Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from the “Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide”, is titled “Jesus, Author and Perfecter of our Faith”. “Author” is the root word of “authority”. “And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes”. (Matthew 7:28-29). The crowds recognized that the “Author” was speaking to them and explaining scripture to them. And of course, that Author would be Jehovah, Yahweh, and the Great “I Am” Himself. What, exactly was Jehovah speaking and explaining? Was the “Author” explaining the law, explaining the way of life, explaining the way to treat your neighbor? What precisely was He explaining? Well it was all that for sure (the law, the way of life, how to treat your neighbor). But it was really something so much more. Something so profound that many may not have “caught” it… and which we may not “catch” either. What Jesus demonstrated as “Author”, as “Originator”, as “Creator” was about the character of God… the very nature of God Himself. And by extension, our nature in which we ourselves were originally created. The “Sermon on the Mount” is a revelation of the heart of God; which was always to be our heart, too. In this sermon we see what our high-calling is. And this calling is to be like the One so described in Christ’s sermon on that day.
But we humans got side-tracked, turned-around by our striving after self and we needed laws to protect us. As a result of those necessary laws, we interpreted our loving Father in legal terms. As a “judge” whose main attributes are justice and jurisprudence. A god who focuses on law. So, we focused on law, too, believing we were living-up to our very legal Father’s expectations. We have even interpreted Christ’s coming as a man in these very legal terms, saying He came to assuage the Father’s justified wrath against us and to pay our penalty (a most pagan concept!). But our loving Father gave us these laws not as the ultimate expression of our calling. He gave them as an emergency measure “because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made… that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith” (Galatians 3: 19, 22-24). And in every age, from Adam till now, whenever anyone saw that the qualities of the Father were like those exemplified by Jesus Christ as proclaimed on the “Sermon-on-the-Mount”, they were won back to love and trust in that Father who would love us enough to give such laws when we needed them. The “Seed” can come to any and all in every age, when we see the qualities personified by Christ as those of the Father. The “Seed” coming is not confined to a place or time. After all, hasn’t He “come” to each of us in our day? Hasn’t the Holy Spirit brought Christ to us this day? Likewise, He “came” to those in all ages and at all times from the beginning of sin in heaven until the very end of time. Christ, the “Seed” comes to any and all who sees the qualities listed in the “Sermon-on-the-Mount” as the essential qualities of all heaven… of the Father Himself.
Something happens to us when we “see” God like this… when we respond to God as described in Matthew 5-7. When we respond to Him as our Father instead of our Judge. John tells us what happens to “as many as received Him. To them He gave authority to become children of God, to those who believe on His name who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man but of God” (John 1: 12-13). That’s right. If we see God the Father having the qualities as God the Son as listed in the “Sermon-on-the-Mount”, and then “receive” that God, we then have the same “authority” the same author-ship as the Son of God (and therefore the same as the Father Himself because the Father and the Son are “one”). We are empowered with the same “authority” as the Son… “authority to become children (sons and daughters) of God” (John 1: 12).
God has given us the authority to be the authors of our own unique identity as His child. For our unique identity is one which we ourselves must discover and develop. God is with us of course. But He does not drive us nor force us but helps us decide what we will be. But it is we ourselves who decide. He does not decide for us. God has given us the 10 commandments. And He has equipped us with the capacity to listen and to obey the 10,000 demands and commands in the 10,000 situations with which life confronts us. We are to discover the unique requirement of each unique situation and adapt the principles of the moral law to the specific situation we are in. We are to be alert to discover the responsibilities that present themselves to each one of us, in each unique situation we find ourselves. And then to act on those responsibilities, on our convictions. In this way, by our own convictions and our own volitional acts, we ourselves become the author of our own divine childhood. He has given us the authority over our own selves. To be the author of what we ourselves decide to be. This is our divine heritage. One which God will not take from us. “Every human being, created in the image of God, is endowed with a power akin to that of the Creator--- individuality, power to think and to do” (Education pg. 17). We are the authors of our own divine childhood. He is our Guide, our Comforter, our Helper, ever with us… but we decide.
We were created to have this author-ship. But to properly have this, we need to know God as He is… to know the Author as He really is. To know God as Christ described on the “mount”. If we are motivated by fear of punishment or hope of reward, then we are not discovering our unique identity, but are being driven by fear, or compelled with selfish striving. And if driven and compelled, then our own convictions from our own conscience have yet to be heard. We are still being motivated by selfishness. God does not drive us, He leads us… allowing our own convictions to develop and to be heard.
Do you know Him this way, just like the Son? If so, you will become like Him, like the One you worship and admire. May we see Him clearly and thus “by beholding we become changed into the same image” (Gospel Workers pg. 422). Changed into having authority over ourselves, over our own divine childhood. If not, we have volitionally abandoned our responsibility and abdicated our divine right… and handed it over to another. And that “other” is not God but the Adversary. This is a choice, too. A deadly one. God has given us the “authority to become children of God…to as many as received Him” (quoted above). This is how He “authors” and “perfects” our faith. Let us not shirk this premier responsibility, this premier divine calling. If we refuse to choose, refuse to decide, we will have no excuse. Not deciding, refusing to choose is a choice, too.
With brotherly love,
Jim