Thus Far ….. And No Farther… Job
38:11
Kalaneethy Christopher
WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
‘I
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Placed the sand as
the boundary for the sea’, says the Lord. (Jer 5:22). The book of Job talks
about the magnificence of God and the whole of creation that is sustained by
the Lord God. He gave the sea its limit (Pro 8:29). The LORD has set a
boundary for water that it will not pass over. (Psa 104: 9). All of
God’s creation is perfectly controlled and managed by the God Almighty. The mighty,
fiery orb, even the Sun is set by Him to ‘run its course’ only. (Psa
19:5). This order in the universe is applicable to us humans also. The
Lord has bestowed us with freedom which has limits or a boundary. It is not
unrestricted. ‘God limits our freedom for our own good.’(Joyce Meyer)
A Sea Shore
IN THE GARDEN
The book of Genesis,
records in Chapter 3, the narrative of the ‘great fall’. God created Adam and Eve
and placed them in the ‘Paradise’, to enjoy their fellowship with Him and to
freely walk about in the garden and eat the fruits thereof. However God
restricted them from eating the fruit of the ‘tree of life’. They crossed this
limit and ate that fruit at the deception of the devil. The disobedience cost
them the Lord’s presence and the freedom He gave to fellowship with Himself.
They chose to trust the devil than God. At the heart of the violation of God’s
Word, there was the desire to get away from His rule / dominion over their
lives!! The result was the pledging of their God-given freedom to Satan and the
entry of Sin into God’s world. The whole of humanity suffers from the rebellion
till this day. All because of the crossing of boundary of freewill by our
‘first parents’. In their spirit was death, followed by physical death of every
living thing. Curse was incurred.
SON
OF GOD
The example is set by the author
and finisher of our faith, Lord Jesus in that He subjected Himself to the will
of the Father at all times, and obeyed even unto the death on the cross. The
bitter cup of suffering and sacrifice was emptied by His drinking of it fully. Jesus
never took for granted His equality with the Father. (Mt 26: 39, 42, 44; Phil 2:7, 8).
He is the exact likeness of the unseen God. (Col 1:15). In Jesus the whole
fullness of Deity continues to dwell in bodily form. (Col2:9). (Amplified Bible).Only if Jesus wanted to take His own decision
apart from the will of the Father God, He could have made a legion of angels to
come and deliver Him, at the garden of Gethsemane. He could have avoided the
agony on the cross. Jesus had the power to use as He wished but chose NOT to do
it in opposition to God’s will. What Adam and Eve lost in the Garden of Eden
was more than regained by our Lord Jesus Christ in the garden of Gethsemane.
Jesus made it clear that He came to
the world to do His Father’s will. (Jn 6:38). Through the obedience of
Jesus Christ many of us have been brought to a ‘right standing’ with God the
Father. (Rom 5:19). If that be the case with the Only Son of God, it is
our duty as believers in the salvation which comes through grace by faith in
Christ, to automatically and gladly live in subjection to His will. In other
words we exercise our freedom with responsibility. We practise freedom given by
Grace, in accordance with the supreme model of the Captain of our eternal
salvation. Lord Jesus Christ. We need to run the race of faith with patience,
looking unto Jesus and considering Him all the time. (Heb.12: 1-3). We are
counselled to ‘humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God’. (I
Pet 5:6). The word ‘disciple’
stems from the root word ‘discipline’.
Hence a disciple of Jesus should essentially be a disciplined person.
PAUL
THE APOSTLE OF JESUS CHRIST
St. Paul exhorts the body of Christ
to ‘pattern ourselves after him, as he imitated and followed Christ’s example’ (ICor
11:1). Paul states that, ‘everything is lawful for me to make use of,
but all are not good; all that is lawful for me, but I will not become a slave to anything’. (ICor
6:12). ‘Every athlete who
competes in a race conducts himself temperately and restricts himself in all
things’. (I Cor 9:25). Therefore Christians must operate in their ‘freedom
as subject to Christ’. The passage found in Rom 6: 11-23, throws more light on how to conduct
ourselves in this world: ‘Offer and yield yourselves to God; you are set free
to become the servants of righteousness; we have been set free from sin and
became the slaves of God’.
We are therefore the ‘free slaves’ of Christ who paid the ransom for us. Living in subjection
to Christ, is real freedom. Timothy is advised by his mentor , the apostle
Paul, to work for the sake of the gospel of Christ, as a soldier who remains
under the laws of the one who ‘enlisted’ him.(II Tim 2:3) . All of
these apply to the Church of Christ through all ages. Our Lord is a God of
‘discipline and orderliness’ as Paul states elsewhere, in the epistles. All the
epistles have two parts mainly, one on Christian doctrines and the other on the
application to the readers / listeners.
St. Paul is considered as the
founder of Gentile Christianity. The early church comprised of primarily the
Jewish Christians. Paul journeyed all through Asia Minor and part of Europe to spread
the gospel of Jesus Christ. The church grew all over and increased in numbers.
What did this apostle say in his closing epistles written under the bondage of
Roman prison? Phil 3: 7, 8 says that Paul ‘lost everything for knowing Christ
and considered all to be mere rubbish for His sake’. (Amplified Bible). He is the one who exhorted the Christian church
to model him for the gospel and ‘to run that we may obtain the eternal prize’.
THE OLD TESTAMENT SAINTS
The Bible shows a lot of characters
as examples to follow or not to follow. These are provided as teaching and
warning to the readers and believers. Let me cite only TWO such exemplary people who had their freedom under God’s
control. The readers may be interested to read and analyse more for them from
the Holy Bible. These are Joseph of Egypt
and Daniel of Babylon. Why do I say
Egypt and Babylon? In the land of the heathens, these men chose to obey the
command of the God of Israel. Quite often we give lame excuses to falling in
sin, as it is an ‘error’ happening in a place which is ‘unchristian’!! Sometimes
we even hear people say that, sinning in ‘a fashion’ is because it is the
youthful days!! Both the examples given here are very young men, who had not
many of their family members with them either to support or monitor their behavior in a foreign land amidst alien culture.
Joseph chose to operate within the limits of his freedom, and not
to sin against the God of his forefathers. The commitment rose from a personal
responsibility to live according to the commands of the God of the Patriarchs.
Joseph was young, handsome and powerful
enough to easily fall a prey to the deception of Potiphar’s wife. He guarded
himself because of the reverence he had for the God of Jacob. (Gen
39:9, 10). Though he was unduly punished, God was with him wherever he
was put, in prison or palace. This is the secret of the success of Joseph in an
alien land!!
Daniel, a young man taken captive by the Babylonians, belonged to an
aristocratic descent. He decided not to defile himself by eating the king’s
rich food of the Chaldean. (Dan 1:8).He wisely requested the
chief of the eunuchs to give him and his friends only vegetable diet and water
to drink. Daniel had the liberty to live as he pleased, in a foreign land as
per its culture. However he was staunch in his commitment to the ordinances of
the God of Israel, wherever he would live. His faithfulness was richly rewarded
by the Lord of hosts, who searches the hearts of people. Daniel and his friends
rose up in ranks and found favour from their captors. God’s favour rested on them
since they honoured Him by their lives, exercising the freedom within God’s
limits. Even the heathens testified to the might of the God of Israel because
of the witnessing life of Daniel and his friends.
So What?
I wish to conclude saying that wherever we are, it is a
command for us to live as witnesses to the faithfulness of Christ in obedience
to ALL that He has taught the disciples. The Bible states that those who read,
hear and do whatever it prescribes are only blessed!! (Rev1:3). As God’s
creation sticks to its ordained limits and function so wonderfully without
fail, may we the members of the Body of Christ also seek to live ‘well within
the boundary’ He has set for our freedom. The Son of God has set us free only
to model our lives after His example and not to enter into unnecessary
arguments to justify all that we do, in the mold of unchristian behaviour. (Jn8:32).
We are exhorted to stay away from everything that has the appearance of
evil. (I Thess 5 :22).
May we live as true witnesses to the freedom Christ has given from the satanic
clutches?
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