{"id":308,"date":"2021-01-20T09:36:02","date_gmt":"2021-01-20T09:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/176.32.230.18\/swordmagazine.net\/?p=308"},"modified":"2021-02-21T20:19:30","modified_gmt":"2021-02-21T20:19:30","slug":"cured-by-adoption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/?p=308","title":{"rendered":"Editorial – Cured – by adoption!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

All the world\u2019s an orphanage \u2013 and there\u2019s a waiting Father\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI respect your wish to \u2018give it you straight\u2019 so \u2026 without surgery, it will kill you in about six months, though, if we operate without delay, a complete cure is highly probable. Alternatively you can have lifetime medication to control your symptoms\u201d. Easy choice, one would think. Why then, when it comes to humanity\u2019s terminal condition do so many Christians peddle symptom control instead of the cure?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any brief reality check will reveal that the \u2018message\u2019 many western Christians are sending to their society is that society\u2019s passions are our passions too \u2013 only more so\u2026 if unbelievers care about human rights, \u2018diversity\u2019, saving the planet, global warming, gender issues and the BBC\u2019s version of Middle East \u2018reality\u2019, so do we. And just to prove how \u2018nice\u2019 we are, we won\u2019t mention \u2018offensive\u2019 topics like sin, repentance or\u2026 JESUS!  Which, being interpreted, means we are just as easily manipulated, just as na\u00efve and just as unthinking as every other creature in the herd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is this elitism talking? No, it\u2019s election. The elite and the elect are different groups \u2013 the former are delusional about their superiority and supposed \u2018right\u2019 to control the masses, the latter are humiliated by their sin and exalted by God\u2019s mercy. Not only so, but they are \u2018elect\u2019 \u2013 called out of the mass of humanity \u2013 for the sake of humanity; not to showcase their morality, but to showcase His mercy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s crucial to understand that, in an age where it\u2019s a colossal offence to claim possession of absolute, changeless truth, there is no access to divine mercy through \u2018Christians\u2019 who subscribe to society\u2019s fashionable contradictions of the Bible. When you open a Bible that, in your view, can sometimes be wrong, you never know when you\u2019re looking at God\u2019s Word, or Moses\u2019 opinion; God\u2019s Word or Paul\u2019s rant. A Bible that merely \u2018contains\u2019 God\u2019s Word (somewhere, who\u2019s to tell?) is as much use to you as a chocolate teapot \u2013 and it\u2019s certainly not the two-edged sword of the Spirit\u2026 Think of a modern headline issue \u2013 sexuality, gender equality, Brexit, Syria, terrorism, parenting, child protection \u2013 when views are shaped more by personal opinion or social media than the Bible, God\u2019s Book has become only one of many \u2018truth options\u2019 available and subject to mortal evaluation, acceptance or rejection! How shall we creatures mark the Creator\u2019s report card\u2026? \u201cAssertive, confident of his views, needs to be more inclusive, more respectful of alternate worldviews, moral values need updating\u2026 could do better\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Open to question?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This magazine stands or falls on the authority of the Bible \u2013 all of it \u2013 as the breathed-out Word of God, the infallible product of an infinite Mind. In consequence, we the readers, not the Word, are \u2018open to question\u2019. The notion of a finite mind questioning or contradicting infinite wisdom is self-evidently ridiculous: it\u2019s the clay\u2019s assessment of the Potter, the worm\u2019s evaluation of the horticulturist. Much saner is the scenario where the possessor of the limited mind opens God\u2019s pages with humility: prayerfully seeking not only education but divine revelation, not debate, but infallible direction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our headlines are grim in proportion to global society\u2019s estrangement from God. Sadly, this was the default tragedy perhaps three millennia ago when the Psalmist recorded God\u2019s lament over His \u2018elect\u2019 nation: \u201cOh, that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways! I would soon subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes. Those who hate the Lord would cringe toward him, and their fate would last forever. But he would feed you with the \ufb01nest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.<\/em>\u201d (Ps 81:13-16) As it was, the illusory \u2018freedom\u2019 of rebellion produced only national futility as God, unwilling to make slaves or puppets of His people, \u201cgave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own counsels<\/em>\u201d (verse 12).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Election is no guarantee of good behaviour, but it does guarantee divine discipline <\/strong>(Hebrews 12:5-7). When God can\u2019t instruct us with His words, He resorts to His works. His method is simple: the fences He erected for our safety, suddenly flatten beneath our next resentful kick and we are free \u2013 to experience the consequences. But, like the prodigal\u2019s waiting father, God\u2019s mercy stubbornly scans the horizon\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hitler + \u2018#MeToo\u2019?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Today, as then, the world\u2019s \u2018free thinkers\u2019 are not free, because they\u2019re not thinking. Thinking without God is not thinking, it\u2019s rebellion; a mere selfish response to stimulus \u2013 and there are plenty of influential stimulators around whose fake news, false victim groups and boardroom rumours treat men and women made in the image of God like a herd of animals to feed upon or drive to the slaughter. What might the mesmerising Hitlerof Nuremberg have achieved if the Nazis\u2019 ruthless control of newspapers and radio had also had access to today\u2019s \u2018#MeToo\u2019 <\/strong>social media culture? As Paul observed \u201c\u2026the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God<\/em> (2 Corinthians 4:4).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the \u2018thinking\u2019 that steers your life is blindness, you don\u2019t want to reach your destination\u2026 ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s only One Way to end the fatal estrangement \u2013 and the true Church is permanently commissioned to target the gap: \u201c\u2026in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation<\/em>\u201d (2 Corinthians 5:19) Is this hitting home? We, the followers of Jesus and children of God are entrusted and charged with reconciling blinded men, women and children to their Creator. Yet it is estimated that only 5% of all Christians ever bring a single soul to Jesus in their lifetime! <\/strong>Since it is Satan who has imposed this blindness on unbelieving minds, we may be sure that they will not be saved without a fight \u2013 are 95% of us exempt from this conflict? The consistent message of the New Testament writers is that Jesus is the nemesis who alone empowers His Church to bind the \u2018strong man\u2019 and plunder his house: \u201c\u2026he who is in you is<\/em> (1 John 4:4).Immense power is available to us for this ministry of reconciliation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Estrangement reversed<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s be clear what God means by reconciliation: the reverse of estrangement is not \u2018nodding acquaintance\u2019 \u2013 the complete cure is called \u2018ADOPTION\u2019! John the apostle affirmed Jesus\u2019 unique power to end the estrangement: \u201cto all who believed in His Name, He gave the power to become the children of God<\/em>\u201d. In confirmation, Jesus declared: \u201cI am the way, the truth and the life \u2013 no-one comes to the Father [emphasis added] but by me<\/em>\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has been said that evangelism is simply beggars telling other beggars where to find bread. The more staggering reality is that God makes us His children, not his paupers. We are not beggars, but former orphans joyously telling today\u2019s orphans how to find Father! (John 1:12; 14:18; Romans 8:15)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it is likely that aggressive secularism will put Christians to the test over so-called \u2018diversity\u2019, the real test issue for all human society (no-one \u2018excluded\u2019!) will be the uniqueness of Jesus Christ:\u201c\u2026there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.<\/em>\u201d (Acts 4:12) Paul,writing to Timothy,some three decades later, reinforced Peter\u2019s message: \u201c\u2026 God our Saviour \u2026 desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all<\/em>\u201d. (1 Timothy 2:4-6)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s the politically incorrect glory of the Gospel: Jesus is exclusively Saviour and Lord because He inclusively \u201cdied for all<\/em>\u201d (2 Corinthians 5:14). Sin has every mortal \u2013 even whole nations \u2013 on a default course to total loss. Jesus is God<\/strong> the Father\u2019s one answer to the terminal problem. To serve this unique and uncompromising message, the early Church undeviatingly preached Christ. They did not permit the secular headline issues of their day to set the agenda. The church is charged to preach the remedy, not quash the rebellion<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And such a remedy! As truly holy God and truly perfect Man, Jesus alone can end the spiritual orphanhood of human beings and provide access to the Father. The enemy of souls hates and fears only one thing: the preaching of Jesus Christ \u2013 crucified, risen, ascended\u2026 and returning in judgment.\u201cChrist also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God<\/em>\u201d. (1 Peter 3:18) But the generosity of God goes far beyond \u2018cancelled sin\u2019\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deficit reversed<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Heaven\u2019s spotless remedy has not merely \u2018balanced our books\u2019 before God. Amazingly, the Judge has credited His Son\u2019s righteousness to all who believe in His Name, so that our accounts are not
merely balanced, they are extravagantly in credit \u2013 to the glory of Jesus. And if that were not enough, God has guaranteed our inheritance in Christ by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in every believer (Ephesians 1:13-14).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even as He insists on holy living and teaches us obedience, the Holy Spirit guarantees our inheritance because He never ceases to attest our adoption (Romans 8:15). Those who teach that Christians can lose their salvation are focussed on the lifetime struggle we call sanctification. The apostle is focussed on the believers\u2019 RELATIONSHIP: God is their Father! God\u2019s call and election are secured by His unchanging character (Romans 11:29; Malachi 3:6). Once a son or a daughter, always a son or daughter. Once adopted, always adopted. This is pure, irreversible GIFT. The inheritance can only be cancelled if the relationship can be annulled \u2013 but God, who personally initiated our transformation, continues the work through our lifetime and will Himself complete it (Philippians 1:6). FELLOWSHIP with God can be, and often is, broken from our side, by our wilfulness. But the RELATIONSHIP is a fixed reality \u2013 this is precisely why the prodigal could be restored. If any of Jesus\u2019 parables illustrates the joyful irreversibility of the Father\u2019s cure in adoption, it\u2019s this one…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was not an enemy, not a stranger who abandoned the father and wilfully chose the world for a time. It was a son, a member of the father\u2019s household. The son left the father, but the father waited and watched \u2013 then ran, embraced, rejoiced, restored… Even at his lowest, the prodigal was still\u2026 a SON!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All the world\u2019s an orphanage \u2013 and there\u2019s a waiting Father\u2026 \u201cI respect your wish to \u2018give it you straight\u2019 so \u2026 without surgery, it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[56],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=308"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":944,"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308\/revisions\/944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swordmagazine.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}