Don't Be Offended

In John 16:1, Jesus said He didn't want the disciples to be offended. A person could take that passage and run with it today, especially in our highly sensitive, emotional culture. The Greek word translated "offended" in this verse is just as broad as our English word. It could mean many different things, depending on the context. The way you hear it most of the time today is about someone getting their feelings hurt. A person reads something they don't like and is offended, displeased, upset, or indignant. It hurts their feelings. Jesus does care for the disciples and is helping them because they are sorrowful (John 16:6), but it's not that kind of offended that He has in mind in this context.

 Another usage is to sin or break the law, such as in Shakespeare's Henry V, "If it be a sin to covet honor, I am the most offending soul alive."  We are closer to the mark here because Jesus did not want them to sin, but in what way? There is another usage of "offend," which combines the ideas we have so far. It's when you are tripped up by something and made to fall. Someone or something might happen that causes you to stumble on your path, or someone says or does something to make you stop on the right way and take off in the wrong direction. It's something that happens to you that's bad or vexing, that, in turn, causes you to do the wrong thing. You might have a stomach ache and wonder why you are in such a bad way until you remember the offending Ghost Pepper in your burritos earlier.

 In just a few short hours from the events in John 16, Jesus would be arrested, tried, and crucified. Their Lord, their Messiah, their hope, would be dying on a cross. They would be under attack, kicked out of their synagogues, and hunted down by people thinking they were doing God's work. Men that taught the Bible now use their interpretation to justify putting Jesus to death. But Jesus is telling the disciples this would happen, hurting their feelings, making them sad, and offending their sensibilities, so they would not be offended when the troubles started.

 The preventative for the offense was having faith in Christ. Jesus was about to die, but He would rise from the dead. Jesus is faithful to His promises and will fulfill His word. Jesus came to do the will of the Father, and He will not fail. When all was at its darkest and looked like all was lost, the disciples were to trust Jesus. Believe Christ. Faith is knowledge, assent, and trust. Jesus tells them what He's going to do and what's going to happen. That's the knowledge part. They will assent to that truth when the offense comes and trust Jesus' words. When facing death, the disciples remembered what Jesus said, knew that Jesus was faithful, and rested in His promises.

 

Set Free

In March of 1942, Major General Edward King surrendered to the Japanese Army in the Philippines. The Bataan surrender resulted in almost 70,000 Americans being taken captive by the Japanese. Hoping to find mercy and spare the soldiers' lives in the surrender, it resulted in what was known as the Bataan Death March, where some 600 American and thousands of Filipino soldiers died through execution, exhaustion, or disease on the way to the Cabanatuan POW camp. Sadly for some men, things were just starting to get worse.

For three years, the POWs of Cabanatuan suffered starvation, torture, disease, and torments that are hard to imagine. But the Army was not going to leave them behind. Led by Lieutenant Colonel Henry Mucci, the 6th Ranger battalion was coming to bust them out. With skill, determination, a good plan, good men, and by the good providence and grace of God, the Rangers made their way through the jungle, around the thousands of Japanese soldiers and, with guns blazing, rescued all but two of the POWs, who died as the result of sickness on the march back.

Actually, three. They left Edwin Rose, but not intentionally. Edwin Rose was an older man who worked administratively for the British Army. He lost his hearing and was about half blind. Rose was in the latrine when the raid started, suffering from stomach problems. He had been in there so long that he fell asleep. While the rangers were shooting up the place, bombs were blasting, soldiers were shouting, and the deaf Englishman was asleep. Thinking they had cleared the site, assault commander Captain Robert Prince went back through the camp, calling for anyone left to come on. They had to go. Time was of the essence. But he didn't think to check the latrine. Hours later, Rose woke up, groggy and confused, but soon realized he had fallen asleep, so he snuck back into the barracks, careful not to disturb the others, and went back to sleep. It wasn't until the morning came that he realized there were no "others." He was all alone. Rose went and sat at the gate of the camp and figured someone would come back. Thankfully, someone did.

Wouldn't it be a shame to be free from prison and not know it? Christians, by faith and union with Christ, have died with Him and are raised with Him in newness of life. "He that is dead is freed from sin." We've been set free from sin's prison and the power of the law to condemn us. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2).

The doors were flung open, but some continued living like a captive, burdened by sins already forgiven and unable to grasp the truth of what Christ has accomplished for us. Child of God, in Christ, you are set free. Now we can live with joyous gratitude to our Saviour.


Leery of Freedom

When the Rangers arrived, many prisoners were confused (and so were the Rangers). Several of the POWs began to argue with their deliverers. The freed prisoners asked who the Rangers were and, when told, asked, "what's an Army Ranger?" They wondered why they should listen to them and others questioned their deliverer's uniform choice. Rather than follow the Rangers to safety, they pushed back and struggled to leave the place they dreamt of going. One frustrated Ranger spun a questioning POW around and gave him a swift kick in the direction of the door.

Colonel Duckworth was the American commander of Cabanatuan and informed the Rangers that he was in charge and they just couldn't just come in there and break them out of prison. The Japanese had made very clear that there were to be no escapes. "No one leaves unless I say they do!" He was so accustomed to being under the Japanese's servitude that he distrusted his freedom. Finally, it began to dawn on the prisoners they were being rescued.

Some Christians, when they realize they have been set free by Christ, are disoriented by their freedom and question whether it is a good thing to be free from the law's condemnation. I know that sounds strange, and it was weird to write. But it does make sense to a self-righteous soul who has been trying for so long to keep the law to earn God's favor and see that there is liberty in Christ Jesus. Preachers, like Colonel Duckworth, fearful that church members will get lax, preach the law to Christ's freemen as if they were still in bondage.

The Christian has been set free from the condemnation of the law and is now free to obey God in peace and liberty. We are free from God's judgment and are set free to serve Him. We are set free from the tyranny of sin to follow Christ in the law of liberty. Once the POWs realized they were saved, they gladly obeyed the Rangers. They did whatever they asked them with gratitude.

We are the children of obedience (1 Peter 1:14), children who obey our Father. We are not the enslaved people who try and work out our salvation, nor are we the prisoners who live in fear of retribution from our hard master. No, Satan was the harsh master. Sin was the dark dominion we were held captive in. Christ is the liberator. He rescued us from the "dark Egyptian night" and set us free, but too often, people think they would be better off as slaves in Egypt. At least they had onions.  

Jesus died for sinners and set the captives free. Trust Him as Saviour. And when you consider what Christ has done for you, you'll gladly follow him, grateful for His grace. How could we not desire to listen to and obey our deliverer?

Doomed to Repeat

 

I thought of this comic while reading Stephen Kotkin's biography on Joseph Stalin. Kotkin starts by giving a big-picture overview of the history of Russian politics and how centuries of events unfolded to make the perfect situation for the brutal, murderous dictator to rise to power. There are sections about conflicts between Russia and Ukraine. People agitating the Populus, pitting one side against the other flaming unrest with the government. Inept leaders, led by corrupt powers. Food shortages, supply chain issues, and unnecessary and endless wars. Does it seem like you've heard this story somewhere before? It was interesting to read that Stalin went to seminary to become a priest and left a Marxist. I guess some things never change. Marxists like to rewrite history because some things never change, ensuring people don't see the playbook.

 Solomon summed it up quite nicely in Ecclesiastes 1:9-18, "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us." It's part of the vanity of life in a sin-cursed world to see people repeat the same mistakes repeatedly and be powerless to do anything about it other than pray and mourn for the future. It's not just nations. Individuals make the same mistakes over and again. Generations of people follow in a long line of sinners who commit the same sins expecting different results. So many people have a story like, "Yes, drugs and alcohol destroyed my parents life, was the cause of me growing up impoverished, but it's made me so sad, it drove me to drinking." Same old song, just a different verse.

But I'm not without hope because the cycle will be broken one day. It won't be by hypervigilant postmillennialists winning the culture for Jesus, but Christ's return will break it. One of these days, Jesus will set all the things Adam broke right. He will rule and reign, and the nations will be subject to Him. Here is one bit of history that won't be repeated. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, came into this world to save sinners. He was crucified and died on the cross. Jesus' dead body was laid in a tomb, and after three days and three nights, He rose from the dead. The Lamb of God died as a substitute that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. The living Lord Jesus is a Saviour you can trust (1 Peter 1:3-5).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Way That Seems Right

"There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." Proverbs 16:25

How do you know what is right and wrong? In 1996 Bill Clinton signed the defense of marriage act. In 2008, Barack Obama defined marriage as "the union between a man and a woman." In 2012, the Supreme Court essentially decided gay marriage was the law of the land. This year, Ketanji Brown Jackson, in her Supreme Court confirmation hearings, couldn't define a woman because she wasn't a biologist.

We are told that we cannot look back on history as any reference to morality because we are progressing toward the future. After all, history is full of racist bigots whose morality is imposed upon us by the oppressive puritanical patriarchy and bourgeois sensibilities. Solomon wrote, "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man." We all have our opinions of what is right and wrong. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama once believed it seemed right that marriage was between a man and a woman. What they once confessed was wrong, they now champion as right. What changed? What has happened in the last 40 years that has caused people to call good what they once called evil? Is morality nothing more than what the people are ok with at a particular time?

We sowed the wind and now are reaping the whirlwind. We have formed a society with many rules but no reason for them. We have morals built on sinking sand. There is no framework to say that any act is immoral other than our collective scruples, and how long will that stand?

Our God created us to know that certain things are right and wrong. It's not a coincidence that murder is and has always been wrong. There are objective moral standards outside of us. Yet, the emotions of the inner person of the correct political class are now our guiding principle. We have created a world where ethical standards are subjective and come from gnostic knowledge. It takes work to deny certain natural truths, such as the difference between a man and a woman. It's unnatural to form a construct that denies physical reality. But that's what we have done. We've made a world divorced from reality and truth and now must suffer the consequences.

When people give themselves over to a denial of God and basic categories of good and evil, the Lord gives those people over to a reprobate mind. In other words, God lets people do what seems right, apart from the light of revelation or the light of natural law. There are no breaks in this clown car, and we are heading off the cliff. It won't be until we believe the Lord Jesus and turn to Him that we will be delivered out of darkness into the light of truth. There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but apart from God, that way that seems right are the ways of death.

Assurance

I heard a preacher say he had never doubted his salvation a moment in his life. Good for him, but that wasn't the case for those who listened. We have an entire book of the Bible whose theme is that you believe in Jesus and how to know if you are saved (1 John 5:13). It seems somewhat likely that our Lord is showing us how we can have assurance because there can be reasons why it's not there. John, in his epistle, shows some characteristics of a child of God, so you can know you know. John doesn't write the epistle to scold Christians or cause them to doubt, but that they have assurance and joy (1 John 1:4). Too often, 1 John is preached like a mule skinner to whip church members into shape and shake them to their core. John isn't a fruit inspector to determine the quality but wants us to see if the fruit is there at all.

A Christian will have spiritual fruit. No fruit, no life. That's also what Jesus said (John 15:1-7). But life is not in the fruit; it's in the vine. Spiritual fruit can add to and support assurance of salvation. Still, it's not the ground of assurance. Assurance of salvation comes from resting in what Christ did for me, not what I do for Christ. Suppose you point a sensitive soul to look within, without stressing to look to Christ. In that case, it's little wonder this poor Christian is downcast or giving up. They look into their heart and see the remaining corruption and despair they haven't truly believed. They don't look to see if there is fruit. They measure it and inspect it to see whether it is enough or good enough. Their assurance is grounded in their works, which aren't that good.

Legal preaching, that urges Christians always to do more and try harder so the Lord will love them and bless them in sanctification will make hypocrites more confident in their hypocrisy and sensitive Christians more despairing of their salvation. Who wins? The hypocrite needs the law to condemn him and the gospel to show the way to eternal life. What the Christian needs when doubting is generally the gospel. Many times, a soul who spends too much time looking at their inward life, continual failures, and lack of zeal will condemn themselves to the point of doubt. Of course, we sin (1 John 1:8), but what's the answer? "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." 1 John 2:1-2.

A sensitive child of God knows they are a sinner but forgets that Jesus is a Saviour or that He is their Saviour. When you sin, come to Jesus, who saves sinners. Rest in Christ, who keeps His sheep. He does not fail, so trust Jesus.