Recognizing A Man Of God

This term is used too loosely and the meaning has been defined in too many ways. Many men have been called men of God; I hope it hasn't gone to their heads!  The first thing people notice is your piety and religiosity.  They see you reading the Bible all the time or hear you witness to everyone you get a chance to.  Then you get a reputation for being a Christian and everyone is watching your every step! Once you get labeled your life is under a microscope and you are under the pressure to "perform." Notice that the Pharisees were thought to be men of God or of being pious for their long-winded prayers on the street corners and strict adherence to the letter of the law.  The real man of God doesn't think of himself that way but as being the chief of sinners--the closer your walk with Christ, the more aware you become of your failings and sins--especially ones of omission!  You think of all the missed chances you had, wasted opportunities, and good deeds you could have done and regretted it with perfect hindsight.  It has been said that if we watch our character, our reputation will take care of itself!

The man of God isn't measured by how religious he is, like how long he prays or how many hours he reads or studies the Bible--I've known babes in Christ who put mature men of God to shame in these categories.  There's nothing like the first love we have when converted and original fascination with the Word that latter becomes Bible fatigue or the same-old, same-old.  You can get the bug to witness and win people to Christ ("he who wins souls is wise," says Prov. 11:30), but sometimes this is just because this is his calling and gift and how God uses him--we are not all evangelists.  Some of us plant seeds, some water, and some reap, but God gives the increase all the way.  Many believers have memorized the Dance of the Pious and mimic Christian behavior, as it were, and some are just going through the motions or playing church, but have no reality the rest of the week.

The man of God knows his God and knows what God requires of him, being oriented to the will of God:  He senses some calling and knows how God uses him and is purpose-driven and grace-oriented (cf. 2 Pet. 1:10).  God has ownership of his life and he doesn't copy Christ's behavior as much as let Christ live through him. Gal. 2:20 shows the relinquished life, the exchanged life, and the surrendered life.  And so it isn't as much as trying to be like Christ as letting Christ live through you and in you. The man of God has confidence that he knows God's will and is brave to do it like Daniel who knew when to defy the king.  According to J. I. Packer knowing God entails having a great energy for God (being tireless and spiritually ambitious), being involved in great tasks (attempting great things for God, and expecting greater things from God), great boldness and courage for God (he's not afraid to stand up and be counted and show his Christian colors and take stands, even if unpopular), great thoughts of God (he meditates and is humbled by God's greatness which affects his thinking), and great contentment in his God--whether living or dying.  "He shall be strong and do exploits" (cf. KJV) or "stand firm and take action" (cf. HCSB), or "firmly resist him [the Antichrist]"  according to Dan. 11:32, NIV.  He is basically ready to meet his Maker.( Case in point:  St. Francis of Assisi was asked what he would do if he had one more hour to live while he was tending his garden, and he replied:  "I'd finish this row!" He had no unfinished business!)  Matthew Henry said that it is the duty of each day to prepare for like it were his last.  This is not being dismal, it is realism.

In the seventeenth century, it was every gentleman's hobby to do a discourse on biblical themes.  One can be very conversant and familiar with the Bible and know his way around the block theologically, even getting A's in theology class and hardly know his God.  You can know a lot about without knowing a lot of God.  It is said by Packer that a great deal of knowledge of God is better than a whole lot about God and the width of our knowledge about Him is no gauge of our knowledge of Him.  The man of God doesn't acquire knowledge for its own sake or as an end in itself, but as a means to an end.  Everyone doesn't need to be a scholar and God can use the uneducated just as well to do His will.

The man of God is a friend of God and sees God as both his Savior and Lord.  I've heard it said by William Jay of Bath that he is "a great sinner, but Christ is a great Savior."  Only when you see yourself as a real sinner, can Christ be a real Savior to you.  George Whitefield was known to say the famous line:  "There but for the grace of God, go I."  Both Paul and John Bunyan (Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners and Pilgrim's Progress) saw themselves in the dim light in this regard.  What we have to do is realize what Paul said, "I am what I am by the grace of God" (cf. 1 Cor. 15:10).  And so humility and meekness are paramount, but this doesn't mean having low self-esteem, but not higher thoughts of yourself than necessary.  True humility is not about thinking less of yourself, but of thinking of yourself less!

You can be a man or woman of God being relatively ignorant of the Word, but applying what you do know and being faithful to it.  God isn't calling us to success but to faithfulness, according to St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta.  The more you know the more responsible you become! God makes the man or woman of God especially wise, full of knowledge and wisdom, even if that is not their gift: St. Teresa is credited with many sayings that survive her and scholars everywhere quote her; she was was a humble, and faithful servant.  God isn't looking for our achievements (God may burn up the ones we're most proud!) but our obedience!  "To obey is better than sacrifice" is what Samuel told King Saul in 1 Sam. 15:22.

There were three men of God in Scripture that "walked with God."  "Noah was a just man, and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God."  The others who did are Abraham and Enoch who took a final walk with God to paradise.  The man of God knows how to stay in fellowship with his Lord by keeping short accounts of his sins and making confession a discipline and constant practice.  He knows when he's having fellowship with his brother as a fruit of fellowship with the Father and the Son.  This implies that he prays without ceasing or what that means is that the communication line is always open and he makes himself available to hear from God--he is in sync with God and on the same page as his brothers.

Being in fellowship implies being filled with the Spirit, which is a continual, renewing thing, and not a one-time event.  As a result of this, he manifests the fruit of the Spirit throughout his life as a testimony.  Others see Christ in him and he models the Christian way (early believers were known as members of the Way).  In short, he knows Jesus who is the Way and therefore knows the Way--he knows what he is doing! Love is the telltale sign, to know Him is to love Him.  Jesus is not one of many ways, nor the best way, but the ONLY way, someone wise said.

As a corollary to the above, the man of God can find God and can recognize His presence.  He has found the Lord, or should I say the Lord has found him!  There may be times when God seems MIA and the whereabouts of God is in question, but He knows that he will eventually find him and won't give up on God during trials and tribulations, which don't make him bitter, but better.  He knows, for instance, that the same sun melts the butter, but hardens the clay.

The man of God knows what God is telling him and knows how to get it from the Word, though He may use other means like dreams or visions (God hasn't retired them).  A man of God should be and is a man of the Word and loves the Bible in that he relies on it and knows how to go to it with every problem and dilemma.  "O, how I love thy law.  It is my meditation all the day long," says Psalm 119:97. He respects the Word and the teaching of it and is a student of the Word making progress, even if not as fast as some. He who won't read the Bible is not better off than he who can't!  I've seen people of low reading skills become very adept at the Word because God gave them insight and illumination through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Understanding the Word is not a matter of intellect, but of the condition of our will, mind, and heart: Are they needy, receptive, open-minded, willing, and teachable?  Understanding the Word is not just for the scholar but for the man who knows his God and seeks His enlightenment to open the eyes of his heart (cf. Eph. 1:18).

The man of God is one of vision and purpose and knows what he wants out of life and of the Lord, and doesn't give up on his dreams or hopes.  He lives his life in light of eternity but not in the future or in the past.  You can do a lot of things and expend a lot of energy, but if you aren't purpose-driven you are just busy for its own sake and there is no virtue in being busy per se.  Sometimes you have time on your hands but you know how to redeem it and make the most of the opportunities and open doors that God gives.  As David said, "My times are in Your hand," in Psalm 31:15.  Therefore, he is never too busy for the Lord's work and never feels interrupted because God is in charge of his daily agenda and schedule.

Finally, the man of God lives in relinquishment to God's will and is constantly wondering about what Jesus would do or what God's will is: Whether he needs spiritual counseling or verification of a hunch.  He lives the substituted life with Christ living through Him (cf. Gal. 2:20).  God doesn't always spell it out but expects us to search for it and be devoted to it.  In my early days as a believer, I couldn't understand why some Christians were always wondering what God's will was, but this just showed that I wasn't ready for it and not that devoted to it.  In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus prayed for the Father's will to be done nonetheless, and pronounced his amen in resignation! If He had to do it, so must we.  But if we are not willing to do God's will we will not know it. according to John 7:17!    Soli Deo Gloria!

In Adam's Fall, We Sinned All

The title is from The New England Primer and shows how Adam represented us all in his willful sin. He was posse non peccare and posse peccare or able not to sin and able to sin according to Augustine. God gave him the free will to choose to love Him; however, it is not that Adam chose evil as some suggest, but that he chose self over God.  He was the head of his wife and is the head of our race and we would've done the same thing.  His sin was a prototype of all sin in rejecting God's divine nature.  Especially His wisdom, love, justice, and omniscience.  

They rejected God's authority, doubted His goodness, disputed His wisdom, repudiated His justice, contradicted His truth, and spurned His grace (someone has said). Eve was deceived and may have been confused, but Adam knew what he was doing and chose to be on Eve's side rather than God, probably because of his love for her and not wanting to lose her to death.

God had every reason to place a test in the garden (note that the first sin was committed in a perfect environment) and there was only one command to obey--anyone could've kept it.  God, for sure, didn't want obedience without love and wanted man to love of a free will or voluntarily  (I use the term free will sparingly because of Martin Luther's book The Bondage of the Will (De Servo Arbritrio) in which he says it is too grandiose of a term.  (By the way, Calvin was in agreement.) There is a natural will and a spiritual will.  Free will has been debated since St. Augustine of Hippo, who said we are "free but not freed." He meant we do have free will in a sense, but no liberty.  

Our nature is enslaved to sin and even the will is depraved and unable to please God. God gave Adam free will that we don't have anymore and he sinned.  It is reckoned that he represented us and we have been deemed sinners because of him.  Yes, we had free will in Adam and blew it when we chose self and became sinners by nature, by choice, and by birth.  Sin is our birthright and there is no escape!  There is no position of neutrality for our will--it is tainted with sin (cf. Rom. 1:32; 7:15).

God was not inviting trouble or taking a chance on the so-called "risky gift of free will" because He is sovereign and omniscient and had planned for this to happen and took it into consideration--there was no plan B.  If we are reckoned sinners in Adam we have become enslaved to this sin in our whole being (total depravity) and Adam lost his free will and got an enslaved will. Only God has the ultimate free will (a term not mentioned in Scripture except for free will or voluntary offerings) and yet God is unable or not free to sin or be the agent of evil.  We, on the other hand, are incapable of doing good or anything that pleases God (cf. Is. 64:6). The Arminian believes some do desire to repent and be believe the gospel, while the Reformed tradition holds that God quickens that lost desire within us.

We don't need free wills to be saved, we need wills made free.  God's salvation went according to plan and we love Him because He first loved us!  God chose us, we didn't choose Him (cf. John 15:16).  God's dilemma:  No one chose Him, and so He was obliged to elect some according to His purpose and grace and the good pleasure of His will (cf. 2 Tim. 1:9;  Eph. 1:5).  You may say:  "I came to Christ of my own free will and by myself [without any wooing or divine intervention]!" That person probably left Christ all by himself too.  What God is able to do is make the unwilling willing ("[For] it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure," says Phil. 2:13, ESV) and God can turn that heart of stone into a heart of flesh. "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them" ("Ezek. 36:27, NKJV). Remember:  We are called and chosen unto salvation as Mathew 22:14 says, "Many are called, but few are chosen." Our destiny is ultimately in God's hands; God reserves the right to have mercy on whom He will--He isn't obligated to save anyone or it would be justice and not mercy (cf. Rom. 9:15).  Romans 9:16 says:  "So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy."

Now, after the fall, man is non posse non peccare (unable not to sin or only able to sin!) according to Augustine.  [Note that we are not talking in reference to the natural faculty of choice but spiritual will.]  God doesn't coerce us or force us to do anything we don't want to do by any outside force (called determinism), but His grace is irresistible or efficacious and does God's will.  Adam had the inclination to do good but lost that at the fall--man is still human, not an automaton, but has lost this inclination to do good. We are free to act according to our nature, but God made us the way we are like clay in the hands of a potter, and determined our nature.  

Adam chose against God, but He saved him anyway.  We are free in our state of sin in that we are voluntary sinners and our real freedom is to choose our own poison.  Romans 9:19 says that no one can resist God's will--His omnipotence overpowers us.  There is "not one maverick molecule in the universe" that is left to chance--God doesn't play dice with the universe, according to Einstein, and leaves nothing to chance.

You cannot say, "From now on, I will be good."  All things being equal, that doesn't last any longer than a diet with good intentions.  Apart from the Holy Spirit ("No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him," says John 6:44, ESV) without His wooing, no one can choose Christ, and God must intervene and work grace in our hearts.  We are slaves to act the way we want to and are in rebellion against God in our old sin nature.  We are indeed free to choose whatever we desire, but we do not desire Christ without grace.  "If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know..." (John 7:17). That work is called redemption and causes us to repent and believe the gospel in the process known as conversion.  A spiritually dead man cannot believe or choose anything spiritual.  God must open our spiritual eyes to the truth ("I was blind, but now I see").

The essence of freedom is self-determination and we do make a decision ourselves and in this sense, we are still free. We never act by compulsion or as a programmed robot, but willingly.  We sin according to our own volition.  But whenever you look at a sinner you should say, "There but for the grace of God, go I" as George Whitefield said.   We can thank God for changing us and softening our hearts by grace ("... [Gr]ace might reign through righteousness," says Rom. 5:20).

Let me cite an everyday example of wooing:  In the process of courtship you fall in love and entice your lover to marry you (by an act of free will, of course), and you never interfered with her free will but got her to marry you and get your will done--she couldn't resist your proposition and was converted!

We all can act naturally according to enlightened self-interest in our old sin nature.  A sure sign of genuine saving faith is a heartfelt love for God and this is impossible without a relationship with Him--no one loved God before salvation.  We are not elected because we want to believe or we do believe (that would be merit-based and is called the prescient view, which Rom. 8:29-30 militates against), but we believe because we are the elect (cf. 2 Thess. 2:13, 1 John 5:1, Rom. 8:29-30). 

In the Reformed tradition of the order of salvation or ordo salutis, regeneration precedes faith!  Scripture clearly says, "We love Him because He first loved us." The unsaved, lost, and unregenerate man has no desire to repent, believe in the gospel, and choose Christ or he would have something to boast in his salvation before God.  No one will say, "I wanted to believe, but couldn't!"  This is because Reformed theology teaches that if left to ourselves, none would choose Christ.

Salvation is totally of God and He gets all the glory.  Soli Deo Gloria! According to C. H. Spurgeon the essence of Reformed theology is:  "Salvation is of the Lord, [it is not a cooperative venture, as theologians say, "monergistic, not synergistic"]" says Jonah 2:9.  God must change us and do a work of grace and regeneration, quickening our spirits to believe and repent because we have no inclination to obey God before salvation--we must be born again.  When we are saved we are set free: "If the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed (cf. John 8:36)." We are not born free, we are set free--we are born slaves!   Soli Deo Gloria!