Conflicts between typical Jewish Christians and typical gentile Christians in the first century church make most of our "church conflicts" appear as a playground squabble between two six- year-olds. Conflicts between Christian individuals or groups in the church are not new. Such conflicts are as old as the beginning of the church.
Frequently, such conflicts express themselves in some form of the view, "God loves me and agrees with me! God is not with you and could never think like you think!" The implication is, "My salvation in Christ is secure, but yours is very suspect, or nonexistent." Christians seem to easily conclude, "You can be saved only if you think like I think." Salvation becomes a matter of views held rather than faith in God.
Paul told Jewish and gentile Christians that they were so weak they could not even speak God's language. Yet, once more God came to the rescue through His Spirit. God's Spirit intercedes for Christians with a language that surpasses human language. He makes understandable to God our feeble, often unholy, concerns!
When Paul spoke of "all things working together for good," he was not speaking of material things. Rather, God can use the worst things Satan can do to us for our salvation. The objective is for us constantly to migrate toward Christ's image. That is what God had in mind for us from the beginning! Thus God Himself can call us, justify us, and glorify us. God can do for us what it is impossible for us to do for ourselves.
Paul told both Jewish and gentile Christians not to doubt what God can do! (1) If God is for us, there is nothing superior to God that can oppose us! (2) God demonstrated how serious He is about saving us by giving His own son to make our salvation possible. He will not abandon us to Satan! (3) Satan cannot make charges against us as he did Job (Job 1:9-12; 2:4-6) or Joshua the high priest (Zechariah 3:1-5). Since God justifies us, no inferior power can condemn us. God can do that because of what He accomplished in Jesus' death and resurrection. The one through whom God accomplished our justification also intercedes for us. (4) No force, power, or circumstance external of ourselves can tear us away from Christ's love. Nothing external of ourselves can separate us from Christ's love! If we want to love Christ, no force outside of us will make us unlovable to him! Paul assured them that if Jesus Christ loves us, God loves us! Never do we have to be concerned that we love Christ and Christ does not know it! Never do we have to be concerned that Christ "will fall out of love" with us! Never do we have to be concerned that something outside of self can come between our love for Christ and Christ's love for us [as individuals]! We can conquer any discouragement through the overwhelming love God has for us! It is not a matter of our being so wonderful. It is a matter of being loved so much!
The first message we should hear is this: our salvation is not fragile. Too often we have tried to bring people to God by making those people deathly afraid of God. When they surrender to God, these people are convinced that God barely tolerates them. However, their view of their spiritual situation may be more from their view of God's character than from God's act in giving His son. HE extended us forgiveness, sanctification, redemption, and justification by HIS choice. The person who holds himself or herself in contempt will have difficulty believing such love can be extended to him or her. In the first century, God saved slaves and idol worshippers through Jesus Christ as readily as He saved Jewish people [who knew Him for centuries] and the socially prominent. The God who saved those people [with all the baggage produced by their past] without special conditions or difficulty, wants [with as much capability!] to save us.
The second message we should hear is this: God proved how serious He was about our salvation by letting His son die for our sins. God wanted to buy us back to Himself. God wanted to make Himself approachable to us. God wanted to make us pure through forgiveness. God wanted to make our past disappear. God wanted to do these things so much that He would allow His son to suffer to make it happen! The question is never, "How committed to our salvation is God?" The question is always, "How committed to God are we?"
If God wanted us to be lost, all He needed to do was nothing. If He had not sent Jesus to become the Christ, we would not have any hope. We are sinners! We are unholy! We can approach God only because we are forgiven. Without Jesus Christ there was no hope for any of us!
The third message we should hear is this: The issue is how much we wish to belong to God, not how much does God want us to belong to Him. God did not save us to abuse us! God saved us (a) to praise Him and (b) to help Him achieve His purpose of bringing people back to Him.
The fourth message we should hear is this: God does something special for each one of us when He saves us. If God says I am okay, I am okay. Why? Because of me? No! Only because God acted! Only He can refuse to hear Satan's accusations against us, and He does! If He gave us Jesus, He will do whatever is necessary to help each of us succeed. Nothing can separate us from God's love if we do not wish to be separated from it! Being in God's love is strictly our choice, and no one else's!
Can you imagine anyone loving you that much? Can you imagine anyone knowing all your flaws [better than you know them!] and still loving you that much? God does! Not only does He love you that much, but He loves every person that much! God's love for them and us does not depend on our culture, our traditions, our country, our education, our economic status, or our abilities. A significant part of faith is accepting as fact that God loves people that much!
For Thought and Discussion
Link to Teacher's Guide
Lesson 6