Nobody spoils a man’s life like Jesus. Jesus is a killer of all worldly joy. God’s attitude to the world is often lost on many. God hates the world’s system. The world hated Jesus and killed him. Therefore, anyone who is a lover of pleasure; anyone who likes this world, becomes an enemy of God.
Accordingly, James asks:
“You adulterers! Don’t you realise that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.” (James 4:4).
Paul agrees:
“She who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives.” (1 Timothy 5:6).
God is so implacably opposed to the world; He has doomed it to destruction. Isaiah says:
“I have heard from the Lord God of hosts, a destruction determined even upon the whole earth.” (Isaiah 28:22).
In the meantime, God plans “to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth.” (Isaiah 23:9).
God allows wickedness to prevail on earth, the better to commend to us the superiority of the kingdom of heaven. Job notes that:
“The whole earth is in the hands of the wicked.” (Job 9:24).
This is because God allows it to be so. Thus, God allows the worst kinds of people to be heads of state and governments:
“The High God rules human kingdoms. He arranges kingdom affairs however He wishes and makes leaders out of losers.” (Daniel 4:17).
Wonder-less World
Thanks to Jesus, we are brought to the realisation that what we deem to be life is death. Under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit, believers are made foreigners and strangers here on decrepit earth; having become citizens of a spiritual heavenly kingdom.
Out of this new reality is then fashioned a completely different psychology. The atonement kills everything before it makes them come back to life.
Christ makes every pain irrelevant, and He diminishes every joy outside of Himself. Therefore, be contemptuous of every advantage. Overlook every disadvantage. Jesus is a leveller. The kingdom of God cancels deficits and erases credits. Before the glory of God is revealed:
“Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill brought low.” (Isaiah 40:4).
God is at pains to make us see that what we call wonderful is “wonderless.” He tells us that the man who is blessed is not he who won the lottery, but he who receives the forgiveness of sin:
“Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him.” (Psalm 32:1-2).
Jesus maintains the joy to be cherished is the joy of salvation:
“Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you. But don’t rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven.” (Luke 10:19-20).
Man of Sorrows
God prefers to make people cry than to make them laugh. Jesus was a man of sorrows; acquainted with grief. (Isaiah 53:3).The Bible says of Him:
“It was the Lord’s good plan to crush Him and cause Him grief.” (Isaiah 53:10).
There is very little to laugh about here on earth. What is there to laugh about in a world riddled with sin, where souls are perishing every day; and where the thief comes daily to steal, kill, and destroy? (John 10:10). What is there to laugh about in a grief-stricken world?
Therefore, Jesus pronounces woe on those given to laughter. He says:
“Woe to you who are full, for you shall hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep” (Luke 6:25).
Amos also says:
“Woe to those lounging in luxury at Jerusalem and Samaria.” (Amos 6:1).
James goes even further to prescribe a strange tonic for the soul:
“Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.” (James 4:9).
But we thought Jesus came to give us beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness? (Isaiah 61:3).
Yes indeed! But Jesus’ ministry is only for those who are sorrowful and mournful. Moreover, the consolations of Christ come not through the reform of this world, but by invitation to another kingdom, a kingdom not of this world.
Divine Prescription
The nature of this ungodly world is such that, according to the wisdom of God, even in laughter the heart should sorrow, since the end of mirth may be grief. (Proverbs 14:13).Solomon says:
“Sorrow is better than laughter, for by a sad countenance the heart is made better.” (Ecclesiastes 7:3).
By laughter and merriment, the heart is made worse, vainer, more carnal, and sensual. It is made more in love with the world and more estranged from God and godliness.
If sorrow is indeed better than laughter, then the man whom God makes sad is more blessed than the happy man. When a man decides to be good to another man, he tries to make him happy. He ministers to his body. He makes him comfortable.
Not so the goodness of God. When God is good to someone, He is more likely to make him sad. God’s goodness works more on the heart than on the flesh:
“The goodness of God leads you to repentance.” (Romans 2:4).
Its main objective is to lead us along the path of life and make us heirs of salvation.
Therefore, God is not good in the way that is normally considered to be good. If we do not understand the peculiarity of God’s goodness, we are likely to be sad when we should be glad, and to be glad when we should be sad.
In the kingdom of God, the way up is down.
Fake Ambassadors
An ambassador is sometimes required to tell lies for his country. But is an ambassador for Christ, required to do likewise for the Lord?
Certainly not!
However, you might be mistaken if you listen to many of the falsehoods propagated in the churches about the gospel of the kingdom of God.
Jesus is the Truth. The gospel is the gospel of truth. Nevertheless, many people feel an effective way to promote the gospel is by telling lies.
They make promises on God’s behalf that He never made. They say without Christ there is crisis, implying falsely that the Christian life is crisis-free. They make financial wealth an object of the gospel. They insist God is out to make all Christians billionaires, provided they first give their hard-earned monies as tithes to the churches.
But the worst lies of all are those told about God. These lies are told by Christians who reject the knowledge of God and who create God in their image. God says:
“I have kept quiet while you did these things, so you thought I was just like you.” (Psalm 50:21).
However, it is important never to forget that:
“God is not a man.” (Numbers 23:19).
Deceived Psalmist
A popular refrain in the churches says: “God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good.” But is this true? Does God Himself claim to be good all the time? God is not good in the way that men define goodness.
Because we insist foolishly that God is good all the time:
“We call the proud blessed, for those who do wickedness are raised up; they even tempt God and go free.” (Malachi 3:15).
The psalmist says:
“As for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the boastful when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pangs in their death, but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like other men. (Psalm 73:2-5).
Offensive God
In many respects, many of the actions of God in the Old Testament do not conform to human standards of goodness. God Himself warns us, saying
“My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
If God were to be good all the time according to man, the righteous would not die in an accident. Evil men will not prosper. Jesus would not be despised and hated by men. He would not be: “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel,” and “a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 8:14).
For example, in the Old Testament, no case was made against incest. The daughters of Lot had sex with their father and had children with him. (Genesis 19:33-36). Their action and pregnancy could only have happened by the determinate counsel of God. CONTINUED.
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