Lies I Believed about the Truth-Teller

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.... 

John 16:13a

I have a confession: I never used to like the Holy Spirit very much.

I grew in my appreciatIon of God the Father, even though he sometimes seemed harsh in the Old Testament.  There were just too many other passages which told of his unfailing love, mercy and compassion for me to doubt his goodness.  And, of course, in the New Testament it became clear that God’s plan all along was first to let us clearly demonstrate our inability to perfectly obey him, and then to send his own Son to do for us what we were incapable of doing for ourselves. In other words, God had a plan to meet his own requirements and take his own punishment in order to save us. How could I not love a God like that?

And then, of course, there was Jesus.  He is the one who agreed to come and carry out this rescue plan.  He is the one of whom all scripture speaks.  He is the one who came in the flesh to live that perfect life which I, in my flesh, had no hope of living.  He is the second Adam who allows me a do-over on being born so that I can swap families.  He is the one who took me with him from death to life, so that I now stand before God, with my debt stamped “paid in full”.  He did all of this for me as a free gift. There was nothing I could do to earn it or deserve it, and there is nothing I can do to repay it; that is called grace.  It is a story I did not truly know or understand until I was in my thirties, and once I knew it and believed it my life was never the same.

But then there was the Holy Spirit.  My picture of the Holy Spirit was of someone whose job it was to make me into a better person. I saw him as someone who wanted to help me but couldn’t, because I was apparently too stupid and/or too stubborn to accept his help.  I was keeping him from doing his job, and I was pretty sure the Holy Spirit was exasperated with me.

When I heard the Good News of who Jesus really was, what he really did and why he really did it, my life was turned upside down, in a very good way.  That was when my true love for God the Father and Jesus began, but my confusion about the Holy Spirit lingered.

I still heard mixed messages:  Jesus came to do for me what I could not do for myself,  and now the Holy Spirit was going to come and help me become what I could not become by myself.  In my head I heard the sound of screeching brakes as the Good News train seemingly came to a halt. I waited, hopefully, to see if I had become any better about letting the Holy Spirit help me, now that I knew the gospel, but I couldn’t see much difference.  Actually, the very fact that I was watching to see if I was better seemed to be counter to the gospel.  

I decided to focus solely on Jesus and what he did for me and to put the question of the work of the Holy Spirit off to the side.  Looking back, I’m certain the Holy Spirit helped me to make that decision.

Ultimately, I came to an understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit which, for me, is in harmony with what I know to be true about God the Father and Jesus. This understanding came primarily from the book of John in four passages where Jesus himself talks about the coming Holy Spirit and what he would do.

The first is found in John chapter 14, verses 16-17:  “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”

These verses are found in the middle of a conversation Jesus was having with his disciples, preparing them for the fact that he would soon be leaving them.  Jesus tells them that he will be the one making the request for the Holy Spirit to be sent; this was his desire and he, personally, would ask the Father.  The request had not yet been made because Jesus had to complete his earthly mission by dying on the cross and securing salvation for all who would believe in him before he could make this request. 

He tells them that the Father will send “another” Helper.  The word “another” in the Greek is “allos”, and implies something or someone of the same type or kind.  Jesus was telling them that, after he secured our salvation he was personally going to ask his Father to send us someone who would help us in the same way he helped us.

The Greek word used for “Helper” is “Parakletos” and in general means "an aid", with the underlying idea of comforting, encouraging and exhorting.  Greek writers used the word to mean a legal counselor, or advocate, who comes forward on behalf of and as the representative of another.  If you look at different translations of this verse, you will see that some use “Helper”, some use “Advocate” and some use “Comforter”.  The word encompasses all of those meanings.  So, this verse tells us that, after Jesus secured our salvation he was personally going to ask his Father to send us someone else, like himself, who would help us, advocate for us and comfort us.  Jesus says this Helper will forever be in and with those who believe in him. 

I was always erroneously taught that when the Holy Spirit came, the focus shifted from Jesus to me.  No one was crass enough to say it exactly that way, but the implication was clearly that after Jesus did his work, my work, through the strength of the Holy Spirit, began.  But scripture teaches that, because of what Jesus did, we should now rest from our works.  Hebrews 4:9-10 says, “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his.”  If the coming of the Holy Spirit wasn’t intended to shift the focus from Jesus to what the Spirit was going to do in me, then what was its intention?

The loving Father sent Jesus to rescue us, and now Jesus, after completing the rescue, asked the Father to send the Spirit of truth to continually and forever remind us of and apply the truth of that rescue.  We see that in these verses:

“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” John 14:25-26. 

“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.” John 15:26

The job of the Holy Spirit has never been to draw attention to himself, or to us, by making our improvement the central focus.  His primary purpose has always been to illuminate, clarify and apply what Jesus did.  

The fourth passage in John gives us further insight:

“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” John 16:7-11

The Holy Spirit’s job is to convict the world that all are sinners, unable to reach the required standard of goodness, and that our only hope is to believe in Jesus who offers us his righteousness which he secured for us through his life, death, resurrection and ascension.  As a result of what Jesus accomplished for us, the power of the ruler of this world (Satan) has been broken; he stands judged. If we accept Jesus’ work on our behalf we no longer stand judged and condemned before God.  The work of the Holy Spirit is to tell the story of Jesus over and over!

The Holy Spirit calls to us, just like a loving parent with arms open calls to a crying or lost child.  He calls us to come and be comforted with the good news that Jesus has rescued us. He encourages us to be like Jesus—full of love and compassion, extending the same grace we have received to those around us; and, when we fail, he comforts us with that same good news.  He tells us we do not have to be afraid, because God’s opinion of us is already secured and He is well pleased with us because of Jesus. He constantly reminds us that our salvation is not dependent on our success; it is dependent on Jesus’ success. He assures us that we are free to try and fail and try again. That is the work of the Holy Spirit within us, to tell us the good news of what Jesus has done for us until it works its way into every fiber of our beings and that Good News changes us from the inside out.

WORKS

Therefore they said to Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” John 6:28-29

This week I received an email from a dear friend who is trying to understand the relationship between grace and works, specifically whether God will judge Christians to any extent by their works.  She is not alone.  This subject will always be a hot topic in Christendom, specifically because it is at the heart of the battle between our Action/Consequence natures and the Death/Resurrection paradigm found in Scripture. 

Briefly, I define Action/Consequence as, our natural, default way of thinking. Everything is about what I do and what I expect to achieve or receive as a result. When I live from the Action/Consequence perspective, I seek my own gratification, recognition, glory, honor and praise through my actions. My value comes from what I do.  As a result, my life will be about striving to achieve in order to earn approval.  I will always be comparing and competing, which leads to judging and often condemning both myself and others. This way of thinking applies to everything in life, including religion, and leads to a distorted view of God and salvation.

Death/Resurrection, on the other hand, is a completely unnatural, counterintuitive way of thinking. It is a point of view which is only understood when it is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit through Scripture; and without his help we quickly revert back to our natural Action/Consequence mode. Death/Resurrection is all about God and what he has done for us through his son, Jesus Christ. It recognizes that without Jesus we were all dead in our sins (Ephesians 2:1); but, because of what he accomplished for us through his life, death, resurrection and ascension, we are now alive with him. (Ephesians 2:5). As a result, we recognize that we are all alike in our unworthiness and need and have no basis for comparing or competing, judging or condemning. From this perspective, all recognition, glory, honor and praise goes to God alone.

These two viewpoints are constantly at war within every Christian heart. It is critical that we understand and acknowledge the battle and learn to identify the messages coming from each side. In order to do that we must first understand the gospel.  

God’s standard is and always has been perfection (“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect.” Matthew 5:48). This does not mean that we must finally reach that standard at some stage of our lives; the requirement is perfection from the instant of our birth to the moment of our death. Obviously, none of us have achieved that or ever could. Because of that inability we were all under God’s wrath, and stood condemned. (Romans 2:5-6; Romans 5:18)There was no way we could dig ourselves out of that hole; any rescue had to come from outside of us. 

That rescue was planned before the beginning of time. (Titus 1:2, Revelation 13:8) Jesus, the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world, came and lived a perfect life in the flesh, and credited it to us; and he took all of our sins and suffered the wrath of God in our place. This secured our complete forgiveness and our reconciliation with God. Because of all that he accomplished on our behalf, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That is the Good News, the gospel of grace—God, through Jesus, satisfied on our behalf everything which he required of us. We played no part except supplying the sin which necessitated the rescue.

The battle arises within us because our Action/Consequence natures cannot get past the idea that we are unable to, and therefore not expected to, earn or pay God back for our salvation. This concept is so foreign to everything we know about life in our world that it actually seems unjust. Action/Consequence indignantly insists that we must contribute our works in order for justice to triumph.

Yet, God says he is the one who fully satisfied justice by sending Jesus to justify us (Romans 3:26). This goes completely against our Action/Consequence grain but it is true! Our works count for nothing as far as our salvation is concerned; they earn us no points with God. God accepted Jesus’ works on our behalf; what could our puny, tainted works possibly add to Jesus’ perfect works?

The obvious question then is, does God want us to do good works? And the answer is just as obvious, of course God wants us to do good works, and we will do good works; but, let me repeat, they will have no effect whatsoever on our standing with God.

As the truth of the gospel permeates our hearts and minds—that ‘it is finished’; that God is already well-pleased with us and there is nothing more that we must do in order to earn or keep his good pleasure—this amazing news changes us; it frees us to serve him because we want to; specifically because we do not ‘have’ to. 

Have you ever planned to do something nice for someone, perhaps your parents, your spouse or your children; but before you could surprise them they ruined everything by asking you to do the very thing you were planning to do, or, worse yet, demanded that you do it? How did you feel?  You didn’t want to do it anymore! The gospel guarantees that God will never spoil your plans by demanding that you do what you already want to do.

God has planned in advance some things for us to do (Ephesians 2:10), but not in a “To Do” checklist kind of way; it’s more of a ‘hang onto your hat, you’re in for the ride of your life’ kind of way. God has fashioned us so that, even in difficult circumstances, we will feel most fulfilled when we are doing the things he has planned for us to do. He loves for us to do things because we are excited to do them; when we are so grateful for what we have been given that we can’t wait to do them; when we give freely because all expectations have already been satisfied.

Action/Consequence says that we must be required to work or we will become lazy and do nothing.  Death/Resurrection assures us that the gospel is the only true motivation to do anything. Action/Consequence discounts the way the Holy Spirit compels us with the love of Christ and says we need to be threatened with punishment. Death/Resurrection knows that, when we are secure in the love of Christ for us, we will delight in finding ways of sharing that love with others. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)

The works we do will be done with one goal in mind – spreading the news of what Jesus Christ has already done. The more we grasp and believe this news ourselves, the greater our joy and excitement will be to pass it on.  The works which the Holy Spirit will lead us to do are for the benefit of others and the glory of God; not to fulfill any further requirement. They’re what we get to do, not what we have to do, and that is what makes all the difference.

The Only Hope

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13

I’ve been pondering the concept of hope this week.  There seem to be so many people struggling with hopelessness regarding their life circumstances, their relationships, their inabilities and their futures that it got me to thinking about the difference between the Action/Consequence version of hope—our natural, worldly version—and the Death/Resurrection viewpoint—the biblical understanding given to us as a gift by the Holy Spirit.

To hope is to wait in expectation for the fulfillment of what you desire.  The desire is always for something better than what you have.   Hope often has the connotation of rescue, or relief from your current circumstances and is closely associated with belief or faith; to have hope you must be able to believe that your desires will be fulfilled.

To be hopeless then is to have no belief that your desires will be fulfilled; no expectation of anything better than what you have and no expectation of rescue or relief from your current circumstances.  We can live without many things, but we cannot live without hope.  We know this at the core of our beings. The problem is, where can we find true hope? 

From an Action/Consequence perspective, hope is more tentative and fearful than confident because it is based simply on wishing and wanting; or working to fulfill your own dreams; or desiring for someone else to fulfill them for you. 

On the other hand, those with the Death/Resurrection perspective know that the source of all true hope is found in Christ alone.  They hope for what will indeed take place.  Theirs is an assured, confident expectation, looking forward to what God has promised and guaranteed in Christ: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.  Hebrews 11:1”

Romans 8:25 says, “But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”  Those whose hope is in Christ can wait patiently because they have confidence that they will receive the desire of their hearts. 

We can have that confidence because we know that the one who has promised is trustworthy.  Titus 1:2 says we have “…a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time…” 

Action/Consequence tells us to place our hope in money and power as the answer to our hearts’ desires.  We reason that if we have enough money we can buy whatever we need and never have to worry again; and, if we have enough power we can manipulate people into giving us what we want.  But scripture says this is a vain hope:

 “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” 1Timothy 6:17

“When a wicked man dies, his hope perishes; all he expected from his power comes to nothing.” Proverbs 11:7

The message at the root of Action/Consequence is that we should place our greatest hope in ourselves. It tells us, ‘trust yourself, your strength, your abilities, your intelligence, your wisdom to know what is right for you, your worthiness to have the best this world has to offer’.

Death/Resurrection says the opposite; telling us to place our hope in God alone; to depend on his strength and his wisdom to know and to do what is right for us:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

Sometimes our circumstances compel us to believe in a good outcome ‘against all hope’, meaning that, despite all earthly evidence to the contrary, we still cling to hope.  From an Action/Consequence perspective, that’s a risky proposition, born of desperation and based only on what we want to happen. 

From a Death/Resurrection perspective, however, depending on what you are hoping for, that is exactly what God prefers, and calls faith.  An example of this is when God told Abraham that he and his wife, Sarah, would finally have a child, something they had longed for all of their lives.  

Romans 4:18-19 says, “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, 'So shall your offspring be.' Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.”

In this story, God fulfilled for Abraham and Sarah their earthly dream of having a child at a point when it was reasonable for them to have given up all hope.   

Beneath every hope for the Christian is the ultimate hope of reconciliation with God and all of the blessings which are ours in Christ. These have already been secured for us through his death and resurrection. 

While we are on this earth, we "hope" for what has already been accomplished because, when we look at the evidence of our own lives, we see our failures and how far we fall short of what God asks of us; but, like Abraham, God wants us, against all hope—all earthly evidence—to believe that he has done for us what he said he would do—secure for us all of the glorious riches in Christ which we could never possibly earn or deserve.

Action/Consequence hopes only for earthly happiness and fulfillment. Sometimes when we put our hope for earthly happiness in God and we do not get what we want we are angry and disillusioned.  This is due to a misunderstanding of God's purposes. God cares about our earthly happiness, but his primary conern is for our eternal happiness. 

Scripture says, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” Romans 8:32.  And Philippians 4:19 tells us, “…my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”   

But, to put that into perspective Jesus said, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed.”  Luke 10:41-42.  There is only one true need-- salvation through Jesus Christ.  Everything else we receive on this earth, whether we consider it good or bad; pleasant or painful; comes to us in relation to that one need; that one hope.

The Apostle Paul wanted us to understand that, in the fulfillment of that one need, we gain access to everything we have always hoped for and more: “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.” Ephesians 1:18-19

From an Action/Consequence standpoint, when you encounter someone who is suffering and longing for relief, you can only offer a hope that is no hope at all.  ‘Just hang in there and I’m sure things will work out’.  Or, you can throw empty hope back at their hope, by telling them you hope things get better; but, from a Death/Resurrection perspective, because of the abundant riches the believer has in Christ who came to provide the ultimate rescue, we have everything to offer someone who is losing hope! 

There will be times when God, who sees and knows what is best for us, will save us from the earthly circumstances which are causing us to suffer; but, he does not promise he will always do that. He will not always mend our broken relationships, or heal our broken bodies; sometimes we will lose people or things we thought we could not or would not want to live without; sometimes we will fail when we desperately want to succeed; sometimes the trials will seem to be more than we can bear; But, even when God in his infinite love and wisdom doesn’t change the situations which are breaking our hearts, he is always able to offer us hope. 

Because of Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf God promises to be with us in those circumstances, never leaving us or forsaking us; always comforting, encouraging, strengthening and guiding us, until the day finally comes when all hope will be fulfilled.

The Story of the Naked Church

The specter of insufficient goodness haunted me all of my life.  It is what drove me first to despair and then to the cross.  All my life I have longed to be good and that longing wasn’t motivated only by the fear of an angry God.  That longing was placed in me by a Holy God, a God who was calling me, not so much to be good, but to know how good He is.

Our Action/Consequence natures miss that point.  We have taken something that is secondary, our moral improvement, and made it into the primary; and we have taken who Jesus was, what he did and why he did it, which is primary, and made that merely the Forward in the book on Christian Living.  

By nature we are obsessed with ourselves.  Bette Midler sums it up in my favorite line from the movie Beaches, “But, enough about me, let’s talk about you, what do you think of me?” It is unnatural for us to keep our eyes focused on Jesus and what he did; we seemingly cannot help but turn the focus back to ourselves by making Christianity about us and what we should be doing. What do you think of me? What does God think of me?

The answer to that first question is, what others think of me is not my concern; and the answer to the second question is not based, in any part, on what I am or am not doing. It is based solely on the doing and dying of Jesus Christ.  If I have been made alive with Christ, when I was nothing but dead in my transgressions (Ephesians 2:1,5; Colossians 2:13) then the answer is firmly “This is my beloved son/daughter in whom I am well pleased.” Period. End of story.

Wait for it…wait for it…Nope.  There is no “But”.

And you know what? We can’t stand that there’s no “But”! It drives us crazy because we know there should be one.  It drives us crazy because each one of us has an understanding of what good is, that we aren’t it, and that we should be.  Romans 2 tells us that God put that knowledge in everyone, whether we claim to believe in God or not.  We all know at some level that we are not good enough, and we’re right! That knowledge is meant to show us our true condition and lead us to the only hope, which is Christ. 

Christ is supposed to be the whole book, from title page to the epilogue and footnotes.  But we want to fill the book with ourselves.  We want the story to be, “I once was bad but now I’m good” instead of, “I once was dead, but now I’m alive with Christ” Even worse, we want to take “now I’m alive with Christ” and make that mean “now I’m good because God is giving me the power to be good”. 

The reason I say that’s even worse is because we can feel proud about giving God the credit for how good we have become, when the fact of the matter is, we might be somewhat better, but we aren’t enough better that we ought to feel proud about giving God the credit! And if we think our improvement is something to parade around, we’re like the Hans Christian Anderson story with the naked Emperor who was hoodwinked into believing he had on a fine set of clothes; or the Laodicean Church which Jesus himself rebuked:

“‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.” Revelation 3:15-19

Notice that Jesus begins by saying he knows their works.  Here’s the problem with their works, if they had been on fire with the Good News of the finished work of Christ on their behalf, Jesus would have seen their works as “hot”.  If they were not on fire because of Jesus, it would be better if they just sat on their hands and kept their mouths shut.  Then, at least, their works would be virtually non-existent, and not much damage would be done.  In that respect, Jesus would have seen them as cold.  But, instead, they were lukewarm and so disgusting that Jesus wanted to spit them out like you would a big bite of rotten food.

Their problem was that they were parading around their riches, showing off how they had prospered and were no longer in need.  Do you see it?  They had lost touch with their need of a Savior!  They were proud of their goodness.  If we accept the Action/Consequence version of the Christian life, the Holy Spirit will help us to become better and better so that there will be fewer sins for the blood of Jesus to cover as we grow, consequently we will need Jesus less and less. Some churches teach that we can and should reach a point in our lifetime where we no longer need a mediator at all!

But what does Jesus say? These people were now so proud of their riches, how they had prospered, that they did not realize they were actually wretched, pitiable, poor blind and naked.  They were deluded in regard to their own goodness; so deluded that Jesus told them they needed gold refined by fire.  1 Peter 1:7 tells us this represents the trials which come to test the genuineness of our faith, meaning our faith in Jesus, and that is what makes us truly rich.  Jesus then said they needed white garments—which are nothing but the robe of Christ’s righteousness—so that they would have real clothing and the shame of their nakedness could not be seen.  And finally, Jesus told them they needed eye salve, which would enable them to see their true condition. Jesus was talking to a church here, not some group of heathens. He reminded them that he loved them, and sometimes needs to rebuke and discipline those he loves.  He told them they needed to zealously repent of their belief in their own sufficiency.

Because we know we aren’t good enough even though we should be, Action/Consequence expects Christianity to be about making us good. But Christianity is not about that.  Jesus didn’t come to die so that the Holy Spirit would then be able to help us become good enough.  Christianity has always been about how Christ came to be good enough, specifically because we weren’t and never could be, regardless of how much help we received. 

Will the Holy Spirit help us to become better people? Yes, he will produce fruit that grows only in the soil of relief which nothing but the gospel can supply;  but, this fruit qualifies us for nothing and will never be the main storyline. Jesus alone is able to remove the burden of insufficient goodness and qualify us for salvation (Colossians 1:12). He alone is the central figure of every story; his salvation is the plotline of scripture.  He alone is the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).