Luke 21:36 Worthy to Escape the Wrath to Come

©2021 WF Cobb Truthbase.net DailyTruthbase.blogspot

 Lk 21:35 But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with binging/excess/carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and That Day come on you unexpectedly like a snare. 36 Watch/be on guard therefore, and pray always that you may be counted WORTHY to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

 I. Walk Worthy (Piper) TRUE: In all these passages, being worthy is expected and necessary in the Christian life.

· Jesus: Sardis 3 hold fast, repent 4 few 'not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy' (of reward) Rev 3:4 5 5 who overcomes...clothed in white garments... not blot out his name from the Book of Life; I will confess his name before My Father/angels

·  'loves family more than Me is not worthy of Me... not take his cross-follow ...not worthy of me' Mt 10:37–38 39 save=lose; lose=save soul

·  'considered worthy to attain to That Age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage' Luke 20:35

·3 not willing/want...5 make light/careless...busy 'wedding feast is ready, but those invited/summoned were not worthy'  Mt 22:8 9 garment 12 gnash

· 'Repent... turn to God, perform deeds worthy of repentance' Acts 26:20 John the Baptist had said, 'Bear fruit worthy of repentance' Mt 3:8

· 'Since you thrust the word of God aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life...we are turning to the Gentiles' Acts 13:46

· “Walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called' Eph 4:1 'Let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ' Phil 1:27        'Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord' Col 1:10    'Walk in a manner worthy of God' Thess 2:12   

· 'May God make you worthy of his calling and fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power' 2Thess 1:11

·'Your suffering is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God  Thess 1:5

 II. TWISTED: (Piper) “But on the other hand, Jesus commended the Centurion’s faith as unparalleled for humbly confessing his unworthiness.” ‘I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. . . .’ Jesus said, ‘Not even in Israel have I found such faith’ Lk 7:6, 9). 'strap of his sandal I am not worthy to untie” (Jn 1:27).  How shall we understand our worthiness of Jesus in view of our sinfulness?   “Worthy of repentance” means: repentance has such worth that the fruit it produces will share in that worth. “Fruit worthy of repentance” means that there is a suitable correspondence between the beauty of the repentance and the beauty of its fruit. Repentance is the turning to God from all else, and the valuing of God above all things. That is beautiful. That is what humans were made for. That is worthy. Then, this inner treasuring of God above all things bears fruit in deeds. And these deeds reflect the supreme worth of God. And so they too, in all their imperfection, are worthy. Their worthiness is a reflection of the repentance, which is a reflection of God’s infinite worthiness. Thus, our preference for his worth is our worth. To be worthy of the infinite worth of Jesus is to see and savor him as infinitely worthy. This is not earning or meriting or deserving him.  You become worthy of grace (a suitable beneficiary of grace) when you see your need for grace, and when you embrace the infinite value of the Gracious One. Your worthiness is your desperate preference for his gracious worthiness over all things. This does not mean that we deserve Jesus, or merit Jesus, or earn Jesus. Nothing we do puts him in a position of owing us anything good. When Jesus says we are not worthy of him if we treasure our parents or children or life more than him, he means that he has infinite worth (far above parents and children and life), and the only suitable (worthy!) response from us is to see that, and prefer him as our supreme treasure. Thus, our preference for his worth is our worth. To be worthy of the infinite worth of Jesus is to see and savor him as infinitely worthy. This is not earning or meriting or deserving him. In fact, one aspect of his beauty that we cherish supremely is his grace toward sinners like us. Being “worthy” of a gracious Savior includes a sense of unworthiness similar to the confessions of the centurion (Luke 7:6) and John the Baptist (John 1:27). In every case???? what we find is that our worthiness is not our deserving or meriting or earning, but rather our seeing and savoring something of infinite worth. Our worthiness is our preferring that worth above all things. https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/are-you-worthy-of-jesus So being worthy of repentance does not mean “being deserving of repentance,” as if we earned it or merited it.

 II. TRUTH: Just look up “Worthy” balance scale=corresponding> Deserving!  biblehub.com/greek/515.htm  biblehub.com/topical/w/worthy.htm 

Helps: Word-studies 515 to reckon as worthy, matching value to actual substance – i.e. worth as it corresponds to reality. See 514 [In the papyri, aksio? can refer to making a "claim" "claiming to recover what I had made over to her" (MM, 51). root of English  "axis."] 

aksios 514 Thayers =scale axis = corresponding weight value  1) weighing, having weight, having the weight of another thing of like value, worth as much 2) befitting, congruous, corresponding to a thing ) of one who has merited anything worthy  3a) both in a good and a bad sense (esp L XX worthy of death) cf. logeion.uchicago.edu/ Adv 6x Rm 16:2 Eph 4:1 Php 1:27 Col 1:10 1Th 2:12 3Jo 1:6 Verb 7x Lk 7:7 Ac 15:38 thot not good <515>  Ac 28:22 2Th1:11  1Ti 5:17 Heb 3:3 of glory  10:29 of punishment  Adj  41x

III. We walk Worthy of the Lord by living acc to God's revealed will, empowered by HS,

              seeking to know and  please Him Who has loved us and rewards the faithful.

Colosssians 1:9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask

that you may be filled/controlled by/with the knowledge of His will

                             by means of all wisdom and spiritual understanding/insight/discernment;

10          that you may walk worthy of the Lord,

               fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work

                             and increasing in the knowledge of God;

11           strengthened with all might,

                             according to His glorious power, for all patience/endurance and longsuffering with joy; (HS)

 12          giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.

13          He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,

14                         in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.