Last week we concluded our time in Philippians, looking at the idea of joy in different contexts. For the next several weeks I want to go back in time to the book of Judges. Judges was a book that I wanted to teach to the middle school group but never had time for and it also gives me the challenge of expositing an Old Testament book. Keep in mind while Philippians was a letter, Judges is a historical narrative.
In the first 18 verses of Judges, we read about the people of Israel, a fairly new nation, conquesting their Promised Land. As the Israelites moved throughout the land of Canaan, the Lord was with them and they easily defeated their enemies driving out all of the inhabitants. This in its self brings up the topic of a "holy war" but we aren't going to look into that. Let me just say that the Israelite conquest of Canaan was ordained by God but I would not say the same about the Crusades or any other war in mankind's history. This shows the trouble we can get into when we as man put words into God's mouth that justify what we ourselves want to do, even if scripture explicitly says different. That said, for these first 18 verses, the Israelites follow their command, they drive out the peoples of Canaan but as we hit verse 19, something changes. The Lord was with the men of Judah. They took possession of the hill country, but they were unable to drive the people from the plains, because they had iron chariots (emphasis added). The rest of chapter 1 tells of the peoples Israel failed to rid the land of. In Joshua 9 we read about the Gibeonites who deceive the Israelites, but we can add to this list many more people groups.
As chapter 2 begins, we fully see why leaving these peoples was problematic. I think Exodus 32-33 says it very clearly: "Do not make a covenant with them (the peoples of Canaan) or with their Gods. Do not let them live in your land, or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you." God wanted the Israelites to have the land to themselves. It was their land! But they left other peoples in the land and we see this cause the Israelites to fall over and over again. Their history is plagued by bad decisions and evil kings. I don't think we are too far off of this path. God wants us to have an amazing life in him yet over and over we sin against him. When I say sin I don't just mean doing a bad thing. Stealing or lying or calling someone a name. No, sin stretches much further, sin is separation from God and we do this everyday when we worry about life, focus on this life rather than God. Spend our time poorly and of course, when we do do those "bad things". We leave this sins in our lives just like the Israelites left peoples in their land; and just like the Israelites, sin causes us to grow further apart from God.
This leaves us at a point of desperation. We are separated from God and seemingly have 1. no way of getting back to him and 2. even if we were able to get back to him, we need to defeat the sin in our lives. Well lets look at what God did for the Israelites. In chapter 2 verse 16 we read that God began raising judges up for the Israelites. These aren't judges like the supreme court or Judge Judy however, these judges were simply heroes who fought for Israel and led them to victory when enemy nations attacked them. There was only one problem though. The Judges were finite. They got old, they died. Israel and even us nowadays need someone who can help us defeat sin at all times, not just during a single lifetime. That is where Jesus Christ comes into the picture.
Jesus is our eternal judge. He fought for us on the cross and died for our sins in our place. He bore God's wrath, he took the punishment we deserved for all of our sin. But friends, he didn't simply die for it, he rose again from the dead three days after! This means that he not only paid the price for our sins with his death, but in his life we can find forgiveness over and over again. His grace is like an endless spring that never stops flowing. With this great and glorious news then, we can answer those initial questions.
1. Through faith in Jesus Christ alone we can have our relationship with God made right. No actions or works gains us salvation. We can't pray enough, read the bible enough or preach the gospel to enough people to gain salvation. These are things we should do, but they don't gain us salvation. A pray we prayed when we were young also doesn't mean we have salvation. Because we believe there is a God or even that Jesus died for us doesn't give us salvation. Rather, when we put our faith fully in the work of Christ on the cross and thus literally change our life by making Christ the Lord of our life, we gain salvation.
2. We are forgiven, sin no longer has a hold on us. Unfortunately as we are human we will continue to sin but know that 1. We are forgiven and don't have to feel the guilt and weight of sin and 2. Through Christ and his power we truly can defeat the sin that rots our lives.
Friends, I hope that you choose to put your faith in Christ and receive the salvation that comes from that faith. If you have already done this then know that sin has no grip on you. Through Christ you can overcome sin because he has already overcome death and died for our sins!
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