Come On, God, What Are You Thinking?

Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails. Proverbs 19:21




I have control issues. I admit it. I have very definite ideas about how things should be and the best way to make them happen. I remember being in a terrible traffic jam on the Washington Beltway one day. I became increasingly incensed at the inconsiderate drivers who thought it was a great idea to pass all the stopped vehicles by driving on the shoulder. Of course they eventually had to merge back in, so in essence, they were just rudely cutting in line.

I finally decided that I would put a stop to it. I self-righteously moved my car to the right so that I was half in the right lane and half on the shoulder,  blocking people from passing me. Then, a car decided to defy my blockade and passed me on the right, coming so close to my car that his door handle was a fraction of an inch from scraping my car. I became so enraged that I slammed my hand  on my horn so hard I jammed my thumb and had a painful reminder for weeks of my determination to single-handedly control the entire Washington Beltway.

That incident is just an example of my desire to maintain the illusion that I am in control and that my way is the best way. In my saner moments, when the Holy Spirit has opened my mind to the Death/Resurrection* viewpoint, I know that, not only am I not in control,  but I do not want to be! However, because Action/Consequence* is my default model and I slip into it without even being aware, I easily lose that concept and have to be brought back to it.

I had to be brought back to it again this week. I was quite certain that I knew what needed to be done and I had tried very hard to cover all my bases with elaborate plans to ensure that my will would prevail; but, in what I initially considered to be a very unfortunate set of circumstances, all of my elaborate plans were thwarted. I was fit to be tied, as my mother used to say.

I fussed and fumed, and then I called a friend. "I need someone to tell me that God is in control and he knows what he is doing," I said angrily. She asked me what happened and I explained. She listened and responded sympathetically,  then she dutifully complied with my original request.

"God is in control,  and he knows what he's doing, " she said softly. As she spoke I felt some of the tension lift. We talked then about the truth of that statement and how God sees and knows everything about the situation where I could only grasp a small part. I began to recognize that, despite my good intentions, I couldn't possibly know for certain what was best. Only God could know that, and he was trustworthy.

I sighed, first grudgingly,  then gratefully as I once again relinquished the control I never really had and placed it back into the hands that held it all along.



*For a more detailed understanding of Action/Consequence versus Death/Resurrection, please read my previous blog, Which Lens.

God is For Me

“…If God is for us, who can be against us?” Romans 8:31

If you’ve read more than one of my blogs, you have discovered that I’m a broken record.  My theme is the grace of God. Over and over I tell of the joy I have found in the knowledge of that grace.  But, in the nitty-gritty of everyday life, when the chips are down, does grace have any practical meaning?  When our relationships, jobs, lives are falling apart, what does the concept of biblical grace have to do with anything?

I’ve pondered that this week.  For years I’ve had an old, yellowed newspaper cartoon hanging on my refrigerator.  It depicts a poor, unsuspecting soul walking along the street, while above him, dangling from a window in a tall building, is a piano, ready to fall; and from heaven, God, seated at his heavenly computer, is looking down with his finger hovering over the “Smite” button.  I’ve left it up there because it is the perfect representation of how so many of us view God. 

This has been a difficult week for me, and in the process I have discovered anew that grace relates to everything. 

I am so grateful I no longer have to fear that God is smiting me with the circumstances in my life.  Scripture tells me I can expect troubles in this world, and I shouldn’t think that is strange, because I am still in this world and not the next.  I can take heart, however, because Jesus has overcome this world specifically because I couldn’t.

I am so grateful to know that nothing can separate me from God’s love.  Nothing. He is not mad at me. I do not have to earn his favor before he will hear my prayer. My life is hidden in Christ, and God is quite pleased with him. That approval extends to me.

I am so grateful that I can rest securely in the knowledge that God is in control. My circumstances are not chaos, they are being directed by the loving hands of the creator and sustainer of the universe; and, because of that, I don’t have to struggle to figure out what to do, fearing I will guess wrong.  I can simply acknowledge I am not able to figure things out, and trust that he will guide me.

I am so grateful I can be certain that God is on my side and he will never leave me or forsake me; even when I don’t handle my troubles perfectly, with a smile and a song.  Jesus flawlessly handled the most difficult of all circumstances and credits that to me, because he knows how frail I am.

I am so grateful that, when life is painful, I can have full assurance that I will never be alone.  On the cross, when Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” he suffered the unbearable separation from his father, so that I would never have to.

When the world comes crashing down around me, God’s grace alone promises me that God is for me.

If I Don't Have To Be Good, Why Would I Want To?

For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace” Romans 6:14 (Emphasis mine)

In my most recent blog, TooMuch Grace?,  I discussed the fact that what puts us in danger of leading ungodly lives is not hearing too much about grace, but hearing too much about law without grace.  Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones once said, “If your preaching of the gospel of God's free grace in Jesus Christ does not provoke the charge from some of antinomianism, you're not preaching the gospel of the free grace of God in Jesus Christ.”  “Antinomianism” comes from the Greek word meaning “lawless”, and biblically speaking, it refers to someone who advocates the position that because we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, we are free to sin.  Some took it further and claimed that we actually honor God by demonstrating this freedom, because our sinfulness shows off God’s goodness. What Lloyd-Jones meant is, preaching of the true gospel of grace sounds enough like this perversion called Antinomianism that the two will sometimes be confused.

This charge was leveled against Paul because he was preaching the gospel of free grace in Jesus Christ, and it obviously got under his skin.  In Romans 3:7-8 Paul says, “Someone might argue, ‘If my falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?’ Why not say—as we are being slanderously reported as saying and as some claim that we say—‘Let us do evil that good may result’?  Their condemnation is deserved.”

After his great treatise on grace presented in Romans 1-5, Paul begins chapter 6 with the question he knows his detractors will level at him, “What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?”  And his answer was, “By no means!”  Again, as he concludes a section in that same chapter with verse 14, “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace” he feels the need to follow with verse 15, “What then?  Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?” followed once more by his exclamation, “By no means!”

I have recounted earlier that when I wanted to know once and for all if the gospel of grace was true, I locked myself away with just the Book of Romans and the Holy Spirit and wrestled until I knew that it was the truth of scripture.  It was not an easy process. My experience was, I would read the first five chapters and my heart would thrill with the glorious news of the gospel.  Then, I would hit chapter 6 and my heart would freeze with fear.  

As I have said before, we will initially view everything, including scripture, through the lens of Action/Consequence*and, through that lens, this chapter appeared to me to be in complete contradiction to the very foundation Paul had so carefully laid down in chapters 1-5, which was that now, a righteousness from God, apart from law, had been made known, and this righteousness comes through faith in Jesus Christ, to all who believe.  To me, chapter 6 seemed to be saying that, as a believer, I should now be living without sin because of all that Jesus had done for me.  My legalistic upbringing had led me to fear this was the case, and this very issue was the reason I was so desperately searching to understand the truth.  Did my salvation depend on me and my actions, or did it depend solely on the grace of Jesus Christ?

I reasoned with myself, that Romans chapter 6 was written by the same author who wrote the first five chapters, and that Paul would not suddenly completely contradict himself; and concluded that, either I was confused about the first five chapters, or I misunderstood chapter 6.  I read that chapter over and over until I was in utter despair; then I would run back and reread chapters 1-5, to find comfort and peace again. 

I can’t say how long this process repeated itself, but I know it seemed like a very long time. Blessedly, even during that process, I felt the Spirit assuring me that I was close to finding the answer. I began to feel an increasing sense that what I was searching for was right in front of me, but I just couldn’t see it.

The verses I zeroed in on were Romans 6:1-12.  I’m going to quote the whole passage here in case you don’t have a Bible handy, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.  Now, if we died with Christ we believe that we will also live with him.  For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.  The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.  In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.” 

Once I had interpreted those verses from the viewpoint of Action/Consequence, the rest of chapter seemed to fall in line and led straight to hopelessness, as far as I was concerned.  Yet, I felt these were the verses that held the key.  I prayed and prayed for God to show me the truth, even if it was not what I hoped against hope it would be.

Finally, I was compelled to do something I had never done before. I actually felt silly, but I got a piece of paper and a pen and drew a picture of what those verses were saying; a sort of diagram.  I’m not an artist, so the picture was done with stick figures, much like a child would draw.  On the far left-hand side of the page I drew a stick figure of me and above me a crude drawing of the tablets of stone, representing the law. Underneath them I wrote “condemnation” with an arrow pointing to my head.  Then, on the far right-hand side of the paper, I drew a big circle and inside it I wrote “God”.  Then, in the middle, I drew the cross and on the cross I drew another circle.  Inside the circle I wrote “Jesus” at the top and “Me” underneath.  Then I drew an arrow from the stick figure of me on the left side of the page, going under the cross, and coming up on the side where God was.  I looked at the picture for a few minutes, and then I knew.

The picture showed the Death/Resurrection* meaning of the scripture:  In Christ, I had died on the cross in payment for my sins, I had been buried with him, and then I had been raised with him on the right-hand side of the page, with God.  The law, with its condemnation, was still on the left hand side, separated from me, now, by the cross.  Because I had died (in Christ), my sins had all been paid for by that death and the law could never have one word of condemnation to say to me again. There was nothing left with which to threaten me. I had already died; I could not die again! 

Because I was resurrected, I stood on God’s side of the page with my debt completely satisfied.  As far as God was concerned, I was now living a life without sin, because all of my sins were erased. I was freed from sin! Paul said I should “count” myself dead to sin, but alive to God.

I realized that, In this chapter Paul is simply answering the ridiculous charge of teaching people to offer themselves as slaves to sin in order to bring glory to God.  I could see that my resurrected self was now standing with God, knowing that no sin could ever be charged against me again, and how insane it would be for me to want to offer myself as an instrument of wickedness!

If I don't have to be good, why would I want to? Precisely because I don't have to! I understood then that the answer to my question of whether my salvation depended on me and my actions, or solely on the grace of Christ, was unequivically on the grace of Christ; and I also knew that I wanted to live my life in the service of that grace.  In the more than thirty years since that day, that desire has never waned! I will never live it perfectly, but that's all right; I am simply offering myself to God as one who has been brought from death to life.





*For a more detailed understanding of Action/Consequence versus Death/Resurrection, please read my previous blog, Which Lens.

Too Much Grace?

"I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"  Galatians 2:21

 

In my recent blogs I have been talking about two opposing ways of viewing the world, and more specifically God and our relationship to Him.  For a more in depth understanding of these different points of view, I refer you to my blog entitled Which Lens.  But briefly, Action/Consequence is our natural, default way of thinking. It is about me--what I do and what I expect to achieve or receive as a result. When I live in the Action/Consequence world view, my life is about seeking gratification, recognition, glory, honor and praise through my own actions. As a result, my life will be about comparing and competing which leads to judging and often condemning others or myself. This way of thinking applies to everything in our lives, including religion, and leads to a distorted view of God.

Death/Resurrection, on the other hand, is a completely unnatural, counter intuitive way of thinking. It is a point of view which only comes to us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit and without his help we quickly revert back to Action/Consequence thinking. It is all about God and what he has done for us through his son, Jesus Christ. It recognizes that without Jesus we were dead (Ephesians 2:1), but because of him we are now alive (Ephesians 2:5) and that we are all alike in our unworthiness and need. Because of that, we have no basis for comparing or competing; judging or condemning. In this world view, all recognition, glory, honor and praise goes to God alone.

Using those two lenses, I want to take a look at the great fear many have concerning the teaching of grace:  If you preach it too much, people will be likely to consider grace as a license to sin, and will stop wanting to live godly lives.

The Book of Romans has some startling insight on that subject.  In Romans chapter 5 verse 20, Paul says, “The law was added so that the trespass might increase.” What was the reason the law was added, or given? So that “the trespass” might increase.  What is Paul saying? The Greek word translated here as “the trespass” is Paraptoma and literally means “to fall by the wayside”. It is equated with sin in the sense of defeat.  The reason the law was given, Paul says, was to increase the instances of defeat.

Paul elaborates further on that thought in chapter 7, beginning with verse 5, “…the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death.”  And again, in verses 8-10, “But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire, for apart from law, sin is dead.  Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.  I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.”

In our natural Action/Consequence way of thinking, emphasis on teaching the law, or what God expects from us, should result in obedience, or godly living.  It is just logical.  The more we hear regarding what we should be doing, the more likely it will be that we will do it.

Yet, in the upside down and backwards world of Death/Resurrection, we find scripture telling us the opposite.  In a world without sin, the law would simply be a description of how we were already living.  But, in this world, where sin exists, the law clarifies how we are not living; and further, because of sin, when we are told what we should be doing, our “sinful passions” are actually aroused, and instead of becoming more obedient, we get worse!

So, if preaching law, obedience and right living, because of our sinful natures, actually produces defeat and fruit for death, where should the emphasis be?  Let’s take a second look at the context of the verses above:

Romans 5, verses 20 and 21 says, “The law was added so that the trespass might increase.  But when sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Romans 7, verse 4 says, “So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.”

And, finally, at the conclusion of Paul’s discussion of how our sinful natures take something as “holy, righteous and good” as the law and twist it into something that produced death in us, he says, in verse 24, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Our emphasis must always be on what God has done for us through Jesus Christ.  There is a wonderful use for preaching and teaching what the law requires; it is to remind us of how far we have all fallen from what God demands.  But the preaching of law must always be concluded with the good news that the demands of God have been completely satisfied for us by the life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Contrary to the Action/Consequence logic that thinks we will only be good if we are repeatedly told how we should be living, Death/Resurrection shows us that it is only through the comfort which comes through hearing the good news of grace over and over that we will begin to “bear fruit to God.”