Journey Outside the Camp

The Gospel is binary: Are you under law or under grace?

Here is one of the definitions of binary from the Merriam-Webster:

relating to, being, or belonging to a system of numbers having 2 as its base <the binary digits 0 and 1>; involving a choice or condition of two alternatives (as on-off or yes-no)

So binary is a choice between all on or all off. It's either 1 or 0. There's no in-between state. How does this relate to the Gospel?

As I was reflecting on Romans 6, it dawned on me that the Gospel could be described as binary. Consider the tail end of Romans 6:14—"you are not under law but under grace". Paul reminds us that we are under grace. That is, we are saved 100% by what Jesus did on the cross. We contributed nothing toward our salvation. Zero percent.

There are those in Paul's time—as there are in ours—who think that they can contribute something toward their salvation. They are trying to keep the law in order to attain righteousness. Paul calls them "under law". In his day, they would insist on doing parts of the law like circumcision. In our day, such people may insist on a sinner saying the Sinner's Prayer, or that going to church, or that regular tithing, etc., makes one acceptable in God's sight. They are under law.

Such thinking is wrong. Either we rely on Jesus 100% for our salvation, or we do not. We cannot think that we can contribute 1% towards our righteousness through right living or Bible reading or service to the poor. Christ either saves us completely by his effort, or he is not our saviour at all. 1% of our effort plus 99% of Christ's work on the cross does not equal salvation. It equals death. Paul makes this point very clear in Galatians 5:2–3—"If you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law." In other words, if you want to contribute to your own salvation, Christ's work on the cross is meaningless to you and instead, you must try to keep every letter of the law. Either God does all the work in saving us and giving us righteousness or he does nothing for us.

Hence my thought that the Gospel is binary. Jesus does it all (1) or he does nothing at all (0). It's all Jesus or nothing. Paul unequivocally states that believers of Christ Jesus are under grace, not law. Obeying the law has no part in our salvation because if we want to be under law, we must obey all of the law perfectly. And we know no one is capable of that. As James 2:10 says, "For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it." (Italics mine.) And again from Paul in Romans 3:23—"all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". So there is no one who is capable of keeping the whole law. It is death to be under law. It is life to be under grace. Jesus does all the work in saving us (grace) or he does nothing for us at all (law). Ergo, the Gospel is binary.

Miracle in a shop

A friend sent me a text message as an encouragement for praying for a loved one's salvation. She told me that yesterday, she had walked into a shop to buy gifts and she struck up a conversation with the shopkeeper. At God's prompting, my friend asked if she could pray for the shopkeeper's business. The shopkeeper, though she was a Buddhist, agreed. My friend prays right there and then and after she was done, she said goodbye.

At the close of business, the shopkeeper counted by the day's takings and realised with a start that the it was the largest amount ever. She was stunned and informed her business partner what had happened. Her business partner, who is a Christian, explained things and led the shopkeeper to pray and become a believer that very night.

My friend, by God's grace, realised she actually needed one more gift and went back to the shop today. She was told the amazing news by the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper revealed that friends had been praying for her salvation for over three months and finally God had answered those prayers. My friend was used by God in a tipping point moment when she interacted with the shopkeeper. That interaction was the finally nudge, the final step if you will, in a long series of events, to lead the shopkeeper to believe and put her trust in Jesus.

My friend could only praise God and be thankful she was there to be part of the miracle of someone putting their trust in Jesus. God is amazing in how he chooses to use people to expand his kingdom. One lesson here is to always be available to God and he will use you in mighty ways. Praise the Lord indeed for this miracle.

Postscript: A good friend was concerned when she read this account that the shopkeeper might have believed because of the money she earned in the miracle. Did the shopkeeper believed only because she was given wealth? I don't think so. To me, it was really more like a series of events, culminating in my friend praying for the shopkeeper. God is not in the habit of supplying unlimited wealth. It's not something he promises to those who trust him. He promises to supply all our needs. That's not the same as giving us rich, comfortable lifes. In fact, Jesus often told his followers to expect a tough time. As it says in Luke 9:57,58—"As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” The cost of following Jesus is that you leave everything behind: money, job, reputation, security, friendships, even family if needed. And in return, you get the greatest treasure of all: Jesus himself!

Teaching chronologically

My wife and I were guest presenters at a workshop ogranised by NTM Asia. The topic was teaching the Bible chronologically to children--what that means, how to teach, what kind of activities teachers could use to make the lessons more interesting. There were close to 40 teachers packed into the small NTM office and boy, it turned out to be quite an exciting session.

The teachers were full of great questions on how to engage the kids to get them interested and on how to teach some of the 'harder' truths of the Bible in a manner that young children could understand. Many of them told us they were inspired and set on fire by the passion and enthusiasm we showed.

We felt very blessed that they responded so positively. We could see God lighting the fire in them when we shared from our own experiences. Some of the teachers were so excited, they wanted us to go over to their churches to give the same presentation, in order for the rest of their teachers to catch the fire too. That really moved us because it was confirmation from God that we were doing what he wanted us to do: teach and disciple children and new believers. And it was exciting to think we could now help others be as passionate in reaching out to children and getting them to get a clear understanding of the Gospel message via 'chron teaching'.

Chronological teaching by the way, is simply telling God's story the way he revealed himself: through the course of history, incident by incident, slowly building on man's understanding. It was what Jesus did as he walked with Cleopas and the other disciple on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-27). For us, we have seen such great understanding from the children whom we have taught this way. We are grateful God has given us a simple way to teach his story.

What does salvation save us from?

Everyone in this world has needs. We have felt needs and these are needs that we know and feel, needs that eat away at us and we spend our lives trying to meet those needs. The need for food, the need for love, the need for recognition, the need for wealth. These are all needs that we recognise in ourselves and whether consciously or unconsciously, we order our lives to help get those needs met.

Then there are the real needs. Needs that we don't even know about but needs that will have eternal consequences. What are these? And more precisely, how does my talk of needs square with the title of this entry?

I want to take a look at what salvation saves us from and use that as the light to shine on our real but unknown needs.

Matthew 1:21 says:
She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

That's the heart of salvation. God sending his son Jesus, to save his people from their sins. Yes, but what does that mean exactly?

Let's take a look at Romans 5:9-11:
Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

1. Saved from the wrath of God
We may not understand it, but when we were born, we were born with a sin nature that separates from God. We were born as enemies and rebels of God. We deserve his wrath and judgment. The salvation that Jesus brings saves us from God's wrath. Our sin-debt is paid by Jesus and we are no longer enemies and God's judgment will no longer fall on us. That's significant! But is that a felt need?

2. Saved for joy in God
"More than that, we also rejoice in God." We are saved from his wrath and can now find our true happiness in God. God is the source of joy. If we treasure him, we will be happy beyond measure. Humans were made to find their happiness in God and that is why the world cannot satisfy us. We will forever be looking for that one magic thing to keep us happy: wealth, family, job satisfaction, etc., but it will never satisfy. Only God satisfies. Is needing God's joy a felt need?

3. Saved from the disease of sin
Going back to Matthew 1:21: "he will save his people from their sins." Yes, Jesus removes our sin from us. God will not count them against us. But more than that, the work that Jesus did on the cross means that the disease of sin is ripped out of us, bit by bit, day by day when we submit to him. The sin nature in us is being removed and will be completely removed when he comes again. Is needing our disease of sin to be removed from us a felt need?

Salvation meets three real needs in our lives but to most people, they don't even know they have these needs. 1 Corinthians 1:18 says, "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

It is therefore the work of the Holy Spirit that first awakens us to our real needs. It is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we first realise we are helpless sinners. Not just sinners, but helpless sinners. The Holy Spirit makes us realise there is nothing we can do to save ourselves and that's when our real needs hit home and we run to Jesus and his saving work. Which is why, no work of evangelism will bear fruit unless we pray for the Holy Spirit to do his work.

The work of salvation meets our most urgent needs, but we must first come to the realisation that we have these needs and we must stop being consumed by our worldly needs and turn to God for the fulfillment of our real needs.

I planted, Apollos watered

Six months ago, I was at SKS Books with my wife when a complete stranger came up to me as I was looking at some Bibles. She sought my advice on selecting a Bible for a non-believing boyfriend. We started talking about different versions of the Bible and which was more suitable and as we talked, we moved to other topics like how God works salvation into our lives and more. I had the strong sense that there were deep issues in her and I called my wife over to join in our conversation as well. In the end, we recommended "The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus" by John Cross for her to read and get a better understanding of what the Bible was all about. We would have left it at that but I could feel God telling me to stay in touch with her. So I went up to her, introduced myself properly. She said her name was Junia (not her real name) and I left her our numbers and I left the rest to God.

A little while later--I can't remember how long--we got a call from Junia. She had more questions. About being with a non-believing boyfriend, about getting flak from colleagues, about family being hostile to her now that she was trying to be a Christian, about being hounded spiritually. My wife spoke at length to her and one conversation led to another and eventually, my wife invited her over to our place. The first meeting was cancelled by Junia but she managed to come by a few days later. Junia and my wife spoke at length and my wife upon hearing more details from her life, advised Junia that she should seek help from the Church of Our Saviour (COOS) because it was clear she had demonic influences and needed to be rid of them. Junia said that she had tried their healing room previously and the experience shocked her. My wife explained things to her and Junia seemed more willing to try COOS again.

Over the next few weeks, my wife had a few more long conversations with Junia but the talks were a drain on my wife physically and emotionally and we wondered if we were helping Junia or not. Eventually, the calls petered out and for the last three months, it was radio silence from Junia.

This Good Friday morning, we woke up late and missed our own church service. We knew there was a 5 p.m. baptismal service at COOS so we decided to attend that. When we got there and settled into our seats, we saw a woman--happy, smiling, talking with many friends--walk by. My wife said, "Isn't that Junia?" I looked hard. It did look like her but she looked different. I wasn't sure.

When the baptism got underway, the pastor called out, "Junia." It was her! My wife and I were stunned. Here was Junia, ill, depressed, lonely, struggling, now full of light, smiles and energy.

"Thank you God," I said immediately, "for bringing us here today, specifically to witness this miracle!" We watched with deep emotions as Junia went to the altar and into the pool and was baptised into the death and new life found in Jesus. We heard her declared, 'I turn to Jesus!" After all the candidates had been baptised, the pastor invited friends and family to the front to congratulate the new members and my wife and I made a beeline for Junia. She was mobbed. Her friends were hugging her, pressing gifts and cards into her hands and there was such a smile on her face.

Then she saw us.

"Why are you here!" she exclaimed.

"To see you get baptised," my wife replied.

She looked stunned and we explained. It was God who had brought us here specifically to see her get baptised. There were tears in her eyes as we spoke. She said that she had wanted to call us in the morning to let us know she was getting baptised but she felt she had bothered us too much already in the past months. She said she was going to tell us after but was so glad to see us.

Later that night, Junia called my wife and they spoke for an hour. Junia related how she had battled her demonic influences, found her group of friends, put her trust in Jesus and allowed him to work in her life to the point where her family, old friends and co-workers didn't recognise her. Some were hostile she said and some were just not sure what to make of the new Junia. In fact, she almost didn't make it to the baptism service because she had been so ill the past two weeks. But God cleared the way and she was there and so were we.

In 1 Corinthians 3:6-9, Paul says, "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building."

In my life, I've had my Paul seed-planting experiences where I've explain about God for the first time in someone's life. I've had my Apollos-watering experiences too when I've helped someone along as they were learning more about God. As one of God's servants just doing his part, I don't expect to see what happens to the planting or see the fruit of the watering. But with Junia, God allowed my wife and I to be witnesses to the completion of the miracle of Junia putting her trust and hope in Jesus and being born again in the Holy Spirit. It was a wonderful gift to be able to see the harvest. Thank you, God.