Identity as Faithful

I am amazed at the wealth and depth of spiritual truth the Holy Spirit inspired authors of the Bible packed into each verse. In my last post I began to delve into the first verse of the epistle to the Ephesians written by the Apostle Paul:

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus: (Eph. 1:1; NASB)

Just in the first part of this golden verse Paul makes me aware that God infuses into me a particular identity (for Paul it was “Apostle) as well as a shared identity as saint with all who follow Jesus. This is no mere formality or rote greeting. There are at least two more deep draughts of identity to be drawn from this well of truth.

The third truth we drink in of our identity is that we are faithful. An aspect of our nature as disciples of Christ is this quality of faithfulness. Even as I write these words, my internal reaction is to protest. Examples where doubt shadowed belief flash in my mind. I recall those times where I was disloyal to Jesus and chose sin over communing with Him. I am mindful of the voices of fear and anxiety that I listened to rather that obeying God my Father. I know you react much the same way in that instant when you are called “faithful”. Yet, here it is in God’s word: FAITHFUL.

However, Paul could confidently say this word to people whom he had never met because he knew that it was God the Father by the atonement of Jesus Christ through the regeneration of the Holy Spirit that the seed of faith had been implanted in each and every person who had received Jesus as Lord. Consider:

…fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith,… (Heb. 12:2a; NASB)(emphasis added)

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; (Eph. 2:8)(emphasis added)

Many read that last verse, Ephesians 2:8, with “the gift of God” referring to “grace”, but I believe the “gift” here is referring to “faith” for a few reasons. First, it makes grammatical sense that the phrase “gift of God” would link back to that which immediately precedes it and that would make it link to “faith” rather than “grace”. Second, the word grace itself means unmerited (unearned) kindness and favor – by definition a gift given. Therefore, it would be redundant to say that “grace” is a “gift”. Third, the following verse goes on to clarify that there is nothing at all in being saved that we can boast about, which includes our faith. If it were not given to us by God, then we could boast that the amount, timing, or nature of our faith played a role is our salvation. So, of course Paul could call the Christians at Ephesus faithful and through Paul, Jesus continues to call you faithful.

What then, does “faithful” mean. Faithful encompasses all the things that one would expect: loyalty, reliability, trustworthiness, believing, trusting, and confident. The root word for the Greek also has some meanings that need to be brought forward because they are not ones we would ordinarily use to define “faithful”: to be persuaded, to make friends of, to yield to, and to obey. There is a strong sense in these root meanings of becoming allied with Christ; to be brought into unity with God. Jesus brought this union, this alliance of peace with God about:

But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5; ESV)(emphasis added)

This peace (union with God) that Jesus brought us on the cross is real and manifest in us the moment we receive Him as our Lord and believe that He still lives (see Romans 10:9). Paul is simply declaring what is true by the grace of God. It is for us to embrace this as true of our identity and that is why Paul takes pains to remind us our faithfulness. As we apprehend (take hold of) our faithfulness, we get out of the way of the Holy Spirit’s transformation of us into the image of faithfulness. Those protestations against this being true encumber us (Hebrews 12:1) and we are called to lay them aside by focusing on truth rather than lies.

You, my brother and my sister, are faithful.

Identity as Saint

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus: (Ephesians 1:1)

We like to consider our identity as being “who we are” as opposed to “what we do”, but this is a false dichotomy. One’s identity is made up of multiple facets. It includes our character traits or nature, our personality or dispositions, our physicality, our relationship in connection to others or roles, and what we are about or purpose. I can say I am a father and that is part of my identity. I can say that I am a man and that is part of my identity. I can say that I am a writer and that is part of my identity. However, the word “identity” does connote something core and essential about us rather than something that is temporary and superficial. My daily job may or may not be part of my identity depending on whether it is part of my purpose or calling in life or if it is only a way to make meet my financial needs.

Paul reveals a deeper quality to things that are part of our identity – they are God ordained. Paul was an apostle. He did not create this role for himself nor did he create within himself the skills needed to fulfill that role. Apostle was something that Paul was all about; it consumed his time and attention. While he did not chose this for himself, he embraced it. His chosen profession had been what we would call a prosecuting attorney for the Sanhedrin but he left that behind when he realized what God’s plan for his identity entailed.

As I read this, I wonder if Paul is alone in having such a designation from God. More precisely, does God have a particular role set aside as part of my identity? If we jump down a bit in the scripture, we find the answer:

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)

Every one of us can declare, I am _____________, a(n) ______________ of Christ Jesus by the will of God. Now, you may not yet be able to put a quantifiable title in that second space, but it exists. Part of the unfolding of the mystery God has for us is this aspect of our identity. We do not need to fret, though, as He reveals to us our calling. This is because He gives us the more crucial aspect of our identity just a few words later.

Paul declares as confidently that he is an Apostle, that his audience are saints. I am a saint. You, if you have received Jesus as your Lord, are a saint. You can definitively state, “I am _______________, a saint of Christ Jesus by the will of God!” Does this sound odd in your own ears? Do you find it hard to recognize your identity as saint? Part of this struggle comes from a misunderstanding of what a saint is. Most think that a saint refers to someone who has extraordinary piety and who has done amazing things for the Kingdom of God.

Instead of a designation for someone who does much good, the word saint means one who is “set apart”. Rather than being an exalted position one achieves by exceptional morality, it is a position you are placed in by the Father. We cannot even take credit for choosing this identity; God willed it. Through Jesus, you are set apart as a holy priest or priestess for God (see 1 Peter 2:5).

Being a saint and knowing it is not merely for our own encouragement. The recognition of this aspect of one’s identity calls out of us a particular response. The response of embracing the reality that “I am a saint” is that my thoughts and actions conform more and more to those of Christ. We do not transform our way into becoming a saint; being a saint causes a transformation to occur within us. Therefore, to live the full and effective life God desires, you must acknowledge your identity as a saint. As He reveals the more specific purpose and calling that is your identity, embracing that role will also call forth the response of stepping into it.

I am not finished wringing every drop from this one verse. In fact, it is still sopping with living water. In my next post I plan to explore more about what this verse reveals about our identity and why it matters.

Ephesians: First words

Recently I have been listening to a tremendous expositor of scripture, Martin Lloyd Jones, and this has birthed a desire in me to read passages of scripture in a deeper manner so as to glean even greater understanding of the grace and majesty of God. This is not just an intellectual fascination, but the draw is to deepen my relationship with Him through Jesus by an ever more intimate knowing Him.

To that end, I have delighted in finding a treasure trove in verses that I previously read as a mere formality or rote greeting:

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus: (Ephesians 1:1)

First, a little context would be helpful. Every single one of the epistles (as opposed to the gospels) of the New Testament of the Bible were written to people who were part of the Christian body of believers. If all that was involved in experiencing a fulfilling and effective walk of faith was encapsulated in that moment when one first surrenders and receives Jesus as Lord for the forgiveness of sin, then the authors of those epistles would not have wasted so many words on encouraging and instructing believers, but would have written more testimonies and arguments to convince unbelievers.

We often get out of whack in the church by going to one of two extremes. Sometimes we become focused on evangelizing the lost to the exclusion of building up the body of Christ. This results in a lot of flash and flare with impressive numbers of “salvations”, but there is a dearth of depth. The evidence of this happening is when the growth of active participants within the body is not commensurate with the numbers of people making some sort of profession of faith. The other extreme is such a focus on the growth and edification of church members that we become a holy huddle. This results in lots of pot-lucks and bible studies but few actual transformations from darkness to light; from death to life.

Paul puts the proper emphasis this way:

So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith. (Galatians 6:10)

He recognizes that a mature body of Christ followers is attractive to those who are lost, hurting and seeking hope. A mature body of believers embrace their respective identities in Christ and by extension of that, cannot help but give evidence through word and deed of the great news of Jesus in their lives. Evidence of a church that has reached this sweet spot of doing good to all, but especially their own people is that non-Christians come, see, receive AND become vibrant participants in the church where they are fed and grow.

So, all this context is to make it abundantly clear that we followers of Jesus need to invest heavily in discipleship of one another. We need to dive into these divinely inspired words and grow in understanding always with the end of sharing the love and grace God bestows on us with others. I hope then, you will join me for my next post where I dive into what this verse, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 1:1) says about our identity.

The “iCloud” of Witnesses: Just a quick note

Who knew that when the author of Hebrews penned,

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us,… (Hebrews 12:1)

that it would become so true on a practical and accessible way as through the internet. That’s right folks, the internet is no longer just a haven for porn, but it contains a icloud of witnesses from Saints who faithfully preach the word.

Much of the next several posts have been inspired by the word as taught by Martin Lloyd Jones. I know I am supposed to cite to his work every time I say something that I got from him, but I have been listening to his decades old sermons so much that I am inundated and would be hard pressed to write more than a few words without inserting some sort of reference.

So, if anyone complains I will either take everything down or attempt to fix it, but I am hopeful there will be mercy and anyone reading this will know that I get a tremendous amount of inspiration from many preachers’ podcasts. Here lately, it has largely been the late Rev. Jones’ exposition of the Holy Scripture. I encourage you to check out the library there as well.

S.A.D.: Spiritual Affective Disorder

This is the time of year when depression leaches into the souls of so many of us. We blame the weather, and certainly the shorter days and decreased exposure to sunlight play a part. The cold beckons many of us into a semi-stupor; a sort of human hibernation. But, I propose that for all but a few who truly have a physiological sensitivity to the winter season, this time of year simply exposes a spiritual malaise.

This condition is not reserved for non-believers; Christ followers, too, become despondent at times in their walk. And, this malaise is not unique to the modern era where we are inundated by technology with the sorrowful news of this present age. The Apostle Paul addressed spiritual depression in his epistle to the Christians in Galatia:

Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. Gal 6:9

If Paul saw the need to address it, even briefly, then I put to you that it is a concern we should speak to today. As with any physical illness or secular mental health concern, the first course of action is to diagnose exactly where the problem lies. This seems no less wise for spiritual dis-ease. And, the first step in a diagnosis is to characterize the symptoms.

Let me back up just a moment and comment on when and where spiritual depression most commonly crops up. The “where” cannot be limited: one can develop this weariness of soul in any aspect of one’s life. It can appear in a marriage or a career. It can emerge in serving or in worship. It can also manifest in groups, much like a pandemic rather than isolated cases here and there. It brings whole churches and missions down as readily as a pastor or a parishioner.

The “when” allows us to narrow the field. Spiritual depression almost never marks a person or group at the beginning of an endeavor. Brand new followers are full of joy and exuberance. New churches are propelled by an overriding sense of mission. New marriages are awash in the glow of new love and the chemical concoction it brews up. New businesses are building and meeting unique challenges bringing a sense of adventure. It is the middle of things where the depression infection incubates. Once the exuberance begins to fade and the chemical catalyst balances; when the challenges have been met and the propulsion of purpose has been satisfied; that is when spiritual depression attacks.  So, how do we recognize spiritual depression – this sense of weariness in our walk?

There appear to be three primary responses or symptoms that point to spiritual depression. The first is a recurring desire to simply give up and walk away. An individual may decide that since they no longer feel the enlivening rush that they felt at first, then something irreparable has happened and it must all be over. They will never again get back to that magical place and so they might as well simply quit it and go elsewhere to see if they can rekindle the blaze. People leave marriages for much this same reason. One also sees church hopping as an outgrowth of this response pattern.

The second response one of resignation. The notion here is that one must simply trudge on and do their duty even though there is no joy in it. It is even possible to become convinced that this is the heroic thing to do; to stoically buck up and be responsible to any obligation or undertaking no matter how miserable one gets. One sees this in many Christ followers who have become indistinguishable from embittered and battle scarred people following the course of the world. This response marks churches or businesses that seem stale and stuck exhibiting no growth and perhaps even a shrinking.

The third response is to repeatedly try and imitate that emotional from the first of an undertaking. Here the rationale is that one simply let things get stale so they must switch things up and create a stir. In an individual this can lead to drug use or risk taking in a carnal attempt to recreate the excitement one is missing. In an organization such as a church, one might see a continual succession of new initiatives, bigger and bolder sermon titles, edgier music or increasingly “hip” and “trendy” marketing campaigns. Perhaps the pastor makes greater and greater calls to sacrifice financially and in serving from the pulpit. Each new thing provokes a period of newness and excitement, much like the individual taking a chemical stimulant, only to fade faster and faster. This third response creates the illusion of reenergizing, but the weariness just gets rooted in deeper and deeper until it is unsustainable and the person or the group burns out.

Now that we have some handle on how to spot spiritual depression, the next step is figure out what is causing the depression and then, finally, to treat it. Sometimes it is simply a matter of understanding that joy and energy can look very different in different stages. For example, a mature Christian may have steady and abiding joy rather than an outward frenetic demonstration. This is not truly spiritual depression but it can be confusing for someone who thinks that how they felt at first must continue unabated. The confusion can invite depression though. Married couples mistake the normal transformation of new love into some deeper affection as being problematic, thus inviting matrimonial melancholy. The cause of true spiritual depression, though, is revealed in scripture:

For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Galatians 6:8

Paul reveals that this weariness that I am calling spiritual depression is caused by sowing to one’s own flesh. Sowing to the flesh is not just indulging in the sensual sins such as sexual vices, gluttony, greed, violence, and the like. Sowing to the flesh refers to anything upon which we try to justify ourselves. We sow to the flesh when we do good things to get noticed by man or by God. We sow to the flesh when we try to do good things to make up for the bad in us. Any attempt at all in covering up our own brokenness or shame is a “sowing” to the flesh. We know we sow to the flesh when we feel envy and compare ourselves and our lot to others. Sowing to the flesh ALWAYS corrupts; always invites spiritual depression to oppress us; always wears us down. We end up focused on the task oriented party of the “doing” in doing good.

The antidote, then, is the opposite of sowing to the flesh. We defeat spiritual depression by sowing to the Spirit. We sow to the Spirit when we rely on God’s favor and kindness towards us; His grace. We sow to the Spirit when we rely on the Person of the Holy Spirit to guide us and renew us. We sow to the Spirit when we bask in God’s love for us so that it overflows into acts of love for others. When we sow to the Spirit we naturally focus on the “good” part rather than the “doing” part and we rest rather than strive. We sow to the Spirit when, through His strengthening, we turn from sin and seek God.

Therefore, if you have even a whiff of spiritual depression about you this season, examine it and see where you are sowing to the flesh. Root out any barrier or belief that impairs your apprehension of God’s unlimited love and grace towards you. Stop and rest; recuperate in God’s intensive care unit and let Him remind you that you are His beloved child whom He adores. Let Him remind you that He is good and that He is sovereign.

Fear of the Lord v Afraid of the Lord

Few other concepts whip up more emotional reactions or rouse more confusion than the “fear of the Lord”. This phrase occurs throughout the Bible, but nowhere is there a definition or clear explanation of what it entails. This leaves “fear of the Lord” open to tremendously diverse interpretations depending on one’s’ foundational perspective of the nature of God. Those of us tending towards seeing God as a punitive and wrathful deity define this fear as terror (which is, in fact, its common day meaning). Those tending towards a view of God as a loving and compassionate entity stretch the word beyond its common day meaning to refer to intense reverence or awe.

As to my own bias, my appreciation of fearing God transformed over the years. Early on I held to a rather temperamental, wrathful paradigm of God. I figured He got frustrated with me often in my repeated failures and, while I knew on some level of His universal love, I figured His disappointment and even disgust towards me was a fairly routine response interrupted with forgiveness and comfort. Sometimes that forgiveness had to be a begrudging thing for God, or so I thought. As I grew in my understanding and my faith matured, this changed slowly. However, I still figured “fearing” God meant being afraid of His reactions to me and so I persisted in needing to walk softly, sin little, be penitent when I slipped, and do many things to engender God’s favor towards me.

On good days, I read a sufficient amount of the Bible, worked on memorizing whole passages of the Holy Text, prayed and meditated for a long time, and served regularly. On these days, I experienced God smiling upon me. On other days, I just kept asking for His forgiveness and hoped my time of penitence would be short and hoped that I had not lost God’s favor or forfeited His gifts to me.

I want to make it clear, because words matter, that my experience of God often jives poorly with the reality of Him. God, in His grace, transformed my apprehension of Him in the last years. But, let me save that for a moment.

The Hebrew word often used which is translated to “fear” is yare’ and the definition for it does include both the ordinary sense of terror or fright as well as a sense of awe and reverence. So, looking at the exact historical text does not resolve this issue.  When that is the case, we must look at examples and context. I believe the story of Jonah sheds light on what is meant when the Bible speaks of fearing God or “fear of the Lord”.

Jonah, a prophet of God, was called upon to go the people of Ninevah and proclaim His word to repent. For generations, the Ninevites tormented Israel. Jonah had no love of them and, frankly, disagreed sharply with God’s desire to give them another chance. Rather, Jonah would have only welcomed a call to destruction of Ninevah – not a second chance. So, Jonah ran the other way and even boarded a ship to go as far as possible from God’s call on his life.

While on the ship, God whipped up a big storm that threatened to destroy the ship and all upon it. While the sailors scrambled to do all they could to stay afloat, including tossing cargo overboard, Jonah went to the hold of the ship and took a nap. This scene gives us a picture of two ways fear regarding God manifest. By his own account, when confronted by the sailors, Jonah feared God. Yet, he ran in defiance trying to get free of what God wanted of him. Further, when things seemed most dire, he slept. The sailors, after hearing of Jonah’s God whom He correctly said created the land as well as the very sea upon which they sailed, also had some sort of a fear of God. The text is revealing:

Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them. Jonah 1:10 (ESV)

The Orthodox Hebrew Bible uses the phrase “yirah gedolah” for “exceedingly afraid”. Other versions say “greatly feared” or “extremely frightened”.  They witnessed God’s power and were terrified of Him. Jonah tells them they must toss him overboard to escape the storm, but in their fright, they try to row for shore instead. Finally they relent and toss Jonah into the sea and the storm immediately ceases.

The sailor had great terror of God when they heard He was creating the storm that threatened them, and then when the storm ceased, they also had great terror, but it shifted. They had confirmation of what Jonah said and then truly believed what they had heard. Now they feared God, but it was still with a great terror; they continued to be afraid of God:

Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows. Jonah 1:16 (ESV)

The English Standard Version of the bible juxtaposes the “extremely afraid” in verse 10 against the phrase “feared . . . exceedingly” of verse 16 to highlight the shift. But, the real difference is that the terror they felt shifted from what they did not know to what they did know. The nature of the fear remained the same. It can be argued that these sailors were converted or, as we would say it now in many churches – saved, because the next verse show them making vows to God and offering sacrifices. We can extend this further and see these sailors as being the heroes whole tale because, while they started out following false gods, as soon as they were shown the truth, they turned and began to do things to please the true God.

That is the nature of the fear of the Lord I carried for the longest while as a Christ follower; I was afraid of God. Out of my being afraid of the Lord, I did many good things and sought to eradicate sin from my life. I tried to live up to the favor the Lord gave me. I tried to be good. Now, the motives were not wholly, or even mostly fear. But, there remained a residue of fear to the motives that lingered decades. The sailors were afraid of the Lord; I was afraid of the Lord.

Yet, I think Jonah had a far more correct apprehension of God than the sailors, or I, even in the midst of his seemingly suicidal disobedience. Jonah feared the Lord, and we can see later in the book how that played out, but his fear was of a different nature. He was not afraid of the Lord; he feared the Lord. He knew God and knew God’s nature far better than the sailors. He grew up immersed in all the stories of salvation of the Israelite people. God talked directly to Jonah. In the face of the immense power exhibited by God through the storm, Jonah was able to sleep because He knew God’s intent for Him. He knew God had no intent to harm him, but to use him. Jonah simply hated the use to which God intended for him.

Somehow, right in the very evidence of God’s wrath towards Jonah, he knew of God’s love for him. That is why he could sleep just as, centuries later, Jesus would sleep in a boat in the midst of a storm. Jonah was so secure in God’s love that he knew being thrown into a raging sea was no end of him. I suspect Jonah even knew all along that his running from God’s plan was ultimately futile, but he wanted to resist as long as possible.

The best analogy I have come to in my experience for what fear of the Lord is to me now comes from my time around horses. When I stand next to a horse or climb up on its back, I am keenly aware of the sheer size and power of the animal. That horse could crush me in a flash. It could kick me and shatter bones; rupture organs. That horse’s power is danger incarnate. Yet, I am also aware that the horse has no ill intent towards me (most of the time). Mostly, I am aware that the horse enjoys my presence, especially if I scratch behind its ears. My experience of these times is a paradox of high alert and peaceful rest.

My fear of the Lord is like that, except that God is no beast and his nature is not subject to the caprice of a horse. I am simultaneously aware that God could wipe me from existence in a mere moment and aware of His intense love for me. Not just love, but also, I am aware now of his eternal affection towards me. I am aware that He is pleased in me just as He is pleased in Christ, for I am in Christ. He may become displeased for me – that is, for the consequence of my sin that I still experience but, never again is He displeased IN me.  God is with me through Christ and never flees or withdraws from me. Even in rebellious moment, He is with me. Wherever I go, even if I run from Him, there He is.

And so, I fear the Lord but, I no longer am afraid of the Lord. My motivation for doing good has also shifted as the fear has transformed. My motivation is borne now out of purer and purer love of God and love of others and fear of failing Him dissipates into mere moments occurring more infrequently. Grace abounds and God transforms. I, like Jonah, merely relinquish my own efforts to God who initiates, pursue, and perfects all that He has for me.

This doctrine of radical grace that I espouse is disturbing to many. Reactions abound: But what about sin – aren’t you being soft on sin? Aren’t you ignoring all the verses about God’s wrath? What about all the admonishments in the Bible to do good works? What about the whole book of James? Are you an Universalist – do you think God’s love just covers everything and we all get to heaven no matter what? I even had one person think I was being legalistic, though I am still dumbfounded by that one and can only conclude I said something very poorly.

Answers:

No, I am not an Universalist. I believe in free will and that we must receive Jesus to be saved. I just think we have no ability or power to cause this to happen. It all starts with Jesus and we can only come to Him when the Holy Spirit calls us. Those that refuse that call will not be saved in the last days.

As to the book of James, I believe it is primarily addressing walking out our horizontal relationship with others and secondarily addressing the barriers we experience towards God in that vertical relationship. James also is a big fan of infinite grace – consider James 4:6. I do not think James is about earning points with God at all, but if we read it with that mindset, it sure sounds like it. If we read it looking for grace, then we see it in abundance.

Good works are important and God calls us to them. However, doing them or not doing them does not impact the reality of the relationship with God that a Christ follower enters into. We just saw that with Jonah. Doing them or not doing either unleashes or impairs our love for others and our love back towards God, but God’s relationship with us is fixed and finished. Our experience of His relationship to us, well that is subject to our human frailty and failings.

God is both a God who exhibits wrath and exhibits love. However, His nature is Love. God is Love, as we are told in 1 John. For a non-believer, they are children of wrath (Eph 2:3-5) and under wrath. For believers, God’s wrath was exhausted upon Jesus (Isaiah 53:4) and we stand under His covering. Therefore, there is no wrath for us, but peace with God. We may experience wrath as a believer (remember experience is not reality), but I believe that is a misapprehension of God’s love. Jonah somehow saw the storm as God’s love and pursuit of him and not something intended to do him harm – so he could sleep in peace. Consider rubbing ones hand against the grain of rough-cut wood. It will be a bit painful and you will likely get splinters. Wrath, for a believer, is rubbing the wrong direction against God’s love.

Sin: Well, in my experience I was more tempted to sin and more likely to succumb to those temptations when I failed to comprehend God’s unending grace. This is because I remained a slave to fear, even if that fear was very slight or hidden, even a mere residue. There is no fear in love (1 John) but when fear exists, even in infinitesimal degrees, we are looking elsewhere than into the face of God’s love. That is when we are more susceptible to sin. Conversely, when we are awash in grace and absolutely certain of God’s favor and affection towards us, then our tendency to sin is at its lowest ebb. And, our desire to do good and exhibit God’s love to others and return love towards God is at its peak.

So, being an advocate for recognizing God’s rampant grace towards us does NOT mean I am soft on sin. On the contrary – I believe that salvation apart from grace requires absolutely perfect adherence to the law. It requires me to continuously love God with all my heart, mind and spirit. I cannot achieve that. Perhaps you can. I am rooting for you if you want to shoot for it, but only Jesus was successful. Sin, any sin, is death because God is entirely holy. Instead, I recognize that there is no degree of substantial compliance that I, or anyone, can achieve that will gain us admission into God’s Kingdom. I only gain admission by receiving grace.

Now that I am in that Kingdom, I am not left to “do my part”. Thank God, because I still cannot. Only the Holy Spirit working in me can transform my being, sanctify my life, and carry out my purpose. I am powerless to make any of that happen, and sometimes I chafe at not having some control so I begin trying again to sanctify myself. Sometimes I still want to run like Jonah.  Doing my part is all and only that of surrendering. Surrendering does not mean passively sitting around (except sometimes it actually does mean that if so led). Rather, it means responding to the prompts of the Holy Spirit to do that which He directs and that which He empowers. A surrendered life ONLY comes from an apprehension of unbridled grace.

But, What About Sin? #JesusStuff

I hope you were intrigued enough by my pose, “Gospel of Glory v Gospel of Grace” to come back. And, if you did not read that one yet, I hope you are intrigued enough by this post that your will go back and read it. I am convinced that this disparity of the gospel of glory and the gospel of grace is the number one thing that derails followers of Jesus from living the full and joyous life Jesus offers us.

The gospel of glory, in short, is the teaching that while we may be justified before God by grace, we still must actively pursue making ourselves holy so that God will be pleased with us. We relegate eternal salvation or “justification” into the realm of grace, but remain convinced that Jesus stops there and insists that we make something beautiful out of this reborn life by our own efforts – that we must glorify ourselves. We acknowledge that we cannot succeed on our own in this and so we see the Holy Spirit as our power boost when we start lagging behind. Ultimately, though, we believe we must predominantly rely on our efforts and that the Holy Spirit will only step in to help if we are helping ourselves first.

RUBBISH! But, I will let you read that last post to see why I say that. Instead, I want to tackle the primary objection many of you will have to my radical notion that it is grace that is entirely responsible for our sanctification as well as our justification – that God takes hold of us and entirely transforms and completes His own good work on us, in us, and  through us. That objection is that if you embrace my supposition, then why would you need to fight against sin in your life? Why not just indulge with abandon if there is no difference in how God feels about me when I sin or when I abstain? I will answer this.

There is one verse I want you to have resonate in your mind about this though I would love for you to read through all of Romans. If you do this, the last part of Romans, if you dissect if from the first nine or ten chapters, will seem to counsel against what I am saying here. I encourage you, though, when you are tempted to read it that way, to go back to those first several chapters and remember that the entire book of Romans is consistent front to back. By the way, James needs to be read in the same way – not as a checklist of how to behave Christian, but as a diagnostic to see if you were brought to actual faith by the Holy Spirit in the first place (James is written to the 12 tribes: to believers and non-believers alike).

The one verse to meditate on contains the very last words of Jesus before His death on the cross:

Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. John 19:30

Then entire work of Christ for you is finished. Every sin that He paid for through this surrendered victory was a future sin of yours. Every sin of yours, past, present, and future is covered. Romans 8:1 confirms that no sin of those of us in Christ Jesus condemns us. Our sin, then, does not impact God’s posture or His pleasure towards us who are His followers. If then, I can sin and God is still just as pleased with me as if I had not sinned; if I cannot disappoint God or create a barrier between He and me, why do I resist sin?

Sin does have an impact. It hinders my love for others and it hinders my love back towards God; my sin impedes my experiencing love towards other people and it impedes my experiencing love back towards my Father. And, we crave to be more and more like our Father. A defining characteristic of Abba, Father, is that He loves others. We desire, then, to love others. We desire to touch other’s lives the way Father touches us. Sin blocks this characteristic of God coming to fruition in us.

The way that Tullian Tchividjian (grandson of Billy Graham), who inspired most of my thoughts on this subject, described this is by thinking of the relationship with God as a vertical relationship and our relationship with other people as a horizontal relationship. Sin has no impact on the vertical relationship once it exists, for all that is needed for that relationship “is finished”. Sin, though, breaks the horizontal relationships we have with others.

I do not need to argue this – just take a moment and consider your own sin and how it affects your relationships. Even those private sins such as pornography: Jesus does not flee from you in revulsion when you indulge, but I guarantee you experience intolerance towards your loved ones (anger and increased frustration) when you partake. Even those innocuous sins such as doing good acts in the hopes of being noticed by other people (yes, that is a sin) harm our relationships. Consider the last time you believed your efforts were not given their due from someone who matters to you. It created a tiny hard spot on your heart towards that person, did it not?

So, we are radically put in a right relationship with Jesus and kept in right standing by Jesus and transformed ever more into whom Father meant for us to be by Jesus SO THAT we are free to love others unencumbered. To love others in that way, we reject sin and choose to obey Jesus’ lead.

It is finished!

 

Gospel of Glory v Gospel of Grace #JesusStuff

I will trust a historian to check me on this, but I believe it was Martin Luther who spoke of there being two gospels preached in the church: the gospel of glory and the gospel of grace. Only one of which truly pointed the way of Jesus. However, the false gospel is so subtle, sounding so right and appealing, that it is preached more than the true gospel. In fairness, those who preach the false gospel have an abundance of scripture to cite, though they must pull them out of context to posit the gospel of glory.

The gospel of glory, in essence, says that we draw near to God by how we conduct ourselves. Another way this is expressed is that, “while we have God’s love, we can only please Him – we can only get Him to like us, if we do good works.” It is called the gospel of glory because we seek to glorify ourselves. Now, many professing Christians recognize that we are only born again, as Jesus discusses in John 3, by grace and that no one earns salvation. After all, this is made abundantly clear in Ephesians 2:8-9;

For it is by grace that you have been saved and not by works, so that none may boast for it is a gift of God.

However, it is in the days and weeks that follow that moment of surrendering to God’s grace regarding our eternity that we slip back into the glory path. Old voices begin to speak into us saying that if we just pray more, if we just read our bible more, if we just spend more quiet time with Jesus, or if we just serve with more abandon, then we will attain . . . something more from God. Perhaps that something is His favor or perhaps it is His closeness. To distill it down, it is this pervasive notion that we please God through our behavior; our right acts – attaining glory on our own merits. It is as though we try to re-define our justification before God by our approach to sanctification.

Take a moment and think about it. Have you not hoped that God (or others) would take notice your act of contrition, your forgiving someone, your sacrifice or your devotion? When is the last time you felt like God was less than fair in what you get compared to someone else? How about wondering if only you had steered clear of a particular sin, then God would hear and respond to your prayers? Or, do you ever feel embarrassed that you are still struggling with that particular issue and feel as though you should be further along? Do you wonder if God is disappointed in you? These are little tell-tale signs that the glory gospel is running in the background of your mind. We superimpose on our relationship with God our human, conditional love; conditional acceptance paradigm.

It is not just the nagging, worrisome issues plaguing us that indicate we are walking the glory path. The more innocuous manifestations of the gospel of glory are in what we celebrate rather than in what we struggle with. For example, in my church I hear people celebrating that they ?… just led someone to Jesus!” Tweets go out all the time saying, “I just got to lead so and so to Jesus!” Sounds wonderful, right? And, to give it justice, it sounds like they are only expressing gratitude at getting to do this thing for God. A very good work one must admit. Now, contrast that with, “I witnessed the Holy Spirit lead so and so to faith in Jesus!” Where are we assigning the glory in each? We do not do it knowingly, but we love to assign credit to ourselves, that is – promote our own glory, when in fact it was not us doing the work.

By the way, I am seeking authenticity rather than disparaging my church. I have done this same thing of celebrating myself – my discernment, my faithfulness, my words, and my love that “brought a lost sheep home to Jesus”. I learned recently that we track who led whom to Jesus to see trends in evangelism. There is nothing wrong with this being done, but it is ripe for being done for wrong reasons. If it is done, as was discussed, to show if the preachers were being left to do the evangelism of the church, then it is a good and effective tool. If, though, as was my temptation to consider when I heard of it, to identify and celebrate the “evangelists” of the church, then it can go very wrong. So many times I have been in a conversation where someone was ready to profess a commitment to follow Jesus, where I could have clutched the honor of helping them in the prayer, but I passed that honor to another at the prompting of the Holy Spirit. My temptation, then, was to clutch that honor. That is the glory path; that is the seeking of holiness before God and men through my own accomplishments.

I am repenting of that glory path by agreeing with the Spirit in His transforming my heart towards such things. I am glad God has me participate in His work. He grows my love for others and my love back to Him by giving me these experiences and letting me be a participant, but it does not increase His affection or pleasure in me. The true gospel, the gospel of grace instead says:

For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, whois against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Romans 8:29-32

We are not left to our own devices to please God. His grace covers the entire breadth, length, height and depth of our new birth. Jesus does not usher us into a reborn existence only to leave us to do the rest. He chooses us, then He calls, next He justifies, and then HE, not us, glorifies us. There is not a single mention in any of that process of our role because we do not play a role – at least not an active role (and honestly, perhaps not even a passive role). However, if we go back further in Chapter 8, we see that all we do in the whole process is set our minds upon “the things of the Spirit.” In other words, we stand in agreement and look to Jesus and that is our only part. This agreement is a passive posture or stance of surrender and EVEN THAT we cannot achieve by our own will, but the Holy Spirit gives us this faith. We CANNOT glorify ourselves; it is all grace.

That is good news indeed because it means we can daily remember: NO STRIVING! We can rest. We do not have to worry about “doing our part”; but we can simply agree with the transformation the Holy Spirit is doing in us and through us. At this point, some of you feel a huge sense of relief, but many others are feeling a little trepidation. It sounds TOO easy and, perhaps, it leaves you feeling TOO powerless.  Others will be wondering, but what about my sin? Should I not be trying to be holy by removing sin? How can God be pleased with me in my sin? This just sounds far too radical. Please come back for my next post as I tackle this.

God, monsters, and men – thanks @renovatuspastor

I would love to have an original thought – one that nobody else had ever come across. Turns out that is not a gift I have. However, I do have a gift for recognizing such thoughts in others. Well, truth is there are no entirely original thoughts, but sometimes a person can recapture and reformat long known truths in new and fresh ways. Someone I have discovered with such a person in Jonathan Martin, Pastor of Renovatus Church in North Carolina. The thoughts that follow are borrowed heavily from some recent sermons of his. They spoke to me in a real way just where I am at.

I have often believed that some particular sin of mine or some attribute of my person-hood would drive God away from me. I have felt on a visceral level that I was damaged in some essential way that caused God to turn away in disgust. That system of beliefs of primary shame kept me in a cycle of desperately trying to clean myself up enough to be presentable to God followed by despair at the absolute impossibility of that task. Ultimately, I grew soul weary. These are my Job moments.

Job encapsulated this state of soul and spirit when he avowed to God:

“Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Am I the sea, or the sea monster, That You set a guard over me?” Job 7:11 & 12

The torment Job endured left him wondering if God saw him as a monster; a despicable and dangerous creature that is to be guarded and controlled. While I never encountered the losses that hit Job, in my weakness my own losses and persecutions left me just as convinced that I must be a monster; convicted that God could only tolerate me if I was safely locked away at a safe distance. This may be too much authenticity, but I have feared my own capacity for destruction and assumed the need to cooperate in creating my own prison of a highly structured and disciplined life.

The thing is, Job was right to speak forthrightly to God from his heart, but he was wrong in one essential matter: God was not repulsed by him; God delighted in him even when Job was at his lowest. Ever wonder, as I have, why God spent an entire chapter and a half, from Job 40:14 to 41:33, talking about the monsters of the behemoth and the leviathan? He describes them in magnificent detail as though enthralled by them. That is not the only reason I believe God delights in monsters. The Bible explicitly says He does:

“God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good.” Genesis 1:21

“There the ships move along, And the Leviathan, which You have formed to sport in it.” Psalms 104:26

When Job cried out asking, out of his deepest fear of its truth, if he was a monster so that God turned away from him, he had it all backwards. The truth was that even as a monster, even with the ugliest recesses of his soul, God delighted in him. When we sin and when we doubt God, He hurts for us. But, He is not repulsed by us and He is never afraid of being with us. He delights in monsters; He certainly delights in us even the wild, untamed, as yet transformed parts of us. God does not see us as monster to control; He sees us as monsters to entice closer to Him. And as we come closer to Him, that monster transforms and becomes more and more like Him.

Still uncertain of where I am going with this? Do you still think that God wants to bring our inner monsters under control? Is there still a lingering fear that God shrinks back from those darkest, destructive aspects of our being? Look, then, at what Jesus did. The pharisees always moved away from the people and things proscribed as unclean. They shrunk back from them. But, every time that Jesus came across unclean persons: lepers, gentiles, bleeding women, dead bodies, or whores – He approached them. Instead of the touch of them making Him unclean, His touch made them clean. He always went towards the unclean, the unruly, the dangerous.

This is the whole point of the parable of the Good Samaritan where the priest and the temple worker avoid the mugged fellow – the bloody, unclean, troublesome body that may have been dead or close to it – while the Samaritan approaches and embraces the mess. Luke 10:25-37. The theme of Job repeats itself over and over: ‘Come to Me in your mess and as a monster’, Jesus pleads. I believe He is calling, ‘Talk to me plainly and authentically. Reveal the monster you see in yourself the way Job did. I will not turn from you. I am unafraid. Reach out to me and I will touch you. My nature will become your nature. I delight in you.’

Tattoo and Misuse of Scripture

I know, it is the end of 2013 and I should write about the past year and all that it meant. In a way, though, this post is about that – about being things that mark us. But, no – it is not a maudlin recount of the past year’s triumphs and tears. Perhaps I will write that, but not now. I have not been writing here for some time. I got some criticism from someone I trust that I seemed to be writing for the wrong reasons. But, the truth is, I just want to write – I am compelled to write – even when it is on a topic where I am likely to offend everyone like this post.

It would be nice if people read what I write. Even better if they should be edified by what I write. And, ultimately I may never know if my writing was merely for myself or if it touches someone in a way that matters. So, I write about tattoos. Do tattoos matter? Well, not really enough to write about. If you expect this to be a tirade either for or against tattoos, you can stop reading now. Personally, I have none and never plan to get one. I hope my daughters choose the same for many reasons. But, many people I love have them and I do not begrudge them their choice.

I write, though, because tattoos are a topic upon which nearly everyone seems to misuse scripture (of those who bother to apply scripture at all, that is). Recently, I heard a person of influence state to a group of people that “Jesus has tattoos – how cool is that?” This disturbed me. I took a lot of time to reflect on why it disturbed me before I said anything.

My daughters were not there to hear it, but they have heard similar statements. I prefer my daughters not get tattoos and so I prefer people who have influence on them not advocate tattoos. But, that was not the deepest reason it disturbed me. It disturbed me because this person so casually misused scripture to advocate for a popular agenda. How often have we seen that go badly? How often have I done the same? This is not a critique of that person. He is a tremendous leader who loves Jesus and follows Him really well. It is a critique of a pitfall ALL Christians run into from time to time – the misuse of scripture.

He was referring to Revelations 19:16 which says, “And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, ‘KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.'” I am confident in saying he misused this scripture because Revelations is in a highly symbolic style of writing, yet he, like many others I have heard, asserted that this passage should be taken literally. If that were the case, then the preceding Rev. 19:15 would mean that Jesus literally has a sharp, two-edged sword coming out of His mouth. That passage means that Jesus’ words will divide those who have received Him from those who do not and that His word will cut into us deeply to convict us of truth.

So, it follows that Rev. 19:16 also has symbolic meaning. He will not actually show up wearing a robe with His name on it like Rocky Balboa stepping into the boxing ring. And, for His name to be on His thigh means His name is powerful. Two things to consider here: 1) In olden times, one’s name carried the fullness of ones position and authority, 2) the thigh is the strongest bone and strongest muscles in the whole body. So, this passage means that Jesus will return with obvious power and authority – the fullness of the authority of God. He will no more have ink soaked into His skin than He will have a sharpened bit of steel sticking out of His mouth.

In misusing scripture to make Jesus seem cool and all tattooed up, we inadvertently sell scripture short and perhaps even hinder listeners from understanding an essential, difficult, and symbolic book that reveals the gospel in tremendous ways.

To be fair, those who hate tattoos also misuse scripture as I have done. We turn to a different chapter 19 – Leviticus 19:28 which says, “You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am the LORD.” This is the one and only place that tattoos are actually mentioned directly in the Bible. So, it is ready fodder for folks to quote. But, it is misuse of this passage to then say all tattoos are sin. The context of this passage is marking the body “for the dead”. It appears alongside prohibitions related to practices of the nations that Israel was coming into contact with and which are meant to keep them from straying. Therefore, these tattoos were most likely connected to a form of idolatry or ancestor worship. Furthermore, this was levitical law and we are not under that law, but the law of grace.

The only thing one can confidently say is that the Bible eschews making outward adornment overly important; we are to primarily find our beauty and the beauty of others from internal qualities. Take a look at these passages if you doubt this assertion: 1 Peter 3:3-4, 1 Timothy 2:9-10, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, and Luke 12:27-28.

If one takes those principles along with the intent behind Lev. 19:28, I am confident that one should approach any permanent alteration to their body prayerfully, seeking to honor God. If, then, God gives you liberty to adorn your body with tattoos, do so in a way that expresses honor to Him for it is His temple. But, do not misuse scripture to encourage others to do so. And, if you find freedom in keeping your body clear of markings, do not judge your brother or sister for their liberty. Generally, though, the principles in the Bible should give one strong pause before permanently altering your body; be sure that you are at peace with the body God gave to you (Psalms 139) before messing with it.

NOW – the real point of this blog: Misuse of scripture bad!  This tendency we all have of finding a verse here or a verse there to support our own agenda can go terribly wrong. Tattoos are the least troublesome of ways we spin God’s word. We must diligently guard against such misuse on any topic by taking serious the study of Holy Scripture. We must seek to know the nature of God and the good news that is the consistent thread throughout the whole Bible. Context matters. We must approach scripture by prayerfully asking God to reveal His truth to us when we open His word so that we seek His agenda rather than our own.

I have made many mistakes and I have suffered many misunderstandings of scripture over my walk with God. No one is immune. And, because the adversary seeks to take truth and shift it a few degrees in all of us, I remind myself with this post to never be too comfortable or complacent in what I believe the Bible is speaking to me. I have read the Bible through several times in a few different versions. Each time I read it, I gain new insights revealed by the Holy Spirit. In short, make diligent study of the word of God. More importantly, those who teach the word must be even more rigorous with their handling of the word and never let it be casual.