Jesus, The Son of God

Last night I was praying for my Dad's salvation and for an opportunity to share the gospel with him. I then began praying about what it was that I would say to him. My mind drifted a bit as I thought of different lines of apologetic reasoning until I thought of forcing my Dad to respond to what Jesus has said about Himself, the classic Lord, Liar, or Lunatic example. I new that I could prove that what He said about Himself was true due to manuscript evidence, so my dad would have to come to a conclusion based on Scripture.

I thought of a few different verses like I am in the Father, and he who sees Me sees the One who sent Me, but then I though about Jesus referring to Himself as the Son of God (John 10). And I remembered how some people that I've spoken to don't think that those verses are sufficient evidence to prove Jesus' deity, and I thought to myself why is that? Well maybe they think like the Jehovah's Witnesses, that Jesus was born of the Father and therefore not as powerful and inferior. Normally at this point I would launch into an explanation of historical Jewish family tradition, but then I had a powerful thought.

Often times when children are growing up we have expectations for them based on their parents abilities, i.e. they should be a great artist or musician because their Father was. These expectations begin even before birth. People will regularly say when an attractive couple get together, "Oh you're going to have such beautiful children". And boy would they be surprised if they had some ugly kids. If the couple were accomplished athletes the tendency would be to assume their son is going to be a standout, and how many people are disappointed when little Johnny has asthma and a frail bone structure. The truth is that we expect children to have the same abilities as their parents have. The Truth is Jesus is exactly like the Father, they just differ in their roles and relationship with one another. God is perfect and therefore His only begotten Son is perfect and lacking in no way.

Doubt Your Perception of Suffering

The following is by Jon Bloom and can be viewed online at:http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/doubt-your-perception-of-suffering

There he sat, the scum of society, a sorry piece of work begging the condescending mercy of pious passersby going in and out of the temple. Enough mercy and he could eat.

The blind man in John 9 didn’t have many vocational options. He had been born blind. And it was his own fault. As a fetus this man sinned in the womb against the Almighty. Either that or his parents had sinned and cursed him. Whichever, he was suffering his just punishment. Those who had been righteous fetuses walked by and sometimes dropped a coin in his hand.

You see, in the law and prophets God had not explained exactly why one person suffers more than another. So theologians surmised that a person’s suffering must result from a specific offense against God. Oddly, this was what Job’s three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, had surmised about Job’s suffering. God’s word to them was, “you have not spoken of me what is right” (Job 42:8). Jesus was about to deliver a similar rebuke.

As Jesus and his disciples passed by this man, the disciples naturally wanted to know who was to blame, the man or his parents. That’s when Jesus threw another wrench into their theological system. He said, “It was not that this man sinned or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him” (v. 3).

Can you hear the disciples catch their breath? Have you caught yours? Jesus said that God was to blame. The man was blind because God had a purpose in it that hadn’t entered anyone’s mind.

All those years the man and his parents labored under a perception of God’s judgment for an unknown reason. And they had born others’ disdain. Imagine what the man’s childhood must have been like. Imagine the insults, the indignities, the injuries, the poverty, the loneliness, and isolation from other children. No hope for marriage. No hope for education.

Why? Because God had something glorious to say through it. It’s just that up until this day no one saw it coming, least of all the blind man.

Jesus then spat on the ground, made mud with his saliva, put the mud on the man’s eyes, and said, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.” So he went and washed and came back seeing!

In that moment everything changed. The man went from life-long blindness to seeing. But even more revolutionary in its repercussions, he went from being perceived as the object of God’s wrath to being the object of God’s mercy!

This is mind-blowing. God’s purposes in his blindness turned out to be exactly opposite of everyone’s perceptions. All along people believed the man was “born in utter sin” (v. 36). But in fact he was born blind in order that God might show mercy to him and pronounce judgment on the self-righteous religious people. “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind” (v. 39).

Caution: we must be very careful in assessing God’s purposes in suffering—our own or someone else’s. Often we cannot see any redeeming reason for it. The same would have been true of the blind man until the day Jesus passed by. Even here we might be tempted to say, “Well, yes, but how often does that happen?” I know. I have a sister who is severely developmentally disabled. I know very little of God’s purposes in it. He often does not make his purposes public knowledge.

This story reminds us that our perceptions and God’s purposes can be very different, even opposite. If we are going to be skeptical, it’s best to be skeptical of our perceptions.

Satisfied With Life

Eu sou satisfeito. This is one of the first phrases I learned in Portuguese when I went to Brasil in 2005, it means "I'm satisfied". Around meals people were constantly asking if I wanted something more to eat or drink and I would say, eu sou satisfeito. From now until the end of my life this is what I would like to say about the way I've lived.

Similarly we read in Genesis 25:8 Abraham breathed his last and died in a ripe old age, an old man and satisfied with life.

At 19 years of age Jonathan Edwards resolved to live his life if such a way that, at the end of his life, he could echo Abraham's sentiments. In his own words Edwards wrote, "I frequently hear persons in old age say how they would live, if they were to live their lives over again: Resolved, that I will live just so as I can think I shall wish I had done, supposing I live to old age." July 8, 1723.

In my life there are already things that I wish I would have done or handled differently. Some of them are spiritual and others not. Some are realistic and others not. And I know that most likely this will always be the case, but I would like to say that regarding things of major consequence that I acknowledged Him in all of my ways, and He made straight my paths, to His glory (Pr. 3:6).

A few months ago I read John Piper's Don't Waste Your Life and was greatly inspired to do just that. Why reach the twilight of my life and be unsatisfied when I could be attaining the desires of my heart, in the Psalm 37:4 sense, while I still have time?

Whether you are pleased, now or in the future, with the choices you've made, ultimately we can all say with Paul, by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace towards me did not prove vain (1 Cor. 15:10). This is a truly profound statement and worth a moment of meditation before continuing.
All of the material things we have, and don't have, are gifts by the grace of God (clothes, electronics, shelter, transportation, etc.). All of the physical capabilities we do, and do not, posses are gifts by the grace of God (our mobility, organs, limbs, senses, etc.). All of our mental faculties, both used and unused, are gifts by the grace of God (conscience, logic, reason, intellect, etc.). All of our relationships are gifts by the grace of God (friendships, fellowship, romance, etc.). Most of all, by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God (Eph. 2:8).

For me, in order to best participate in furthering His kingdom, I needed to make a list and establish short and long term goals both for motivation and to remember to do what I feel is tangibly most important, so that at the end of my days I can die an old man, satisfied with life.