Come On, God, What Are You Thinking?

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




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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

God is For Me

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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





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

Too Much Grace?

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Agonizing Gulf

This week I was struck by words from the book Strength to Love, By Martin Luther King, Jr. “One of the great tragedies of life is that men seldom bridge the gulf between practice and profession, between doing and saying.  A persistent schizophrenia leaves so many of us tragically divided against ourselves….  This strange dichotomy, this agonizing gulf between the ought and the is, represents the tragic theme of man’s earthly pilgrimage.”

We say one thing and do another.  We know what is right, but do the wrong.  This quotation sounds a lot like Romans 7 verse 19, “For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.

In my early life I was painfully aware of what I think of as my core set of weaknesses:  Self-pity, arrogance and impatience.  I was prone to melt-downs and blow-ups.  I’ve mentioned in previous blogs that I grew up believing my behavior determined my salvation, and when I examined my behavior, I lived in a state of fear, guilt and despair as far as my salvation was concerned. 

Then, in my early thirties I discovered grace.  I learned that I was not saved on the basis of my obedience, but solely on the basis of what Jesus Christ had done for me.  Once I was thoroughly convinced of that truth I let go of the need to earn my salvation, but I expected that, over time, I would become a better person.

As time passed, however, I realized that as far as my core set of weaknesses were concerned, I had made little to no progress.  I knew now that my salvation wasn’t dependent on conquering those issues, but, frankly, I was ashamed of my continued failures!  I wanted to change.  This seemed like a worthy goal, so I rededicated myself to obedience. I pleaded with God to change me.  I tried hard to change.  I confess that I even pretended to change; but that worked for only so long, and then I either melted-down or blew up.  I was embarrassed and discouraged. The same old feelings of fear, guilt and despair, which used to plague me before I learned about grace, began to torment me again.  How was it possible to have been a Christian for so long, I wondered, and to have made so little progress in those areas?

In one of his blogs, Tullian Tchividjian borrows an illustration from Jack Miller regarding a similar struggle of Samuel Johnson, an 18^th century writer and moralist.  Taken from Johnson’s diary and prayer journal, Jack gives us a record–through the years–of Johnson’s life-long resolutions, failures, and frustrations:

1738: He wrote, “Oh Lord, enable me to redeem the time which I have spent in sloth.”

1757: (19 years later) “Oh mighty God, enable me to shake off sloth and redeem the time misspent in idleness and sin by diligent application of the days yet remaining.”

1759: (2 years later) “Enable me to shake off idleness and sloth.”

1761: “I have resolved until I have resolved that I am afraid to resolve again.”

1764: “My indolence since my last reception of the sacrament has sunk into grossest sluggishness. My purpose is from this time to avoid idleness and to rise early.”

1764: (5 months later) He resolves to rise early, “not later than 6 if I can.”

1765: “I purpose to rise at 8 because, though, I shall not rise early it will be much earlier than I now rise for I often lie until 2.”

1769: “I am not yet in a state to form any resolutions. I purpose and hope to rise early in the morning, by 8, and by degrees, at 6.”

1775: “When I look back upon resolution of improvement and amendments which have, year after year, been made and broken, why do I yet try to resolve again? I try because reformation is necessary and despair is criminal.” He resolves again to rise at 8.

1781: (3 years before his death) “I will not despair, help me, help me, oh my God.” He resolves to rise at 8 or sooner to avoid idleness.

I completely identified with Mr. Johnson’s heart! Thankfully, in my near despair, God led me to the book of 2 Corinthians, chapter 12 verses 7-9.  “To keep me from becoming conceited,” Paul says, “…there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.  But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

Whatever Paul’s thorn in the flesh actually was doesn’t matter.   God had been close to Paul and taught him many things, but because of that Paul was in danger of becoming conceited.  So, God sent him something which resulted in his being humbled.  Whatever it was, Satan used it to torment Paul and Paul wanted it to go away.  He did not want to feel weak! He wanted to be strong and competent!

I began to think about why I was so desperate to change.  Was it really about my desire to please God, or was it actually about my own embarrassment because I hadn’t changed?  Was it about God’s glory or my own?

God uses our weaknesses to keep us humble and to keep us honest.  We squirm uncomfortably, and beg him to remove our weaknesses, but instead he says, ‘My grace is sufficient for you.  It’s not about your goodness; it’s about my goodness toward you. Neither is it about your failures or inconsistencies; your melt downs or sloth (fill in your own weaknesses here); it’s about the fact that my grace has already provided all you need. Your weaknesses are an opportunity for me to demonstrate my power on your behalf. 

Paul’s response was, ‘Well, if that’s the case, then I’m just going to boast about my weaknesses, so that your power can rest on me!’

God may or may not allow me to see growth in my core areas of weakness. Who knows, maybe I have grown and just can’t see it; but that is not the point.  What God wants is for me to have a humble understanding of my need for him; gratitude for what he has done and continues to do for me; love for him, his word and his presence; increasing joy and peace as I rest in him; and growth in my desire to share with others the news of his amazing grace which he offers us especially because of the “agonizing gulf between the ought and the is”. 

FRUIT

“…The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”  Galatians 5:22

"I'm not a very good Christian".  I recently heard someone utter those words, and it made me stop and consider what they were really saying.  In my last blog, Which Lens,  I talked about two different ways of viewing the world, Action/Consequence and Death/Resurrection. 

Briefly, Action/Consequence is our natural, default way of thinking. It is about me--what I do and what I expect to achieve or receive as a result. When Action/Consequence is my world view, my life is about seeking my own gratification, recognition, glory, honor and praise. As a result, I will always be comparing and competing which leads to judging and often condemning others or myself. This way of thinking applies to everything in our lives, including religion, and leads to a distorted view of God.

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

With those two points of view in mind, I'd like to explore the concept of what it means to be a "good Christian", using John chapter 15 verses 1-4 as a framework: 
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.  You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.  Remain in me, and I will remain in you.  No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”

Let me begin by saying that, because Action/Consequence is our default way of thinking, it will also be the default lens we use when reading scripture.  Action/Consequence is natural, but Death/Resurrection is unnatural, and is revealed, or given to us, only by the Holy Spirit. When scripture is read through the lens of Action/Consequence, the reader comes away with a distorted Me-centered understanding of what was said.

In these verses, Action/Consequence will immediately focus on the words, “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit.”  Everything else in that passage will be secondary to those words and the understanding of the rest will be colored by how Action/Consequence interprets those words. 

I remember, as a young girl, sitting in a Bible class discussing what the word “fruit” represented in this passage.  Some thought it referred to the number of people you “saved”.  If you weren’t sharing your faith and no one was saved, God would cut you off.  Others argued that fruit represented obedience in general.  If you weren’t living a life of obedience, i.e. obeying all of God's commands, you would be cut off.

The sense of this passage, then, through the eyes of Action/Consequence is, “You better be good, or God will cut you off.  The only way you can be good is if I help you, so you better stay connected to me and produce fruit, or else.” When understood this way, these verses incite fear.  The fear is then used as motivation to devise plans for daily devotions, etc. in order to keep yourself connected to the vine, and to busy yourself trying to be the best you can be, so that God won’t chop you off. 

Now, let’s look at these verses again, through the lens of Death/Resurrection.  Jesus is the one speaking, and he begins by saying, “I am the true Vine”.  If there was no vine, there would be no branches, because the vine produces the branches. The vine is the source of life for the branches.  Jesus, and all that he represents, is the true Vine. 

Because we were dead in our transgressions and sins, without hope, God sent his Son to live a perfect life, which record he then applies to us; and to take our record of wrongs and pay the full penalty for them in our place. We stand, in Christ, on the other side of the grave, with our debt marked “Paid in full”.  Romans 8:1 says there is no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  For those who are in Christ, all condemnation is gone.  Jesus took it all. To be “in Christ”, is the same thing as being “in the Vine.”

We are connected to the Vine when we live out of the comfort, relief and assurance of all that Jesus has done on our behalf.  As we allow the implications of the gift to permeate our beings something inside of us shifts.  We stop striving to prove ourselves; stop trying to earn or deserve. We are humbled at the understanding of our undeservedness. An immense gratitude fills our hearts, and from that humble gratitude flows love for the one who has given us everything.  As we begin to comprehend the fact that, despite our unworthiness, we are dearly loved and accepted by God, a peace, unlike anything we have ever known, comes over us.  With the realization that, in Jesus, our sins will never be counted against us, a joy which cannot be contained bubbles out of us.  Without the weight of expectations hanging over our heads, we find ourselves becoming more patient, with ourselves and with others. Because of the kindness God has shown to us, we are also kinder, to ourselves and others.  When we know that our standing with God isn’t dependent on our own goodness, we find ourselves wanting to be better people.  The doubts and fears which used to plague us fade away, and we are full of faith in the One who has done everything for us.  We begin to desire to live into the way God already sees us, and humbly ask for his help in controlling the things which have controlled us in the past.  

Did you notice that I just covered all of the fruits of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22?  The natural outgrowth of being “in the vine”, is fruit.  The branch does not worry and strive to produce the fruit.  The fruit will grow simply because the branch is attached to the vine. 

Let’s look at verse four again, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you.  No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”  To remain in Jesus means to rest in him; to rest in his completed work for you; to know that you have nothing to prove.  As you remain “in Christ” or “in the Vine”, he will remain in you; continually reminding you of his love for you and all that he has done for you and is going to do in the ages to come.

If a person says he is attached to the Vine, but is still worrying and striving to “produce fruit”, he is living from Action/Consequence, and is not attached to the Vine. He may be producing good works, but it is not fruit.  The gardener is looking for fruit.

When someone says they are not a very good Christian, they are, most likely, thinking in Action/Consequence terms.  In reality, Christians are simply people who have come to realize the utter impossibility of ever being good enough to escape God’s judgment and punishment and have humbly and gratefully accepted God’s amazing offer to give Jesus the punishment which we deserve, and to give us Jesus’ perfect record which we don’t deserve.  Squarely facing our true condition and then accepting our belovedness because of Christ is what frees us, albeit imperfectly, to live a fruitful life.  

WHICH LENS?

“I pray 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 his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe….” Ephesians 1:18-19

Recently I have been working with a concept that has proven to be an incredibly helpful tool for me, not only in my study of Scripture, but in my life in general, and I want to share it with you in the hope that it will be useful for you as well.  Although I have made it my own, the idea is as old as Scripture and has been expressed in many ways by many others over the centuries.

I maintain that we view all of life – our circumstances, friendships, love relationships, the authority figures in our lives and even God and Scripture – through one of two lenses, which I have called Action/Consequence and Death/Resurrection.  Let me explain what I mean.

I see Action/Consequence as being our natural, default way of viewing the world. ‘If I do this, I will get that.’ ‘If you do this, in relation to me, you will get that.’  Consequences, of course, can be either positive or negative.  For example, if I’m nice, people will like me.  If you’re a jerk to me, you will not like how I am to you.  If I work hard, my boss will notice me.  If I slack off, my boss will notice me, too, but in a different way!

The Action/Consequence model, then, is about my expectations; about what I believe I deserve in response to my actions, based on my perception of justice or fairness.  Someone once told me that we were created to live in a perfect world, but all that remains is our expectation of it in relation to ourselves.  When I put forth a positive effort, my expectation is that I will be rewarded.  If I am not rewarded, I feel that I have not been treated fairly. I do not, however, necessarily have that same sense of fairness when it comes to rewarding your positive actions; but, if your actions negatively impact me in some way, I do have a strong sense of justice in regard to the punishment I think you should receive!

Because this is our natural way of viewing the world, it is also our default way of understanding religion.  When Action/Consequence is applied to religion it will always be about me and my doing – ‘If I do this, I will receive that.’  We see this in all world religions.  When it is applied to Christianity it says, ‘If I do this/don’t do this, I will go to heaven.  If I do this/don’t do this, I will go to hell.  If we believe that we are the ones going to heaven, we will have feelings of self-righteousness and superiority.  We will look down on and judge those we feel are not living in a way that is worthy of heaven, or at least as worthy as we are.  On the other hand, if we want to go to heaven, but believe we are the ones deserving of hell, we will live in fear, despair, guilt and shame.  Both groups operate under the assumption that their salvation is won or lost based upon their actions.

Sadly, many churches which call themselves Christian, under the guise of honoring God, preach only the message of Action/Consequence.  You will hear merely a sentence or two in passing about Jesus; the idea of his dying for our sins is used only as a springboard for the real emphasis, which is about me and what I am to do.

Action/Consequence is Me centered.  It focuses on what I can achieve or gain.  It compares and competes, judges and condemns; it is tit for tat, eye for an eye, dog eat dog; it seeks gratification, recognition, glory, honor and praise for me, even at the expense of others.

The second way of viewing the world is Death/Resurrection.  This way of thinking is not natural to us; in fact, it is so completely counter intuitive that it seems upside down and backwards to the way we naturally think.  It is a point of view that comes only through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and without his help we quickly lose the concept and revert to Action/Consequence thinking.  Whereas Action/Consequence applies to everything in life, and therefore extends to religion; the Death/Resurrection concept applies first to our understanding of our relationship to God, and then extends to our view of everything else in our lives. 

Death/Resurrection has nothing to do with my actions and achievements; it is all and only about the actions of someone else on my behalf:  ‘Because of what Jesus did for me, I will live.’

To illustrate what I mean, I refer you to the book of Ephesians, Chapter 2, verses 1-10.  Verse 1 begins, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world….”  First of all, what does Paul say was our condition?  Pretty sick?  Nearly dead? No, we were dead; no sign of life. When you are dead, how much can you do to save yourself?  The only hope for a dead person is resurrection, and that certainly must come from a source outside of you.

Secondly, when does Paul say we were dead?  When we “followed the ways of this world”.  Of course, “the ways of this world” can mean the list of sinful acts our minds go to when we read verses like this, or those words can refer to the default ‘way’ of the world—described as Action/Consequence above.

Verse 3 continues, “All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.” Again, the cravings, desires and thoughts of our sinful natures are for our own gratification, recognition, glory, honor and praise. 

Then verse 3 goes on to say, “Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath”.  Along with everyone else, we deserved God’s punishment, or his wrath, to be poured out on us; not so much because of our sinful acts, but rather due to the fallen nature from which those acts came.

To sum up our condition as described in verses 1-3, we were dead, waiting for God’s final judgment, condemnation and wrath, with no ability to help ourselves in any way; a seemingly hopeless situation!

Thankfully, the passage continues in verses 4 and 5, “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” That is the heart of Death/Resurrection! Because of God’s love, and God’s love alone, we were dead and then made alive with Christ!

The next verses explain more fully what God actually did for us, and why he did it, verse 6, “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus…” Where are we already seated as a result of having been raised with Christ? With him in heaven!   As surely as you’re seated on your couch or chair at this moment, in Christ, you are already seated in heaven!  Not because you earned the right or deserved to be there, since you were dead and unable to do anything, but simply because of God’s great love and mercy!

 And, why did he do this for us? Verse 7 says, “…in order that, in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”  Action/Consequence thinking would expect the verse to say he raised us up so that we could do something in return for his kindness; but, instead, it says God raised us up so that he, for all of the coming ages, could show the incomparable riches of his grace to us! Instead of telling us what he expects us to do for him, he tells us that he has only begun to shower us with his incredible riches!

In verses 8 and 9, Paul makes sure that we understand there is no room for us to claim we have earned any of this; he says again, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” 

In the Death/Resurrection model, God is clearly the only one who deserves glory! We must come to realize that we, and all of humanity, are on the same level playing field; we are all alike in our unworthiness and need.  There is no basis for comparing and competing, judging and condemning. Whatever we have, we have received as a gift. We bring nothing to the table but our need, and who would brag about that?

I know some of you are uncomfortably asking, ‘Isn’t there anything that I’m supposed to do?’ Let’s look carefully at the end of verse 9 and then verse 10 to see how Paul addresses that issue, “…not by works so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship…”  We have nothing to boast about because we are God’s workmanship.  We are not our own workmanship. We are not intended to be self-made men and women who must pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps! 

Verse 10 goes on to say, “…we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus…” In this Death/Resurrection status we are being created, by God.  We do not create ourselves; He creates us.  And how is he fashioning us, creating us? By firmly grounding us in the truth that everything we need, he has already done for us through his son, Jesus Christ!  As we humbly begin to accept and believe this incredible truth, our hearts respond with a gratitude and love that cannot be contained.  God then reveals to us his plan-- for us “to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  God has carefully and thoughtfully planned ways for each of us to share, with our neighbor, our humble, grateful love; not to earn God’s favor but because of his favor!

Because we are human, our initial way of viewing things will always be Action/Consequence.  My hope is that, by understanding and acknowledging this, we will learn to pause and allow the Holy Spirit to change our lens.