The Language of Slaves, Part 5

Further, it is not what goes into a man that defiles him, but what comes out or is projected from him that makes him unclean. In other words, you can make more external rules, but if you cannot keep one, you are guilty of breaking them all. How much simpler is it to apply two questions to every situation.
1. Does this show my love for God?
2. Does this show love towards my neighbor?

Here we go again! From the corner I hear someone yelling that love is subjective. I rebut by declaring that Love is only subjective if you don’t really know what love is. God clearly shows us what love is.
Generally, love is described by the passage, “It is kind, patient…
Truthfully our world was framed by love. For if there was no world God could not send Jesus who is the full expression of God’s love. We also know that God is love. This means that love is defined by the progressive revelation of God and not by human experience or feeling. Just as Jesus is the full expression of God’s love the Bible is God’s full explanation of His love.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:1
The beautiful thing about God’s love is that it is unconditional. The world was created based on His love and human existence is predicated by it. You see, God is love, which is to say that God defines love, not that love defines God. The Bible says in regards to Christians that we love God because He first loved us. In the simplest form the Christian is the man that responds to God’s love by loving Him back.
There are serious implications to this statement. People will often say things like, “If God really loved me, He would…” or “If God is love, then why is there suffering?” These questions are easily answered, but complicated to explain.
The first is a perverse question that showcases man’s darkened heart. It redefines God’s divine love into a display of selfishness by asking what man can obtain from God aside from unlimited atonement which is given to every man.
Again we revisit the themes of love, faith, and obedience. As Christians we must realize that our salvation is based solely on the gift of God. Also, we must live the Christian life as athletes training and running in such a way as to not be disqualified. We must not live like Judas who was willing to sell Christ for money or Simon the sorcerer who saw the power of God and thought that he could purchase it for what he could obtain with it.
This is the consumerism of life. The world system works on a scale of doing for getting. The motive for doing is getting. That is perhaps, why there are not many who want to become Christians.
Like an athlete who trains for years for one event, the Christian’s reward is obtained only at the end of the race. We run a race of endurance.
Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.
James 1:12
It is often said that it is not how you start, but how you finish. This is true both in life and endurance sports. You see, we are born dead and must be brought to life. Therefore humanity only has two choices; lie dead in the blocks or run the race of a champion.
No man will truly obtain fulfillment without first knowing Christ who is the Word that formed him. Just as we were created to be in constant communion, or common union with God, the pinnacle of individual existence is salvation. How can this be? Let me ask you this…What is the definition of justification? It means; just as if you’d never sinned. And if Adam was created without sin and through Christ we are justified, then we are truly a new creation.
Over the centuries the battle has waged about who can be saved and therefore justified. The study of Soterology seeks to explain the details of salvation. This study takes us beyond the basics of scripture.
1. Believe on the LORD Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
2. He who believes in his heart and confesses with his mouth will be saved.
3. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.

Let us study the two main views of salvation today along with some views held by influential church fathers.
Below is a chart outlining the main differences between Calvinism and Armenianism.
Let’s gauge these views against the witness of Scripture both by direct quote and pattern and with the views of the church fathers.

Gideon and salvation
The story of Gideon is framed by the iniquity of the Israelites; God chosen people. Just like Joseph, God gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Midian means strife and every mention of him leaves that impression on the reader. Judges 6 tells us that they were so oppressive that Israel, God’s chosen people, made shelters in the mountains and caves and every time the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites and other eastern people invaded their country and camped on the land and ruined the crops. They layed waste to everything-“they invaded the land to ravage it.”
Because of this continual oppression Israel cried out to the LORD. The LORD answered them by bringing to remembrance their deliverance from Egypt and the possession of the enemy’s land. Like every covenant or suzerain treaty, God gave a condition to Israel; Do not worship the gods of the Amorites, But you have not listened to me.
So the Israelites were in the middle of possessing their promise, but because of cultural circumstance and compromise they began to leave the way of God. A friend of mine calls this the distance leads to denial principle. If we distance ourselves from Jesus, eventually we will deny Him just like Peter.
The story suddenly skips to Gideon. If this was a movie it would fade from black into a winepress. The camera would start from far above the recessed area of the winepress until it panned to a side view of Gideon threshing wheat. Then the angel of the LORD appears to him. The voice is thundering and reverberates throughout Gideon’s body. God says, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”
Unimpressed, Gideon mumbles, “But if the LORD is with us why is this happening? Where all His wonders…The one are’s our fathers told us about. Gideon flashes back and quickly draws words from the well of his imagination, “Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?” but now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian.”
GOD: Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?
Gideon: How can I save Israel? My family is the weakest in our tribe and I am the least of my family.
GOD: I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.”
Gideon: Give me a sign.
Gideon then beseeches the Lord to stay so that he can bring an offering and the LORD waiting for him to return.
Gideon then prepared a young goat and unleavened bread and returned to the spot of the winepress. God commanded Gideon to place the meat and bread on a rock and pour out the broth. Then the angel of the LORD touched them and fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and bread. Then the angel disappeared.
It was then that Gideon realized that he was communing with the Angel of the LORD. He became afraid, but the LORD comforted him and exclaimed, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.” So Gideon built an altar and called it the Lord is Peace.
How interesting that the history of Israel was really spurred by Joseph and strife with his brothers and by it was sold into slavery to the Midianites who then transported him to Egypt. Jacob (Israel)
The tribe that Gideon came from was descended from Manasseh which was Joseph’s firstborn. Manasseh means “Causing to forget.” This is the second time that Manasseh saves Israel.
Gideon is commanded to take a seven year old bull, seven signifying the years that they were overrun by the Midianites. He is also commanded to tear down the altar to Baal and the Asherah pole that belonged to his father. Gideon obeyed the LORD. He did what every smart person does, he did it at night because he was afraid of his family and the men of the town would attack him.
In the morning the town found Baal’s altar broken, the Asherah pole cut down and the bull sacrificed on “a proper kind of altar.” They asked each other who could have done this and found that it was Gideon. The people wanted to destroy him because he destroyed what they made and now worshiped.
The altars of false gods are often those simple things like friendships, known and unknown dependencies, and other inanimate objects that make us feel secure. These things are invested in our time and other resources and therefore we are bound to them. Fortunately, Joash stops the people with a voice of reason, “Are you going to plead Baal’s cause? Are you trying to save him?...If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar.”
How many times in our own lives do we attempt to salvage something because it’s what we want and not what God wants. He wants our undivided attention. He commands His children to take down all the altars that are not setup to worship Him.