Christ: Heir - Creator - Glory - Sovereign

"1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; 3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they." Hebrews 1:1-4

What a passion producing text! God has finally and ultimately spoken to us in the person of Jesus Christ. We learn a few amazing things about Christ here:

1. He has been appointed heir of all things! This is great news, for through Christ I inherit all things. This marvelous truth puts an end to the idolatry of success and wealth. One may have nothing this world deems valuable, but through Christ I already have EVERYTHING. What silly games I play when I attempt to accumulate.
2. He is the Creator-God. In Driscoll's book: Doctrine, he tells us about how ancient Jewish Rabbi's used the Hebrew word for "beginning" (re'shit) synonymously with the Hebrew word for "firstborn" (bekor). This is exciting, for what we read here in Hebrews 1 is actually explicit in Genesis 1 with this interpretive translation, because in early aramaic texts it would read like this: "In the beginning, by the firstborn, God created..." Who is the "firstborn?" Christ! Jesus' role in the creation of the world is not just a New Testament conception.
3. He is the brightness of the glory of God. Want to see the glory of God? Examine the person and work of Jesus Christ.
4. He upholds all things by the word of His power. This is not "Buddy Jesus," this is the all-powerful King of the universe.

Seeking to live: coram deo - honestly in the "presence of the Father!"

Grant

What Does “coram Deo” Mean? - RC Sproul

I remember Mama standing in front of me, her hands poised on her hips, her eyes glaring with hot coals of fire and saying in stentorian tones, “Just what is the big idea, young man?”

Instinctively I knew my mother was not asking me an abstract question about theory. Her question was not a question at all—it was a thinly veiled accusation. Her words were easily translated to mean, “Why are you doing what you are doing?” She was challenging me to justify my behavior with a valid idea. I had none.

Recently a friend asked me in all earnestness the same question. He asked, “What’s the big idea of the Christian life?” He was interested in the overarching, ultimate goal of the Christian life.
To answer his question, I fell back on the theologian’s prerogative and gave him a Latin term. I said, “The big idea of the Christian life is coram Deo. Coram Deo captures the essence of the Christian life.”

This phrase literally refers to something that takes place in the presence of, or before the face of, God. To live coram Deo is to live one’s entire life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, to the glory of God.

To live in the presence of God is to understand that whatever we are doing and wherever we are doing it, we are acting under the gaze of God. God is omnipresent. There is no place so remote that we can escape His penetrating gaze.

To be aware of the presence of God is also to be acutely aware of His sovereignty. The uniform experience of the saints is to recognize that if God is God, then He is indeed sovereign. When Saul was confronted by the refulgent glory of the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, his immediate question was, “Who is it, Lord?” He wasn’t sure who was speaking to him, but he knew that whomever it was, was certainly sovereign over him.

Living under divine sovereignty involves more than a reluctant submission to sheer sovereignty that is motivated out of a fear of punishment. It involves recognizing that there is no higher goal than offering honor to God. Our lives are to be living sacrifices, oblations offered in a spirit of adoration and gratitude.

To live all of life coram Deo is to live a life of integrity. It is a life of wholeness that finds its unity and coherency in the majesty of God. A fragmented life is a life of disintegration. It is marked by inconsistency, disharmony, confusion, conflict, contradiction, and chaos.

The Christian who compartmentalizes his or her life into two sections of the religious and the nonreligious has failed to grasp the big idea. The big idea is that all of life is religious or none of life is religious. To divide life between the religious and the nonreligious is itself a sacrilege.

This means that if a person fulfills his or her vocation as a steelmaker, attorney, or homemaker coram Deo, then that person is acting every bit as religiously as a soul-winning evangelist who fulfills his vocation. It means that David was as religious when he obeyed God’s call to be a shepherd as he was when he was anointed with the special grace of kingship. It means that Jesus was every bit as religious when He worked in His father’s carpenter shop as He was in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Integrity is found where men and women live their lives in a pattern of consistency. It is a pattern that functions the same basic way in church and out of church. It is a life that is open before God. It is a life in which all that is done is done as to the Lord. It is a life lived by principle, not expediency; by humility before God, not defiance. It is a life lived under the tutelage of conscience that is held captive by the Word of God.

Coram Deo … before the face of God. That’s the big idea. Next to this idea our other goals and ambitions become mere trifles.

Two Ways to Reject God!

Jesus, as he often did, told a story –it went something like this: (GSV – Grant Sather Version)

Two people, both men actually, started walking into a church. They were both going in to pray, but for very different reasons. One of the men was a religious teacher and the other a tax collector (known for his greed and lavish lifestyle). The religious teacher stood off to the side by himself and prayed this: “God, I thank you that I’m not like other men. I thank you that I’m not an adulterer, I don’t misuse my power to gain wealth, I’m not unjust or an adulterer – or even like this tax collector. I demonstrate self control by fasting two times per week; I give my tithes… thank you God that I’m obedient.” But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, “God be merciful to me, a sinner! Don’t give me what I deserve!

Jesus continued, saying: “I tell you this man –the tax collector, went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself with be exalted.

We see here something very scary. Two people, both have rejected God – but in their own way. The most obvious rejection of God can be seen in the Tax Collector – tax collectors were despised, often took more money than was owed – saving the extra for themselves. He was probably an adulterer. Needless to say, he rejected God in the way we all are accustomed to thinking about rejecting God. He lived his life without regard to the law of God. He didn’t care about bringing glory and honor to God, nor did he consider living a good moral life to be a profitable thing. He lived his life the way HE wanted; it was all about HIS OWN desires.

We have all heard “for the wages of sin is death…” God repays lawlessness with death, sin is like flipping God the cosmic finger, it’s like spitting in his face – sin is any action, thought or attitude that is contrary to the nature of God. God sees everything, says in his word that God sees the secrets of men. Every thought or emotion you’ve ever had has been seen by God. He burns with anger towards sin, this anger is known as wrath. If you are living your life how you want now, don’t worry that will change – either in this life (when you repent) or the next (when the wrath of God burns against you for all eternity). We will call rejecting God by running your own life: irreligion.

So, both men in this story have rejected God, but if we take a closer look at the religious teacher we will be shocked to see what we find. There are four things and four words which should freak us out in this passage – I’m talking, literally cause us to shake in our boots.

1. The religious teacher believes in God. In his prayer, the teacher acknowledges the existence and authority of God. He realizes that God is real, and that he answers to Him in some way.
2. The religious teacher believes that sin is wrong. He is grateful to God that he hasn’t fallen in to sin, because he doesn’t want to!
3. The religious teacher believes that God helped him to not sin. He gives God the credit for his morality by thanking him for it, in doing so he recognizes God as the worker of his personal righteousness.
4. The religious teacher was a good person. Jesus never says that the religious teacher was mistaken when he was thanking God for keeping him from being an extortioner, etc. In fact, beyond being a good person if you examined this man’s life you would be impressed: he fasted twice a week and always gave tithes. Jesus didn’t say he did these things, but there weren’t really good things. We can assume that the teacher’s analysis of his own character was fair an honest, a noble quality in and of itself!

However, the four words Jesus uses to describe the eternal destiny of the tax collector and religious teacher are the four scariest words in the entire bible, in my opinion. Jesus said, “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified…” He proclaims good news on behalf of the tax collector who was heartbroken and repentant over his sin. Howerever, Christ’s next four words: “rather than the other…” tell a different story for the religious teacher. He wasn’t saved, he wasn’t justified in God’s eyes – if he were to die with nothing changing this man would spend the rest of eternity in hell. Prior to faith we know that we can do nothing to honor the Lord, despite all this man’s work for the Lord he had gotten nowhere.

Peace!
Grant

Vision for First Free Youth Group

We desire to KNOW and MAKE KNOWN the cosmic King of the universe! What does this look like? Let's take a look at an early church transformational community as seen in Acts 2.42-47:

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the
fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came
upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the
apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in
common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and
distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day,
attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they
received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and
having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by
day those who were being saved.

Seeing this Transformational Community should awaken an excitement within our soul for seeing the Spirit of God work in our midst. There are nine observations I have taken from this passage, that I have turned into "Ministry Aims," which should guide our youth ministry:

1. We will seek to know God through gospel-saturated expository teaching (v42)
2. We will seek to cultivate hearts broken and dependent upon the Lord through prayer (v42)
3. We will seek to grow in authentic fellowship: grace and truth filled relationships (v44, 46)
4. We will seek to worship God with our whole selves: heart, soul, mind, affections and actions (v43)
5. We will seek to unify under the banner of Christ crucified: committed to dissolve disunity preemptively (v44)
6. We will seek to serve one another, the church and our world in the name of Christ (v45)
7. We will seek to engage one another consistently and faithfully (v46)
8. We will seek to build life-long firendships outside of "church" activities (v46)
9. We will seek to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost (v47)

It may have crossed your mind that all this seems quite impossible, for truly it is! Without the grace of God to extend and infuse the work of the Spirit into our weekly rituals nothing we do will be of any good! Join me in pleading with the Father to do a mighty work for His glory and renown.

For Christ's Renown,

Grant Sather