The Valley of Dry Bones

With all of the different literary styles used in the Bible, from Psalms to the Epistles, how can I know when a passage is literal or figurative? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of Core Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. We would love to hear from you. You can call us right now with your question at 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673.

You can also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts, or email us at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, we have a bit of health news to share with you. Can you move 11 minutes a day? You will live longer if you do. Scientists at the Norwegian School of Sports Medicine have done research using activity monitors to compare exercise levels with lifespan. The results show that people who exercised 35 minutes per day saw the biggest statistical difference in lifespan, but they also say that just 11 minutes of moderate exercise, which is equivalent to a brisk walk, also had a noticeable positive impact. And that is great news for you, Adriel, because I know every day you walk down to your local coffee shop for a muffin or a donut or a croissant.

Yes, yeah, all of the above. Sometimes I get all three, Bill, and that's how I have energy for my walk home, which is about three minutes. So we actually live really close to several coffee shops, which is great if you love coffee and muffins and that kind of a thing. But I actually, that makes me feel good about myself. I mean, I think I get at least 11 minutes a day.

How about you, Bill? Oh, I get an hour or two, brother. I'm in the gym, I'm on the bike, I'm the treadmill, the Stairmaster. It's pretty much on and on. That's how you keep that marble figure that you have. So I commend you. You got to watch out, American Ninja Warrior, here I come. Okay, let's get to our first question of the day.

And Darren posted this on our website. He says, I'm a family man and a faithful member of my church. However, I have lingering feelings of discontentment in my life. Because of this, I find myself feeling guilty that I'm not always fully and completely satisfied with the blessings I have. I want to be grateful and thank the Lord for every good blessing, but it really seems difficult for me. How should I think about contentment and my everyday life?

Well, brother, I can definitely say you're not alone. I know that all of us as followers of Jesus Christ wrestle with contentment. I mean, even the Apostle Paul in Philippians chapter 4 talked about that daily battle with contentment, you know, being content when he had a lot or content when he had a little.

It's something that each of us is going to wrestle with, I think, throughout our lives. And in particular, one thing I've noted for a lot of Christians, and I've had this conversation with even people in my own churches, people finding contentment with their work, with their jobs. I mean, sometimes I think it's easy for Christians to feel like, I'm not really doing any ministry. I would love to have this great impact for Jesus, but I'm just sort of stuck in my nine to five, and it's not fulfilling. And I really think we need to re-examine how we think about the vocations that God has given to us. One of the things that you said is, you're a family man, you're a father. And brother, there is nothing more important than training our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. I mean, what a role God has given to you.

And so that's the first thing. I just want to encourage you and say, brother, be committed to teaching your children about Jesus, to being a godly husband. I mean, striving after those things that Paul talked about in 1 Timothy 3 and in Titus chapter 1, where he talked about the qualifications for, you know, elders and deacons. And that's not to say that you need to go and try to be an elder or a deacon unless the Lord calls you to that, but I think these are things that that all of us as men, as family men, are called to. And serving in whatever it is that God has called you to do in your job as a father, serving as unto the Lord, and asking God to fill you with that attitude, that heart of contentment. It is easy for us in our own sinful hearts to not be happy with the things that God has given to us, even when the Lord has blessed us in so many ways. And so one helpful exercise I think that you might do is just to meditate upon the good gifts that God has given to you, and to give thanks.

That's one thing that we're for sure called to. I mean, Paul told the Thessalonians, this is the will of God for us, you know, giving thanks in all circumstances. And so when you're struggling with contentment, here's what I want to encourage you to do. Focus on the blessings that the Lord has given you, and stop and say thank you for each one. And I think that as you do that, as we do that, and as we build that that sort of habit into our lives as Christians, we begin to rest in the gifts that God has brought our way. And I think that's one of the ways that contentment is cultivated. May the Lord bless you, brother.

Darren, thanks so much for your question, Adriel. I'm just thinking of that verse in Thessalonians about, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. That's right. Yeah, it's sort of interesting how the Apostle Paul put it there, right? In all circumstances. I mean, really, Paul?

In every circumstance? And yet, that's what we're called to, because we know that God is working even in and through the difficult circumstances, and so we can give thanks for them. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to a call.

We're going to talk to Bill from North Carolina. Hi, Bill, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? My question is, how does repentance play into, or what part of salvation is repentance? It seems like repentance is something that we do, and yet it also seems biblically so intertwined with salvation.

Could you help me understand that? Yeah, that's a great question, because you're absolutely right. I mean, you think about the very call of the Gospel when John the Baptist or Jesus was preaching, proclaiming the Kingdom of God, they would say, repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.

And I think there's a way that we can really confuse this. You know, if we think that the Gospel is first and foremost about what we do—in other words, I'm saved because I'm really great at repenting, and every single day I repent, and we can actually turn salvation into a work. Repentance, really, in the New Testament just means turning away, a change of mind. And so I think one of the things that we have to understand is that when we're called to repentance and you have the Gospel proclamation going out, what's essentially being said is you need to change your mind about sin, about yourself, and about the Savior. About sin, repentance is recognizing, like, I have sinned.

There is a problem. There is this separation between God and I because of what I have done. And so we're admitting to the Lord in repentance that we've sinned and that our sin is heinous, and yet we're turning away from our sin—that's the turning element—and we're looking to Christ for salvation, for hope. And in that sense, repentance is truly integral to salvation.

We might call it a saving grace, but it's not so much that it's something that we do. It's something that God, by His grace, works in us by the power of the Holy Spirit, granting us faith to lay a hold of Jesus. And so think of it, you can almost think of repentance as a sort of negative aspect of faith. Repentance is turning away from my sins, and faith is laying a hold of Jesus in the Gospel. So looking away from myself and to Christ, and apprehending Christ by faith is what saves us. And then the rest of our lives as Christians, we're daily repenting. We're turning away from those sins as the Lord reveals them to us by the grace of His Spirit. And so, Bill, does that help clarify things for you? Yes, I think so, but it is a bit confusing that we're told so often to do this, to repent, and yet it seems to be that you're saying that it's somewhat of a gift that we're given from God.

Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, I think of like what Paul said in Philippians chapter one, where, I mean, he's talking about, you know, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. It's actually a question or a passage of scripture that we oftentimes get questions about. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. And then Paul says, for it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure. And so when you think about how that sort of comes together, you have this sort of call, you do this, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, but then you also have the source of how and why we're able to do that is because God actually, first and foremost, Bill, is at work in us, both to will. Even the desire to repent is something that the Lord grants to you by the grace of the Holy Spirit, both to will and to do so. In that sense, we could say that repentance absolutely is a gift given to us by the Lord. It's something, I think, actually that we ought to pray for.

Lord, give me the grace to repent of my sins, to put them to death, even to see that I'm sinning in ways that maybe I'm unaware of so that I might turn from them, and to know that at the end of the day, all of this is a gift of God's grace. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We have a call from Leslie in San Diego, California. Hi, Leslie, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

Hi, thank you for taking my call. I really love your show, and I have a question about one of my favorite verses in the Bible, which is 2 Corinthians 5 21, which says, for our sake, he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. And I think this kind of relates to the question before mine. I just wanted to know how to apply that verse in my day-to-day life, knowing that I am forgiven and that I'm clothed in the righteousness of Christ, but I still sin, so how does God view me? Even though I'm clothed in God's righteousness, I still sin, and so if you could explain that, that would be great.

Thanks. Yeah, just a really practical question there, Leslie, and I love that you brought us to this text, 2 Corinthians 5 21. It's what many have referred to as the great exchange. Christ took our sin. He was a sin offering for our sake, so that he who knew no sin might die for our sins and that we might become the righteousness of God.

It's that great exchange. Christ takes our sin, we get his righteousness, and yet, as you say, and I think as each of us could testify as followers of Jesus, we still struggle with sin. We're still on this continual path of repentance, and we need the grace of God. Like, you know, I was talking about, you know, what Paul says in Philippians, God working in us. I actually, it was actually Philippians 2, not Philippians 1, but God working God working in us, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Now, first and foremost, one of the things that this verse highlights for you, Leslie, and for all of us, is that clothed in the righteousness of Christ, we are justified.

There's nothing that can take you out of that state. You belong to the Lord. God has declared you righteous, not on the basis of what you do, but on the basis of what Christ has done, because you are clothed in the righteousness of Christ. And so there are some theologians who have talked about, Martin Luther, for example, the great Protestant reformer, he talked about the fact that we're at the same time just, that is righteous, and sinful, right?

And Paul, the same person who wrote this, could refer to himself as the chief of sinners. So we're trying to balance this sort of understanding, knowing that I'm justified, and yet knowing that as a justified person, I'm still in this day-to-day fight with sin. And we're called, you're called, Paul says this in Romans chapter 8, to put to death, to mortify the sinful deeds of the body. But the only way you're going to be able to do that, and this is where I think 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21 is really practical for your daily growth in grace and walking with the Lord, is if you are resting in your new identity in Jesus Christ. There's a relationship between recognizing that you are justified, that you belong to the Lord, that your sins are forgiven, and daily walking with the Lord in that identity. Now let me just give you one other passage, I think, that makes this absolutely clear, and it's what the apostle Paul said in Romans chapter 6.

And I'm just going to read the first few verses for you there, Leslie. Paul says, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound by no means? How can we who have died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. You see, walking in newness of life, daily putting to death our sins, daily repenting, in order to do that well, we're going to have to recognize, you're going to have to recognize that you belong to the Lord, that you have a new identity in Jesus, that you are a part of the baptized, who are justified, saved, redeemed. And as you rest in that identity, you're able day by day to walk into that, to live as you've been called, not questioning whether or not God loves you or whether or not you're truly forgiven.

So that's one of the ways, I think, Leslie, that 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21 helps us in our daily walk with the Lord and daily repentance. Leslie, thank you so much for your call and for being one of our regular listeners here at Core Christianity. By the way, Core Christianity is listener-supported, so we count on people just like you every day to make this program possible. We also have a new Bible study we want to tell you about.

If you've just started reading the Bible on your own, you may find that it can be a little bit difficult at times, so we have designed a study just for you. Yeah, it's the Core Christianity Bible Reading Plan, and it is free for you when you sign up for our weekly newsletter. One of the things I love about this bill is it helps people get into the Scriptures each day, about 10 minutes a day.

It's a year-long plan. It's not going to take you through the entire Bible, but what it is going to do for you is it's going to expose you to the major themes in Scripture, things that we think are extremely important. If you're a believer and you've been walking with the Lord for a long time but you've lost that joy of reading the Scriptures, studying God's Word, or maybe you're a newer Christian, or maybe you wouldn't even call yourself a Christian, you want to learn about the Bible and you're looking for maybe some helpful places to start and how to go through the Scriptures, get a hold of this resource. Again, it's our Bible Reading Plan, and I know it's going to encourage you throughout this year. If you'd like to download the Core Christianity Bible Reading Plan, just head over to our website at corechristianity.com forward slash reading plan. Let's get to another call that came in.

Adriel, this one from Jan. Hi, this is Jan Reniger. I'm calling from Huntsville, Alabama, and I was just calling about Ezekiel 37 when it talks about the Valley of the Dry Bones. I was just wondering, is that literal or is it, um, a like a physical something that actually happens?

Thanks, bye. Yeah, well, Ezekiel 37 begins, the hand of the Lord was upon me, Ezekiel the prophet said, and he brought me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley. It was full of bones, and he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And, you know, as this sort of vision continues, God gives life to the dry bones, these bones that were dry, dead. I mean, Ezekiel basically sees a graveyard, a cemetery, and what this is, it's not meant to be it's not meant to be taken literal. I mean, first, we have to recognize the genre of scripture that we're looking at, and throughout Ezekiel you have these prophecies, these prophetic utterances, and oftentimes, Jan, in prophetic literature, what you have are these visions that are given to us that are symbolic of something greater or something else. You see this throughout places like the book of Revelation, you know, John has a vision of the seven golden lampstands.

What are those lampstands, John's told? Well, they're the seven churches, or, you know, John will talk about the seven spirits of God and so on and so forth. Oftentimes, in prophetic literature, you have things that stand as symbols or stories that are meant to illustrate a greater reality, and here the reality that is being illustrated for us is the fact that God raised us the spiritually dead. Now, in particular, the focus here is on the restoration of Israel. I mean, you think about the years and years of idolatry, it was as if Israel had become this dry land, a valley of dried out bones, and yet the Lord of glory is able to restore her. That's a wonderful, I mean, really an amazing promise that highlights for us the power of the Lord, the power of God. And by the way, this is something, I mean, I think in one sense it's applicable to each one of us, because you think about what Paul said in Ephesians chapter 2, where he says we were dead in trespasses and sins. Individually, we were like a pile of dry bones apart from the grace of God, apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, and yet Paul says, you who were dead, he made alive in Christ. And so, I mean, really, we're talking about these spiritual realities here, and ultimately what's being focused on, I mean, the bottom line here is God's ability to raise the spiritually dead. And maybe you, you listening right now, you feel dried out spiritually, like a pile of dead bones. Look to the Lord.

Know that the Lord is able to restore and raise up by the grace of the Holy Spirit even those who are spiritually dead through the gospel of his Son, Jesus. Wow, what a great promise. Thanks for that, Adriel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you have a call for us, the number is 833-843-2673.

That's 833, the Core. We have time for one more call. This is from Randy in Julian, California. Hi, Randy, how are you? Hi, thanks, guys.

Randy, what's your question? I was recently reading in Mark chapter 11 about when Jesus came into Jerusalem and the crowd was cheering for him, and it seems that there are certainly things that the crowd understood and didn't understand about Jesus when they were welcoming him and singing hosanna in the highest at Jesus' arrival. And I guess that's got me thinking, what was it that they understood understood about Jesus or didn't understand about Jesus in that moment that could be helpful for us today?

Yeah, well, boy, there's so much there, right? And especially, you know, when you said that last thing there, Randy, how this can be helpful for us today, it seems to me, and maybe this is what you're getting at, that the crowd there really viewed Jesus as this primarily political figure who's probably going to deliver them from the Roman occupation. Verse 9, again, those who went before and those who followed were shouting hosanna, which means save now in Hebrew, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David, hosanna in the highest. You see, God had made a covenant with King David way back in the book of Samuel, 2 Samuel chapter 7, where he promised to put one of his descendants on the throne, and this descendant was going to rule over the whole earth. You see that in places like Psalm chapter 2. And I really think that's what the people were hoping for, this Messiah who was coming now to vanquish the enemies of God's people, the political enemies, and establish his kingdom reign right there on earth.

Now, they had part of it right, Randy. They realized that Jesus was a great king who had come to save, but he was saving in a way that they didn't expect. He was saving them from forces that were far greater than anything they could ever imagine. Not the oppression of the Roman government, the oppression of Satan himself and the kingdom of darkness. Jesus came to save his people from their sins, and I think that that's one of the things that may be the crowd there in Mark chapter 11.

The scene is sometimes called the triumphal entry. It's one of the things that maybe they missed. And the fact of the matter is, I mean, you said, how can we think about this for ourselves today?

The fact of the matter is, oftentimes today we miss it as well, don't we? We want Jesus to deliver us from our political enemies. We want Jesus to make us great, to establish us or maybe our kingdom. When he came to establish his kingdom, he gets the glory, the praise, the honor through forgiving our sins, through restoring people to a right relationship with God.

And that's what he came to do. That's why he rode into Jerusalem right there on that day, and many of the people missed it. And we have to be so careful in our own lives, brother, that we don't miss it, that we don't miss the Savior who came to redeem us from our sins. And one day we have the hope, this is a really wonderful promise, that he's going to rule over the whole world in this consummated fashion, where he establishes his kingdom on earth fully. And finally, he's reigning right now at the right hand of the Father. He's going to reign in fullness when he comes again at the second coming. And that's something that we can all rest assured of. We're encouraged by this podcast. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.