Perspective of Life in Christ

Today we are going to meditate upon the perspective of life in Christ. This will give us a foundation to understand life in Christ as well as the truth in the Old Testament and the New Testament. We read Matthew 4, ‘The Temptation of Jesus’. Verse 5-7:

Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,“‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

This is taken from Psalm 91, so we will read the Psalm and learn how to understand it. The devil was quoting Psalm 91:10-12:

10 no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.

11 For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.

12 On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.

It is a messianic psalm, so we should take it easy to quote it without a proper understanding. Let us also read verse 3-7 to see how this part is usually quoted apart from its context and without understanding Christ.

3 For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.

4 He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.

5 You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day,

6 nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.

7 A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.

I believe we often hear verse 7, but can we take it that for any believer in Christ, he or she will be safe even if there are a thousand people and ten thousand people at his or her sides? In reality, we all experience grief, death, suffering and many unfortunate events. Many people, consciously or not, use this verse from the devil’s perspective. In the temptation of Jesus, the devil quoted Psalm 91, which indeed talks about Christ. However, even Christ, whom the verse refers to, replies the devil, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’. Ironically, many christians, without the devil’s temptation, use the devil’s perspective in their daily lives.

Similar to what we meditated last week in Stockholm, that many christians use the devil’s sentences in the first temptation of Jesus. When Jesus was hungry, the devil said ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’. Many christians, using the devil’s perspective, ask God to remove them from their sufferings. That is why we need to understand the core of our faith, that is, Christ. Without Christ, we will not be able to understand the Word of God and how to do it. Do you know that positive thinking and prosperity gospel are the way of the devil to deceive the people of God? I hope we begin to understand how Christ gives us an example on how to understand the reality of life. Why does Christ struggle, suffer and willingly die on the cross? Because of Christ’ perfect obedience to the Father. Although He is the Son of God who became man, He does not use His privilege for His self-interest.

We will now meditate on the problem of evil. Epicurus, a famous philosopher, says that if God is all loving, all good, all powerful, why is there evil in this world? He says that if God wants, but is not able to remove evil, why would we believe in such a God? Or if God is able, but does not want to remove evil, then such a God is cruel. How do we understand reality? There are many natural disasters as well as many evil things in government and society. Sometimes people take evil actions against us. In many places in Indonesia, there are people who follow traffic rules and yet they are hit by trucks whose brakes are not working. The victims are obedient, yet God allows such incidents to happen - why? How do we answer the question of Epicurus?

We need to firstly look in the Old Testament on the problem of evil. Jeremiah was lamenting his life to the point that he even cursed his day of birth. He was asking ‘I am serving God, but why do I experience such sufferings?’. Also he was asking, ‘I am speaking the truth, but why do so many people seek my death?’. He experienced so much suffering that he said that he wanted to forget the Word of God and did not want to talk about it anymore. Also in the Old Testament, in psalm 73 by Asaph, who questioned the point of keeping his life holy. Many evildoers enjoyed a good life while he was stricken all day. Job said the same thing. In Job 21:7-15 says,

7 Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power?

8 Their offspring are established in their presence, and their descendants before their eyes.

9 Their houses are safe from fear, and no rod of God is upon them.

10 Their bull breeds without fail; their cow calves and does not miscarry.

11 They send out their little boys like a flock, and their children dance.

12 They sing to the tambourine and the lyre and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.

13 They spend their days in prosperity, and in peace they go down to Sheol.

14 They say to God, ‘Depart from us! We do not desire the knowledge of your ways.

15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’

This happens in everyday reality. Many people do corruption on the scale of trillions of Rupiah. When they are brought to the court, they could bribe the officials so that the law is on their side. They are not stricken. People doing money laundering enjoy a good life, while honest, hard-working people experience a lot of suffering. As such, we need to know one foundational distinction in order to understand the Old Testament and the New Testament. If we look in the Old Testament, are there a lot of people who struggle, suffer and say they want to die? Habakkuk asks God why he sees so much suffering. He does not understand why it happens. He asks that if God is a just God, why He allows the Bablylonians, who are more evil, to punish the people of God. Elijah killed hundreds of Baal’s prophets, but upon encountering the threat from Jezebel, he said to God that he would rather die. He got depressed, stopped eating and did not see the point of continuing his life. We see so many prophets and characters in the Old Testament who experienced great sufferings even though their faith eventually lit up.

In the New Testament, do we see any apostle or character who cries like this and asks God to take their lives because of persecution? We do not see any, unlike in the Old Testament. No one is like Jonah, who upon seeing the kindness of God, said to God that he wanted to die. Why is this the case? Because they understand the new perspective in Christ. They understand Jesus’ sermon on the mount, which says, ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted on Christ’ account .’ This gives people in the New Testament a new perspective to understand suffering. They not only hear it, but also see how Jesus lives it out, even to the point of death on the cross. Thus, when they experience persecution and suffering, no one says anymore, ‘God, I have done good things, why do I still suffer?’. Neither does anyone say ‘God, it’s better for me to die because I have done good things yet I still suffer.’. They even give a response to suffering that had never happened in the history of mankind. What kind of response? It is that they could experience joy in the midst of suffering due to living righteously. In the book of Acts, it is recorded that the apostles rejoiced even after persecutions because they felt that they were considered worthy of suffering for Christ. Thus we need to see our current life and ask whether we realize that with the correct perspective of life in Christ, then all suffering due to righteous living will produce joy. However, without Christ, people live as in the Old Testament and upon facing sufferings, question whether God exists.

In our everyday life, how do we know if we are already in Christ? When we face struggles and suffering because of the truth and the name of Christ, can we rejoice, or do we live like people in the Old Testament and take the devil’s perspective? I believe many christians live their lives without Christ. They fail to take the true perspective in Christ and thus fail to see the reality of everyday life. Meditating on this allows us to answer Epicurus’ question. He asks, ‘Does God want to and is He able to?’. The answer is that God wants and is able to. Christ became man and had perfect obedience to the point of death on the cross. This is the first example to understand the perspective of life in Christ. No one can take away our joy if we are truly in Christ. The problem is that when many people struggle, they face it without Christ. It is then no surprise that they would like to die when struggling without Christ. Now to the second part: we want to understand what christians often quote from Ecclesiastes. For example, verses about studying hard and how it ends up in vain are often quoted by students. This is then affirmed in actual everyday life. Let us read 1 Corinthians 15: 8-10 and 58:

Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

I do not know if in our everyday life we feel there is something significant. Today we are shaped by the worldly perspective, that we have to become great people. If you would like to have a meaningful life, you must have a good house, a good vehicle, a good job, a smart brain, good looks. In today’s digital world, it might mean that your content or posts get a lot of ‘likes’. This is a worldly perspective which makes people feel their lives are meaningful and not in vain. For example, why do people like watching Korean drama series? Or why do many people like watching movies at cinemas? Because they are looking for something extraordinary in the stories. If a movie only tells about the daily activities of a housewife, who takes care of children, cooks, picks up the children from school, sleeps, and so on repeatedly, would anyone want to watch it? Or maybe a movie only tells about the daily activities of a student like studying, eating, sleeping, and so on repeatedly, would anyone want to watch it? Probably not, because man looks for something valuable. However, many look for it outside Christ. They create values for themselves in an autistic way. It is as silly as schoolchildren who set up a race on who can reach the classroom the fastest, or who can eat an egg the fastest, or who can eat the most pizzas. These sound like silly achievements, but they are similar to adults who race on getting the most money. They look for something that seems extraordinary but fail to see something really valuable in Christ, which is what Paul says, ‘that in the Lord, your labor is not in vain.’. Why is that? I answer with the Golden rule: do unto others what you would have them do to you. What is the best thing that you can give to other people? If somebody is asked what he or she would like to receive from others, many people will answer that it is money or a good position. However, the best thing we can give to others is the witness of the redemption work of Christ for us.

This brings us to the next part, which is to understand the value of life. Let us read John 15:7-8 and 17:

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

Last week we talked about the greatest gift from God to us. This is also the best gift that we can give to others. This gives us a meaningful life. Therefore, people with Christ in their lives will have a perspective that everything they do is not in vain. This is a totally different perspective from what we see in Ecclesiastes. Hence we should not say that everything is in vain just like what Ecclesiastes says. If we say all things are in vain, then it is clear that we do not have Christ in our lives and we do not have the right perspective in Christ.

Considering the perspective on facing the problem of evil and the perspective on vanity of life, we should no longer live out our christian lives as if we do not have Christ. I hope we are really rooted in the truth of Christ so that we no longer live as if we do not have Christ. In this way our perspective of life is changed. Epicurus asks, ‘If God is there, why is there evil?’. Now we have a different perspective: I am an evil person, why do I still experience good things in my life? I am supposed to receive death but instead receive the kindness of God. In Bandung, Indonesia, traffic jams happen everyday, so when we drive there during rush hours, we would not be surprised at all that there are traffic jams. However, if during rush hours, there is no traffic jam, then I would wonder and ask how come. Likewise, we often ask wrongly, ‘God, why do I suffer?’. Actually suffering in life is the most common thing we are supposed to experience. We are sinful people who commit many mistakes and deserve the sufferings. Yet we can still eat, drink and enjoy the grace of God through people who are full of love. We should be grateful for these things. Another friend of mine, a doctor, says, falling sick is a normal thing because there are so many bacteria and viruses. It is expected that people fall sick. Actually the unexpected thing is that people remain healthy. Strangely, christians think that if they fall sick, it is a strange thing, and if they remain healthy, it is normal. When we face the problem of evil, we can feel grateful. A commentator says that the problem of evil actually reveals a sovereign God because it proves that God is not bound by what man does. We cannot say to God, ‘I have done good things, so God, you have to do good things to me, too.’.

Now onto the second part. Let us read 2 Corinthians 4, where we see the grace of God expressed by Paul. Last week we talked about the new creation in verse 5 and 6. Now we will continue with verse 7-12:

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.

We need to understand that after we become a new creation in Christ, we have a new perspective to understand sufferings in our lives. When facing suffering, people who are not in Christ think they are on their own. However, people in Christ, when facing the problem of evil, they see that they are bringing the death of Christ in their body. The death of Jesus Christ is a powerful death. It creates new life in us. It resurrects dead people and sanctifies people. It is this death of Christ that we should carry in our body everyday. That is why Paul says he always carries in the body the death of Jesus, so that others may receive life. That means the new creation done by Christ has the power that we carry in our daily lives. To understand this, we need to understand what christians experience in the early church. They face all the sufferings that Paul mentioned here. They were caught and persecuted, but their love was made manifest. Their bodies were indeed weak and experienced so much suffering, but they carried the death of Christ that brings about life. Such persecution and suffering becomes the power to bring people to God. Again, verse 12 says, ‘so death is at work in us, but life in you.’ The redemption work of Christ gives us power in Christ to bring people back to life.

Thus we have a totally different perspective of life. We were crying in times of suffering and struggles and wanting to die, but now we receive life and see a shining power. May this part remind us once again that after we are in Christ, do not live anymore as if we do not have Christ. Do not read the word of God in a fragmented way and without Christ. Hence we need to study the Word of God well. We cannot just come to Sunday services and listen to sermons that are forty minutes long. We need to contemplate the Word of God in our everyday lives, then we will start to make sense of Jesus’ saying to turn the other cheek when we are slapped on one cheek. Also on why Jesus says to love your enemies and pray for them. I hope these new perspectives of life in Christ may change our everyday lives and we become people who witness the power of Christ that brings people back to life. We then witness a life that is full of thanksgiving and joy although we seem to live an ordinary life.