A few months back Living Stones hosted a Question & Answers night and received over a hundred questions. Many of them were addressed during our gatherings and can be found on our podcast here. For the next few weeks I will be posting up answers to some of the remaining questions that were not answered. Answers for the questions have been provided by various Living Stones Elders.
What does it look like to completely die to self?
Dying to self means laying aside our will, desires, motives, etc. and aligning them with Christ. Paul says in Galatians that we have been crucified with Christ and that it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us. This is the picture of baptism (Rom. 6). As we are lowered into the water we are aligning ourselves with Christ’s death and as we come out of the water we are aligning our self with Christ’s resurrection. Dying to our self would include reminding ourselves of our Gospel identity (reliance on Christ’s work, not ours) and repentance (crucifying the flesh Gal. 5:24). To die to self is to cast aside the idol of self-reliance and fully trust in God.
As a leader, when do you step-down from moral failure?
If by moral failure you’re referring to adultery, then immediately due to the gravity and public nature of such a sin.
Why was proving a point to the devil, worth more than Job's well being?
The Bible doesn’t say that the only reason God allowed this to happen was to prove a point to Satan. I’m sure God, in His infinite wisdom, had a number of reasons why He gave permission to Satan to test Job and we can only speculate from there and need to be careful in doing so (Deut. 29:29). From the story of Job we learn that at times bad things happen to good people and that it isn’t always a result of sin and good things can happen to bad people. The world doesn’t revolve around Karma. We’re also reminded in Job that in the midst of affliction or suffering we shouldn’t curse God, which is so often our default and shows our self-centeredness. When Jesus suffered, He looked to God and submitted to His will. It also shows us that God is sovereign throughout the whole situation and in the end doubles everything that was taken away.
Does the story about the sheep and goats in Matthew 25 teach salvation by works?
Whenever we seek to interpret scripture, we always look at it not only in light of its immediate context, but also with the rest of scripture. We can’t pull out verses on their own and develop a theology, without comparing it to the rest of the Bible. There is a lot of bad doctrine and heresy developed by ignoring the basic hermeneutic principle that Scripture interprets Scripture. So if we come across a passage that seem ambiguous, we don’t develop a theology from it without taking into consideration other passages that are more clear. We then use the clear passage to help us understand the less clear passage, not the other way around!
In this case, the Bible is very clear that we are saved by grace and not by our works and that we are then saved to good works (Eph. 2:8-10). The sheep aren’t saved by their righteousness, but rather that these good works are evidence of their transformed heart. It also shows them being judged for keeping all of the law or none of it. There’s no middle ground. So the sheep are being judged as having done perfect and the goats being judged as having kept none of it. At judgment, those people (sheep) who profess Christ, will be judged not according to our obedience, but to Christ’s perfect fulfillment of the law.
Why did God make the devil if he knew that he would be evil?
Ultimately, we are not given a straightforward explanation to this question in Scripture and we can’t full know the mind of God (Deut. 29:29); however, we do know that God didn’t originally create demons, but that at some point there was an angelic rebellion, with many angels turning against God and becoming evil (2 Peter 2:4, Jude 6).
It’s also important to remember that God and the Satan are not equally “weighted” forces waging the war on good and evil while we hold our breath in suspense to see who will win. The Bible always shows God as sovereign and in control, even over Satan and his influences (Job 1:7-2:7).
It’s also important to remember that God will do whatever will bring him the most glory, which he has the right to do because he’s God. God’s glory is most clearly pictured in the cross! The most evil act in history is the act through which God showed his Glory in bringing about reconciliation and the forgiveness of sins displaying His love and mercy. It was on the cross where God’s power and justice was displayed in defeating Satan (Col. 2:15, Rev. 12:11) and Satan’s ultimate end will at be at Final Judgment where he will be thrown into the lake of fire to be tormented day and night forever and ever (Rev. 20:10).
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