Things Revealed

However, as it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’—but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.

1 Corinthians 2:9-10

How awesome is this revelation: Our great and mysterious God whose ways are higher than our ways, whose thoughts are higher than our thoughts, whose power is without end and whose love is unequaled, has revealed to us what he has prepared for those who love him.

Right before the quoted text, the Apostle Paul says he is speaking “of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.” And Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”

It's hard to fully grasp the meaning of all this, but let's settle on this: Now we know.

We know at least this much: God has made a way for us to enter back into relationship with him. We know that he has never stopped loving us and that our sins are forgiven just for the asking. We know he wants to make himself personally known to us. We know he wants to dwell in us by his Holy Spirit. We know Jesus is the Messiah who was “pierced for our transgressions” and that “the punishment that brought us peace was upon him.” We know he gave his life for us. We know that there is a heaven we can enter and a hell from which we can be saved. We know we can be born again. We know we can receive eternal life. And we know that Jesus came to fulfill the law and the prophets, revealing by his life, death and resurrection that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New are one and the same.

We know this too: That God has a plan for those who love him. He has given us supernatural gifts, wisdom from heaven, an ability to understand spiritual things with a spiritual mind and a glimpse into things to come. He has set Jesus as an anchor for our souls in a world of constant change and increasing dissipation, and he enables us to stand firm in the midst of the storm.

No small matters, these things God has revealed. But they require something profound and simple from us: that we keep our eyes on spiritual truths, that we hear what God is saying and that we think about such things with the mind of Christ. Otherwise, what God has revealed to us won’t matter. For we run the same risk of falling that those in ancient times ran. Ezekiel said it this way:

Son of man, you are living among a rebellious people. They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious people.

That’s why the writer of Hebrews exhorts us to “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” It’s the one certain way to stay focused on the things revealed, rather than on the things concealed. The world focuses on the latter, insisting there is no truth while rebelling against all that is good, holy and righteous. But for those of us who fix our eyes on Jesus, we know God’s truth. Despite all the confusion, distortions and hostility around us, we can see it and hear it and know it because he has made it known by his Spirit.

Truth never changes. But our grasp of truth can if we don’t remain vigilant and steadfast. So be encouraged and encourage others. Not only do we know the truth, but we have chosen the way and the truth and the life—we have chosen Jesus. And he confirms his truth every time we look, every time we listen and every time we think about how he has transformed our lives.

Such good news should not remain our little secret. We're called to share it with everyone who has an ear to hear!

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

James 1:27

Jesus was not a great fan of religion. Nor was he a fan of what Israel's teachers and the Pharisees had done by turning the law of Moses into a system of rewards, punishments and procedures—a religious system that left the heart unchanged and the Lord unpleased. So Jesus addressed the crowds to show them what they had unknowingly become a part of.

Because the teachers and Pharisees claimed authority in Moses’ name, they were thought to have the word of the Lord and worthy to be followed. Jesus didn’t see it that way and he warned the people about their leaders: “do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders…” “Everything they do is done for men to see” and for recognition. He rebuked them directly, saying, “You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” And he left no room for debate, calling such leaders “hypocrites,” “blind guides” and “whitewashed tombs” full of wickedness within. So unspiritual was the religious system that “the people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus.” The leaders knew the rules but their hearts were blind to the Ruler of all creation and his heart for them.

In the beginning, God's heart was to have relationship with man. It's still his heart. He prepared a place for him so they could live together in the Garden. In the beginning, there was no law (except one: don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil). There was intimacy and fellowship—God, man and woman in Eden living in perfect harmony. But we know how that ended. And ever since then, mankind has been creating ways to make things right with God to win back his love, not fully understanding that God never stopped loving us. Ever.

Those ways are the stuff of religion. Religion creates ways to earn God’s love and his promised redemption. Religion puts all sorts of heavy loads on men’s shoulders by saying God will love you, IF…if you don’t drink; if you don’t smoke; if you dress appropriately, if you pray every day; if you clean up your language; if you give money; if, if, if…

Jesus says this: I love you, NO ifs, ands or buts.

Jesus has never stopped loving us. He gave his life for us. Anyone or any system that says we must do something to earn God’s love rather than receive it, is not biblical. And anyone or any system that says that we must do more than receive his sacrifice on the cross to be restored, has traded redemption for religion.

That’s why James says that pure religion is this: “to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” Pure religion is about abiding in Christ. It’s about the overflow of a transformed heart causing us to love not as the world loves—with conditions and expectations of reward—but selflessly, “with actions and in truth.” Pure religion is not about a duty to serve. It's about the desire to obey.

God calls us to meet together, to pray, to worship him, to be in his word, to be teachable and to teach and to make disciples of all nations. More importantly, however, he calls us friends if we do what he commands. And his command is this: “Love each other as I have loved you.” Sometimes that calls for small sacrifices. Sometimes it calls for more. And still other times it calls for the ultimate sacrifce. As Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

Are we prepared to lay down our lives for our friends? How about just our pride? Or our rights? Or even our guard?

Doing so would be choosing obedience to Christ. It would also be choosing to lay down our lives, at least a little. And it would be choosing religion that God accepts as pure and faultless.