Grace Thoughts
GraceLife Thoughts: Love and Wrath (Part 11)
One of the most important ‘Character’ traits of God is that He does not change –
For I am the Lord, I do not change. Malachi 3:6
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. James 1:17
Since Jesus Christ is the Son of God, He doesn’t change either –
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Hebrews 13:8
The reason I mention that here is that Christians can have full confidence in their spiritual leaders – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Confidence in leadership is important to soldiers as they enter into battle.
Confidence in Leadership
When Israel turned to God they won battles. When Israel turned away from God they lost battles. That’s a simple overview of the Old Testament, but it’s true. God loves Israel and has always wanted His people to succeed. However, Israel often did what it wanted and God allowed them to wander from Him. They learned some hard lessons that way.
The same is true with Jesus Christ and His Church. When Christians have confidence in Christ’s leadership and follow Him, we win battles. When we don’t, we won’t. Again, a somewhat simple overview of the last two-thousand years of Christian history, but it’s true. Christians who develop a greater confidence in their own abilities and less confidence in the Lord’s are doomed for failure.
We learned about the Manual for War in our last study. That’s the Bible – all of it – Old and New Testaments. Even as a soldier is expected to know everything in the military ‘manual’ given him in basic training, Christians should view the Bible as their manual for the ‘spiritual’ battles we will face. In that manual we learn to trust our superior officers. They know the ‘command plan’ and how to implement it. Soldiers know their piece of the plan, but not all of it. The longer you spend on the battlefield, the more you learn about God’s plan for the ages and the part He wants you to play in it.
Confidence in Your Fellow Soldiers
Soldiers also know the importance of being able to trust their brothers and sisters ‘in arms.’ We need to have confidence in each other. We develop that confidence through basic training and experience on the battlefield. We quickly learn who we can trust to ‘have our six’ (our back) and who we can’t. If a fellow soldier is ‘entangled with the affairs of this life’ (2 Timothy 2:4), there is little reason to be confident that they will help you in the middle of a ‘fire fight.’ I’m looking for people who are ‘all in’ in following God’s plans.
‘being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ’ Philippians 1:6
When Jesus spoke with Nicodemus that evening in John 3, He was talking with a spiritual soldier in Israel’s leadership. While most Pharisees of his day were more concerned about themselves than the people they were support to shepherd and protect, Jesus saw something different in Nicodemus. He saw someone who wanted to do what was right, even at personal and professional cost.
We see in John 7 that members of the Sanhedrin (ruling council of Israel) wanted Jesus arrested. The soldiers returned empty-handed and said they didn’t arrest Jesus because – ‘No man ever spoke like this Man!’ That answer did not sit well with the rulers. They asked if ‘any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him.’ Nicodemus, at his own personal and professional peril, said – ‘Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?’ That question from Nicodemus did not go over well with his fellow council rulers. They answered and said to Nicodemus – ‘Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee.’ They didn’t realize that Jesus had been born in Bethlehem, which matched the prophets.
John doesn’t say how Nicodemus responded to that question, if he did. However, John does tell us later that Nicodemus helped Joseph of Arimathea bury the body of Jesus in a nearby garden in a new. tomb (John 19). We don’t read anything more about Nicodemus by name in the New Testament, but we do read that many Pharisees and priests did become followers of Jesus after the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. Maybe Nicodemus was one of them.
Nicodemus may have become one of the thousands of Jews who became warriors for Jesus following the Resurrection. He may have been one of warriors who would ‘have your back’ in battle. We’ll never know because we’re not told. However, the point is that ‘belief’ in Christ needs to include ‘actions.’ Soldiers don’t join the military so they can do their own thing. They join to fight and win battles! That’s what we need today – Christians who are prepared for spiritual warfare.
[Podcast version of this study coming soon.]
We’ve Come A Long Way
We have come a long way in just eleven weeks. I hope this study from the world’s most popular Bible verse (John 3:16) has been helpful to you. Whether you are struggling with the ‘love and wrath’ of God or you know people who are, understanding the greatness and perfection of our God is most beneficial to the life we live and the war we wage. There are a few more things of importance I would like to share with you from John 3 and we’ll do that in Part Twelve of our study.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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Founder & Director of GraceLife Ministries View all posts by gracelifethoughts
