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Christians must discover contentment the old-fashioned way: We must learn it.
…It is commanded of us, but, paradoxically, it is created in us, not done by us. It is not the product of a series of actions, but of a renewed and transformed character.
…This seems a difficult principle for Christians today to grasp. Clear directives for Christian living are essential for us. But, sadly, much of the heavily pragmatic teaching in evangelicalism places such a premium on external doing and acheiving that character development is set at a discount. We live in the most pragmatic society on earth (if anyone can ‘do it,’ we can). It is painful to pride to discover that the Christian life is not rooted in what we can do, but in what we need done to us. -Sinclair Ferguson, In Christ Alone
The Christian life is anything but an exercise in self-will. The gospel message is the quintessential anti self-help message—a message that says we haven’t, we can’t, and we never will. We are powerless to save ourselves. And get this, we are unable to change ourselves.
We offer zilch.
Salvation is of the Lord. (-Jonah 2:9b, ESV)
A cruel reality for many of us is this: God helps those who can’t help themselves—a tough pill to swallow for us self-assured American believers who’ll beat ourselves to a pulp before we let anyone save us. But unless we can somehow, by the grace of God, let go of our efforts to save ourselves, we never were saved to begin with. How we need help!
As Ferguson reminds us, The Christian life is not rooted in what we can do, but in what we need done to us.
Helping ourselves isn’t even an option.
We need something we can’t provide.
Whenever faith seems an entitlement, or a measuring rod, we cast our lots with the Pharisees and grace softly slips away.
-Philip Yancey, Soul Survivor
Pastor Mark Driscoll has laid out what I believe to be the best list I have run across in some time on the distinct differences between the Gospel and religion. Jesus delivered the very Gospel we preach today within the context of his earthly ministry and his fulfillment of the Holy Scriptures. It was the religion of the Pharisees (and any other man-devised system of connecting with the Almighty) that he came to abolish with his very life.
When you get down to brass tacks—Jesus is the Gospel and Jesus is about setting us free. And since I have been outlining what freedom is and what it isn’t (the Gospel shouts Freedom! after all)—I figured it would be fitting to share Driscoll’s list while we are taking the time to expose the fallacies of religion that are constantly at work to undermine the message of freedom.
Religion says, ‘If I obey God, God will love me.’ Gospel says, ‘Because God love me, I can obey.’
Religion has good people and bad people. Gospel has only repentant and unrepentant people.
Religion values a birth family. Gospel values a new birth.
Religion depends on what I do. Gospel depends on what Jesus has done.
Religion claims that sanctification justifies me. Gospel claims that justification enables sanctification.
Religion has the goal to get from God. Gospel has the goal to get to God.
Religion sees hardships as punishment for sin. Gospel sees hardship as sanctified affliction.
Religion is about me. Gospel is about Jesus.
Religion believes appearing as a good person is the key. Gospel believes that being honest is the key.
Religion has an uncertainty of standing before God. Gospel has certainty based on Jesus’ work.
Religion sees Jesus a the means. Gospel sees Jesus as the end.
Religion ends in pride or despair. Gospel ends in humble joy.
As Driscoll so explicitly points out, the Gospel of freedom Jesus embodies and the religion he came to expose are at polar ends of the spectrum—they are at diabolical odds with each other.
Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified. (Galatians 5:23b-24, The Message Bible)
Do not suppose that abuses are eliminated by destroying the object which is abused. Men can go wrong with wine and women. Shall we prohibit and abolish women? The sun, moon, and stars have been worshipped. Shall we pluck them out of the sky?
-Martin Luther
I grew up in a church where you learned very quickly not say the wrong thing—or look, act, or think any other way than you were told. Looking back now, it was rather cultish. Boys had their own section of the beach, the church bus, and the hallway for that matter. Blue jeans were frowned upon and any music that had a beat reminiscent of rock music was of the devil. Movies that didn’t feature Jesus sporting some goofy blue gown and sash were discouraged. Red lip-stick was banned and colorful skirts above the ankles were devices of Satan. Basically, anything that might be fun was frowned upon. I can’t say I looked forward much to hanging out with such a sour group of sanctified saints. Even hanging out was evil—if I remember right.
My upbringing served me well in fostering a healthy skeptism and a grave mis-trust for religion—when I finally did bump into Jesus it was refreshing to say the least.
Because we are aware that freedom can be abused and maybe have seen it firsthand (or in my case—been there, done that) we’d rather err on the side of thinking—Freedom might just not be the best thing, there has to be some restraints to keep this ‘freedom thing’ in check. And then after a few of our own failings, we conclude—I think I’ll write some guidelines for myself. In turn,we put together some guidelines for our weaker-younger brothers making anything that might be an occasion for abuse off-limits and before you know it, we have a whole manual something along the lines of How to be a good-little Christian. It’s no wonder freedom never gets a snowballs chance to even make it’s debut.
It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then? (Galatians 5:13-15, The Message Bible)
A major difference between legalism and freedom is that one can be legislated and the other cannot.
If you but love God you may do as you incline.
-Augustine
I’ve stumbled across a story from the life of President Abraham Lincoln a time or two now about an appointee within the president’s cabinet that would try to challenge and stimy the president every chance he got. A friend of honest Abe’s finally came to him and asked why he didn’t have the pesky man replaced. Lincoln, in turn—told his well-meaning friend a story about walking down a country road one day and coming upon a farmer who was busy plowing his field with a horse-drawn plough. As Lincoln approached the farmer he noticed a jumbo sized horsefly on the back-side of the working horse and figured it couldn’t be helping the poor horse concentrate on the task at hand. Lincoln—in an attempt to help the farmer out, went to simply brush off the little pest. As Lincoln raised his hand to take a swat, the farmer protested—Don’t do that, friend. That horsefly is the only thing keeping this old horse moving.
The moral of the story for today’s lesson is simple: Religion is nothing more than a jumbo horsefly and there are those within certain circles of the church who’d like you to do anything—and I stress anything—other than contribute to freeing people from living under the irritating and deadly oppression that religion represents. Those caught up in the facade of religion do not like any one who messes with their religion and they are not afraid to tell you so—to mess with religion is to mess with God. Many church leaders feel the need to use religion to do the same exact thing the farmer was doing with the horsefly—use religion and the endless rules that accompany it as a means of motivating others to live the Christian life.
These preachers of bondage wouldn’t know freedom if it hit them upside the head. In his letter to the Galatian believers—Paul had something entirely different to say than what the peddlers of religion in his day were preaching.
What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn’t work. So I quit being a ‘law man’ so that I could be God’s man. Christ’s life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not ‘mine,’ but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that. (Galatians 2:19-20, The Message Bible)
There is a better way.
It’s called freedom—and it can be a rare commodity in some circles.
‘This is the day which the Lord has made,’ says Psalm 118. ‘Let us rejoice and be glad in it’ (v. 24). Or weep and be sad in it for that matter. The point is to see it for what it is, because it will be gone before you know it. If you waste it, it is your life you are wasting. If you look the other way, it may be the moment you’ve been waiting for always that your missing.
All other days have either disappeared into darkness and oblivion or not emerged from it. Today is the only day there is.
-Frederick Buechner (Beyond Words)
Betting that tomorrow will come is not a safe bet. It’s not like you are betting $5 and if you lose—Oh Well, I will win the next one. Assuming that we will have tomorrow to solely trust Jesus for salvation—or with our future and concerns—can turn out to be like betting your life and losing. The issue is never Will God be merciful or will God still love me tomorrow? The question in front of us is: Do we have tomorrow? And we can’t answer that with a definite Yes! Will we be able to make that call to an estranged wife or a wayward child tomorrow? Will we have another chance to talk to our son about the unfathomable love of Jesus or will we have another moment to hug our mom? Will we have another opportunity to reach out to our hurting neighbor who just lost his wife to cancer?
Jesus is the Savior for today.
4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. 5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.’ 6 So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. 7 And when they saw it, they all grumbled, ‘He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.’ 8 And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, ‘Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.’ 9 And Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. (Luke 19:4-9, ESV—italics mine)
The little man Zacchaeus came down out of that tree and had Jesus over for a fish-fry that day—he didn’t wait another day to act in response to Jesus’ request. And on that day—God had his way with the shady tax man and he made him a saint. The stakes are too high to bank on tomorrow, because if we don’t have tomorrow and we don’t do what we can do today—we’ll never get to do those things at all.
God’s going to be merciful tomorrow, he’s going to be loving forever—but what will you have missed out on by not trusting in his mercy and his loving-kindness today?
Life I’d say.
I ask you neither for health nor for sickness, for life nor for death; but that you may dispose of my health and my sickness, my life and my death, for your glory… You alone know what is expedient for me; you are the sovereign master, do with me according to your will. Give to me, or take away from me, only conform my will to yours. I know but one thing, Lord, that it is good to follow you, and bad to offend you. Apart from that, I know not what is good or bad in anything. I know not which is most profitable to me, health or sickness, wealth or poverty, nor anything else in the world. That discernment is beyond the power of men or angels, and is hidden among the secrets of your providence, which I adore, but do not seek to fathom.
-A prayer from Blaise Pascal
We are the do-it-ourselfers. We get much too much caught up in attempting to fix ourselves—Thanks God for the offer, but we’ll take it from here. If anything, when it comes to our growth in grace—our efforts to better ourselves are off the charts (as if it were possible for a terminally ill man to provide his own cure). Like any project gone bad—we only make our condition worse than it originally was at the onset when we take matters of our sanctification into our own hands.
A good friend of mine who leads a Christian men’s recovery movement is fond of putting it this way—We aren’t bad people trying to get good, we are sick people getting well. I would confer as I think the gospel message proclaims exactly the same. And while I would agree that the human body has a remarkable capacity to heal itself, I would only add that it is God who created that same human body and that he is the one behind it’s being able to recover health and wholeness in the first place. In other words—we can’t heal ourselves alone. Worse than ending in mere frustration, any attempts to do so will ultimately end in failure.
If you have ever seen a face-lift gone bad, you might understand what I am getting at.
Our self-improvement projects are doomed from the onset and only serve our own peril, mind you—how many of them are for the wrong reasons? Our personal holiness and righteousness initiatives are nothing more than religious ego trips—efforts to make others think of us as spiritual—more Christlike than we actually are. Shouldn’t we want to live lives that glorify God out of love for God rather than for the love of applause? Our insecurities and our hunger for approval and acceptance run deeper than we readily admit. We have to ask ourselves what our motive is when we become either obsessive or compulsive about our own growth in grace—and a good indicator we are out of bounds is when we find ourselves beating up others about their own lack in such matters.
Solomon wrote:
13 Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked? 14 In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him. 15 In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing. (Ecclesiastes 7:13-15, ESV)
God is making those of us who were nothing but crooked—straight. We haven’t arrived yet—we are still being changed and we still have a ways to go. We can be sort of like kids who ask on the way to the family vacation destination—Are we almost there?
Not yet—but we’ll get there soon enough.
We have God’s word on it.
In the meantime–let’s trust him to drive while we attempt to relax a little and enjoy the ride—he does know where he is taking us after all.
In moving on to another topic in our next blog I will summarize with this: Life for the Jesus-follower should be lived in the light of just what it is Jesus did on the Cross. We ought to focus less on our piddly efforts and more on the suffering of Christ Jesus—including the priceless fruits and glorious benefits afforded to us by his doing so—today and in eternity future.
God’s not giving us a face-lift—no, it’s much more than that—he is renovating our hearts, and as any skilled surgeon would have it, he’s doing the surgery.
God’s goal is not to make sure you’re happy. Life is not about your being comfortable, happy, successful and pain free. It is about becoming the man God has called you to be. Life is not about you. It’s about God. He doesn’t exist to make us happy. We exist to bring Him glory.
-Chuck Swindoll
I have never served in the U.S. Armed Forces but I am informed enough to know there is a certain code of honor to be followed when you join up. First of all you are no longer your own—you are now the property (if you will) of whatever branch you have selected, or has selected you (in the case of a draft). And secondly, there is a certain set of principles and an order of living that you are now expected to adhere to.
Despite much of today’s popular teaching and current line of thinking—the same type of thing that goes for tatooed Jarheads with a propensity to cuss a fair amount goes for those of us who would identify ourselves as the followers of Jesus. We are no longer our own and we are now called to a different way of living than the life we once lived. You could say we are no longer civilians—we now have become soldiers.
Our place in the family of God couldn’t be more secure. That’s never the issue. There’s not one single act or a series of a million deeds we could do to secure our place in the family of God. Jesus has completed that mission. However, what is always an issue is whether we are living a life of ease, selfishness, and conformity to the world—or, are we living in such a way that the pulse of our lives is to glorify God? I’m guessing, and I am going out on a limb—that we could all use some improvement. I’ll speak for myself in confessing that I am not only challenged by Swindoll’s short but stinging commentary—but his words are an occasion for me to pause for contemplation and a healthy kind of introspection.
Paul had this to say himself:
1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:1-3, ESV)
Only you can really answer Paul’s question for yourself, I can’t, your husband can’t, your boss can’t—not even your pastor can.
Are you walking in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called?
Philip Malancthon once said to his friend Martin Luther, ‘Today, Martin, you and I will discuss God’s governance of the universe,’ to which Luther replied, ‘No, Philip. Today you and I are going fishing, and we’ll leave the governance of the universe to God.’
-Mark Buchanan—The Rest of God (p. 220)
I’ve never gotten along real well with the hot-shot who seems to know exactly what the poor sap trying to beat Tiger Woods ought to do. This is typically the same guy who won’t play the terrorizing game of golf since it means getting off his rear. Maybe our would-be Tiger-killer would have an altogether different attitude if he were to go out and try and qualify for a PGA Tour Event himself. Tougher to do than to talk about.
Beating Tiger Woods on a regular basis doesn’t happen. The whole field has one goal in mind… although he was beat last weekend at the annual Master’s Tournament, and in case you missed it, he took second—even with a bum knee he had surgery on hours after the event had concluded. Big talking never does amount to much and Tiger Woods never has been much of a talker come to think of it—he lets his clubs do the talking whether he places first or second.
It’s pretenders and critics that are busy talking a good game while the Jesus-followers are quietly walking with God.
6 ’With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?’ 8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:6-8, ESV)
There are more armchair quarterbacks than real ones. It’s easier to beat Tiger Woods in theory than on the course, although I’m not so sure even beating Tiger in theory can be done. When it comes to reality—fat chance. My point is this: Try being like Jesus yourself before you pass judgment on someone else who has decided to take up the occupation. Jesus was no slouch and being like Jesus isn’t the same as being like your favorite uncle. It’s easy to compare ourselves to a guy like John Daly lets say—and it may be why he’s just so popular. But Jesus—good luck. It’s impossible in your own strength to follow Jesus, and unless you’ve done it, you might want to consider reserving your criticisms until you have. It’s always the non-practicing Christian (oxymoron I realize) who has all the answers. I’m not denying that there are phonies—that’s the case with everything. And I’m not talking about the bogus television preachers in this blog. I have met a police officer or two who do not represent the majority.
I still haven’t met an armchair quarterback I like.
But it’s sure hard not to like Tiger Woods.
I more fear what is within me than what comes from without.
-Martin Luther
It’s not always surprising to me when I hear all-out-hard-core sinners bemoaning those Christians. There is no doubt we could do a better job representing Jesus—I have no beef with the argument so much. If you happen to be one of those elite Christians who thinks otherwise, let me know—I’ll pray for you. The line of reasoning that followers of Jesus are supposed to be perfect is ludicrous if you ask me—when I read my copy of the New Testament I don’t read anything that gives me the impression the early church was either.
What is clear is that Jesus was perfect.
Recently, a favorite preacher of mine made mention of a T-shirt among his varied collection that reads Jesus, save me from your followers. We have all felt that way—most of us anyways—and for good reason I’m sure. But the T-shirt would really better read Jesus, save me from myself. As unloving as we can be—there still isn’t a more loving family than the Body of Christ. And even though we aren’t perfect yet—we will be. I may feel like I need saving from the followers of Jesus—but I am just as big a part of the problem as anyone else.
One of the great writers of the early 20th century, G.K. Chesterton (widely known as the prince of paradox)—was once solicited by a well-known newspaper as they had invited several prominent authors to write essays on the theme: What’s Wrong with the World?—Chesterton’s contribution took the form of a letter:
Dear Sirs,
I am.
Sincerely yours,
G.K. Chesterton
And I am too.
12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. (Hebrews 10:12-14, ESV)
It sure seems to me that Jesus is our perfection.
Maybe we should worry less about being perfect and more about worshiping our perfector.
Give me chastity and continence, but not quite yet. ~Augustine
You could say something supernatural happens the moment we place our trust in the finished work of Jesus on his cross of shame and suffering as evidenced by our confessing we are a sinner and by our denouncing all other allegiances. And although often times it may not look like we are changing all that much to those who are much too busy inspecting our fruit (while their own spoiled bananas are rotten and rancid)—we can be sure God’s own will be a changed people. Faith without works will always be dead. Satan himself believes in Jesus and it makes him no follower.
The reality is that as Christians we do change. But the change is many times not the way we might guess or assume—it sure takes longer than we’d like—and worse yet the biggest obstacle to our changing is the person we see in the mirror every morning when we brush our teeth. I am in no way suggesting that we stay the same—because we do not—but the point I am making is an important one. If we are honest, we have to confess that we still dabble with sin—we nibble and even splurge. No matter—sin is always over-indulging. If we are really honest, we’d be willing to admit that we wallow around in it at times and privately wonder how as a Jesus-follower we could do such a thing. You can’t deal with what you don’t acknowledge. Sin hasn’t packed up his bags and left us quite yet—we may have thought he left for good when we shooed him out the door last, but he’s been merely hiding around the corner patiently waiting for a more opportune time to clear his throat and whisper sweet nothings in our ear. To believe otherwise is only to deceive ourselves and worse yet—to mislead our younger brothers and sisters in Christ.
We just get in the way sometimes. The not-so-natural but inevitable progression when we become Jesus-followers is that we begin to do away with our old ways of living and thinking. It’s not that we must be someone we are not—no—we have been given a brand new permanent identity. Challenging to say the least—and just like old habits—our old identity doesn’t die so quickly. It is the miracle after all that transpires at the very instant of our conversion which makes the absolute difference and it is this: God comes to dwell within us via the Holy Spirit who is the Third Person in the Trinity (for those who may be new to this whole idea). God himself living within us. I didn’t say we become God. Big difference.
The mark of a true follower of Jesus isn’t an unchanged heart but a changed one—and a changed heart is only seen through a changed life. I started this short blog thread titled In Process based on the premise that following Jesus is just that—a process—which according to Merriam-Webster is A natural phenomenon marked by gradual changes that lead toward a particular result.
3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:3-8, ESV)
Notice Peter—the very man who denied even knowing Jesus on the eve of his betrayal—writes if these qualities are yours and are increasing… Peter’s growth in grace didn’t end just because he stumbled again—he went on to be changed over and over again. It can seem as though it is two steps forward and one step backwards at times—if anyone knew a thing or two about gradual change, it was Peter himself. I’ve never liked the old saying Christians aren’t perfect just forgiven because it falls so grossly short in painting a picture of just who us Christians are. Cheesy little maxims never do summarize what God has really said—they might sell some bumper stickers, but that’s about it.
Christians are surely forgiven—but that’s not all they are if they are true-blue followers of the Son of God—they are changed in the process.
People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.
-D.A. Carson
Talk to a skilled sailor and they will tell you that you can’t get to a desired location by simply drifting. You need a few things in order to sail. I mean what good are sails if you don’t set them?
I have been at this occupation of following Jesus for over half my life now and if I have learned anything it is this—I am prone to wander as are my brothers and sisters in Christ. It is nothing for me to coast—settle—and even flee. God knows it. So what good does it do me to hide it or deny it? What I need to acknowledge is my need for God’s grace if I am going to get anywhere in becoming more like Jesus. Without his grace I simply drift directionless. Simply put—God’s grace is the wind that powers my sails. I don’t need to make more efforts—that has gotten me no where. What I need is God’s grace.
1 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. 2For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, 4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. (Hebrews 2:1-4, ESV)
For as long as I can remember I have struggled with the question—How does God’s grace and my efforts to grow in Christlikeness co-exist? And what I have learned is quite simple: My findings undeniably tell me that my efforts have to be grace-driven (as Carson eludes to in the quote above).
My prayer becomes not Help me try more God—but Please give me more grace so that I can grow in Your grace.
Drifting becomes much more difficult when that happens.
…The law is divine and holy. Let the law have his glory, but yet no law, be it never so divine and holy, ought to teach me that I am justified, and shall live through it. I grant it may teach me that I ought to love God and my neighbor; also to live in chastity, soberness, patience, etc., but it ought not to show me, how I should be delivered from sin, the devil, death, and hell.
Here I must take counsel of the gospel. I must hearken to the gospel, which teacheth me, not what I ought to do, (for that is the proper office of the law,) but what Jesus Christ the Son of God hath done for me : to wit, that He suffered and died to deliver me from sin and death. The gospel willeth me to receive this, and to believe it. And this is the truth of the gospel. It is also the principal article of all Christian doctrine, wherein the knowledge of all godliness consisteth.
Most necessary it is, therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it unto others, and beat it into their heads continually. ~Martin Luther
Some time ago now, my pastor was sharing on the wondrous Book of Romans over the course of a couple year span and still didn’t manage to exhaust all the gems of truth throughout Paul’s ground-breaking letter. On this particular Sunday my pastor was explaining in detail the nature of our bondage to sin while at the same time making a case for the freedom from that same power of sin that faith in Jesus affords each of us the very split-second we come to a place of conversion. As he began to speak and walk around the lectern it became obvious to all of us in attendance that our pastor was sporting more than his usual striped conservative tie and white shirt under-neath his black robe he’d wear during the colder winter months. He was being followed by a rusted iron sort of thick link chain that had been attached to his ankle—as it also had been affixed to a post of some sort in the middle of the stage area. Every time he would get so far as he meandered about, he would be forced to stop. The chain—symbolically sin—was holding him back or captive and it was doing a good job in limiting him as to how far he could go.
The point became crystal clear that sin ruled and he had no freedom to go beyond it’s death hold on him.
21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:21-23, ESV)
The following week Dr. Alberta had the same chain with him. However, there was one exception—it wasn’t attached to him any longer. The chain was laying there cut off and all by it’s lonesome. He had been set free and was free to go wherever he wanted—but there was a problem. A big problem. Whenever he would get to the area where the chain had previously restricted him the week before—he’d all-of-a-sudden get caught up and find it difficult to go any further than he’d gone before he was set free—just as if the chain were still attached to his ankle. It was almost as if he had been conditioned to believe that he could only go so far. Sound familiar? It does to me. It explains a struggle I have found myself tangled up in on more occasions than I could count on of all our fingers combined.
Have you been set free from the bondage of sin?
Are you living like you remember—or are you living like you have forgotten?
Lord Jesus, you are my righteousness, I am your sin. You have taken upon yourself what is mine and given me what is yours. You have become what you were not so that I might become what I was not. ~Martin Luther
WBIR out of Knoxville, Tennessee, reported the following in June of ‘07: For almost six weeks, a Murfreesboro man forgot that he had entered the Tennessee Million Dollar Madness lottery. Rick Checchin was reminded of his tickets by his co-workers Thursday morning, checked them–and discovered he had won $1 million. The drawing was May 14th–and he said today he just went about living his life and forgot about the two tickets he had purchased in March. Checchin said that with a wife and two children, he’d have no trouble spending the money. He works for the Standard Candy Company. After taxes were deducted, he pocketed $750,000. Three other winners in the big jackpot claimed their prizes shortly after the drawing.
The guy was a lottery winner and he was unaware until someone reminded him about just who it was that he had become. How often do we do the same?
16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:16-17, ESV)
Have you forgotten just who it is you belong to? Are you a follower of Jesus? Do you need to be reminded that if you are in Christ you too are a new creation never to be the same and no longer bound to the law of sin and death?
Can you remember the last time you stood in front of the mirror and instead of looking at the latest age spot on your temple or the more defined wrinkles adorning your face—you looked yourself square in the eye and reminded yourself that you are a new creation?
When God takes someone and makes a new creation out of them he doesn’t do half the job.
Sin cannot tear you away from him [Christ], even though you commit adultery a hundred times a day and commit as many murders. ~Martin Luther
A good buddy of mine told a story years ago about spanking his oldest son and in doing so he explained to his son that it wasn’t something he wanted to do as much as it was something he needed to do because he loved his son. His son responded I love you too daddy, can I spank you?
None of us were fond of going to our bedroom and writing until our fingers fell off, I won’t rip the hair out of my sisters Barbie Doll during this lifetime ever again. It never did help anyways. The only way to punish me was to take away my baseball privelages.
Many of us got the wrong idea at an impressionable age that because our mom or dad didn’t just let us get away with murder that somehow they didn’t care about us. Remember feeling that way? I do.
Well, they did care.
8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:8-11, ESV)
Maybe it’s because we have somehow gotten the impression that God is fond of kicking bad kids out of his family that we get uncomfortable over topics such as discipline? If so, I hope you would read the scriptures to dispel your fears. God doesn’t expel his children from his family to be sure. He never has and he’s not about to start now. But, just because God’s loving enough to not kick us out of the family doesn’t mean he’s not loving enough to see to it that when we need a good lick or two—he won’t stop at sending us to the detention center for a brief stay or the wood-shed for a re-introduction with the family paddle to get our attention.
We have to trust that when it comes to discipline or any other family matter—as the old dinosaur of a television program most of us are too young to remember went—Father knows best. Aren’t you glad he’s the one deciding how and when we get a spanking—I know I sure am—if not, I’d have been hung a thousand and one times by now.
When you sense you might be in for some punishment of your own, remember, nothing in this world can separate us from his love—even his rebuke is out of love.
Ye contracted with Christ, I hope, when first ye began to follow Him, that ye would bear His cross. Fulfill your part of the contract with patience, and break not to Jesus Christ. Be honest, brother, in your bargaining with Him; for who knoweth better how to bring up children than our God? For (to lay aside His knowledge, of the which there is no finding out) He has been practiced in bringing up His heirs these five thousand years; and His bairns (children) are all well brought up, and many of them are honest men now at home, up in their own house in heaven, and are entered heirs to their Father’s inheritance. Now, the form of His bringing up was by chastisements, scourging, correcting, nurturing; and see if He maketh exception of any of His bairns (children); no, His eldest Son and His Heir, Jesus, is not excepted (Rev. 3.19; Heb. 12.7-8; 2.10). Suffer we must; ere we were born God decreed it, and it is easier to complain of His decree than to change it. Forward then, dear brother, and lose not your grips. ~Samuel Rutherford (Scottish Presbyterian theologian and author), Letters, VIII. To John Kennedy on his deliverance from shipwreck ANWOTH, Feb. 2, 1632 (taken from an expert).
I’m quite sure I am not the only kid who was reminded about his or her last name while growing up from time to time. Shoot—kids with parents that make Al Capone look like a choir boy still get the treatment—Johnny, why can’t you just be a good gangster like all the other little boys? I may not have heard the exact words, but I can still hear them anyways—Kenny, you are a Stoll—now act like it—can’t you see that you are disgracing the family name.
If you were from the typical family with average parents you probably never had your parents lash out and tell you that you’d be kicked out of the family for your bad behavior—and neither did I. No, that wasn’t gonna happen. But I was scolded mind you–and for good reason when I think about it. My sister and I (our brother was not around yet) were even told on occasion when we got really out of line that we were gonna be dropped off at the Indian Reservation—whatever that meant and wherever that was—I still don’t know? Being that we are part Cherokee Indian it sure seemed like a valid threat though. So, rather than pack up the bags under our beds and take a trip in the wood-paneled family station wagon—we’d straighten up for a couple hours and get along. Of course, if it were something my dad used all the time we’d have laughed at him—but it wasn’t—my dad seemed to know just the right time to use just the right trick.
God doesn’t play any tricks with us on the other hand—family business isn’t monkey business with him. He never fails to prescribe just the right medicine for what ails us. Our tendency is to either see God as a big soft teddy bear or a cosmic impersonal hall-monitor just waiting to whack us when we get out of line—when he is neither.
He is a loving Father and that makes us his loved children before anything else.
And like any loving father he deals with us in ways we don’t prefer from time to time.
5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.’ 7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? (Hebrews 12:5-7, ESV)
If he’s disciplined you it may just serve as a good reminder that he loves you.
The thing we need concern oursleves with is this—are we honoring the family name?
This life therefore is not righteousness but growth in righteousness; not health but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not what we shall be but we are growing toward it; the process is not yet finished but it is going on; this is not the end but it is the road. All does not gleam in glory but all is being purified. ~Martin Luther
My friends in Alcoholic Anonymous say without apology something to the following effect: We are a program of spiritual progress—not spiritual perfection.
But I want to be perfect today.
Some time ago I was enjoying the community within the cozy confines of men that I trusted and the topics we’d sit around and discuss were of an extremely personal nature. Hence, the group was all about authenticity and although it was a so-called Christian group of men—it was a place where you could feel safe enough to unpack your dirty laundry and be real.
If you ask me—the church should be a body of folks who use a little more of that kind of approach and a little less of the opposite sort in which we pretend to be someone we are not like we do at work—with our relatives—at the baseball diamond—and with the neighbors in our subdivision. As a matter of fact that was one of the main ideas behind our meeting in the first place—taking off our masks we are so prone to put on in the morning before we scurry out the door. The group wasn’t anything like the Promise Keepers group I was introduced to some 10 years earlier—not a knock on them so much—but the whole lot of us in our new society of men had found out in our own journeys that we collectively and individually were all the more likely to play promise-breakers than promise-keepers if we were at all honest about ourselves. And now our forum was giving us permission (if you will) to be just that, honest—actually encouraging us to do so. We could even cuss or talk about sex and not be asked to leave. Imagine that—where I came from that was an all-out license to doubt someones very salvation.
Truth be told we were just a bunch of guys in need of grace and without any help from one another we were not getting all that far in our personal walks of faith by ourselves.
We Jesus-followers are all in process—every last one of us—and it does us some good to be reminded about this truth from time to time.
2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. 4For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. (2 Corinthians 5:2-4, ESV)
Being further clothed—that’s about now. So much of the time we mistakenly make reference to the Cross in terms of futuristic or in the past tense with very little if any reference to the here and now—today. By failing to name our sins and admit our need for forgiveness we be-little our dependence upon the finished work Jesus did on the Cross that made grace possible in the first place. Jesus suffered and died so we could live today in the power of that reality verses having to wait until tomorrow. There is hope for me to love my enemy—to care for the unlovely—and be sober—right now. As I take a serious and deliberate inventory of my life of late I have to be truthful with myself—that is if I want the freedom that is mine to be active and appropriated. It’s embarrassing when I really get honest about how little I believe God when it comes to my private life—as if it’s my right to have one. Do I trust him enough to sweep out and replace my torn apart and broken up furniture in the rooms of my life? Will I continue to hold the keys to those rooms in the death-grip of my grimy little fist or will I turn them over to Jesus?
Our growth in righteousness is only stunted when we ignore our plight.
May the prayer of our hearts be to have some more of the not yet in the here and now by the grace of God—that we would be further clothed—and may we understand that while we have not arrived, we are in the process of getting there.
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