What is God's Purpose in Justification?

First let me start by saying that Kristin and I have had our baby. He was born August 17 at 12:39am weighing in at 7lbs 13ounce. He is healthy and happy. There is a lot I could write about his birth, and maybe, hopefully I will be able to at length on this blog. I have been constrained however to write about something else today.

The focus in evangelical Christianity today seems to be solely on justification. You know, "Let's get as many people saved as possible", however that focus is not the focus of our Lord. Maybe that is a bad statement, 'getting people saved' might be the focus of our Lord, but we must define the term 'saved'. I know I have become a broken record on this blog, but salvation is not just deliverance from eternal punishment, it is deliverance from present tense sin, and is separation from this world.

It is true that God justifies the sinner based on the attoning work of Christ on the cross. Christ suffered once under the wrath of almighty God for our sin, bearing willfully the punishment on our behalf, we are justified based on that work. This is a beautiful unexplainable truth, and that truth must never be minimized. Instead we must look deeper into that justifying work and see what exactly its purpose is. Is justification all that was accomplised on the cross? Was God's entire purpose of the crucifiction to keep undeserving sinners out of hell. The answer is NO, a thousand times no.

Let's focus on Isaiah 53 for a moment. We see in this chapter the punishment poured out on Christ for our sin. Why does a father punish his son. Why would I punish my new son Joseph? If I gave Joseph a command; "do not talk back to your mother or else I will give you a spanking", what must I do if he violates my command? Clearly he must receive the punishment that came with the command. Now why as a father do I punish him? The obvious reason is because I must be true to my word, and his sin must receive the punishment promised, however this is not the only reason, in fact it is not even the primary reason. The reason I would punish him is so that he will no longer talk back to his mother. Lets compare my example to the example of Christ on the cross. Did Christ pay the penalty only because a penalty needed paid? If we were in Him at the crucifiction was it only for the reason of being pardoned for our trangressions? No, he received the punishment on our behalf so that we would not continue in sin. This is so important, we were disciplined unto holiness in Christ. This is not some abstract concept, he was crushed not just to pay for our disobedience, but to put an end to it all together.

Am I saying the sinless perfection is possible? I do not think so, what I am saying is that the ultimate purpose in God's justifying work is to move you ever closer to perfection and perfect holiness as long as you walk this earth. He payed the price in order to purchase a people holy and separte from the world. Did God deliver Israel from Egypt primarily to get them out of bondage to Pharaoh? No, if that had been the case he could have left them in the wilderness. He delivered them from Egypt in order to establish them in the promised land. So it is in our lives, Christ died not only to save us from the penalty of sin, but instead that we would enter into kingdom today. God kept telling Israel to remember their dilverance from Egypt so that they would remember the He has the power to establish them in the promised land. You should remember your justification, but remember it in order to better realize the power of God to keep you holy.

I need to stop because I would have to write a book to explain all the implications of this line of thinking.

Moldy Manna

I have not proof read this. I wrote it quickly fairly late at night. It was burning in me a little so I thought I would get it down. Exodus 16 clearly laid out the command that manna should only be gathered for 1 days consumption, except for the day prior to the sabbath on which two days supply must be gathered. When this was violated and there was an attempt to eat old manna it was found to be rotten. Jesus is the bread of life, the bread from heaven, the new testament manna. When we pray ...give us this day our daily bread... in a sense we are asking for His provision of Himself for our day. Let's put this all together. You can not live on past experiences of Christ. Period. It is moldy, and holds no value for today. Did you go to promise keepers? Wonderful, that is good for one day, what about the next morning. Did you wake up to fresh bread, or did you pull out that old moldy loaf from the day before. Youth often seem to be prone to relive past events, you know the big rallies and retreats, but the reason they are so afixed on the past is that they have no abiding prescence of God in the present. A popular retreat amongst people in our denomination is call 'The Walk to Emmaus', this is a retreat that focuses around fellowship and preaching (talks) and various other small group interactions. It has had a profound impact on many, and yet the majority of its participants have a tendency to desire to live off that same bread for the next few weeks, months and some even years. Again the reason is that there is a lack of daily abiding in His prescense, so they will go back to that old moldy loaf that was once fresh (for a day). Much of the ministry done today is an attempt to feed people moldy manna. Pastors preach messages to give people something to chew on until the next sunday, when in truth it is moldy monday morning. Some people will go from event to event trying to get fresh manna, but again it is in vain, you must collect that manna fresh from the ground each and every day. Lets wake up, Christianity is not event based, it is daily from minute to minute relying on fresh revelation from His word, fresh strength from His prescense, not past experiences. Again preachers are feeding this stuff to their congregations because they often have no fresh manna of their own. They go and find already preached messages that were once fresh. The find 'ministry models' and 'growth strategies' developed by other men, and all of it may have been fresh.... yesterday. They cannot bring a fresh word from God because they have not gone to Him to receive one. They have instead gone to Spurgeon, or to Ravenhill, or to Wesley, or Augstine, or Calvin, or Paisley or whoever they go to, but they have not gone to Him. They find the latest person that preaches with power and try to feed there congregation with another mans power, but again its yesterday's manna. A few quailifying words before I close this rant. We are certainly called very often in scriptures to remember. Israel is constantly being commanded to remember, and we too are reminded to remember. Past experience is not to be forgotten. Even great words of past preachers are not to be ignored and can be used in preaching. Nonetheless we are to remember the provision in the past only to remind us of the confidence we can have in God for our present provision. We can quote if we must in order to bolster the fresh manna we have received today.

Joseph Wesley Miklovic is coming soon!

Well, it looks like our son is going to come a little early. The doctor says based on the most recent ultrasound that he is getting ready to enter this world. Probably within the next 2 or 3 weeks!! Kristin and I of course are incredibly excited. The Lord has provided much through this whole time and has been a very present help in this our time of need.

I find the doctrine of original sin a difficult one right now. It is obviously true both in scripture and in the evidence of this world, and I in no way shape or form will deny the truth that we sinned in Adam. However I know it will be difficult to see that child as guilty from day one. Even if he is not 'accountable' (hmmm... I do not have an answer on that) he is nonetheless guilty in Adam. It is a difficult time to assess the need of the second birth of my son when I am so excited for his first birth.

On another note: I have come to grips with a little sliver of the unconditionalness of God's love through this. When I think about my son I realize that he has only been a pain to me thus far. He has forced me to add a room to my house by finishing my dormer. He has forced me to curb some of the activities I enjoy like riding mountain bikes and such. He has placed my wife in a deal of pain and awkwardness. He has made my house look more like the gift shop of a zoo than an adult living space. Because of him I now drive a 4 door car and the list goes on. Yet I have not even met him, and I cannot imagine loving him more than I do. He has done nothing to deserve it, but nonetheless he means so much to me. Now if I being wicked can love someone undeserving like that, how much more does the Father in heaven love His children. Amazing.

Anyways, pray for my wife Kristin and I through this process, she has been amazing through it all and I am so blessed to have a virtuous wife. I imagine I will be posting less in the upcoming months of little or no sleep. If I am posting more (they probably won't be coherent postings) regardless know that a possible hiatus from the blog may be looming.

The Cost

saiah 66:2 “…but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.”

When you consider that Christ paid the penalty for your sin does it bring you happiness, or sorrow? Do you take great pleasure in the fact that he was nailed to the tree for you? Do you find satisfaction that He endured the forsaking of God because of you? Can you happily accept salvation with out ever contemplating how much it cost?

Salvation is a terrible thing, never forget that. Salvation came about with the Son of God indwelt with your sins falling under the forsaking wrath of His Father against those sins. Think of what you are saying when you say ‘I am so happy that Jesus died for me.’ Are you really? Do you find satisfaction because you ‘got away with’ your sins and someone else ‘got blamed?’ There is a real sense in which I could almost wish myself cursed to hell in order that the Son would not have had to pay that price. Praise God that He has already paid that price, and that I am not accursed, but nonetheless this salvation is a grave thing.

When we think of salvation in light of what it cost it changes everything. Not what it cost us, but what it cost Him! Salvation is as much a breaking as it is a making whole. ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’ comes into focus when your are breaking at thought of our Lord paying the price. Think of the cost! You have been bought at a price, and can you simply continue in sin? Can you make a mockery of God with your life, and simply honor Him with a few mental ascensions and some pretty words? Do you not remember that because of sin somebody had to die, and not just anybody but the Lord Himself? This mamby pamby ‘Jesus would have died just for you’ so you should feel so special is simply a load of nonsense. The bible is clear that He died for more than just you so do not even waste a moment on this speculation, and if you do think on this take it to its logical conclusion, which is that you alone are so sinful that the blood of the Son of God was required on your behalf.

If salvation involves the sorrowful realization of the price that was paid where is the joy? Jesus died willingly, He chose to pay the price. ‘My sin Oh the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part but in full was nailed to the cross and I bear it no more, praise the Lord, praise the Lord oh my soul.’ Christ chose this, He is love, oh He is love. When no one else could stand for me, He stood. The joy is so real. It is a deep profound and broken joy, but it is true joy nonetheless.

How can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?

Morticians in Ministry

“A mortician can make a dead man look better than he ever did living. Sometimes the church experts can do that to a church but it doesn’t give real life to it.” – Vance Havner

There is nothing miraculous about a growing congregation, unless they are a growing part of the church. Congregation growth is not a sign of congregation health, regardless of what the ‘experts’ say. The sign of the health of a congregation is holiness. Growing a congregation is relatively easy. You can go into a community and ask what they would like the church to be, after that you shape it exactly they way they want it, and bang! Like magic you have a growing congregation. The first person I know of that did this really well was Robert Schuler, after him came your Joel Osteen, Rick Warren, and Bill Hybels, among others. Now, am I saying that there is no new life in these congregations? No, there likely is some new life, but there is far less life than there appears to be. Today’s ‘successful’ preachers are often nothing more than morticians skilled in the art of making dead things appear to live.

Let’s be honest, it is not just the preachers doing this, it is the rest of us as well. Have we not succumb to the temptations in our various ministries to proclaim success we have not had, or at least to make things appear more alive than they really are. Do we rejoice when someone appears to be alive before we have any idea whether or not they have a Holy Spirit pulse? Are there areas in your life that you are propping up as alive and vibrant, but if someone were to examine and touch them they would find no pulse at all? Are there areas like this in my life?

Enough with this ‘mortuary Christianity’ that only seeks to make dead things appear to have life! We must be sick of it, we must repudiate it, and we must seek to destroy it. Pray for revival in your life, your congregations, and your spheres of influence. Teach, preach, and live the new life, real and vibrant, let go of all that is dead. Prune the branches that do not bear fruit, so that the rest of the tree may be health and that new life may spring forth.

Old E-Mail #4

Feeling guilty is taking the side of the devil. Think about the worn out verses of Romans 7 where Paul is saying that he does not do what he wants to do, and he does what he doesn’t want to do, and so on. Do you sense he feels guilty? I do not think so. He acknowledges in that in his physical person there is a struggle that occurs between his evil flesh, and the holy spirit of God. Notice how he removes himself entirely from the conflict. He takes no credit for righteousness, and no blame for unrighteousness. God himself is at war with Paul’s flesh. The same is true of anyone who has been born of God. Now if we feel guilty, our mind is saying ‘I am taking my stand on the side of the flesh’ and there is guilt because God assaults the flesh. The mind is attached to the flesh and feels as though God is assaulting it as well. Yet if we operate under a clear conscience we welcome God’s assault on the flesh and we take the side of God. So should we go on sinning with a clear conscience and just say, “I side with God?” God forbid. If we side with the Spirit why would we desire to go on sinning? It is conceivable for us to say it is no longer we that sin, but sin that dwells in us, yet in the very same breath we must say we have no righteous acts, but that which Christ acts through us. We too often want to take all the credit for our evil, and none of the credit for the good, and thus we are left feeling perpetually guilty. We should take credit for neither, that is if we are born of God, through Christ. Paul talks about walking in the spirit, and not after the flesh. So with our minds we must constantly consider what the spirit is doing, the moment we consider the flesh our guilt condemns us. When we find that we are following the flesh and with our minds, and feeding the flesh and its desires we must repent. Repentance is taking sides again with the spirit. This principle of ‘taking sides’ is evident in confession of sin. What is confession, it means ‘to speak the same of’. In other words confession is simply saying ‘God what you say about my flesh is true, and I am in agreement with you.’ Confession is taking God’s side against your flesh. Repentance then is turning to serve the spirit as opposed to the flesh with our mind. Because of Christ’s sacrifice God welcomes us in taking His side because we are His. We were bought with a price, in fact he rejoices when we side against our flesh with Him. Our problem is that we sometimes think He wants us to reform our flesh, or bring it into submission, but that is not the case. The flesh does not need reformed, or corrected, it is evil to its very core, and it needs crucified. Now we (our old man) were crucified with Christ, so we are dead, yet we live. There is no room for guilt, guilt was the property of the old man, and he has been crucified. When we wallow in guilt we are trying to resurrect the old man. The one thing that makes this all hard to comprehend for me is the time element. The cross was one moment in time that is effectual for all eternity. It is hard to accept the death of the old man on the cross with Christ when we can see the fruit of the old man’s labor every day. I know this all seems like high thought, but it is very practical. Guilt hinders everything. When we feel guilty, we attempt to pacify our guilty conscience with our own acts of righteousness. Our righteousness is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). It is the righteousness of Christ we need. Should we feel remorse for sin? I do not think so. Instead we accept that sin is the deed of the old man who has been crucified, and we leave him behind, and move on toward righteousness. This morning you and I talked about seeking out our sin, this is the best thing I think we can do. We are telling God when we ask to see our sin that we are on His side, and we desire the flesh to be destroyed. We are then actively participating in God’s act of sanctifying us. We are truly moving towards holiness because we are becoming more and more in accord with God concerning ourselves. Quite possibly none of that made sense, but it helped me, so it was worth writing. The last thing I want to do is get all philosophical and intellectual so I hope this doesn’t seem that way. I think God is moving us somewhere on this topic, and I am kind of hoping He doesn’t divert us off of it anytime soon. But I choose to be on His side, so if it the topic changes so be it. --------- Continued in another message -------- The conversation on guilt is interesting, but it tends toward moving in a bad direction. When we acknowledge the fact that we should bear no guilt for our sin because of the atonement we will too often go one step further and have no remorse over sin. I think there is a distinct difference between remorse and guilt. It should bother us that sin dwells so easily in such close proximity to us, yea even in us, and that is cause for remorse. We know that if we were holy sin could have no part of us, the flesh would be utterly cut off and have no power. We are not guilty, our guilt was nailed to the cross, yet we are not holy so we end up cohabitating with sin in our mortal bodies. Oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? Christ. He can make me so holy that sin and the flesh will have no dominion in my mortal body. I need him to do that. My only goal in life should be to obtain that holiness from Him, to diligently seek Him and obey Him until sin is utterly destroyed. We need to be so careful not pervert the blessed truth guiltlessness into authorized unholiness. Well, those are my thoughts for today. Jay Miklovic

Old E-mail #3

Here is a thought for you, I heard this preached on a little bit today and thought it was interesting. Jesus said “you are the salt of the earth.” This is a declaration, and not a command. It is a statement of fact. You are the salt of the earth. As a Christian God declares you salt. Salt is not what we aspire to be, it is not what we are commanded to be, it is not a suggestion, it is not even a teaching as to how we are to be, it is what we are. We are the flavoring, we are everything that salt is. We are not becoming salt, we are salt.

Now as salt, if we lose our savor we are good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under the foot of men. What then is our savor, or saltiness? The lovey-dovey liberal says our savor is the peace, love, and justice we bring to the world, and maybe so. Still the fire breathing fundamentalist focuses on the salt’s preserving aspects, and its stinging and cleansing aspects. Maybe they are both right… or maybe they are wrong. I think they are both wrong.

Think of where this passage falls, what precedes it? Blessed are the poor in spirit… blessed are they that mourn… blessed are the meek… blessed are those that hunger and thirst for righteousness… blessed are the merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, and persecuted. These are the savor of the Christian life.

We are always so focused on doing so many things, which is not all bad, but we are also called just to be. I just realized something as I am typing here, do you know why we struggle so much with the beatitudes? I just figured it out. It is because they are not commands. We cannot go out and do ‘poor in spirit’. They reach so much past what we do, and they reach into who we are. The Christian life is not the life of a busybody constantly looking for something to do. We must wait. God wants us to fellowship with Him, more than He desires our service. He can accomplish His means with a donkey, or a stick, or a rock, and probably get the job done better with them than us. It is an amazing act of love that He would allow us to carry out His perfect will despite all of our imperfections. It is almost like when the coach of a team gives the ball to the handicapped kid to shoot so that he can be part of the victory.

Gods love and His fellowship are amazing things, but I fear some people (myself included) are too busy trying to conquer injustice, or warn people of hellfire to even see the blessed life. We are too busy trying to work our way out of spiritual poverty, and ignoring the first beatitude that calls the spiritually poor blessed. We are so busy seeking our Christian joy that we do not mourn, and so on.

I guess I ran myself in circles again, but that is what I have been thinking today.

With Love, In Him,

Jay Miklovic

Old E-Mail #2

This old mail was a rant to a good friend of mine concerning church growth strategies. This man is so patient for listening to all of these. We serve a mighty God. Our conversation this morning was not all bad, but we have been so beaten down by the failure which we see that we forget the victory He has won. I think the problem we encounter is that we judge God on the basis of the professing church. When everyone says ‘God is present here,’ or ‘we are spirit led here,’ or ‘revival is happening here’ and whatever else gets said, we assume what they are saying is true. If it is true then this god is pathetic. If all of our claims of how powerfully God is moving in our midst are true, then I want nothing to do with that god, because he is a god we have created. We invented him, and he is so weak. We have taken our works and called them his movements. The god of today’s evangelicalism is lame. At least Baal seemed to be able to help crops grow, this god cannot even make a man turn off his television for a minute or two. I assure you God is not pathetic, the problem is us. We are not what we claim to be, both as a church and as individuals. We claim to witness powerful workings of God, when really they are usually psychological manipulations of the flesh. I say this with extreme caution because the last thing I want to do is call what actually is a work of the spirit something else. If I say a genuine work of the Spirit is really a work of sinful flesh then I am coming very close to blaspheming the Holy Spirit, I certainly do not want to tread there. I say God is not pathetic because He does move powerfully in His children, he really does. Praying last night in the middle of that field, He met me there, yes the world crept in and I ran, but He met me there, I have no doubt. Seeing him change Kristin’s life direction against her will and desire, He is there. Changing all of my desires, putting this new heart in me, He is there. Taking the burden of this world off of my shoulders and giving me His burden, oh He is a mighty God, and He is mighty to save. Men and women of old, and even today give everything for Him in expectation of nothing in return, but give it all simply because He is worthy. We don’t care about a state of ‘nirvana’ or 72 virgins, or coming back as some cow or something. No! a thousand times no! God has put in His children a love and adoration for Him. We desire heaven because we have perfect fellowship with Him there, nothing else. We do not desire some heaven of our own creation where God is not present. This God of ours is mighty, and we need Him to break us, and to bring us as a congregation into His fold. As long as we can continue in our own power we will not seek Him, period end of story. Gary this is why that whole thing had me so mad, I am sick of it, seriously sick of it. I cannot do purpose driven, I cannot even do spirit led spirit fed, I just cannot, it is so cheap. IF GODS POWER WAS REALLY MANIFEST IN OUR CHURCH WE WOULD NOT HAVE TO LABEL IT!!! WE WOULD NOT NEED A CLICHÉ TO DESCRIBE IT!!! I was glancing through a magazine Kristin had from the Church about all these new tools and ministry ideas and so on and it makes me start to feel sick, literally. I get frustrated beyond words. It is everywhere, if I thought I could go elsewhere to other churches to avoid it I would leave in a heartbeat. Well this was a rant, I think you can see that it is love for God and His people that brings me to this point, at least I hope you see that. There are a lot of good things of God I want to discuss, but for now this is place where I am, and I am without power to change it, and praise God it is not my responsibility, but I am to be His willing instrument. I fear what would happen if God used me in a pulpit at xxxx or anywhere else that suffers our plague. I can see how Wesley got kicked out of so many churches. Well I hope I was not a total downer Thanks for listening Jay Miklovic