Who Is Jesus? A Dangerous Question

Are you sure you really want to know who Jesus is? Such knowledge means your death. That's right; the cost for knowing who Jesus is, is your life. Let me tell you a true story to illustrate this.

 I once stood before dozens of men in a jail and, after telling them who Jesus is, asked them who wanted to surrender their lives to Jesus, to die to self and live for Jesus. Almost every hand went up. Almost. There were a handful of inmates who sat there, defiance etched grimly on their faces. I looked intently at one such face and though that man never said a word, I could read volumes in the look on that face. It said, "Not me! No way am I giving up my life, my freedom to do what I want. I am in charge of my soul, my life. No one is taking that away from me!"

The irony of his unspoken worldview was striking: For someone already had taken his freedom away from him; he was in prison. But the truth is, it wasn't the law enforcement officials or the judge who took away his freedom: He did. He chose to break the law and suffered the consequences for that choice.

Who was to blame for his losing his freedom? He was. Not society who made those laws to protect people from those who would otherwise harm them; not a poor economy that offered him no employment to get money to buy the drugs to which he was addicted (or anything else he wanted to get for himself); and not life, who had dealt him a bum rap with rotten parents and too little money (or too much money--take your pick).

I tell this story because answering the question of the identity of Jesus is all about freedom and its loss, truth and deception, and most of all, about life and death. It is no small question. In fact, it is the most important question any human being can ask. Jesus himself posed it to his own disciples:

"Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, 'Who do people say I am?'
"They replied, 'Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.'
"But what about you?' he asked. 'Who do you say I am?' "Peter answered, 'You are the Christ.'
"Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him" (Mark 8:27-30 NIV).

Notice that Jesus makes a distinction between what others say about himself and what the individual thinks about Jesus. This is at the heart of the whole matter. For there are many opinions among people as to who Jesus is. But Jesus dismisses what others say about him. His sole concern is what the individual thinks of him. What matters to him is what you think of him.

But why should that matter to him? Why does Jesus care what you think of him? This concern is not for his sake but yours. There is no vanity here, only concern for your soul. It is a matter of life and death for your soul when answering the supreme question of life, "Who is Jesus Christ to me?"

Now, you may be irritated by now that I have not answered the question yet. Why all this delaying in giving the answer? Why not just give the biblical answer to this question? If that is your attitude, then know that you are not the first to feel that way. Another group of inquirers into the identity of Jesus long ago also expressed their impatience over this same thing:

"At daybreak the council of the elders of the people, both the chief priests and teachers of the law, met together, and Jesus was led before them.'If you are the Christ,' they said, 'tell us' (Lk. 22: 66,67 NIV).

They wanted to know who Jesus was, and they wanted to know now. They had heard much about him and rumors of miracles and great powers, but they wanted to know the truth. Or so they said. But did they really? Jesus knew the truth about the reason for their inquiry, for Jesus can know a person's thoughts.

"Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, "Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?" (Mt. 9:4 NIV).

"Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, 'Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?'" (Lk. 5:22 NIV).

Jesus no doubt infuriated these investigators into his identity by refusing to comply with their impatient and devious demand to answer their question. Why? Because he was interested in something more than an answer to a question posed by insincere seekers of truth. He knew that their question arose out of who they were, with their background of a religion based on obeying countless rules and following many manmade regulations as the way to please God. They had let rules become their god instead of the God who rules. He would give no answer to such people.

Previously, Jesus had exposed this great lack of love for God by telling them, "I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts" (Jn. 5:42 NIV).

Knowing this, how was he to communicate with them? They lived in two different worlds, with two opposing backgrounds regarding who God was and what he wanted from men. Love for his Father in heaven, whom they called their God, consumed Jesus. How could these cold, legalistic men understand something like that? He knew also that they expected the promised Christ to be an earthly, political type of savior, not one who came from God to set their captive spirits free. How in the world would they understand such a thing? It is beyond the grasp of those without the Spirit of God.

"The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. 2:14 NIV).

And so Jesus refused to answer their question of whether or not he was the promised Christ and simply said, "If I tell you, you will not believe me" (Lk. 22:67 NIV).

But he went even beyond this. He turned the tables on them and added, "and if I asked you, you would not answer" (v. 67).

Jesus knew them. Oh, how he knew them, knew their hearts! He knew their fears. They had asked him if he was the Christ, as if they really wanted to know. Now he once again exposed their hypocrisy, telling them that he knew that if he asked them if they thought he was the Christ, that they would not answer for fear of the others who had already made up their mind to kill him, no matter who he was. Therefore, if they would not answer, why should he? And if he did and told the truth, that he was indeed the promised Christ, they would not believe him anyway. They loved the praise of men more than that of God. Little did they know that before them stood the one to whom they and all mankind would one day have to give an answer to how they had lived their lives.

"God will judge the secrets of human hearts, according to my gospel through Christ Jesus" (Rom. 2:16 NET).

Nevertheless, a moment later Jesus did give them something with which to accuse him that was even bigger and better than if he had said that he was the Christ: He claimed deity itself. Sensing their opportunity, they pounced. "They all asked, 'Are you then the Son of God?'" And Jesus answered them, "You are right in saying I am" (v. 70).

That was all they needed. They went from defeat a moment ago, when he refused to say that he was the Christ, to elation with his bold statement that he was the Son of God. They had him! It was now all over.

"Then they said, 'Why do we need any more testimony? We have heard it from his own lips'" (v. 71).

Yes, they heard the truth from God, spoken through his Son; but did this convince them, make those hard hearts yield to the truth? Far from it. Their next action was to take Jesus over to the civil authorities so that he could be put to death (Lk. 23:1).

It was same after his death and resurrection. Jesus showed himself to many people. "When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted" (Mt. 28:17 NIV).

Hearing is not enough, seeing is not enough. There are always those who refuse to believe no matter what evidence God presents to them.

"If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead" (Lk. 16:31 NIV).

The truth of this statement of Jesus is seen from the reaction to his own resurrection, as referenced above, as well as when he raised Lazarus from the dead:

"Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, pue question of the identity of Jesus is all about freedom and its loss, truth and deception, and most of all, about life and death. I want to close with a final remark about each one of these three aspects of knowing who Jesus is.

Freedom and Its Loss

Every human being is born a slave to sin. We want to do the right thing, but something inside us prevents us from doing that.

"I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it" (Rom. 7:18-20 NIV).

"Everyone who sins is a slave to sin" (Jn. 8:34 NIV).

The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that he enables us to do the good that we could not do on our own. He sets us free from the slavery to sin because on the cross the chains of that slavery was broken.

"Our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin" (Rom. 6:6 NIV).

Jesus, the Son of God, has set us free from the imprisonment of our slavery to sin. "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (Jn. 8:36 NIV).

Truth and Deception

We deceive ourselves if we think we do not need to be set free or that we are not imprisoned by who we are as sinful human beings. I mentioned that prisoner whose face betrayed the deception in his heart that he was in control of his life. He was not. Sin was.

"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" (Jer. 17:9 NIV).

Who can understand it? The One who can see into every heart, Jesus. Just as he did for those who brought him in to question him about his identity. Just as he does for my heart and yours. That is not in question. What is open to question is whether or not we will admit our helplessness to save ourselves from ourselves and let Jesus do for us what we cannot do for ourselves: whether or not we will accept him as our Lord and Savior and thus save our souls; or refuse to accept him and thus lose our souls.

Life and Death

And, finally, the final question, the matter of life and death--not just in this world but for eternity. It was said earlier that the question of Jesus is the supreme question that faces every human being in life. The reason it is supreme is because nothing else even comes close in comparison to its importance for our soul. Jesus knew this and said:

"What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mk. 8:36,37 NIV).

"No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him--the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough--that he should live on forever and not see decay" (Ps. 49:7-9 NIV).

No man can do this; only God himself is precious enough to redeem a human soul. Jesus was a man, a human being, like the rest of us. But if Jesus were only a man like the rest of us, his sacrifice on the cross would not have been sufficient. But since he is also God, that sacrifice fully satisfies the requirements for the forgiveness of our sins and to set us free from them.

That sacrifice is the only way this can be done and it has been done. But if we do not accept that sacrifice by accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior, then it does us no good. Many people know about Jesus or have some amount of knowledge about him and think that they know who he is. But that is not the kind of knowledge that saves a person from eternal separation from God in hell. Demons are very knowledgeable about who Jesus is but it does them no good.

"You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder" (Js. 2:19 NIV).

To be saved from the terrifying fate of demons and the devil, a person must know Jesus as Lord and Savior. Continuing to live one's life otherwise is to destine one's self to hell.

"In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead" (Acts 17:30,31 NIV).

Life and death for all eternity. That is how serious this question of the identity of Jesus is. You can either die to self now and live for him now and in heaven for all eternity. Or you can continue to live for self now and not for Jesus--and then live apart from him forever in the torment of hell. Either way, knowing who Jesus is means death: either death to self now so that new life in Jesus can occur; or else eternal death at the final judgment by this same Jesus. That is the danger of the great question of life: Who is Jesus? I pray that all who read this make the decision for life in Jesus.

"This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set beforin this world but for eternity. It was said earlier that the question of Jesus is the supreme question that faces every human being in life. The reason it is supreme is because nothing else even comes close in comparison to its importance for our soul. Jesus knew this and said:

"What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mk. 8:36,37 NIV).

"No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him--the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough--that he should live on forever and not see decay" (Ps. 49:7-9 NIV).

No man can do this; only God himself is precious enough to redeem a human soul. Jesus was a man, a human being, like the rest of us. But if Jesus were only a man like the rest of us, his sacrifice on the cross would not have been sufficient. But since he is also God, that sacrifice fully satisfies the requirements for the forgiveness of our sins and to set us free from them.

That sacrifice is the only way this can be done and it has been done. But if we do not accept that sacrifice by accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior, then it does us no good. Many people know about Jesus or have some amount of knowledge about him and think that they know who he is. But that is not the kind of knowledge that saves a person from eternal separation from God in hell. Demons are very knowledgeable about who Jesus is but it does them no good.

"You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder" (Js. 2:19 NIV).

To be saved from the terrifying fate of demons and the devil, a person must know Jesus as Lord and Savior. Continuing to live one's life otherwise is to destine one's self to hell.

"In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead" (Acts 17:30,31 NIV).

Life and death for all eternity. That is how serious this question of the identity of Jesus is. You can either die to self now and live for him now and in heaven for all eternity. Or you can continue to live for self now and not for Jesus--and then live apart from him forever in the torment of hell. Either way, knowing who Jesus is means death: either death to self now so that new life in Jesus can occur; or else eternal death at the final judgment by this same Jesus. That is the danger of the great question of life: Who is Jesus? I pray that all who read this make the decision for life in Jesus.

"This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live" (Dt. 30:19 NIV).

Who is Jesus? Jesus is Life. Choose Jesus.

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (Jn. 14:6 NIV).

Ultimate Danger

ULTIMATE

THE HIDDEN DANGER OF RELATIVE LIVING

It has been said that good is the enemy of the best. What is often left unsaid is the danger of settling for the good instead of striving for the best. We will look more closely at this danger later, but we begin by noting that the word striving is used deliberately here. For while God grants good gifts to all humanity, without any effort on man's part, his best is reserved only for those who seek him with utmost passion.

"You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart" (Jer. 19:13).

"But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:13,14).

"I worked harder than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me" (1 Cor. 15:10).

Note that we are not speaking of salvation here, for the Bible makes clear (Eph. 2:8) that this is a free gift of God that cannot be earned by man. But salvation is but the first step towards experiencing the ultimate depths of God in one's life; it is the moment of new birth, not the full maturation that comes only long afterwards, after a whole life of growing up from being a spiritual infant.

The Bible says that God causes the sun and its good warmth and light to rise on both the evil and the good (Mt. 5:45). This is an example of the good things that God sheds upon all humanity. This is relative good. But ultimate good--God and the things of God--do require effort on man's part to receive.

But most people never get past the good things God gives to us in this world to proceed onward to the best things that he desires to give to us. Instead, they are satisfied to live their lives far below the high level for which God has created us, which is intimate communion with him. Food, shelter, some degree of pleasure--these are what they desire, in varying degrees. A dog is satisfied with these things.

But we are not mere animals, despite the constant cry of the evolutionists to the contrary. God has called us to much more. We have been called to lift up our eyes to see the grand design of God for us, to have a higher vision than that which is so commonly found in this world.

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus . . ." (Heb. 12:2).

We are to have our eyes set on God and the things of God. That is the ultimate vision, the ultimate way of living. This is in stark contrast to the relative life so many live in this world. And the tragedy of this type of life is that it is not life at all, and, in fact, leads to ultimate death. Living relative life ends in ultimate death. This is the danger of relative living, and it is hidden from mankind until their eyes are opened in Christ by the Holy Spirit to see this hidden danger. As the familiar hymn so simply but eloquently says, "I once was blind, but now I see." And as Scripture informs us, there is only one way for a person to remove the veil that hides his vision from this deeper life: it can be done only through union by faith and baptism into Jesus Christ:

"But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away" (2 Cor. 3:14-16 NIV).

EXPOSING THE HIDDEN DANGER

If we would see, then we must be aware and know that there are, in fact, two types of death, just as there are two types of life. There is the relative life and relative death and then there is ultimate life and ultimate death. Jesus spoke of these two types, the relative and the ultimate, in these words:

"He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die"(Jn. 11:25,26).

That there are two types of both life and death is implied in these words of him who is life (Jn. 14:6). For Life said that the believer in him would live even though he dies. So there must be more to life than mere existence, life itself, for he said, "even though he dies".

Here Jesus promises that even if we die, it is possible to live. Furthermore, he speaks of the other end of this issue, saying that one who believes in him will never die. Unless there is something else other than the common, everyday view of life and death that humans hold, these words cannot be true. But they are true because they are spoken by him who cannot lie (Heb. 6:18) and who is the truth (Jn. 14:6).

Thus there is something more to life and death as we commonly perceive it. In fact, we ordinarily think of the life we know and the death we all must face as the ultimate realities. But the truth is that they are only relative. There is a life that is more than the common life known to man, which is mere existence, a life much better than that which we normally enjoy; and there is a death that is much worse than that of which we are normally aware. We take a look first at the life aspect.


RELATIVE LIFE versus ULTIMATE LIFE

Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" (Jn. 10:10). Thus it is quite clear that ordinary life that man lives without Jesus in that life is not the ultimate life God intends for man; it is relative life: good, yes, but definitely not the highest good, the fullness of life we are meant to have. It is a sad fact that the mankind, left to itself, lives its life fully in this limited world. Scripture describes this mindset this way:

"Their god is their appetite: They are proud of what they should be ashamed of; and all they think about is this life here on earth" (Phil. 3:19 TLB).

Many are they whose sole purpose in life is simply to enjoy solely for themselves as much as life has to offer, never considering that there is a judgment by God for how one has lived one's life. Not believing in a God who judges and not believing in a resurrection for judgment, their philosophy of self enjoyment is a natural result of such thinking:

"If the dead are not raised, then 'let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die' " (1 Cor. 15:32 WEB).

But that Scripture passage goes on to issue this warning to those who are influenced by this very popular worldview: "Do not be misled: 'Bad company corrupts good character' "(v. 33). It then goes on to show how to avoid being deceived and destroyed by this deadly, false worldview: "Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God--I say this to your shame" (v. 34).

Yes, it is to one's utter shame if he cannot see the plain truth about reality, that there is a God for whom we are made and that all his good gifts are meant to point us to him.

"I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. . . . The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse" (Rom.1:16,18-20 NIV).

There is no excuse for not seeing what is so obvious, that there is a God who created all that exists and that he has claim upon that creation, including us human beings, to live for the purposes for which he created us, which is to know him, love him, serve him and worship him. To live for any other reason is to bring shame to one's soul.

Notice that this passage uses the phrase "suppress the truth". It is not that human beings do not know that there is a God; they know it from what he has created. But they suppress this knowledge because they do not want to serve the One who created them with innate ability to know the truth about creation and reality. They suppress what God wants them to know but which they do not want to know, all the while continuing to want to know what God has expressly forbidden them to know. It has been this way ever since Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. On the very day they chose forbidden knowledge while rejecting revealed knowledge, they died, spiritually; physical death came much later but was inevitable as a natural consequence of rebellion against God. That there are such types of death is one of Scripture's revelations to us.

THE PERVERSENESS OF FALLEN HUMAN NATURE

It is clear from the way most people in this world live that they do not believe God when he tells them the ultimate truth about reality and his existence and their own. Instead, they prefer to choose or even create, they think, their own reality, a reality more friendly to their own self-centered desires. This is not a new aberation of  sinful man but has been around for a long, long time. Ages ago, even the chosen people of God, the Jews, told the prophets whom God sent to warn them of their refusal to quit living relative lives and to start relating their lives to him who is the ultimate life that they did not want to hear the message God had given to those prophets. Therefore God accurately described those people in this way:

"These are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the Lord's instruction. They say to the seers, 'See no more visions!' and to the prophets, 'Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!' " (Is. 30:9,10).

Incredible! An entire people prefer lies and a false vision of reality instead of the truth! How can this be? Surely no one really wants to live a lie, to live one's entire life in a fantasy world. Sadly, it is true. In fact, far more people fool themselves and deceive themselves that their own, self-centered lifestyle is the appropriate way to live rather than the way proclaimed by God in his Word. Nevertheless, God does not force them to admit their error; instead, he says of them:

"Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit" (Mt. 15:14).

Jesus truly spoke well by describing such blind people as falling into a pit, for Scripture often speaks of the end of such people as being in a pit, the pit of hell and its fire. This is the danger of relative living: It ends in ultimate death.

 THE DANGER OF RELATIVE LIVING

People are free to live life however they choose in this world. But they are not free to escape the consequences of that choice. There are laws and justice systems that are in place to punish offenders of the law. And if a person somehow avoids punishment in this world, there is always the punishment of the next. No one escapes final judgment. Some may seem to live wicked lives on this earth and never pay the penalty for it, but we are assured by God in his Word that there is always a final accounting for every individual's life. Sometimes we see a person's inner, hidden heart and motives, and sometimes we cannot, but we are assured that God sees all and there is an ultimate judgment for all.

"Some men's sins are evident, preceding them to judgment, and some also follow later" (1 Tim. 5:24 WEB).

Whether sooner or later, judgment is thus assured by God's Word. Jesus had this to say about this matter:

"He who rejects me, and doesn’t receive my sayings, has one who judges him. The word that I spoke, the same will judge him in the last day" (Jn. 12:48 WEB).

The consequences for rejecting God and his laws and his Savior, Jesus Christ, are most severe. They are, in fact, ultimate. Those who have lived their lives as relative lives, that is, not in accord with the ultimate laws and ways of God but only relative to the ways of this world will ultimately face ultimate punishment: separation from God for the ultimate "amount" of time, that is, eternity. There is no more terrifying prospect than this. It is the ultimate fate of horror: to exist forever apart from God, with not the least bit of goodness or pleasure in that existence, for where God is not, there is no good.

This is the message that has been attempted to be conveyed here in this piece of writing. My heart aches and sorrows for the multitudes I see caught up in deception, with no love for God or truth, racing on their way to eternal torment because they have no love for the truth.

"They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved" (2 Ths. 2:10 NIV).

Friend, do not be one who lives a relative life. The consequences are the ultimate in horror. Live the ultimate life of life in Jesus Christ. It's consequences are also ultimate, but they are the ultimate in joy: life forever with God in heaven.

2012: WHY THE WILD WEATHER

The summer of 2012 in the USA will always be remembered for the number and severity of storms, wildfires, extreme heat waves, and other extreme weather that struck the country. What are we to make of such widespread and extreme happenings? They are clearly out of the ordinary, as the shattering of thousands of temperature records prove. Do we just chalk it up to the vagaries of weather? Blame it on global warming? Or could there be a deeper cause?

The more extraordinary the phenomenon, the more extraordinary is its cause likely to be. The weather extremes in the USA in 2012 are so beyond ordinary that any observant person should immediately suspect something going on that is far beyond the normal. An astute person looking for the root cause of all this supernormal activity in nature will look not to the natural realm but to the supernatural. Two examples from the Bible come to mind that bolster this contention.

The first is the Great Flood of Noah's day. Before that time, in the Garden of Eden, Scripture says that "God had not sent rain on the earth . . . but (a mist) came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground" (Gen. 2:5,6 NIV). In other words, before sin corrupted the paradise that was originally earth, everything was of a gentler nature because everything was in tune and in accord with the nature of the God who created it--and that nature is gentle. The psalmist says of God, "Thy gentleness hath made me great" (Ps. 18:35 KJV).

Elsewhere, one of Job's friends, though often having a mistaken view of God and reality, did speak knowingly in one passage, where he says, "Are God's consolations not enough for you, words spoken gently to you? Why has your heart carried you away, and why do your eyes flash, so that you vent your rage against God and pour out such words from your mouth?" (Job 15:11-13 NIV).

Those words were spoken long ago in response to the calamities that had struck Job, calamities far beyond those normal to life in this fallen world. They also hold a hint as to why these extreme weather catastrophes have befallen our own nation in our own time. Ill-conceived words from our society and government against God and his laws have caused God to respond, changing his preferred tone of gentleness to one of severe warning and judgment. If people do not respond to his gentle ways, then he must increase the pressure on them to repent of their sin and rebellion against him. He does this out of his unchanging love for them, for he has already proven that he will do all that he can to warn them and try to turn them from their wicked folly. He proved that when he gave up his only Son on the cross to save all mankind from the consequences of sin.

We have had a long period of gentle reproof from God and verbal warnings. Those reproofs and warnings were ignored as America went from wickedness to wickedness, passing laws that defied God's laws for life and how it should be respected and lived. Therefore, God must now turn up the heat--both figuratively and literally--to try to get our attention. If we will not respond to gentler means, then more drastic measures must be taken. The extreme weather calamities of 2012 are one way in which this is done. It may be possible to look the other way when godless laws are passed in the land; it is not possible to ignore stifling heat and wildfires that spread across the land. We should pay attention to the warnings that these extreme weather events are meant to convey to us, for there is always a connection between the natural and the supernatural, just there was in Noah's day.

The second illustration from the Bible is that of the ten plagues of the Exodus (Ex. 7-12). No one who reads the biblical account of that massive exodus from Egypt can help but be struck by the extraordinary nature of the ten plagues: frogs and gnats that covered the land; hail of incredible proportions and intensity; and mysterious darkness that descended on the land. An hypothesis has been put forth that all the very unusual weather phenomena of the exodus were the result of a comet passing through earth's atmosphere. Whether that is so or not is open to debate, but even if true, that would only explain the strange events on a surface level. Natural phenomena are only the means by which supernatural causes are manifested. We should not confuse the mechanics of extreme natural events with their underlying real causes.

A stubborn, unmoving high-pressure system in the middle of the country may be the culprit causing the physical process of a heat wave, but what makes that high pressure system so stubborn and unmoving in the first place? To seek the answer to that question in terms of other natural causes fails to understand the connection between the supernatural and the natural worlds. That such a connection does indeed exist is affirmed in many places in Scripture; the book of Amos alone contains a number of them, as it describes how God uses the world of nature as a vehicle to carry out his decisions in the heavenly realms:

"I . . . withheld rain from you. . . . I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from another. One field had rain, another had none and dried up" (Amos 4:7).

The United States, in this incredible year, saw wildfires of unprecedented size and number; drought and heat swept over much of the country; record-breaking numbers of tornadoes and storms of great intensity ravaged other parts of the land. All of this left the people stunned and in shock. What is going on? They do not know. They do not know because they do not look to the supernatural for the explanation; they leave God out of the picture.

And what is the supernatural explanation? It is given in that same passage quoted above from Amos. After describing various harsh and frightening disasters that have struck the land, he makes it clear that God was the cause of these disasters.

"I . . . withheld rain from you" (v. 7).

"Many times I struck . . ." (v. 9).

"I sent plagues . . ." (v. 10).

And after each such plain declaration that God is the real, supernatural cause of these disturbances in weather and the land, comes the equally clear statement of why he is doing this: to wake up the people out of their deadly complacency. After each disaster's description comes these words: "Yet you did not return to me" (vs. 6,8,9,19).

Some might object that a loving God would not do this. Isn't God love? How then can he do such dreadful things to human beings? He does it for the same reason a loving parent disciplines a disobedient child: precisely because he does love that child and knows that if that child continues on his wayward path, only pain and suffering await him. He does it to turn the child from his own selfish, harmful ways.

"God disciplines us for our good . . . No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it" (Heb. 12:10,12 NIV).

"Do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son" (Heb. 12:5,6 NIV).

"We have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the "Father of our spirits and live!" (Heb. 12:9 NIV).

But this nation has not submitted. Instead, it has flaunted God's laws and created new laws that defy those laws. Therefore, God must discipline such disobedience, for if it were to continue, the whole nation would go down to hell and its fires. And since this people and nation has paid no attention to the gentle voice of God, he sends more drastic measures as loving warnings, turning the land into a small foretaste of the hell that awaits it if it continues down its wayward path. There could hardly be a more dramatic, living demonstration of the hellish fate that awaits any nation that continually defies God:

"All the nations that forget God shall be turned into hell" (Ps. 9:17 KJV).

We in America experienced the truth of this Scripture in 2012. Much of this country was turned into a miniature taste of hell, because we forgot God and his many blessings upon this country.

"She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and the gold--which they used for Baal. Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens, and my new wine . . . I will punish her" (Hos. 2:8,9,13 NIV).

We have forgotten God and are in danger of being a nation that is turned into hell. The only way of escape is to repent and turn back to God. Jesus Christ is the only way (Jn. 14:6).

The Noble Ones

Nobility of life is much to be desired--but few even seek it; fewer yet ever achieve it. Jesus said, "Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it" (Mt. 7:13,14 NIV).

Why is this? Why should so many prefer to live their lives at such a low level, rather than seek to elevate it and attain the stature of nobility of life? Taking our cue and clue from Jesus, we see that one reason is the restrictions that such living imposes on those who seek to live a noble life. If one would be noble, that person must be willing to forego some pleasures in life to obtain the deeper pleasures. This is a fact that not all are willing to accept. Many people want no restrictions at all on their lives. They rebel against God and his rules for life:

"'Let us break their chains,' they say, 'and throw off their fetters'" (Ps. 2:3 NIV).

Yet Scripture says this about God's rules for noble living: "His commands are not burdensome" (1 Jn. 5:3 NIV). And Jesus said that he came not to burden us with more laws but to open up to us the way (Jn. 14:6) to that higher, noble life that is found in him alone (Jn. 10:10).

Nevertheless, many fail to see the astonishing offer that God gives to us in his Son and reject his amazing grace to live a noble life that is found in Jesus alone. They see nothing extraordinary or noble in this son of a carpenter. "Isn't this the carpenter's son? . . . And they took offense at him" (Mt. 13:53,57 NIV).

Many take offense at Jesus, that they should look to him for how to live a noble life. Yet there are a few who are willing to submit to Jesus, for they sense something about him that rings true and whispers to their spirit that this is what they have been looking for to lift their lives out of the ordinary into the extraordinary. "Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, 'This is the way; walk in it'" (Is. 30:21).

Jesus' disciples heard him say that he is that way (Jn. 14:6), and they responded as those thirsty to drink of that one way to attain nobility of life. Let others go their own downward way; they would abandon their own heart's selfish desires and follow him on that narrow, hard path.

"On hearing it, many of his disciples said, 'This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?' . . . From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. 'You do not want to leave too, do you?' Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God" (Jn. 6:60, 66-69 NIV).

Notice that Peter makes reference to Jesus as the Holy One of God. Being holy is a key factor in nobility of life. In fact, Scripture singles it out as the crucial aspect of one's life that determines whether that life is indeed noble or not:

"As for the holy ones in the land, they are the noble, in whom is all my delight (Ps. 16:3 NRSV).

Part of the definition of being noble is the aspect of its separateness from the ordinariness of life. It means to be high in excellence or worth; great; honorable; lofty and superior intellectually and morally. All these descriptions fit Scripture's depiction of God and his Son Jesus Christ. Being noble means being holy--but without the human element of pride in being holy or noble. The only way a sinful human being can attain such a holy and noble life is through the one way God has provided for this, through his Son, Jesus Christ. Once a person accepts this one way, then begins the process of turning the ordinary into the extraordinary, of transforming the mundane into the noble.

"In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purpose, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work" (2 Tim. 2:20,21 NIV).

There is no more noble goal in life than to belong to the Lord Jesus and to seek to do his will in all things and glorify him. The man who follows this plan will be able to stand before God in the final judgment of all mankind, for it is the one noble plan available to man:

"The noble man makes noble plans, and by noble deeds he stands" (Is. 32:8 NIV).

Friend, have you made it your one ambition in life to be noble in God's eyes? The only way this is possible is through the Noble One whom God has sent into this world for that very purpose. I pray that you have surrendered your life and soul to the Lord Jesus and have been united with him into his nobility. If you have done this, then you are numbered among the noble ones in whom is my delight.

THE ASTONISHING COST OF BELIEVING

"The stonecutters quarried and shaped huge blocks of stone--a very expensive job--for the foundation of the temple" (1 Kgs 5:17 TLB).

There is a fascinating connection between this Old Testament description of the construction of Solomon's temple and how God builds a living temple for himself out of believers in Jesus--and the astounding cost for both God and the believer.

First of all, we need to get some sort of handle on the scope or magnitude of what we will be examining here. Otherwise, it will be all too easy to lose the significance of what it means to be a believer in Jesus Christ. We who live in a world that soaks itself in relatives need to be reminded that when dealing with God, we are dealing with something that transcends this world, a Being who is so far above what we are used to dealing with that it takes concerted effort to lift ourselves out of the ordinary way of looking at our lives and to concentrate on seeing the extraordinary. We need to focus on ultimates and supreme issues and absolutes--the highest and deepest and most extreme aspects of reality. In other words, God.

When Solomon contemplated building the temple, he said, "The temple I build must be large and magnificent" (2 Chr. 2:9 NIV). Why must this be so? Again, Solomon answers the question: because it is to be the dwelling place of God himself (2 Chr. 6:2).

Solomon had the right perspective. He was keenly aware that he was not about to embark on just another building project, but the project of his entire life as king of Israel. He was to build a temple for the Supreme Being, God. And therefore, that temple needed to reflect the supreme character of that God. He had the prerequisite humility and awe to undertake this great service to his God. And, of course, he did not just decide to do this on his own; he was chosen by God himself for this purpose:

"I intend, therefore, to build a temple for the Name of the LORD my God, as the LORD told my father David, when he said, `Your son whom I will put on the throne in your place will build the temple for my Name" (1 Kgs. 5:5 NIV).

This is the same order of events that the New Testament gives for how the temple of the new covenant with God is to be built, that is, how we who believe in Jesus are to become that living temple for God. It is not something we choose to do on our own, but God initiates it by calling us to believe in Jesus and chooses us for this purpose. As Jesus himself said:

"You did not choose me, but I chose you" (Jn. 15:16 NIV).

Thus no one can boast that he or she was the one who decided to follow Jesus and thus become a living temple for his worship. That decision, though necessarily made and confirmed by us, had its source of origin in the will of God and his calling to us.

"To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God--children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God" (Jn. 1:12,13 NIV).

Because of this proper attitude which Solomon had towards the building of the temple, the Old Testament temple was indeed a magnificent building, with much precious gold overlaying walls and articles and imposing statues of carved angels and many other touches that gave it an awesome atmosphere and look. Beauty and magnificence were the key characteristics throughout the entire structure. It reflected as well as any human endeavor could the nature of the God it was built to honor.

That temple from the Old Testament, and the tremendous cost and effort that went into it, are a symbol and representation of the even more costly temple of the New Testament: you and me. All believers are described in the New Testament as the temple of God:

"Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?" (1 Cor. 3:16 NIV).

"God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple" (1 Cor. 3:17 NIV).

"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own" (1 Cor. 6:19 NIV).

Although the Old Testament temple took years to build and was costly in labor and materials, and the finished product was stunning to behold, it was nothing compared to the effort and painstaking, costly work that is put forth to build a suitable temple for God in our present world. Indeed, the building of human temples in which the Holy Spirit can reside is so costly and demanding of both God and man that nothing else can compare with it. Here a just a few examples that illustrate the kind of preparation that is required for us to be the temple of the living God:

Moses: "He fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons. After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai" (Acts 7:29-30 NIV).

Joseph: ". . . sold as a slave. They bruised his feet with shackles, his neck was put in irons, till what he foretold came to pass, till the word of the Lord proved him true" (Ps. 105:17-20 NIV).

Abraham: "When God tested him, (he) offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, 'It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned'" (Heb. 11:17-18 NIV).

This last example illustrates the truth of a previous statement made above, that the cost for constructing a living temple (human beings who believe in Jesus) for God is great beyond measure. For it is not just we who are God's children who must suffer great loss in order to be molded into fit stones for God's temple: God himself suffered the loss of his own Son on the cross so that this work could be accomplished. Firstly, Jesus had to give up the glories of heaven to come down to earth to enable us to be built into a temple for God (Ph. 2:6,7). Secondly, even after arriving upon this earth in human form, Jesus, God in human flesh, was then sent away from his familiar surroundings, just as was Abraham, when Jesus was compelled by the Holy Spirit to be disciplined (trained) in the desert after his baptism by John the Baptist.

"At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him" (Mk. 1:12,13 NIV).

"In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers" (Heb. 12:10,11 NIV).

Yes, in Jesus, the Son of God, we find the perfect example and forerunner of who we are to be like in the strenuous and exacting discipline that God requires of those who are to be used as living stones in building a temple for the living God. "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus" (Ph. 2:5 NIV).

Why is our attitude to be the same as that of our Lord Jesus? Because we are meant to be like him, so that he can live in us through his Holy Spirit:

"In him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit" (Eph. 2.22 NIV).

"Written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts" (2 Cor. 3:3 NIV).

What are some of the demanding challenges which must be met by we who would be living stones in God's temple? We have already seen that Joseph had to be falsely imprisoned, enduring physical and emotional hardships of such a depressing place. Moses had to flee for his life from a rich, kingly way of living to being a shepherd for forty years in a rough wilderness. And Abraham was told to give up his only son.

Yes, even human life is not held back from God's demands for us to be built into his living temple. In fact, it is human life itself, specifically ours, that is the key requirement. Nothing is held back. And, since, as was noted earlier, the temple which Solomon built, is a pattern for the ultimate temple of God, that is, human beings who submit to him as their God--it is required that the highest sacrifice of all, human life, be given for this highest honor of being a temple for God himself.

Now, this should not mistakenly be understood to mean that actual human sacrifice should be done. Abraham was told to sacrifice his son to God, but God himself stopped Abraham from carrying out that command. God both gave the command and stopped it from actually being carried out. It is the same with us. We are commanded by God to give all that we have and are to be used by him in his molding us and building us into his holy temple. Nothing less would be worthy of Him who is the ultimate goal in life. But that sacrifice is not literal, as some of the world's depraved religions have supposed. Literal human sacrifice is not in line with the character of the true God who is love.

No, the sacrifice which God requires is of our heart or soul, not of our body, although that may come about if it is his will that we die for his name. But then that would be by his hand and the working of his circumstances, and not by our own hand or at the hands of a religion in the culture of this world. For Scripture says, "You must not live according to the customs of the nations I am going to drive out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them" (Lev. 20:23 NIV).

God rightly abhors the abhorrent practices of the false religions of the nations and its cultures and customs, and those who would be temples for him must not follow the depraved notions and practices of a world that sees death as fitting for their dead god. Rather, those who belong to the living God are to be living temples, not dead bodies burned to a dead god.

It was said that Abraham obeyed God and took his son out into the wilderness, prepared to offer him as a sacrifice. He was willing to offer to God that which was of ultimate preciousness to himself. He is to be our model and example, just as Jesus is. We are to look to the example of Abraham.

"Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the Lord: Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn; look to Abraham" (Is. 51:2 NIV).

Look to Abraham and to Jesus for the right attitude which we are to have in order to fulfill our destiny to be living temples for the living God. We are to surrender all that we hold dear, even our very lives, to this end.

"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me" (Mt. 10:37 NIV).

"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple" (Lk. 14:26 NIV).

That is the cost for being built into a living temple for the living God: We must overcome the natural inclination to cling to our love for family and self. Only when this is done, when we overcome even our own natural instincts for self preservation, can we become something even higher: a part of the temple of God.

"Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God" (Rev. 3:12 NIV).

But how does one do this? How in the world can a person overcome the strong, natural desire to cling to one's own life? It cannot be down "in the world", that is, by any human effort. It cannot be done by any natural means, only by supernatural power available in Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.

Three Scripture passages, show the simple yet profound way in which we become true believers in Christ and thus part of the temple of God that honors him and his name:

1. We must overcome our innate, natural inclination to cling to our own life by allowing the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God, to cleanse us of such obstacles in the human nature. We must die to self so that we can live for God.

"They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death" (Rev. 12:11 NIV).

2. It is through hearing the proclamation of the good news of the gospel, that this can be accomplished in us through surrendering to Jesus as Lord and Savior.

"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:17 KJV).

3. We must both live out this new birth within us by deed and word.

"That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Rom. 10:9 NIV).

Saved to be a living temple for the living God.