Clarification of semantic problems from the Jesus Movement By George Wagner

Clarification of semantic problems from the Jesus Movement

Last week we briefly discussed a religious tract that was produced in the Jesus Movement called the Four Spiritual Laws.  The Jesus Movement in large part attracted people from the counter culture. They defined freedom as the right to do anything they wanted and love as a tolerance that accepted what others chose to do. People being saved out of that counter culture were still influenced by the narcissistic definitions of these words. (1)

The first law of the Four Spiritual Laws was:  “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life”. Because of the shaky definition of love and freedom this first law helped feed into a me-first faith. It did this by reversing the direct object and the indirect object. It implied that because God loves you, you should make your own plans and then look to him to make them happen. A lengthy discussion of this misdirection is included in the footnote. See (2).

A Biblically correct law would be:

God has a plan and he loves you so much, that he wants you to be a part of it.

Tonight, in John 17, we will look at God’s plan.  We will see that the plan is to achieve that for which we were created. We are fallen, rebellious and self-seeking so God in his love sent his Son to die for our sins and provide a way for us to return to his original intentions.

God seeks a companion that can know his character; he wants us to respond to him in faith and love and share in his life. Jesus said “I am the truth.”  In this fallen world reality is what is. Truth is what ought to be. Only twice in human history was truth and reality the same thing. It was true in Adam and Eve before the fall and it was true in Jesus Christ as he walked the earth. It is what God is working to accomplish in us now. He is closing that gap between what we are and what we ought to be, which is to be made into the image of Jesus Christ-the Truth. The church is called the Bride of Christ. He will present us to himself perfected in his image.

John 17

After the last supper Jesus discussed the plan with the Father in a prayer recorded in John 17. This is the message for tonight.

I will summarize the prayer first, so that you will know we are only scratching the surface tonight.

Jesus is only a couple of hours away from being arrested.  His prayer, (like that of patriarchs who blessed their children on their death beds), blesses the Father and the church and seeks for God’s grace to glorify the Father until the task is completed. He prays in the third person. He calls the Fathers attention to the fact that he has glorified the Father and now the hour to finish the job has come. Jesus first declares his true identity with the Father.  He next lays out the purpose which led the Father to send the Son.  He has come to defeat evil and redeem those whom the Father has given him. He asks the Father to glorify himself by glorifying the Son.  He states that what he has done and now faces is the calling which he received from the Father. In this he also asks to receive the just reward for his labor. Two times he says to the Father; glorify the Son so he can finish his call to glorify the Father.

Jesus next turns his attention to the church. Seven times in this prayer Jesus says that those who believe in him are given to him. Like the saints of the Old Testament he blesses his own. In this we get a glimpse of how he now intercedes for us.

He asks the Father for our eternal life; two times he claims the name of the Father for us; two times he gives us the Fathers word; two times he asks the Father to keep us. In his prayer he asks that the Father would keep us, sanctify us, unite us and glory us.

John 17:1 These things spake Jesus; and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that the son may glorify thee: 

 

Jesus Christ is and always has been God. He did not cease to be God when he became a man.  As a man he was fully human.  Scripture says he grew in wisdom, so in some manner a limitation was imposed upon his understanding. He submitted himself to the Father and only did what the Father told him to do. He learned obedience through the things he suffered. For example: He was ready to start the Father’s business when he was 12, but his mother told him to get home. He learned a trade from Joseph. After Joseph died he took care of his mother and siblings. He didn’t start his public ministry till he was 30. He learned patient endurance. (3) Scripture frequently mentions the fact that Jesus was periodically troubled by what he faced.  He was astonished by the inability of the disciples to understand him; angered by the Pharisees hard hearts.  He experienced hunger, thirst and fatigue. He also expressed frustration when has disciples murmured.  (John 6:61-62). This is all evidence of his humanity.

Father, the hour is come

What hour? Jesus frequently told the disciples my hour is not yet come.”  Now the hour has come. All the powers of darkness gathered to destroy him, not realizing that by killing an innocent man they were breaking the law, and therefore forfeiting their power, just as Adam had done in the garden.

1Co 2:7 but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, even the wisdom that hath been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds unto our glory:
1Co 2:8 which none of the rulers of this world hath known: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory:

 

Scripture speaks of two kinds of power; the power of might and legal authority.  When Adam obeyed Satan he yielded his authority to Satan; and the legal authority or dominion he had over the creation and himself was forfeited to Satan.  Satan had lied, but Adam chose to embrace that lie.  This is legal authority. The wages of sin is death. Death passed onto all mankind.  Jesus lived a life of sinless perfection. By stirring his servants to kill a sinless man Satan violated the limitations of the legal authority he held. He committed the same trespass that Adam did. That authority was taken from him when Jesus was in Paradise. He informed Satan that he had lost his power; Jesus then took the keys of death and hell away from him, and took those who had waited in faith for his coming to heaven (Eph 4:8).

In speaking about his death Jesus said “For this reason I have come into the world.”  He always knew he was sent to die for us. But first he had to learn to live for the Father.  Faith is a process and it matures through obedience.  Obedience is strengthen in us by suffering.  Now, as the end approaches Jesus is recounting his life of obedience to the Father.

glorify thy Son, that the son may glorify thee: 

 The Greek word for glory or glorify is used six times in this prayer. It is the Greek word doxa from which we get the doxology. This is the song that begins “Praise God from whom all blessings flow…” It means dignity or dignify, honor, praise or worship.

Jesus continues to speak in third person. Honor the Son.   He is recounting a living faith. He is laying out his life and saying ‘here it is.’  He says, up to this point the Son has done his part, now validate his obedience with grace so you can be glorified.  Jesus is speaking about his death.  He is giving up control of his life, allowing events to overwhelm and destroy him (John 10:18).  He asks the Father to honor him and trusts the Father to give him the ability to glorify the Father.

Notice how calm Jesus is when he prays this. An hour later Jesus prayed something quite different:

Lu 22:42 …. Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
Lu 22:43 And there appeared unto him an angel from heaven, strengthening him.
Lu 22:44 And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became as it were great drops of blood falling down upon the ground.

The Father did glorify him. He sent an angel to strengthen him. He assured him that if he wanted to quit at any time, 72,000 angels would be unleashed upon the world.  Later that night, when Jesus was arrested and endured as many as six trials as well as beatings, humiliation, torture, exhaustion,  and crucifixion he was the only one in all this frenzy and chaos who had perfect peace.

2: even as thou gavest him authority over all flesh, that to all whom thou hast given him, he should give eternal life.

Father, you gave the Son “authority over all flesh”. In the gospels we see Jesus overwhelmed by the needs of constant crowds. If he were obeying the Father it would be a fair question to ask if he should have sought the Father’s will about the needs of each one of them before he healed them.  Matthew 15:30 says “as many as came to him were made completely whole.”  The answer is here in verse 2. The Father gave him authority over all flesh. He was obeying the Father. He was doing what the Father told him to do.

There is a teaching that Jesus only died for some people. Verse 2 shows that this is wrong. He had authority over all flesh. With regard to sin, the offended party was God. The total debt owed to God because of man’s sins had to be paid.  God was offended and Jesus had to completely satisfy the Father’s demand for justice. Jesus created all men, so he could take the sins of all men upon himself, just as the children of Adam have all become sinners through Adam.  Jesus, the Second Adam, had to die for all offences, so that he could save those whom the Father had given him to share eternal life. Eternal life is part of his blessing to us.

3 And this is life eternal, that they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, [even] Jesus Christ. 

 

 What is eternal life? It is knowing the only true God and knowing the God/man Jesus Christ. God is our eternal life. He is our eternal reward. If we get God we have it all. There is nothing to add to that. We don’t get God and a nice cabin at the end of the galaxy.  We get the creator, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and know the love they have for one another.  We inherit this love.  Jesus is the Son and through him we become the children of God. We are bound to him as a bride forever. That is eternal life. It encapsulates God’s plan for creating the earth.

Eph 2:4 ¶ but God, being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Eph 2:5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace have ye been saved),
Eph 2:6 and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus:
Eph 2:7 that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus:

God’s desire is to reveal himself to his creation. We, in this life, have the opportunity to learn about his character. When God says I am love, I am jealous, I am hope, I am angry, I am good, I am a righteous judge, I am the light of the world, I am the door, I am a good Father, this is declared in contrast to a world of darkness and evil. We can understand these words because this world creates the opportunity to experience and understand the meaning of these words. A perfect world might not.  So we become his witnesses.  In marriage Paul says “husbands love your wives; wives honor your husbands.” The exceeding grace we have received coupled with our own understanding of the depth, height, width and breadth of his love (experienced in the multivariate collective lives of all the members of the body) will make the Bride the creature most capable of rendering honor to God in ages to come.  In ages to come the Father will show the exceeded greatness of his grace and glory by his love for us in Jesus Christ.

We were his enemies. We destroyed ourselves. We constantly offended him; we harmed others and we destroyed his world.  We are probably the most unworthy things he has created. His great love has redeemed us, his enemies when all we cared about was satiating our own selfish desires. In his mercy we become the crown of his creation. The last shall be first. We glorify him… by his grace alone. This is the plan for how ages to come will understand his love.  We are a might cloud of witnesses.

4 I glorified thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which thou hast given me to do.

5 And now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.

Jesus has always done the Father’s will.  This is a prayer for total restoration. The Son honored the Father in this world in time and space, and now he prays that both he and the Father will be glorified by being reunited in their triune glory that they had before creation began.  But for our sakes, the Son will do this and at the same time keep a human body.

6 I manifested thy name unto the men whom thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them to me; and they have kept thy word. 

7 Now they know that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are from thee: 

8 for the words which thou gavest me I have given unto them; and they received [them], and knew of a truth that I came forth from thee, and they believed that thou didst send me.

Here again Jesus is laying out the truth to the Father.  He was the Good Shepherd. He nurtured all those whom the Father gave to him.  You saved these people out of the world and you gave them to me. I honored you by making it clear to them that all that I did had its origin from you. He is making it clear here that he did what he did for us so that we would know God as our Father.  They know you because I showed you to them. How do we know this? We know it because the Father gave the Son the words that the Son gave to us and we received and believed. Now we know that Jesus was not just a human teacher walking the earth; he came from the Father and the Father sent him. The Father took us and gave us to the Son and the Son has preserved us through his word which he received from the Father.

We are united with the one true God and because we are given to Jesus we know that he came from the Father and the Father sent him.  The Father chose us and gave us to Jesus. If there was ever ambiguity in the gospels about the identity of Jesus, his identity is clarified here. If there was ever doubt about our security in God it is resolved here. In verse 8 he tells the Father that he faithfully communicated the Father’s words to us.  He will repeat again that he has given us the name of the Father and the word of the Father. What he prays to the Father, he prays in the presence of the disciples so they would know they are destined for the same union.

Jesus says you gave me your words. I gave them to those you gave me and they have kept them.  The last phrase causes us to pause. Have we kept his word?  We all know the frailty of our flesh and the ease with which we can run after the appetites of our flesh. How then is this verse fulfilled?

Jesus is the living word.  Peter said to Jesus ‘You have the words to eternal life. Where else can we go?’ Jesus told the disciples ‘I must go, but I will not leave you without comfort I will send you the comforter, the Holy Spirit, and he will teach you all things and bring them to your remembrance as you have need of them.’ Keeping his word is possible when we search for him in scripture; abide in him by faith and rest in his loving intent to keep us. It is in this posture that his word comes to us fresh and alive when we seek him for himself, and for guidance and learning.

9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me; for they are thine:

Jesus is praying for those who are his own, but now he says they are thine. Also in this verse Jesus is defining our identity as separate from the world.  The world has no true identity. Satan is the prince and power of the air. He has blinded the minds of the people in the world and they live in the kingdom of darkness. Man is a contingent being meaning he cannot explain his origin.  He is not sufficient to define the where, what, why, and how of his life. CS Lewis defines him as an adjective in search of a noun. God is the only true noun that can explain the questions we have about ourselves. To eliminate any gap with regard to our attachment to God Jesus says we belong to the Father and we belong to Jesus.  If this is not enough, Jesus also sits at the right hand of the Father as our Great High Priest, constantly making intercession for us.

He does not pray for the world. This prayer is about those who belong to him.  He is declaring his authority over and his love for his bride. With regard to the world we should keep in mind John 3:16. For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.” This present evil world offends God and he will one day destroy it. This present world is an enemy of God’s and hates God. Peter tells us God is not willing that any perish, but all come to repentance.  He has given us the commission to take the gospel to them and to pray for them that the Holy Spirit will work in them to save them. We are his disciples and have this privilege to partake in his ministry. Paul asks the question “How will they know unless someone tells them? Therefore how blessed are the feet of those who bear the gospel of peace.”

When we take John 3:16 and John 17:9 together we can see the tension between the love of God, the patience of God and the ultimate consequence of those who reject his efforts to bring the light to them.

10 and all things that are mine are thine, and thine are mine: and I am glorified in them. 

Here is the plan. Those who belong to Jesus belong to the Father and what belongs to the Father belongs to the Son and that means those whom the Father has given to the Son will be glorified in the Son and the Son will be glorified in them.  Everyone is glorified by everyone else.  If we as sinners grasp this plan it can only deepen our humility and purify the love we have for one another.

11And I am no more in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we [are]. 

We see here a glimpse of how Jesus continues to intercede for us. He asks the Father to keep us in his name and also that we would be one, even as he and the Father are one. In his request that we be kept he adds a second name, Holy Father. Jesus is in heaven. He reigns in us through the Spirit of Holiness which God has given us. The Holy Fathers is asked to keep us in his name which he gave to Jesus.  God’s holiness is offended by sin. Jesus speaks directly to the holiness of God and says keep them in the name you gave me.  The plan requires that we be made holy in his name. The name he gave to his Son, Jesus means savior. Names in the Bible often refer to the character of the person spoken about. If we are kept in the character of Jesus it follows that the goal is to change us into his image which will achieve our unification as one body with Jesus Christ as our head. We can look at the life of Christ and understand the manner of his keeping. Once again he drives home the point that he and the Father are one.

The call to be one is what we pray for and try to act out in our relationships. In the present church age we specialize in dividing from each other (4).  Verse 11 is prophetic with regard to the end purpose of God. God is one in three persons, and the church will be many united as one in the same love and holiness which, defines and proceeds from God.

 12 While I was with them, I kept them in thy name which thou hast given me: and I guarded them, and not one of them perished, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.

Jesus told his disciples “I am the good Shepherd.” We are not cleaver enough to know what is good for us. We tend to self-destruct every chance we get. We just don’t realize it because we do what is right in our own eyes. Jesus gives us his word. He keeps us and protects our faith. We are given assurance that Jesus will present us to himself without spot or blemish. If any of us doubt this, we are looking at our self and judging our self by our own frailties rather than the total adequacy of our savior.   What Jesus says here is repeated throughout the New Testament.   For example consider Heb.2:10-12, 12:2; Jude 1:24-25; 2 Tim 1:12; 1 Peter 4:19. In these we are told that Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith; the Captain of our salvation, we are told to commit the keeping of our souls on to him; and that he is faithful to keep that which we have committed to him; his goal is that we fellowship in his suffering and become perfected through it; so that someday, when all of heaven is watching, Jesus will stand in the midst of that great congregation and sing praise to us and we will sing praise to him. That’s the plan.

13 But now I come to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves.

In this verse Jesus blesses us with his joy. Jesus is praying something he said to the disciple’s two chapters earlier. First he said it to them, now he prays it to the Father.

Joh 15:10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.
Joh 15:11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
Joh 15:12 This is my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you.

That’s a tough law.  Love them as I have loved you. How did Jesus love the disciples?  Jesus told them the truth. He shared in their sufferings and constantly blessed them. He cared for them; embraced them as his friends; was an example of godliness to them. He provided for their needs. He encouraged them to believe. He reproved, rebuked and exhorted them.  He laid his life down for them.

 14 I have given them thy word; and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 

15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them from the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil [one]. 

16 They are not of the world even as I am not of the world. 

Vrs 14 he again says that the word he gives to us he received from the Father. Also here, two times he says “they are not of the world even as I am not of the world”. In this context he again asks that we be kept or preserved, but this time it is from the evil one.

This statement does not explain how we are to be kept, only that we be kept.  Jesus elsewhere said that Satan has come to rob, to kill and to destroy.  Paul tells us that if we love Christ, all things will work for good (Rom. 8:28). In this the plans of Satan are thwarted. We are encouraged in scripture that the word is a lamp to our feet. Hebrews tells us by applying the word in our situations, be become strengthened and able to discern the evil we encounter (Heb. 5:14). We must recognize that when Jesus was crucified we were crucified with him.  The world, the flesh, and the devil join together to tempt man to sin.  We are told that our flesh has been crucified and we are no longer debtors to live after it.  What we are called to is purity, which is finding the proper balance for all things.  Paul says “resist the devil and he will flee”. In this our conscience is protected and if informed by the word, and led by the Holy Spirit will cause us to prosper in the will of the Lord.

The church is to grow as a body where every muscle and joint works to supply the needs of the body. We grow by what everyone collectively brings to the fellowship. We are one body and we are knit together by love. The Father gave Jesus the means and he used them to bless those that are his.  God has made us gifts to each other. When we interact with anyone who belongs to Christ we ought to remember that they are holy to the Lord. God has destined them to be great in eternity. By his grace we can be an instrument in their development.

Jesus prayed I have given them my word and so the world hates them.  We cannot stand alone, and if the world is at war with our faith, we need the fellowship of other believers who are committed to becoming holy to the Lord.

Jesus prayed don’t take them out of the world; but keep them from the evil one. God seeks to deliver us from evil by deadening us to the cares and things of this life. The world is our refinery. Our faith is purified by fire. The metaphors used in scripture to speak of our growth in faith speak of pruning shears; a seething cauldron; the potter’s wheel; the cross, the yoke, Christ’s burden, and other things that are purposed to give us victory over our sins and to separate us onto God.  That desire is why the world hates us. By our commitment to God we are a witness to the world that they are unacceptable.  God will destroy them if they do not make peace with him through the cross.

When Jesus prayed take this cup from me, he was saying, Father if man can be saved any other way than the cross, I do not want this. The fact that he died tells us there is no other way by which man can be saved. The world hates that idea. Fallen men want to glory in their own achievements. The cross denies that.

17Sanctify them in the truth: thy word is truth.

In verses 17-19 he prays for our sanctification.   Sanctification is the process by which God separates us from our allegiance to the world and sets us aside for the holy purpose of belonging solely and completely to God. Sanctification is the process by which we overcome sin and are made holy. Jesus freed us from the penalty of sin; we are now being freed from the power of sin; and when we are with him we will be freed from the presence of sin. His word, made alive by the Holy Spirit, is the instrument of our cleansing and overcoming.

Thy word is truth. This is why the world hates the Word. The word is exclusive. It is God’s dividing line. He communicates who he is and what he desires from and for us and we either believe it or we hate it.  Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the light.” Truth is not intellectual. It is the person of God. There is no truth outside of God to which God must listen to and obey. There is no law which binds God’s actions. God is truth and his word and laws proceed from him (5).

18 As thou didst send me into the world, even so sent I them into the world. 

Jesus prays that the disciples be left in the world. Now he says why. They are the instruments which God will use to take his word to the world. We have the Holy Spirit. Jesus said the Holy Spirit is sent to testify of him (Jn 15:26). The Spirit wants Christ to be revealed to those around us through us.  Paul in 2 Corinthians calls us living letters not written in stone, but in the fleshly tables of the heart.

19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. 

When Jesus says he sanctifies himself for our sake, he lived the life we couldn’t live, and died the death we deserved; so we could be saved in him. He speaks in future tense because he is submitting himself to the events that lie ahead. He must be obedient even to death on the cross.

Php 2:8 and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.

Heb 5:8 though he was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered;
Heb 5:9 and having been made perfect, he became unto all them that obey him the author of eternal salvation;

 

20 Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on me through their word; 

21that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, [art] in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us: that the world may believe that thou didst send me. 

22 And the glory which thou hast given me I have given unto them; that they may be one, even as we [are] one; 

23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that thou didst send me, and lovedst them, even as thou lovedst me.

Now Jesus expands on his prayer for unity by including all Christians throughout the history of the church. The disciples were the first fruit of many. Jesus is the Second Adam and he is making a new race out of all believers throughout the history of the church.  All of this prayer can be encapsulated in the word “abide”. We are a unique body that is in the world but it is not of the world. We are in the world to testify of Christ. We are a body that is one with the Father and the Son. In verse 22 Jesus blesses us with his joy.

24 Father, I desire that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. 

25 O righteous Father, the world knew thee not, but I knew thee; and these knew that thou didst send me; 

26 and I made known unto them thy name, and will make it known; that the love wherewith thou lovedst me may be in them, and I in them.

Here Jesus prays that we will know him as he is, that we will be with him; and we will see him in his glory. Father my plan is that those you gave me be always with me. You loved me before the creation and I want them to know that love. I made them know your name and will continue to make it known so they will understand the love we have for one another.  That’s the plan.

God loves us so much he has made us a part of it.

FOOTNOTES:

1)

The counter culture, demographically was made up of war babies (whose college experiences introduced them to the Marxism of Marcuse; The Eastern Mysticism of Alan Watts and Aldous Huxley;  the Sexual Revolution of the Kinsey Report, Masters and Johnson, Margarete Mead and others;  the Pop Psychology (Human Potential Movement) of Rollo May, Eric Fromm, Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, Werner Erhard and others); which defined human fulfilment in terms of autonomy, and antinomianism. They sought to create an alternate society based on drugs, Eastern mysticism, the occult; Rousseau’s Romanticism, and Sexual emancipation.  Initially they were called Beatniks, but over time they became the Hippie Movement (sometimes called the Sixties). The younger Baby boomers, who were less influenced by the intellectual elements, simply tailgated this movement by immersing themselves in the intrinsic hedonism of their sex, drugs and rock and roll cardinal virtues.    The Marxist elements attempted to hijack this counter culture using the Vietnam Movement as a unifying point of opposition to the general culture. This later led the Hippies to declare the Movement a failure and renamed their group Yuppies, seeking rather to transform the common culture by infiltrating its institutions of value and higher learning with their Leftist ideologies.

In all this cultural chaos a vacuum was created. Many youth were faced with a deconstructed popular culture with its social norm destroyed; the failure of the counter culture to replace it with any social relevance; as well as a hard kickback from the Right that demanded they take sides, particularly regarding the Vietnam War; and this vacuum opened the door to many sub-cultures, mostly cults that offered Father figures and a new form of family. These proliferated through the Seventies. Alongside them was a Christian revival, mostly happening on the streets, called The Jesus Movement. Converts were called Jesus Freaks and were generally rejected by mainline denominations.

2)

Words

Most people learn words intuitively. By that I mean they learn them by listening to how other people use them rather than by studying precise definitions of them. Taken intuitively as the counter culture used them they defined life as autonomous (self-centered and individualized), antinomian (self-rule), and the consequence was alienation (no social connection apart from hedonistic experiences).

 Consequently many Jesus Freaks failed to have Biblical definition of words such as love and freedom.  These words had been defined in extremely autonomous ways.   A common phrase during that revival period was to tell sinners that God’s loves was unconditional.

There is no such thing as unconditional love.  You cannot love good and evil both. In Ga 1:4 Paul says Jesus “gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us out of this present evil world, according to the will of our God and Father:”.   Jesus said “If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Spirit of Holiness to those who ask?  The point taken here is that evil people still do good things, but they remain evil.  In Psalm 139:22 David in beseeching God’s grace for his own life said “do I not hate those who hate you. I hates with perfect hatred. Search me O God and know my heart. Try my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me.”  David recognized that the world hated God and he had to choose a side.  To love God he had to hate what God hated. The Apostle John also recognized this:

1Jo 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1Jo 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the vain glory of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
1Jo 2:17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

 He first loves us

1John 4:19 says “we love God because he first loved us.” This is how faith begins. Galatians 5:6 says “faith works by love”. God loves us first and in responding to his love we learn to love him in the same manner. We imitate him. What we think we know about love is often selfish and about our own feelings and needs.  God comes down and says I loved you first. I made a way for you to know this love. Follow me.  In 1 Cor. 11:1 Paul says “be an imitator of me even as I am an imitator of Christ.”  The love Paul exhibited was completely selfless. He suffered horribly in order to preach Jesus Christ and the power of the cross. He said he would be willing to go to hell if that would save Israel.  Jesus Christ actually did descend into hell for three days so that we might be saved.

The phrase God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life has caused a lot of damage to immature Christians.  It still does. It creates a feeling based response to God and other Christians.  God’s love is objective. It was God’s intention to make a creation that would love as he loves.  So many of the people I knew from the Jesus movement decided God’s love was their guarantee that they would be happy and realize all their dreams.  They presumed that God was the missing ingredient that had made them fail in the world.  Satan will always seek to get us to put our faith in things which cater to our own appetites rather than the glory of God.

Bad Faith

When these Christians chased their worldly ambitions and failed to achieve them they became disillusioned with God. One gal said “I have needs and if God isn’t going to meet them I’ll meet them myself.” She also said “God wants me to be happy and with that she justified her adultery. As the revival ended I spoke with 20 to 30 couples who were getting divorced. The reason was the same. “I’m not happy and God wants me to be happy.” Not true.  God wants us to be holy and blesses us for our faithfulness.

The other big word from the Cultural Revolution was “freedom” which they took from the pop psychology of the fifties, that taught that the purpose of life is self- actualization or self-authentication. Out of this mindset, I heard many Christians say any experience is good because it helps you grow. When they read a verse like Galatians 5:1 “It is for freedom that Christ has set you free” they took this as the license to do whatever they wanted. They saw Gods love and freedom as the guarantee that God would wink at their choices and they could pick up their old interests and goals and God would make them succeed.

When they failed they concluded faith does not work.  Over the decades they have wasted their lives seeking the lust of the flesh; the lust of the eyes and vain glory. To this day they tell me they believe in God but they have shipwrecked their faith by forsaking a clear conscience.  Many are immersed in guilt and shame. Biblical freedom  is when you are restored and doing the will of God. We are free when we are what we were made to be. God made us to love, obey and serve him. That is freedom.

 1Ti 1:18 ¶ This charge I commit unto thee, my child Timothy, according to the prophecies which led the way to thee, that by them thou mayest war the good warfare;
1Ti 1:19 holding faith and a good conscience; which some having thrust from them made shipwreck concerning the faith:
1Ti 1:20 of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I delivered unto Satan, that they might be taught not to blaspheme.”

They pushed away a faith informed by a good conscience (a conscience held in obedience to the Word of God) and the result was a faith that didn’t work. They failed in regard to “the faith” (vrs. 19). Faith must be anchored in the faith.  “The Faith” is a noun. We are members of the faith. The faith is the doctrinal foundation of our personal faith in Jesus Christ.

They lost their confidence in God’s love and forgiveness. Many of my old friends still believe and want to walk with God, but guilt and shame dog them every day.  Many of them have gone after one false revival after another; revivals which are entirely experience based. They seek the excitement of feeling right with God. They have so many compromises that the only way they can feel close to God is if they manufacture or someone deceives them with false signs and wonders. They find expression for their faith in a circus atmosphere.  They put their hope in smoke and mirrors. Chasing personal experiences has not made them grow, and it has robbed them of the fruit God wanted to produce in their lives.  I’ve prayer several of them into heaven on their death beds.

False goals

Where in the Bible does God say seek happiness?  In the New Testament God uses the word blessed 49 times and KJV translates that into the word happy twice. Blessed means that we have God’s favor; he will cause us to be fruitful regardless of our circumstances.  Happiness is gained when we get things our way. Blessing comes from trusting God when nothing seems to go our way. Blessing comes from trust.  We trust God to know what we need and to protect us from ourselves. Because we love him we trust him to harvest good no matter what the circumstances of our lives may be. This is not the same as thinking all we experiences will work out for good. Experience seekers are not trusting God, they are doing what they want and expecting him to bless them. Happiness is weak and fragile. Walking in the assurance of God’s blessings gives us the joy of knowing he is working in us to perfect us no matter how distressing our circumstances may be.

Where in the Bible does God say you have a right to success?  Success and worldly blessings were promises to the Jews for their faith before the dispensation of the Holy Spirit.  For their faith God promised them prosperity and peace in the land. That is not a promise to the church. Israel was a theocracy and an earthly kingdom.  The church has no such promises.  Knowing God’s plan protects us from anger and bitterness.  Satan wants us to put our faith in things that are not part of God’s plan. If we misplace our faith Satan has a means to accuse God in our thoughts. Jesus said you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Doing God’s will is freedom. Your flesh will disagree with that.

With this definition of freedom I want to say something more about God’s love.

God’s love

When we seek to understand God’s love in scripture our understanding has to take into account everything God reveals about himself.  God tells us who he is. God is holy. God is good. God is a righteous judge. God is offended by sin. Sin means falling short of his glory. God is jealous. God is a God of war. God will destroy the world in his wrath. God is kind, merciful, long-suffering, and patient, God is a God of hope. God is pure. All of that has to be understood in the phrase “God is love”. So when we say God has a plan, that plan is also hemmed in by all of these characteristics of God. Taken together they reveal what love is. It is conditional. God loves people in the world because he is long suffering giving them space to repent. He sends his rain on the just and the unjust. He allows suffering so people will turn to him. But if people reject him his love has limits. He will not always strive with man. At some point he allows the hardhearted to become reprobate. All that remains for them then is death and judgment.  God also uses suffering to perfect the faith of his children.

If we respond in faith to God he loves us by hiding all of our offenses in the blood of Christ. He accepts our faith in Christ’s sacrifice as a reason to see us without sin. In 2 Corinthians 5:21 we read that “God made Jesus sin for us, so that we could become the righteousness of God in him.” Because we are made righteous in Christ; we are told to now learn to live righteously.  This is paternal love. Our heavenly Father loves us as his dear children. Hebrews tells us our earthly parents chastised us for their own pleasure, but God chastises us so we can become partakers of his holiness. He is purifying us so nothing about us that offends him will remain in us. This is the plan.

3)

Satan’s temptations towards Jesus appear to be attempts to get him to use his own divine power rather than waiting on the Father. If he had acted in his own will and power he could not condemn Satan or man for doing the same thing.  But Jesus always obeyed the Father.

4)

It is often the case that the things that distinguish one denomination from another is that each has the propensity to take the most Biblically indefeasible doctrine they hold to and make it their crowning doctrine of distinction. Paul called this glorying in one another’s flesh. It is the human desire to stand apart, and feel right and just for doing so. This type of group identity is a means of self-assurance and gratification.

In other instances churches are distinguished by emphasizing one of three aspects of the faith (personal, moral, or doctrinal) while downplaying the others. In John 15 Jesus gave three commands; abide in me (personal), abide in my word (sound doctrine), and abide in my love (moral behavior as defined in Jn. 15:10). Jesus in parable spoke of a woman (Judaism/ Church) who hid leaven in three measures of meal:

Lu 13:20 And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God?
Lu 13:21 It is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened.

Frequently leaven is interpreted as false teaching (Matt. 16: 6, 11-12).  Scholars have debated over the meaning of three meals, but it is this authors opinion that it represents the above three aspects of the faith, morality, personal union with God by the Holy Spirit and sound doctrine. To have a balanced walk with God all three must be present and given reverent attention. The parable suggests that in each of these areas false teaching will corrupt it (till the whole is leavened) so that it becomes ineffectual.

In Mark leaven is used to distinguish between those who were caught up in seeking signs and wonders against those who sought Jesus as the savior and provider of sustenance to those who were seeking him.

Mr 8:15 And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.

Jesus contrasts seeking signs over against the two instances when he fed the multitudes.  He is the bread of life. In Mark 8 the Pharisees were demanding a sign. Herod, at Jesus trial, was hoping to see miracles.

5)

I spent a summer helping a woman at the dog park accept the idea that truth was real. Once she accepted that idea I then had to show her that truth has to be a living personal God.  Truth cannot be an abstraction.  Either a personal God created everything and reveals his intentions for it or all of existence is meaningless. Jesus, the Truth, asks the Father to set us apart from everything but him and wash us in his word because that is how reality and truth become one.