The Five “We Wills”

Early in my childhood, my parents took our family to the circus. I had a great time, but the thing that impressed me the most was seeing performers stand on the seats of moving bicycles.

Of course, the next day I pulled out my trusty BMX and gave it a shot. Peddling up some momentum, in a crouched position I cautiously put one foot on the seat, and then the other. Surprised I had made it that far, I decided to stand up and shout, “I’m the king of the world!”

Face… meet concrete. Thank goodness the dentist was able to fit me into his schedule and give me a new front tooth.

Whenever I tell that story, people always quote the same Bible verse to me, “Pride goes before a fall.” It’s true, though. Pride does serve as a forerunner to destruction because the Bible says that God Himself opposes the proud.

“God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” … Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. – James 4:6, 13-16

The word ‘opposed’ is an ancient military term, which pictures an army assuming a specific battle-array position to attack an enemy force. James says that God is not messing around about pride. When He sees it, He gets ready to throw down, and God never loses a fight.

A classic example of this God versus pride dynamic is found in Isaiah 14, a passage known as the five ‘I wills’ of Lucifer.

Take up this taunt against the king of Babylon, and say … “How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, you who have weakened the nations! But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, to the recesses of the pit.” – Isaiah 14:12-15

In Isaiah 14, the king of Babylon is described as being analogous to the devil. And just as the divine rebel was cast down and humiliated because of his treacherous pride, Isaiah declares that the same fate will befall the pompous king of Babylon.

When the President of the United States of America ended his inauguration speech, he did so in an eerily similar fashion as the king of Babylon’s boast against God. President Trump, however, used five ‘we wills’. Some have argued that the use of the word ‘we’ is a clear mark of humility, but the mere usage of a first person plural pronoun means nothing. What matters is what he said ‘we’ can and will do.

Please read his closing remarks from the speech:

When America is united, America is totally unstoppable. … No challenge can match the heart and fight and spirit of America. … We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the mysteries of space, to free the Earth from the miseries of disease, and to harness the energies, industries and technologies of tomorrow. A new national pride will stir our souls, lift our sights, and heal our divisions. … Your voice, your hopes, and your dreams, will define our American destiny. And your courage and goodness and love will forever guide us along the way. Together, We Will Make America Strong Again. We Will Make America Wealthy Again. We Will Make America Proud Again. We Will Make America Safe Again. And, Yes, together, We Will Make America Great Again. Thank you, God Bless You, And God Bless America.

The spirit of America? The Bible tells us to not readily accept every spirit, but rather to test them since not every spirit comes from God. And before you totally write me off, claiming that it’s absurd to insinuate that there is an actual spirit of America, pause with me and reflect on what the Scriptures might have to say on the matter.

Knowing that the book of Daniel says there were angelic principalities called the Prince of Persia and the Prince of Greece, I wonder what it was that drove thousands of Ephesians to shout in unison for two hours, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” If it’s possible that there was a territorial angelic spirit over the area of Ephesus that led people to be hostile to the simple words of Christ, isn’t it possible the same dynamic is happening here?

So, let’s briefly test this spirit of America using the words we just read from President Trump’s speech.

Is America truly unstoppable and all-powerful? Is America what ushers in the New Millennium? Is America able to rid the world all disease forever? Who or what does the spirit of America tell us to put our confidence in? Does the spirit of America glorify the Lord God Jesus Christ, or the god of us?

We Will. We Will. We Will. We Will. We Will.

What ever happened to God’s will? There’s not much room left for God when we’re so full of ourselves.

Beating our chests with shouts of our grandiosity won’t open the floodgates of heaven, but it will lead to spectacularly painful face-plants. God doesn’t bless pride; He never has and never will. God blesses humility.

We need to rediscover our roots. We need to go back to a time when Christianity was truly great… when it couldn’t care less about the affairs of the State, but would relinquish anything for the kingdom of God. We need to get on our knees in repentance of our pride, and plead not for America to be great again (whatever that means), but for the glory of God to be great in the Church again.

Let us do all those things which pertain to holiness, avoiding all evil-speaking, all abominable and impure embraces, together with all drunkenness ... all abominable lusts, detestable adultery, and repulsive pride. “For God,” says [the Scripture], “resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” … Let our praise be in God and not of ourselves; for God hates those that commend themselves. Let testimony to our good deeds be borne by others. … Arrogance, and audacity belong to those that are accursed of God; but moderation, humility, and meekness to such as are blessed by Him. – Clement of Rome 95CE, Volume 1, p. 25-26 [CD-ROM]

Simply Jesus Pt. 15: "God Knows Your Hearts…”

Have you ever heard someone say, “Hey, God knows my heart!” If so, it probably came just before or after the phrase, “Don’t judge me!”

Often when I’ve heard people repeat this quote of Jesus, that God knows their heart, they seem to be insisting that certain sinful behaviors are acceptable since God knows they are ultimately good people. I’ve heard that rationale given to excuse sex outside of marriage, homosexuality, racism, illegal drug use, and many other actions that God calls sin.

But how is the phrase ‘God knows my (your) heart(s)’ used in Scripture?

No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were scoffing at Him. And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God. – Luke 16:13-15

Here in Luke 16, Jesus is trying to lead a group of Pharisees to repentance. In order to do this, first He must show them how their hearts are in rebellion toward God. Like millions of Western Christians, their hearts are devoted to the god of money because of the worldly power, influence, security, comfort and control it affords them.

But Jesus keeps pressing the issue. He tells these professing lovers of God that because they are so devoted to wealth, they neither serve God nor love Him.

And the Pharisees’ response to God incarnate's rebuke?

They scoff at Him. That word carries the picture of blowing your nose at someone. Utterly disrespectful and dismissive. Why would they do that? Because clearly, they know their own hearts better than Jesus does, right? So they tell Jesus to buzz off.

You can almost see them thinking to themselves, “Hey, You need to calm down, Jesus! Take that stuff somewhere else. God knows my heart!”

And Jesus, operating in the power of the Spirit says to them, “You’re exactly right! God does know your heart, and if you were thinking straight you’d be trembling rather than scoffing.”

What would cause someone who claims to love God to scoff at a warning and rebuke from Jesus? One of the early Christians gives us a clue as he comments on our passage:

It is written, “But the man that is proud and boastful shall bring nothing at all to perfection, who has enlarged his soul as hell.” And the Lord in His Gospel blames and condemns men of that kind, saying, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” He says that those are repulsive and detestable who please themselves. – Cyprian 250CE, Volume 5, p. 653 [CD-ROM]

Pride is a dangerous quality. God hates it. God opposes those who are characterized by it. It utterly deceives us. It convinces people to not seek God. It is a forerunner for destruction. And as Luke 16 describes, pride is behind the drive to constantly justify our sinful behavior in the sight of others.

If you sense pride in yourself, I want to encourage you to seek God’s remedy.

“God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. – James 4:6-8

God gives special grace to those who humble themselves under His hand. And one of the most amazing blessings of grace that God offers to the world is to grant a brand new heart for those who will humbly receive His Son. Our almighty God can take a prideful, hardened heart and transform it into one like Jesus’.

If God can take the chief of sinners and turn him into a church-planting apostle who’s responsible for writing half the books of the New Testament, He can work an incredible turnaround in you as well! God knows your heart, and He also knows how to transform it into something beautiful!

Grace Pt. 2 - Special Grace for the Humble

By the end of what would have been my second year of college, I had earned a D average. I was a total slacker in high school, and college served as a rude awakening for me.

Fortunately, one of my sisters offered to tutor me. However, this wasn’t going to be the average kind of tutoring one experiences. If I was willing to meet her demands, she would mold me into a competent college student. I would learn the skills I failed to develop in middle and high school – how to take notes, study for tests, compile research for papers and become organized. 

Here were her stipulations: 1) Each course's syllabi had to be submitted to her at the beginning of the semester. 2) I must come to her apartment once a week for tutoring throughout the entire school year. 3) All class notes must be submitted at the beginning of the week. 4) All graded assignments must be submitted at the beginning of the week. 5) If at any time I refused to comply with the stipulations, she would rescind her offer of help.

It was humiliating at first, but I’m so glad I accepted her offer of help. I made all A’s that year for the first time in my life, and was able to transfer to Houston Baptist University where I began making the Dean’s list.

This story illustrates a theme repeated over and over in Scripture. “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6).”

Do you believe that, though? Do you believe that choosing to humble yourself under God’s hand will bring more of God’s grace into your life? Can grace sometimes be, in a sense, merited? The early Christians did.

Seeing, therefore, that we are the portion of the Holy One, let us do all those things which pertain to holiness, avoiding all evil-speaking, all abominable and impure embraces, together with all drunkenness, seeking after change, all abominable lusts, detestable adultery, and appalling pride. “For God,” says [the Scripture], “resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Let us cleave, then, to those to whom grace has been given by God. Let us clothe ourselves with unity and humility, ever exercising self-control, standing far off from all whispering and evil-speaking. … Let us cleave then to His blessing, and consider what are the means of possessing it. – Clement of Rome 95CE, Volume 1, p. 24-25.

You may be thinking that the early Christians didn’t quite grasp the concept of grace. Bless their little hearts.

Before you go down that road, first consider that this guy named Clement of Rome was the Clement who Paul wrote about in Philippians 4:3. Paul said Clement was a fellow worker of his who struggled in the cause of the gospel and whose name is in the book of life. Clement was a personal disciple of the Apostle Paul, so it’s safe to say he understood the doctrine of grace better than a modern American Christian.

Second, I’d like you to consider why you have the definition of grace that you do. I was taught by pastors and professors that grace simply means unmerited favor. There’s a problem with that definition, though.

If you look up grace in Strong’s Concordance, the idea of grace being ‘unmerited’ is only one of many ways grace is used in the New Testament. Here are some ways that grace (charis) is translated: grace, thanks, credit, favor, blessing, kindness.

Maybe you’ve heard grace taught as: God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. Take that definition of grace (charis) and the definition of unmerited favor and tell me what to do with this verse:

The Child (Jesus) continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him. – Luke 2:40

Was God’s unmerited favor upon Jesus? Did Jesus need God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense? Absurd questions, I know.

What definition of charis would you give to this verse?

“Charis be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 7:25)!” Does God need God’s unmerited favor? Does God need God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense? Ridiculous. Verses like these show why we can’t keep using acronyms to define a rich and multifaceted word like grace. Clearly, the appropriate translation in Luke 2:40 is simply ‘favor’ and in Romans 7:25 is ‘thanks’.

Do you read the Bible with humility or pride? Do you exalt your feelings above the scriptures, or do you bring your feelings under submission to the scriptures?

Our culture says adultery is fine. Our culture says divorce is fine. Our culture says homosexuality is fine. Our culture says greed is fine. Our culture says abortion is fine. Our culture says war and violence are fine. Our culture says unforgiveness is fine. Our culture says materialism is fine.

Do you bring any of those feelings with you when you read the simple words of Christ? Do any of those feelings cause you to not take Jesus and the Apostles at their word?

God opposes the proud. That means He comes against them like two armies lining up on a field to do battle. Do you believe that?

God also gives special grace to the humble. That means He gives extra divine help to those people who depend on the Lord rather than themselves. People who depend on the Lord’s understanding rather than their own, and obey His counsel. Do you believe that?

Like the strong help given by tutors, there’s special grace promised for the humble!