Friday, December 23, 2011

"The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ" Revealed at Christmas

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9; NASB)

by Eldon DeBoer

What matters is what the text of God's Word says. My prayer is that what I write will help you understand a little bit more about what it says, what it means and how it applies in your life.

2 Corinthians 8:9 is truly a wonderful Christmas verse. In the thoughts of God in eternity past He always knew that He would create us. He knew that we would fall into rebellion against Him. He knew what it would cost Himself to deliver us, His beloved ones, from our own rebellious, lost and sinful condition. He would have to become poor. He would have to set aside the wealth He has as God to be united with a body that He created—capture Himself in space—so that He could deliver us. The One who owns everything was born in a barn to a poor and despised mother who He Himself chose. Everything belongs to God. He owns everything. He is rich beyond our imaginations. There is so much about who He is and what He has that we have only begun to grasp a little bit of it. The God over all that exists decided to set aside His wealth so that He could serve us to the extent that He gave His own life for us on that cross of Calvary. (Does the omniscient God ever “decide” anything?) Now that's grace! Grace is God giving Himself to us so that we could enjoy Him forever. Grace is Christ Jesus becoming poor and suffering and dying in our place so that we “through His poverty, might become rich.” God wants to share some of His wealth with us. So He came to serve us on that first Christmas. We'll be walking on streets of gold! But there is so much more than that. We'll know the Lord Jesus like never before. We'll experience more of the wealth of who He is.

This grace of God was something that the Corinthians knew about. It is something every believer in Christ Jesus should know about. When we first believed in Jesus we knew very little about this awesome truth. God the Spirit revealed to us how much He loves us and we began to learn of His grace. The Spirit wants to keep on opening our eyes to more about Jesus Christ—who He is, what the promise of eternal life means and the significance of what He has done for us.

Some of the "grace of our Lord Jesus Christ" was revealed on that first Christmas and more was revealed and will be revealed in our future as believers in Christ.

May we continue to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). And, as we do grow in His grace and knowledge, we will find that we will have more of the spirit of giving like the Son of God has than we did before. Amen?

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Christmas Is About the HU and K

by Eldon DeBoer

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14; NKJV)

The awesome truth that the Word, the great God who always was (John 1:1-3), united Himself with flesh is truly mysterious and amazing. It's hard for us to wrap our minds around it. Yet here it is recorded by a man of God who was moved by the Spirit of God to write it down for us just exactly as God wanted it written.

In recent weeks I've been getting acquainted with facebook abbreviations and I must say they are handy in communicating quickly. One of the most common ones is lol, laugh out loud. Yeah, I know, most of you are familiar, but just in case.... And there's BFN, bye for now. And LYL, love you lots. And God loves us a lot!

In the spirit of fb (facebook), let me introduce HU & K. And I'm certainly not making light of what these letters represent. But isn't it helpful and edifying when a couple of words flood our minds with meaningful truth?

The HU stands for Hypostatic Union. These are the technical theological terms that have been utilized to present the truth of what happened when “the Word became flesh.” The term hypostatic presents the reality—as mysterious as it is—of God joining Himself with the human body of flesh like that which He created in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth. Hypostatic is from the Greek term hupostasis which draws attention to the natures united together in the one Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. A brief definition of the HU that represents what has been taught historically is this: The Lord Jesus Christ is undiminished deity united with true humanity, without mixture or confusion, in one Person forever. One writer has expanded upon this in stating, “Jesus' two natures are not 'mixed together,' nor are they combined into a new God-man nature. They are separate yet act as a unit in the one person of Jesus” (Matt Slick, “Jesus Two Natures: God and Man,” http://carm.org/jesus-two-natures ).

The Lord Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man united in one Person. And this, without a doubt, is a mysterious truth. But when we pause and think about what God did for us, even though we readily admit we cannot fully comprehend it, we should become overwhelmed by the awesomeness of it. He chose in eternity past, knowing all things and what would take place, to unite Himself with the very flesh He created so that He could serve us. Our great God, our Creator who has the ability to speak things into existence, chose to unite Himself with true humanity so that He could deliver us from sin and death and have victory over Satan and all evil. God chose to bring about the HU. He loves us that much!

This brings us to the K which represents the kenosis of Christ. The Greek verb form of the noun kenosis is used in Philippians 2:7 where it draws attention to how Christ “emptied” (NASB) Himself. When the Word became flesh He set aside the full and complete exercise of the function of His attributes as God to serve us. The context in which this word is found explains it:

“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:6-8; NASB)

What an attitude Christ Jesus had! He became the servant of His creatures. He became our servant so that He could “humble Himself” and die in our place. And we are to have the same attitude in ourselves. We are called to lay down our life for others. How's that for a Christmas message? Jesus Christ was born to serve and die. And so may we serve one another and give our lives for each other.

May I remind you that we cannot do this on our own. We desperately need God's grace, the filling and enabling work of His Spirit, to apply this in our life.

May the HU and K be impressed upon our thoughts this Christmas and always. Why? Because the depth of our understanding of the Christ, who He is and what He has done for us, should cause us to love Him more and more. And we love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:7-19).

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Jesus Wants to Be at Home in Our Hearts! Now that's amazing grace!

It absolutely astounds me that the great God of the universe, the God that spoke all things into existence, wants to be at home in our hearts. He wants to be at home within our inner-most being. But this is understandable. It is what He intended from the beginning. He created us to have a close, personal and intimate relationship with Himself. He wants us to truly enjoy Him!

We shall see at the close of this article that this closeness to God in Christ is where we get our strength to live the truth.

When we believed in Jesus and became children of God, the Spirit of Christ came into our life. The Spirit moved Paul to write of this truth, this reality:

You are sons [children] of God through faith in Christ Jesus . . . And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father.” (Galatians 3:26; 4:6)

What the Spirit of Christ cries out within us is an expression of a close, intimate, trusting relationship with our heavenly Father. Christ's Spirit confirms the truth within that the perfect heavenly Father places within us the capacity to have a close relationship with Himself.

The Aramaic word, “Abba,” is much like our word, “Daddy.” It is a word of endearment. A word used by children who sense a closeness to their father. “Daddy!” And this is what the Spirit of God cries out within us.

I recall Francis Schaeffer speaking of this relationship from the perspective of a child holding up his arms, reaching up to his father and saying, “Up, Daddy, Up!” And so we as God's children look up to our heavenly Father, reaching up to Him for consolation and counsel. "Daddy!" And that's what He wants.

But, sadly, stuff in this life gets in the way of enjoying a close relationship with our heavenly Father. We are our own worst enemy in this. Thankfully, the Spirit of God draws us back to Himself as He helps us realize what has happened. We can confess, admitting our failure and once again enjoy intimacy with God the Father and Jesus (1 John 1:9). But after acknowledging our sin we should renew our minds with the truth of God's Word and keep on reflecting on it. We especially should ponder the truth of how Jesus Christ has demonstrated His love to us (Romans 5:6-11).

Include in the Apostle Paul's prayer for the believers of Ephesus is the request that Christ Jesus might be at home in their hearts:

. . . that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts [be at home in your hearts] through faith . . . (Ephesians 4:16-17)

When God the Son is at home in your hearts because you are trusting Him and walking in the light of His Word, your receive His strength to apply the truth. Paul's prayer is my prayer for everyone who reads this. May you enjoy having Christ Jesus be at home in your hearts as you ponder how much He loves you. And may you thereby experience His strength. And when you do you are experiencing His amazing grace!

As always, I welcome your comments and questions ( eldondeboer@yahoo.com ).

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Grace Needed to Be Courageous

by Eldon DeBoer

God calls us to be courageous as we engage ourselves in spiritual warfare. And there is a battle raging for the hearts and souls of everyone around us. And, apart from God providing the grace to win these spiritual battles, we won't win as we should. We won't have the courage to keep on fighting for His honor and glory.

The movie “Courageous” has had a powerful impact on my soul. It presents a tremendous challenge—especially to husbands and fathers. In my humble opinion, everybody ought to see it. Take the time and “just do it”! But it might be too much for some men to take. Especially if they are not willing to take up the challenge to courageously look to the Lord to become the husbands and fathers that God calls them to become.

Dads, there is only one perfect father, the heavenly Father. But He calls us to be like Him (Matthew 5:48). While He certainly knows we cannot be perfectly like Him all the time, He still calls us to be like Him, just the same. And apart from His grace we cannot do this. Apart from His grace we cannot keep on growing in becoming more like Him.

If there is anything that I would have added to the “Courageous” movie, it's the desperate need we have for God's grace to live out the truth. The group of men in the movie—who are all cops by the way—make a solemn resolution to God and before their families to be and become the men God has called them to be. Their vow included this: "I WILL seek to honor God, be faithful to His church, obey His Word, and do His will. I WILL courageously work with the strength God provides to fulfill this resolution for the rest of my life and for His glory. 'As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.'" --Joshua 24:15

The need we all have for God's grace to live out the truth should to be emphasized as it is in the New Testament Scriptures. For apart from a grace emphasis the strong tendency is to attempt to apply the truth in our own strength. Apart from God's grace we will fail. We will fail to live out the truth to the glory of Christ. For apart from Him we can do nothing that has eternal value before God (John 15:5).

When I was still in my teens (I think I was about 15 or 16) my mother shared with me that when she got pregnant with me she was not happy about it. She had four children already and she thought she was a failure as a mom. She certainly did not want a fifth child. But my mom had a tender heart toward the Lord. And she cried out to Him for help. The Lord gave Mom this verse:

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9; NASB)

There is a basic truth presented in this verse that each and every one of us need to keep in mind in our quest to heed the command to “be courageous.” The Lord our God is with us! If you have believed in Jesus, He is with you and He will give you His grace that you so desperately need to be strong and courageous. The Lord gave my mom the grace she needed for my benefit and for the benefit of my older brothers and sisters as well. I am so thankful that my parents loved the Lord and wanted what was best for me. And you can count on the Lord to give you the grace you need for the benefit of those you love. You can count on Him for His grace in the spiritual battle for the application of truth in your home and community.

We are all at different stages of growth in our relationship with God. For my children's sake I wish I knew back when they were younger what I know now so that I would have had more insight to apply the truth more meaningfully for their benefit. I was not the father I wish I would have been for their sake. I'm still growing. I'm still growing in the grace and knowledge of my Lord and Savior and, therefore, I was not what I am now (duh?). But by God's grace I can keep on advancing and keep on becoming the man God calls me to be for the sake of my wife and children. And for the sake of those close to me whose lives the Lord gives me the privilege to touch.

“We were made to be courageous!” (Casting Crowns). May we keep on encouraging each other to keep on looking to the Lord Jesus for His grace to be courageous in the application of truth for His glory and honor.

I appreciate very much your comments and questions ( eldondeboer@yahoo.com ).