BiblicalInsights.net

The song, In Christ Alone, was written by Keith Getty in 2001 and the melody was composed by Stuart Townend.  The lyrics contain a message of hope and strength that can be found only in Christ.  The phrase, in Christ, is used by the apostle Paul 160 times (160–this number includes instances where in him or in whom refers to Christ). Some scholars regard this phrase as the central or unifying motif in Paul’s theology.  The song captures the essence of Paul’s thought.

In Christ Alone

In Christ alone, my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid Ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone! Who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save.
Till on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied.
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again.
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me.
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand.
Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.

“For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:26-28).

Israel Wayne wrote, Questions Jesus Asks, in which he explores twenty topics that originate from questions that Jesus asks during His personal ministry.  The twenty topics covered are:  Christology, Virgin Birth, Family, Discipleship, Money, Healing, Counseling, Fear, Demonology, Servanthood, Government, Forgiveness, Apologetics, Lordship, Prayer, Suffering, Love, Persecution, Hell and Resurrection.  The author explores the omniscience of Jesus and the reason Jesus asks questions.  He also explores the nature of Jesus and the communicable perfections of God in special studies.
Jesus asks 307 questions in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  The diligent Bible student would want to explore this special study of a specific aspect of the teaching methods of Jesus.  Questions make us think and focus on the answers to important issues facing every person.  The knowledge obtained is spiritual and affects our eternal destiny.  A book review of this work has been posted on my Book Reviews page.

“Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God” (Matt. 4:5-7).  What does it mean to tempt God? (Deut. 6:16).  Tempting God is exemplified in the Old Testament period of the Wilderness Wanderings referred to as the Provocation (Heb. 3:14-19).  Tempting God is when we challenge God to prove Himself faithful.  Tempting God is when we provoke God to act in a way that is not in harmony with His perfect character or expressed or unexpressed Will.  His expressed will is given in the Bible and His unexpressed will is manifested through Divine Providence and in answer to prayer.  Tempting God violates the sovereignty of God.  We must not and we cannot coerce God to do anything.  God acts freely based upon His own sovereign will and His love.
The Provocation (Heb. 3:14-19)
The Israelites tempted God.  “Wherefore the people did chide with Moses and said, Give us water that we may drink.  And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me?  Wherefore do ye tempt the LORD?” (Exodus 17:2,7).  “And he called the name of the place Massah (temptation) and Meribah (chiding), because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, and said, Is the LORD among us or not?” (Exodus 17:7).  God had already proven Himself in the miracles of the Exodus.  God’s presence among them was not a matter of doubt.  However, their words indicated unbelief (Heb. 3:14-19).  Out of this unbelief, they demanded that God act to provide them water.  They directly challenged the faithfulness of God to them.  But it is not the place of the people to dictate to God how He is to express His covenant commitment to them.  They were dissatisfied with God’s provisions for this.  This is ingratitude.  Unbelief and ingratitude are often joined together in the human heart.  Disbelief, demands, and dissatisfaction, seem to be at the heart of the problem which involved them in tempting God.
“Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice” (Num. 14:22).  “Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah” (Deut. 6:16).  Jesus quoted from this passage in Matt. 4:4-7 in response to Satan’s temptation.  “And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.  Yea, they spake against God; they said, “Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?” (Psa. 78:18, 41, 56).  They challenged God to provide for their own lusts of the flesh.  God provided manna for a little more than 40 years.  They were not satisfied with God’s sufficiency (His grace).  “How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert! Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel” (Psa. 78:41).  You cannot put God in a box!  God cannot be limited or controlled by man’s desires.  “Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies.”  Unbelief leads to disobedience.  The Israelites challenged God’s faithfulness to His covenant promises.  This act was actually a denial of God’s faithfulness.  If they trusted in God’s faithfulness, then, they would have accepted God’s provisions for them.  They would have been grateful for the measure of God’s grace that was supplied.
The Temptation (Matt. 4:4-7)
One of the temptations of Jesus by Satan involved challenging God to keep His covenant promises.  Satan quoted scripture (Psa. 91:11-12).  “For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.  They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.” Satan challenges Jesus to cast himself down from the pinnacle of the temple and force God to keep His promise to protect Him.  Satan gives too broad an interpretation/application to this Psalm.  God is faithful to His covenant promises.  But, God’s promise does not mean that we can foolishly put ourselves at risk and force Him to act.  This is tempting God. Jesus answers Satan’s misinterpretation of Scripture with Scripture (Deut. 6:16).  Scripture forbids us from tempting God.  Another aspect of this temptation is Satan’s attempt to produce confusion between trusting God and tempting God.  Jesus trusted God.  However, Jesus knew the difference between trusting God to act according to His promises by His own sovereignty and demanding God to keep His promise by risky behavior.
Challenging God’s Redemptive Work (Acts 15:10)
“Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers or we were able to bear?” (Acts 15:10).  Acts 15 contains the historical information of the Jerusalem Conference.  This conference was convened to address and settle the question as to whether or not Gentile Christians needed to be circumcised and  keep the Law of Moses.  To tempt God in this context meant that they were demanding God to act in a way that was not in harmony with His Will (expressed or immediate revealed Will).  Some were making a law that God never made and binding it on others.  God is true to His Word, but not to the traditions of men.  God never said that Gentile Christians had to be circumcised or keep the Law of Moses (Acts 15:2, 24, “to whom we gave no such commandment”).  The Law of Moses and the Law of Christ cannot be in force at the same time (Rom. 7:1-4).  They were tempting God to set aside the gospel of Christ and bind the Law of Moses.  This could not be done and was not in harmony with God’s Will.
Tempting God or Trusting God?
Tempting God involves provoking God to act in a way specified by us in order to fulfill His covenant promises to us.  Tempting God violates God’s sovereignty.  It challenges His faithfulness to His Word.  Finally, it usurps His authority and puts us in the place of God.  We must not put ourselves at risk and, then, call upon God to deliver us because He said He will never fail us or forsake us.  This is tempting God.  Trusting God is permitting God to act according to His Will and His purposes and believing that all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28).

Spiritual insight is indispensable to spiritual discernment.  Spiritual discernment is the ability to utilize God’s Word in order to make judgments about all of life.  Jesus said, “Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment” (John 7:24).  A righteous judgment is not merely an opinion drawn from experience.  A righteous judgment is a spiritually informed judgment (decision).  A righteous judgment is formed by considering the revelation that God has made to man through the holy Scriptures.  A righteous judgment is formed only when it is guided by spiritual insight.  Paul mentions the righteous judgment of God in Rom. 2:5, “But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”  Paul states, “Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead” (Acts 17:31).  Righteousness is defined by God.  Ultimately, it is God’s nature and God’s Word that determine what is righteous.  This is the standard upon which judgments (decisions) must be made regarding personal conduct.  Spiritual discernment is mentioned in Heb. 5:12-14.  “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.  For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.  But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”  Spiritual discernment is dependent upon God’s Word (God’s wisdom) and a Christian’s spiritual maturity which comes by knowledge of God’s Word and implementation of that Word in the heart and life of a Christian.  Outside of Christ, the understanding is darkened.  “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind.  Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart” (Eph. 4:17-18).  Ignorance of God’s Word produces darkness and blindness.  Ignorance of God and His Word is not beneficial for spiritual discernment.  This should tell us much about the lack of spiritual discernment on the part of those who are in sin, engulfed in worldliness and religious error.
Spiritual Hindsight
Hindsight is the ability to understand and realize something about an event or events after it or they have happened.  We commonly say, “hindsight is twenty-twenty.”  When we look at an event after it has happened, we have a historical view and are in possession of the facts of history which help educate us about what has happened.  Yet, even with this historical view, many people do not make better choices that would preserve their souls and prepare them for eternity.  A knowledge of sacred history, sacred revelation, and sacred heritage should inform spiritual insight and help us make righteous judgments.  In Acts 7, Stephen makes his defense before the Sanhedrin. He rehearses the history of Israel beginning with Abraham.  He mentions Isaac, Jacob and his sons regarding the promises of God to them.  He tells about Moses and how the fathers of the Jews to whom he spoke rejected Moses.  Moses prophecied about Christ (Deut. 18:18, Acts 7:37).  He mentions Joshua and the conquest of Canaan.  He refers to the promise God made to David (II Sam. 7:13-14)). He refers to Solomon who built the temple.  Stephen reveals that the father’s  of the Jews had persecuted the prophets.  Finally, he tells them that they had taken the Just One (v. 52) and betrayed and murdered Him.  The sacred history of the Jews led to Jesus.  The revelations (promises) led to Jesus.  The significant people in their heritage led to Jesus.  But, they rejected Jesus!  They made a judgment about Jesus, but it was not a righteous judgment.  Spiritual hindsight is indispensable to spiritual insight and spiritual discernment.  Spiritual hindsight goes all the way back to Adam.  It gives us a clear view of God’s purposes, promises, prophecies, and precepts.  Spiritual hindsight also informs us about Jesus.  The sacred history of the life of Jesus is found in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  From these books of the New Testament, we learn about Jesus’ pre-existence, Virgin birth, baptism, temptation, ministry in preaching and teaching God’s Word, power demonstrated in wonders, signs, and miracles, transfiguration, parables, prophecies, trials, death, burial, resurrection and ascension into heaven, and his present reign in heaven over His kingdom.  We also have the history of the church given in Acts and contained in the epistles of Paul, general epistles and even the book of Revelation.  The sacred revelation of God informs us about how God makes men righteous through Christ as well as the way God desires that we live our lives in reflection of His holiness.  The sacred heritage from the New Testament includes the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and servants of the Lord Jesus Christ too numerous to list.  Altogether, the Old Testament and the New Testament provide us with a body of knowledge, revealed by God, that informs spiritual insight which is indispensable to spiritual discernment.  Spiritual hindsight informs about God, Christ, our need to know our own sinfulness, the need to change (repent), the need to be saved, the need to be in Christ through an obedient faith, and the need to be faithful servants of Jesus Christ.
Spiritual Foresight
Spiritual hindsight informs spiritual insight.  Spiritual foresight also informs spiritual insight.  Spiritual insight is indispensable to spiritual discernment.  Foresight is the ability to imagine or anticipate what might happen in the future.  It involves care in providing for the future.  It is discernment, perception, and good judgment in practical matters.  Spiritual foresight is based upon the wisdom of God and knowledge of the truth regarding future events.  the Bible contains promises of significant future events.  Consider the following:  the Second Coming of Jesus (John 14:1-3; Acts 1:10-11; I Thess. 4:13-18); the resurrection of the dead (John 5:28-29); the end of the world (Ii Pet. 3:10-11); the judgment of all men by God through Christ (Rom. 2:4-11; II Cor. 5:10); and eternity or the world to come (Matt. 12:32; II Pet. 3:13).  Based upon the promise of the Second Coming of Jesus, we should lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven (Matt. 6:19-20; I Tim. 6:17-18).  Christians should live in hope (Phil. 3:13-15), anticipate their glorification with Christ (Rom. 8:16-18); and long for heaven (I Pet. 1:4-5).  Because Jesus is coming again, we must perfect faith (I Pet. 1:7); be resilient in the face of persecution and suffering (I Pet. 1:7); walk in love (I Pet. 1:8); and look forward to the reward of faith (I Pet. 1:8-9).  Paul states that if there is no resurrection of the dead, we should eat and drink for tomorrow we die.  However, there is a resurrection of the dead and so “Awake to righteousness and sin not” (I Cor. 15:34.  In view of the end of the world, Peter states, “what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness?” (II Pet. 3:9-13).  The Holy Spirit declares, “Follow peace and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord (Heb. 12:14).  Moral integrity is essential to pleasing God and being with God eternally.  Spiritual foresight informs us that we should be involved in good works (Matt. 6:19-20; 5:16; Gal. 6:10).  God will judge the world by Jesus Christ (Acts 17:31).  Judgment is the execution of justice by God on the basis of the truth revealed by Jesus (John 12:48).  Our words and our deeds will be judged by God (Rom. 2:6; Matt. 13:37; Eccl. 12:14).  We should turn from evil and serve the living God (Acts 17:30).  Spiritual foresight leads to repentance and acceptance of God’s terms of pardon.
Spiritual Discernment
Spiritual hindsight and spiritual foresight inform spiritual insight.  Spiritual insight (enlightenment by truth) is indispensable to spiritual discernment.  When Jesus said, “judge righteous judgment”, He instructed His hearers to make decisions based upon the sum total of the sacred history, sacred revelations, and sacred heritage that is revealed in His Word.  Spiritual discernment is much more than a human opinion.  It is a righteous judgment based upon the sum total of the revelation God has made of Himself and His Will for us.