The Sword Room

You thought that I was just like you (Psalm 50:21).

God is not a man that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should repent (Numbers 23:19).

I have just spent a fruitful morning reading up on the power and sovereignty of God in the works of Berkhoff, Erickson, Grudem, and Pink, comparing their statements with God’s Word. A forthcoming book on the subject of power and how it is and is not to be used in the church is now in the formative stages.

In the Psalm referenced above the Lord rebukes His people for thinking He was just like them, particularly in the area of winking at sin. God corrects them by saying he will not keep silent, but will rebuke them and set their sins in order before their eyes. It is a human tendency to pull God down from His place of transcendent power, authority, sovereignty, and holiness to the level of the fallen creature. Such an inclination is of the essence of idolatry–suppressing the truth of God in unrighteousness, exchanging the truth of God for a lie, and worshiping the creature rather than the Creator. Let us always remember that God is self-existent and self-contained, and that as such He is in no way dependent upon us for anything.

You will point to the incarnation of Christ, where the God of Scripture became a man. As you contemplate that blessed truth just bear one important thing in mind: Jesus is the God-Man, not the Man-God. The Word became flesh, not the other way around. Jesus existed from eternity with all the attributes of deity in place. He was God before He was man. He took humanity upon Himself, but He always possessed deity. Although He existed in the form of God He did not consider equality with god a thing to be clung to, but temporarily laid aside the voluntary use of the divine attributes in the days of his earthly life. He is now seated at the right hand of the Father as the Second Person of the Godhead.

Your Christology is only as good as your theology. Jesus is God. Everything the Bible says about God is true of Christ. What a blessing to realize that the fearfully holy judge of Old Testament narrative is one in the same with the gracious and merciful Savior of the New Testament. For me, recognizing this is far from confusing; rather it generates gratitude in my heart that God has mercifully chosen not to give me what I do deserve (judgment), but has instead freely bestowed that which I do not deserve (grace).

Don’t anthropomorphize God–that is, turn Him into an exalted man, on par with the pagan deities of the Greek and Roman pantheons. Worship Him for who He really is–the self-contained transcendent ontological Trinity of the Bible.

You shall have no other gods before Me (Exodus 20:3)

I used to think it was impossible for me to break the first of the Ten Commandments. After all, I do not literally bow down and pray to false gods, animals, or inanimate objects like trees and carved images. Then I noticed something which struck me as peculiar in my study: greed is closely associated with and even identified as idolatry in the New Testament. Observe this connection in the following verses:

For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous (greedy) man, who is an idolator, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God (Ephesians 5:5).

Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (covetousness), which amounts to idolatry (Colossians 3:5).

You will see greed connected to idolatry in several other verses (2 Corinthians 5:10-11; 6:10) and mentioned in the same context with such vices as adultery and murder in others (e.g., Romans 1:29). The Greek noun and verb forms denoting greed are used nineteen times in the New Testament, which is plenty of material upon which to build a theology of greed. So here goes.

The word used to denote greed in Scripture comes from a verb meaning to swindle, cheat, or take advantage of. Here are all the references to this word in the New Testament: 2 Corinthians 2:11; 7:2; 12:17-18; 1 Thessalonians 4:6. The greedy person swindles or cheats others to gain many things–power, pleasure, recognition, approval, or money. He wants what he wants, and he is determined to get it anyway he can. If he must break rules and hurt others along the way then so be it. When you think about greed (covetousness) this way it is easy to see that you have been guilty of it many times. You need not be rich to be covetous either: some of the most greedy people I know are milking welfare, Social Security, and bogus L&I claims.

But how is greed idolatrous? Paul is not speaking in a strict literal sense here. In the Old Testament idolatry is described in terms of actually bowing and praying to false entities (gods). In the New Testament Paul puts a metaphorical twist on the concept of idolatry, as when he speaks of those whose god is their belly (Philippians 3:19). Here the stomach functions as a god because he who is enslaved to it obeys its desires above all else and orders his life around those desires. The same could be said of the housewife whose life is consumed by credit-card spending; or the man who feeds on porn for most of his waking hours; or the addict whose life is structured around the next drunk or drug high. Jesus said that everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin (John 8:34). When you submit to sin you are not submitting to God–they cannot both be served at the same time. What all this means as far as greed goes is that a person who is consumed with it puts the gratification of fleshly desires above all else. Nothing wrong with wanting power, sex, or money. But when you crave these things so much that they crowd the love of God from your heart and you are willing to disregard God’s Word to get them, then your greed becomes your god, and you are an idolator. I think I have captured Paul’s meaning accurately.

But thanks be to God for the miracle of regeneration. God has given us new hearts which desire to love and serve Him. It is true that the flesh still comes against us with its desires, but we need not be slaves to our stomachs, mastered by our money, or governed by our gonads. We are no longer slaves to sin but slaves of righteousness (Romans 6:6-14). We are dead to sin and alive to God. We possess the ability to resist sin every time it rears its ugly head and demands our allegiance:

No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide a way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Listen, I know life sometimes seems like a rat race in which the rats are winning. But don’t make it worse by giving in to sin because once you do it won’t let you stop until it sucks you in and enslaves you. Think of how many people over the centuries were literally owned and oppressed as slaves. They would have given anything for freedom. Well God has given us freedom to serve Him. Why would we choose to serve our own desires? As illogical as it sounds we do it all the time, don’t we? When we do our greed for gratification becomes our god. When covetousness becomes a lifestyle for us then according to the New Testament we are idolators. But I am confident that all you  believers reading this will persevere in faith and victory, even if for a season you struggle with the flesh. Thank God for the cross and the blood of Christ. Not only is there forgiveness in Christ’s finished work–there is also power.

If I can be of further help or you would like some prayer just shoot me a quick email using the contact link. I’m not good for much, but I can always pray.