His will in the world, nothing would ever get done.  We do share a special recognition and partnership with the Lord, however God has never been dependent on us and He never will be.  It is for the best as otherwise every unsaved soul and every person left unreached by the gospel would be completely and utterly our fault.  It would introduce too much liability for such a  life and death matter.  It is not like we could use the additional guilt of breaking yet another covenant with God.  Besides, it is apparent that some areas of the world have more access to Jesus than others.  Someone born right in the middle of the Bible belt has more of a shot of being saved than someone born in the middle of Iran.   Is there then bias inherent in the current model of conversion, with some groups disproportionately represented in heaven than others?  Is heaven 55% white, 15% Hispanic, 15% African, 10% Asian, and 5% Arabic? Or do all peoples have equal access to God's grace?

There is no doubt in my mind this man in the video is filled with God's love and compassion for the poor, the hungry, and the destitute.  Could God have given him his Holy Spirit before he even knew who Jesus was?  Could God have acted without us in the partnership we share in the spread of the Gospel?

I think certainly so it is within God's power to do such a thing and at times completely necessary for God to intervene in areas which we find hard to penetrate, such as India (2.4% are Christian, though that is 24 million) especially when there is suffering.  Suffering occurs everywhere and so will be Christ's compassion regardless if there are Christians in the area or not.  It is conceivable God might fill someone with Christ's compassion to alleviate the pain of his people in his infinite mercy and common grace. But are they saved, or is the compassion but temporary?

Perhaps we must rethink entirely what it might mean to be saved (and for that matter who can be saved/is saved), if in fact God has the power to save without our first sowing the seeds.  In a sense we have a checklist that we like to run down:

1) Is he/she baptized?
2) Does he/she proclaim faith in Christ Jesus as his/her Lord and savior?
3) Does he/she act in accordance with that faith?
4) Has he/she confessed his/her sins?
etc.

But is not only one thing here that is truly important:  the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the guarantee of what's to come?  I don't know about you, but just because someone asks to receive Christ and prays that the Holy Spirit would indwell them doesn't necessarily mean the Holy Spirit would actually do it.  Prayers aren't magic, as if by some supernatural incantation you can invoke the power of the Holy Spirit to be infused into someone.  The Holy Spirit does what it wills in accordance with the Father and the Son.  I've met many a professing Christian who, Lord help them, show little evidence of the Holy Spirit working in their lives.  but the thing is, you cannot always tell someone's heart by being around them.  Only the Father knows those he has called and whom the Holy Spirit has indwelled.  Up until now, I wasn't sure it was possible for those who did not know Christ to be indwelled with the Holy Spirit, but now I am not so sure.

This man from India, as I said before, blew me away by how clearly he displayed the gospel in his life.  When I look at him I cannot help but see Jesus working in India through him although he does not know who it is who works through him.  I wish more Christians, myself included, were such beacons of light for the faith.  But there is one last crazy idea I would like to submit: although no one is guaranteed to know of Jesus in this lifetime on Earth, for whatever reason (political tensions, unreached, abortion, etc.) each and every single one of the will meet Jesus in the life hereafter, if only for a brief while.  If we can accept that

a) The Holy Spirit has free and active reign to work in whomever it wills apart from human intervention and
b) It matters not if you know who Jesus is (for even Satan and his devils know) but rather if Jesus knows you

then it is entirely plausible that Jesus will recognize those whom the Spirit has rested in and in turn those who secretly possess the Holy Spirit will immediately know and recognize the familiar essence of Jesus Christ despite not knowing him in their earthly lives.  Moreover, both will rejoice at the sight of the other.  Though someone may not display those marks typical of salvation (baptism, confession of faith, etc.), there may not be a reason to jump the gun in condemning such as unsaved.  Everything belongs to God, both sacred and secular, and he can do with it whatever He wills.  That is his choice, not ours for if it were our choice it would not be grace and therefore not salvation.

But again, this only really tells us what we already know

1) God is sovereign
2) God is mighty to save
3) Only God can judge a man's heart, for if we were judged by our actions there would be no hope.
4) A man's salvation is worked out between him and God alone with fear and trembling.  Others may lead him but he must walk.

Much in the same way the Jews were surprised grace could be extended to the Gentiles, perhaps God can extend this grace to non-Christians as well (in the sense that they do not know Christ/never got a chance to know him).  Now, I am also no arguing for universalism.  I believe there is a real hell that really burns when you go there and God has every right to send people there for their sins.  What I am questioning is our own definition of Christian.  There are Christians who more than likely Jesus will say, "Depart from me, I never knew you", so it's not so hard for me to believe they may be "secular" folk who do the work of God and so show that the law has been written in their hearts by God.  Of course, outright denial of God and the reality of his Son and the power of the Holy Spirit is unforgivable.  Although baptism is very much a part of Christian life, it is not what defines us.  It is the life that we experience through Christ that we live unto the world as a testimony to God's grace and righteousness and to his gospel of peace which defines us.  This Indian man has embodied the gospel like so few I've met, it's harder for me to believe that the Holy Spirit does NOT have something to do with this.

After all, the Bible contains many stories of people outside of the chosen people of God demonstrating great saving faith.  Jesus encountered many of them in his ministry and their stories have been written for us to read. They have been made examples for us to imitate.  We know that faith is a gift from God as well so we can infer that God has given these gentiles saving faith before the even met Jesus.  The Roman centurion, for example, didn't know Jesus at all yet still came to Him for help.  So too with the bleeding woman who touched his cloak.  But the key thing is that it wasn't until they met Jesus that their faith became realized.  As I mentioned before, everyone gets a chance to meet Jesus.  Who's to say it has to be during your lifetime?  I am not saying that this lifetime counts for nothing.  Not at all!  But for those not able to be exposed to Jesus, that is to meet Jesus in their lifetime, they will have their chance.

What I am also not saying is that we should quit evangelism.  By no means!  Just because God can work wonders of salvation apart from us does not means that he does so very frequently.  Actually, we might never know how frequently God might do such a thing, but who can know the full extent of what God is doing in the world?  We still have our role to play in finding our lost brothers and sisters that God has already started the process of drawing them closer to him.  We still get to delight in the joys of the harvest with him.  I'm just saying we might be harvesting way less than we think when compared to what God is bringing in.  With God, anything is possible, even the salvation of "non-Christians".