How To Win Souls and Silence Ignorance...

Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. (1 Peter 2:13-17 ESV)

I was struck by the power of Peter’s words this morning in light of what the Christian church in America is experiencing right now. I have had numerous conversations these past weeks since the election that end up with someone asking me, “Okay, at what point do we resist the government?”

It’s a valid question from a purely wordly viewpoint. We look back over 200 plus years of economic, political and religious liberty and pine for ‘the good ol’ days’. I myself have felt a certain sense of mourning related to the apparent loss of liberties which were hard-won and kept – the blood of patriots and defenders which seems now to have been spilled for nothing if we simply allow our civil liberties to slip away. It is heart-wrenching.

But in a bigger sense, we as Christians have not only the ability but the responsibility to live lives which are separated from all of this earthly in-fighting. We are not above politics, but we are not of it either. We are to be in the world but not of it – subject to political turmoil but not emotionally invested. And this is what I saw for the first time today in the words of Peter quoted above. I have said before that the liberty that the government allows me does not make me free. It is Christ who makes me free. When we confound civil liberty with true liberty and become invested in the battles of this world, we have ceased to be free people, even as we fight to remain ‘free’ in a civil sense.

The picture that Peter paints in the passage above is one that makes no sense to the natural mind. He offers no opportunity for fear, subversion or fighting against human institutions. None. If the American church were to live in accordance with the words of Peter, we would live as people who are free regardless of what the government imposes upon us. We would not be shouting down the opposition, but by doing good we would silence the ignorance of our opponents (who happen to be every political faction in this country). We would not be stock-piling weapons and installing solar power so we could go off the grid, but actually continuing, without complaint, to be a city on a hill. We would honor all people regardless of their political views. We would be a people who refuse to play the game but go about God’s business knowing that human institutions rise and fall and rise again as the Kingdom of God is steadily, surely advanced.

Note that this is not a position of weakness, but of strength. A person who is aware of his freedom in Christ cannot be stopped in the service of God even by death. He will continue to operate under the most oppressive human regimes (as can be witnessed in other parts of the world and throughout human history) without regard for his own safety, seeking to do good to others for the sake of his Lord. His resistance is not overtly pointed at any human institutions, but at the powers and principalities that direct human institutions. This is the ultimate threat to any and all human institutions, because it is not sided with any of them and therefore cannot be debated nor fought from any of their positions. This doing good for God’s sake is more powerful than any armed resistance. It cannot be stopped by the weapons of this world because it does not belong to this world.

Interestingly enough, the American church has taken a stance that attempts to co-opt the political process in bringing about Kingdom growth. We have decided that the way to bring about heavenly change is to harness earthly institutions. So we have become emotionally invested in the process in such a way that we cannot offer honor to anyone who disagrees with us. The effect of this is that we have become little more than a political faction ourselves, being both in and of the world. This is a position of tremendous weakness because it relegates us to the use of earthly weapons in a battle that is ultimately fought in the heavenlies. We are severely limiting ourselves and are in direct disobedience to the commands of God. We are casting aside our freedom in Christ to fight on behalf of the human institutions that seek to enslave us. And we are throwing away the strength of our witness as it becomes apparent that we are as petty as the other participants.

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1 ESV) To become embroiled in the affairs of men is to abdicate your freedom in Christ and become ensnared once again in the 'elementary principles' of this world. That is the gospel truth.

God Bless

Weekend Round-up 11/23/2012

Some of the stuff I found interesting around the blogosphere this week:

…preach the real Gospel with its comfort without hesitation C.F.W. Walther. If the gospel is good news, why do we feel we have to mix a little bit of bad news in to make people behave?

On the law and the gospel - Poetry by Ralph Erskine.

Not Faith, but Christ - Horatius Bonar. The righteous shall live by faith. But faith in what. So often we place faith in our faith rather than in Christ. "Faith does not justify as a work, or as a moral act, or a piece of goodness, nor as a gift of the Spirit, but simply because it is the bond between us and the Substitute; a very slender bond in one sense, but strong as iron in another."

The Indignity of Giving Thanks - It is impossible to worship God without gratitude, and it is impossible to be grateful while clinging to self-sufficiency and entitlement at the same time. Yes, there is some vulnerability in gratitude sincerely expressed, but that is because we are relational beings whose deepest needs can only be met in partnership with others and ultimately with God.

Rightly Dividing the Word

God gives two words. These two words are law and gospel. Neither necessarily carries more weight, but each has a particular function in Christian life and preaching. They stand as complete words separately, yet complement each other beautifully. Failure to distinguish between the two words or to preach some mixture of them as the same word invariably leads to confusion and often to exasperation and rejection of both. It is, therefore, of utmost importance that we learn to carefully distinguish between the two and understand their respective functions.

The Law is meant to terrify. It never comforts, and offers no relief from its relentless demands of perfection. It says “Thou shalt” and “Thou shalt not” and can bring nothing but wrath upon those who fail to keep it. It does nothing to woo us to obedience, but demands obedience with no offer of aid. We cannot be justified by doing it because it was never intended to justify. As Paul states in Romans 3:20, ”…by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” This passage indicates what the law does and does not do; it does not justify but makes us aware of our sin.

The first function of the Law is to show sinners their sinfulness. It is the very thing that destroys our illusions of self-righteousness. It shows us that we are law-breakers, and in so doing leads us to despair. We might be ever so secure in our sinning – imagining ourselves to be ‘pretty good’ relative to others – until the law comes and shows us that the standard is not ‘pretty good’, but perfection. Since none of us is perfect, the law passes judgment on our imperfection and exposes us to the truth that we are “vessels of wrath prepared for destruction.” (Romans 9:22 ESV) The law is meant to terrify.

The other word of God is the gospel. It is meant to comfort those who have been terrorized by the law. The law points the accusing finger at us and declares “guilty”. The gospel says to us, “There is one who has fulfilled the law on your behalf. Believe that He has done it and be declared righteous.” The gospel, unlike the law, makes no demands of perfection. It is an invitation to enter into the rest which was won by Christ – to be sheltered from the terrifying demands of the law. The person who has accepted this invitation has been released from the tyranny of law.

In practice, as Christians, the law will often come to terrify us with its threatenings. It will repeatedly remind us that we are not yet perfect in thought, word or deed. But, for the Christian, the law does not carry the promised wrath that it does for the non-Christian. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1 ESV) The law still threatens us, but has no power to condemn us. To the Christian, the law is a sheep dog. If a sheep strays from the heard, the purpose of the sheep dog is to threaten it in such a way as to drive it back to the safety of the shepherd without injuring it. Like the sheep, we don’t always understand that the law has no intention of injuring us. When it barks at us, we might bolt away from the shepherd in terror or stubbornly challenge it. This causes the law to redouble its efforts to drive us back to the shepherd and safety. If we learn that comfort and safety are found when we are near the shepherd, we can save ourselves much grief and terror. The shepherd is the only one who can truly protect us from both the threats that lay outside the heard and the sheep dogs within. We must come to understand that the shepherd and the sheep dogs are on the same team, and the goal of the team is our safety, but they have very different functions. In the end, we must not run at the dogs, but to the shepherd. The closer we stay to him, the less the dogs will threaten us.

This is where we so often get ourselves in trouble. When we sin, we fall back into our old habits of either softening up the law to make it appear possible to keep, comparing ourselves with others to justify our sin, or believing that this is the only word of God that applies to us and running from it. This is because we misunderstand the purpose of the law, again thinking that we are somehow justified or condemned by it. When we sin, it is not struggling to meet or run from the law that will bring us back to God, but the richness God’s mercy which is demonstrated in the gospel. If the gospel of God’s kindness is mixed with the wrath of the law, it cannot comfort us but only force us to continue running. This ‘law/gospel hybrid’ does not maintain either the sharp edge of the law or the welcoming comfort of the gospel and in the end is good for nothing.

It is important for us to learn to make a sharp distinction between the two words of God and allow each to function as it is intended in our lives. It is doubly important that we understand this when presenting the two words to others. If we terrorize with the law without offering the comfort of the gospel, there is no balance in our evangelism and we will produce sheep that run from the shepherd. If we comfort the self-righteous who have never been broken by the law, we will produce sheep that have no regard for the safety that the shepherd alone offers and wander without regard for the law. If we mix the two as if they are one, we produce sheep that are ultimately brought to absolute confusion and disgust with the whole thing.

That is the gospel truth.

God Bless

The Weekend Round-up 11/16/2012

Here's your round up for the week...

Sermon: Halloween vs Christmas - Transcription of a sermon by Nick Lannon. Probably worthy of Christian hate-mail in the Bible belt, but a fun read with some good points.

A great quoted bit from Martin Luther - posted on Liberate by Tullian Tchividjian.

Ralph Erskine on the Law - ...I run to my sweet husband, who hath sugared and sweetened the law, with a gospel-dress and form; which, giving strength to obey, and shewing the believer’s freedom from the wrath of God...

Standing on My Tiptoes - A great piece by Elyse Fitzpatrick about how we track our Christian growth in an attempt to measure up.

Hallelujah! What a Savior - John Dink: Cheap law weakens God’s demand for perfection, and in doing so, breaths life into the old creature and his quest for a righteousness of his own making. And what I’m telling you is this: what doesn’t kill him, makes him stronger. Lowering the bar lets the Old Adam peek into the Promised Land. It allows the flesh to survive by rebelling in a form of external piety.

Stuff Christians Say - We have our own music, our own movies, our own coffee houses and even our own cuss words. A humorous look at why we may appear 'peculiar' to the world, not necessarily in the biblical sense of 'peculiar'.

Hebrews 11 & 12; Heroes of Faith?

I have had the pleasure of reading through Hebrews chapters 11 and 12 again these past few days with fresh eyes. I love it when scripture takes on fresh meaning!

Hebrews chapter 11, as most of us will know, is the hall of fame of faith.  The writer begins by telling us what faith is – “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Verse 1) He tells us that the people of old were commended (worthy of confidence or notice) by their faith. He tells us that by faith we believe all things were created by God. He then lists a number of saints by name and tells of the things they did by faith:

1.  Able offered God a more acceptable sacrifice
2. Enoch was taken up without dying
3. Noah built the ark
4. Abraham left his home and went to a place he did not know
5. Sarah conceived a child
6. Abraham offered up Isaac
7. Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau
8. Jacob blessed the sons of Joseph
9. Moses’ parents defied pharaoh by keeping their son from death
10. Moses refused to live as one of Pharaoh’s house
11. Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt
12. The Israelites passed through the Red Sea while the Egyptians were drowned
13. Joshua and the Israelites brought down the walls of Jericho
14. Rahab did not perish with the people of Jericho because she welcomed the Israelite spies

That’s a pretty handy early history of Israel that shows how individuals were involved in bringing about the plan of God. In the past, I always read this passage more as a list of heroes who had exercised great faith and accomplished great things. My problem was that I had weak faith compared to them. But this time through, my mind went back to the definition of faith that we find often in the New Testament – a belief in the promise of God that is birthed in us when we hear the promise of God. (Romans 10:14)

When we look at it that way two things happen. First, we stop idolizing the characters as heroes because they were just common people to whom God had presented a promise, and that promise created faith within them. They were no more able to muster up faith than we are. Their faith had the same source as ours – simply trusting the spoken word of God. Second, we see clearly that God brings about His will in this world through the faith which he gives. We can clearly trace the hand of God in the history of Israel, but here the writer takes us in close to see how God’s gift of faith to certain individuals was instrumental in directing the course of that history. They all failed in many ways, and yet because they trusted the promise which had been given they were able to accomplish much for God.

The writer then lists many others by name, and still other nameless ones who won incredible victories and endured unimaginable torture by faith. And he wraps it all up by saying that all of these were commended by God simply because they heard the promise in such a way that it created faith in their lives. Despite the fact that they lived according to the promise they were given, they never received what was promised. But they did receive the Word. The Word which was to become flesh, as John 1 explains.

Just about the time I thought I was interpreting all of this a little too loosely, I turned to chapter 12, and the interpretation was confirmed:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV)

The Word which became flesh, Jesus Christ, is both the founder (the originator) and the perfecter of our faith. In other words, faith doesn't begin and end with us. Faith comes by hearing the word about Christ. When we hear the promise, it creates the very same faith in us that it did in Able, Abraham, Moses, etc. Only better, because now the promise is perfected. The Logos has become flesh and fulfilled the promise, and we, by the faith of the promise, have Him. 

One last thing; when we read the history of Israel it is easy to see God’s hand moving – as it is always easy to see as we look back. But we forget that Abraham had no idea where he was going or what he was getting into when he left home for the Promised Land; Noah had never seen a raindrop when he built the ark, Jacob had no idea that he was blessing Jacob instead of Esau. These people did not plan out the course of history, but simply lived according to the promise they had been given as well as they could. They failed often, protested that they were ill-suited, and were given to sin the same as we are. But by faith – belief in the promise which the promise itself brought about – they were used to alter the course of history. That is something for us to consider as we seek to live lives which are pleasing to God. God doesn’t commend people for the things they have done or will do, but for their acceptance of His promise. That is the gospel truth.

God Bless

Spiritual Finance 101

Most of us are familiar with the terms ‘in the red’ and ‘in the black’ as they are used in finance. To be ‘in the red’ is to be running a deficit – to be spending more money than one is taking in. The United States government is currently ‘in the red’ by trillions of dollars. To be ‘in the black’ is to be without deficit. It means we are making a profit – bringing in more than we are spending.

All people start out spiritually ‘in the red’ with God. We all rack up a debt of sin that we cannot repay, and whether we recognize it or not we all spend a good part of our lives working like dogs in the attempt to repay that debt. We make a ledger of good and bad and try to keep the good out-weighing the bad. But however long the good column becomes, the Law of God will continually point out our failings and add more to the bad column. Paul’s description: “Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.” (Galatians 3:23 ESV)

For some of us, the day comes when we realize that we will never get ‘in the black’ on our own. Someone presents the gospel to us and we realize that the only way to be ‘in the black’ with God is through Jesus Christ. “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” (Colossians 2:13-14 ESV) We accept that he has paid our debt, cancelled our deficit and given us a zero balance in the ledger. The grass seems a little greener and the sky a little bluer for a while as we begin to actually operate our lives to profit God. Then the first bill comes due and payable as our sin returns with a vengeance.

When this happens, many of us as Christians perceive that we are once again spiritually ‘in the red’. We feel that we are again underperforming and running a deficit with God. We do not live up to His standards and begin expending almost all of our energy trying to bring our faith back ‘into the black’. This has got to be one of the enemy’s greatest traps because there is no way we can move forward and create Kingdom growth so long as we are consumed with fighting this perceived deficit. This is exactly the reason he constantly accuses us of our wrongdoing – so that he can eat up vast amounts of time and energy by convincing us that we must work to be ‘in the black’.

Once we place faith in Christ, the scripture tells us that God sets our account ‘in the black’ to stay. Even if we go on a spending binge (with sin as the capitol) we run no deficit. Common sense will tell us that this is ridiculous – that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Our pride bridles against such a hand-out and wants to force us to enter everything in the deficit column of our ledger. But the more we enter in the loss column, the more God places in the profit column to balance the account again. “Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 5:20-21 ESV)

Why?

You see, God has called us for a purpose, and that purpose is to advance His Kingdom. He knows that we cannot and will not advance His interests as long as we are expending every ounce of our energy trying to get back ‘into the black’. I think about the Manhattan Project of World War II (the development of the atomic bomb). All stops were pulled out because the United States did not want the scientists worrying if they were spending too much in reaching their goal. The government was willing to pay any costs associated without hesitation so that the ultimate goal could be met. God has done the same for us. He doesn’t want us worried about where every spiritual penny is being spent – he doesn’t even want us wasting time with a ledger – so he has extended us endless spiritual capitol to use in attaining His goal. He has literally thrown the ledger out the window and told us that we are free to expend whatever we need to advance His Kingdom.

So God’s grace must abound more than our sin because we are sinners. And yet God has chosen us, as sinners, to bring Him glory in this world. To do so, we must be free people – constantly ‘in the black’. In Christ, God continues to pay our debt not so that we can sin more extravagantly, but so that we can operate unhindered in His calling. If you feel trapped ‘in the red’ today, that is merely a feeling. The truth is that God has put you, as a Christian, ‘in the black’ to stay. He has freed you so that you may serve him freely. That is the gospel truth.

God Bless.

Dead Works from a Guilty Conscience

Reading in Hebrews 9 this morning, I was struck in a new way by the outward appeal of the law to the flesh. In particular, the writer speaks of the effect of the ceremonial law with regard to sin:

For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. (Hebrews 9:13-14 ESV)

I suppose what really caught my attention was that the ceremonial blood rites were to ‘sanctify for the purification of the flesh’ and that this was contrasted with the blood of Christ which is able to ‘purify the conscience’. The sprinkling of blood and ashes were to deal with the outward sin of one’s life, but had no power to cleanse the conscience. Only the blood of Christ will cleanse the conscience.

This led my mind back to the words of Christ in Matthew 5. His series of statements with regard to the moral law – “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder… commit adultery… swear falsely’” – remind us that the law is aimed at the flesh in an attempt to sanctify a person’s actions. This is sanctification for the purification of the flesh, as the writer of Hebrews puts it. The corresponding series of answers – “But I say to you…” – are pointed at the inner man. These statements take aim at the place within us that cannot be purified by works or religious ceremony but only by the blood of Christ.

We cannot turn from dead works to serve the living God so long as our consciences condemn us. We will, like our first parents Adam and Eve, continue to hide and run from the condemnation of a holy God. This is why we need a savior – because “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” (Hebrews 9:22 ESV) Until our consciences rest in the assurance that Christ has given account for every wrong committed by our sinful hearts, past, present and future, we cannot openly commune with the living God, let alone serve him in accordance with His will. To be useful to God we must concede that religious ceremony and dead works which give the appearance of cleanliness to the outer man cannot cleanse the heart, which is where the problem truly lies. “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.” (Matthew 15:19-20 ESV)

The passage from Hebrews quoted above tells us the purpose for the cleansing of our consciences; that we might serve the living God. Christian, if you are trusting in your works as a Christian to prove your sincerity toward God, you are on sinking sand. If you feel as though you must always be doing something in order to please God, you have forgotten that the only thing that pleases God is faith in the efficacy of Christ’s blood. Our consciences are to be cleansed by the blood of Christ so that our works are not conscience driven, but Spirit driven. Perhaps you have forgotten that at one time your conscience mercilessly drove you to perform dead works in an effort to please God and have fallen into that habit once again. If your conscience is bothering you, go to Christ who gives rest. He will not give you more than you can handle, but your conscience will never stop heaping on dos and don’ts.  The blood of Christ will purify your conscience from dead works so that you might truly serve the living God.

That is the gospel truth.

God bless.

The Weekend Round-up

I thought I'd start a new feature at Undomesticated Grace, the Weekend Round-up. I will try to aggregate some of the best blog posts from around the web that I have read the previous week and present them here on Friday afternoon in the hopes that you can find time over the weekend to enjoy them as well. Here goes:

Smilingly Leading You to Hell - We like to be around people who are nice at least in large part because we are comforted by their pleasant words or deeds and by their adherence to whatever social custom dictates. It is an attractive quality, but it can also be a deceptive one.

Moralism Vs. Jesus-Centered Preaching - There is, in the end, only two ways to read the Bible: is it basically about me or basically about Jesus? In other words, is it basically about what I must do, or basically about what he has done? If I read David and Goliath as basically giving me an example, then the story is really about me. I must summons up the faith and courage to fight the giants in my life. But if I read David and Goliath as basically showing me salvation through Jesus, then the story is really about him. Until I see that Jesus fought the real giants (sin, law, death) for me, I will never have the courage to be able to fight ordinary giants in life (suffering, disappointment, failure, criticism, hardship).

Living Moment by Moment in the Reality of One's Justification -  The Christian life is acting moment by moment on the same principle, and in the same way, as I acted at the moment of my justification. -Francis Schaeffer

Whitefield on Election - For if we deny election we must, partly at least, glory in ourselves.

The election post you have to write. - Jon Acuff's take on the obligatory election post.

Jimmy Kimmel - I Told My Kid I Ate All Their Halloween Candy Again
You have to watch this one to the end. Made me tear up a bit...

Boasting in Our Hope

Christians have issues with boasting on several levels. On the one hand, we are meant to be people of humility. On the other, scripture frequently tells us we are to boast. As with many truths of scripture, it can be hard to detect exactly how these two things coincide. But they do and I hope to explain how.

First off, let’s identify what we are to actually boast in. The title of this post comes from Hebrews 3:6 – “And we are his [God’s] house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.” The writer says we are to “boast in our hope”. What is our hope? Christ is our hope.

I think we do often boast in our hope, but that our hope is misplaced. For example, if our hope is in our faith, we will boast of our faith. If our hope is in God’s provision, we will boast about God’s provision. If our hope is our gifting, we will boast of our gifting. If our hope is in another man, we will boast of that man. Paul rebukes the Corinthian church for boasting about such things – “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7 ESV) In other words, the things about which they were boasting were unearned gifts for which they had no right to boast.

Part of our problem with boasting could be that we don’t realize that so much of the Christian life lies outside of ourselves. We boast of ‘our’ wisdom, righteousness, redemption and sanctification almost as if we are responsible for them. We tend to forget that God chose us not on the basis of any of these things, but especially because we were foolish, unrighteous, lost and sinful. Apart from Christ we are, in a very real sense, still all of these things. “God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:28-31 ESV) Christ himself is wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption to us. Those are his attributes and remain his attributes alone. They are credited to us only by faith in him, which faith is likewise the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8).

As we begin to understand how much of what we consider to be ours actually belongs to Christ, it becomes apparent what it is we ought to boast in. It may seem subtle, but there is a world of difference between boasting that “Christ has made me righteous” and “Christ has become my righteousness”. Do you see that the one is a boast in yourself and the other boasting in Christ? If our boast is in Christ we will never need to exercise false humility. I do not need to feign humility with regard to the fact that Christ has become my wisdom, because the wisdom is not mine, it is his. He is my hope, and boasting in him comes naturally.

Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. Not in what the Lord has done, not in what the Lord can do, but in who the Lord is. Boast in him as salvation. Boast in him as the fulfillment of the law. Boast in him as righteousness. But boast in him. Only make sure that he (not what he has done or can do) is your hope, and it becomes easy to boast in him.

That is the gospel truth.

God Bless

Note to Self: You Can Do Nothing

Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:3-5 ESV)

I can do nothing. That is true death to self; not choosing to live in a certain way, but recognizing that there is no way of living that can win the Father’s favor. Losing my life for his sake is simply coming to the realization that apart from Him, I can do nothing. I cannot ever redeem myself by leaving off doing bad things nor taking up doing good. I cannot ingratiate myself to God by anything I do or think. I am helpless apart from Christ.

Lying in bed last night this hit me again like a ton of bricks. He has made me clean by the word He has spoken to me – the good news we call gospel – through the power of the Holy Spirit. To die to myself is to accept that this is not of me, not dependent on me, not waiting for me. This is a gift to be accepted, not wages to be earned. I have received it and now I must simply enjoy it.  The death to self is the death of self-determined destiny – the death of trying to manipulate God or my circumstances or the people around me to create a specific outcome of my own will. God has determined the outcome and He will make it so. This is the freedom for which Christ has set me free.

Dying to ourselves is not an act of our will, but an act of God’s will. He chose to place us in Christ so that we might share in His suffering and death, and also His resurrected life. Dying to self is accepting that this is all from God and of God and that there is nothing I can do to enhance it or detract from it. If I abide in this gift, he will dress me and cause me to bring forth much fruit. If I pursue death to self as something I must earn, independent of Christ, then it never comes. Death is resting from works that seek to bring about life. It is blissfully abiding in the life more abundant, with all of it's joys, trials and persecutions.

When we struggle to die to self, we show that we do not yet understand what death to self means. Death to self comes not with struggle, but with release. Release of our will to please God with the understanding that God is pleased with us only as we abide in His son. Until then, we are of no use to God. We can do nothing.

That is the gospel truth.

God Bless