Christ Jesus, Who Became For Us…
This past Sunday, we talked about how we as Christians and His church are to respond during the dark times we see encroaching all around. What are we to do? How are we to think and feel? What is God’s will in all of this?
Just think about what we have experienced as a culture since the beginning of the year.
In DC, there was a rally turned riot (depending on how you view the events of January 6th) that many claim was the beginning of an insurrection against our government. Not surprisingly, most of the media and the talking heads blamed this on Trump. And now we have an active House investigation that will probably drag on into sometime next year designed to discredit Trump and his supporters. Bring back any memories?
There has been a massive social media de-platforming of voices and opinions that dare to differ from the FPC (for public consumption) talking points of the left. In fact, as of today, the head of the Taliban has a Twitter account to share their anti-American propaganda, yet our former President has been banned for life. How does that happen in a free society?
The Covid-19 thing seems to never go away. First lockdown, masks, social distancing, remote employment, shortages, restricted travel, canceled holidays, schools, sports, concerts, etc., and everything else that comes with an authoritarian nanny state. Nonetheless, we all agreed to go along for the good of others and the fear of contracting Covid. Then the miracle cure was rolled out at warp speed, the Vax, the Jab, which turned out to be neither a cure nor a miracle. And the full-court press was on. The pressure our society is piling on those who choose not to be vaccinated is unprecedented. So much so, tens of thousands of nurses may lose their job in the next 45 days, among countless others, unless they submit themselves to a jab that has yet to be FDA approved and has a morbid history of ever-increasing harmful side-effects, including death. This is discrimination at its worst. But the voices of the media are silent. How is that possible in America?
Corporate America, both large and small, is now requiring its employees to be fully vaccinated as a condition of continued employment. Companies like Amazon, Amtrak, Citigroup, Delta, DoorDash, Facebook, Ford, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Tyson Food, Uber, United Air Lines, Walgreens, Walt Disney, and Walmart are leading the way. And the list gets bigger every day. When in our nation’s history was it legal for an employer to require an experimental vaccine, with documented harmful, short-term, and unknown long-term side effects, as a condition of continued employment? But that seems to be our new reality.
Welcome to our brave new world.
On August 9th, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin wrote in a memo that the Pentagon will mandate full vaccinations (which now include all current and future boosters, with no end in sight) to members of the military and all Department of Defense employees by mid-September, if not sooner. For those who refuse the mandate, the consequences are unclear at this moment.
Last year, many of our school children received a failed education due to Covid. But they were passed anyway so as not to collapse the educational system. Unfortunately, we learned zoom classrooms are a poor substitute for face-to-face learning for millions of young children. And masked face-to-face learning cripples social development in our children. But once again, here we go down that same failed trail of fully masked children in school, regardless of their vaccination status. Why?
As a people, the trust in our sacred institutions, school, government, courts, media, the press, and the church, are at an all-time low. The constant barrage, 24/7, of competing opinions and differing experts talking out of both sides of their mouths makes us wonder, who can we trust? Who speaks the truth? Who do we turn to for direction? And for the believer, the church is just as divided on these issues as the rest of those who do not know our Lord. So, who speaks for God today? And who can help us sort all of this out for my family and me?
And the list can go on. Inflation, the immigration crisis at the Southern border, corruption in our government, the supply line breakdown and corresponding shortages of goods and raw materials, BLM, our national Afghanistan facepalm, rioting in our cities, China and Taiwan, natural disasters such as drought, wildfires, earthquakes, and tsunamis, just to name a few. “And the beat goes on.”
So what is the church to do? How can we know what our Christian response should be, must be, to what may soon be forced upon each of us? Is this all part of the end times? Are we just watching the death rattle of the American experiment? Or is it both?
…Wisdom From God
Not surprisingly, the answer is found in discovering more of God, and for a good reason. What we need is wisdom from God to know what to do and how to respond, which is only found in Jesus Christ. And God’s wisdom is imputed to us by the Holy Spirit who, as we talked about in detail last week, now lives in each of us. In closing, consider this incredible verse.
But of Him (or because of Him or by His doing) you are (what) in Christ Jesus, who became (gínomai – to begin to be, to come into existence) for us (you and me, the church, the called-out ones)
(1) wisdom from God— and
(2) righteousness and
(3) sanctification and
(4) redemption— that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the LORD” – 1 Corinthians 1:30-31.
The wisdom of God we so desperately need literally “began to be” or “came into existence” in us in Christ Jesus. He “became for us” the wisdom from God, the righteousness of God, our sanctification in God, and our redemption to God. All these attributes, so badly needed today, are found in Him. And He now lives in us in the Holy Spirit.
So for the next few days, we are going to continue what we began on Sunday and look at God’s book of wisdom, the Proverbs, using the tools we discussed (and will review later) to discover the source of all the answers, to all the questions, that trouble us today. And when you hear from God and His glorious wisdom becomes second-nature to you, then whatever darkness comes your way, whatever may happen tomorrow, you will confidently say, “Thy will be done” (Matt. 6:10), and “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20).
