Fight the Good Fight

“Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is My kingdom is not of this realm.” John 18:36

The concept of a coming Messiah who would deliver the Jewish nation from the oppression of the Roman Empire and establish His kingdom as triumphant over all kingdoms, was something that was uppermost in the thinking of every fervent Jew. They supposed that Jesus would establish an earthly kingdom just like all the others around them. (Luke 19:11) Jesus though, did not fulfill their expectations of an earthly kingdom but rather came to build His church, against which even the forces of hell could not prevail. (Matt 16:18) The kingdom that Jesus came to establish was not of this world or this realm. If it was “My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over” said Jesus.

We live in a world of competing forces and laws. Everybody is taught to stand up and fight for their rights. As it is in nature so it is in the human realm, the survival of the fittest and strongest prevail. We arm ourselves with the capability of intellect and argument to overpower the other. We can fight aggressively by overpowering others with our sense of justice and right and wrong or we can fight passively in silent protest by letting the other have their way. The latter generally manifests itself by saying to the other, ‘Well if that’s the way you want it then have it your own way’, while at the same time we remain suitably aggrieved and unsupportive. Either way we are fighting. If we belong to the kingdom of God then this manner of fighting is not God’s way.

The apostle Paul spoke of another kind of fight which he called the good fight of the faith. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.” (2Tim 4:7) Paul was a fighter, he was zealous in fighting for what he believed in. Prior to his conversion he fought against the way of Jesus. ‘How dare these people follow Jesus as the Messiah’, he thought. But all this changed after his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. Paul learnt another way of fighting that was not according to worldly principles. He learnt to fight by trusting in God and getting on with building and furthering the administration of God which is by faith. (1Tim 1:4) Is this your fight?

Reaching forward to what lies ahead

“Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 3:12-14

Having been saved, we are on a pilgrimage to fulfil our name and works as sons. The only way we can progress in our sonship is to hear the word of the Lord and receive it so it can become substance in our lives. As the word comes to us through a messenger it is important that we make responses to what we have heard. It is necessary that we participate with the word as it is calling us forward. We need to have a soft heart (good ground) and continually receive the word as it comes. The Christian life is one of perpetual response and change because every time the Lord speaks He is calling us into something new. He calls things into existence which did not exist. Just like He did with natural creation, He can do with us, calling us into something new that we haven’t known before. (2Cor 4:6)

Keeping this in mind, we never move beyond receiving His word; we never stop growing. To say that we have ‘done enough’ and that the responses we have made are enough is to suggest that we no longer need the word and we no longer need any further deliverance from our sin, we are almost proposing that we are perfect. We are not perfect!

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul expressed that he had not become perfect and that he still needed to press on toward the goal. He knew that there was still works for him to fulfil, there was still more that the Father had for him to grow into and even though he had accomplished phenomenal things in Christ he was not about to ‘call it a day’ and stop.

So even when we hear the word and make a diligent response to what we’ve heard, we must not stop there, the job is not finished yet. We cannot sit back and rest on responses previously made, we cannot be carried forward by the satisfaction of good things we have done in the past. There is still much that we need to lay hold of.

Caleb Jarratt

The Witness of the Blood

Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel. See to it that you do not refuse the speaking. Hebrews 12:24-25.

The witness of the blood could be summarised like this. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law; with precious blood; so that we might receive the adoption as sons; and so that He would have a people for His own possession; who serve the living God. (Gal 3:13; Pet 1:18-19; Gal 4:4; Tit 2:13-14; Heb 9:14). It is important that we understand the working of the blood. Redemption was firstly from and it was with. It was from the curse of the law and it was with the precious, unblemished and spotless blood of Christ. There was a debt owning against us and Christ paid it when He offered His life as a ransom for us. Having highlighted the working of the blood we then come to the intention of the blood. Redemption was ‘so that we’ and then it was ‘for Himself’. The benefits of redemption extend beyond being redeemed from the curse of the law and extend to us receiving the adoption as sons. All this was so that He would have for Himself a people for His own possession who live to serve the living God. We were not redeemed by the blood of Christ only to find ourselves as captive to sin as we were before we believed. Grace must now abound to us in righteousness and not in sin.

Offering is the key to fellowship.

For genuine Christian fellowship to work you must have offering. The fellowship of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is the culture of perpetual offering. It is like a fire that, not only never goes out, but keeps multiplying and multiplying. Hebrews 12:29 says “For our God is a consuming fire.” The fuel to the fire is the offering of Themselves. Each member of the Godhead is continually offering Themselves as a burnt offering. Their offering is the nature of eternal life. And it is this life that Jesus Christ, as the high priest according to the order of Melchizedek, came to minister. Their life is spoken of in Hebrews chapter 7 as, “the power of an indestructible life”.

It is the fellowship of Their offering that is referred to as the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. (2Cor 13:14) As the community of the Spirit, the church is urged to demonstrate the fellowship of the Holy Spirit by joining Their continual burnt offering as our mode of living - “Therefore I urge you brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” (Rom 12:1)

If we are to join the fellowship of the Holy Spirit then we must access and join the offering of the Son. In Philippians 2:1 the apostle Paul says, “If there is any fellowship of the Holy Spirit” then you must have the mind or the attitude of Jesus Christ. (Php 2:5) The attitude of Christ is then expressed as one of complete offering.

Philippians 2:5-8 – “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

The Godhead’s lifestyle of perpetual offering is first love. First love is able to constantly empty rather than grasp after. This is the love that motivated God the Father to offer His only begotten Son, that motivated the Son to become the Father’s offering and that motivated the Holy Spirit to facilitate Their offering. (John 3:16) It is only possible for us to know and abide in this love with the help of the Holy Spirit. (Rom 5:8; Jude 20-21)

God’s Offering of Fellowship

When the word of the Lord is proclaimed God is actually offering to the one who hears the word, His fellowship. (1John 1:3) God’s fellowship is the fruit of our response to the word that is proclaimed. In the parable of the sower and the seed there are four grounds of response that we can bring to God’s offering of fellowship with Himself – Luke 8:4-8; 11-15

1. Hard or Wayside Ground – In this ground the seed is trampled underfoot. (v5) This is the independent, resistant response. They always struggle to hear a word outside of themselves, therefore no humility. There is no genuine fellowship with the seed (name) of their sonship or with the seed of sonship in others. If you want to be encouraged in your sonship then you won’t find it here. Instead your sonship in Christ is likely to be trampled upon.

2. Stony Ground – In this ground the seed withered away. (v6) This is a place of shallow response. Once the excitement of your initial response wears off the familiar ways of your own law are a constant stumbling stone. No deep fellowship that can grow your sonship is found here. The dialogue that occurs here is at best, very shallow. The conversation is more likely to be around what is offending you and why the word is not working for you, and then finding fault, especially with the messengers.

3. Thorny Ground – In this ground the seed is choked out. (v7) This is a place of mixed response. The mixture of worldly ways and the pursuit of other agendas that are not the will of the Father dominate. You are always being distracted by the worries of this life rather than seeking first the kingdom of God. (Matt 6:25-34) If you give the seed of your sonship to the ground of this fellowship response then your sonship will not survive, it will be choked.

4. Good Ground – In this ground the seed produced a crop. (v8) This is the only ground of a fellowship response in which our sonship can be properly nurtured so that it will grow and mature. This is the ground of walking in the light as He is in the light. (1 John 1:7) It is the ground of having fellowship with those who genuinely love the Lord, who keep the word of His perseverance, and who practice the culture of Christ’s offering. This is the ground of the brethren who are in Christ and of those who love the brethren. (1John 3:14-16)