MEMORIAL DAY

            All too often, when it comes to major holidays, we tend to forget the purpose and meaning of the occasion.  Thanksgiving is about a turkey dinner, Christmas about putting presents under the tree, and Easter about a bunny and candy.  And so it is that for too many of us Memorial Day is about celebrating the beginning of summer.

            Or is it?  The holiday originated in the aftermath of the Civil War, and its purpose was to commemorate those who had given their lives in the conflict.  At first there were various memorial services at different times and places, but the first national observance took place on May 30, 1868, at the behest of the Union veterans’ organization known as the Grand Army of the Republic.  Since then it has been extended to include those who have given their lives in every war that the U.S. has fought.

            The Civil War was a devastating conflict.  Before it was over more than 600,000 soldiers on both sides had been killed.  In the end it even claimed the life of President Lincoln himself, the victim of an assassin’s bullet.

            But we might ask the question, why the horrible consequences?  And in particular, what role did divine providence play in the terrible tragedy?

            The war was, of course, a civil war, with Americans fighting against Americans.  There were a variety of political and economic issues involved, but certainly the issue of slavery loomed large in the conflict.  And on that score we might do well to go back to the beginning.

            In the Declaration of Independence we stated that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  Then, in the last paragraph, we made an appeal “to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions.”  We then committed ourselves to fighting for our independence “with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence.”  What we essentially did was to take an oath before God to create a nation in which the God-given rights of all human beings to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” would be recognized and protected.  And against all odds God enabled us to win the war and achieve our independence. 

            We did not, however, live up to our commitment.  The issue was slavery.  And one provision in the U.S. Constitution would prove to be especially troublesome, and that had to do with runaway slaves.  Article IV, Section 2 (still) reads, in part, that “No person held in Service or Labor in one state, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labor, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labor may be due.”  Congress would go on to pass a succession of Fugitive Slave Acts.  But those had the effect of forcing persons who opposed slavery to deliver up runaway slaves to federal authorities who would then return them to their Southern owners.  This prompted the creation of an “Underground Railroad” to help fugitive slaves to escape to Canada.

            There were debates over the morality of slavery (Scripture does not condemn slavery, per se).  But the decisive moment came in 1857 when the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its infamous Dred Scott decision.  In it Chief Justice Roger B. Taney declared that African-Americans were “beings of an inferior order” and “had no rights which a white man was bound to respect.”  Dred Scott did not even have a right to bring his case before the court simply because of the color of his skin.  We thus betrayed the principles which we had sworn to God to uphold.

            The Civil War followed four years later.  At first it did not go well for the North.  When President Lincoln took office in March, 1861, he promised not to interfere with slavery where it already existed.  A little more than a month later the Confederates opened fire on Ft. Sumter and the war was on.  At first the North lost battle after battle, or at best drew a tie with heavy losses.

Finally President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect on Jan. 1, 1863.  After a couple of more Union losses the tide of war finally turned at the Battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863.  The war dragged on until April, 1865, and President Lincoln himself was assassinated shortly afterward.  But the slaves were finally free at last.

            President Lincoln summed it up well in his Second Inaugural Address, in which he noted that everyone wished that the horrible scourge of war would end.  “Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk’ and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago,  so still it must be said, ‘The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether’” (quoting Psalm 19:9).

            Have we, as a nation, learned our lesson?  Too often we appeal to God for help when facing trouble, but forget Him in times of peace and prosperity.  In 1947 the Supreme Court ruled that “Neither a state nor the Federal Government . . . can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another” (Everson v. Bd. of Ed.).  The ruling had the practical effect of making both the government and the public education system essentially atheistic.  Three years later we found ourselves bogged down in a war in Korea, which ended as a stalemate.  The nation that had defeated Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan just a few years earlier was unable to win a victory in Korea.  The Supreme Court backed off in 1952, but then reverted back to its original position in 1962 and 1963.  By the end of 1963 President Kennedy was assassinated, we found ourselves bogged down in a war in Viet Nam (and were eventually forced to withdraw).  There were riots and demonstrations in the streets.  Since then we have experienced the 9-1-1 Terrorist Attack, the Great Recession, a global pandemic, and a riot that took over the U.S. Capitol Building.

            Again, as President Lincoln put it, quoting the psalm, “The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous althogether.”

THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT

Galatians 5:16-18

            Last week we saw how Paul stated that Christian believers are no longer under the Mosaic Law, but that the moral law is summed up in in the command to serve one another in love (Galatians 5:13-15).  Paul, then, exhorts the Galatian Christians not to use their liberty “as an opportunity for the flesh” (v. 13; NKJV).  But what exactly does he mean “the flesh”?  This takes us into the depths of biblical psychology.

            In verses 16 and 17 Paul says, “I say then: walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.  For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”

            First of all, what does Paul mean by “the flesh”?  The word “flesh” can have a variety of meanings in the Bible, but in Paul’s writings is has a special signification.  He uses it to mean man’s sinful, fallen human nature, the natural propensity that we all have to sin.  But why does he call it “the flesh”?  It is hard to know exactly, but apparently it does have some connection with our physical bodies.  Probably the best commentary on this passage is the parallel passage in Romans 7:5-8:14. There he talks about a “law” or principle (nomos) at work in his “members” – parts of his body – to produce sin.  Some of the things that Paul will go on to describe in Galatians 5 as “works of the flesh” obviously involve physical appetites – the desire for sex and alcohol, for instance.  But what about such things as “hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, “etc.?  Secular psychologists have struggled to explain the causes of human behavior; and the ancient Greeks and Romans talked about different “humors” or temperaments that were thought to be related to a preponderance of one bodily fluid over others.  But if our personalities, and ultimately our propensities to sin, are hereditary, that would suggest that they are written into our DNA – our genetic code – and thus are biologically based.  Our body chemistry causes us to feel a certain way or to desire certain things.  Certainly the presence of male or female hormones has an effect on human behavior.  And we did, after all, inherit our sin nature from Adam, and are born sinners.

            But does that mean that we cannot help being what we are?  Up to a certain point, yes.  Paul paints a picture of inner conflict: “the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish’ (v. 17); or, as it might more literally be translated, “for these are opposed to each other, so that not the things wish these you do.”  Here the language closely parallels that of Romans 1:15-23, where Paul is apparently describing his prior life as an unconverted Jew.  With his mind, his intellect, he could see that the Law, the Torah, was good – vastly superior to anything that the surrounding pagan Gentile nations had.  But the more he came to understand God’s law, and what it actually required, the less he was able to keep it.  “I was once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died” (Rom. 7:9).  The negative prohibition actually made the forbidden pleasure more attractive, and Paul was less able to resist the temptation.  How, then, do we explain this?  Our rational self wants to go in one direction; but another part of us, our irrational and selfish passions and desires, carries us off into the opposite direction.  It is a phenomenon that is both painfully real and yet defies explanation.

            But Paul says, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16).  In the Greek it is very strongly worded – the second clause is an emphatic negation: “and you will by no means fulfill the lust of the flesh.”  If we are genuinely born-again Christians we have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside our hearts.  And because the flesh and the Spirit are diametrically opposed to , to follow the leading of the one is not to follow the dictates of the other.

            There, then, is the key to success in the Christian life: to “walk in the Spirit” – to follow His leading.  On the one hand it is not a matter of trying to conform, in our own strength, to an external code of rules and regulations; much less is it abandoning ourselves to the passions and lusts of the flesh.  Rather, it is following the holy desires and impulses that the Holy Spirit plants within our hearts.  But we still have to discern between the good and the bad, and make a conscious decision to follow the good.

            We fear that the problem with many professing Christians is that they have not been genuinely born again.  They heard a gospel presentation, they gave mental assent to it and then joined a church.  But they never really came under the conviction of sin, repented and were born again.  They never experienced the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in their lives.  They may feel the external pressure from the church to conform to certain standards, and they may inwardly resent it.  But inside there is only barrenness of the soul.

            The genuine Christian, however, experiences an inward conflict.  He has the Holy Spirit living within and he genuinely wants to live a life that is pleasing to God.  And yet there is another part of him that is still prone to sin.  It disturbs him deeply – how could someone who has received so much be so unfaithful?  He confesses the sin; he asks for forgiveness, and he asks God to restore fellowship.

            This, then, is how we live the Christian life.

THE SUM OF THE LAW

Galatians 5:13-15

            As the Christian gospel went out into the Gentile world, the question arose, are Gentile converts required to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses?  And in his Epistle to the Galatians Paul has strongly asserted that the answer is “no, they are not.”  Circumcision is a sign and seal of the Mosaic Covenant, and would obligate a person to keep the entire Mosaic Law.  But the real question is, what is our standing, as human beings, before God?  And Paul’s answer is emphatic: we are justified (made righteous in the sight of God) by faith, not by works, by keeping by the Mosaic Covenant.  Therefore Gentile converts are not required to keep the Mosaic law.

            That does not mean, however, that we are free to do as we please.  And so Paul adds an important qualification: “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Gal. 5:13; NKJV).  He will explain in more detail a little later on what he means by “an opportunity for the flesh.”  It suffices to say here that the gospel is not a license to commit sin.  There is still a difference between right and wrong, and there are certain things that we are required to do.  And so Paul, out of pastoral concern for the church, exhorts the Galatians, “through love serve one another.”

            The word ‘serve” (douleuete) is a strong one – it literally means to act as a doulos or slave.  It suggests that the attitude that Christians should have toward each other is one of humble servitude.  Our aim is not to please ourselves but to serve others.

            And this, Paul says, should be done “through love.”  There are several different words in the Greek language for “love”; but the one that Paul uses here, agape, acquired a special meaning in Christian circles.  It refers to the self-sacrificing love that Christ displayed at Calvary, a compassionate love extended to even the most undeserving.

            Paul then goes on to say that this is, in fact, the essence of what God expects from you as human beings: “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (v. 14).  At first sight Paul appears to be contradicting himself.  First he says we are not under the law, we “have been called to liberty”; but then he says that we are to fulfill the law by loving one another, and, in effect, acting as slaves to each other.  Are we under the law or are we not?

            What Paul is doing here is making a tacit distinction between the moral law and the ceremonial.  Where he says that we are not “under the law” he means the Torah, the law of Moses, the Mosaic Covenant with all of its cumbersome rules and regulations.  Much of the Mosaic law involved ceremonies that have been fulfilled in Christ, and hence no longer relevant.

            But implicit in the Mosaic law, in the Ten Commandments at least, was a universal moral code – what our Creator expects from us as human beings – fundamental principles right and wrong that apply to all human behavior.  But even here the Mosaic legislation fell short.  In the Torah the moral requirements are usually expressed in negative terms – “You shall not murder,” “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not steal.”  But what God really requires from us goes beyond that, but something that was hinted in the law all along: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” – a quote from Lev. 19:18.  Paul says that the whole law is “fulfilled’ in this one commandment.

            The written law was only a pale shadow of what God actually requires.  If gives rules and regulations to show us specific things that we should and should not do.  But if our only motive is to be found in compliance with an external set of rules and regulations, we have missed the whole point of what God actually requires.

            For example, the Sixth Commandment says “You shall not murder.”  But simply refraining from committing the act of homicide is not necessarily showing love to our neighbor.  If we love him, of course, we obviously will not murder him.  But Jesus went farther than that and said, “But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.  And whoever says to his brother ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of fell fire” IMatt. 5:22).  If the motive is present you are a murderer in the sight of God, even if the outward crime itself was not actually committed.  The question is, what did you want to do?

            But what God really requires of us is that we love our neighbor as ourself; and love goes beyond the minimum requirement of the written law.  Instead it actively seeks the positive good of the other person.  It does not ask, “What does the law require?,” but rather “What can I do to help?”  And in all of this Christ is ever our example” By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us.  And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.  But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?” (I John 3:16,17).

It goes without saying, then, that if the brethren love each other as they should, church life should not be marred by strife and dissension.  Paul says, “But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!” (v. 15.  Conflict and division are an ever present threat to the spiritual life of the church, but they have no place there.  The life of the church is to be marked by brotherly love.

While we are not under the Mosaic law, then, we have been called to love one another.  Let us strive to be the Christians and the churches that Christ wants us to be!

NEW LIFE IN CHRIST

            We sometimes hear it said today that “the church is not a museum of saints but a hospital for sinners”; and there is a certain measure of truth to that.  The primary mission of the church is to reach the lost for Christ; and when we come to Christ we are saved, not on the basis of any works we have done, but because of the perfect righteousness of Christ which is imputed to us.  As Martin Luther famously put it, we are “simul iustus et peccator” — at the same time righteous and a sinner.  We are, after all, sinners saved by grace.

            But the statement can also be misleading, if it suggests that how we live does not matter, that Christ knows that we are all sinners and accepts us just the same anyway.  It is tempting to think that if we are justified by grace through faith it does not matter how we live.  Our sins have been forgiven, and “once saved, always saved.”

            The question is not new.  In fact it had been raised in Paul’s own day.  He was the apostle to the Gentiles, and he was preeminently the preacher of “justification by faith.”  But the question immediately arose, if a Gentil comes to faith in Christ, is he required to be circumcised and to keep the entire Mosaic law?  There were many early Christians from Jewish backgrounds who were quick to answer “yes.”  And it was primarily to deal with this controversy that Paul wrote his epistle to the Galatians.

            Having given us a clear statement of the doctrine of justification by faith in Chapter 2, verses 15 and 16, Paul the goes on to state the objection: “But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves are also found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin?” (v. 17: NKJV).  And Paul immediately answers, “Certainly not!”  There has been endless debate among the commentators over exactly what Paul meant by “We ourselves also are found sinners,” but it is clear from the passage that Paul definitely believed that “we seek to be justified by Christ,” but that Christ is not, therefore, “a minister of sin,” the word “minister” (diakonos) meaning here someone who assists or facilitates something.

            But why?  If Christ freely forgives us, if our salvation is by faith and not by works, what difference does it make how we live?  Paul goes on to explain: “For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.  For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God” (vv. 18,19).  The purpose of salvation is not just simply to give us a free ticket to go on sinning; rather, it is to free us from both the guilt and the power of sin.  The old sinful life was ‘destroyed”; and what has taken its place is a relationship with God – “that I might live to God.”

            When Paul says that he “died to the law” he is evidently referring tot the Torah, the law given to Moses, the Mosaic Covenant, the law that the Jewish Christians thought that Gentile converts needed to obey.  But that law was never able to make someone genuinely righteous in the sight of God – it simply showed us how deeply sinful we really were.  But it brought us to Christ to receive forgiveness; and having been forgiven, we receive new life in Christ, and thus we should live like Christ.

            Paul then goes on in verse 20 to give us a classic description of what salvation is like: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

            In what sense was Paul “crucified with Christ”?    Certainly not in the literal sense that he was there, with Christ at Calvary, hanging on a cross.  But when we are baptized  we participate in  a symbolic death and resurrection, and are formally joined to Christ in the New Covenant (cf. Rom. 6:3-7; Gal. 3:7; Col. 2:11,12).  The “old man” is symbolically destroyed, and we ae resurrected with new life in Christ.

            Outwardly, of course, we still look like the same person we were before.  We still have the same birth certificate, the same Social Security card, and the same driver’s license.  But inwardly we are different.  There is a spiritual life that was not there before – a new awareness, new interests, new desires.  It is the result of the Holy Spirit at work inside our hearts transforming us inwardly.  It is, in effect, “Christ living in me.”

            And this, in turn, means that we now live by faith in Christ.  Daily we are beset by trials, temptations and afflictions of every kind.  Our own strength, our natural talents and abilities, are not sufficient to meet the challenges.  We must consciously rely on Christ for the inward strength which only He can give, and thereby obtain the victory.  “For without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

            “Christ lives in me.”  The problem with the modern church is that it is too accustomed to a formal, institutionalized pattern of church life; and, in a sense, that puts us more or less in the same position as the Jews of Paul’s day.  Not that we are careful to keep all of the commandments of the Mosaic law; but most of our religion consists of outward observance.  We are careful to be outwardly decent and respectable, and we actively participate in the various activities of our local churches.  But there is too little prayer, serious Bible study, or heartfelt worship.  There is little felt presence of God in our congregations or our individual lives.  We honor God with our lips, but our hearts are far from Him (Isa. 29:13).  We have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof (II Tim. 3:5).

            A merely external religion, however, misses the whole point.  True religion is not a mere formal, external observance of rules and regulations.  It is deep personal relationship with Christ Himself.  It is “Christ living in me.”  Oh may God stir our hearts to love Him truly!  Lord, send a revival of true heart religion, and then we shall be genuinely blessed!

CHRISTIANS AND POLITICS

Review:

            Rediscovering the American Covenant:

                        Roadmap to Restore America

            Mark Burrell

            Ballast Books, 2022

            393 pp., h.c.

            The cultural changes and political challenges facing modern society are on nearly everyone’s mind’s today, and author Mark Burrell takes his turn at the microphone with his self-published tome, Rediscovering the American Covenant.  In it he forcefully argues that Christians should be actively engaged in politics in order to restore what he sees as the founding principles of the American republic.

            He attempts to argue that the Declaration of Independence was a covenant by which the American people established a new nation, and that it was a conscious attempt to found the nation on biblical moral principles.  These principles are under attack today by the political Left, and therefore Christians and churches should be actively engaged in politics in order to restore America to its founding principles.

            Unfortunately Mr. Burrell’s argument is weak at several points.  He confuses a “covenant” with a social contract.  He goes back to the Old Testament and cites the Mosaic Covenant as an example of how God requires a government to be run.  He then uses that to qualify Paul’s statement in Romans 13:1-7 that every soul should “be subject to the governing authorities” (NKJV).

            Burrell has a tendency to read the philosophy of America’s Founding Fathers back into the Bible.  That would include such things as the Social Contract theory of government and Free Market Capitalism.  Burrell’s argument, however, is a bit of a stretch.  The Mosaic Covenant was a special arrangement between God and Israel as His special chosen people.  In its early stages Israel was ruled by God-appointed judges; later it was a monarchy, making it hard to see how it could serve as a model for American democracy.

            Romans 13 specifically tells us that “there is no authority except from God” (v. 1 – Paul wrote this when Nero was the Roman Emperor).  The Declaration of Independence, on the other hand, states that governments “derive their just powers from the consent of the governed,” and that when a government becomes destructive of the ends for which it was constituted, “it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.”

            The “long train of abuses and usurpations” mentioned in the Declaration generally refer to attempts by the royal crown to assert direct control over the American colonies; and, in the eyes of the colonists, to infringe on their rights as free Englishmen. The complaints listed in the Declaration generally did not involve violations of biblical moral law, at least not until hostilities opened up the year before the Declaration was signed.

            At one point Mr. Burrell tries to argue that the right of private property is grounded in the moral principle “Thou shalt not steal,” and that for the government to tax its citizens and redistribute the wealth to the poor is a form of theft.  But according to Scripture, one of the basic moral principles is to love our neighbors as ourselves.  And if, as Mr. Burrell tries to argue, the Mosaic Covenant is an example of how God expects a government to be run, then America should fight poverty by having gleaning laws, kinsman-redeemers, sabbatical years in which debts are forgiven, and years of Jubilee in which all property is returned to its original owners, thereby eliminating permanent class divisions.  And according to the New Testament, “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves with many sorrows” (I Tim. 6:10).  So much for laissez-faire capitalism!

            Up to a certain point, however, Mr. Burrell is making a legitimate point.  In the broader context of Western culture the Founding Fathers did see themselves as operating within the framework of Judeo-Christian moral law, and many, perhaps the majority, saw religion as the cornerstone of social order within a civilized society.  While they were not all orthodox, Bible-believing evangelical Christians, they were not atheists either.  And they would have taken for granted such basic moral principles as the sanctity of human life and the sanctity of marriage.

            The question then becomes, what are we as Christians to do about the present situation?  Mr. Burrell argues strenuously that Christians should be actively involved in politics.  He even goes so far as to say that churches should be instructing their members in their civic responsibilities.

            But to what avail?  Today we are looking at a thoroughly secularized culture, a broken down public morality, and a crumbling family structure.  Simply “getting out the vote” is unlikely to change things. What is needed is a massive spiritual awakening, a major revival, which would then have the indirect effect of improving the moral tone of the surrounding society, and then make possible the necessary legal reforms.  In a sense, Mr. Burrell has the cart before the horse.  He tries to argue that running a sound government is a form of evangelism, in that supposedly it will attract people to the gospel.  But in reality it works the other way around.  At least in a democracy peoples’ minds must be changed first, and this has to be the result of a widespread spiritual awakening.  What is needed is an outpouring of the Holy Spirit to change rebellious hearts and minds.

            Mr. Burrell is partially correct in one aspect, however.  One of the characteristic weaknesses of the modern church is its reluctance to talk about morality at all.  And yet that is essential for evangelism.  Until people understand what God requires, they will never come to see themselves as lost sinners in need of salvation.  And it is the preaching of God’s moral law that will set the moral tone of the nation at large and change the political climate.

            Churches must be careful, however, about wading too deeply into the political thicket.  There are divisive issues which the Bible does not address directly, and which could potentially tear the church apart.  Should the church, for example, take a stand on mask and vaccine mandates?  Should it campaign for social justice?  And what about a deeply flawed candidate like Donald Trump?

            Christians, then, should just stay focused on the task set before it, the proclamation of the gospel.  Hearts and minds must be changed through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, and only then will America be restored.