The Kingdom Perspective

Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.

The Bible tells us repeatedly that God is good.

For example, Psalm 106 commands:
“Praise the Lord!
Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever!” (Psalm 106:1)

And again in Psalm 145:9…
The Lord is good to all,
And His mercies are over all His works.

And Psalm 34:8…
Oh taste and see that the LORD is good!

Now, some may be thinking: “But I thought God was a judge. What about the angry-at-sin part? I thought God was not only good, but also just?”

Well, think with me.
God’s essential heart towards His creation is not one of punishment—that is corrective/retributive justice. God is not a grumpy god sitting up in heaven thinking: “What fault can I find today? Who can I get irritated with and punish?

Certainly, God IS just and He will by NO MEANS allow the guilty to go unpunished (Ex. 34:7), And so, if you are evil-doer, this should make you terrified.

But more to the heart of His character, God is “…abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands” (Ex. 34:6-7). From all eternity and to all eternity, God is overflowing with goodness and generosity.

Corrective or retributive justice is not at the heart of who God is, but rather is what happens when God’s goodness (His infinite moral excellence) encounters evil (the warping of or rebellion against His goodness).

For God to express His goodness in the face of such evil requires Him to punish it—to correct it. Justice is the necessary by-product of His essential goodness. It is God’s goodness that drives him to judge evil. We expect nothing less among our human rulers. How much more the ultimate ruler of heaven and earth!

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

The Lord said to Moses, “Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. No one shall come up with you, and let no one be seen throughout all the mountain. Let no flocks or herds graze opposite that mountain.” So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone. The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”
~ Exodus 34:1-9 (ESV)

Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.

The Bible tells us that essential to God’s character is His goodness. God is good and, as Psalm 145 reminds us, “The Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works.”

In the broad narrative of the Bible, this goodness is seen both in the original creation and in the in the new creation—the new heavens and the new earth.

In the Genesis account of creation, God repeatedly pronounces his divine benediction upon all He has made. At the end of each day, He declares it “good”, and then on that final day of creation “very good”! Interestingly, the word “good” is repeated a total of seven times, the number of fullness and completeness. The point? The earth is filled to overflowing with God’s goodness. The Hebrew word for good (tov, as in the Jewish toast “mazel tov”, “good luck”) means pleasant, fitting, and beautiful. It is everything as it should be. God’s dynamic fullness and harmony can be seen everywhere in creation.

Likewise, we see this abounding goodness at the end of the Bible in the renewed creation. In Revelation 21 and 22, after the banishment of sin, we find a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:1) with God crying out from His throne “Behold I am making all thing new” (Revelation 21:5). And from that throne of God comes the “river of the water of life” that feeds the “tree of life” that will be for the “healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:1-2).

Do you get the picture? In the original creation and in the final re-creation, God is a God overflowing with goodness to His creation.

The first and final image of God presented is not a court room of justice, but a throne room of generosity.

God was good long before He had to execute justice on evil.
And God will be good long after He is done executing justice on evil.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’ And God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
~Genesis 1:26-31 (ESV)

Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.

There is a lot of talk these days about justice, and when we come to the subject of justice and righteousness, we are definitely in the center of biblical territory.

This means that it is critical we not assume what justice is, but think long and hard about what the Bible says about it. We must walk through the entirety of the Scripture, repeatedly, until we are deeply familiar with all the contours of God’s justice and what it requires of us.

Obviously, I cannot do that it two minutes. Nonetheless, here's a rough map of the territory in four points:

First, God is just and righteous.

Psalm 11:7 says, “For the LORD is righteous, he loves justice; the upright will see his face.”

Revelation 15:3-4
...Just and true are your ways,
O King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord,
and glorify your name? For you alone are holy.

Second, God requires that we live just and righteous lives. As the prophet Micah says: He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)

Now, sadly, because of sin, none of us live up to this. Thus, we are liable to God’s just judgment.
Third, no one can escape God’s justice by his own strength.

Exodus 34 tells us that God “will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation” (Exodus 34:7).
So, finally, what must we do? Look to the cross of Jesus Christ!

Why the cross? The only place where God’s justice has been fully satisfied (or ever will be) is at the cross of Jesus Christ. St. Paul tells us that at the cross God satisfied His demands of justice by placing all our unrighteousness on Him. Jesus took the judgment we deserved, so that God’s justice might work for us, not against us. As Paul puts it, in the cross God is both “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:26).

The more deeply we live into this story, the more deeply God’s mercy flows through us and into a world desperate for God’s justice to work for them, not against them.

And that’s something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus..”
~ Romans 3:19-26 (ESV)

Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.

As modern Western people, we tend to define freedom as the ability to do what we please—what is right in our own eyes. However, I’d like to suggest that true freedom is not as easy as getting what we want. Sometimes what we want is not good for us—even destructive. Anyone who has ever dealt with a child can testify to that truth. And sadly, many of our adult desires never escape our childhood foolishness.

The great Edmund Burke (1729-1797) even questioned how well such a definition would work in the civil realm.

“Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites. … Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.” (Edmund Burke)

Indeed, the Bible seems to suggest the same thing. For example, in the book of Judges, the children of Israel are in a mess. Having just come into the Promised Land, they did not put “moral chains upon their own appetites” but pursued and subjected themselves to the false gods of the Canaanites. Moral and civil chaos ensued. The children of Israel became slaves of their own desires. Their false gods became their own fetters.

The book ends with the haunting line, in what we might call today a “mic-drop-moment: “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.

The Old Testament book of Judges has some of the ugliest stories in all the Bible. Why is this the case? Well, the book of Judges chronicles the cycle of rebellion, retribution, and redemption that the children of Israel went through, repeatedly, as they first entered the Promised Land.

God had promised freedom and prosperity, if only they would obey. However, they did not take God up on this promise, but turned instead to idolatry, obeying the pagan gods of the Canaanites and suffering the consequence of chaos.

Listen to Judges 2:

… they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the LORD to anger…. and he gave them over to plunderers who plundered them… And they were in terrible distress.

This shows us something very profound about us as human beings. Freedom can only be found under the authority of God. God’s authority brings freedom.

This is the very opposite to our common assumption. Foolishly, we think the choice is between God’s authority and our own freedom. Nothing is further from the truth. When we stop serving God, we do not become our own person. Rather, we become slaves of someone or something else. We were made for worship. When we do not worship the true God, we will substitute something in His place.

And this is the essence of sin. To the degree that we reject the true God to that degree other “gods” will rule over us. Since we were not made for other gods, chaos ensues in both our soul and society. Sadly, the book of Judges tells the story of our lives.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger. They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them for harm, as the Lord had warned, and as the Lord had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress.

Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not do so. Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he said, “Because this people have transgressed my covenant that I commanded their fathers and have not obeyed my voice, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died, in order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the Lord as their fathers did, or not.” So the Lord left those nations, not driving them out quickly, and he did not give them into the hand of Joshua.”

~ Judges 2:11-23 (ESV)

Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.

The Bible tells us that true freedom is the ability to love God and obey His law. This only makes sense. If we were made by God and for God, then we are free only to the degree that we are in union with God and His will for us.

This is the reason why, even when we are controlled by our desires, if they are not godly desires, we experience bondage.

Think for a moment.

When you are driven by your own fearful desires, are you free? No, you are a prisoner of fear.

When you are driven by your own lustful desires, are you free? No, you are a prisoner of lust.

When we are driven by your own envy and greed, are you free? No, you are a prisoner of envy and greed.

When you are driven by your own vengeful desires, are you free? No, you are a prisoner of your own angry bitterness.

Jesus put it this way: “Whoever sins is a slave of sin.” Sin (i.e. disobedience to God’s law) is the very opposite of what we were designed for. When the desires of our heart are contrary to God’s law, we are enslaved. To the degree sinful desires drive our hearts, to that degree we are not free.

This is the irony of addiction. An addicted person is doing what they want. But anyone who has ever been addicted, or seen a loved one struggling with addiction, knows that addiction is anything but freedom. It’s the epitome of bondage.

And sin is our ultimate addiction.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.”
~ John 8:31-34 (ESV)

Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.

We live in a world right now where hatred and division are growing—it sure seems so at least. Well, the Bible has very clear things to say about this.

First, each of us, regardless of our background, regardless of how people identify us or how we identify ourselves, are made in the image of God. Every person has been called to the high calling of bearing the divine likeness. Therefore, because we’ve been stamped with this image, we must treat all people with dignity and respect.

Now, this doesn’t mean that everything anyone who is made in God’s image says or believes is equally right or true. But it does mean that we, especially as Christians, have a responsibility to treat others in a manner that is honoring to their being made in image of Almighty God. Indeed, it was Jesus who said how you treat those you disagree with, even those that are your enemies, is one of the clearest marks of whether you truly know God (Matthew 5:4-48).

Secondly, the Bible tells us that anyone we interact with, no matter how wrong we may feel they are, indeed, no matter how wrong they might be, have the possibility of being redeemed by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why do we know this? Because we are not saved by our works, but by His grace. Redemption doesn’t come to those that are good, or those that we like, or to those that we agree with; but it comes the same way that it came to us. By grace! Not of our own doing! Anyone who will call on the name of the Lord will be saved! Becoming a Christian is a grace-miracle that defies our intuitive assessment and expectation.

And that is something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”

~ Acts 9:1-16 (ESV)

Transcript:

Hello! This is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective!

What does a humble person look like? If you ran into a truly humble person, what would be their standout characteristic? Would they go on and on, trying to prove or show off their humility? Or would they be timid and withdrawn, displaying a sense of self-hatred?

No, none of these at all.

Remember, the Lord Jesus was “gentle and humble of heart”. Did He operate this way?

So, what does a humble person look like?

I think C.S. Lewis gives us some insight in his classic book Mere Christianity. Listen to what He says:

“Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call ‘humble’ nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody.

Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him.

If you do dislike him, it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.”

~C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Jesus models such humility by the attitude he had toward us. In humility, He did not use his status to impress us, but to empty Himself for us. His humility flowed from a contented heart that connected to the heart of others.

And that’s something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

~ Philippians 2:3-11 (ESV)

Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.

One of the most interesting friendships as of late in the academic world is that between Dr. Cornel West and Dr. Robert George. West taught for years at Princeton and Harvard, in addition to being a visiting professor at Dartmouth. George is a nationally recognized legal scholar who also teaches at Princeton. What makes their friendship so interesting is their opposite perspective on so many hot button issues. You name it, they are polar opposites.

So why are they friends? Such congeniality in the context of such severe differences is very rare, maybe especially amongst academic elites.

So again, what keeps them together?

Both Robbie and Cornel know that it is possible to be charitable even when you disagree. This is very different than the current cultural climate that gives us only two options: Either angry confrontation that demands “justice now at all costs”, or a kind of relativism that shrugs its shoulders saying, “Who am I to judge, who am I say what’s right or wrong?”

But we need not be stuck with these two options. There’s a third way. Kindness. 

This doesn’t come from agreeing with your neighbor but from leaning into the fact that they, like you, are made in the image of God. As Jesus taught and demonstrated, how you treat others, even when you think they are wrong, says a lot about your relationship with God (Matthew 5:43-45; 22:34-40).

And that’s something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. For

“Whoever desires to love life

and see good days,

let him keep his tongue from evil

and his lips from speaking deceit;

let him turn away from evil and do good;

let him seek peace and pursue it.’”

~ 1 Peter 3:8-11 (ESV)

For Further Consideration

PBS Interview

https://www.pbs.org/video/cornel-west-robert-george-lgrgwb/

“Cornel West and Robert P. George discuss Charlie Kirk”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FJ5cgu04x0&t=208s

Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.

The idea of “fearing God” seems not only unpalatable to us as modern people, but also wrong. We object: “We shouldn’t fear anyone! We should be motivated by love, not fear, especially when it comes to God!”

Well, this may sound pious and nice, but it is very shallow and misguided.

There is no love without fear. Fear and love are closely linked. When the Bible speaks of fearing God, it is calling us to treasure Him above all else. There is no love without treasuring, and there is no treasuring without fear. That’s why those with the greatest earthly treasures expend so much money and effort to protect those treasures. They lock them away in vaults and guard them with expensive security systems. They are fearful of anything harming or threatening that which they so treasure and love.

The same is true in relationships.

You could say that I “fear” for my wife, more than any other human being, precisely because I so love and treasure her. What she thinks and how she feels matters to me. I fear losing relationship with her; I fear harm coming to her. Because I love and treasure her so much, I fear not pleasing her, not honoring her, not caring for her, more than I do anyone.

In a similar but infinitely greater way, the Bible calls us to fear God above all else. Listen to Deuteronomy: “You must fear the Lord your God and worship him and cling to him…. He alone is your God, the only one who is worthy of your praise.” (Deuteronomy 10:20 NLT). To love God is to fear Him—to treasure Him above all else.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear. He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen.”

~ Deuteronomy 10:17-21 (ESV)