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Tag: believers

  • God makes believers a reproach of men – Femi Aribisala

    Femi Aribisala

    One day, at three o’clock in the morning, the Lord woke me up to spend some time with him. In the middle of the fellowship, he gave me a strange instruction. He asked me to move the settees from my den upstairs into the main living-room downstairs, and to move the ones downstairs upstairs.

    What was odd about this instruction was that the settees in question were ragged and literally in tatters. Surely, it was not appropriate to put them in the main living-room where we entertain guests.

    Veiled promise

    Nevertheless, I was very excited by the instruction. I felt it could only mean one thing: the Lord was planning to replace the old furniture with new ones. The settees in question were twenty-three years old. We could have replaced them long before then, except that the Lord had taken over our finances and buying new settees did not seem to be one of his priorities.

    But now, it seemed, the time had finally come. We were in for a treat. Since we had waited patiently for so long to replace them, I wondered what kind of replacement the Lord would come up with. One thing was certain; they would be fabulous.

    I quickly obeyed the instruction. I did not wait until there was someone else awake to help me. All night long, I carried the settees downstairs and arranged them in the living-room. I then put the relatively new ones that had been in the living-room upstairs in the den. It was not easy, but I managed to do it all by myself.

    Later on, that morning, I explained the situation to my wife. “The Lord has decided to get us new furniture,” I declared with excitement. “In readiness, he has asked that we move the old ones downstairs.”

    I expected all this to be accomplished in a matter of days. But days rolled into weeks; and weeks rolled into months, and nothing happened. The Lord seemed to have completely forgotten about the question of our furniture. I became thoroughly confused. Did I get it wrong? Was it not the Lord who told me to move the old furniture downstairs? What exactly is the meaning of this? What is the Lord trying to bring out in all this?

    Abrahamic delay

    God promised Abram a son. On that basis, he changed his name. “Your name will no longer be Abram,” he said. “From now on, your name shall be called Abraham.” Significantly, Abraham means “father of many nations.” So, let us imagine that Abraham takes out an ad in a newspaper saying: “I, previously known as Abram, now wish to be called Abraham.” This would be all well and good except that everyone knows Abraham does not have even one single child.

    Worse still, after God made the promise, he seemed to forget about it; for twenty-five years! What is the point of this? What is supposed to happen to Abraham in the meantime? In the meantime, God has turned him into a laughing stock. Abraham has become a childless “father of many nations.”

    Reproach of men

    Why does God behave like this? Why is God seemingly determined to make us a reproach of men? Take a look at the complaint of the Psalmist: “I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All those who see me ridicule me; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, ‘He trusted in the LORD, let him rescue him; let him deliver him, since he delights in him!” (Psalm 22:6-8).

    This has been my experience with the Lord. He deliberately puts me in embarrassing situations. How was I to explain the transition in my life from a highfalutin intellectual to a bible-carrying believer to my old bookworm friends? How could I go from grace to grass in the name of the gospel? How could I end up preaching the gospel with an Oxford university doctorate?

    Therefore, for over ten years, I cut off all contacts with my friends. I just could not face them. I was convinced that they would not understand. I was not even the pastor of a big or famous church. All I did was conduct a fellowship with a handful of people in a little corner of Lagos. Moreover, God forbid that I should preach with the enticing words of man’s wisdom in order to attract a big congregation.

    Object lesson

    The Lord’s injunction concerning my old settees turned out to be an object lesson on my spiritual conversion. The settees became a major eyesore in our living-room. I started dreading people coming to visit us. What would they think? The settees were torn in different places. In some, the underlying foam was clearly visible. Therefore, I stopped inviting people home.

    If they came to visit me uninvited, I would go into some elaborate explanation about the furniture, laying the blame squarely at the doorstep of the Holy Spirit. “I’m sorry about the condition of this place, but the Holy Spirit told me to put this twenty-three-year-old furniture bang in the living-room.”

    Some looked at me pitifully, convinced that I was the victim of some bizarre deception. But the Lord did not make things any easier. He forbade me from explaining to anyone that he was the one who told me to put the torn furniture in the living-room. Neither could I pray that people would not come to visit me. The same God to whom the prayer would be addressed was the very person clearly determined to embarrass me.

    Humiliating love

    Now here is the rub: why was the Lord doing this to me? I thought I should have been commended for using a settee for over twenty-three years. Instead, the Lord turned this into a reproach for me.

    After a few months, it became clear to me that the Lord had no intention of getting us new settees. I reminded him that I actually had not asked him for new ones. He was the one who brought the matter up. Since he was no longer interested, could I please put the old settees back in their original hiding place upstairs? The answer was an emphatic “No.”

    The bible says God is love. But I ask you, what kind of love is God? Let me tell you. God’s love is hard and humiliating. He secures our welfare through schemes that are often unpalatable to us. He seems to take delight in disappointing our hopes and in foiling our expectations of grandeur. He is determined to thwart our purposes in life and to make us the reproach of men.

    Twenty-five years after he made the promise, God finally gave Abraham a son. The Lord never did forget the promise he made to Abraham. He was simply determined to test his faith.

    Twenty-three years of living with the same furniture, and seven months of having torn furniture displayed for all to see in our living-room, the Lord finally instructed me to go to a precise shop where he showed me a new set of settees that were simply beautiful. Moreover, he miraculously provided me with the money to purchase it.

  • Jesus will save all believers and unbelievers – Femi Aribisala

    By Femi Aribisala

    Peter says some of the writings of Paul are hard to understand and “untaught and unstable people” twist them to their own destruction. (2 Peter 3:16). What is he referring to here?

    Paul says again and again: “God wants everyone to be saved.” (1 Timothy 2:4). “God is the Savior of everyone, but especially of those who have faith.” (1 Timothy 4:10). “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ all will be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:22). Peter agrees: “(God) wants everyone to turn from sin and no one to be lost.” (2 Peter 3:9).

    Moreover, since God wants all men to be saved, then all men will be saved. This is because: “(God) works all things according to the counsel of his will.” (Ephesians 1:11). God says: “’My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.” (Isaiah 46:10). “Indeed I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it; I will also do it.” (Isaiah 46:11).

    Peter notes that Paul’s revelation that all will be saved was being use by some to justify continuing in sin. Carnal Christians think: “If all will be saved, then I don’t need to be righteous; whatever happens, I will be saved.”

    Indeed, Paul says the more we sin, the more grace God provides: “The law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 5:19-21).

    However, anticipating that some may conclude this gives them a license to sin, Paul asks: “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” (Romans 6:1).

    Cords of love

    The problem comes from not having the mind of Christ. The wisdom of man leads to the presumption that the severity of God would readily lead men to salvation. Therefore, Christian fundamentalists create an extra-biblical hell designed to frighten men into the kingdom of God.

    But God warns: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55: 8-9). Thus, Jesus notes that religious leaders teach as doctrines the commandments of men instead of the commandments of God. (Mark 7:7).

    God is love and he does not lead men to salvation through fear. On the contrary: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” (1 John 4:18). God leads us to salvation through his love. He says: “I drew them with gentle cords, with bands of love, and I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck. I stooped and fed them.” (Hosea 11:4).

    A basic requirement of salvation is repentance of sin. However, the fear of mythical hell does not lead to repentance. It is: “the goodness of God (that) leads to repentance.” (Romans 2:4). When God is good to us, even in spite of our sins, it breaks us down and makes us repent.

    Fall from grace

    Similarly, the wisdom of man says if Christ will ultimately save all men, why bother to live righteously now? Those foolish enough to think like this are likely to fall from grace. No man is saved by right or merit. “There is none righteous, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10). “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

    Therefore, if God saves some and not all, he would be guilty of favouritism. But “God has committed all (men) to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all.” (Romans 11;32). However, the fact that all men will be saved does not mean all men will escape punishment. Those who despise the grace of Jesus will receive the severest punishment of all.

    “If we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins. There is only the terrible expectation of God’s judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies. For anyone who refused to obey the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.”

    “Just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God, and have treated the blood of the covenant, which made us holy, as if it were common and unholy, and have insulted and disdained the Holy Spirit who brings God’s mercy to us. For we know the one who said, ‘I will take revenge. I will pay them back.’ He also said, ‘The Lord will judge his own people.’ It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:26-31).

    Weeping and gnashing

    When true knowledge comes and Christ is revealed by sight and not just by faith, many will be tormented by exclusion from his councils.

    Jesus says: “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out. They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last.” (Luke 13:28-30).

    Beware, because the first who will become last is likely to be a Christian who has despised the grace of God. In the day of judgment, it will be more tolerable for the unbeliever than for the unfaithful believer. It will be more tolerable for those to whom the gospel was not preached than for those who despised or rejected it.

    Jesus says: “That servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more. (Luke 12:47-48).

    Are these stripes then tantamount to destruction? Yes! Is there hope for man after the destruction of the Lord? Yes! But the duration of this penalty cannot be eternal precisely because God is love. God’s throne of judgment is established in mercy and not in vindictiveness:

    “In mercy the throne will be established; and One will sit on it in truth, in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking justice and hastening righteousness.” (Isaiah 16:5).

    “I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her penitents with righteousness.” (Isaiah 1:26-27).