Meditations on the Mountain

Almost everyone loves Easter, and why not?  The beautiful season of spring is upon us.  New life is everywhere evident.  Flora and fauna are actively growing and awing us with their beauty.  However, Easter is not just about bunnies and colored eggs.  Easter is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  For three days, the absolutely dead body of Jesus, Lord at birth and death, lay in a cold tomb.  With power and authority Jesus conquered death and rose alive from the grave, securing the reality that humans too can conquer death with the power of God on their side.    The resurrection of Jesus is not a myth nor was it a complicated conspiracy theory perpetrated by the disciples.  To deny the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ is to deny the Bible and God.  Only a fool would deny God (Psalm 14:1 "The fool has said in his heart, there is no God").  The miracle of Jesus resurrection is a cause to worship Him as the Almighty God, but it is also a cause to serve Him as the Worthy Savior.    Colossians 3:1 says, "If ye then [since] be risen with Christ"  The dynamic of this verse is found back in Galatians 2:20 "I am crucified with Christ."  To understand the motivation of the resurrection of Christ we must understand that when a person turns from sin and his own way and turns to Christ to accept his free gift of salvation, he (sinful nature) is crucified with Jesus; and he is now dead to that old way of living. This means that he begins a process of growing in Christ.  But that process is not only possible because of the death of Christ corresponding to the death of our old sinful self, but the resurrection of Christ that corresponds to a "resurrected" life in him.  He kills the old nature on the cross and raises us to live a new life in him.  He gives us a fresh start just like the beauty of springtime.  Galatians 2:20 says that he is crucified (dead) with Christ, but just as Christ rose and is alive "nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me."  So what now?  Colossians 3:1 says that since we have been raised with Christ (given a new life) to seek those things above (things of God).  We are told then to set our attention and affection on the things of God.  The resurrection means that since Christ conquered sin on the cross and death at the resurrection, he has enabled and empowered his children to seek the things of God.

At Arlington National Cemetery, you will find the tomb of the the unknown soldier.  This   tomb is guarded 24 hours a day, 365 days a year rain, snow, or shine.  The strength represented by the "Old Guard"  is unsurpassed as they stand vigilant over our most honored memory of those who gave their lives that this nation might live.  The movements of the "Old Guard" are so precise, and the stature is so rigid that respect and admiration are given regardless of ones political leanings.  I can only imagine that something like this is what Paul the Apostle had in mind when he penned the words of Galatians 5:1.  "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."  The guards at the tomb of the unknown soldier never shirk their duty.  They stand with back rigid and arm pivoted in the perfect angle for a salute at each changing of the guard.  They are unmovable.   When hurricanes and storms threatened the monument, those guards refused to move.  They stand fast in their duty.  The holy Scripture is pleading for believers in Christ to stand fast in the liberty, freedom, they have been given by the precious sacrifice of their captain, Jesus Christ.  There are two basic tenets learned from this passage.  We will examine these two truths separately.  

1.  We are free in Christ!  What an amazing truth it is that those who have placed their faith in Christ Jesus are free.  We are not bound by the law.  Paul goes on further in Galatians chapter five to tell us that if we seek to find our justification by keeping of the law, there is no profit in Christ (3-5).  Why then would a Christian who has been set free from the regulation and penalty of the law, seek to entangle himself back in it?  A prime example of this is seen in what is called legalism.  The term "legalism" literally means keeping the law to obtain God's favor.  Many false religions teach that we must do this ordinance or keep that sacrament to gain God's pleasure.  That kind of teaching is not Biblical in any way, shape, or form and is heresy in its highest degree.  However, many Christians who would never say that about salvation, tend to think that by living a good life after salvation they can gain more of God's pleasure on their life.  This perversion of God's grace is very subtle, but it even existed in the Galatia church.  In chapter three Paul is very serious about this heresy.  He calls the Galatians foolish, and says that they have been bewitched.  He goes on to ask them a rhetorical question.  "Having begun in the Spirit are ye now made perfect (mature) by the flesh?"  Many had fallen prey to this horrible heresy that teaches that Jesus saves us by his Spirit, but we have to put out the effort and energy to be sure we grow and are holy people.  Yes, there is human responsibility, but the growth of a Christian is just as much a work of God as salvation is.  Some Christians get it in their minds that once they have gotten saved they must try "really hard" to not sin so that God doesn't get angry or displeased with them.  I ask a question.  If God's grace can overcome the horrible sin of a pagan; can not his grace overcome the sin of a saint?  We are free in Christ.  It is so important that we do not look at our own efforts, our own works, and our own motives to keep God pleased with us.  He is pleased with us because (and only because) he is pleased with His precious Son's sacrifice in our place.  Therefore it is of the utmost foolishness to take the commandments of men and make them the commandments of God.  There is a place for standards in our lives to help us walk closely with our Lord, but those standards must be derived from Biblical principles, and we must not teach our standard on a particular issue, as the very commandment of God.  Stand fast in the Liberty!

What would make five men risk their lives and eventually sacrifice themselves for people they had never met?  Why would five missionaries die on the beaches of South America without defending themselves against the hostile natives?  The natural mind says that they died a senseless death.  In our flesh we can only shake our head and scorn their "lack of judgment."  However fifty years ago, five missionaries gloriously entered heaven's glory for the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Jim Eliot, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, and Pete Flemming had landed their plane in a clearing and were standing near a river's edge when they were cruelly speared to death by the confused natives.  Jim Eliot was 28 years old when he was murdered as was Ed McCully; Pete Flemming was 27, and both Nate Saint and Roger Youderian were 32.  What was going through these young men's minds as they hugged their children and kissed their wives for the last time.  They did not know it would be the last time, they had spent weeks preparing for their beach landing; but each one understood the cost.  Consider what the youngest Pete Flemming wrote in his journal,  “I am longing now to reach the AUCUS if God gives me the honor of proclaiming the Name among them . . . I would gladly give my life for that tribe if only to see an assembly of those proud, clever, smart people gathering around a table to honor the Son—gladly, gladly, gladly! What more could be given to life?"  These men counted the cost and gave all, but for what?  Was it for social betterment, were they peace corps volunteers who wanted to protect the Ecuadorian landscape from oil drilling?  Were they concerned about the lack of good drinking water or the spread of infectious disease in the tribes?  

Something far greater would call these men to their eternal home in heaven.  Society will never understand, politicians will never be able to rationalize, and governments have no chance at legislating it.  These five men left all and "hated their father, mother, sons, and daughters, and their own lives too."  The love they had for their fellow man did not send these courageous young men to their grave.  It was a love for the Lord Jesus Christ and His message of salvation.  That message of the sacrificial, bloody sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the God/man.  We call that the gospel; the good news that Jesus Christ took our place on the cruel Roman cross and gave His life so that the penalty of our sin could be judged on Him.  He then rose again to secure us victory over death.  The message that proclaims that He took our hell on his own body so that we could be declared the righteousness of God.  They gave their lives so that the Wadoni tribes-people could have their sins forgiven and rejoice in the same grace that the missionaries understood.  Maybe Jim Elliot's journal entry that has been immortalized by missionaries, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”  These men gave their all for the precious, pure gospel of Jesus Christ.  "If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." (Galatians 1:9)

Silent Night! holy night! Son of God, love's pure lightRadiant beams from Thy holy face With the dawn of redeeming grace–Jesus, Lord at Thy birth, Jesus, Lord at Thy birth.

In 1818, on the afternoon of Christmas Eve, in a tiny village in the Austrian Alps, Joseph Mohr wrote a few stanzas appropriate for Christmas Eve worship.  The church organ was broken and could not be fixed, so an unknown musician (at the time) named Franz Gruber wrote a simple melody that could be easily sung and accompanied by guitars.  Unknown to these two men, their carol would become one of the most popular of all time.  One of the most interesting truths written in this Christmas carol is found within the last line, "Jesus, Lord at Thy birth, Jesus, Lord at Thy birth."  One of the fundamental doctrines of Biblical Christianity is the reality that when the Infant was born in that lowly feeding trough, He was already completely God.  The truth that Jesus was 100% God and 100% man (the hypostatic union) is a mystery and has been attacked since Christ's birth until today.  The fact that the Infinite became an infant is a doctrine that our natural mind repulses.  That an all-powerful, holy God who created this universe who humble Himself and confined Himself in a crying, undeveloped, soft-tissued body; to rely on humans as His source of nurture and nutrition appalls our sense of appropriateness. Did the eternal God, embodied in the form of a baby, need Mary to feed Him?  Did the Originator of the great deluge need to wrap His cloak around Him to stop the cutting wind and rain?   Did the One who wrote the Law with His finger need His step-father to teach Him how to chisel stone and plant crops?  The answer to all of these is an intriguing yes.  The humanity of Jesus was evident in the most simple duties and needs of life.  It is interesting that the Holy Bible gives us no information from infancy to the time when Jesus would have had his Bah-Mitzvah (12), but maybe Mary's words indicated the difficulty of understanding this mystery of complete manhood mixed with complete Godhood when Joseph and Mary temporarily "lost" Jesus at the age of twelve (Luke 2:41-52).  He had been missing a day before they realized that Jesus was gone.  When they find Jesus three days later, He was in the temple teaching the experts in the Law.  Everyone was amazed at His knowledge.  I can imagine the relief that flooded her soul as she ran to Him and said, "Son, why have you thus dealt with us? Behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing?"  Mary said something that was not true, she claimed that Jesus' father was searching for Him.  But Joseph was not Jesus true Father, He was the Son of God, and he came as Lord while infant. Even His own mother struggled with this truth.  How did Jesus take human flesh with human needs and still retain His deity?  He chose to.  The only only one who could accomplish this great mystery is the eternal God who although He was Lord at birth, chose to be needy at birth.  Jesus remained Lord even as His mother nursed Him.  Even in obeying His adoptive father he remained Lord.  As He grew in His limiting body, He remained Lord.  What love, for the infinite Creator God to voluntarily become a needy baby.  Let us not forget this Christmas season, that He was the infant in the manger, but He was also to Lord of all creation in the manger.