I'm Not Ashamed of You

We are too often ashamed of fellow sinners. 
We love people when they're growing, when they're strong, when they're transparent, when they're popular. 
We love them when they love us, when they admire us, when they serve us.
But we're easily ashamed when they fail us, disappoint us, neglect us, or embarrass us.
When their popularity wanes, our affection cools.
When they fall into shame, we keep our distance. 
Perhaps we will help this failing person, if we are understood as the superior, the evaluator, the doctor with a patient, the policeman with the criminal. That kind of association is safe. 
But this is not gospel love. 
Gospel love gladly delights in the image bearer, even when they are broken.
Gospel love gladly embraces the prodigal, even when they smell of failure.
Gospel love gladly associates with the despised, even when they deserve their shame. 
Gospel love calls the sinner away from sin, but gladly calls them friend throughout their journey. 
No one's reputation is worse than my own--a sinner against a holy God, forgiven through atoning grace.
Every Christian should be ashamed of me, but so many of my brothers and sisters have not been.
If God is not ashamed of me, then fellow brother or sister, I must never be ashamed of you. 

Levitical Memories

Leviticus 23-25 describes God's plan for keeping his glory in continual commemoration among his people. In the Bible, forgetfulness of God is failure.  God's people are called to remember his holiness, his glory, his judgement, and most importantly, his salvation. God set up the calendar of the Israelites to reflect this priority.  Annual celebrations as well as daily practices were meant to keep God at the forefront of their minds and hearts.  His name is to be honored continually (24:10) and his image bearers protected (24:17).

The section culminates in the magnificent once-a-generation celebration of the Sabbath year (25).  In this year, property is to be restored to its original owners and the land itself is to take a rest.  God's people are to be restored to their inheritance.  No matter how far down the economic ladder some of the people had fallen, they would always know that in the end their inheritance was guaranteed to return to them in the Sabbath year.  God's inheritance might be neglected, it might even be forgotten, but it would be restored.  On the sabbath year, God's salvation leading to a promised land and a promised rest would be remembered again.

How are we doing keeping God's name and salvation in remembrance? Does our calendar commemorate his glory and his preeminence in our hearts?  Are we consistently celebrating our great redemption?  And do we believe that we have an inheritance, glorious, eternal, unfading, kept in heaven for us? 

Levitical Character

Leviticus 18-22 outlines the character God expects from his people.  Their sexuality, worship, love for one another, obedience, treatment of their children, and priesthood should all reflect their position as the holy people of God.  They have been set apart among the nations by God and their character is to reflect their new holy status.

The same is true for us.  We are not only delivered from hell and headed toward heaven. Every aspect of our lives should reflect the holiness of our God. We are a holy people.  A chosen nation. We are called to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.  We offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to the Lord.  As the Lord is holy, so we are to be holy in all that we do.   Actually the Levitical character should be even more apparent in us, since the law of Christ has been written on our hearts.

A Faithful Pastor

Who is a Faithful Pastor?

He believes the gospel of Jesus Christ.
He fights for personal holiness.
He leads and loves his wife and children, if God gives him a family.
He proclaims the whole counsel of God.
He loves all of God's people.
He pursues growth in pastoral skill in private and in public. 
He shares the gospel and seeks an evangelistic church.
He loves new believers, old believers, doubting believers, and unbelievers.
He denounces the evils of the age. 
He is willing to care for a small church or a large church.
He is willing to care for a weak church or a strong church.
He is willing to be known or unknown for Christ.
He is willing to listen to criticism and he loves his enemies.
He is unwilling to sacrifice convictions for popularity.
He rejoices in those with greater and lesser gifts than himself.
He may or may not be an eloquent speaker, but he clearly teaches truth.
He may or may not be a brilliant counselor, but he clearly counsels truth.
He may or  may not be be a creative genius, but he loves creative Christians.
He may or may not be an administrative powerhouse, but his church is ordered by the Word.
He may or may not be well loved, but he loves the Savior.
He may or may not be remembered, but he will receive the crown of glory.
He may or may not consider himself a faithful pastor, but he will hear "Well Done."

Levitical Atonement

Leviticus 16 is perhaps the most famous chapter in Leviticus--the prescriptions for the Day of Atonement. God warns Aaron against coming into the most holy place of the tabernacle, except for once a year, and only when fulfilling the atonement requirements. Aaron must offer a sacrifice for himself and then present two goats as a sacrifice of atonement for God's people. One goat will be slaughtered before the Lord, the other sent off into the wilderness.  The two goats represent the double need of God's people--sin must be punished by death and it must be removed far from God's presence.  Leviticus 17 specifies that such sacrifices to the Lord may not be presented at any other place than the tabernacle of God's presence, and that the Israelites are to preserve this fundamental image of blood atonement by not eating any blood in their normal diet.

To repeat: No priest could approach God without offering a sacrifice for himself. Access to God's presence was limited to once a year.  The day of atonement had to be repeated yearly.

Let me say this more personally. Even if I were an Israelite in those days, I could not approach God on my own. I would be dependent on a human, sinful, weak, imperfect priest to atone for his own sins before he could atone for mine.  Atonement before God's presence would have to be repeated, again, and again, and again, lest I be consumed by my nearness to God's tabernacle. 

Reading Leviticus makes the new testament sing.

For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, 26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Heb. 9:24-26

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith Heb. 10:19-22

My priest is divine, eternal.  I can approach God in Him at any time, anywhere, by faith. His atonement is perfect, final.   I will dwell in the unveiled presence of God forever. 

Clean Forever

Leviticus chapters 11-15 deal primarily with being "clean" and "unclean".  God details what causes a person to be "unclean" before the Lord, unfit to stand near God's presence.  Deliberate actions can cause uncleanness in God's people, but what is striking about these chapters is how pervasive, how commonplace uncleanness will be in Israel.  The ordinary course of life will inevitably cause the Israelites to be unclean, unfit for God's nearness, in need of cleansing.

Based on these chapters, it would be impossible for a person to be permanently clean before the Lord. This, indeed, is the point.  Mankind is dirty before the bleached-white holiness of God.  This pollution is not only on the basis of deliberate sins, not only the result of scandalous acts of depravity.  To be unclean is to be normal, to be human.  In our pluralistic culture, we sneer at the standard of ritual cleanliness presented in these four chapters.  But it's actually easier to be "Levitically clean" than to be spiritually clean before God.   By God's standards, every human, walking a "normal" course of life, is unclean, dirty, unfit, unworthy, in need of cleansing.

This background makes the New Testament sing.

And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” 3 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.  Matt 8:1-3

But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Cor. 6:11

let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Heb. 10:22

that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,  Eph. 5:26

For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. 2 Peter 1:9

The Lord Jesus has cleansed us, rendering us clean in the sight of God.  No matter how unclean we are in our past or present sins, in him all of our guilt and shame is washed away.  

The Deadliness of Ungratefulness

Gratefulness is too frequently neglected in our picture of Christian maturity and in the evaluation of the health of a church.   Yet in Scripture gratefulness is an indicator of spiritual life and ungratefulness of spiritual decay.  Heaven bound saints are a grateful people; hell-bound sinners walk in perennial ungratefulness.  It seems to me that the gravestone of many dead churches might have had the following epitaph.

Here Lies _________, the ungrateful church.  

1. Our ungratefulness resulted in prayerlessness.   We did not remember the works of the Lord from the past, and we soon saw no need to pray for his work in the future.

2. Our ungratefulness heightened judgmentalism and division in the church. We were not intentionally thanking God for his grace at work in his people, and we gradually began to focus on their failures and dismissed their value.

3.  Our ungratefulness turned a warm and welcoming church into a reclusive and exclusive club.  We dismissed the purpose of witnessing to an uninspiring gospel. 

4. Our ungratefulness led first to duty driven service and giving as a tradition, then to an absence of serving or giving at all. We saw no need to sacrifice our time, energy, or money for a gospel we weren't thankful for. 

5. Our ungratefulness turned a love for holiness into legalistic Pharisaism and the freedom of grace into belligerent license. 

6. Our ungratefulness precipitated spiritual apathy.  Before our heart was hard, it was cold. 

7. Our ungratefulness revealed a neglect of Scripture.   We did not emulate Paul or David or reflect any of the Scriptural emphasis on thanksgiving. Ungratefulness then became the breach into which a general neglect of Scripture began to flow. 

8. Our ungratefulness then set the table for outright heresy.  Neglecting thankfulness for the truths of God's Word and his gospel exposed us to the lie of a "better", or "higher", or more "appealing" belief system.

9.  Our ungratefulness increasingly misrepresented heaven, where saints and angels constantly ascribe to the Lord the glory and goodness of his salvation. 

10. Our ungratefulness to God invited his discipline; our ungratefulness for discipline expressed defiance toward his wrath. (Rom. 1:21) 
 

Gratefulness is not an optional extra for a maturing Christian. Let us consider thankfulness a crucial mark of evaluation for the health of our own spiritual lives and our churches. Let us give thanks to the Lord, for his steadfast love endures forever.

Rejoice always,  pray without ceasing,  give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  1 Thess. 5:16-18