CHURCH: The Glorious Mess pt 1

      “Glorious Mess and Productive Agitation”   (part 1 of 2)                                   

One of Forrest Gump’s famous lines is, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get!” You open the lid of a chocolate assortment and even though they all look the same on the outside, you can’t tell what you’re going to get until you bite into one.  There are times when you choose one of those pieces of chocolate and bite into it and are completely surprised by what you discover inside. I think Gump’s view on that box of chocolate is that people are like those chocolates.

 We have no idea what is inside until something difficult comes along and takes a bite out them which exposes what’s on the inside—often times much to our surprise.  People are different; they have different stories, different backgrounds and come with different operating systems that can make getting along difficult. We are flawed, quirky, and fearfully and wonderfully wired.  

 Face it, people are messy.

I posted a picture of a stamp I found in an art store to FaceBook that read, “Family is like fudge. It’s mostly sweet, but has some nuts.” I got a lot of “Amens,” double “Amens” and many interesting comments from those who know my family. Life may be like a box of chocolates, but family is more like one of those fruit cakes grandma used to make with a bunch of nuts and unidentified fruit pieces held together in a concrete-like concoction. Family is a messy business not just because it includes human beings, but also because of the closeness of relationships lends itself to the potential for hurts and wounds. The deepest wounds we experience seem to be from the people who are closest to us.  

Church becomes a new Family, yet as you draw closer in relationship with one another in your church, the greater the potential is for pain in those relationships. Why would anyone in their right mind invite more pain and suffering than we already go through every day? Hellerman says, “As church-going Americans, we have been socialized to believe that our individual fulfillment and our personal relationship with God are more important than any connection we might have with our fellow human beings, whether in the home or in the church. We have, in a most subtle and insidious way, been conformed to this world."  He says, “The New Testament picture of the church as family flies in the face of our individualistic cultural orientation.”[1]

J.I. Packer writes, “God uses chronic pain and weakness, along with other afflictions, as his chisel for sculpting our lives. Felt weakness deepens dependence on Christ for strength each day. The weaker we feel, the harder we lean [on Jesus]. And the harder we lean, the stronger we grow spiritually, even while our bodies waste away. To live with your ‘thorn’ uncomplainingly—that is, sweet, patient, and free in heart to love and help others, even though every day you feel weak—is true sanctification. It is true healing for the spirit. It is a supreme victory of grace.”

As we conclude with discipleship, I would be remiss if I failed to mention that authentic community is part of the multifaceted process by which God does His sanctifying work in us. Often we are so concerned about protecting ourselves that we run from the very thing that God is using to shape us in the image of His Son.[2]  Part of the work God intends to do in us comes through the productive agitation of the commitment to relationships in community life.  God calls you as an individual and puts you into His sacred collective as rough rocks are put into a rock tumbler that will turn us into precious stones and beautiful gems. Christianity is a “together” enterprise. God never intended any one of us to go it alone.     

The lyric to a Paul Simon songs goes like this, “I've built walls, a fortress deep and mighty that none may penetrate. I have no need of friendship, friendship causes pain.  It's laughter and it's loving I disdain I am a rock, I am an island.

I have my books and my poetry to protect me. I am shielded in my armor, hiding in my room, safe within my womb.  I touch no one and no one touches me. I am a rock, I am an island
And a rock can feel no pain And an island never cries.”[3]      

                       

The systemic problem in our modern Protestant Christianity is that we have created a church-going consumer that expects value and reward from membership. This people-pleasing, consumer-driven mentality goes against the high call of God that should be a life of faith worth dying for. This Western view of church membership is like our Western view on marriage; which is looked on as though we have entered into a pleasure contract. So it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone in this culture of brokenness that for many church-going people, their relationships with other church-goers is considered disposable, just as our spouses are in marriage. We say all kinds of words laced with sacred meaning at the altar for example, “In riches and poverty, in sickness and health until death do us part” …and yet, at the first significant difficulty many pull the parachute and bail out.

We are in a culture of disposable relationships, and this “me-first” attitude is part of our fickle “church-hopping” mindset. When things get hard or tough – or when people rub me the wrong way or when my issues get confronted and exposes something in me that I don’t want you to see, then it is more comfortable to run than stick it out.  Yet God desires that we work through the very thing that He intended to use in conforming me to the image of His Son. 

We were not created to stand alone as an island, apart from laughter, love, pain and tears. “An island never cries.”

[excerpt from my book Dead Reckoning: The Divine Invasion.  To be continued: in part 2 "Productive Agitation" 

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[1] Joseph H. Hellerman, When the Church Was a Family: Recapturing Jesus’ Vision for Authentic Christian Community. B&H Academic, Nashville, Tennessee, 2009 p. 7

[2] Rom 8:28-30

[3] Paul Simon, I Am a Rock, from Bridge Over Troubled Waters, 1970.

Art by Marshall Dahlin 

Mount Soché: The "holy hill" and the Zombie

As a tradition on the final day in the mission field the Water Wells for Africa team climbs a small mountain called Mount Soché that overlooks the city of Blantyre. 

Walking up the rugged hill we encountered ladies with parasols dressed in richly ornamented Africa attire. I didn’t understand why people would choose to dress-up for a day hike.

I soon discovered that most of those going up the hill were Christians who, with great enthusiasm, headed up to shady spots for prayer meetings, Bible studies, preaching to small congregations and sermon practice.  

We encountered groups of women lying over the rocks with Bibles open prostrates before the Lord—praying, wailing and beseeching him.

In one flat area under a large tree a pastor was preaching to a group of about 8-10 giving ‘em Jesus and HOLY SPIRIT FIRE.

The eight of us marched about halfway up the hill to a place where there was a big rock and began our prayer for the city.

As we began to pray I was distracted by the loud preaching of a guy we couldn’t see who was just over the hill and out of sight.

This was a holy mountain. I wanted to leave my group of quiet prayer warriors and go listen to the passionate guy “who was bringing it.”

At the end of our allotted time, four of us decided to quickly sprint to the top before rendezvousing at the bottom with the rest ofour team.

We found the perfect Facebook picture opportunity.

While taking pictures I saw a guy not too far away who is waving for me to come over. It turns out he wanted his picture taken also.

      I guess this guy didn’t know we were busy and only had a limited window of time.

Didn’t he know that this was Mount Soché, a holy hill full of busy people doing all kinds of important religious activity?

People walked up and down that hill all day long who had come to pray and study and worship and practice sermons.

Mount Soché was a hub of continuous religious activity.  

I took his picture and showed it to him. This delighted Alfred. He loved seeing his picture on the screen of my cell phone.

He understood a little English and I began to engage him in a conversation and asked some questions. He told me he lived there in a tiny cave. Accepting his invitation to see where, I peeked in between the large boulder and the smaller rocks he had stacked up at the entrance. There was only just enough room inside for him to crawl into and sleep.

This broke my heart.

I asked if he knew about Jesus. He said he was raised religious and knew about Jesus. In his poor English he told me that Jesus was a man who went up to live with God.

I told him, that like him, I also grew up religious and knew a lot about Jesus. I told him that although I knew all about Jesus I personally did not KNOW Jesus.

I asked if I could share my story about what I had come to discover.  

The other three members of our climb-to-the-top-of-the-hill team came over. I asked our translator to translate as I shared the gospel. I told him the part about sin and how God had to judge sin and made sure to tell him how scripture says that the penalty of sin was death. 

I asked him about two commands which he says he violated―like most of us. The conviction of the Holy Spirit was thick and he realized he was a sinner in need of God’s grace. In tears he repented and pleaded the blood of Christ―responding to the good news. Once dead like a Zombie, he was made alive and given the promises of eternal life. 

He stood to his feet and said that he had never had an encounter like that before with Azungu (white people) and felt a burden lifted from his shoulders. He said he felt free and delivered. 

Alfred was a homeless 22-year-old Muslim from Mozambique yet what spoke to me the most in that experience was the haunting thought that there are Alfreds who live right next door to all of us. 

Like many of those religious people who climbed Mount Soché that day, we are so consumed with religious activity that we fail to notice people God puts right in our path. We come and go to Bible studies, prayer meetings, church seminars, Christian concerts and walk by Alfreds every single day without paying much attention to them. 

We can either be busy doing church or we can be the church and engage the mission field to which God has called us. In Acts 1:8, Luke records the words of Jesus, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

You may not have to climb a mountain in Africa or go to the ends of the earth to meet someone in need of Christ―like Alfred. It could be the person living next door or the person in the cubical adjacent to you at work. 

  

God has spiritually equipped each believer and has put us in the appointed time and place for His purposes. We just need to look up, trust God and believe that He has filled you with His Spirit―that as agents of His divine invasion of grace―we would make Him know so that His name is exalted among the nations and His Glory extended.

For His name sake and for His glory you are supernaturally equipped, uniquely gifted and perfectly positioned for more than just a bunch of religious activity. He has not only called you to Himself and cut you out as an individual member of His club, but has cut you out and called you into His missionary enterprises as a sent one—shaped into the image of His Son Jesus who was also the sent one of God. 

"Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” John 20:21 

Peter and Paul: On How to Make Christianity More Appealing

Sometime after Paul's conversion on "The Road to Damascus" he meets Peter and the Apostles in Jerusalem(Acts 9:26-29). 

After his first missionary journey they meet up again in AD 50 for The Council at Jerusalem―this is a conversation they could have had.

St Peter and St Paul, Ukrainian Orthodox icon

Paul: So Peter how has this new "faith thing" been going for you?

Peter: Ah, okay I guess. How about you?

Paul: Pretty terrific, really!

Peter: Seriously, how about those scars I see showing above the collar line of your                             robe...dude...and what happened to your face?

Paul: Oh those (pointing to his face)? My face got more-than-a-little messed up when they                dropped stones on my head and chest trying to kill me over in Lystra.    

Peter: Well that didn’t go too well for you did it?

Paul: Yeah…I guess you could say that! Hey, Peter check these scares here (pointing to his              back as if a badge of honor) they were left by the angry Jews to whom, I had been                     sharing the gospel. It gets them pretty agitated wherever I go and preach the gospel and           mention the name of Jesus.

Peter: Right!?

Paul: What about you? What has your life been like after becoming a follower? 

Peter: Oh, I was put in jail and was going to be murdered like James, but with God’s help I               managed to escape. Now it seems like I’m pretty much a fugitive and everyone is                    against me for preaching the gospel as well.  I’ve been on the down-low―can’t really              show my face in Jerusalem and have been on the run!

Paul: I know, right!

Peter: Even now I had to sneak back here into the city to testify on your behalf.

Paul: How are the other guys doing?

Peter: Paul serious? You know better than anyone what happened to Stephen. As for James,

          he had his head was cut off by king Agrippa―John the Baptist was beheaded by                     Agrippa’s lunatic father, Herod Antipas. As for the other guys it’s been hard for all of             us. Paul you should know that – look at what you’ve gone through. 

     (Feast of Herod with the Beheading of St John the Baptist, in the Prado Museum in Madrid,  Bartholomeus Strobel's           masterpiece - 10 meters wide)

Paul: Don’t you ever wish it could a little bit easier―after all we are proclaiming the gospel.            What if we could change the message and say something like, “Accept Jesus and you              could be saved from having a hard life to a really good one.”?

Peter: Or something along these lines, “Accept Jesus and all of your difficulties will go away           and when you turn your life over to Him, all things will become easy.”

Paul: Yeah, or we could say, “If you raise your hand to be a follower of Christ―this new                gospel thingy will make all your problems go away.”

Peter: I’m sure that might get us more people. But Paul, I walked with Jesus and knew that               He turned more people away when He said that that following meant dying to self and             picking up a cross.  

Paul: RIGHT! He never said the He came to save us from all of our financial problems or                health problems. Peter as you know Jesus did His miracles, you did your miracles, I did          my miracles and those things are definite blessings but the gospel is not the promise of            financial reward or just a temporary thing like good health. Followers of Jesus can be             delivered from all kinds of destructive addictions and behaviors―but it is so much more         than that―it is the deliverance from the power and penalty of death. It is the saving of             the soul from eternal destruction. It does not necessarily save you from bad relationships         or bad situations nor does it promise protection from hate or persecution―it’s just the             opposite.

Peter: Right! My life wasn’t so bad before I encountered Jesus. I had a good thing going. I                 was middle class and liked my occupation as a fisherman...and doing what I loved to             do.

Paul: Look at how my life has changed. I had everything: title, respect, money, position,                   honor, family. I had a job I was passionate about and one that I also loved doing.

Peter: Do you think we can get more recruits and will suffer less persecution if we tone it                  down and tell them that if they want to know Jesus then everything becomes easy.                    Let’s tell that that it will make your life better. Let's tell them they could have more                  things.

Paul: Peter you're a comedian. I gave everything up and counted everything I had as                          loss―just in knowing Christ. Don’t tell them that we’re fugitives or that we had been in          prison or share with them how I had almost murdered and whipped and flogged for the           sake of the gospel. God forbid. That might frighten them and turn them away. 

Peter: You mean whitewash the gospel in a new version that doesn’t include the call to give              everything up.

Paul: Yeah. Let’s not mention how much it might cost.

Peter: We could do it this way; we could tell them it’s like joining some kind of club.

Paul: Offer exclusive membership with different levels of benefits – Rock concerts –                        climbing walls―choice of coffee and pastries. Tell them they can have it all.  Inoculate          them from suffering of any kind. Make them want more from the place where every                creature comfort is met.

Peter: Hum? That’s good Paul, but that will come later—much later. For now, let’s just keep              telling them that to follow will cost everything—but the glories of knowing Him, the                offer of grace and the promises of  everlasting life—is worth it all.

Paul: Amen and Amen bro. Worth every sacrifice. 

Peter: Worth dying for.

'Oldest' image of St Paul discovered.  Archaeologists have uncovered a 1,600 year old image of St Paul, the oldest one known of, in a Roman catacomb.  

The fresco, which dates back to the 4th Century AD, was discovered during restoration work at the Catacomb of Saint Thekla but was kept secret for ten days.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/5675461/Oldest-image-of-St-Paul-discovered.html    June 2009 

                            Caravaggio's depiction of the crucifixion of Apostle Peter.

Clement of Rome, in his Letter to the Corinthians (Chapter 5), written c. 80–98, speaks of Peter's martyrdom in the following terms: "Let us take the noble examples of our own generation. Through jealousy and envy the greatest and most just pillars of the Church were persecuted, and came even unto death… Peter, through unjust envy, endured not one or two but many labours, and at last, having delivered his testimony, departed unto the place of glory due to him."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Peter 

The Great Suggestion and the Lazy Bride of Honor

Did you know that the words “The Great Commission” are nowhere to be found in Scripture?

That’s right.  As a matter of fact the word “commission” [epitropē] is only used once in the New Testament and in regards to the Apostle Paul. It was used in a negative connotation in his commission from the chief priest to persecute Christians (Acts 26:12).

Nowhere in Scripture does Jesus sit His Apostles down and says something along these lines, “Okay guys, here is the great commission for you.” The essence is there―coined by someone much later (possibly more than 1600 years later), but that phrase did not originate in the words spoken by Christ nor was it inspired by the Holy Spirit. 

WHAT!?

Because of the heavy emphasis on global missions expressed within the commissioning passage of Matthew’s gospel, this catch phrase was later popularized by Hudson Taylor. Subsequently these words made it into some translations of the Bible as a heading by well-intentioned translators.

Here is the problem.

Because of the elevated status of a commission so great that “The Great Commission” of Matthew’s gospel stands alone in the spotlight (Matt 28:16-20). The notoriety of this passage affords it so much attention that many Christians are unaware that it is only ONE of FIVE commissioning passages in the New Testament. There are several reasons this one stands head and shoulders above the other four.  For example it mentions of Trinity by naming the Father, Son and Holy Spirit which are found side by side for the first time in the New Testament. It mentions the authority of the risen Christ as well as the promises that He will be with us always. Good stuff―No―Great Stuff. However, the other four passages stand in the shadow of its fame by comparison. 

I often wonder how Dr. Luke (Luke 24:44-49; Acts 1:4-8), The Beloved Apostle (Jn 20:19-23), and Peter’s scribe, Mark (Mark 16:14-18) feel about being so overlooked (hyperbole).

If there are four other commissioning passages, what do they say and how can they be used to either debrief or to turbocharge “The Great Commission” which has been watered down, lost so much of its punch and has an implied interpretation that has given permission for disobedience?

I’m glad you asked.

I.                   Matt 28:18-20 “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” In this passage there is one command. There is ONLY one command and that single imperative in this passage is to MAKE disciples.  “Go” is a participle i.e. “going” as are the words “baptizing” and “teaching.”

II.                Let’s check in next with the good doctor. Luke 24:44-49 (post resurrection) Jesus tells his disciples they are to be witnesses of Christ in the preaching to all nations by the power of the Holy Spirit that God promised to send.

III.             In Acts (just before the ascension into heaven), Luke reports the words of Christ, which are essentially the same thing. When I go you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit promised by my Father and when this power comes upon you - you will be my witnesses from here in Jerusalem to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:4-8).

IV.             Mark writes, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:14-18). Some people may want to discount this because these verses at the end of Mark’s gospels do not appear in the earliest manuscript.

So let’s put this on the shelf for a minute and turn to John’s Gospel

V.                John 20:19-23. This is Jesus’ appearance to disciples just after the resurrection where he breathes the Holy Spirit on them and says, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” I know this doesn’t seem like much, but in context this “commissioning” packs a wallop according to Bible scholar Andreas Köstenberger (saving Köstenberger for later, let’s put all five into the collective stew pot and see how they inform each other).

The cumulative weight within these commissioning passages is on proclaiming Christ and preaching the gospel. “I’m leaving. I’m going away,” Jesus says. “When I go, my Father will send you the Holy Spirit. When that power comes upon you―I send you to be my witnesses to testify about me―proclaiming the gospel―making me known to the ends of the earth. As you are going (poreúomai - “go” in “The Great Commission”) whereby men get saved―MAKE DISCIPLES (the command), baptize them and teach them to obey everything that I taught.

Without these four other passages to keep The Great Commission in check the commissioning in Matthew becomes less-than-great as it loses its potency and sense of urgency. Since the imperative is to make disciples and we are to be doing that as we are going, we do it as we are going about all of our other business. We turn the participle go into a lazy maid of honor. She’s become worthless to the bride whom she is supposed to be serving. 

Or it would be like anxiously waiting at the door for your son to return home from the pharmacy with a prescription for a very ill loved-one. Two hours later you’re ready to kill the kid (again a hyperbole) when he returns after a game of kick-the-can with some neighbor kids when he tells you the Greek meaning behind your command to go the drug store. He looks you in the eye and tells you the command was to get the medicine and that the word go (poreúomai) you used was not the main directive in the sentence only the means of moving from one place to the other.

You can’t find fault with the kids Greek interpretive skills, but you had no intention of your participle “as you are going”―being so passive. 

This is where the bride and her maid of honor example comes in. According to one of the foremost Greek scholars in the world the word “go” is an “Attendant Circumstance.”

HUH?

Daniel B. Wallace of Dallas Theological Seminary says in his Greek Grammar beyond the basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament, that this weak rendering of the participle “to be going” turns the Great Commission into the Great Suggestion. 

The word going here, though a participle is what he calls “an attendant circumstance.”  Wallace writes, “The participle in effect then, “piggy-backs” on the mood of the main verb.”^[1] He gives scriptural validation to this claim by citing Matt 2:13 where the angel says to Joseph and his mother. “Rise and take the child and flee.” In the same way here rise is a participle and loses the urgency if translated the same way we tend to translate the participle “go” in the Great Commission.

In keeping with same methods of interpretation and applying that to Matt 2:13, the angel’s words would look something more like this, “After you have arisen…take and go.”  Joseph’s immediate response, to get up and go, however, helps us to understand that the urgency of arising was more than a mere suggestion. 

In the same way we have made the “Go” in the great commission nothing more than a lazy attendant which refuses to help the Command to carry out its primary function of making disciples.

“Go cat!” 

“Don’t bother me here…(yawn)…I’ll take that as a mere suggestion.”

Our focus on just “The Great Commission” of making disciples loses both the urgency and the commissioning force of the other four commissioning passages which is to proclaim and to share the gospel.  This is not “The Great Suggestion.” In obedience to Christ we should get after what He has commissioned us to do as His sent ones.

You have the Power, the supernatural equipping and the unique gifting to make Christ known and to bring God glory right where He has put you―His purpose for you.  

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father. Phil 2:9-11

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[1]Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar beyond the basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament   p 639-640   Zondervan

* Picture credit (http://lovingtheclimb.com/2014/02)

Zombies Can Come Back to Life

                                    Leave Scarecrow and Rise Zombie

On May 27^th I already answered one very difficult theological paradox. I pointed to the metaphor of Jesus that helped untangle the quandary regarding what seems like polar opposites: Works Vs Rest. 

His call upon our lives, likened to being “fishers of men” offers the perfect solution to an argument that I’m sure Christians will continue to fight over Ad Infinitium. 
            (However, this is not the battlefield He has called us to—btw)

This time, I want to talk about Zombies and Scarecrows in hopes of answering another theological conundrum.  I hope this short explanation will help solve the riddle of that age old question that Christians have been fighting-over for the past two millennium.

We’ll do Zombies in a minute, but let’s begin with scarecrows. In the art of debate there is a tactic employed in emotionally charged arguments called the “straw man” fallacy.

What I do in employing the “straw man” logic is build a false premise that I attach to my opponent as though it represents his argument. Then having built up the straw man I blow it over (since it is made out of straw) thus seemingly beat my opponent by destroying the premise – i.e refuting the very thing (the false argument) I advanced on his behalf.

"Yeah - look at me. I'm Awesome!" 

Going a little further down the path of the “Works Righteousness” argument, often leads directly to the feet to the straw man. Here is the proposition that is offered up as this sacrificial being (our poor hypothetical Scarecrow) who we are so anxious to destroy: 

  

 “Can a Christian do anything to add to his salvation?”

This might have been a good question for the Church to wrestle with for the first fifteen or sixteen hundred years.

It certainly was a valid question at the time of The Reformation and was given much consideration by Luther, Calvin and the reformers. Protestant Christianity had been freed from the tyranny of the Catholic Church and liberated from the oppressive doctrine of works righteousness which happens to be the basic doctrine of Justification by faith alone—Sola Fida.  

Sola Fida is our battle cry taken directly from Ephesians 2:8 and 9 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast.”

The funny thing is, this straw man argument still lives on among Bible believing Christians.  LISTEN! It is employed mostly by those desperately seeking a way to rationalize laziness and apathy in their Christian walk that is void of any kind of works i.e. the evidence of faith.

  

“HAH! The Bible saith, ‘We’re saved by grace through faith alone’ So there!”

YET, TODAY–the proposition of “adding to one’s salvation” is pretty well universally understood. It was answered at The Reformation in the doctrine Justification that has now been taught for 500 years and understood by most believers. The straw man is dead and should remain dead. Why does it have life? Only because, if I chant this mantra and then proceed to blow it over, I can stare you in the eye—having victoriously defended myself as if there is nothing to DO after salvation.

ARISE THE ZOMBIE!

Read the next verse Christian (use whatever version you want) Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Let me repeat these words of Scripture. We are created in Christ “to do good works.”

Does that nullify the previous two verses?  No. Sola Fida—wins. We are incapable of doing anything outside the atoning sacrifice of Jesus and His bloodshed on the cross for the attainment of salvation. It is a free gift and no amount of works can get us into heaven.

            Q. Can I add to my salvation?  
            A. Of course not!
How can anyone hope to add to the perfection of blood atonement of the Lamb of God.  It’s Done—BAM! A more fitting description is found in the words of Jesus on the Cross “IT IS FINISHED!” 

The writer of Hebrews declares it to be, “Once for all.”  HELLO?  WE GET IT! 

In the good ‘O King James, Paul says it this way, “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

¹³ Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

¹⁴ In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins” Col 1:12-14

John says this, “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.” Jn 4:24

Enter the Zombie!  We were once alive walking around this planet in our earth suits but the Bible describes us as being dead. By believing in Christ… we are TRANSLATED from the kingdom of darkness and have crossed over into life.

The Bible is describing us as though we were once Zombies—dead walking people.

It is Paul who writes for us in Ephesians 5:14-15

“Wake up, sleeper,
    rise from the dead,
    and Christ will shine on you.”

“Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, ¹⁶ making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.”

WAKE UP! Quit living like Zombies—that’s your past. You are a new creation. God, Himself, has given you life.

He has saved you.

He has redeemed you.

And He has deposited His Holy Spirit in you so that, now—this side of Justification—being made alive, you can respond to God in faithful obedience that produces the fruit of faith, evidenced by the WORK He has ordained for us to walk in.

"Talk all you want" James is trying to say… “Talk is Cheap – you can see the evidence of the new life given to me by grace through faith in the work it produces through me. 

RISE ZOMBIE – listen to the voice of God who puts the flesh and blood on dry bones. Walk in the newness of who you truly are in Christ… so that men may see the good deeds you do and Glorify our Father in heaven.

Maybe this is why the Prince of Preachers says, "Do something, Do something, Do something."   Charles Spurgeon