Shalom Talk – Respite For Weary Travelers

I received your letter last week and have given some consideration to your questions before I answered. However, I must say how pleased I am to hear that your friend Samuel is soon to graduate from Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS). I trust God will enrich his life from the things he has learned at DTS. The professors at DTS are remarkable, humble men. I learned many things from the books of John Walvoord, J. Dwight Pentecost, and Henry Thiessen.

In your letter you asked two questions. The first subject was – what can you tell me about the Mediator?  Your second question was do I need a Bible Dictionary?

The Remembrance… I remember when working on a satellite ground system one of my friends made a few systems testing decisions (perceived mistakes) that put him into hot water with the Chief of Operations. 

A few of us gathered together and assessed the situation. The perceived mistakes were actually decisions that were the best that could be done in the circumstances. We took our case to the commander and explained the situation. We did not sugarcoat the situation but defended our friend.  The Chief of Operations stood his ground. We gathered more information and continued the defense. We started down the solution process and guaranteed our commander we would move heaven-and-earth to ensure the next steps would be successful.

This is what Jesus, our mediator accomplished for us. He brings a deeper understanding of grace to the table and advocates his own blood to guarantee our success.

Eventually the commander understood the circumstances and accepted our approach. The Chief of Operations stopped his opposition. Our friend was redeemed.  In this situation we functioned as a mediator, bringing all the facts to the table — advocating the correct decision to the commander. Common sense prevailed and we moved forward with the project.  This is what Jesus, our mediator, accomplished for us. He brings a deeper understanding of grace to the table and advocates his own blood to guarantee our success.

First Question — the purpose of our Mediator. Most people, when they speak about Jesus, they talk about him as their Savior, the Christ, or maybe they’d use another term such as Redeemer.  These are the terms used on 98 percent of the books in the market.  We rarely hear authors call Jesus the mediator.  During my daily perusal of Scripture, I noted a Hebrews passage that seemed relevant to your question.

We read– Now the main point of what we are saying, is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by a mere human being. Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer. If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already priests who offer the gifts prescribed by the law. They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven.

This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: ‘See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.’ But, in fact, the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises (Hebrews 8:1-6)

One of the visual scenes that we get from Hebrews chapter 8 and chapter 9 is the definition of an earthly sanctuary that humans visited for worship and accomplishment of sacrifices, mirrored by a heavenly sanctuary that only select few can enter and deliver a sacrifice.  This second passage from Hebrews might add more insight. 

We read — But when Christ came as high priest … he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, … obtaining eternal redemption. … For this reason, Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from their sins. (implied in Hebrews 9:11-15)

The existence and purpose of the heavenly sanctuary is an essential component of why only the death of Jesus was sufficient. There needed to be a perfect offering, a perfect sacrifice, presented at the altar in a heavenly sanctuary.

Understand, we are talking about entrance into the real holy of holies, the most holy place existent. A place that only God can go and present sacrifices. And it’s in this context; Jesus our King becomes our Mediator. He personally delivers the sacrifice to the holy of holies in heaven.

This concept is not the ABCs that you would normally hear in Sunday school. This is a much more sophisticated understanding of why Jesus was required to die, what the impact of that death was all about, and why his resurrection was so important to the process. He delivered the sacrifice after his death.

The altar that the Hebrews created on earth was nothing but a shadow of the real deal in heaven. Therefore, we can clearly say that the ministry of Jesus is incredibly more superior and effective than the ministry of human priests. The sacrifice offered to negate sin on earth by a sinful high priest is imperfect at best.  The sacrifice offered at the heavenly alter by a sinless high priest is absolutely perfect.  This is the ratification of the New Covenant.  Without this offering at heaven’s alter there would be no New Covenant.

One of the visual scenes that we get from Hebrews chapter 8 and chapter 9 is the definition of an earthly sanctuary that humans visited for worship and accomplishment of sacrifices, mirrored by a heavenly sanctuary that only select few can enter and deliver a sacrifice.

Second Question – the value of a Bible Dictionary.  This is a useful tool in my quest to understand the wisdom of God. Well, this is what I think. I have found that having a credible Bible dictionary, not the Oxford dictionary, nor the American dictionary, but a bible dictionary such as Unger’s Dictionary is extremely helpful to dig out the nuances of Scripture.

When you bump into a subject that you’re reading about in Scripture, and you don’t quite understand the meaning of a specific word or phrase, you can review the Bible dictionary and maybe get a helpful hand. Do you need to purchase one, well not really, unless you want one in your home. Your local library will have multiple bible dictionaries available for you to peruse when you need one.

 Which one do I like?  I prefer Unger’s Bible Dictionary.  But I also have a copy of the Holman illustrated Bible Dictionary. Occasionally it’s helpful to see two different approaches to explain a given topic.  I suggest you obtain both flavors…

To help you with your quest concerning the Mediator I have included four essays from my personal journal to assist you with this pursuit.

 May God bless you and keep you, may he place his countenance upon you, may He give you peace.

I love you, my son.

Your Father, Dan

Learning From A Songwriter

Charles Wesley was familiar with the rhythms of Christian worship, especially as laid out by the Book of Common Prayer, the 1662 revision, which appoints orders for morning and evening prayer.

Early in his hymn-writing career (1740), he composed “Christ, whose glory fills the skies”.

He wrote — Visit then this soul of mine, pierce the gloom of sin and grief; fill me, radiancy divine, scatter all my unbelief; more and more Thyself display, shining to the perfect day.

Charles Wesley was looking for Christ who fills the sky to pierce our sin, to fill us, and to scatter our unbelief as he set the sun for the perfect day.
Today, the letter to David provides the backstory of how the death burial and resurrection of Jesus helped us to scatter our unbelief. This is a message of power in the City of God!

Psalm 37:29-31 says – the righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever. The mouths of the righteous utter wisdom, and their tongues speak what is just. The law of their God is in their hearts; their feet do not slip. [NIV]

Journal Essay 1 – He knows Everything (Omniscience)

1. Gene Roddenberry (Star Trek) developed a talking computer that seemed to know everything about everything. If you expect a similar encounter when you talk with God, why do you ask the things you ask him about?

Journal Essay 2 – He has no Origin

2. What would the world be like if God was bound (limited, contained) by time?

Journal Essay 3 — God Runs the Show

3. How can we have free will (self-control) in a world operated by a sovereign (active vs passive) God?

Journal Essay 4 – Looking in a Mirror

4. When does looking around and identify things that are not in alignment with God’s Holiness cross the line into Judging?

It has been my observation while skittering through the book of Isaiah looking for a reference on Jesus, there is a beautiful description of God in the throne room in chapter 6. I became extremely aware of my own shortcomings as I reviewed Isaiah’s verbal brush strokes concerning the holiness of God.

Isaiah says — woe to me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of people with unclean lips and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts (Isaiah 6:5).

Isaiah expresses the feeling of every person who encounters the holiness of God magnified in the purity and blazing presence of God. We can see Isaiah in awe with his glimpse of God in the throne room.

Life goes on, yet –the mirror of Isaiah 6:5 hangs there, quietly, unassumingly, revealing ourselves as God sees us.

Using God’s holiness as a mirror, we see ourselves as God sees us. As I read Isaiah 6:5, I was humbled by the contrast between Isaiah and the brilliance of God. We walk with God, but we are comfortable in the surroundings that we live today. We look upon the lack of holiness in humans as a normal part of life. We are not surprised when we do not find politicians truthful. We are not totally dismayed by faithless leaders; we have come to expect less than honest activities from people we do business with. Life goes on, yet –the mirror of Isaiah 6:5 hangs there, quietly, unassumingly, revealing ourselves as God sees us.

Hebrews says – For the Law, being only a reflection of the blessings to come and not their substance, can never make perfect those who come near by the same sacrifices repeatedly offered year after year. Otherwise, would they not have stopped offering them, because the worshipers, cleansed once for all, would no longer be aware of any sins? Instead, through those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin (Hebrews 10:1-4).

I am unable to properly define the holiness of God. Try I am, but it is impossible. Why? God is incomparable, incomprehensible, and his level of holiness is undefinable with the language of mere humans. Holy is the way God is. He is not conforming to a higher standard of holiness; He is the standard. His incomprehensible purity pushes out any thoughts that suggest he is other than what he says. To keep us safe we only see his glory in part; yet His majesty and power envelops us; we who walk with him are given tools and grace to resist irreparable moral collapse (Hebrews 1:3-4 paraphrased). Every time we can detect his judgment in history, his action has been an act of holy preservation.

David said — On the glorious splendor … of Your wonderful works, I will meditate. (Psalms 145:5)

We see ourselves, we shudder, and then we head north in humility to walk with him. It is that simple…

So, what do we do? We must, like Moses, cover ourselves with faith and humility before we take an ever so brief look at the God who no man can see and live. Once again, I think of Isaiah’s observation at the top of this essay (Isaiah 6:5). God is a perfect mirror to help us see our imperfections.

God says – I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live. There is a place near me where you can stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen (Exodus 33:19-23 paraphrased).

God’s holiness is like a mirror, the mirror hangs there, gently, unostentatiously revealing our nature through God’s eyes. We see ourselves, we shudder, and then we head north in humility to walk with him. It is that simple. In our walk, we respect the things of God. His mirror keeps us in a safe harbor protected from the elements. I choose Jesus.

It has been my observation that Job clearly understood the sovereignty of God. This notion of sovereignty states: He owns and rules everything he has ever made, enforces every directive He’s ever issued, fulfills every prophecy He’s ever spoken, and loves every person He has ever created.

If there was even one element of knowledge however small, that was unknown to God, then his sovereignty would not exist. He must possess knowledge of everything. If there was one little bit of power or holiness that he did not possess, then he would not be the sovereign God who rules this earth and the universe. In fact, he would be a limited god who would be subordinate to some other creature or being in this universe (lower case usage intentional). Job states – “God’s power and knowledge is unlimited; He needs no teachers or mentors to guide or correct him.” (Job 36:22 paraphrased).

So, if we view God as sovereign, then we also view Him as absolutely free to do whatever He chooses. He can carry out any action at any time for any reason without interference. Were He less than this, He would not be sovereign. “The Lord does whatever pleases him.” (Psalms 135:6).

Sometimes you hear a human say – I am free as a bird, but we all know this statement is rhetorical at best. A high school student knows that a free bird lives in a world fraught with instinctive aggression and is easily crushed. The bird’s freedom is limited by weather conditions, air pressure, local food supply, even though the bird’s capacity to fly is limited by their wingspan and their personal strength. The concept of ‘free as a bird’ is a bit silly. Only God is infinitely free.

The notion of sovereignty proclaims there is nothing or no one who can hinder Him, interfere with Him, restrict Him, compel Him, or stop Him. He possesses absolute authority, absolute truth, absolute power, rendering absolute judgment on all things. But to say that God has complete and absolute authority does not have much meaning if He must ask permission from anyone to accomplish a task. To whom would God go for this permission? Who is higher? Who Controls God? Who has more power or more intelligence? “I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God.” (Isaiah 45:5).

I have learned from reading A.W. Tozer that “God sovereignly decrees we are free to exercise moral choice. All of us from the beginning have fulfilled that freedom by making a choice between good and evil.”

To say that God has complete and absolute authority does not have much meaning if He must ask permission from anyone to accomplish a task.

Therefore, when we say that man can choose evil, we are not saying that he works against the sovereign will of God but in as much as we are saying God’s providence (free will) grants us the ability to walk away from God guidance and plan. We read in Joshua “If serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15).

It is a sure fact – the one true living God has foreknowledge; he knows every thought and choice we will make from the beginning to the end of our life. His sovereignty drives the plan for our life that reflects our decisions and actions. Nothing can get in the way of His plan. Nothing.

The sovereignty of the one true living God is serious stuff; He runs the show. It is an amazing fact our thoughts, decisions and actions are considered when the plan is set. We need him, he does not need us. I choose Jesus.

It has been my observation while reading portions of Deuteronomy, the one true living God defined in Scripture is eternal, He has no origin. Origin is a word that we apply to things created. When I think of anything that has an origin I’m not thinking about God. He always has been, is now, always will be. The “eternal God is my refuge, and underneath are His everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27 paraphrased).
The idea of no beginning and no ending leads me to the concept of eternal. When I wrap my mind around the notion of an eternal God, I immediately place God in an entirely different class of being (not human, not handmade, no authority above God, not a figment of my imagination).

Fortunately, even if I get it wrong, the great ‘I am’ does not need me to define Him or to cause him to exist. Jeremiah 10:10 says the “Lord is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King.” He exists independent of our thoughts, our actions, our goals, our judgment. The attributes of God painted in Scripture whisper to all of us about the eternal hope. God is. He is. I believe – if the Bible did not teach that God is eternal, we would interpret his other attributes as temporary, present only for a season. Then, our word ‘absolute’ would have no discernible meaning in a world with a temporary God.

When I wrap my mind around the notion of an eternal God, I immediately place God in an entirely different class of being (not human, not handmade, no authority above God, not a figment of my imagination).

The word absolute comes alive when we line it up with the one true living God, and we come to grips with the fact that the one true living God is forever, unchanging, eternal. In Ecclesiastes 3:11 we read that God bound man to time (eternity) and gave man the ability to think about some things outside the limits of time (God awareness), yet he did not give us full access to divine knowledge. We have boundaries, God has none. In Romans 16:25-26 Paul wrote – to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith (NIV).

We learn in the first chapter of the Gospel of John — At the very beginning of all things was the Word and the “Word was with God, and the Word was God.” All things were made by the Word, all things that we can see, feel, touch, hear, and smell. All things that exist outside our senses. Even our ability to feel emotions and to create thoughts were made by God. Paul tells us — for by him all things created that are in heaven and that are on earth visible and invisible whether they be thrones, dominions, principalities, or powers — all things were created by him and for him and he is before all things and by him all things exist (Colossians 1:15-20 paraphrased).

Because God is eternal, he is self-existent (implied in 1 Timothy 1:17). God cannot be removed; God cannot be stopped; he cannot be ignored; he cannot be controlled; he cannot be corrected; he cannot be undefined. He is God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. He is forever.

All things were made by the Word, all things that we can see, feel, touch, hear, and smell. All things that exist outside our senses. Even our ability to feel emotions and to create thoughts were made by God.

The eternal Father foreknew what we are going to do before the creation, those who he foreknows are predestined to be conformed to the likeness of Jesus. He calls those who are predestined; the called are justified, and the justified are glorified (paraphrased from Romans 8:29-30). Justified by Jesus, the eternal self-existent God empowers us to move boldly forward. “If we die with him, we will live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we disown him, he will disown us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot disown himself” (2 Timothy 2:11-13). I choose Jesus.