Is there a more maligned name than the name of Jesus Christ? I just recently read something written by Jim Wallis who’s known as an evangelical pastor, a social activist, and a voice of the left-wing of the religious party, the religious left. He says:
“It is essential that we understand the religious nature of our present crisis. At this point, “Jesus” is still a very useful tool in the hands of tyrants. The liberationists, socialists, barbarians, and Scythians can easily use Jesus’ name to fit into any of their agendas. Jesus can be the easiest way to push a “love thy neighbor” agenda that can apply to about any modern governmental impulse from forcing wearing masks to wearing Bernie’s mittens. The reason Jesus is such a compelling figure is that unbelievers know that there is still a modicum of spirituality among the leftist base that still cherishes Jesus as a decorative piece in the intellectual journey of any human being.”
“A decorative piece” was an interesting phrase. That people can use Jesus Christ’s name to justify just about anything they want to do. I mean using His name, claiming to have authority for what they want to justify.
As followers of Christ, we should not be surprised, since Christ said people would come in His name claiming to be Christ’s representatives. He said many false prophets would rise up and deceive many. The end time or the end of the ages experience is preparing the world to reject the returning Christ and His authority over all nations. The name of Jesus Christ, which includes the role of Jesus Christ is being utterly denigrated now.
For followers of Christ, it is crucial that we never reject Him as our personal Savior. Christ’s name should be very meaningful to all of us, and it needs to be treated with a great deal of respect because “Nor is there salvation in any other, (meaning Jesus Christ) for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
Christ’s sacrifice must be a living dynamic in our lives, not just a decorative piece. It must be central to what we think, the way we think, the way we approach life. The Bible warns against treating Christ’s death lightly. “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame”(Hebrews 6:4-6).
It’s not just a matter of someone that’s made a slip or left the Church for a few years and has come back to the Church. It’s more than that: “Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:29).
This verse is stronger in its language. “Common” means unholy, treating Christ’s sacrifice as unholy, disregarding, and denigrating it. But what would bring someone to this point where they would lose the sanctity of the sacrifice as it applies to themselves personally?
“But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, (received God’s Holy Spirit) you endured a great struggle with sufferings: partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated;” (Hebrews 10:32-33).
The members Paul refers to are under severe trials and difficulties and lost the spiritual edge and became depressed, or bitter with a particular ongoing trial. When we look to God for deliverance from a trial, and it doesn’t come, there is always the opportunity to become bitter against God. Like instances where people have experienced the death of a mate, and God did not intervene to heal.
That is a trial of an attitude towards God. But it’s more than just being disillusioned and being worn down a little bit by discouragement in a trial. It’s defiant willfulness against the lead of the Holy Spirit: “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses” (Hebrews 10:26-28).
It’s speaking about sinning willfully and it introduces Moses’ law: “But the person who does anything presumptuously, (That word means defiantly.) whether he is native-born or a stranger, that one brings reproach on the Lord, and he shall be cut off from among his people” (Numbers 15:30)
In the law of Moses, sinning willfully is not just a matter of making a mistake. It’s a matter of setting the mind willfully to defy the law of God. That can come with bitterness, with anger, with being worn down over time. It’s a very genuine warning for us to consider.
Jesus Christ interpreted this principle in Numbers 15 for us: “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come” (Matthew 12:31-32).
So, what does it mean to speak against the Holy Spirit? Look at that example of Stephen when he’s not being what we would call today very “politically correct”: “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it” (Acts 7:51-53).
The Holy Spirit leads and guides us into truth. It is the Spirit of truth. When it leads the guidance which is from God, and is rejected, it grieves the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, by its nature, leads a mind into godly conduct, whether in the letter or Spiritual intent.
In the book of Ephesians, Paul puts it this way: “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30). We must let the Holy Spirit do its powerful work of leading the human mind into everything to do with the relationship with God. It will lead you into holy and right conduct. To set our mind against that lead is to sin willfully.
The human mind, under stress for an extended period, is capable of completely changing its orientation. It’s an aspect of severe, long trials. It is possible to become so worn down, so discouraged, or depressed, that the Son of God and His sacrifice can be trodden underfoot. God’s people need to be able to endure a great struggle. Endurance is especially important for us, and it comes from the strength provided by the Holy Spirit.
There’s going to be nothing in this world that sustains the course of life that God is taking His people on. It’s going to come down to our relationship with God. The body and blood of Christ are essential for life. They are very dominant factors.
Paul writes about ‘the law of sin’ which highlights the need for Christ’s sacrifice. In Romans he is writing about the law of God to an audience that is largely Jewish in nature. The Jewish peoples equate righteousness to obedience to the law. Paul introduces a different concept. He explains the Christian struggle with great clarity.
“For we know that the law is spiritual but I am carnal, sold under sin” (Romans 7:14). Paul is writing this to the Church. For him to say that the law is spiritual is an indication of his conversion and his understanding that the law is holy, just, and good, which is what he is clarifying to the people.
He is talking about the reality of being physical and the law being spiritual and how those two interplays with each other. In Romans 8:7 Paul defines the carnal, fleshly, human mind. It’s hostile against God and it is not subject to the law of God and “neither can it be”.
Then Paul explains the struggles that converted people have with the human mind by him discussing his own struggles: “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good” (Romans 7:15-16)
So, there’s no problem with the law. The problem is being able to do what the law says and the huge struggle that it is to do that. We know what we want to do, what we will to do. But how often do we end up not doing it and falling short of that goal?
Paul concludes: “But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. (He’s coming down to why that struggle exists.) For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me” (Romans 7:17-21).
Now he is coming down to the identification of what it is that prevents us from doing what we know we should do. He says: “I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good (He’s identifying sin within the human being as a law.) For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members” (Romans 7:22-23).
This human mind without the Holy Spirit, operates according to a law, the law of sin. Let’s give it a definition: It’s “an inward principle of action, operating with the immovability of a law.” It is something inherent within the human mind that drives it to perform in a particular way: Sin. The human mind without the spiritual law of God is controlled by the law of sin. It can’t be any other way. There can only be one direction, sin and death. That’s the only direction that this can lead man in.
Paul is saying that there are two conflicting principles with inherent characteristics. Each one is vying to make Paul captive to its force. When the law of sin is a dominant force, we become captive to its power. Having made the statements about these two forces Paul says: “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24).
He’s saying we must be delivered from the law of sin. We can’t, by our own human willpower, our own human mind, break its hold. Without the Spirit of God man is held captive. It is an inward principle of action operating with the immovability of a law.
So how is this vicious cycle broken? Paul: “I thank God— through Jesus Christ our Lord! (That is the only way that the law of sin’s hold over a human mind can be broken.) So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin” (Romans 7:24-25).
The law of sin is broken by the power of God’s Spirit, which becomes available when Christ’s sacrifice is applied. When we repent, and are baptized, we receive God’s Holy Spirit, the power to break the hold of the law of sin.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:1-2). “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; . . .” (John 7:38).
God’s law becomes “an inward principle of action, operating with the immovability of a law”. We are set free from the law of sin. Christ’s gift, the Holy Spirit, which we receive, takes the captivity of the law of sin, captive. It is stronger and it overpowers the law of sin in a human mind. The power of the law of God is more powerful than the law of sin (Ephesians 4:7-8).
But the law of God must be accessed, or we end up being held captive to the law of sin. The Holy Spirit is a power, but it’s a gift. It needs to be used. If we renew it and stay close to God, that power will be on hand when we need it to defeat the law of sin. It’s a battle. It will always continue to be a struggle. The point is, through Christ’s sacrifice we can defeat the law of sin, and only by Christ’s sacrifice is that available to us (Romans 8:3; 5:6-10).
Without Jesus Christ’s sacrifice we would have nothing. There would be no plan of salvation. Salvation must stand on the foundation of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice. While the society around us is denigrating the name of Jesus Christ, including His role as humanity’s Savior, it is vital that Christ’s followers do not participate in such denigration of His name and roles. It is essential that we do not succumb to rejecting our Savior.
Brian Orchard