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HOW MANY COLLEGE
CREDITS FOR MY OBEDIENCE? #5
MADE FOR DANCING
"There's a bad computer chip in that guy,"
we sometimes mutter to ourselves. "Something screwed up in the wiring."
But the Bible tells us that the original design, from the dust of Eden,
has God making us to be GOOD. The page-one blueprint is one of obedience
and a holy life.
There's a cute anecdote in the "Laughter: The
Best Medicine" section of a recent Reader's Digest. (I assume that
you immediately turn there first, just like the rest of us.) But some
of the world's great scientists, very pleased with their lofty achievements,
set up a conference call and told God that they weren't really that impressed
with His creative abilities any more. "Anything You can do, we can
do," they scoffed. "We can split atoms, and make babies in test
tubes, and clone sheep, and alter DNA, and break down the molecular codes,
and the whole nine yards. So you made Adam and Eve out of dirt big deal;
we're to the point where we can do that too!"
And God was very gracious; He didn't get mad. In fact, when the haughty
scientists in their white coats challenged Him to a man-making contest,
He agreed. "All right," He said. "I accept your challenge.
You make a man out of dirt, and I'll make a man out of dirt too."
Immediately the main science guy dropped to his knees, with a bunch of
test tubes and laser gizmos hanging out of his pockets, and began scooping
up some dirt for his demonstration. And God cleared His throat. "Uh,
not so fast, pal," He said. "Rule #1: you get your own dirt."
Well . . . end of contest right there. We always say here on the Voice
of Prophecy, "We serve a God who can't be beat" . . . and that's
one of His more easy wins for sure.
Speaking of man's cleverness in gene splicing, the Los Angeles Times had
a discouraging news piece back in February of 2002. Yes, it's true that
we've managed to clone a sheep named Dolly and a few mice here and there.
But now research indicates that cloned mice have a shorter life span than
the mice God makes according to His own lab manual found in Genesis chapter
one. These cloned mice come through the system with "subtle abnormalities,"
says reporter Rosie Mestel. Because they come from adult cells rather
than the usual egg and sperm, those adult cells "may not be properly
programmed," she writes. Scientists are still divided on the question
of whether or not it's just a matter of improving methods or if perhaps
there is actually an "intractable biological barrier," as they
put it. One way or another, out of 12 mice studied by Japanese scientists,
10 of them were dead within 800 days. In a control group, only one out
of seven had gone on to mouse heaven in the same time period.
In any case, I'd like for you to travel back in time with me to another
Friday: the one where the original scoop of dirt was lovingly and tenderly
and creatively made into a man named Adam. Here at the Voice of Prophecy,
we still believe that Genesis 2:7 is telling the truth when it records
how God formed the first man "from the dust of the ground" on
the sixth day.
Here in our study book of Ephesians, where the soil of Eden has given
way to the busy streets and the high-rise Temple of Artemis one of the
seven wonders of the ancient world we find a very interesting reference
going back to creation and how our first forefather was formed by the
hand of God.
We can't truly picture how God who spoke everything else on Planet Earth
into existence by the force of His own words actually knelt down in
the dirt and began to make a guy named Adam. A skeletal structure. And
muscles. Veins and arteries and capillaries. Internal organs. A face.
A heart. A brain. And somehow in all that process, God also instilled
a conscience. He made a man who could return His love. He made a man who
could comprehend spiritual things and learn to obey his Maker. Genesis
2 tells us that all of this together skin, bones, heart, mind, emotions,
and the spark of life, the breath of life all of that together became
a living soul.
We have to humbly praise God for two things because Adam is the great-great-great-great
granddad of every single person on this planet. So the blueprint for him
is the one God used for us too. But in a miraculous kind of way, God made
this wonderful man, the crowning moment of Creation Week, with two simultaneous
gifts in him. First of all, free will. God made Adam with a mind, not
a computer chip. He could say yes or no to his Creator. He could love
God or hate Him. He could choose allegiance to God, or swear fealty to
the serpent.
However, even though we know painfully well that Adam and Eve chose to
sin, they were still created with a second gift: they were fashioned from
God's hand with a blueprint for goodness. And obedience. And love for
God. God made Adam and Eve to be a happy, healthy, abundant, loyal, spiritually
successful king and queen of earth. And these two first creatures had
to deliberately break out of the mold, away from the blueprint, and into
the alien cesspool of the enemy's kingdom. Righteousness and joy were
the default mode on Day #6 of Creation Week; God had in mind the very
first "Good Friday" meaning that Adam and Eve would love being
good, enjoy being good, and reap all the blessings of being good. It has
always been that way in God's plan, and it always will be.
Let's skip back to the New Testament, then, and read again this powerful
passage in Ephesians 2. We finished yesterday with the hallmark teaching
of Christianity that we are saved by grace God's gift to us at Calvary
accessed by our faith IN that gift. "Saved by grace, THROUGH FAITH"
is the motto of every believer. Then verse nine is so hugely important:
"NOT by works, so that no one can boast."
But then, in case we're tempted to throw away the Christian
guidebook, and burn the Ten Commandments, Paul follows IMMEDIATELY with
verse 10. Here it is:
"For we are God's workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus to DO good works, which God prepared in advance for us to
do."
So the Eden blueprint is good works! God means for
us to do good . . . even though that goodness is not the basis, or root,
of our entrance into heaven. Christians like to say that obedience is
"the fruit, not the root," of our salvation.
We've been joyfully moving between two great commentaries for Ephesians.
In the Adventist collection, the writers highlight this very point.
"Before creation it was planned that those
saved by grace should have good works as a witness to the fact,"
the scholars write. "That sequence was written into the spiritual
code by which man was to live."
That makes sense, doesn't it? The human race wasn't
created to be robotic, but it WAS hard-wired, in a sense, for goodness
and holy responses. And here is the beautiful point. When you and I come
to the Lord at the point of conversion, we are, of course, "born
again." In a sense, God gets down in the dust a second time and He
remakes us as His redeemed sons and daughters. And certainly here the
SECOND time, we are especially created to do these good works! The same
commentary expounds on the expression "created in Christ Jesus."
Notice:
"Of himself man cannot bring forth good
works." Six thousand years of inheriting faulty wiring will do that
to us, won't it? They continue: "It is necessary for him to be spiritually
RE-created in Christ before he can produce the good works God purposes
he shall bring forth. By a change of the will, affections, and purposes
the privileges and duty of witnessing by good works becomes possible."
Friend, does that sound intimidating? It doesn't need
to be. Do we have to do this by our own efforts? in our own strength?
No. Does our salvation depend upon getting up to a certain level of holiness?
No. God will do this in our lives; He will re-wire and retrain and reward;
all we do is to cooperate daily. I love how good Christian writers through
the ages of captured the beautiful reality that this becomes a joy, an
adventure, almost a spiritual dance as we become God's partner out there
on the floor, simply following His steps. In fact, this same Adventist
commentary points out that this word "workmanship" comes from
the Greek, Poi ma, meaning "that which is made or done," "a
work," or "a creation." Then they share this insight:
"The English word poem' is derived from
poi ma. The reference here is to God's spiritual re-creation of man. We
are remade by Him for the purpose of good works.'"
And the Tyndale commentary comes right in here with
a hearty "Amen!" Here it is:
"Works' have been excluded as a means of
amassing merit and gaining favor with God. The gulf between God and man
must be bridged by God's action. The new life of fellowship with God must
be God's creation and cannot be man's work. BUT . . . nevertheless . .
. the essential quality OF the new life is good works."
Friend, in the new birth of Christian life, goodness
is there. Not as a duty, not as a task. But as a beautiful poem, a dance.
Let the music begin.
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