day no. 16,334: the Son of Man and the sins of man

"(Jesus) assumed the flesh of unfallen man: it is not for nothing that Paul tells us that he came, not in sinful flesh, but in 'the likeness of sinful flesh' (Rom. 8:3). But this does not mean that the flesh he assumed was not under a curse: it means that the curse under which his flesh rested was not the curse of Adam’s first sin but the curse of the sins of his people: 'him who knew no sin, he made sin in our behalf'; he who was not, even as man, under a curse, 'became a curse for us.' He was accursed, not because he became man, but because he bore the sins of his people; he suffered and died not because of the flesh he took but because of the sins he took. He was, no doubt, born of a woman, born under the law (Gal. 4:4), in one concrete act; he issued from the Virgin’s womb already our sin-bearer. But he was not sin-bearer because made of a woman; he was made of a woman that he might become sin-bearer." -- B.B. Warfield, The Emotional Life of Our Lord

There is nothing inherently sinful about material. If there were, Christ would have committed a sin in becoming flesh. God made stuff. He didn't have to, but He wanted to. In the beginning, through the Word and by His Spirit, He made everything ex nihilo. Everything is made out of nothing plus the Word of God. If God's Word were to be removed, what you'd be left with is nothing. Nothing has existence on its own other than God. He is the only immortal. He alone is the I Am. Nothing exists on its own save Him.

Jesus was not under a curse because He was a man, He was under a curse because as the Son of Man, He took on Himself the sins of man. Jesus was not guilty of sin because He was human, but because He took onto Himself the sins of humanity. Christ was born under the law, but placed Himself under its curse. He kept the Law and fulfilled it for our righteousness and took on its curse and satisfied it for our justification. Jesus was not subject to death by virtue of being a man, but by virtue of being a substitute for mankind.

day no. 16,333: individuality is all elbows

“Individuality is all elbows, it separates and isolates. It is the characteristic of the child.” - Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

Individuality boxes others out. It wants to carve out a convenient corner of the universe all to itself or to retain a private luxury suite of sin in its soul.

Personality, on the other hand, is the individual under his Maker’s authority. Personality is dynamic because it is connected to its source of power.

Individuality is disconnected from God and others and it suffers for it. It is boring, always engaging in the tired ol’ game of catch and catch can.

Personality receives from its Creator and is therefore creative. It is genuine.

Trying to be genuine is one of the most hackneyed, disingenuous tactics imaginable and everyone sees through someone trying not to be seen through. There are few mysteries easier to solve than the whodunnit where one suspect doth protest too much.

day no. 16.332: Christ came to conquer

"We must bear in mind that our Lord did not come into the world to be broken by the power of sin and death, but to break it. He came as a conqueror with the gladness of the imminent victory in his heart; for the joy set before him he was able to endure the cross, despising shame." — B.B. Warfield, The Emotional Life of Our Lord

Christ came as a conqueror. In His submission to the flesh, He was waging war. He did not come to be crushed under the heel of sin, but to smash sin with His. He endured great difficulties as a champion enduring great blows, but he did not do so with defeat in mind. He came to win and never failed to keep victory in sight.

"Joy he had: but it was not the shallow joy of mere pagan delight in living, nor the delusive joy of a hope destined to failure; but the deep exultation of a conqueror setting captives free." — B.B. Warfield, The Emotional Life of Our Lord

Christ came to set the captives free and their liberation made His crucifixion a triumph, not a defeat. He heroically laid His life down like one who's all in laying down a winning hand on the table, that is to say, with confidence and certainty that all the chips were His. Jesus delighted in winning deliverance for those the Father had given to Him. He was satisfied in His service and excited by the prize He ran hard to obtain. He did not blush in the battle, but smiled in the success.

day no. 16,331: one little word shall fell them

Genesis 1:1-3

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light:" and there was light.

Before the world,

there was nothing, but God;

and then by His Word,

the worlds were made.

God spoke;

and the nothing jumped to attention;

that must have been something!

Psalm 33:6

By the word of the LORD were the heavens made;

And all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. 

But the words of the Lord were more than mere words.

John 1:1-3

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

The world was made not just by words, but by the Word.

Hebrews 11:3

By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.

What we see is held together by what we don't.

That world that is would not exist without the word of I Am.

Romans 4:17

God gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.

Nothing plus God's Word equals everything. 

Communication holds things together and a breakdown in communication breaks things down.

Genesis 11:4-9

And they said, "Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, "Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech." So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

The Tower of Babel was under construction until communication broke down; that moment, the tower too broke down and was abandoned. Communication keeps things copacetic. The Word holds things together. If He breaks off communications, the world would break apart: mountains once immovable evaporate and gravity previously fixed floats away.

2 Thessalonians 2:8

The lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.

The inventions of men fall before a full sentence is said. The sentence is passed by the breath of God. One word from the Lord and the majesty of man falls apart. 

And though this world, with devils filled,

Should threaten to undo us,

We will not fear, for God hath willed

His truth to triumph through us:

The Prince of Darkness grim,

We tremble not for him;

His rage we can endure,

For lo! his doom is sure,

One little word shall fell him

-- Martin Luther, A Mighty Fortress

There is nothing new under the sun and the world is no stranger to men uniting together to blatantly disobey God's clear Word. Those who re-inhabited the world post-flood pooled together rather than fan out according to God's command. They, instead, stayed put and began the tireless work of making a name for themselves. Instead of increasing the glory of God, they choose to see if they could increase their own stock. So they worked together to build something spectacular. They set themselves to make a world in their own image, a reality outside of God's, where towers tell the tales of great men doing great things.

And then God changed their language and the entire project was abandoned. The tower was left to the rule of rust and decay and gradually succumb to the inexorable realities of God. It returned to dust, just as those whom He dispersed did. The pride of man was laid low and all because He made it impossible for them to understand each other. They could have taken time to learn each other's languages. All languages have structure which can be taught and caught. But their impatience got the best of them. Revolutionaries don't have time for things like grammar. Studying syntax tends to take the edge off of the urgency. Diagramming sentences has a sobering effect and rioters prefer the wisdom of whiskey to the sobriety of Spanish 101.

Listening to the Cross Politic Daily Newsbrief yesterday (12/9/21), there was a story about a recent blackout of Amazon due to a server going down. It was restored and order was regained, but during the outage, peeps be cray. The same thing happened when a few months ago Facebook and Instagram went out for a few hours. A few hours... All it takes is a small miscommunication and everything can fall apart.

The curse of Babel could be applied easily enough by God to internet systems. If He merely confused their language, imagine how much would/could go down. All the force of those you fear could evaporate in the face of a miscommunication. You may scoff at the fall of Babel, but you may see it again. And you will see just how small our towers are and how great our God is. With the flick of a tongue the whole project can collapse. The programs in which we place our trust rely on the ability to send, receive, understand, and execute commands. Something as simple as an inability to communicate can destroy the greatest achievements of wicked men.

C.S. Lewis employed the same strategy for dealing with and disabling the entire N.I.C.E. The deus ex machina of a simple language barrier can bring the whole thing down.

“Qui Verbum Dei contempserunt, eis auferetur etiam verbum hominis.” -- Merlinus Ambrosius in C.S. Lewis' That Hideous Strength

(They that have despised the word of God, from them shall the word of man also be taken away.)

Praise God. 

Amen and Maranatha!

day no. 16,330: what not to wear

Deuteronomy 22:5

The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God.

That which pertaineth to men in this particular instance is militaristic. It may extend, in practice, beyond that, but the principle begins with battle. Men were made for warfare and there is apparel associated with this office. A man may not always be dressed for war per se, but he must dress in a way that allows him to prepare for war and to be ready when called upon. All that to say, his clothes complement his responsibilities. His clothes match his work and the body he's been given to do it. Hard work, hard bodies. Hard, not as in difficult, but as in muscular, pointed, and piercing.

Likewise, women are called to cultivate the lands conquered by the men and dress accordingly. Cultures are built by women nurturing life, cultivating beauty, and making home.  Their clothes match their work and the bodies they've been given to do it. Soft work, soft bodies. Soft, not as in easy, but as in elegant and aesthetic.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, not idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, not drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Effeminacy is a sin. That is to say, gender-bending is a sin. Androgyny is a sin. It is not a quirk or character flaw, it is akin to idolatry and adultery and shares an neighborhood according to the apostle's letter to the Corinthians. In other words, men should look like and act like men; women should look like and act like women. Neither should do anything to create confusion and each should go to great lengths to clarify should any confusion arise.

“For one who is a man to comb himself and shave himself with a razor, for the sake of fine effect, to arrange his hair at the looking-glass, to shave his cheeks, pluck hairs out of them, and smooth them, how womanly!…This is a meretricious and impious form of snare. For God wished women to be smooth, and rejoice in their locks alone growing spontaneously, as a horse in his mane; but had adorned man, like the lions, with a beard, and endowed him, as an attribute of manhood, with a shaggy chest – a sign of strength and rule.” — Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor

A man should be ashamed to be womanly, not because being a woman is shameful, but because being a man who is confused for a woman is. It is bad for a man to be womanly precisely because he isn't one. There is nothing wrong with femininity. In fact, for a woman, it is her glory. For her, it would be wrong to be manly. She should be ashamed to be butch. Not because masculinity is a disgrace, but because being a woman who is confused for being a man is. She is not a man and should not be confused for one.

“The beard signifies the courageous; the beard distinguishes the grown men, the earnest, the active, the vigorous. So that when we describe such, we say, he is a bearded man.” — St. Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 133

Wearing a beard is putting on a brave face. Men were made for courage and intimidation. They were crafted to subdue evil and beards were given to men to make wickedness think twice in their presence. A beard reflects the nature of who men were made to be. You can, for sure, be a man without one; but any man without one would surely not be less manly for growing one, whereas most men diminish their masculinity by shaving theirs off. All that to say, beards become men and masculinity.

day no. 16,329: swing and amiss

1 Samuel 20:20-22

Then I will shoot three arrows to the side, as though I shot at a target; and there I will send a lad, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I expressly say to the lad, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you; get them and come’—then, as the Lord lives, there is safety for you and no harm. But if I say thus to the young man, ‘Look, the arrows are beyond you’—go your way, for the Lord has sent you away.

There is a way to miss that hits its target.

There is a kind of missing that communicates intention. There is missing because you meant to hit the target and failed to do so out of incompetence and there is a missing because you meant to miss the target and succeeded in doing so out of competence. In other words, there is a missing which says that something is amiss.

Jonathan was able to communicate a message by missing in a particular way. He was competent enough to miss in the way he wanted to, not in the way an incompetent archer does while attempting to hit the bulls-eye.

Having established this, let me apply the principle in a different direction: 2020 and 2021 have been spectacularly bad. So bad, in fact, that you couldn't concoct it by accident. It's too bad to have been by mistake. All that to say, incompetence could not, on its own, explain how bad things have gotten. Incompetence isn't that good at being bad.

There is a kind of bad that is so bad that it proves how good at being bad it is. In other words, you can't be that kind of bad by accident. That kind of bad can only be accomplished on purpose. It is not missing the mark because of a lack of competence, but because of an excess of arrogance.

If you look back at 2020 and 2021, you must conclude that one can’t miss that badly by accident. It is statistically impossible to be that bad. You can cheat on an exam by filching the right answers from someone else’s work or you can cheat on an exam by filling in the wrong answers intentionally. Mere guesses or random selection can only produce so much error. There are scores so low, however, that they imply someone tried hard to get the answer wrong. Which also tells you that they knew the right answers and deliberately chose the wrong ones. To know the wrong answer with that degree of certainty is to also know what is certainly right.  

All that to say, when you see something this bad, you know someone is aiming at evil. They know the good and intentionally choose the bad. They haven't made a mistake or a miscalculation. They have seen the good, rejected it, and pursued the bent.

But Someone is keeping score and knows how to grade the papers. Rest assured, where idiocy is an excuse, it will be accounted for; and where evil is inexcusable, it will be counted. It will either be reckoned to Christ or it will face a reckoning. Kiss the Son while you still can and wait upon Him knowing that the bad guys will soon have to kiss it all good-bye. 

day no. 16,328: saved souls will always be found to have fought a fight

"Every baptized churchman is by his profession a 'soldier of Jesus Christ,' and is pledged 'to fight under His banner against sin, the world and the devil...' Christian warfare is a great reality and a subject of vast importance. It is not a matter like church government and ceremonial, about which men may differ, and yet reach heaven at last. Necessity is laid upon us. We must fight. There are no promises in the Lord Jesus Christ’s epistles to the seven churches, except to those who 'overcome.' Where there is grace there will be conflict. The believer is a soldier. There is no holiness without a warfare. Saved souls will always be found to have fought a fight.

It is a fight of absolute necessity. Let us not think that in this war we can remain neutral and sit still. Such a line of action may be possible in the strife of nations, but it is utterly impossible in that conflict which concerns the soul. The boasted policy of non–interference, the 'masterly inactivity' which pleases so many statesmen, the plan of keeping quiet and letting things alone—all this will never do in the Christian warfare. Here at any rate no one can escape serving under the plea that he is 'a man of peace.' To be at peace with the world, the flesh and the devil, is to be at enmity with God and in the broad way that leads to destruction. We have no choice or option. We must either fight or be lost." -- J.C. Ryle, Holiness

Enmity is inescapable. If you are not fighting, you are lost and all who are fighting, will win. The fighting is the winning. The faith to fight is what overcomes, by believing, it has already won. To lie down, to give up, to stay down, etc... is defeat. To surrender or give up is to be lost. To rise again, to get up, to stand up, etc... is victory.

Ephesians 6:11-13

Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

To wrestle is to win. To refuse to wrestle is to have already been pinned. You cannot opt out. If you do not fight, you are conquered. But if you fight, you are already more than a conqueror.

Romans 8:35-37

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

And how do we conquer? By having faith in the Conquerer. By being conquered by Him, we conquer the world. By losing ourselves in Him, we win. By surrendering our lives to Him , we are victorious.

1 John 5:4-5

For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

Revelation 3:21

To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

Revelation 21:7

He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.