Elijah vs. Jesus

My wife and I are teaching children's Sunday School today, and in the course of planning, I got to thinking.  Elijah was one of the greatest Old Testament prophets and miracle workers.  At his word, the heavens withheld their rain for 3 1/2 years.  He provided a miraculous supply of bread and oil for a widow and raised her son to life, called down fire from heaven, and became one of only two people in history to never die when he was taken away by chariots of fire.

And yet this great prophet and miracle worker does not even hold a candle to Jesus Christ.  John the Baptist, whom Jesus said fulfilled the promise of the second coming of Elijah's spirit and power, said of Jesus, "He who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie."  Clearly someone greater than Elijah was here.

Here are five reasons why Jesus is greater than Elijah:

1) Elijah's faith wavered.  Jesus remained faithful.
Despite all that he had seen God do, when Elijah's life was threatened by Jezebel, "he was afraid and he arose and ran for his life." (1 Kings 19:3)  Jesus, on the other hand, never wavered in His commitment to Calvary and His Father's will, and thus the author of Hebrews writes, "Christ is faithful over God's house as a son." (Hebrews 3:6)

2) Elijah had to pray to God to affect the weather.  Jesus simply said, "Be still," and the storm stopped.
Most of Elijah's miracles actually involve him praying and asking God to act.  James says that "Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain." (James 5:17)  But Jesus didn't ask for anybody's permission; He simply said, "Be still," and the storm ceased.  Thus He proved that He is the God of Psalm 89:9-- "Who is mighty as You are, O Lord?  You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, You still them."

3) Elijah raised a widow's son from the dead.  Jesus is the resurrection and the life.
Elijah is one of the few people in the Bible through whom God raised the dead.  But even though the miracle was spectacular, it is obvious from the account in 1 Kings that it was God who raised the dead, not Elijah.  Elijah pleaded with God, and God answered his prayer.  Jesus, on the other hand, declared about Himself saying, "I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live," (John 11:25), and then backed up this claim by commanding life into the decaying corpse of Lazarus with a simple, "Come forth."

4) Elijah was taken to heaven with fire.  Jesus will come from heaven with fire.
Elijah was taken up into heaven by "chariots of fire and horses of fire." (2 Kings 2:11)  Lest we be too enamored by this spectacle, though, 2 Thessalonians tells us of a greater heavenly fire: a coming day "when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God... when He comes on that day to be glorified in His saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed."  The glory of Jesus' heavenly fire will brilliantly outshine Elijah's, as much as the sun outshines a flickering match.

5) Elijah never died.  Jesus conquered death.
Elijah is one of only two people in the Bible, along with Enoch, to never taste death.  Yet the honor that Jesus has and will receive is infinitely greater, for Jesus is now "crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone." (Hebrews 2:9)  And Jesus did not just taste death for everyone; "He Himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death."  Elijah the sinner never died, thanks to Jesus tasting death for Him, and now Jesus has definitively conquered Satan and eliminated the power of death for all time for all who trust in Him.

Elijah is surely worthy of much honor among the great saints of the faith.  But Jesus is surely worthy of much more.  He is a greater miracle worker, greater life-giver, greater sin-conquerer, greater grave-overcomer, greater Savior.

Declared Righteous

For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. ~Romans 3:28

You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. ~James 2:24

These two verses have always frustrated me. Yes, I knew that simple answer-- "Oh, James isn't talking about justification the same way Paul is," but that never really satisfied me because no one ever really tried to back up that claim; they just said it like that settled it. But it never really settled it for me-- until now.

The perfect analogy hit me yesterday while I was driving and wrestling with the whole question of justification (yeah, theologizing in the car, don't make fun...). To justify means "to declare righteous," but if you think about it, there are multiple ways that someone can be declared righteous. For example:

Imagine that you're on trial for robbing a bank. The lawyers and witnesses have all had their say, and now the judge will decide whether or not you are guilty. The judge finally bangs the gavel. "Not guilty," he says. You've just been declared righteous.

Now imagine that the press has been following this case closely. The next morning, the front page headline reads in big letters, "NOT GUILTY." The newspaper just declared you righteous. But their declaration is very different than the judge's. The judge actually changes your status-- from prisoner to free man, from condemned to innocent, from guilty to not guilty. All that the paper does is publish these results, and declare what has already taken place. The paper could print whatever it wanted, whether or not it lined up with reality (how true that is!)-- but that wouldn't change your status before the judge. But the paper's job is to report accurately what has taken place, and proclaim to the world, "This man is not guilty!"

That's exactly the two different ways that Paul and James are talking about justification. Romans 1-3 is full of legal terms-- guilt, redemption, innocent, accountable, just, etc. It is obvious that Paul is using the word justification in its legal sense-- the judge of all the universe declaring sinners "not guilty." But in James, the context is very different. There, you have phrases like, "I will show you my faith by my works," and talk about demonstrating actual love for your neighbor not just in word but in deed. It's clear that James is talking about justification in the newspaper sense-- publishing the results of the trial.

So what do you get when you put Romans and James together? To keep using the current analogy, let's say that the judge declares me not guilty in the bank robbery case. The proper way to celebrate that verdict is not to then go out and rob a bank saying, "Yay, I'm innocent!" The message of Paul and James, taken together, is this: "God has declared you righteous; why is your life not declaring that too?"

11 Reasons to Love the Bible in 2009

There is perhaps nothing as valuable in the life of a believer as a steady diet of God's Word.  Throughout Scripture, God holds out indescribably wonderful promises to woo us to His Word-- promises of life and power and salvation and holiness and joy.  Below are 11 reasons to love the Bible in 2009.  I pray that they will inspire you to say with the Psalmist, "I love Your commandments above gold, above fine gold."

Holiness: Psalm 119:11- "I have stored up Your word in my heart, that I might not sin against You."

Enabling Ministry: 2 Timothy 3:16-17- "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work."

Guidance: Psalm 119:105- "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."

Understanding and Wisdom: Psalm 119:130- "The unfolding of Your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple."

Spiritual Nourishment: Deuteronomy 8:3- "He humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of God."

Comfort: Psalm 119:50- "This is my comfort in my affliction, that Your promise gives me life."

Joy: John 15:11- "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full."

Faith: Romans 10:17- "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ."

Salvation: James 1:21- "Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls."

Knowing God: 1 Samuel 3:21- "The LORD continued to appear at Shiloh, and there He revealed Himself to Samuel through His word."

Seeing Jesus: Luke 24:27- "And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself."

With those promises in mind, I am eagerly looking forward to mining the riches of the word of God this coming year.

This Morning's Scripture

For my Through-the-Bible-in-a-Year plan, I was reading this morning from Jeremiah, Ecclesiastes, John, and James.  Something in each one hit me really hard as I was reading (praise God for the Holy Spirit who delights to do that sort of thing).  Here are my thoughts:

Behold, the word of the LORD is to them an object of scorn;

they take no pleasure in it.

Therefore I am full of the wrath of the LORD

~Jeremiah 6:10-11

Wow.  I pray that this will never, ever be said of me.  "The word of the LORD is to them an object of scorn; they take no pleasure in it."  If that's what the people of Israel were doing wrong, here's what is right: TAKE PLEASURE in the word of the Lord.  To not take pleasure in it, to not delight in it, is scorn.  It is treating it as less precious than it is.  And look at the consequences: the wrath of the LORD-- God takes our affections for the Bible very seriously.  Lord, forgive me for all the times I have not taken pleasure in Your word, and by Your Spirit implant Your holy joy in me.

Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness... Apart from [God] who can have any enjoyment?  For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy.  ~Ecclesiastes 2:13,26

Praise God for this one!  There is more gain in wisdom than in folly, and there is more gain in light than in dark!  Not to quote John Piper or anything, but this is classic "Christian hedonism."  You want gain, right?  Then seek wisdom, and walk in the light!  And to those who please God, He gives this great gain in abundance.  Oh the goodness of God, that He works in us what is pleasing to Him (Heb. 13:21-22) and then fills His people with immeasurable good things!

For this purpose I cam baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel. ~John 1:31

When you stop to look at it, you quickly realize that the whole Bible is intensely, radically Christ-centered, and the testimony of John the Baptist is no exception.  The whole point of his baptism, the whole point of his entire ministry, the whole point of his life and his message of repentance and all the years of locusts and honey, was this: that Jesus would be revealed.  May that be the purpose of my life and ministry as well.

Receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. ~James 1:21

This sort of reminded me of the passage from Jeremiah, in how seriously it takes the Bible.  Specifically, I thought of this in terms of my youth group's Bible study that I help to lead, and I was burdened anew for their hearts to be opened to the Word of God.  I want them to see that this study we are doing is so much more than a self-help lesson, or something to do Sunday afternoons-- it is life and death.  Eternal life and eternal death hang in the balance of how they will respond to God's Word.  Will they take pleasure in it, delight in it, receive it with meekness... or will they not?  Oh Lord, open their hearts and mine to Your Word, that we may receive it with meekness and joy!