LAW...What is it Good For?

All of my early life I was taught and believed that there was only one use of the Law—to tell us what God expected us to do.  My church taught that, with the help of the Holy Spirit, over the course of a lifetime we could come to a place where we perfectly kept the law. The understanding was that, regardless of whether you reached the goal, you were to spend your days trying; and, that you would ultimately be judged by the quality and degree of your efforts, the intentions of your heart and the general direction of your life.

Obedience was stressed above all else.  I deeply believed that God’s approval of me was directly related to my level of obedience; yet I was comforted by the understanding that, if I was faithful in confessing my sins, salvation, in the end, was still possible.  It could be achieved by a combination of my obedience to the Ten Commandment Law and my confession of sin.

Blessedly, the Gospel—the Good News of Jesus Christ—found me and taught me that salvation is not something one achieves at all; rather, it is a free gift of God, given to us through faith alone in Christ alone, which is completely unmerited, unearned and unrelated to my obedience!  I began to see that Scripture presented a completely different use of the Law, a rather counterintuitive use of the law, which is that of an accuser, whose main purpose is to show me my utter inability to obey it and then to lead me to acknowledge my desperate need for salvation apart from the Law and to finally bring me to Christ, who fulfilled the Law on my behalf.

Philip Melanchthon, Martin Luther’s co-reformer, said “Lex semper accusat”, the Law always accuses.  Intellectually I accept that premise, I see it in scripture and I agree that it’s true; however, there is still a part of me which desperately wants to believe that one day the Law will finally pat me on the back. It is the part of me which still wants to earn, be worthy of, deserve, my salvation. It is the part of me that wants to show the world I can put my money where my mouth is, and have some skin in the game.

Depending on whether one is looking at the uses of the Law from the Reformed or Lutheran perspective, the first and second uses of the Law are reversed, but, as I stated above, one use of the Law is to give us a knowledge of our sin and our need for a Savior. The other use is to restrain the sinful excesses of sinners in general, through the fear of punishment, which brings about an outward conformance to moral standards and results in a measure of peace in society. This has been called the Civil use of the Law, which is about keeping order, and has nothing to do with an inward transformation of the heart.

But, there is a third use of the Law, one which I have been pondering in light of that part of me which still wants to take credit for something relating to my salvation.  I think that a misunderstanding of the third use of the law coupled with our innate desire to claim credit has led directly to the “do more, try harder” emphasis in Christianity today, which places the focus on the Christian Life rather than on Christ.

This misunderstanding of the third use of the law presupposes that, since we know there is no reason to fear condemnation from the Law any longer because of Christ, it can now be safely used to show us how God wants us to live and what he wants us to do.  We are encouraged to take the verses about being conformed to the image of God’s son (Romans 8:29), being a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), being transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2) and others, as setting before us the now achievable goal of becoming Christ-like through obedience to the Law. This is very appealing to that part of me which relishes the challenge and is ready to finally get that pat on the back.  It also affords me the alluring opportunity to compete with others in the contest to see who can be the most like Christ.

The problem is, the presupposition, that finally we can be guided by the law without experiencing condemnation, is faulty.  The Law always accuses.  The Law always shows us what we should do, but can never give us the power to do it.  The Law, when it is not used to drive us to Christ, but to drive us to moral improvement, will always turn us into hypocrites who are pretending to be improved. That is not the third use of the Law.

The third use of the Law, as I am coming to understand it, works quietly in the background of the Christian heart.  It is the steady hum of the Law which has been written in our minds and on our hearts, as it says in Jeremiah 31:33-34. It is what the Holy Spirit uses to continually call us back from pride to the reality of our continued need for a Savior.  It is the standard by which we are urged to measure ourselves so that we will remember we are no better than anyone else for whom Christ died, and therefore we have no one upon whom we can look down our noses. It is the ever present reminder of our dependence upon a salvation which is completely outside of us and for which we are due no credit.

In other words, as it always accuses, the Law, in its third use, always drives us to Christ; because we must constantly be driven to look from ourselves to Him.  And it is only in beholding Christ that fruit is produced in us and we are freed to offer the same grace and mercy we have received from Him to those around us.

My Grace-based New Year’s Resolutions

1. Fearlessly cultivate an awareness of your daily sinfulness.  Be brutally honest about your pride, judgment of others, unkind thoughts and words, short-temperedness, impatience, selfishness, self-righteousness, greed, self-pity, lack of faith, lack of trust, irreverence, etc.

2. Boldly go to God with that painful awareness, with no excuses or false promises to change, and humbly thank him for loving and forgiving you unconditionally every single day because of Jesus' sacrifice which covers it all, even though you deserve nothing but his condemnation and wrath. Then gratefully bask in his love.

3. When you find yourself wanting to treat others the way "they deserve", remember what you deserve and how God loves and forgives you over and over again, and respond accordingly.

4. When you fail at #3, and you will, repeat #2.  For the rest of your life.

The Pyramid With No Product

Have you ever been introduced to a multi-level marketing organization where the product was basically irrelevant because the organization existed primarily to recruit new people?

It occurred to me today that Church with no real understanding of the Gospel is exactly like that.  I have been researching churches online recently, and, the vast majority of them are very excited about recruiting others to join them, and then encouraging the new people to find more people, who will then find more people, who will…well, you get the idea.

What’s missing is the “product”, or, in this case, the Good News; the very reason why Church actually exists.  There is a vague reference to something like ‘the life-changing love of Jesus’, an inference that by joining you will become a better person; and then, week after week there are sermons with instructions regarding how to be that better person accompanied by the general expectation that, after hearing the instructions, you will become that better person; unless there is something wrong with you, and it then becomes obvious you don’t really belong in the organization.

I’ve watched videos poignantly depicting the unreached masses in our nation and around the world.  There is barely a mention of Christ, only an invitation to join this busy, happy group, followed by images of members having fun and working together.

I’ve listened to countless worship bands emotionally singing of their desire to serve God and give their all.  I’ve seen people, with tears streaming down their faces, promising that, this time, they will truly surrender; this time they really mean it.

Because, for many years, I was a part of churches like that, I can say with a fair amount of certainty that from the leadership to the people in the seats, there is a general sense that Church has to do with the fact that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, but the most important thing is our Christian Living, our response to that historical fact. And, the required response is to both be a better person and to tell others so that they too will be better people and will tell others: Multi-level marketing with “you must be and will be a better person because Jesus died for you” as the product.

So, what’s wrong with that? Shouldn’t we all strive to become better people? Sure! There’s nothing wrong with becoming a more pleasant contributing member of society; but, to be honest, there are many non-Christian motivational speakers who are actually more effective at generating behavior modification, and in a more professional manner, than most churches. And, the non-Christians who have experienced behavior change may actually be more fun to be around than the churchgoers, because their changes were not required, but desired, and come with much less baggage.

The real message of the Church is not that we need to be tweaked; it’s that we need to be resurrected.  We’re not sick and in need of medicine, we are dead.  We don’t need a doctor, we need a Savior.  The real message of the Church is that what God told Adam and Eve in Genesis 2:17, about eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, was true: “for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”   When our first parents ate from that tree, we all died.  But, in 1 Corinthians 15:22 Paul tells us, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”  Then in Colossians 2:13-14 he says, “When you were dead in your sins…, God made you alive with Christ.  He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.”  And finally, Hebrews 10:14 says, “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.”

We were dead, and through Christ God made us alive and canceled our debt, forever perfecting us and making us holy and acceptable in his sight.  None of that was our doing.  It was done for us and to us by God through his son.  It was not earned or deserved, and it can never be repaid.  It is God’s gift.  That message is the unique offering of the Church.

People don’t need the promise of a nicer, busier you and me.  They are starving for a genuine means of shame removal; a message of forgiveness and reconciliation regardless of what they have done; the knowledge that they are completely and irrevocably loved because of and in spite of, just as they are, with no reservations.  This is as true of people inside the church as of those outside. We all need to be reassured every day that God’s grace is real and is for us.

If that is not the message your church is proclaiming, beware, you’re being sold a program with no product and one day that pyramid is going to fall.

You're Getting Warmer

The other day I taught my five year old grandson how to play one of my favorite childhood games.  First you pick an object to hide; in our case it was Steve from Minecraft.  Then, the Hider hides the object and must  give the Seeker directions to the hiding spot by telling them whether they are getting warmer or colder.  The warmer or hotter you are, the closer you are to the object.  The colder you are, the farther away you are from the object. 

It took my grandson awhile to get the hang of the directions.  He would get an idea in his head of where he thought Steve was going to be, and no matter how cold I told him he was, my grandson would continue fruitlessly burrowing under pillows while I said things like, “You’re freezing; Brrrrr”, to no avail.

Eventually, however, he learned to listen to the temperature clues and was able to find Steve with no trouble at all.  I was pretty patient with my grandson as he was learning to find his way to Steve, but it occurred to me that I am not always patient with people who are finding their way to the hidden treasure of the gospel. 

My own journey of discovery has been long and meandering, and God has always been infinitely patient with me as I peered under furniture or behind doors while he was saying, “Beware, deep freeze!”  Or, just as he was telling me that I was getting “Warmer, warmer, warmer”, I would veer off toward a closet or a cabinet where I rummaged for long periods of time, despite the bitter cold.

But, I’ve noticed that when I see people poking around the same furniture or digging through the same closet contents that I went through at an earlier point in my travels, I tend to feel impatient with their slowness, or contemptuous of their inability to follow clear directions.  I make judgments about their intelligence and even question their salvation.

The fact of the matter is, I have no way of knowing where someone else is on their spiritual journey.  I don’t know at what point they started and I am certainly not in charge of giving them directions.  My understanding of grace at this point in my life is so radically different from what it was in my twenties, that if someone had told me then what I would believe now, I would have thought they were crazy! And, if I had actually believed they were telling me the truth, I would probably have been deeply concerned for my older self; just like I’m appalled now when I look back at what I believed back then.

I’m starting to realize that it is no more right for me to act like I’m the gospel purity police for others than it is for others to act like they are the moral purity police for me.  Mildred Wynkoop once said, “When human beings take over the task of the Holy Spirit in keeping one’s neighbor pure, the job is too big and force supersedes persuasion and becomes a virtue.”  There is such uncomfortable truth in that statement.  Whenever I begin to think it is my job, rather than the job of the Holy Spirit, to change someone’s mind, heart, behavior or direction, I will, to my shame, inevitably end up using force, and feel virtuous about it. 

Instead, I believe that God calls me to love others as I have been loved; to be as patient with those who appear to be detoured or stalled on the journey as God has been patient with me.  I believe God asks me to remember my own travels and how arrogantly misguided I was and, therefore, to approach others who might seem obnoxious with respect, tender concern and compassion rather than derision, anger and rejection.

There’s a verse in Isaiah which gives me great comfort and hope for all of us in our search for truth.  It is found in chapter 35, where Isaiah is talking about a highway which is called the Way of Holiness.  Some of the translations put it a bit differently, but I believe the English Standard Version is true to the original text when it says in the last part of verse 8 that this highway “shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.”

Jesus, himself, is the Way.  It is the job of the Holy Spirit to draw us to Christ and then to guide, direct and correct our steps as he leads us into all truth.  We are not responsible for anyone else’s journey.  We are all fools who are kept on the path by the grace of God alone, as his Spirit continues to patiently say, “You are getting warmer, no, colder, warmer, warmer..."

The Gift of the Ordinary

In my early years, when what Jesus had done for me literally went without saying, or was reduced to a footnote (*Jesus died for me, and now I must….) I became very interested in Spiritual Gifts.  I researched all the scripture passages, like Romans 12, Ephesians 4 and 1 Corinthians 12, where gifts were mentioned, compiled my lists, made charts and then set about identifying my specific gifts.  I presented this material to my church and encouraged them to identify their gifts as well.  I was even invited to share my research with other churches. 

I came to the conclusion that if people did not recognize and name their gifts they would never use them, and would therefore never accomplish the works God prepared in advance for them to do. (Ephesians 2:10).  I viewed those works as the special plans God has for our lives and believed that it was our responsibility to diligently seek to discover what they were, with the fear that, if we were lazy or unconcerned, we might miss our moment and let down both God and the waiting world.

To be truthful, there were times when I wondered why God hadn’t given more direction in scripture about how to know for certain which gifts you had been given.  I thought perhaps things were clearer to those in the Early Church, and that people today needed more help; so, I pressed on with my well-intentioned way of helping God help others discover his plan.

The problem with my understanding was that it caused me to discount the ordinary in search of the extraordinary.  The mundane interactions of my day, at my job, with family, friends or strangers, held no special significance for me.  In reality, I am embarrassed to admit, I saw them as distractions from or obstacles to my finding or performing my true calling.  I viewed my daily routine as the stuff of life which got in the way of my doing the real work God had for me to do.

For example, if I identified a gift of teaching, then my true significance would be found only when I was teaching or doing something related to teaching; and ‘teaching’ would be narrowly defined in terms of some class or group I was leading.  I would view anything which interfered with my focus on that as an interruption.  I would feel guilty if I allowed myself to spend time doing something frivolous like watching a movie or television, or reading a novel.

It is only as the Gospel began slowly exposing my self-righteous strongholds that I came to realize how even attempting to identify my Spiritual Gifts and the works which God has planned for me to do could become idols and self-salvation projects, which had the end result of narrowing my focus to a degree that severely limited the ways I related to the world and the people in it.  I have now come to see those scripture passages in a different light.

The word in the Greek used for these gifts apportioned by Christ and distributed through the Holy Spirit, is “charis” and is the same word translated as “grace” throughout the New Testament.  At its root, it means “to rejoice”, and it conveys the idea of favor specifically given without the expectation of return, which produces joy in the one receiving favor. We understand grace as primarily referring to the unearned, unmerited favor which God bestows on us through the life, death and resurrection of Christ on our behalf.  Therefore, when the same word is used in relation to the Holy Spirit gracing us with these various ways of expressing love to our fellow man, it seems safe to conclude that they are not given to us with the expectation that we must use them to pay God back. That would be the opposite of gift.

I now believe that the verses where Paul lists the varied gifts were not intended to be used as a check list for identification purposes, but are simply a description of what is, and are primarily intended to show us the folly of looking at others and saying, “See what they’re doing.  I should be doing that and I am not.  There is something wrong with me.”  Or, “I am doing this.  Look at them! They’re not doing what I’m doing.  There is something wrong with them.”   I see Paul, in his discourses on gifts, simply making the point that God graces each of us differently; we are not, nor should we expect to be, the same.  I may not be good at teaching or evangelizing, but I might love to lend a helping hand.  I may not give as much as you give, or enjoy having people in my home the way you do, but I may be more of an encourager.  Your faith may be stronger than mine.  If I don’t do what you do and vice versa, that’s not only okay, it’s the way God designed things to be.  We can’t measure anyone against ourselves or anyone else.  We are who we are, and we are who God graced us to be. 

We are each God’s unique creation; and, as his unique creations, we have been lovingly and thoughtfully placed in our families, communities and jobs. In other words, God placed us in our lives, in all of their mundaneness and routine, responsibility and challenge, and graced us with the gifts best suited to our personalities and circumstances; those which will help us to love as we have been loved and to bless as we have been blessed.  Not as payment for what we have been given, but in humble, grateful, joyous response. We may be called to do something highly visible, or we may not; but that is up to the Creator to reveal and is not something we ever need to worry about finding or missing.

When I finally grasped this concept, I was given back the joy of the ordinary.  I saw that the stuff of life was the real work God had for me to do.  Daily routines were my sphere; interactions at work or the grocery store were viewed as gifts.  I realized that grace is everywhere, even in movies, television programs and novels. I understood that, were I to neatly classify my gifts, I could easily be in danger of taking credit for them; and, if I believed I knew the plans God had for me, I would tend to be upset if the Wind of the Spirit wanted to blow me in another direction. 

Grace has handed the entire beautiful, messy world to us and commissioned us to freely be ourselves and then to hang on for the ride; and, as each of us live and rejoice in that freedom which is ours solely because of what Christ has done, the Body of Christ will be built up “until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:13)

Unashamed

You examine your humanity
Under a microscope
And feel ashamed.
Your tender conscience
Cannot bear
The imperfections
You find there
And so you hide,
Like the first man
After the fall,
Afraid of exposing
Your nakedness
To all.
Yet
All are naked...
Most unaware.
Sometimes you envy
The ignorance
That is theirs;
To walk unclothed,
Denying shame,
To live without accepting blame.
Yet
Awareness is the gift of God
Which draws you to the cross,
Where Jesus bore
Your nakedness
And gave to you
His righteousness
Which covers all.
Now
You walk in freedom,
Unashamed,
Wearing Jesus' robe
And bearing Jesus' name.

Sin Impenitently?

“Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.  Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.  Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For, if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” Galatians 6:1-3 (ESV)

I am an explainer.  There has always been something in me which believes that if I explain something clearly enough everyone will see things my way.  Just ask anyone who has been in a “discussion” with me. Phrases like dog-with-a bone come to mind. It’s probably the teacher in me; but it also springs from incidents where someone explained something to me and suddenly there was a click which might or might not have actually been audible.  Sometimes, explaining works.

Since the birth of the Church, there has been a tension between those who have stressed the importance of our obedience and those who have stressed God’s grace.  Recently those who stress obedience have coined the term “Hyper Grace” to describe those whom they feel place undue emphasis on grace. This name represents their fear that those who are concentrating on grace have abandoned the belief that our behavior matters to God. They are afraid that, if there is too much emphasis on the fact that Jesus has paid for every sin, people will take the position that anything goes.

Historically, their fears are not unfounded. The Apostle John was combating a heresy like that in his books.  The heresy came from a branch of the Gnostics, and, without going into great detail, included the belief that, because matter was evil, nothing done in the flesh carried any significance whatsoever.  They literally believed that “anything goes”.  Interestingly, another branch of Gnosticism believed that because matter was evil, the flesh needed to be completely denied, and beaten into submission.  They fell into the ditch on the opposite side of the road.

The Nicolaitans are another group whose mistaken belief system has all but faded into oblivion, so there is only speculation on the specifics of their philosophy, but the Nicolaitans are mentioned in Revelation chapter 2:6, 15, where Jesus praises the church in Ephesus for hating their deeds, which Jesus says he also hated; and the church in Pergamum is chastised for entertaining the Nicolaitans in their midst.  The one thing which is agreed upon is that the Nicolaitans encouraged people to do things which were considered to be sinful.

We also know that in 1 Corinthians 5 Paul addresses a situation where a man who called himself a believer was sleeping with his father’s wife, and openly bragging about it with the apparent support of some in the church.  The conclusion has been drawn that this situation existed because some of the believers felt that it was not only all right but good to sin and flaunt it, as a way of showing their faith in Christ and his forgiveness.  They went out of their way to do things which, as Paul says, even pagans wouldn’t tolerate.

The thing which characterizes each of these examples of heresy is that the people were advocating the practice of sinning impenitently; in other words, they were advocating unrepentant, remorseless, unashamed, unapologetic, unabashed sin, in the name of Christ.

To those who are afraid that the heralds of grace are placing too much emphasis on grace and are falling into the ditch described above (and yes, I am one of those who would fit into the category of believing in what you have termed “hyper grace”) let me assure you that this is most definitely not what we are saying, or doing.

I am not aware of anyone in the “Hyper Grace” community who is advocating sinning impenitently.  On the contrary, most of us come from a background of taking sin so seriously that our cycle of shame, fear and despair was killing us.  We deeply felt the demands of the law and clearly saw how far short we fell from what God required of us.  We ran and ran and ran in our attempts to please God, and were well aware that we were not running fast or hard enough.  Some finally quit running and were despondently awaiting their deserved fate, while others kept on, running hopelessly.

That was where grace found us and showed us that Christ had already pleased God on our behalf, and that our need for shame, fear and despair had been removed.  Our lives were rescued from the grave.  That is why we shout the good news of grace to all of the others who are still living in that hopeless state.  It is literally life-giving news!

We know with all of our hearts the utter sinfulness of sin.  And, when we sin, we are immediately convicted and cut to the heart.  Were it not for grace, we would instantly plummet back into our old state; but, instead, we are comforted by the Spirit with the reminder that the precious blood of our Lord and Savior is sufficient to cover our sins and that we have an Advocate in heaven. As a result of that reminder, we are brought back to the sense of wonder and awe at what has been done for us, and humble gratitude arises which motivates us once more to proclaim the Good News!

Impenitence is the issue.  In 2 Corinthians chapter 1, Paul told the church that it was now time for the church to turn, forgive and comfort this same man, about whom he had written in his first letter, for fear that he might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. Once the man experienced sorrow for his sin, Paul urged the church to reaffirm their love for him.

If some are sinning impenitently; with no remorse or shame, and, in the name of Jesus, encourage others to follow that path, they need to feel the full weight of the Law of God and its holy requirements. Those who care for those mistaken individuals need to take whatever measures are necessary to help them see their error and come to a place of sorrow for their sin.

There is, however, a world of difference between the brazen, impenitent sinner and those who are bowed down under the weight of their failures to measure up to what God wants them to be and to do.  Those who are ashamed to lift their eyes to heaven, because they know they are unworthy to meet the gaze of their disappointed Father, do not need more Law, they need to be told over and over the message of grace—that Jesus lived a perfect life for them and that, in dying, he paid the penalty for their sins.  They need to be told that no matter how far they fall, they can never fall farther than the love of God can and will reach out to them, and that he is not disappointed, because when he looks at them, he sees his son.  

This is the difference between the man in 1 Corinthians 5 and the Apostle Peter when he denied Christ.  The first man not only felt no shame, but was proud of the statement he was making with his hideous sin.  Because of his impenitence he needed to feel cut off and isolated for a time in order to grasp his sin’s significance. 

But Peter felt the weight of his sin immediately; he deeply felt the shame and sorrow of his betrayal.  He had no need to be shown the horror of his sin, it was inescapable. He didn’t need to be isolated, he needed to be forgiven and comforted; and, at the first opportunity, when he laid eyes on Jesus, Peter jumped out of his boat, swam to shore and ran to his Savior to receive that forgiveness; and Jesus didn’t make him suffer for some “appropriate” amount of time, or prove himself in order to earn back his trust; Jesus commissioned him to feed his sheep, because Peter’s understanding of how it felt to fall and be given grace had uniquely equipped him for that task.

Those of us who cannot stop talking about grace know what it feels like to be forgiven for the unforgiveable; to be loved when we were the most unlovable; to receive mercy when we only deserved wrath; and we know that our sin was the reason Christ suffered and died.  We do not take the gift lightly. 

We do not ever advocate sinning impenitently.  But we do advocate that, when you sin, you run straight to Christ to be loved.