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Jesus is the Best Thing for Your Conscience

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A person’s conscience is a funny thing.

‌My earliest memory of what I would consider my “conscience” involves a little orange newt I found when I was 6 or 7 years old. I picked it up and thought it would be fun to throw it as hard as I could into a brick wall at point blank range.

‌Far from being fun, it made me feel sick to my stomach.

‌A little voice in my head informed me that I was a poor excuse for a human being. And that voice was right.

‌I tried to cover my tracks, so nobody would know of my dark deeds. But I still just couldn’t stand the time spent waiting for others to return to my location, and potentially catch me red-handed.

eastern newt on ground
Photo by Connor McManus on Pexels.com

‌What about you? What sort of run-ins have you had with your conscience? And what is it like to wait for the eventual return of King Jesus?

‌Does your conscience inject your waiting with anxiety at what he will find, or with eagerness for his justice?

‌Maybe your conscience still accuses you of things you have done. Maybe it reminds you of your past, or of the secret desires you don’t wish to speak about openly. Maybe your conscience gives you a clean bill of health … for now.

‌Regardless, Hebrews 9 has some really good news for you: Jesus is the best thing for your conscience.

The chapter divides into two main sections. The first section (Heb 9:1-14) describes the “regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness” (Heb 9:1), culminating in the assurance of eternal redemption (Heb 9:12) through the eternal Spirit (Heb 9:14). The second section (Heb 9:15-28) elaborates on Jesus’ new covenant mediation, which provides an eternal inheritance (Heb 9:15).

‌So Jesus is the best thing for your conscience — for those two reasons. He provides an eternal redemption, and he promises an eternal inheritance.

‌If Jesus is your priest, nobody can take these things away. Your redemption. Your inheritance. And these two things will have a profoundly cleansing effect on your conscience.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll take a closer look at each section of this glorious chapter.

How Can a Human Book be Divine?

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Lewis Varley addresses a matter commonly raised by both Muslims and secularists against the Christian doctrine of special revelation: How can a book produced by humans be inspired by God or accurately communicate divine speech and intentions? Isn’t God—according to the Christian conception—so far above us that human speech and human writing is utterly unable to adequately communicate his will?

Varley offers a number of helpful responses:

  • The Divine-Human Scriptures Point to God’s Power
  • What Form Should a Book of Direct Revelations Take?
  • God Has Shown His Kindness to Us in the Accommodation of Scripture
  • The Divine-Human Scriptures Are Made Possible Because of Our Identity as God’s Image Bearers
  • The Literary Forms of Scripture Resonate with Our Lives

Here is a taste:

It comes as no surprise that our friends who deny that God could inhabit a human body would also deny that God’s words could also be human words. To deny the character of Scripture as a divine-human book is, by extension, to deny that God could ever come into our world, our times, our lives, but must inevitably be detached from us. To affirm the divine-human word is to affirm God’s immanent involvement in our everyday, often ordinary, lives.

Check it out!

The Shocking Secret to Jesus’ Ministry Success

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There can be no dispute: The main point of the middle section of Hebrews (roughly chapters 3-10) is that, in Jesus, we have a great high priest:

Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.

Hebrews 8:1-2

Here is one of the rare places in the Bible where the author tells us straight out what is his main point. We don’t have to guess, read between the lines, or check an expositor’s work. Make sure to savor this moment.

The Ministry They Copy

Having savored that moment, we ought to notice that this high priest, who serves the Father in heaven, rules all things. His ministry is more effective than any other. He’s been tremendously successful at what he does.

And don’t fail to observe the precise wording of Heb 8:1 — that priest is the one we have. As long as we rely on him to get us through (Heb 4:14).

He is not like all those other priests on earth, who are merely copycat priests serving God in a copycat place (Heb 8:3-6). Those Jewish priests under the old covenant were crucial components of God’s revelation of himself and his relationship with his people. But that’s primarily because they were copying the priesthood of Jesus.

And now that the bona fide original has appeared, there’s no further need for copycats.

Imagine if your church started a ministry of Elvis impersonation. You could dress in bright sequined leather, wearing bushy wigs and sunglasses. You could help children memorize Bible verses to the tune of “Love Me Tender,” and really connect with older generations as well.

Photo by JR Harris on Unsplash

But now imagine that Elvis himself presented himself alive and showed up at your ministry of impersonation. Would you let him join the troupe?

Of course you wouldn’t! First off, he’d show everyone up. And second: it would turn the whole thing into a mockery. The point of impersonation is that you’re trying to be like someone or something else. It would ruin the whole point of it if you’ve got the original present. You can’t impersonate yourself.

That’s what Hebrews 8:4-6 is saying. The tabernacle built by Moses was only a copy of the heavenly tent. But because Jesus’ ministry in heaven is the real deal, in the real temple, his ministry is more excellent (Heb 8:6). Doing the real thing in the real place for it is more excellent than doing a copy of it in a copycat place.

But what makes the “real” ministry of Jesus so excellent? Why is the original better than any copy ever could be?

Because its covenant is enacted on better promises (Heb 8:6b). And … what are those promises?

The People He Has

The first covenant, you see, had faults (Heb 8:7). But the problem wasn’t actually with the covenant. It was with the people (Heb 8:8): “For he finds fault with them when he says…”

Now there’s a manuscript discrepancy there, such that some ancient manuscripts do in fact say that “he finds fault with it when he says.” So I can’t base an entire argument on a single disputed pronoun.

But that’s okay, because the following quotation from Jeremiah 31 fully supports the “them” pronoun in Heb 8:8. When God led the people from Egypt, “they did not continue in my covenant” (Heb 8:9). These are the same people who fell in the wilderness due to hearing but not believing God’s promises (Heb 3-4). Generations later, they persisted in unbelief and were exiled to Babylon.

So the problem with the old covenant was not primarily with the covenant but with the covenant’s people. They were sinners who kept on sinning. They had ways to deal with their sin, but only in copies and shadows. Never the real deal.

In short, God made promises to and about these people in the old covenant. But one thing he never promised was to produce any true knowledge of himself within them.

How are the promises of the new covenant any better? Well, in addition to having a means for true (and not merely foreshadowed) forgiveness (Heb 8:12), God actually promised to make his new people into the sort of people he requires them to be (Heb 8:10-11).

So do you see what is the shocking secret to Jesus’ ministry success? His ministry is better because his covenant is better. And his covenant is better because its promises are better. Its promises are better because they promise to make the people better.

Isn’t that crazy? It’s not that the new people sin less than the old people did. It’s not that the new people are innately good and righteous in a way the old people weren’t.

No, the difference between God’s old people and his new people is simply that he promises to make his new people into the kind of people he expects them to be. That promise was never in place in the old covenant. And that’s why this new covenant is enacted on better promises.

The shocking secret to Jesus’ ministry success is his people. And if you are his, don’t ever forget: You are not pleasing to God because you are spiritually mature. You are spiritually mature because you are pleasing to God. Do not get this backwards.

This is great news for those who draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith (Heb 10:22). But it’s also very, very bad news for those who remain in unbelief (Heb 10:26-27).

Subverting Abraham’s Bad Rap

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I am grateful to T.M. Suffield for his courage to take on (and take down) our widespread presumption that Abraham was a cowardly liar. Suffield takes us deep into the argument of Genesis and the overall message of the book.

What I am suggesting is that we should read these texts looking at the warp and woof of the Bible, the texture of the whole story, and considering why these stories are in Genesis at the point that they are. We’ll notice that they have more to do with the grand narrative and with Jesus than we might just think; this isn’t just by contrast either. Jesus does treat his wife differently in the presence of evil kings to Abraham. The point isn’t that he doesn’t disown us, because Abraham doesn’t and Jesus is our brother, but that he can protect us from snake-like kings. Some of them might even turn to God because of the church’s beauty.

And I think Suffield is exactly right. My co-blogger Ryan has written a wonderful piece on how we love to give gold stars to Bible characters. And that tendency too often leads us to draw all the wrong conclusions, sometimes missing the explicit assessment of Bible characters given in the text itself.

For example: Here is my not-at-all-controversial list of things I’ve found people typically get wrong:

  • Noah’s drinking wasn’t the issue; Ham’s rebellion was (Gen 9:24-25).
  • Abraham’s description of his wife as his sister wasn’t the issue; the evil king’s oppression was (Gen 12:17, 20:6-7, 20:18).
  • Jacob wasn’t as much a wicked trickster as he was a courageous fighter for the promises of God (Gen 25:34b, 32:28).
  • Moses: an out-of-control hothead and murderer? Try again: He was an attempted—albeit rejected—deliverer (Acts 7:24-25).

I can’t say whether Suffield would agree with all the items on my list here. But his piece on Abraham and Sarah is well-argued and worth your consideration.

Check it out!

God’s Big Promises Bible Storybook: One Big Story

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Among the wide variety of children’s storybook Bibles available to us today, I’m thrilled to tell you about Carl Laferton’s God’s Big Promises Bible Storybook. This is a resource that knows what it’s trying to do and accomplishes its mission with great success.

When I requested a review copy from the publisher, I saw that it weighs in at just over 400 pages. I was curious to see how overwhelming that might appear to a very young audience. What I didn’t realize until the book arrived is that the book’s actual dimensions put it closer to a pocket handbook than a typical (oversized) storybook Bible. The effect of the small size makes the hundreds of pages fly past in a very satisfying way.

The book’s general premise is that the Bible tells one big story from beginning to end. That wonderful truth has — wonderfully — become conventional wisdom these days, and it’s delightful to see the trend continue in children’s resources. Yet the unique strength of Laferton’s work is the mechanism by which he ties the entire Bible together into a single story: God’s big promises.

Laferton grabs five major promises that summarize the work of God for his people: the promises to rescue, to raise a people, to provide a good land, to bring joy and happiness, and to install a king. For each of the five promises, he marks places where the promise is made, and places where the promise is kept.

The Bible stories that contain one or more of the promises (either made or kept) are then tagged with stand-out icons in order to remind the reader of that story’s connection to the overarching story. In addition, the table of contents provides charts for the “Promise Paths,” listing which stories should be read if you want to follow a single one of the promises from beginning to end.

While I’m no art critic, I find the illustrations by Jennifer Davison to be drawn from typical perspectives, though the colors are more vibrant and appealing than I’m used to. Some terrific choices are made, such as giving the serpent legs and feet like a dragon (p.31), chain links exploding off a distant Gerasene demoniac (p.273), and a strong yet reasonable diversity of complexion and skin tone all throughout.

Regarding the text: Each of the 92 chapters is unceremoniously brief and can be read out loud in less than two minutes. Despite their brevity, the stories cover quite a bit of ground, and Laferton responsibly avoids the temptation to elaborate on the Bible’s stories for the sake of color. To give one example: You won’t find any speculation here about Moses’ childhood relationship with the Pharaoh he would later oppose. Here is a sample of the first 30 pages.

When Laferton editorializes or interprets a story, he is careful to do so the same way the Scriptures themselves do. For example, with the Good Samaritan, Laferton doesn’t get too specific or use guilt to motivate. He concludes with a simple: “The Jesus asked, ‘Which of those men was truly loving others? You go and be kind like him. People who truly love God will show it by truly loving others.'” If a parent were to doubt whether that is the proper way to conclude the story, they need only look to Luke 10:36-37 to see how closely Laferton sticks to Luke’s narrative.

As a resource that claims to present the Bible’s full storyline through the framework of God’s five big promises, God’s Big Promises Bible Storybook is a smashing success. I am happy to commend it to you. It’s best use is to read aloud to preschoolers, or to give to young elementary students to read themselves.

You can find it at Amazon, Westminster, or directly from the Good Book Company.

Disclaimers: The Good Book Company sent me a free review copy in exchange for an honest review. Amazon and Westminster links are affiliate links. Clicking them will likely provide a small commission to this blog at no extra cost to yourself. We promise, even though our promises aren’t as good as God’s.

5 Good Reasons to Mark Up your Bible

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Kevin Halloran wants you to mark up your Bible. Don’t be shy. We agree that it’s a worthwhile practice.

Halloran gives 5 good reasons:

  1. Marking up my Bible helps engage me in more careful study.
  2. Marking up my Bible helps with future reading of the Bible.
  3. Marking up my Bible helps remember past experiences.
  4. Marking up my Bible helps me to encourage other saints who see my marked-up pages.
  5. Marking up my Bible is visible evidence that I treasure God’s revealed Word.

Halloran also suggests what exactly to mark when you study your Bible. For more information, check out our reasons for getting a markup Bible. If you’d like ideas for a new markup Bible, see our post comparing the options.

Check it out!

Can You Focus on the Bible Too Much?

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Artondra Hall (2012), Creative Commons
Artondra Hall (2012), Creative Commons

In a recent conversation, a respectable gentleman accused me of coming dangerously close to “bibliolatry.” Bibliolatry means “worshiping the book,” and the term usually refers to the practice of revering the Bible too highly. According to Wikipedia (that never-ending fount of contemporary insight), the term may characterize “either extreme devotion to the Bible or the doctrine of biblical inerrancy.”

I’ve heard such comments before, particularly from young people who want to follow God but who don’t want to study the Bible. The thinking goes like this: “The Bible is good, but you shouldn’t focus on it too much.”

Now the argument isn’t always sophomoric. Some time ago, the evangelical philosopher J.P. Moreland delivered a paper to the Evangelical Theological Society, arguing against “the idea that the Bible is the sole source of knowledge of God, morality, and a host of related important items.” He’s concerned with Christians who take the Bible to be “the sole source of authority for faith and practice. Applied to inerrancy, the notion is that the Bible is the sole source of such knowledge and authority.” Moreland clearly believes the Bible to be both inerrant and final in its authority. But, he says, if Christians consider it to be the only authority for faith and practice—that is, for the Christian life—they are “over-committed” to it.

So is it possible (and unhelpful) to focus too much on the Bible?

The Easy Answer

Of course it’s possible.

Jesus often clashed with other teachers who focused too much on the Bible. In one noteworthy example, he staked the following claim:

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

John 5:39-40

In one sense, Jesus hoped they’d focus more on him than on the Scriptures.

The Difficult Answer

But in another sense, Jesus clearly drew attention to himself by drawing more attention to the Scriptures. Notice the immediately preceding verses:

And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.

John 5:37-38

Jesus accused the Bible-focusers of not hearing God’s voice. They didn’t see his form. He had already borne witness to the Messiah in his word, but that word hadn’t landed in their hearts. They read the Bible. They studied it and memorized it. But they didn’t believe in Jesus, its principal subject.

Jesus goes on to say, “I do not receive glory from people…How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God” (John 5:41-44)? They loved the Bible because it gave them glory. They could win at Bible Trivia. People spoke highly of their knowledge and authority in spiritual matters. They had earned titles of honor and respect, and, as a result, the general public revered them

Jesus wanted them to seek glory, just not their own. They should seek the glory that comes from the only God. That is, they should seek Jesus, the one who came from God (John 5:37) and revealed his glory (John 1:14). And how would they do this? Not by abandoning the Scriptures but by reading them more—more clearly, more frequently, more passionately. “For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me” (John 5:46).

In other words, the solution for “over-commitment” to the Bible is not to reduce your commitment to the Bible. The solution is to take your commitment to the Bible in a different direction: toward Jesus.

In that sense, it’s not possible to focus too much on the Bible. Not unless it’s possible to focus too much on Jesus.

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The Sluggard in Every One of Us

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Scott Hubbard wants you to know four things about the Bible’s portrait of a sluggard:

  1. ‘A little’ adds up.
  2. Neglect grows weeds.
  3. Our desires often deceive us.
  4. Hard work flows from the heart.

Hubbard does a great job correlating the teaching of Proverbs on the character of the sluggard. In the process, Hubbard models terrific head and heart application.

Check it out!

The Treasure: Introducing Children to the Faith

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Marty Machowski has developed quite a body of educational and devotional works for children. I’m quite a fan of The Gospel Story for Kids curriculum, which my church uses, along with The Gospel Story Bible, which covers a wide variety of Bible stories beautifully.

So I was eager to see his new work taking children through the books of Luke and Acts: The Treasure: Ancient Story Ever New of Jesus and His Church. I’m grateful to New Growth Press for providing a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

What It Is

The Treasure is largely a devotional work, but not in the sense of providing a lesson plan or list of discussion questions. It’s more of a storybook Bible with devotional entries providing something to reflect on in light of Scripture readings.

Interspersed throughout are 12 chapters of an original story. A pair of young siblings growing up on a Greek isle discover some old journals reflecting on the teachings of Luke and Acts.

The physical book holds the same high production quality I’ve come to expect from New Growth Press’s children’s works. It’s larger size is on par with The Gospel Story Bible and The Radical Book for Kids. The thick semi-glossy paper gives the book quite a bit of heft, making it delightful to hold and read aloud. The cover and binding are strong and sturdy.

What It Does Well

This book provides a clear and accessible introduction to the Christian faith through the lens of Luke and Acts. For that reason, it’s not exhaustive or doctrinally thorough. But it does what a storybook Bible does best: It tells the “ancient story ever new.”

The devotions in these pages walk straight through Luke and Acts, covering topics as they arise in the text. Each devotion has a Scripture reading, followed by a one-page reflection on something from the passage, always connecting it to the story of Christ and to his children today.

For example, in one entry, we’re told to read Luke 5:17-26 (Jesus healing a paralytic after forgiving his sins). Then Machowski’s comments talk about how someone could prove their physical strength by lifting a 300-pound barbell in front of their friends. Then he describes how Jesus did something even more amazing by healing the lame man to prove his ability to forgive sins.

The main divisions of The Treasure follow the literary divisions of Luke and Acts. So the contours of the Scripture drive the ebbs and flows of Machowski’s reflections.

The original story about the Greek children was my favorite part of the book, as Machowski tells a charming tale of their search for hidden treasure. Though the story’s climax comes across a little contrived—the character development to that point did not quite support it—the story remains engaging to the end.

What Could Be Better

I chose to review this book because I’m always interested in children’s resources that claim to help children study the Bible. From the back cover: “In The Treasure, Marty Machowski weaves a Bible study of the books of Luke and Acts with a fictional story.” And I’ve really loved Machowski’s prior devotional works. I was eager to see what he did here with Luke and Acts.

And I want to reiterate what I wrote above: This book provides a clear and accessible introduction to the Christian faith through the lens of Luke and Acts.

But with that said, I must be honest that Machowski does not quite succeed at the promise of providing a Bible study of Luke and Acts. I would describe the book as a series of devotional, theological reflections on some things inspired by the text of Luke and Acts. It does not actually provide a Bible study of Luke and Acts.

For example, the entry on Acts 15:36-16:5 reflects on the nature of conflict and how nobody is perfect. But it fails to explain the role played by the separation of Paul and Barnabas in Luke’s narrative agenda.

For another example, the entry on Luke 3:1-20 spends nearly as much time discussing John’s account of the Baptist’s ministry as the account at hand in Luke. This pattern is common: Machowski quickly bounces from Luke or Acts out to numerous cross-references that speak further on the theological topic under consideration. All to the detriment of providing and understanding of Luke’s own message.

Conclusion

I am delighted to have and to have read The Treasure. As a child’s introduction to Christianity through the lens of Luke and Acts, it succeeds marvelously. But as a child’s Bible study of Luke and Acts, it is less than could be hoped for. I’m happy to recommend it as a primer on the story and doctrines of Jesus Christ. But if you’re looking for a way to strengthen your children’s grasp of the books of Luke and Acts, you may need to supplement what you find here.

You can find it Amazon, Westminster, or New Growth.

Disclaimer: As you go searching for treasure, you should know that external links are affiliate links. You will provide some small treasure to this blog when you click them. We are grateful for your support.

Salted With Fire

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“Everyone will be salted with fire,” says Jesus in Mark 9:49. But what does that mean?

Alistair Begg makes skillful use of the literary context (the argument of the larger passage), biblical context (Old Testament background), and cultural context (practices contemporary to Jesus and his disciples) to unravel this mysterious saying.

It’s clear that Jesus deals here with weighty truths. And it’s against the backdrop of verse 48 (in which He describes hell as a place where the “worm does not die and the fire is not quenched”) that His puzzling teaching on salt appears. With the costliness of discipleship and the picture of fire fixed in His disciples’ minds, Jesus asserts, “Everyone will be salted with fire.” How should we understand this peculiar phrase?

Check it out!