CHEAP LAW

“Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery—to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.”  Galatians 2:4-5

 

I’ve heard a lot about Cheap Grace, but what is Cheap Law?  There are some Christians who believe that God is too nice to punish anyone for not being “good”.  Their vague notion of Christianity is that they just need to try to be nice moral people and God will be happy with them.  That is cheap Law.

There are other Christians who consider themselves to be scrupulous about their own obedience to the Law and in their pursuit of righteousness they are equally passionate about trying to make those around them scrupulous as well.  Their interpretation of Christianity is that if they try zealously to be good moral people by keeping the Law and get others to do so, God will be happy with them.  That is also cheap Law.

The first group views the Law as a set of guidelines for moral living which helps humans to live with each other in harmony. There is no concept of the holiness of the Law.  There is no sense of the Law’s demands or requirements. The Law is reduced to the Ten Suggestions for Your Best Life Now.  It is rather easy to see how this viewpoint cheapens the Law; but what about the second group?  On the surface they seem to have a very high view of the Law.  They appear to have a strong sense of the Law’s demands or requirements; so why do I say this viewpoint is cheap Law?

In the verses above, from Paul’s letter to the Galatians, the term “false brothers” is referring to people representative of the second group.  Paul had encountered them on his earlier visit to Jerusalem and had resisted their false gospel specifically so that his ministry to the Gentiles would not be corrupted by it.  He wrote his letter to the Galatians because, despite his efforts, they had been bewitched by that group, to the point where Paul said in Galatians 5:4, “You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.”  What strong words! The Galatians were in danger of being “severed from Christ”, not because they refused to keep the law, but because they were trying to be declared righteous by keeping the law!  Contrary to popular belief, to have “fallen away from grace” does not mean being disobedient to the law, it means depending on your obedience to the law, rather than grace, for justification!

This false gospel, which as Paul says in Galatians 1:7 is no gospel at all, is attractive and compelling to humans because of our Action/Consequence nature.  It is natural for us to base our worth on our performance; therefore we assume that God has the same criteria for us.  We reason that the evidence of this is the very fact that God gave us the Law.  It seems logical to conclude that the Law was given for us to obey; so, let’s look at what Scripture has to say about the Law.

In Matthew 5:18 Jesus says, “For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”  Jesus’ opinion of the law was that every dotted I and crossed T of the law would remain in effect as a requirement until heaven and earth passed away, when everything which had to be accomplished was accomplished.  By this he indicates that God takes obedience to the law very seriously and will continue to take it seriously until the end of time.

How seriously does God take obedience to the Law? Romans 2:13 tells us, “…it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified”; in other words, hearing or knowing the Law counts for nothing because only those who keep the Law will be justified before God.  “Justified” is a legal term indicating not only a status of “not guilty” but, in God’s eyes, a declaration of righteousness.  If keeping the Law is necessary for justification, the next obvious question is, how well would we have to keep the Law in order to be declared righteous?

Jesus, in Matthew 5:48 said, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  Most of us have found ways of watering down that verse, but scripture indicates that when we realize what the standard is and that we are not able to do what is required, we have actually reached the exact conclusion God intended for us to reach. 

This verse comes at the end of a section in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount where he had just been showing the people that the requirements of the Law are much broader and deeper than they thought.  The scribes and the Pharisees were meticulous in their Law keeping, but they had shrunk the requirements of the Law to a point where they believed that they were actually capable of keeping it, and they made sure that everyone was impressed by their accomplishments.  Jesus told the astonished crowd that, if they wanted to go to heaven, their righteousness would have to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees!

He then said, in essence, you think you’re keeping the Law because you’re not a murderer, but if you’ve ever been angry and called your brother a fool, as far as God is concerned you are a murderer deserving of hell.  And, if you think you’re keeping the Law because you’ve never cheated on your spouse, but you’ve had even one lustful thought about another woman, it’s the same thing as adultery in God’s eyes.  After several more distressingly convicting illustrations, to be certain that no one missed the point, Jesus finished with this impossible expectation of our needing to be as perfect as God is perfect, knowing full well that the objection would be, “Well, no one can do that! How is anyone supposed to get to heaven?”  And that is the point!

As Romans 3:19 says, “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.”  Once we have a right understanding of how seriously God takes obedience to the law, and how impossible it is for us to meet the standard, we stand before God with nothing to say.  We are all undeniably guilty and deserving of his condemnation.

Even though Romans 2:13 said that only those who keep the Law will be justified, chapter 3 verse 20 tells us, “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight”. The Law must be obeyed, but not one of us is able to sufficiently obey it!

 As a matter of fact, Galatians 3:10 says, For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”  We gain nothing but a curse for all of our striving to keep the law, because we are unable to continuously abide by, or do, all things written in the Law.  We are helpless to meet the requirements of the Law, and because of that we are cursed! 

 But the next verse offers a glimmer of hope in our seemingly hopeless situation, “Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’” (Galatians 3:11) The answer, then, is not found in Law keeping, it is found in faith.

And Romans 3 verse 21 finally tells us how we actually can obtain God’s own perfect righteousness, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” God commands us to be perfect as he is perfect, and then he credits his perfect righteousness to all who believe, through faith in Jesus Christ! 

As the end of Romans 3:20 says, “…through the law comes knowledge of sin.”  The Law can only show us what we should be, but we cannot do it; we can only learn from the Law what sin is. The Law cannot provide us with the ability we need to obey it.

Galatians 3:21-24 explains, “For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.”  The Law could not give us life.  It was given so that we would have a clear understanding of our sin and our helplessness.  We were imprisoned under sin, held captive by the Law which had to be kept, but which we were unable to keep. This Law held us prisoner until Jesus came and gave us his righteousness which was the only thing that could set us free. 

At one extreme Cheap Law says, “God doesn’t care what I do, he loves me just the way I am”; and on the other it says, “I can and will be good enough to earn God’s favor”.  Both are wrong. The correct view of the Law says, “For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”  And the answer is and always will be, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”  (Romans 7:22-25)  He has set us free!

Trust and Obey?

It is because of him [God] that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God-that is our righteousness, holiness and redemption.  Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." 1 Corinthians 1:30-31

 

 

There is a classic Action/Consequence sermon which I grew up hearing and often hear today.  The pastor usually begins with a self-deprecating story, making a point to let us know he is not perfect.  Whatever character flaw is involved in the tale will be the theme of the sermon.  After we have all laughed and identified with how impatient, unloving or ungrateful he is, he proceeds to tell us that God really wants and expects us to be patient or loving or grateful, etc., and then gives us practical tips on how we can become better.  Finally, we are encouraged to have faith that one day we will possess these lacking traits.  We are advised not to become discouraged and exhorted to keep hoping and trusting as we strive to obey.

When I was young and heard this sermon, I recognized my lack of the chosen virtue and took to heart the challenge to try and be better.  When my efforts met with a measure of success, I patted myself on the back.  When I failed, I admonished myself to have faith and I tried harder.

As I grew a little older and heard this sermon, I acknowledged my continued lack of whatever the virtue of the week was, vowed to try again and began to suspect that I might be a particularly hard nut to crack.  I worried that God was disappointed in my lack of progress. 

Later, I grew a bit more cynical about the sermon.  I would imagine asking, ‘How’s that working out for you, Pastor?  You’re getting up in age and you’re telling us you aren’t better yet, but you’re full of advice on what to do about it.  Don’t you see that as a problem?’  But, still, I felt guilty and tried to step up my game.

Finally, I learned about grace.  I learned that the Good News isn’t about my being “well mannered” or “nice”.  In fact, it isn’t about what I do at all.  When the focus is on me and what I do, it is always Bad News.  The Good News is always and only about what God did for me by sending Jesus to perfectly fulfill every virtue on my behalf, and to take the punishment for every instance of my failure to be patient, loving, grateful, etc.

I learned that ‘having faith’, doesn’t mean faith that I will one day become a better person.  It means having faith in Christ’s blood which washed away the very real condemnation for all of my imperfect conduct.  I discovered to my relief that my ‘hope’ is not based on my progress, but on what Christ accomplished once and for all at the cross and credited to my account.  I learned that ‘trusting’ means being able to count on God’s acceptance of me because of Jesus’ obedience, not my own.  Jesus was the only one who truly trusted and obeyed.

It is grace, not guilt, which motivates me.  I am still far from perfect and in constant need of a savior; but, it is that very realization, of how much grace has been and is being given to me daily, which prompts in me a desire to extend that same grace to others.  And, when I do manage to respond out of grace instead of reacting with selfishness, I am well aware that I have nothing for which to pat myself on the back, because the ability to respond in that manner is also a gift. 

Now when I hear that sermon, I want to shout the good news to both the pastor and the congregation: ‘It’s okay, God isn’t disappointed in you; because everything God wanted us to be Jesus already was!’

It Goes So Quickly

Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.  Psalm 90:12

A friend sent me a link to the photo montage of his beloved wife which was played at her recent memorial service.  I only met her once or twice, but she was my age, and as the montage began to play it was like watching my own life unfolding.  With music from my era playing in the background, I looked at baby and toddler photographs where everyone was wearing the style of clothing I remember from my childhood.  The elementary school class pictures showcased the classic hairstyles of the times. These were followed by high school yearbook shots of a delightful teen whose exuberance and love of life showed in her wide smile and mischievous eyes.  I knew the year and remembered my own hopes and dreams at that very same time, which seems like such a short while ago.  Next came the photos of a young woman embarking on her adulthood journey; and a gawky young man, the one with whom she would spend the rest of her life, entered the scene.  There were touching wedding shots followed in quick succession by pictures of their children, pets and family life.  And, finally, there were the heartbreakingly poignant pictures of this same beautiful woman, ravaged by cancer, taken at her daughter’s wedding, which had been hastily put together just weeks before her life came to an end.  The impact of watching a whole life, so much like mine, from beginning to end, in the space of a few short minutes, was overwhelming.  I wept.

This week also marks the anniversary of the deaths of two of my very dear friends.  I wept for them as well, and for those they left behind.  I wept for all of their unfulfilled hopes and dreams; for their surprised disappointment that life gave them so little of what they had expected.  I wept for us all.

And I thought about Jesus weeping at the tomb of Lazarus.  People have been puzzled as to why he wept when he was about to bring Lazarus back to life.  I think I understand.  God was experiencing the pain of human existence from the inside out; all of the heartbreak of life's broken promises.  How could he not weep?  The happy ending of a story doesn’t negate the pain of the journey.  He wept with and for us all, then resolutely turned his face toward Jerusalem and died for us, so that one day we could have the life God always wanted us to have; where sorrow and sighing will forever flee away and death will be no more.

Are You My Mother?

Tell me, you who desire to be subject to the law, will you not listen to the law?  For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and the other by a free woman.  One, the child of the slave, was born according to the flesh; the other, the child of the free woman, was born through the promise.  Now this is an allegory: these women are two covenants. One woman, in fact, is Hagar, from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery.  Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.  But the other woman corresponds to the Jerusalem above; she is free, and she is our mother. Galatians 4:21-26

If you have children or grandchildren you are probably familiar with P.D. Eastman’s classic children’s book entitled Are You My Mother?  It is the story of a baby bird who hatched while his mother was away, fell from the nest and sets out on a quest to find his mother by asking everyone he meets, including a dog, a cow and a steam shovel, this all important question.  In the end he finds her in one glorious moment of recognition.

My spiritual journey has been similar to that of the baby bird.  I was raised in a church which had, at the heart of its unique doctrine, the belief that Jesus is currently in heaven carefully reviewing the lives of those who profess to be Christians to see whether their profession is borne out by their behavior.  If so, they will be allowed into heaven; if not, they will be consigned to punishment with the devil and his minions. Consequently, this church also taught that no one should be so bold as to say “I am saved”, because our behavior changes from one day to the next.  The fear of complacency allowed no room for assurance.

I was a conscientious child and wanted more than anything to show Jesus that I was worthy.  I tried hard to do all the right things and not do the wrong things; but I was aware of my continued failures.  This led to my answering altar call after altar call where I would confess and promise once more to do better, only to fail again.  Literally by the grace of God I did not give up and walk away, but I lived in insecurity and fear until I was in my early thirties when God opened my ears to the proclamation of the Good News by a friend.  

Once I understood and accepted the fact that Jesus was actually in heaven applying his worthiness to my account in place of my unworthiness, my life was transformed!  I went from the status of being dead in my transgressions and sins to being alive with Christ!  I had nothing to prove because Jesus had proved it all on my behalf!  I was free!

Although I stayed awhile longer in the church of my childhood, I ultimately ventured out to find “my mother”, which in my mind was a church that would nurture me in my newfound faith in Christ.  I began my search with the faulty assumption that every other church but mine understood and taught the good news as I had come to understand it from scripture.  As a result, I found a church where the minister preached grace, and I joined.  Shortly thereafter that particular pastor was transferred and a new one arrived who did not share my love of the gospel.  However, because I had become quite active in that church and my young children were involved, I stayed.  I decided that, because the original preacher had taught grace, the church as a whole must not be opposed to it, so I felt free to share it in my own sphere.  I taught it in Children’s Church and I shared it in small groups; but mine was the only voice I heard proclaiming the good news. 

Since this was in a time before personal computers were common, I searched Christian radio for some water in my desert.  To my dismay, all I found was program after program proclaiming the bad news of how we should try harder to be better because we weren’t measuring up to what God expected of us.  Finally, I found Steve Brown’s Key Life broadcast which provided me with thirst quenching good news, so I immediately signed up for his free tapes and newsletter which were soon the only contact I had when his show was taken off the air in my area. Oh, how I looked forward to those tapes from Steve!

   

About the time my children began entering their teens, my oldest daughter was invited to a friend’s Youth Group.  After she had attended for several months, she said that she thought I would really like the church, especially the pastor.  So, on one Sunday when I wasn’t scheduled to do anything in my church, I attended a worship service.  Everything about that service touched my heart and fed my soul, especially the sermon, which was pure grace.  I was so moved that I decided to finish out the remainder of the year as far as my responsibilities in my church, and then to begin attending this church; which I did.  I thought I had found my mother at last! Of course, within a couple of years, that pastor moved on and a succession of ministers, whose understanding of the good news varied, came and went.  I stayed and shared with the teens what God was teaching me.

I have often wondered over the years why I seemed to be separated from others who believed and taught what I had found in scripture.  Recently, thanks to all of the available technology, I have discovered that there are and have been many over the centuries who have shared the same understanding of grace which has thrilled my heart for all of these years.  I am now eagerly broadening and deepening my understanding as I study their words.  But, I have come to an appreciation of why God, knowing me as he does, wanted me to confirm my beliefs through scripture alone before he showed me the vast number of people who believed in the same things. 

I was raised to accept what I was taught by those “in authority”.  The way the clergy interpreted scripture was what I assumed to be true.  When my friend initially told me the story of the gospel, I wanted desperately to believe it, but I was terrified I was in danger of believing a lie which would lead to my eternal destruction.  I couldn’t take anyone else's word for something that important, because I didn't know whose word to trust, so the Holy Spirit and I wrestled together through the book of Romans until he confirmed for me the truth of the good news. Then, and only then, I dared to believe. 

Through all of my years with no particular earthly mentor, the same Spirit opened scripture to me until I knew that I knew that I knew what I believed, as one of my pastors used to say.  As a result, my beliefs are mine.  Because of the way God made me, he knew it was important for me to know that what I believe is what I found in scripture and not what someone else found and told me to accept.  I am grateful for the people, like Steve Brown, which God allowed me to glimpse over the years to let me know that I wasn’t alone, but I’m also grateful that God directed my path in such a way that I would know for myself the reason for the hope that is in me.

I thought that my “mother” would turn out to be a nurturing denomination or local church; but, in one glorious moment of recognition I understood that, as Paul says in the verses above where he contrasts law and grace, I am a child of the free woman, born of a promise; the promise of a savior who offered me his worthiness for my unworthiness.  No matter where I go, grace will always be my mother.

Love: Listen and Do, or Done?

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 1 John 4:9-11

“And I will show you a still more excellent way”, Paul says at the end of 1 Corinthians 12 where he has been speaking of the different gifts which the Holy Spirit gives believers for the one purpose of proclaiming that Jesus is Lord.  He then launches into “The Love Chapter”, which is how we often refer to 1 Corinthians 13.  This chapter, often read at weddings and presented in sermons with the idea that the bride and groom and all of us should listen and do, gives us a daunting standard if we view it as an expectation to fulfill.  Let’s take a look at the first three verses:

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

Paul basically goes down the list of the spiritual gifts he has just been speaking of in chapter 12 and says that, unless our underlying motive for the use of those gifts is love, our actions serve no purpose. No matter how eloquent I am in the proclamation of God’s word, I am just a lot of empty noise if I don’t have love.  And, regardless of how profound my grasp of Scripture may be or whether my faith has accomplished incredible feats, if I don’t have love, I am nothing. That is harsh!  “I am nothing”!  And finally, if I sacrifice everything, including my life—allowing myself to be burned at the stake, unless I did it from love, it was a pointless sacrifice!  In other words, it does not matter how much you say, how much you know or how much you give up, if you don’t have love, it is meaningless as far as God is concerned.

In light of that, it seems important to know how Paul defines this love which is so essential.  Let’s keep going:

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends.” (verses 4-first part of 8)

I don’t know about you (well, I do know about you, but it’s arrogant and rude to say so), but if I’m honest, I have to admit that I am frequently impatient and unkind. I am often envious of what others have that I do not. I like for people to notice things that I do, so I try to bring attention to those things. I think I know best in many situations, and sometimes have been known to rudely let people know that they need to do it my way. I admit to being happy sometimes when ‘what goes around comes around’ and someone ‘gets what’s coming to them’, which is Karma and not Christianity! There are plenty of situations where I’m not willing to bear ALL things, or believe everything I’m being asked to believe.  When it comes to continued hope regarding some situations, I do have my limits; and there have been many times that I have been pushed beyond what I thought was my ability to endure.  In my experience, and if you’re honest, in yours as well, love has been known to end. So where does that leave us if these verses are telling us what God requires in order for anything we do to have meaning?

The remainder of the chapter goes on to say that one day the gifts which the Holy Spirit gave us for the purpose of proclaiming the gospel will no longer have a point; the thing we, as Christians, have spent our lives talking about and looking forward to—will have happened; everything given to us will have served its purpose, which was simply a temporary, earthly purpose.

At that time, even the knowledge we were given about God will turn out to have been only a partial understanding, or a dim awareness of the truth.  Paul says, the way we view things on earth versus the way we will understand them in eternity is comparable to the way we view things as children versus the way we understand them as adults.  What we thought we understood will one day give way to what really is. 

Paul says, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”  The reality is, every gift but one will pass away. Even faith and hope will come to an end; there will be no more need for them because we will finally see God face to face, and know him fully, in the same way he has always fully known us. Only love will remain; this is why Paul says it is the greatest gift.

But, we still have the dilemma: if this chapter has been about how useless we and our works are without this great gift of love, yet we see that, compared to the definition of love given, we have no hope of reaching the standard, are we left with nothing?  Fortunately, that is not the case.

Paul is not telling us that we must conjure up a flawless love as the motive for our actions. We have no ability to be anything but noisy gongs and clanging cymbals; we will always be nothing and gain nothing regardless of what we do if we are depending on our love, because, even at our very best, we do not remotely begin to possess the kind of love that is required.  Only Christ possessed that love; and he gave it to us at the cross. The gift of love is not power given to us so that we can love; it is Christ’s love for us.

The love described in this chapter is the love of God, and “the more excellent way” Paul speaks of is our recognizing and resting in that love which has already been poured out for us. Action/Consequence wants us to think that God gave us gifts simply so that we could do good works for him, but that is just our way of striving for our own meaning with determination and gritted teeth. Death/Resurrection tells us that the gifts have been given to us for the purpose of sharing what Christ has already done for us; everything we do will flow from our gratitude for his love. We are called to love with joyful abandonment because he loved us; but it is Christ’s love alone, not our poor imitation of it, which infuses and gives true meaning to whatever we do. 

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).