Tag Archives: faith

The Cruelty of Jesus

Matthew 15:21-28 Jesus went away from there, and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon. And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed.” But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, “Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us.” But He answered and said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, “Lord, help me!” And He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” But she said, “Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus said to her, “O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed at once.

On first glance it seems that Jesus was being cruel to the plight of this woman and her daughter. Jesus had already displayed that He was able to heal. In fact, much of his earthly ministry was spent healing people of diseases, raising the dead, and casting out demons. Why was Jesus resistant in healing the Syrophoenician woman? The gospel of the kingdom was first to be proclaimed to the Jews (Matt. 10:6). After all, the Messiah was promised to the nation of Israel (Isa. 65:9), and He was born as a member of the house of David (Luke 2:4). It was to this rebellious nation that Jesus first appeared and performed many miracles. But was it because this woman was a Gentile that Jesus first ignored her request? No. Actually it had nothing to do with her being a Gentile. It had all to do with His eventual healing of her daughter being a stinging rebuke of the Pharisees and their rejection of the Messiah. Consider what Jesus said just a few chapters earlier.

Matthew 8:11-12 “I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

The redemption that the Pharisees dismissed without thought was begged for by the Syrophoenician woman. Jesus said, “…your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.”

It is not on the basis of national origin or religious tradition that God heals (spiritually), it is on the basis of faith.

Whiter than Snow

Snowscape

The Great Blizzard of 2009 has started. As I sit here at my desk, I am looking out the window. The landscape is covered with a thick blanket of white snow. It looks beautiful. The sea of white makes it look almost pure; at least until it turns to brown mush a few days later. It’s like that in our lives, isn’t it? We recognize that we’ve made a mess of our lives, and we often try to turn over that new leaf in order to make things right. Some of us try really hard, and it seems as though we’ve changed. Our lives almost seem like that sea of white from a fresh blanket of snow. But what happens to that snow a few days later? Car, trucks, and people turn it brown. Rising temperatures melt the snow and turn it to an unsightly mush. In our lives that mush is caused by sin, and we’re all guilty of it. Here is what the bible says about sin:

Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Sin is anything that displeases God; anything that is contrary to God’s law. We’ve all heard of the Ten Commandments. They contain God’s moral law. In simple terms, right from wrong. Consider just four of these commandments that are found in Exodus 20:

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor

False witness is term to describe lying. Lying is a serious sin. What do we call a person who lies? We call them a liar. About heaven the Apostle John wrote:

Revelation 21:27 and nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Therefore, no liar will be able to enter heaven.

You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain

Have you ever used the word “damn” in conjunction with God’s name, or swore by His name and then did not fulfill that vow? Taking the name of God in vain is called blasphemy. We call people who do so blasphemers.

You shall not steal

Have you ever taken anything that hasn’t belong to you? Anything? It doesn’t matter how big or how small the items is, we call that stealing. What do we call people who steal? We call them a thief.

You shall not commit adultery

Most of us have broken the first three commandments I listed, but we may feel a bit justified on this one. Most of us have never actually committed adultery. What I mean is that we’ve not actually done the deed. But Jesus said:

Matthew 5:27-28 27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’; 28 but I say to you, that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.”

Based on the standard of the bible, if we’ve ever looked at another person and had a lustful thought we are guilty of adultery.

So, according to the bible, you and I are lying, blaspheming, stealing, adulterers.

If God judges you based on the Ten Commandments would you be guilty or innocent? If you answered truthfully you have said, “guilty.” That guilt is because of the sins we have committed. Sin separates us from God. No matter how we try to change our lives, no matter how much snow falls, God sees our sin, and that sin separates us from Him. The prophet Isaiah wrote:

Isaiah 64:6 all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment

This means that even our attempts to do right are not enough. They are not able to undo the sin we’ve committed.

The Good News

So far I’ve shared with you the reality, the bad news. But there is good news. It is possible for us to receive forgiveness for our sins. It is possible to be loved by God, and to know for certain that we will spend eternity with Him in heaven. We can actually be whiter than snow. The bible says:

Psalm 51:7 Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

King David wrote this psalm. What did he mean by asking God to a wash him? David understood that he was a sinner. He had broken God’s commandments and deserved God’s wrath. But he also knew that God was merciful and would forgive the person who turned to him in sincerity and truth. The promise of God’s forgiveness was not just for King David; we can know God’s forgiveness today.

John 3:16 16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”

The Father sent His Son, Jesus, to come into this world to suffer the penalty for sin. When Jesus died on the cross He experienced God the Father’s wrath on sin. Jesus was born without sin, and lived a perfect obedient life. Because He was without sin His sacrifice was acceptable to the Father. Christ’s merit, His righteousness, is credited to all those who turn to Him by faith alone. Turning is an act of repentance. It means that we are abandoning our own path and turning towards God. Faith is believing, trusting without seeing. The Father calls on us to believe and trust in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is more than just believing in the story of Jesus, or that He is a historical figure. The belief the bible requires is complete trust; faith in Jesus Himself. We are called to abandon our sin and turn to Christ, to place our complete trust and faith in Him alone. The bible says:

Romans 10:9-11 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; 10 for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.”

Believe in your heart. Believe in and on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn from your sin and place your faith and trust in Christ. Jesus Christ paid the penalty for sin and made the way possible for all who turn to Him to receive forgiveness. Long after today’s snow storm has melted and turned to mush, it’s possible to be whiter than snow in your life. It is possible to have your sins forgiven and to know you will spend eternity in the presence of God.

Acts 16:31 “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved…”

Saved? From what?

Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

The Greek word for repent is metanoia.  It means to, “change one’s mind, or purpose.”  Jesus didn’t simply say, “Believe!”  He said, “repent.”  Jesus was preaching a message that called on people to make a change.  A change from what?  If I were to ask you to change your mind about something then it stands to reason that you had an existing opinion that I wanted you to change.  So what was Jesus asking people to change?

Earlier, In Matthew 3:2 John the Baptist declared, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  John was also calling for change.  Among those who came to be baptized by John were a group of Pharisees and Sadducees.  John called them a “brood of vipers” for he knew that they lead the people of Israel falsely.  Along with their baptism John called on them to “bear fruit in keeping with repentance.”  Here we see context added to the call to have a change of mind.  The religious leaders of Israel were to change their mind about their actions.  John was commanding them to “bear fruit” or in other words “show that your repentance is real.”  One chapter later we read that our Lord Jesus Christ was preaching a gospel of repentance.  He was also calling on people to change their behavior.  The behavior that Jesus was preaching repentance on was rooted in sin.  Therefore what Jesus was preaching was, “Turn away from sin!”

Of course we know that we cannot turn away from sin in our power.  Sin is master over us and we are powerless against it.  It’s power was broken by Christ on the cross, and it is the finished work of Christ on the cross that makes it possible for us to turn from sin.  This turning away is done by faith alone in Christ alone.  The Apostle Paul wrote, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8,9)

When someone asks you, “What are you saved from?” you can answer, “I am saved from the power of sin through repentance and faith in Christ Jesus.”