Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Maturity

The first chapter of 2 Peter is an amazing chapter. I have really come to appreciate the depth of Peter’s thought in the last month or so. In this chapter, he defines Christian maturity and places great emphasis on what makes Christian growth possible.

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. (2 Peter 1:3-4 ESV)

He begins with an all-encompassing indicative, namely that through the knowledge of Jesus Christ God has granted us all we need. It is our knowledge of what God has done for us through Christ that allows us to escape worldly corruption and partake in the divine nature. This knowledge is the very foundation of Christian maturity. As Paul states in Romans 1:16 and 1 Corinthians 1:18, this knowledge (the good news of the gospel) is to us the power of God.

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. (2 Peter 1:5-7 ESV)

He then moves on to the imperatives of Christian maturity, very clearly tying them to the indicatives of verses 3 and 4 in stating “For this very reason”. He wants us to understand that the process of maturing is completely dependent upon God. While we are to make every effort, the power behind our effort is the gift of knowledge which allows us to become partakers of the divine nature.

For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. (2 Peter 1:8-9 ESV)

Here he sandwiches the imperatives with indicative again. If we lack these qualities, it is because we have focused on our maturity to the exclusion of the very thing that makes our maturity possible. If ever we forget that we have been cleansed from our sins, if ever we cast aside the gospel power in our lives, we lose the ability to move forward. It is in looking back to the first things that we find the ability to see the second things come to fruition in our lives.

Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. (2 Peter 1:10 ESV)

Indeed it is the first things that we are to be diligent in confirming. Our calling and election are what set us apart from this world where such things as faith, virtue, knowledge of God, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection and love are rare commodities. These are fruit of the Spirit, and without the Spirit reminding us to abide in Christ and what he has accomplished, we cannot bring them about. To be fruitful, we must embrace “the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence”. We must walk in the gospel truth.

God Bless

Monday, January 23, 2012

Walking in the Light

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

(1 John 1:5-10 ESV)

So today I am a post abuser. Things are coming fast and furious around this passage and I want to get the thoughts down before they escape.

One of the truly striking things about this passage is that John nowhere alludes to the fact that we have no darkness. He does state that God is light and that in Him there is no darkness. But the reality is that he doesn’t even hint that there will be a time when darkness is not present within us. In fact, the last verse makes clear that we are saddled with sin, and to think otherwise is to make God a liar.

John’s warning to us is that we are not to walk in darkness. This really harkens back to Christ’s words in John 3 that men hate the light and refuse to come into it. By this we can conclude that it is not the darkness within us which God abhors (which He clearly recognizes) but our desire to remain in darkness, to walk in darkness.

And so we, though we have darkness within us, are instructed to walk in the light. Who’s light? Our own, no, God’s light. When we walk in the light we realize two benefits from it; we may freely fellowship with one another – without shame, guilt, hiding or lying to each other and; the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. Does that then mean that we are cleansed to the point where there is no darkness within us? John answers with the next verse. ”If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” So at no point in earthly life should we expect that we shall be free of darkness. Our striving to be free of darkness is futile. John’s encouragement is simply this: walk in the light.

We all struggle with sin. Our natural response when we encounter the identity crisis of sin is to withdraw from the light. As a child, if we had done something we knew was wrong, which of us did not naturally try to avoid our parents as long as possible. Which of us did not attempt to lie to cover our wrongdoing? We did this because we feared the consequences of our wrongdoing. But God’s love, unlike that of our parents, is perfect. As John states in chapter 4 and verse 18 of this same book, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” To be perfected in love is not to be sinless, but to walk without fear before God understanding that the act of walking in the light is more important to God than our wrongdoing.

Again, this is no license to sin. To walk in the light is to know Him. In chapter 3 John states, “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.” Those walking in the light make no habit of sinning. But when we do sin, for we will sin, we must not recede to the darkness. We must understand and accept the fact that God knows us, all of us, and that more than anything He wants us to walk in the light of his perfect love. To confess our sin to the one who loves us without flaw, without condition, without cost is to walk in the light.

Christian maturity is not sinless perfection, but honest interaction with God. Faith in Christ’s work keeps us in the light because it is undeniable proof that God loves sinners like us perfectly. It is the gospel that proves God’s love for us and draws us from darkness into the light. From the punishment meted out by the law to the love of God demonstrated by His mercy. And though sin remain, it is no longer that which forces us further into the darkness, but that which should create in us the desire to run into the light. 

God Bless

Letting God Love You

There’s something that’s been rolling around in my head for a couple of weeks that became concrete this morning as I read the gospel of Matthew. I have been thinking that one of the biggest roadblocks we have to faith is that we don’t let God love us. Not the way he wants. We want to work for His love because that is the only kind of love we have ever experienced. That working – the lack of just freely accepting His love – is one of our greatest follies.

This became clear to me in the words of Jesus to the people of Jerusalem from Matthew 23:37; “How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” 

Why were they not willing to be gathered under the wings of their God? For the same reason that many of us aren’t; we’re too busy in our pursuit of God. We want to practice religion, to establish a relationship with God by our working, tithing, learning, trying, striving, praying, fasting, worshipping and so on. We cannot accept that free gift of God because we so dearly desire to earn it, as did the Jews of Jerusalem. We establish walls around doctrines and rules and regulations which we staunchly defend, even as the Jewish leaders did.

In the first half of the verse (Matthew 23:37) Jesus says, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!” Likewise, in our zeal to pursue God, we ‘kill’ prophets and stone God’s messengers, as did the Pharisees. God’s love is light, and light reveals the darkness in us. It threatens us because “people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.”(John 3:19-20 ESV) Entering into relationship with God involves letting our guard down, being willing to accept the light – being open to allowing Him to love us despite the darkness within us. It is ultimate vulnerability.

The really glorious thing about this vulnerability to God is that He will never abuse it. Being vulnerable to God is the safest thing we can do. It allows us to stop kidding ourselves about the darkness in ourselves and remain within the light that ultimately drives the darkness from us. “…God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”(1 John 1:5-7 ESV)

Jerusalem was full of darkness as Jesus spoke these words. But the light had come into the world. And soon he would be lifted up as tangible proof of God’s love for His people. He is still tangible proof of God’s love today. Being saved is not as simple as confession of sins, the seeking of forgiveness of sins, or saying some words. Being saved is allowing God to love you through the ultimate act of love – Calvary. You are His child. Be gathered under the safety of His wings. Come into the light.

God Bless

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Epic Failure

Everything I have ever attempted to do for God has been an epic failure. In fact, epic failure was critical to my salvation. Epic failure is critical to the salvation of mankind. Until we are convinced that all of our efforts to please God will result in epic failure, we cannot be saved.

To prove it, do this one thing for two minutes: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” (Deuteronomy 6:5 ESV)

The Jeopardy theme is playing… GO…

Now, if you tried to do what was commanded on your own strength, you just encountered epic failure. You cannot meet the command by your own effort. Within 15 seconds your mind probably drifted on to something else, carrying your heart and might with it.

Try this one: “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” (Colossians 3:2 ESV) And GO…

Again, epic failure. This is why you never seem to see commands of this type standing alone in the New Testament. Because Biblical commandments set a bar so high that the inevitable result is epic failure without an understanding of God’s success on our behalf. When Paul wrote his letter to the Colossians he knew that they would immediately pick up on his command to set their minds on things above, which is why he continued with “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:3 ESV) It is the knowledge that you have died and are hidden with Christ that makes it possible for you to set your minds on things above. A deep understanding of these truths removes the burden of the commandment.

Now I think we intuitively know this. The problem is that the dying makes us uncomfortable so we skim over that part. Our humanity searches for the ‘can dos’ of scripture because we want to be vitally involved in our salvation. The ‘is dones’ of scripture force us into the uncomfortable realm of death to self and so we simply gloss over them as we look for what we feel we need to accomplish to satisfy God. As a result we bounce from one epic failure to another until the day, by the grace of God, we are so worn down by failure that we recognize the futility of it all and fall back on what God has already accomplished for us.

Most evangelism today is very focused on the love of God. Of course the love that God has for us is the motivating and fruit-producing force behind true Christianity. But a very important part of evangelism is to reveal human fallibility. The Old Testament Commandments were given for this purpose. They reveal the epic failure of mankind to please God by what he does. Many of us were lured to Christ by a message of love and forgiveness which did not show us our complete inability to please God by our fleshly ability. The result is that we enter into Christian life trying with all our might to meet the commandments of scripture instead of accepting the fact that Christ met the commandments on our behalf. Christian life then becomes a long string of epic failures, which is why so many drop out of it.

The truth is that Christ has kept the commandments for you. Look to his perfect life on your behalf instead of to yourself for the perfection God requires and you will find rest, having died and been hidden in him. Resting in him will allow you the leisure you need to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Accept what he has done in order that, as Paul says, "the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." (Romans 8:4 ESV)

God Bless

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Gratitude

Gratitude is an important component of Christian living. We ought always to be thankful for what God has done and is doing in our lives and the lives of others. If I take serious stock of myself though, I realize that I fall far short in this regard as I do elsewhere. That idea leads me to wonder how much of what we do is motivated out of thanksgiving? 

Now I often preach that we need the gospel in our lives as a constant reminder of what God has done for us if we are to abide in Christ and grow in grace. I wonder, though, how that works. Is it a spirit of gratitude that brings about the needed changes in my life? I think that is definitely part of it. But, like all human effort, I find myself incapable of giving God the gratitude He richly deserves. I fail time and again to be thankful to Him, and yet somehow the gospel continues to convince me that I am secure in Him without reservation. It’s not that I am never thankful to Him, it’s that I’m not thankful often enough, sincerely enough or deeply enough to make me think that my gratitude alone is responsible for the changes being brought about in me. There is some power within the gospel that surpasses my ability to be shaped by my appreciation for Christ’s work. 

I don’t think the gospel really counts on our fallible ability to act out of appreciation. All human effort to achieve relationship with God, even gratitude, is limited by the sinful nature. The gospel, uniquely, teaches us something more important; that Christ’s life and death are substitutionary. He is my substitute before God. He lived a perfect life and died a sinner’s death in my place. The only thing I can do to appropriate that is to believe. But there’s even a catch to that; the faith by which we believe is a gift as well (see Ephesians 2:8-9). 

Now I would be a fool to understand (according to my limited capacity) what God has done on my behalf and not be grateful. I am extremely grateful. But in my moment of greatest gratitude I feel that what I can offer as thanks to God falls far, far short of what He deserves. So I am grateful that God does not expect my gratitude to justify or sanctify me (yes – that was a play on words). 

The gospel does not impart to us the power to be saved, stay saved, or be sanctified. The gospel is the power of God that saves us, keeps us saved, and sanctifies us. “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18 ESV) Somehow the substitutionary work of Christ, continuously acknowledged within us by the Spirit, is the only power on earth that can save sinners and makes real change within our lives. Any human effort, emotion or response, including gratitude, is bound to eventually fail us. But the gospel reminds us that God never fails. 

God Bless

Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Doubt


I am a connoisseur of the blogosphere.  I enjoy reading the blogs of others almost every day. And almost every day I see a post by someone dealing with doubts about salvation. I know many who can never feel quite comfortable in their own salvation and that is very unfortunate. But I think I understand the cause.

Plainly stated, the extent to which you are able to doubt your salvation is directly correlated to your perception of responsibility for it. If you feel that you must work to earn or keep your salvation, you will doubt that salvation when you have not worked enough. If you feel that salvation is a ‘one-sided rescue’ which is accomplished by God on your behalf, you will have no need to doubt it.

The simple idea that you were responsible for choosing Christ as your savior leaves ample room for doubt. What if I didn’t do it correctly? What if I didn’t choose Him ‘enough’? What if I have believed in vain? All of these questions indicate that you are in large part relying on yourself for your salvation, and not God. There are legitimate questions that need to be asked, as Paul encourages the Corinthians; ”Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” (2 Corinthians 13:5 ESV) In light Paul’s question you must ask yourself, “Can I put Jesus Christ in me?” The answer, of course, is no. Only God can do that. Paul tells us we need to examine ourselves to see if God has put Christ in us. If he has then there is no room for doubt. If not, then we need to be greatly concerned.

Doubt, as a matter of scriptural fact, is an indicator that we don’t have a mature understanding of salvation. Salvation is completely of God. God is unchanging. If I have accepted the fact that I have been saved by God alone, apart from my works, then my salvation is every bit as unchanging as God. I can rest secure in the knowledge that God will not revoke His gifts. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV) We can all recite it, but do we all believe it? Paul could easily have ended this passage “lest any man should doubt”.  When you remove our works from salvation doubt is impossibility. A salvation that is 100% God is 100% secure. A salvation that is 99.9% God is a breeding ground for doubt.

The whole idea for this post came from reading again in the book of Acts how God was continually ‘adding’ individuals to the early church. The matter-of-fact way that Luke writes of these things is obvious to the 21st century Arminian mind. The apostles are given no credit. The believers are given no credit.  To God alone is credit given for the growth of the church:
And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. (Acts 2:47 ESV)
And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. (Acts 13:48 ESV)
If you have been saved, you may rest assured that your salvation is of God. You did nothing to earn it. Please stop acting and thinking as if you had to earn it! Stop doubting and accept the love of God in Christ. That is what salvation is: Christ reconciling us to God through his own blood. If you could earn salvation through your own effort or sacrifice, why did Christ have to die? Why? To say that you doubt salvation is to say that you doubt the efficacy of the life, death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Otherwise what you are saying is that you doubt yourself. Which means you believe you are responsible for your own salvation, which is no salvation at all. Think about it.

God Bless