Does God require anything of us?

We hear so much about grace that's it's easy to get the idea that we're saved purely because of what Jesus did by dying on the cross and coming alive again. Well, that's because it's true of course. Paul was adamant that any deviation from that foundation was a major heresy (Paul's letter to the Galatians, chapter 3, verses 1-9 & 26). We are not saved by obeying laws, but by beliveing that the Son of God took the punishment for our sins and shares his new resurrection life with us. So there is one thing that we need to do - believe in Jesus as the Son of God who died and rose for us (Paul's letter to the Romans, chapter 10, verse 9). The problem is that this process automatically makes him Lord of our lives. Jesus himself wasn't shy about pointing this out: "If you love me, you will do what I say." (John's Gospel, chapter 14, verse 15) There is nothing that we can do to earn our salvation, but once we have accepted that salvation for ourselves, our lives are not our own - we are subjects of Christ.

Last week we discussed this at church. Given that humans have such a propensity for sin, which means not obeying God, and that Jesus expects those who call themselves by his name (Christians) to do just that, what hope is there for the Church (us) to be at all successful? That's kind of the point that Paul reached by the end of the seventh chapter of his letter to the Roman church (Romans 7:21-24). However, he then goes on to explain the answer: "Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord ... Therefore, there is no longer any condemnation for anyone who is in Christ Jesus, because through him the law of the Spirit of Life has set me free from the law of sin and death." (Romans 7:25 - 8:2)

So there is a way that we can do what God wants - through Jesus because he has sent us his Holy Spirit of life. The Holy Spirit lives with us as a counsellor to help us work out what's going on and what we should do. (John 14:16,17) He lives in us to enable us to grow his fruit of love, joy, peace, goodness, patience, faithfulness, gentleness, kindness and self-control (Galatians 5:22,23). He gives us supernatural gifts to empower us to do his work (Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 12, verses 1-11). Armed with the Holy Spirit to develop us as people, help us know how to live and enable us work for him, God sends us out into the world to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ, heal the sick, cast out demons, make disciples and generally usher in the Kingdom of God (Matthew's Gospel, chapter 28, verses 16-20; Mark's Gospel, chapter 16, verses 15-18).

However, none of what we do earns us salvation. We are saved by believing that Jesus died and rose to do that for us, and giving our lives to him. Once he has our lives, he can send his Spirit to us to grow us into who he wants us to be and work through us to accomplish what he wants doing. If we let him work in us and through us, we don't have to acheive anything in our own strength at all - he doesn't just point into the distance and say get on with it. It's all about be willing vessels for God to empty of ourselves and fill with his Holy Spirit. The less there is of us in our lives and the more of him, the more amazing things we shall experience and see - greater things even than Jesus did while on Earth (John 14:12).

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Why didn't Jesus worship the devil?

Perhaps that seems a silly question. Devil worship is abhorrent, despicable, loathesome, and it's impossible to understand why anyone would do it. Or is it? There can be a certain allure to witchcraft if you want power without responsibility. Devil worship is just going to the top. Satan desperately wanted Jesus to get involved.

When Jesus' 40 days were over in the wilderness, the devil suggested to him that he perform gratuitous miraculous acts, such as turning stones into bread, or amazing, spectacular feats; these could have been great ways of attracting people to himself. However, Jesus would have none of it. Satan, though, wasn't ready to give up and so suggested a bit of straightforward devil worship. It might seem that he was clearly onto a loser, but there was some logic behind it. After all, the kingdoms of the world had indeed been handed over to him by human rebellion against God.

Flashback to Adam and Eve who had been leading brilliant lives with God in the Garden of Eden, but there was something that they weren't allowed. Could they be made to want that above their desire to be with God? Satan eventually managed to persuade them that God didn't really mean what he said and it was OK to eat the one fruit in the Garden that was forbidden to them after all. They decided that they wanted to try out this fruit more than obeying the loving God who had always been good to them and constantly proved reliable. (Genesis chapter 3, verses 1 - 6)

This was a moment of triumph for the devil. Adam and Eve had finally done what he said, rather than being faithful to God. It wasn't just a momentary aberration though. As soon as they ate the fruit, Adam and Eve knew that everything had changed. They didn't have to wait for God to banish them from the Garden (Genesis 3:22-24): they already were very aware that they had fallen in some way and hid from God (Genesis 3:7,8). They might not have been able to articulate it like this at the time, but they had handed over authority in their lives to Satan. Adam and Eve didn't expicitly bow down to the devil and give him reverence, as satanists do, but they obeyed his will. When the rule of God has been rejected, we give the devil authority over our lives, cities and countries. This may be unwitting, but who else is going to take control of the power vacuum when God has been turned away?

Adam and Eve obeyed the devil by disobeying God and caused the human race to fall; Jesus insisted on obeying his Father and won us salvation.

Ever since the first human couple disobeyed God, the devil had effectively had enormous power on Earth because we largely chose to do things his way, rather than God's. So as his last gambit that day in the wilderness the devil said to Jesus that, if he worshipped him, then he would grant him control over the Kingdom of this World (Matthew's Gospel, chapter 4, verses 8 & 9). This was all very subtle. Why go through a life and death of hardship, rejection and suffering to win back the Kingdom of this World, when the devil was offering it freely in return for just bowing down and worshipping him? On the face of it, it was a logical offer. All Jesus had to do was admit that the devil had authority over the Kingdom, which was in fact true, and honour him in that.

Yet there were significant problems with this approach. Firstly, it was the wrong Kingdom. Jesus had come to usher in the Kingdom of God. The intention was to defeat the Kingdom of the World and bring in God's Kingdom instead. The Kingdom of the World was the Kingdom of Satan and if Jesus went along with that, all he would be able to build would be a kingdom based on satanic principles. Jesus would become a puppet ruler, rather than the co-ruler of his own Kingdom with the Father and Holy Spirit.

Perhaps more fundamentally, God was the one who was in control. Satan had been thrown out of Heaven and so came to Earth to mess things up here. However, God wasn't going to let that continue for ever: one way or another, the devil would have been thrown out of Earth as he had been out of Heaven. If Jesus had gone along with devil's suggestion, he would have split the Trinity and ended up on the losing side.

Maybe more importantly, Jesus knew that the way to deal with the devil was not to reason with him, but to tell him how it is: "It is written,'Worship and serve only the Lord your God'" (Matthew 4:10)

Power is often more available to us if we abdicate responsibility. Which do you want more?

Jesus didn't want power without responsibility and told the devil to leave him alone. Do we want power without responsibility though? It's an interesting question. There are many books and films about witchcraft and devil worship, and some have been major best sellers and box office triumphs. The Harry Potter series of books is a case in point. The whole concept of supernatural power that can be wielded without having to surrender our lives to God is seductive and many people are drawn in by it. As with Jesus' temptation, this can be very subtle for us too. What if God is not giving us something that we want? What if we actually know that God doesn't want us to have it - but we really want it badly? What if we find a way of getting it all the same? Who is convincing us that it's OK to by-pass or even oppose God's will? Who is the one who is going to make it possible if God is against it?

What is not in the Kingdom of God - the Kingdom of Light - is in the Kingdom of this World, the Kingdom of Darkness, under the devil's temporary authority. We don't have to bow down and worship him explicitly, but if we don't obey God's voice we are obeying the voice that is tempting us to disobey. And how do we feel when we succeed it getting something or doing something that God doesn't want next time we meet up with him? Isn't it a bit like Adam and Eve having to cover themselves up to feel safe?

Let's not give over that part of our lives to the devil; that's effectively what sin does. Rather, in the words of the writer to the Hebrews, "Let's throw off everything that holds us back and the sin that so easily ties us in knots, instead continuing to run the race ahead of us." (The Letter to the Hebrews, chapter 12, verse 1) Joseph Prince once simply put it, "Step up higher!" Let's take the higher way, setting our thoughts on things that are pure, honest, true, just, lovely, and of good report (Paul's letter to the Philippians, chapter 4, verse 8), counting everything else as rubbish for the sake of knowing Christ and being found in him (Philippians 3:7-9). When we recognise that we've done something wrong and obeyed the wrong voice, then we need to repent straightaway, leave it behind and step back up higher.

Of course, most Christians would stay clear of all overt witchcraft, satanism or other occult practices. If you are a Christian but still involved in such activities as well, the two are completely incompatible. There is no such thing as good witchcraft or other occult practice, whatever the practitioners of these would say. If you are in that position, then you need to renounce all involvement and step away from it, allowing the Holy Spirit to come and fill the parts of your life that were previously taken up with occult practices. I recommend that you find a church leader experienced this to help you through the process.

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Cuthbert - lover of God

If you read anywhere about the life of Cuthbert, you probably won't get far before you find the author talking about his kindness, obedience, devotion to God and various similar characteristics. Many well known saints of old are famous either for doing amazing things, or at least had legends attached to them of heroic deeds which may or not be completely true. Being famous for devotion to God might seem a bit wishy-washy in comparison with fighting dragons or standing fast in the face of martyrdom. Yet Cuthbert was renowned for loving God and then also for the great work and miracles that he performed out of that relationship.

Born in 634 or 635 AD, he lived in Northumbria, probably the northern part of that kingdom in what is now southern Scotland. Northumbria had been partially converted to Christianity in recent years, largely through the brilliant missionary work of Aiden, who founded the monastry at Lindisfarne, but there was still a lot to do. As a 16-year old shepherd, Cuthbert had a vision of a soul being carried to Heaven by angels, which he realized the next day must have been Aiden when he heard that he had died that night. Clearly Cuthbert was open to spiritual encounters as a young man and God wanted him to see this event for a reason. Certainly this vision was what made him decide to become a monk himself.

However, a war arose between Northumbria and the neighbouring Mercia in which King Penda was killed, opening Mercia more easily to the spread of the gospel, notably by Chad. Cuthbert, it seems, was drafted into the army and took part in the battles, which must have been quite a formative experience. After the death of Penda in 655, life returned to normal and Cuthbert entered the monastry at what is now Melrose. The spirituality of his character was noticed and he rose through the ranks to become Prior of Melrose in 662.

At the time there was a dispute between the Celtic Church spreading across England from the north and west, and the Roman Church, spreading out from Kent where it had first been introduced by Augustine in 597. At a meeting between the two in 664, at Whitby, it was decided that everyone should follow the Roman system where the two differed. Cuthbert recognized that, whatever one's views, there was no going back and used his growing leadership skills to introduce the new ways to the Celtic Christians in his charge. It was important that this was done decisively but sympathetically for it to be successful, and Cuthbert was one of the key people in causing the change over to be as smooth as possible. His life and skill set continued to gain attention and he was appointed Prior of Lindisfarne, where his patience and kindness were invaluable in helping the Celtic monks there to adopt the new Roman ways as well.

As prior at Melrose and Lindisfarne, Cuthbert had not sat back in luxury. There were poor and needy people in the surrounding villages and the gospel still needed to be spread. Much of the countryside was unforgiving and travel was difficult. However, he saw his the mission to usher in the Kingdom of God as his work, rather than just ruling over a monastry. He became known for evangelism, preaching, pastoral work, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, working on behalf of the oppressed and working miracles. It seems that he was known for delivering words of knowledge, since when he entered a village people tended to approach him to confess their sins rather than waiting for him to come to them! He was also recorded as delivering accurate prophecy.

Cuthbert worked tirelessly for other people and the Church, but central to his almost incredible life of achievment was his even more overwhelming love for and devotion to Jesus.

After a few years at Lindisfarne he retired and decided to make a home for himself on the uninhabited Inner Farne Isle. It is here that we perhaps learn some of the secrets of his spiritual power. He became a hermit on the island because he wanted to spend his time with God. This was a practice that he had already developed to some extent, for example spending considerable numbers of hours praying in the waters of the North Sea. Living on Farne gave him the opportunity to pray, read and meditate to his heart's content. Although he lived the life of a hermit, for a while he welcomed visitors, for which purpose he even built a second house on the island. Eventually, though, he withdrew from people altogether and spent his time alone with God and his Creation, involving himself with conservation work and developing a relationship with creatures including sea otters.

Cuthbert probably thought that this was how he would live the rest of his life on Earth, but it turns out that it was actually preparation for his final role, as he was called out of retirement to be promoted to Bishop of Lindisfarne. His character, though, had been developed on Farne and while serving in the role of bishop, he retained the lifestyle of a monk devoted to God, as well as continuing in his preaching and pastoral work among the surrounding villages, even during a time of plague. When he finally retired for good, he returned to Farne, to live out his final days with his beloved Lord Jesus.

The Church of England has 'five marks fo mission', which can be summarized as evangelism, nuturing Christians, meeting the needs of others, fighting injustice, and looking after creation. Cuthbert was exemplary in all these areas, while also serving in high office in the church. His life reflected the fruit of the Spirit and he operated powerfully in several gifts of the Spirit, also having several angelic encouters. All the while he remained a humble servant of God. And how was it that an individual could be seemingly such an all round wonderful Christian? As both prior and bishop, he worked tirelessly and outstandingly for other people and for the Church, yet the power to live that life didn't come from himself; it was because he was first and foremost a lover of God, fully devoted to him - a reflection of the intimate relationship depicted in the Song of Songs. But let's not just admire or even revere him, as many have done over the centuries since: let us emulate him and draw the strength for all that we do from a deep relationship with God that is central to our lives.

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