Spontaneously driven

Interviewing the author of the new book, “The Death of Humanity: And the Case for Life,” radio talk show host Dennis Prager asked Cal State history professor, Richard Weikart, if he thought atheists would rather be found wrong about their beliefs.

Weikart responded by repeating comments recently heard from an atheist who reasoned (and I’m paraphrasing), “I don’t deal well with anyone telling me what to do as it is, so why would I choose to go some place where I’m told what to do?”

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talks about the lifestyle of the citizens of His kingdom and how one of the characteristics of it is, “You’re going to have this spontaneous ability to live for one another.”

“It’s not going to be something you have to calculate; it’s just going to be the way life is,” explains Richard Jordan (shorewoodbiblechurh.org). “That’s the way the life in the godhead functions--instantly, spontaneously and forever.

“He said, ‘Look, the law said that, but I’m giving you a new standard to go by. I’m going to intensify this thing and I’m going to . . .’ How do you do that? ‘Well, I’m going to put my life into you—I’m going to write my law into you.’ James calls it the perfect law of liberty.

" ‘I’m going to take that thing and put it into you. How? By my spirit.’ The issue fundamentally is, whether it’s Israel or us, it’s got to be Israel in Christ and us in Christ, and it’s got to be His life lived out through us, because no matter whose other flesh we’re related to--or other identity we’re related to--we’re all related to Adam. We all have that spiritual disqualification from Adam that can only be rectified in the spiritual status we get in the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Paul says, ‘Christ humbled Himself and was obedient unto the death of the Cross.’ He loves the Father and depends upon His Word and trusts Him and He draws from the resources of His Word.

“Christ says, ‘Now that’s the life you’re going to have. Trust the Father’s Word. Trust what God’s plan is. Depend on it and draw from the resources that it gives you and you can be the people you’re chosen and created to be.’

“He tells His disciples: ‘I’m going away. I’m leaving you here on the earth and you’re going to be my nation in the earth. But it’s not just any nation. I’m the true nation. You have to be in me to be the real Israel of God. I’m the true vine. My Father is the husbandman.’

“Husbandry has to do with gardening. It’s interesting, when you think of a husband and a wife, that God would use that terminology of a husband to describe the role that we ascribe to a husband.

“But a husbandman in the Scripture is someone who cultivates and cares for a garden. Sort of the caretaker.

“God the Father was the caretaker for the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s the husbandman of the vine and Jesus said, ‘I’m the vine,’ He’s literally saying, ‘You know, I’m doing this stuff to do what my Father gave me to do. He gave me a commandment. And my Father is the one who is taking care of me, who’s jealous over watching over me and my development, my growth.’

“Now there’s a passage back in Isaiah 53 that kind of alerts you to that. Isaiah 53 says, 'Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground.'

“The Messiah’s going to grow up before Him. You see how that starts talking about Him being a tender plant and a root out of a dry ground? There’s that horticulture terminology. There’s the husbandman. And what’s the Father do? He’s overseeing; He’s tending. He’s watching out for Him and He watches out for His development.

“In Matthew 1, Christ literally enters into a personal combat with Satan. He’s then going to be smitten of God and have our sin placed on Him. When He goes through all the accusations and attempts to derail Him, He has that confidence that, ‘I’m doing what the Father told me to do. I’m just going to trust Him; depend on Him. He’s watching over me. He’s got it planned and I’ll trust Him.’

“When I think about that, to me, it’s one of the most staggering things with regard to how He humbled himself to do that. And that’s what exalts Him. Because He humbled Himself, Paul said, therefore God is highly exalted. But this stuff’s real.

“Matthew 1:18 says, [18] Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.

“His whole life He’s demonstrating this! It wasn’t hanky-panky; it was something miraculous. The Lord Jesus Christ was willing to come and become a babe, at this point in the womb of His mother, but He says, ‘My Father is the husbandry. My Father watches out for me.’

“After He’s born, the wise men come. All His life, He’s got the Father watching over Him. Those verses back in Psalm 91 talk about God giving His angels charge over Him. Literally that’s talking about the Messiah.

“When Luke 3 makes the announcement in such a way as, ‘Thou art my beloved son,’ the Father makes these public pronouncements so everyone knows, but He also puts His arms around His son and says, ‘You’re mine. You’re doing my will. You’re on my mission.’ They had that kind of a symbiotic relationship; that kind of an oneness.”

(new article tomorrow)