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Proverbs 25:22 instructs us to heap burning coals on the heads of our enemies.

But what does that mean?

Initially, this sounds like a terrible thing to do, but this strange command is in the context of giving bread to our enemies when they are hungry and water to our enemies when they are thirsty.

Pastors and other Bible teachers have noticed this connection, and many have gone into great hermeneutical contortions trying to explain how it would be a good think to light your enemy’s head on fire.

I even heard one pastor say that when we were kind to our enemies, but they refused to repent and become a Christian, this would only increase their suffering in hell.

Isn’t that nice?

Aside from the troubling idea that anybody who is not a Christian is our enemy (!!!), what sort of person only serves others so that their future suffering in hell will intensify?!

This is probably an extreme Christian view (I hope so anyway), but most commentaries I have read on this text interpret the burning coals in some sort of figurative way so that it refers to something along the lines of the convicting work of the Holy Spirit, or a searing of the mind with the truth of God’s Word, or bringing upon your enemy a red face of shame, or something like that. Regardless, most Christian teachers believe that heaping coals on the head of your enemy refers to some kind of pain or punishment inflicted upon your enemy.

A while back I decided to study Proverbs 25:21-22 for myself.

Proverbs 25:22 and Burning Coals

As it turns out, heaping coals on someone’s head is not figurative after all. And it is definitely not talking about hell or anything negative.

To the contrary, the statement about heaping burning coals on the heads of our enemies is parallel to the statements about blessing our enemies with food and water. When this Proverb was written, people heated their homes and cooked with fire. But sometimes, a person’s fire would go out during the night, and before they could cook their breakfast, they had to go to a neighbor’s house to get a coal so they could relight their fire.

So Proverbs 25:22 teaches that if the fire of your enemy goes out, and they come asking for a coal to relight their fire, instead of turning them away or giving just one, we should be be extravagantly generous. How? We must keep one coal for yourself, and give all the rest of the burning coals to our enemy.

One commentary that gets it right is the Bible Knowledge Commentary on Proverbs. It says this:

Sometimes a person’s fire went out and he needed to borrow some live coals to restart his fire. Giving a person coals in a pan to carry home “on his head” was a neighborly, kind act; it made friends, not enemies.

Proverbs 25:22 instructs us to give our enemy so many burning coals they have to carry them the way burdens are carried in the Middle East: in a container on the head. Then they can go back and immediately bake their bread without having to wait for the wood to become suitable coals for cooking.

This is quite different than setting someone’s head on fire.

This understanding of the burning coals makes more sense, doesn’t it? Yes, and especially in light of Jesus’ instruction in the Sermon on the Mount to bless our enemies and pray for them. Jesus points that God sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous and the sun to shine on the evil and the good and we should do the same (Matt 5:45). And of course, this is exactly how Paul used the passage about burning coals in Romans 12:20-21, where he concludes by saying, “overcome evil with good.”

This reminds me of how Abraham Lincoln responded when asked why he did not seek to destroy his enemies, but showed them leniency instead. He said, “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”

We are to Love Our Enemies

God does not want us to be nice to my enemies so that their judgment will be worse in the end. That is not love. He wants us to show love and kindness to our enemies simply because our enemies are people too and God loves them just as much as He loves us. Though our enemies may never turn to Jesus as a result of our kindness, we are to love them just the same.

This post is part of the February Synchroblog where bloggers were invited to write about the topic of loving our enemies. Here is a list of the other contributors. Go check out what they had to say on the topic!

Todi Adu – Love is War, War in Love
Todi Adu – Love is Your Weapon; Fight for Love
Carol Kuniholm – Circles of Love
K. W. Leslie – Love Your Enemies
Doreen A Mannion – Easy to Love
Liz Dyer – Uncomfortable Love
Mike Donahoe – Love Your Enemies Really
EmKay Anderson – On Loving While Angry
Glenn Hager – The Opposite of Love is Not Hate
Josie Anna – On Love Because I am Loved
Edwin Aldrich – Loving All of Our Neighbors

5 Heartbreaking Search Terms People Use to Find my Blog… (I cry when I see them)

By Jeremy Myers

10 Comments

I sometimes cry at the search terms people use to find my blog.

They remind me that there is so much pain and loneliness in the world.

I use Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools to learn a few things about the people who visit my blog and how they find me, and sometimes, my heart breaks at what I see.

Today, I saw that someone visited my site by searching for the term

Should a man call his wife a fool?

I do not know whether this was a man or a woman searching for this, but I suspect that it was a woman who is feeling hurt and betrayed after her husband called her a fool. Most tragically of all, the day I saw this was February 15, the day after Valentine’s Day.

On a day when a wife should be reminded how precious and lovely she is, here is a woman who apparently was told she was foolish. And apparently, this sort of treatment is so commonplace, she is wondering if maybe it is okay.

So she searches online for whether or not it is okay for her husband to call her a fool.

She found this page: Call Someone a fool and go to hell. Sadly, I went and read that post, and am not sure she found it so helpful. I should rework it to be more encouraging…

As I wrote this post, I went and watched the search terms roll through the real time reporting screen of Google Analytics. Over the course of twenty minutes, I saw these search terms come across my screen:

If I commit suicide will I go to hell?

The person landed on this page: Suicide is not the Unforgivable Sin. I really hope that person found some encouragement and love in that post to give them the desire to keep on living.

Can I be forgiven if I commit adultery?

The person who searched for this landed here: Is Adultery the Unforgivable Sin? I went and read it again and asked myself…. did that post encourage the person to stay faithful to his or her spouse? I hope so. Of course, if they have already committed adultery, it tells them that they are forgiven by God. But at the same time, I don’t want to encourage people to commit adultery. Did I say enough about the damaging consequences of adultery while still emphasizing God’s grace, love, and forgiveness?

You are probably seeing a pattern here on various sins. As I was writing the previous paragraph, I switched over to Google Analytics, and saw this search term pop up:

Is abortion forgivable?

The person who searched for that landed on this page: Is Abortion the Unforgivable Sin? Reading over that post, I think the woman searching for this was probably not helped so much. I say that abortion is forgivable, but I spend too much time on how horrible the sin of abortion is. That may not be as loving as I would want…

If that woman was sitting at my kitchen table with my wife and I, and asked that same question, I imagine there would be lots of tears and hugs, and not much else. That is what she needs, not a theology lesson on the forgivability of murder…

One search term I have seen a lot of recently is this:

Am I possessed by a demon?

Is my _______ [wife, husband, child, mother] demon possessed?

People who search for those terms end up here: Signs of Demon Possession. Do you know the personal and relational anguish someone must be going through to search for that? It breaks my heart.

That is why for me, blogging is pastoral work. Through my blog, I hope to help people all around the world understand how much God loves them, that they are forgiven, that He cares, that He is with them, that they are not alone. I hope people are freed from the bondage, delivered from captivity, and set free from the dark chains of sin.

As I write, I often pray for the people who will read the posts. As I watch these search terms come across my screen, and the tears roll down my cheeks, I pray for the people who are searching for truth, love, hope, and forgiveness, and I pray that they will find such things in Jesus.

And for you who are reading this, I thank God for you as well. Thank you for reading this blog. Thank you for sharing it with others on Facebook, Twitter, Google, and by email. Thank you for interacting with each other in the comments. Thank you for being gracious, loving, and kind. Together, we have a little online community here that is helping tens of thousands of people around the world every single month.

You may think God hasn’t forgiven you for that sin. But you’d be wrong. Here’s why…

By Jeremy Myers

32 Comments

Lots of people have some some of secret sin in their past (or in their present life) which they think is so bad, God could never forgive them.

Well, they’re wrong.

If you think you have committed a sin which God cannot forgive, let me tell you…. God has already forgiven you for this sin.

And yet He still wants you to confess and repent of this sin. Why? So He can forgive you.

Confused yet? That’s because there are lots of confusing statements in the Bible about forgiveness.

On the one hand, forgiveness seems unconditional and free (Col 2:13).

However, there are other verses which seem to say that we will not be forgiven unless we confess or repent of our sins (1 John 1:9).

A few passages indicate that we can lose forgiveness simply by not showing forgiveness to others (Matt 6:15). So does this mean that even if you confess our sin, we may not be forgiven of it if we fail to forgive others?

Then, there is apparently a sin which will never be forgiven, no matter what (Matt 12:31-32).

And of course, there are the confusing verses which seem to indicate that certain human beings have a special power or ability to forgive others (cf. John 20:23).

Finally, there is the issue of what forgiveness actually accomplishes. Many believe that in order to go to heaven, we must be forgiven of all our sins. Therefor, if any of our sins remain unforgiven due to one of the conditions of forgiveness listed above, does this mean we end up in hell?

I cannot begin to address all these texts in this post, and even if I did, there would be dozens of other similar passages which would demand explanation as well.

So instead of trying to explain every verse about forgiveness, let me try to briefly summarize what the Bible says about forgiveness and why there is so much confusion surrounding this concept in the church today.

What the Bible Says about Forgiveness

One of the biggest reasons there is so much confusion about forgiveness is that there are three Greek words used in the New Testament for forgiveness, but they often (though not consistently) get translated as “forgiveness” into English. For my own study of Scripture, it often helps to know what kind of forgiveness is in view.

Charizomai Forgiveness

The first kind of forgiveness is charizomai. It is what I think of as “God’s unconditional forgiveness.” This makes sense, because it is based on the word charis, which means “grace.”

Charizomai refers to the removal of guilt, but not necessarily the removal of consequences. Charizomai is God’s free pardon (cf. 2 Cor 2:7, 10; Col 2:13). As such, charizomai is offered freely, to all, with absolutely no conditions.

This kind of forgiveness is a free gift of God to every single person on earth, emanating purely from God’s love and grace. In this way, you have been forgiven of every sin, no matter what.

Aphesis Forgiveness

The second kind of forgiveness is aphesis. It is best to think of aphesis as release. It often is used to refer to the release of a financial debt or burden, but is often used in the sense of gaining liberty or freedom.

Aphesis, however, is usually not without condition, so in this way, it is different from the unconditional charizomai forgiveness. Aphesis is usually connected with repentance, meaning that aphesis does not come unless there is repentance.

This makes sense when we understand that sin enslaves us and puts us in bondage. If we do not repent of our sin, that is, if we do not turn away from it and turn back toward God, how can we gain freedom, liberty, or release from it? We cannot.

But note that even if we do not gain aphesis, we still have charizomai from God. He freely forgives us out of His grace, and calls us to repent so that we might also gain aphesis. If we do not, He still loves as forgives us (charizomai), but we will continue to experience bondage and enslavement to sin.

Apoluo Forgiveness

Then finally, there is the third kind of forgiveness, which comes from the Greek word apoluo. Apoluo is based on the Greek word luo, which means “I loose.” So apoluo is to be loosed, or set free. This word is nearly indistinguishable from aphesis, and may be nearly synonymous. There may be some small shades of differences, but nothing worth noting in this post.

So How Does This Help Christians Learn to Forgive?

First of all, we need to understand that we are forgiven, freely, by God’s grace, of all our sins, no matter what. You have the charizomai of God whether you confess your sins or not. You have charizomai for your sins whether you are Christian or not.

As far as God is concerned, your guilt has been removed from you. Your sin is no longer an issue with God. I have written about this previously, and so will say nothing more here.

However, we all still struggle with the consequences of sin in our lives and in our relationships. How can we fix this problem? This is where most of the teaching in the Bible about forgiveness comes in.

Aphesis forgiveness and apoluo forgiveness have absolutely nothing to do with whether or not a person goes to heaven when they die. Aphesis forgiveness and apoluo forgiveness are about whether or not we live in bondage and enslavement to sin here and now. They are about whether or not we destroy our lives, our health, our marriages, our family, our finances, our jobs, and pretty much everything in our life.

God does not want us to live our lives surrounded by destruction, addiction, and enslavement, and so He encourages us to confess our sins, repent of our sins, purify our lives and in so doing, gain release, freedom, and liberty from sin and the damaging consequences of sin.

God encourages us to forgive others, because often, that is the only way we can gain release to the bitterness and resentment we hold in our hearts toward them. Until we forgive others we cannot gain the release of forgiveness for ourselves.

You are already Forgiven, so Forgive to be Forgiven

That subtitle sounds like gibberish, right? But from a biblical perspective it is true. You already have the free charizomai forgiveness of God, completely free of charge. So in light of this free gift of forgiveness, it would be wise to give aphesis and apoluo forgiveness to others so that you can experience the release of aphesis and apoluo forgiveness in your own life.

Study Forgiveness on Your Own

I encourage you to embark on a study of forgiveness of your own. Find some sort of Greek-English parallel Bible, and whenever you see the words “forgive,” “forgiven,” or “forgiveness” in Scripture, take a few minutes to look it up and find out which kind of forgiveness is in view.

By doing so, you will be encouraged. God is not dangling your sin over your head as a way of threatening you with eternal punishment in hell. No, He has already forgiven you of all your sins, past, present, and future.

However, God wants more for you than to just have your guilt removed from you; He does not want sin to reign in your body; He does not want sin to rule over you, to destroy you, to ruin your life, your health, your finances, and all your relationships. He wants you to experience freedom and liberty. But for these, there are conditions and steps that must be met…

I encourage you to develop in your thinking about forgiveness. There are different kinds of forgiveness, with different conditions to receive the various kinds, and different consequences and results from each. Learn to distinguish which forgiveness is which, and your Bible will make a whole lot more sense.

Hit and Run Christian Service

By Jeremy Myers

6 Comments

The way that some churches try to “minister to homeless people” is by driving up to the park where all the homeless people gather, opening the side door, throwing out a bunch of crates of food onto the sidewalk, and then peeling off down the road to get out of there as quick as possible.

Then they give a report at church the next Sunday at how they served and fed the homeless… just like Jesus.

Such ministry is “Hit and Run Christian Service.” We drive up, hit some homeless people with food and Gospel tracts, and then get get out of there with tires squealing.

Or maybe it is closer to Christian drug dealing. We pull up in a windowless van, and handout sandwiches and gospel tracks from the back, and then tell them we’ll be back next week.

Part of the problem is this whole “ministry to” idea. Loving others is not exactly when we do something “to” people. Loving like Jesus means that others serve and minister to us just as much as we serve and minister to them. Or maybe more.

True Christian ministry begins with developing relationships with others, and more often than not, we find that we are the ones ministered to, rather than the ones doing the ministry. That’s why I put “minister to homeless people” in quote marks above.

Christian service actually means loving people and being loved. Christian ministry is not something we do to people, but with people.

Showing love to the homeless people often means receiving love back. Love from Jesus.

14 Practical Ways to Love Others Like Jesus

By Jeremy Myers

34 Comments

One of the most popular forms of ministry today is the ministry that makes a big splash, garners a lot of attention, and possibly gets reported in the news.

And while good does come from “Go Big” forms of ministry, there are other ways to love others like Jesus. If we think the big splash ministry is the only way to minister, then we will ignore all the small, effective, practical ways of loving others that might actually make more tangible and lasting impact on the lives of others for the Kingdom of God. This is partly why Jesus spoke of giving a cup of cold water in His name (Matt 10:42) and liked the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed (Matt 13;31-32).

It is often the small, easy, cheap, affordable, insignificant, simple acts of love and kindness that do the most to help people experience the love of Jesus through your life.

What sort of things? Below are 14 practical ways to love others like Jesus. There are thousands of such ways, but the following are 14 of the things that my family does to try to show love to others. They are not things you necessarily have to do, but are simply offered as examples.

If we want to simply love others, then we can love others simply.

Please feel free to share some of your own suggestions in the comments below.

14 Ways to Love Others Like Jesus

Love the person right in front of you. There is so much pain and loneliness in the world, you can be pretty sure the person next to on the bus or the checker at the grocery store could use a kind word, a smile, or a helping hand. Get off your cell phone and talk to them. Get to know them. Ask them how their day is going… and mean it. Remember their name.
Take food to your neighbors. Like what? Nothing fancy… a plate of cookies, a loaf of fresh-baked bread. When you give it to them, don’t drop it in their arms and run. Stand and talk for a bit if they seem to want that. Don’t invite yourself in and don’t invite them to church. Just be friendly.
Have neighbors over for dinner or dessert. Don’t make it formal or fancy. Just pizza and pop. Or BBQ and beer. Don’t try to turn it into a Bible study. Just laugh, tell stories, and listen.
Hand out homeless bags to people you see on the street. We carry 2-3 bags around in our car and hand out them out when we see people begging on street corners. The ones we hand out contain a tarp, a pair of socks, some non-perishable food, a bottle of water, a scarf, and whatever else we can find.
Watch the children of single mothers so they can go shopping alone. Or, men, offer watch all the kids so your wife and the other woman can go get some coffee and chat.
Take up gardening so you can talk to your neighbor who is all alone.
When you take your kids to activities, don’t retreat to your car and listen to the radio or text on your cell phone. Stick around and talk with any other parents who are there.
Do the Twelve Days of Christmas for a friend or neighbor. What is this? It’s Twelve Days of “Secret Santa.” Every day, you sneak over, leave a gift or present on their doorstep, ring the bell, and run! If you have children, they LOVE doing this around Christmas time.
Put together Shoe Boxes with Samaritan’s Purse.
Help raise money to rescue girls in slavery. Sell candy or treats, not for a band trip to Hawaii, but to raise money to rescue girls from slavery or some other human need.
Help a missionary family overseas by doing things they cannot do where they are. Download podcasts and load hundreds of them on a CD and send it to them. Help them set up and run a blog. Send them clothes and crafts they cannot get overseas.
Pack and deliver boxes of food and presents on Christmas Eve to families in the community that are less fortunate. Just give them the presents. No gospel tracts.
Volunteer to help feed the poor and homeless in your area. Bring crafts to do with the children.
Buy food for a homeless person on the street, and then sit and talk with them while they eat (If they don’t mind). Hug them!

The bottom line is that simple (not big and glorious) acts of kindness are effective ways of loving others like Jesus. None of these are glamorous. None of them will get you recognized in church. None of them will get you interviewed on television, BUT they don’t cost an arm and a leg and they won’t burn you out either. They are just simple ways to be kind every day to friends and strangers so that we can offer light and love and hope to the people around us.

Oh…. And please, please, please, do not ever do any of these things with the intention or goal of getting people to attend your church. This is where most Christians screw it up BIG TIME. If we go help our neighbor mow his lawn because he broke his leg, and then after you’re done you invite him to church, he is going to know that you don’t really care about him at all. All you really care about is getting his butt in a pew on Sunday morning so you can brag to all your Christian friends about how you mowed his lawn and rescued him from the fires of hell.

As I have said before, Christian love does not consist in asking someone to come to church with you. If your only reason for loving people is to get them into church, just stay home and watch TV.

What Christians Say… and What Christians Mean

By Jeremy Myers

9 Comments

This is a guest post from Mike Donahoe, who runs the “Done with Religion” blog. Here is what he writes about his ministry:

Done with religion does not mean done with God, but done trying to please God by performance. We no longer submit to man’s rules and regulations, and we realize that the Church is the body of believers and not a place we go. Religion says do this, don’t do that and you will be a ‘good’ Christian. It tries to make us feel like successful Christians based on how well we perform and follow the rules. We want to take our eyes off following man made rules and gimmicks and focus entirely on Christ and living a life like His.

Along with this blog site above, you can connect with Mike on Facebook or Twitter.

If you would like to write a Guest Post for the Till He Comes Blog, begin by reading the Guest Blogger Guidelines.

So many times what we say and what we mean are two different things.

Church

Take for instance the word “church.” Most of us think of a building where Christians meet every Sunday for an organized, pre-planned service of music, prayer, and sermon by a paid pastor.

In reality, church is better described by the word ecclesia. It’s people. It is people who are following Christ and allowing Him to live and love through them.

Church isn’t a place, a building, or the house of God, and it isn’t at a set time or day.

Christian

Then there is the word “Christian.” We think of people who love God, go to church, pray, read their bible, and try to do the right things.

Actually, “Christian” is a man-made word that originally was used to describe those who followed the teaching of Jesus and were doing the works of Jesus. Today, rather than being the true sense of following Christ, it is more widely known as a religion. Christians are considered people who believe in Jesus, go to church, follow specific rules, adhere to a set doctrine, pray, read the bible and try to get more people to come to their church.

We think of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindu and a host of other religions rather than a way of life walking with Jesus, which is what the word refers to.

Prayer

When we talk about prayer, we generally think of a pastor or godly person saying spiritual sounding words to God. Many times prayers are written out and followed word for word to make people sound more spiritual.

Actually prayer is just talking. Like you would talk to a friend or relative, prayer is talking to God. Not only talking, but being quiet and listening for God to speak to you.

Bible

What about the Bible? Of course, our first thought is a book that God inspired men to write. We think of the Word of God.

Yet if we look closer at John 1:1, we find that the Word is not a book at all. “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God.” So actually, the Word of God is Jesus. He is the inerrant, all powerful, living Word of God.

The Bible is a book that contains God-inspired words which show us the ways of men and the Way of God. It is in the Bible that we read about the Word of God — Jesus Christ, who Himself is the ultimate revelation of God.

Does that mean we don’t need to read the Bible? Of course not, we can learn a lot about God and ourselves by reading it. What we don’t want to do is make the Bible equal to God. The Bible is not part of the trinity; it is a book.

Worship

The word worship is generally thought of as a time during the service when people are lead into song and outward praise to God by a leader or group, paid to lead people this way. The style of worship also varies greatly from group to group. Many people think worship are songs, or lifting of hands, or dancing. A lot of people think of worship as a church service.

Yet worship is a true sense of reverence and adoring praise to our Father. It is personal and does not need a professional leader. It is a sincere and earnest thankfulness we have for God.

Jesus is the all in all. It doesn’t boil down to our doctrines, beliefs, and man-made efforts. It boils down to following Jesus, allowing Him to live in us and through us.

What Words Can You Add?

There are many other words we could be discussed, but the point is that it is not as important the word we use, but the true meaning.

What words do you find have confusing usage in some Christian circles? What words can we start using more clearly?

What does “Son of God” mean?

By Jeremy Myers

63 Comments

I often get Bible and Theology questions sent in from readers of this blog. I recently decided to start posting some of my answers to these questions so that if others have similar questions, they can be helped, and so that you, the readers of this blog, can help answer them as well. This question relates to the meaning of the the phrase “Son of God.”

Question:

I found your invitation of having a cup of tea with you thank you very much, but alas I live in Pakistan. you asked me to tell you about me. I am 27 years old. I am an Ahmadi Muslim. I am student of comparative study of religions. I am married. And devoted my life for God.

You said I can ask you questions. So I want to know that when Jesus is said to be the son of God or God himself what is the source of this in Bible?

Secondly many people in Bible are called son of God but aren’t taken literally and Jesus himself said to Jews that because revelations of God come to me only in that sense I am a son of God as early Godly people were called. This is mentioned in John 10:34.

My Answer

I would love to join you for that cup of tea sometime, though I doubt I will ever make it to Pakistan! But who knows….

Please forgive me for not fully understanding the second half of your question…. the part about the Jews and revelation. I seem to understand the first part as a question about Jesus being the Son of God. You also reference John 10:34-36 where Jesus argues that it is not wrong for Him to call Himself the Son of God when in the Law it is written, “You are gods.”

Let me try to answer this part of your question about Jesus being the Son of God, and hopefully that will help answer the other part of your question as well.

So, regarding the title “Son of God,” many Christians believe that this is a reference to the divinity of Jesus, that is, that this title proves that Jesus was God in the flesh.

While I personally think that such an idea can be read into this title, I don’t think that the title “Son of God” meant “God” to people in the first century. Of course, nobody (back then or today) believes that “son of God” means that God gave birth to a son or had a son after intercourse with a human female. Such an idea is foreign to reason, tradition, and Scripture. Some people accuse Christians of believing this, but I have never heard or read of any Christian who does.

So what does it mean when Jesus is called the “Son of God”?

To find the answer, we actually have to ask is what would it mean for any human to be called the “son of God”? Why do I say this? Because Jesus didn’t make up this title out of thin air.

As you have pointed out, others in history bore this title. The term “Son of God” was used occasionally for angels (Genesis 6; Job 1:6), for Israel (e.g., Exod 4:22), and sometimes for the king (such as 2 Sam 7:14, Ps 2:7 and Ps 89:27). Many in the Qumran community used the title to refer to the coming Messiah, even though none of them believed that the Messiah would be anything other than a specially-anointed human. All of these uses show that the term “Son of God” is not equivalent to “God” but is closer to meaning “of God’s family” or “having divine authority and purpose.”

However, it is also critical to point out that there was one person alive at the time of Christ who was famous for having taken the title “Son of God” for himself, and it wasn’t Jesus.

Who? The Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus. He had taken for himself the title “son of god” (Latin: imperator Caesar divi filius). Not only that, the title “Augustas” is a religious title meaning “Majesty” or “Illustrious One.” He also claimed to be “the firstborn head” of the Senate gathering (Latin: primum caput). During his reign, he began requiring Roman citizens to pay homage to him, not only through taxation, but also through pledging their allegiance with the phrase “Caesar is Lord.”

Anyone who has read the New Testament should recognize the parallel claims of Jesus. The New Testament everywhere portrays Jesus to be the son of God, the firstborn head of the church, and those who follow Jesus are called to proclaim “Jesus is Lord.”

In this way, when using terms like the “son of God” about Jesus, the New Testament writers were certainly making theological claims about Jesus, but more than that, were making political claims about Jesus. In using titles like “the Son of God” for Jesus, the early church was saying that everything Caesar claimed for himself was actually only true in Jesus Christ. In taking these titles from Caesar and giving them to Jesus, the early church (and Jesus Himself) was subversively mocking the power claims of Caesar and the Roman Empire.

So does this mean Jesus Wasn’t God?

Now, does any of this mean that the term “son of God” does not imply that Jesus is God? No. To the contrary, the phrase “son of God” came to be understood by Paul and later New Testament writers as referring to the divinity of Jesus.

But I don’t think it necessarily meant this initially. No Jewish person would think that an angel was God, or that Israel was God, or that a king was god, but the term is used of them all. But through the ministry, life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus, people came to see that Jesus was more than just a man. He was God in the flesh. He was Immanuel, God with us. As such, they added additional meaning to the term “Son of God” so that it now refers to Jesus being God incarnate.

What is Jesus saying in John 10:34-36?

So what about John 10:34-36? Jesus is quoting from Psalm 82:6. To understand Jesus, we must understand Psalm 82.

Essentially, Psalm 82 is where God, the judge of all, sits in judgment on corrupt human judges. Human judges have authority to judge, but their authority comes from God. In that sense, they can be called “sons of God.” They are sent with His authority.

In legal terminology, it is called de jure authority. It is derived authority. It has been delegated to them by someone with greater authority. The one with the greater authority has de facto authority. It is authority inherent within the person. Ultimately, only God has de facto authority.

So anyway, in Psalm 82, God, the de facto authority, shows up to condemn and judge the human judges, who have been using their de jure authority to make unjust judgments. They have not been helping the poor and fatherless, or the afflicted and needy. So God judges them, and says that although they are “sons of God,” that is, although He has given some of His authority to them to make judgments, they will still die like mere men (82:7).

This helps us understand what Jesus is saying in John 10:34-36. The religious leaders of His day also had de jure authority. Their authority derived from God. But they were misusing it and abusing their position of authority to make unjust judgments.

So Jesus challenged them on their judgments, and when they God upset, and asked Him by what authority He was doing and saying these things, He said that He had authority as a “Son of God.” What authority is that? Interestingly, it is the de jure authority! I believe He could have claimed de facto authority, but in this case He does not. Why not? For many reasons, but one is that Jesus knew His opponents were trying to bait Him, and He refused to take the bait. Instead, He claimed to have the same de jure authority that they had, but insisted that they were misusing and abusing their authority. He still made His point, but without falling into their trap.

This answer is probably more than you thought you would get, and I apologize for that.

I just feel that there are lots of Christians going about teaching sloppy ideas and careless theology, which then gets us in trouble when thinking people of other religions challenge us on our beliefs. For this reason, I try (but am not always successful) to be extremely careful in how I word things. But that usually leads to long and wordy answers like this one…

How do you understand the title “Son of God”?

So have you studied or read much about the title “Son of God”? What do you think it means? How do you understand it? How would you answer the questions posed above? Weigh in below!

Jesus is Too Busy for You

By Jeremy Myers

18 Comments

I thought this picture was kind of funny…

It is an advertisement put out by some Christian organization to encourage people to think about their eternal destiny rather than put it off until tomorrow. Yet the designers of the advertisement messed up a bit, and put the texts of Jesus on the wrong side.

If you have a cell phone which shows those bubble texts, you know that your texts are on the right in the green bubbles, and the texts you receive are on the left with the grey bubbles and the name of the person sending the text is at the top of the screen.

But in this picture, the designers of the advertisement reversed the bubbles so that it looks like Jesus is saying He is too busy to talk…

It’s a simple oversight, but still a little funny. Nevertheless, it kind of reminds me of a time I watched a video about how to study the Bible, and the creators of the video were talking about how important it was to use Greek and Hebrew in your study of Scripture. The video showed images of Greek and Hebrew text, and ironically, the Hebrew text was upside down! It obviously showed that despite the teacher’s claim that he used Hebrew in his study of Scripture, he didn’t even know which way was “up” when it came to Hebrew.

Does this mean that everything we do as Christians needs to be perfect? Of course not. Nearly every post I write on this blog has typos. (If you ever see one, please let me know about it in the comments or send me a note with that “Ask a Bible or Theology Question” section on the sidebar.)

But anyway, back to the subject of the image…

Is Jesus too Busy?

Most of us probably feel at times that Jesus seems too busy to talk to us. But the exact opposite is true. Due to the fact of the indwelling Holy Spirit and that God is everywhere all the time, God is able to treat each of us as if we were the only person in the world, the only one He needs to listen to, the only one He needs to care for.

God is never too busy or too distracted to listen to you. He is always with you, and always interested in what you are doing, thinking, and feeling. So talk with Him! When you rise up and when you lie down, when you eat your meals and when you drive to work, when you work out and when you watch a movie, remember that God is present with you, and loves to be part of your every conversation.

Praying to the Unbusy God

I think one of the great disservices of the church is how we teach children to pray with their heads bowed, eyes closed, and hands folded. I know why we do this — to help avoid distractions when praying — but it gives the impression that this is the only way we can pray.

But prayer should be similar to talking to a friend who is standing right next to you. When talking to a friend, do you close your eyes, bow your head, and fold your hands so that you can focus 100% on what you are saying and what they tell you in return? No, probably not. If the conversation is serious, you might turn to face them and drop what you are doing, but for normal, average, everyday stuff, you can have a good conversation with someone while you are doing your work, watching TV, going for a walk, driving your car, or eating a meal.

So also with prayer. If you can imagine God by your side all day every day, then you can also begin to hold conversations with Him in your head as you go about your day, just as you do with any other friend or family member.

This is the way I have been trying to pray for the last 10 years or so, and find it extremely helpful. It has gotten so that I sometimes find that it is hard to differentiate between prayer and my actual thoughts.

Rather than thinking, “I need to remember to stop by the store today after work,” I think, “Lord, help me to remember to stop by the store today after work.”

Rather than thinking, “What am I going to do about this bill I can’t pay?” I think, “Lord, what am I going to do about this bill I can’t pay?”

Rather than thinking, “What is wrong with my daughter’s throat and this pain she is experiencing? Should I take her to the doctor? Should I wait some more? Should I give her ibuprofen?” I think, “Lord, what is wrong with my daughter’s throat and this pain she is experiencing? Should I take her to the doctor? Should I wait some more? Should I give her ibuprofen?”

You see how this works?

I am not saying this is the way you have to pray. It is just something that has worked for me over the years. I think there are thousands of ways of praying, and each person prays a little bit differently. The key is to find a way that is natural, normal, and helps you develop your relationship with God, and talk with Him regarding the things that concern and interest you.

How do you pray? If you feel like sharing, leave a comment below.

Bible and Theology Questions 1

By Jeremy Myers

7 Comments

I get a lot of Bible and theology questions sent in to me from the “Ask a Bible and Theology Question” section in the sidebar. Though I am not always able to respond by email to all that I get, I do try to respond to most.

I decided that as part of my response to these Bible and Theology questions, I would post my answers on this blog. I will probably do this once a week or so, and put some (but not all) of the answers I provided so that you can weigh in on them as well.

Question: If all life – human, animal, plant, angel – is in Christ, why didn’t all life come to an end when Christ died on the cross?

First, I am not sure it is correct to say that everything was in Christ. Being “in” Christ is a special New Testament concept for people who have believed in Jesus for eternal life. It refers to being spiritually identified with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.

I do think that Jesus died, buried, and rose again to redeem all things, but that is slightly different than being “in” Christ.

Furthermore, even for those of us who were “in” Christ, it is a spiritual identification, so that when He died, was buried, and rose again, we also died, were buried, and rose again with Him — spiritually. Romans 6 talks some about this.

It’s kind of like being “in” a country as a citizen. If we are citizens of that country, we are identified with it. But if that country ceases to exist, we continue to live, but our identity changes. Did you ever see the movie “The Terminal” with Tom Hanks? His county disbanded, but he continued to live.

That’s a really bad analogy, but it helps get at the point. Also, I am not trying to say that Jesus ceased to exist when He died…

My answer is getting off track pretty quick…

The bottom line is this: Being “in”Christ is a special theological concept in the New Testament which takes some study to comprehend. It means that we are identified with Christ in His life, death, burial, and resurrection, and as such, receive certain spiritual blessings and benefits as a result.

Oh, and one more thing. You asked why all life didn’t come to an end when Jesus died. Interestingly, it could be argued that it was through the death of Jesus that all life truly began.

Question: I turned my back on God and fear I cannot be fully-restored. How can I find out if it is possible or not? I was a Spirit filled born-again believer and I turned my back on God and entered into some very terrible sins. I keep living this lifestyle and fear my salvation is at risk. Even though I read scriptures on confessing, etc.. I do not feel any better.

Please help me.

There is a lot about your situation I do not know, but let me try to answer what I can from the little you have told me.

First, if you have believed in Jesus for eternal life, you are already fully restored. As a child in God’s family, you are loved, forgiven, accepted, and reconciled to God. You have been regenerated, indwelled, baptized, and sealed by the Holy Spirit.

However, your sins may have caused some broken fellowship between you and God. Think of your relationship with God like any other human relationship. If you are born into a family, you are a child of your parents and brother to your siblings no matter what. These bonds cannot be erased or undone. However, even though you are part of the family, you may not have contact with your parents or with your siblings for years on end. This means that you are out of fellowship with them. You are still in the family, but fellowship is broken. To restore that fellowship, you would have to maybe confess some sin to them, humble yourself and return to them, or simply get on the phone and call them up.

It is the same with God. If you have believed in Jesus for eternal life, you are in the family. Nothing can break that bond. However, sin can break fellowship with God and with other believers. This is why confession and repentance are important.

So some of the issues you are facing may simply be some misunderstanding about the nature of your relationship with God. Once you understand that He loves and forgives you completely, and that you are in His family forever, this liberates you to love Him in return and not be worried about sin making God angry at you (He was never angry at you in the first place).

Remember that when Jesus died for your sins, all of them were future to Him, and He died anyway. Not one of your sins surprised Him or made Him wish He had not died for you. He loves you infinitely, forgives you completely, and wants to be restored into fellowship with you.

As for not feeling better, this is one of the negative consequences of sin. Sin does not take us out of God’s grace or forgiveness, but it does damage us emotionally, psychologically, physically, mentally, and even spiritually. But you will not be able to break the habit of sin on your own. You need to first realize how much God loves you–even in the midst of your sin. Until you understand the love of God, no victory over sin and temptation will be possible.

So focus on God’s infinite love for you. Over time, you will begin to see that sin no longer has the temptation that it once did.

I have written about some of this in my book, Why You Have Not Committed the Unforgivable Sin. Feel free to get it from Amazon.com.

Question: When the so-called Reformation happened all it did was reform the same old religion and not the church. There is no such thing as popes, priests, and pastors. If you think about it they’re all the same thing.

I agree with you. The Reformation did little to change much about the “Christian religion.” I think it did help to remove some of the abuses of religion, but it introduced a whole host of others.

I am glad, however, that Martin Luther helped remind the church that eternal life is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

Anyway, regarding pastors and priests, I have written several posts on the topic of pastors, and will be putting out a book about this in the next year or two… To get it for free, make sure you have subscribed to the email newsletter.

All Religions Are the Same

By Jeremy Myers

23 Comments

It’s true what they say: all religions are the same.

And make no mistake, I am including the Christian religion in with that. All religions are the same, including the Christian religion.

All Religions are the Same

All religions have at their core the idea that God is mad at the world and people have to do certain things to make God like them again. Usually, the good things that God wants us to do involve wearing silly hats, eating certain foods, and listening to some person talk for an hour before we give him money. This is true of any religion, whether Jewish, Muslim, Rastafarian, Santeria, Moorish Science Temple, Hindu, or… dare I say it? …Christian.

If you took away the hats, the robes, the names on the buildings, and some of the titles for “God” that different groups use, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between most of the world religions, …including Christianity.

The objection to the claim that all religions are the same is that “Christianity isn’t a religion; it’s a relationship! It’s a way of life!”

Right.

Few Think They are Religious

But do you know that this is what almost every person of every religion says? Almost nobody of any “faith group” thinks they are in a religion. If you ask the average “religious” person if they are in a religion, no matter what “religion” they follow, almost all of them will say, “No, I am not not in a religion, I practice a way of life.”

Nevertheless, almost everybody is in a religion, including most Christians. Most people believe God is mad at them for something they did or said, and they are doing certain things to try to make God happy again. The core of religion is that we can somehow pleas or appease God by our own good behavior or beliefs. If you believe that, then you are part of a religion, even you bear the name “Christian.”

Of course, I do consider myself a “Christian” in the sense that I am a follower of Jesus. I just think there is a vast difference between what has come to be known as Christianity, and what Jesus actually intended.

And when it comes down to what Jesus intended his followers to be and do, and what the religions of the world do (including the religion of Christianity), there are a few major differences. There are things that sets Jesus and His followers distinctly apart from all religious groups in history, including those religious groups that bear the name “Christian.”

What Separates Jesus from All Religions?

So what sorts of things separate Jesus followers from all other religions in the world?

Well, I will tell you one thing that doesn’t separate us…. good works. You sometimes hear Christians say, “We are more generous, loving, kind, and forgiving.” That’s crap.

Sure, it’s true sometimes. But in my experience, some of the most forgiving, kind, and generous people I know are of some religion other than Christianity. Many of them are atheists.

You can always find another religious group that is behaves better than many Christians.

So, it seems to me that the main difference between Jesus and every man-made religion in the world (including the Christian religion) boils down to one word: grace. But not the watered down grace you hear preached from pulpits and described in books.

No, the one thing that separates what Jesus revealed to the world and what we see in all religious groups is one thing: indiscriminate, scandalous, shocking, outrageous, senseless, irrational, unfair, irreligious, ridiculous, absurd, offensive, infinite grace.

If you don’t hold to this kind of grace, it might be because you are part of a man-made religion, even if you call yourself “Christian.”

I am someone who came out of the Christian religion and now follows Jesus on the way of grace.

As a reader of this blog, you are probably similar. Together, we challenge some of the ideas and practices of Christianity. We raise questions about what Scripture really teaches, what God is really like, and what it means to be the church in the world today. We look for ways to reveal the scandalous grace of God to the world, raising questions about justice, righteousness, forgiveness, and love.

All religions are the same, which is partly why I am not part of any religion. I do follow Jesus, but try to do so in a religionless way. How about you?

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We are to Love Our Enemies

What the Bible Says about Forgiveness

Charizomai Forgiveness

Aphesis Forgiveness

Apoluo Forgiveness

So How Does This Help Christians Learn to Forgive?

You are already Forgiven, so Forgive to be Forgiven

Study Forgiveness on Your Own

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So what does it mean when Jesus is called the “Son of God”?

So does this mean Jesus Wasn’t God?

What is Jesus saying in John 10:34-36?

How do you understand the title “Son of God”?

Is Jesus too Busy?

Praying to the Unbusy God

All Religions are the Same

Few Think They are Religious

What Separates Jesus from All Religions?

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