Good Works: Why do we have them?

An acquaintance of mine recently asked this question via Twitter:

"Why do we have works? Is it for outward performance? Or is it inward, an issue of the heart?"

Definitely a valid question. And these are my thoughts.

I believe that the answer is: both. Good works are both inward and outward; they have a single purpose, but are complex in their makeup; good works seek to achieve one goal, and they do so when a couple of different parts, namely that which is visible and that which is invisible, work together. What is visible is the good work itself - cooking for someone, working on someone's house, community service, etc. What is invisible is the heart and goal behind the good work - hypocrisy, authenticity, pride, humility, jealousy, and the list goes on and on. When the visible and invisible line up properly, the God-designed goal of good works is achieved - glorifying God by way of loving people.

The Visible

What is more glorifying to God than accurately representing him to a world that has never seen him? We have eyes that were created to behold the glory, beauty and love of their Creator, but so few eyes have actually rested on them. It makes sense. "...All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). There is no individual who, by virtue of their broken humanness, naturally displays the essence of God to the world - love (1 John 4:8). But thankfully, we have a Messiah who came to restore that which was broken, and believers have not only been fixed by God, we actually have his presence dwelling in us, and his love has been poured into our hearts (Rom. 5:5). So now, even though "no one has seen God at any time", "if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us" (1 John 4:12). There is a very real sense in which when believers love people, God himself is manifested to them through the love of the believer. This is the visible portion of a good work, and it's ultimate end is that people may a) see God, the one whom they were made to see, by way of b) actually seeing, receiving, and resting in the love that is manifested in the lives of believers. This makes God tangible and brings God glory.

The Invisible

But then there is the invisible portion of the good work - our motive. Nothing is done without some kind of motive behind it. Is our motive in doing a good work to be seen by men? If so, we fit Jesus' definition of a hypocrite (Matt. 6:1, 2, 5, 16). Is our goal in serving someone to give ourselves proof of our own salvation (in accordance with Phil. 2:12)?** Then the good work rings hollow, and we make God to be disingenuous (not in a substantive way, but in an apparent way to the unbelieving world). In other words: if our goal in loving people is anything other than actually loving them, we not only display an inauthentic affection that leaves a bitter taste on the tongue of those who taste it, we also misrepresent God. If I treat people as tools to assuage my own insecurities regarding my salvation, in my manipulation I actually portray God as manipulative & disingenuous; a fraud. Instead, genuine care for others is self-authenticating - it will appear genuine by virtue of its genuineness. God does not just appear to care for people; God actually cares. When we actually care, this authenticates God and brings God glory.

(As you can see, it is difficult to talk about the invisible without speaking in terms of what is visible, and it is difficult to talk about those without speaking of what they are accomplishing. I believe that's how it should be. And as difficult as it is to speak of them separately, it is actually impossible to live separately. The inner life and outer life are inseparable.)

What are they for?

Analyzing our own good works should be, I believe, a retrospective exercise. Instead of serving someone to verify for myself whether I am saved or not (which warps the purpose of service and displays a misunderstanding of justification), service and good works should be flowing out of my life as a fruit of my Gospel-rooted love and compassion for people; and then, weeks and months down the line, I will be able to look back and rejoice that truly "it is God who is at work in [me] both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13). We are, in fact, made for good works (Eph. 2:10), and we can look forward to walking in those works for the glory of God which, as a byproduct, does bring a deep satisfaction. As we walk in righteousness, people will see a true expression of who God is, which may then result in their glorifying our "Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 5:16). 

So what's up with good works? Are they for outward performance or are they an inward issue? I say they are for both. Outward - for the visible glory of God; inward - for the heart-exalting glory of God; in total - for the glory of God.

What do you all think? 

I'm gonna die.

...Is that morbid? Perhaps.
What's even more morbid is a Google Image search for "death". Don't try that one if you're home alone.

You see, I was looking for a picture that I feel resonates with how I view death, a topic that seems to settle on my mind quite often. The morbid, grotesque, and caricatured anime renderings of death don't sit well with me. I view it more like...sunset on an autumn day.

In autumn, darkness blankets the sky at a noticeably earlier time of day; most plant life has reached its prime, is bearing or has born its fruit, and is now beginning its steady descent into the barren winter months; shadows slip out of hiding and join together in a haunting dance, happy to be rid of the sun's all-revealing light; details that were once razor sharp become eclipsed, made dull by twilight's softer glow; vivid oranges, yellows, and reds burst forward, a desperate swan song before being enveloped by the cimmerian darkness...it all points towards the nearing, inevitable end of the day.

Death, the end, is something that my generation doesn't think of enough. Well, allow me to re-phrase...we think about it plenty, but we don't think about it happening to us. We are inundated with death from sensationalist media, from film and entertainment, and from music (Neyo advises: "...for all we know, we might not get tomorrow / let's do it tonight..."), and from games. We are told stories about mass killings, terrorist bombings, black-hearted murders, and medical failures. We have laws against drunk driving, texting and driving, driving without our seat-belts, and a multitude of other distractions while driving. Why? Because we could die. Any one of those reports, stories, or broken laws could be us. But when we say "us", we have managed to somehow dissociate our individual selves from that pronoun, and in doing so we dissociate from the subject the pronoun was being linked to: death. "That news report could have been me, but it wasn't," our subconscious speculates, "and since none of those reports have ever been me, they probably never will be." Subconsciously, we falsely affirm our own immortality. So now when we say "us", we really mean "everyone else". Death affects people, but not me. It may come to a family member, but not to me. It might happen to a friend from high school, but not to me.

Furthermore, we have developed the ability to suppress our subconscious musings, never allowing them to bubble up to the surface, never thinking them on a conscious level. If someone asked me, "Nathaniel, have you ever thought that others may die, but you never will?", up until the last few years I could honestly answer, "No, I have not". I had never thought that phrase to myself. At least, I hadn't until people that I knew started brushing against death, while others fully embraced it. A handful of examples from my life:

• An acquaintance from high school, Richie Herskowitz, died from Cystic Fibrosis before he could celebrate his 18th birthday. He was the youngest ever recipient of a double lung transplant when he was only 6 years old. 

• My grandfather almost died last year at age 75 when his gall bladder died and festered, without his knowledge, not long after a triple bypass surgery. The infection threatened his liver, stomach, and kidneys, but the doctors caught it before it caught him.

• Another acquaintance, that I met and spent time with on my summertime visits to California during high school, got involved with people that he should not have and was recently (within the last few months) shot and killed execution style in a field. If he had not taken the bullet himself, harm would have come to his grandmother, wife, and baby daughter.

• One of my favorite pastors, Bob Jennings, a man that I regard very highly, died this last November from pancreatic cancer. Reading his journal from the time he was diagnosed until he was on his death bed really affected me. There was a weightiness to his words, a vivid understanding of his own mortality, that shook me to the very core of my being.

In a moment of revelation, after pondering the death that had touched my life, it hit me like the proverbial sack of life-snuffing bricks: I'm gonna die. Not now, perhaps, and not even in a week or a year; but soon, very soon, I'm gonna die. "I am about to go the way of all the earth..." (1 Kings 2:2). All the earth is headed that direction, without exception, without partiality. We all die. Even you, friend, and even me.

In light of that reality, what matters should we be concerning ourselves with? Is all existence temporal and finite? Are all things truly vanity? Or is there something beyond the grave, that transcends death itself? If there is, that is what I want to concern myself with.

That something, I believe, is Christ Jesus and his kingdom. When my name is forgotten from history, when every last person I knew and who knew me has likewise died, and any memory of my existence has faded from the earth, Jesus, who brought all things into being for his pleasure and glory, remains. How many billions of people have walked this earth, breathed the same air, drank the same water, and then passed into obscurity? But Jesus was before time, is present in time, and will be forevermore. He holds all things together by the word of his power, and before he brought me into being, Jesus was there. When I fade, Jesus endures.

If Jesus is what matters, and he, his kingdom, and his people are the only things that last beyond the grave, then why not labor for the death-defying matters of a Christ-centered eternity?

I fear I will reach the autumn twilight of my life without ever having flourished, without ever having done anything that was lasting, and with the shadows skipping and leaping around me, that I will slip into the darkness of night. I fear my leaves will fall from barren, fruitless limbs. I fear that no harvest will have ever been reaped from my life.

I don't fear being forgotten; I fear not being worth remembering.

I look forward to being with my Savior, and I know that for me, when I fall asleep on this earth, I will wake up in Christ. But I pray that, in the meantime, my existence will not be a waste of time, a waste of space, or a waste of life. I pray that when I reach my autumn twilight I will happily embrace the falling darkness, knowing that the sun has set on a life well-lived, and that the next light I see will be his presence on eternity's horizon.

The Priesthood of Jesus: Priest, Sacrifice, and Inheritance

In this post I'm going to discuss in relative, although not exhaustive, detail how Jesus was the perfect fulfillment of the Levitical priesthood: he is the perfect priest, the perfect sacrifice, and the perfect inheritance. If details bore you and you just want to skip to the conclusion, scroll down to the section "Jesus" and read from there. If those points don't make any sense...suck it up and read from the beginning. :)

When God led the descendants of Jacob (who was renamed "Israel", see Gen. 35:10) out of Egypt, he promised to take them to a land that was flowing with milk and honey (Ex. 3:7-10). This land would be their home and their inheritance from God, a land for their own possession where they would have peace from their enemies on all sides, where they would prosper, and a land in which the people of God could actually dwell in the presence of their God (Ex. 29:45-46). While still in Egypt, the families of the twelve sons of Israel grew in number to the point of making their own distinct tribes, and after the exodus (Ex. 12:33-42) and wandering in the desert (Ex. 13:1- Joshua 2:24), each tribe eventually received their portion of the land as God had promised them (Josh. 13-19). Below is an approximate rendering of how the tribes may have been distributed throughout the land of Canaan in ancient Palestine.
Question: Which of the twelve tribes was not included in the distribution of land? Or in other words, which of the twelve tribes had no land inheritance?

Distribution of the 12 Tribes through Canaan

..........

Did you guess Joseph? If you did, you're right in noticing that his name is not present, but he is represented by his sons Ephraim and Manasseh (cf. Genesis 48).

Answer: Levi! The Levites are missing from the above map. They had no inheritance of land, but were given cities to live in among the land of the other tribes (Num. 35, Josh. 21). "Why is this? And what in the world does this have to do with Jesus being a priest, sacrifice, and inheritance? And what in the world does this have to do with me?!" Great questions! As I meditated on the way Christ perfectly fulfills these three aspects of the priesthood, I had no choice but to worship God for his wisdom and his powerful ability. My mind = blown.

The Levitical Priesthood, as far as I can see, had three main components: the priests themselves, the sacrifices and offerings they mediated as priests, and the inheritance they received from God.

The Priests
The Levites were appointed by God to be the only ones allowed to set up, tear down, and work in the tent of meeting (Num. 3:1-4:49). God anointed the priests for the work, and then consecrated them through a ritual cleansing that involved their own offerings and sacrifices, resulting in their being atoned for, granting them the holiness required to step into the tent where God's presence dwelt (Num. 8:5-19). Inside, they did work which included: offering the sacrifices and offerings brought by the individual people, families, tribes, and the nation at their appropriate times (Lev. 1-7), caring for and trumpeting the silver trumpets (Num. 10:1-10), cleansing lepers (Lev. 14:1-32) and unclean houses (Lev. 14:33-54), testing for adultery (Num. 5:11-31), and the most important among other duties was actually caring for "all that concerns the altar" and that which was "within the veil" (Num. 18:7). In fact, this was so serious that "any outsider who comes near [the altar and the items within the veil] shall be put to death", but since somebody had to step near in order to offer sacrifices and make atonement for the people (Heb. 9:22), and not just anybody could, the Levitical priesthood was given by God as those somebodies. By their privileged access atonement was made by offering...

The Sacrifices
Because of sin and it's role in humanity, both in separating us from God and in it's law-breaking nature (thereby making us estranged enemies), God mercifully instituted a sacrificial system in which sin could be atoned for on both the individual (Lev. 4:3, 22, 27) and corporate/national (Lev. 4:13) level. Without going into a huge amount of detail, suffice it to say that the sacrifices and offerings that God instructed the people to offer (and the priests to mediate) were very poignant pictures of God's requirement of perfection: each ingredient and animal, each carefully calculated cut, each drop of blood sprinkled, each limb washed, each organ removed and precisely placed on the altar, each heap of ashes reverently removed to the outside of the camp. The worshipers would lay their hands on the head of the bull or lamb, identifying with the animal and thereby transferring their guilt to it so that when it died its gory death, it was as if the worshiper was actually dying. These all satisfied certain demands required by God's own perfection and holiness, and by painstakingly partaking in this gracious provision for sin, the sons of Jacob from every tribe (via the mediating work of the priests) were allowed to maintain their citizenship within their tribes and nation. By maintaining citizenship, they would also receive...

The Inheritance
Promised by God to Abraham (Gen. 12:1-9), to Isaac (Gen. 26:1-5), and to Jacob (Gen. 28:4, 13; 35:11-12), the inheritance that they were promised from God would be a national identity, being a blessing to the whole world, and a land in which they could live as God's people (cf. Scripture references above next to the names of each patriarch). As God's people, they would have the distinct privilege of making the one true God known to the rest of the world, and as a bonus (as if you could top living with the presence of the creator of the universe) they would have their own land to do this from! [Not a bad deal, not a bad deal at all.]
Some of the upsides to having their own land would be: freedom to live by the righteous requirements of God's law without hindrance from foreign rule, land and possessions to pass down to their descendants, and because they owned land, this meant they could farm and pastor their flocks, maintaining their means of sustenance. But, as you remember from the graphic up above, the Levites were left out of the "land" portion of the inheritence, which begs the question: what the heck?!

If the Levites were one of the twelve tribes, included in the promise of an inheritance, but they didn't receive what was obviously part of Israel's inheritance, then what did they receive? Numbers 18 gives us the answer...

^"8 Then the Lord spoke to Aaron, “Behold, I have given you charge of the contributions made to me, all the consecrated things of the people of Israel. I have given them to you as a portion and to your sons as a perpetual due. ⁹ This shall be yours of the most holy things, reserved from the fire: every offering of theirs, every grain offering of theirs and every sin offering of theirs and every guilt offering of theirs, which they render to me, shall be most holy to you and to your sons. ¹⁰ In a most holy place shall you eat it. Every male may eat it; it is holy to you. ¹¹ This also is yours: the contribution of their gift, all the wave offerings of the people of Israel. I have given them to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it. ¹² All the best of the oil and all the best of the wine and of the grain, the firstfruits of what they give to the Lord, I give to you. ¹³ The first ripe fruits of all that is in their land, which they bring to the Lord, shall be yours. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it...²⁰ And the Lord said to Aaron, 'You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel.'"

What does this mean? It's pretty straightforward: when the people brought their bulls, lambs, fruits, grains, and wines to offer to God, God was then giving a portion of each of these to the Levites. In certain sacrifices, a portion of the meats and grains were not burnt on the altar, but were instead set aside, and it was these set aside pieces that the Levites could eat. So, even though they had no land they were inheriting (and therefore nowhere to farm or harvest), they were being provided for directly by God. It looked like this:

1. God provided a harvest, the increase of the crops, and healthy cattle to the people,
2. the people brought their crops and animals to sacrifice to God,
3. God would then take of those sacrifices and give it to sustain the Levites.

And in this sharing of what belonged to him, God said, "I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel" (Num. 18:20). God was sustaining the lives of the Levites through his portion of the sacrifices (if you don't eat, you die, right?), and God is also the source of life itself (he is the one that gives food it's sustaining ability), which gives us this picture: "I (God) = life. I give you myself = I give you life". So what was the inheritance of the Levites? Physical life and God's presence.

Jesus
And now, there's Jesus

1. As priest: Just like the Levitical priesthood, Jesus was appointed to have access into the temple, but unlike the Levites, he was sinless, and therefore had no need for atonement. For this reason, he had no fear of stepping into the presence of God to perform his priestly duties where anyone else would have died for daring to step so close.
2. As sacrifice: Whereas the Levitical priesthood had to enter into the tent/temple over and over and over again to atone for sin, Jesus stepped in once. The writer of the book of Hebrews poses it like this, "...would [the sacrifices] not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins" ( Heb. 10:2-4). In other words, a bull cannot truly die in place of a man; man has sinned, therefore a man must die for man's sins. But what man can die for his sins or any other man's sins, since the blood of all sinful men is sin-tainted? Sin-tainted blood does not please God. For this reason, had we been left to ourselves, we would have been doomed; but Jesus came down to earth in the form of man (cf. Phil. 2:5-7) to offer his perfect, sinless blood (cf. Phil. 2:8). His blood accomplished in one sacrifice what all the blood of all the bulls ever sacrificed could not do: washed away sin. And not just one man's sins, but the sins of the whole world (cf. John 1:29). And his blood not only washes away the sin of those who place their hand on his head, but Jesus' blood has now set us apart for holy work, even as the blood of the spotless lamb consecrated the priests to do holy work.
3. As inheritance: As discussed above, the Levitical priesthood was sustained by the gracious provision of God from the sacrifices that were brought by the worshipers. As life itself, God gave the priesthood life through the set-aside portions of the offerings and sacrifices. Jesus, as the true sacrifice, has now become the portion that we as the priesthood receive from God; God has given us life through Jesus. The Levitical priesthood received physical life through what was rightfully God's as well as access to his presence, but we receive eternal life through what is rightfully God's: Jesus. And in Jesus, we have the fullness of God himself.

	Priest	Sacrifice	Inheritence
Levitical Priesthood	- Appointed by God to mediate for the people - Required atonement to be a priest b/c of priests' own sins - Sprinkling of the sacrifical lamb's blood on the priests atoned for them and set them apart for service	- Bulls, rams, goats, lambs, doves, fruits, grains, and wine - Offered twice daily (once in the morning, once in the evening), once at the beginning of each week, and once at the beginning of each month (on top of the required sin and trespass offerings and any other freewill offerings) - required for the people to temporarily stand rightly before God, but did not make them righteous (Heb. 10:4)	- Life AND God, by way of sharing in God's portion of the sacrifices and offerings: eating the meat, fruit, and bread/grain offered - they inherited God in a true, yet symbolic, way
Church	- Jesus appointed by God to mediate for people - No atonement needed for Jesus to become priest, no sin - Sprinkling of Jesus' blood on us now atones for us and sets us apart for service	- Jesus - Offered once for all time as a fulfillment of the Levitical sacrifical system (Heb. 9:26) - required for people to permanently stand rightly before God, and does make us righteous (Heb. 10:10, 14, 22)	- Eternal life IN God , by way of sharing in God's portion of the sacrifice: Jesus (Matt. 26:26; John 1:12-13, 3:16-17) - we inherit God in a true, full way

What the Levitical Priesthood embodied in shadow, Jesus embodied in substance. Jesus is the perfect priest, appointed by God to enter into the temple of God when nobody else could, in order to stand before God on behalf of the people, mediating the blood of the sacrifice, sprinkling it onto the offerers and cleansing them for all time; he is the perfect sacrifice, the spotless lamb whose blood satisfied God's wrath and justice for all time, whose scent rises up to God for a sweet smelling aroma, bringing peace between God and man, and sanctifying for himself a priesthood to do his work; and he is the perfect inheritence for he is God in the flesh, and when we (by faith) unite with Jesus, entering into the royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9), and receive him who is God's portion of the sacrifice, we truly receive life- we receive God himself.

I've spent so much time writing all of this, organizing my thoughts and words, and I feel that my words are nowhere near adequate enough to represent how weighty this is. And I am also aware that I may have gaps in my understanding of the priesthood, the roles of the priests V.S. the high priest, and the worshipers. I welcome correction and enlightenment.

No amount of bold, underlined, or italicized words can accurately portray how awesome Jesus is. I hope that the depth of what has just been discussed will inspire praises to form on your lips, and that it will give you an even deeper appreciation for what Jesus has done for us on the cross. By sprinkling his blood on us, he not only cleanses us from our sin, but he also sets us apart for holy work: we are a part of Jesus' priesthood! As priests, we now get to proclaim to the world, "if you will only place your hand on Jesus' head in faith, your sin will be transferred to him and his righteousness to you, and you will be forgiven and cleansed of your sin, made perfect in the eyes of God"!

5 years.

Some of you may know (or vaguely recall) how I asked Kayla out. It was an exceedingly awkward moment in time.

The characters:

1. a pale-skinned male with perpetually flushed cheeks who (mistakenly) thought he was awesome and (correctly) thought he was about to score a total dish [a girl who has it all: looks, wit, intelligence, personality] who was obviously head-over-heels with him; his entire wardrobe consisted of 51 50 hats, muscle tees to show off his scrawny arms, chunky skater Reeboks, and poorly-patterned zip up hoodies; at the time, he thought he and character 2 were playing in the same league, but he would soon realize it was not so
2. a deliciously sun-kissed, lightly-freckled, brown-eyed angel of girl whose laugh could bring light to dark rooms and whose smile could make you forget Newton's very well established law of gravity; her eyes could instill courage enough to face an army of dragons, and her words were more soothing than any ointment or salve; her clothing all was carefully calculated, always tasteful, appropriate to the occasion, and never out of style; she was the closest thing to heaven that character 1 would ever encounter in this mortal life

The date: July 27th, 2008.
The time: somewhere around 2 AM.
The location: a park by her best friends house, lying on the grass, hoping the sprinklers wouldn't turn on before I had asked her the fateful question that would change the course of my life...forever.

But before I could get the question out, I, rather unfortunately, vocalized my awkwardness leading up to that point, and it looked something like this:

Character 1: So, uuuuhh...I've kinda been wanting to ask you if, uuuh...you would want to be my girlfriend.
Character 2: ...okay.
Character 1: ...yeah...haha [see? awkward.]
Character 2: Well then, ask me.
Character 1: ...alright, then. Kayla, will you be my girlfriend?

I don't remember what words were exchanged after that point; all I know is that I am now married to her, so she must not have said "no".

Today commemorates 5 years since I asked her if she would go steady with me, and I write to  you now as a happily married, faithfully besotted husband and father-to-be. I can only thank God for allowing me the chance to spend any amount of time with this woman. She has such a deep love for people, for God in and through our Lord Jesus, for virtue and beauty, for family...she contains in her soul wisdom that she should not possess at only 22 years old. It is a joy and a pleasure to talk with her, to walk with her, and to live life with her. God in heaven has held her as a torch and set fire to my soul. And for that I am eternally grateful.

What have I learned? I've learned that I don't know too much. Not about life, about her, about myself, about God, about family, about...anything, really. Through her God has shown me dark, vile places in my heart that would have spread like a cancer to the rest of my being had she not labored alongside me to dig out the bad roots and plant good seed in their place. I've been humbled, very humbled. She knows so much about me, and she remembers so much about me to the very minutest detail, important or otherwise, but I have a hard time remembering what she told me just 5 minutes ago. It's difficult for me to think much of myself when standing next to someone who is so good at loving me as she loves herself. She has taught me so much, and I dare say that I would do better to model her life than most anybody else's.

It's my prayer that, should you desire someone to spend your life with, that you would find someone like Kayla. Someone that you can respect and look to as an example for your life, someone that challenges you to be a better you, someone that helps you realize and push forward to apprehend the purpose of your existence - to know and be known by God.

Darling, if you read this, I want you to know how special you are to me. Thank you for 5 years of loving, of learning, of failing, of growing; thank you for letting me be your nerd-bomber. I wouldn't want to be awkward with anyone else. And thank you for gently showing me that you, my bride, are way out of my league.







P.S.: My wife has some thoughts about today, too. Go check them out here.