Awake to the reality of God

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. 32 “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. 34 It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. 35 Therefore stay awake–for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning– 36 lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. 37 And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”  Mark 13:31-37 

I am not a sleep walker but I have heard some hilarious stories.  Some people it seems can get dressed, go for walks, and even carry on conversations while they are actually asleep.  Maybe you are very familiar with the potential perils and humors of sleep walking.  Maybe the idea of sleep-walking seems as foreign to you as moon-walking.  There is, however another type sleep-walking that is familiar to us all.  It is so easy to do, in fact , that you may be doing it right now.

What am I talking about?  Our daily tendency to walk through life in a spiritual slumber, asleep to the reality of God.  Our bodies are awake and active while our spirits are numb.  We are all brought into this world in a state of spiritual numbness.  We see good things and twist them for evil.  We grovel at the feet of human ideas and inventions while ignoring our creator, sleepwalking through life without a thought for God.

Praise God that this is not the end of the matter.  Like a watchful parent He intervenes to waken our groggy souls to the reality of His presence, His purpose, and His provision.  He speaks to us, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”  He brings light into our darkened eyes.  We blink and squint, seeing the true light of day for the first time.  Are you awake to the reality of God?

Seeing with spiritual eyes changes everything.  Every tree displays the beauty of God’s creation.  Every human being reflects the mark of the creator.  Every activity is for His glory.  Every moment is to know Him.  Every relationship is to proclaim Him.  He has given life where there was only death.  He has brought sight to the blind.  He has made us awake.  Are you awake to the reality of God?

Then, like the disciples in Gethsemane our eyes are heavy with weary.  Life gets full and fast.  Every morning begins with the tyranny of urgent things.  Phones ring and emails flash.  Between laundry, family, exercise, cooking, and work the eyelids of our heart get heavy.  Before we know it we are sleepwalking again, stumbling through a dark world with a forgetfully sleepy soul.  We will have time for God only when the TO DO list is shorter.  We will pray when things slow down.  We will tithe when the car is fixed.

The point of this post is simple: Remember to WAKE UP!  When the alarm goes off and you coax your eyelids open remember your God.  Remember that He is there and that you are His.  Seek Him in your decisions.  See him in your joys.  Lean on him in the midst of sorrow.  He is always there.  He is always awake.  Remember Him.  Stay awake to the reality of God.

The Awakened Sinner
from the Valley of Vision (Banner of Truth 2011)

O My forgetful soul,
Awake from thy wandering dream;
turn from chasing vanities,
look inward, forward, upward,
view thyself,
reflect upon thyself,
who and what thou are, why here,
what thou must soon be.
Thou are a creature of God,
formed and furnished by Him,
lodged in a body like a shepherd in his tent;
Dost thou not desire to know God’s ways?

 

Do you have zeal?

On Friday we heard a knock-out message from David Platt at the SBTS Radical Conference.  He quoted J.C. Ryle’s article on Christian Zeal and so last night I read it.  It is really good and challenging.  Here is the section that Platt quoted from:

Zeal in Christianity is a burning desire to please God, to do His will, and to advance His glory in the world in every possible way…A zealous person in Christianity is preeminently a person of one thing. It is not enough to say that they are earnest, strong, uncompromising, meticulous, wholehearted, and fervent in spirit. They only see one thing, they care for one thing, they live for one thing, they are swallowed up in one thing; and that one thing is to please God. Whether they live, or whether they die-whether they are healthy, or whether they are sick-whether they are rich, or whether they are poor-whether they please man, or whether they give offense-whether the are thought wise, or whether they are thought foolish-whether they are accused, or whether they are praised-whether they get honor, or whether they get shame-for all this the zealous person cares nothing at all. They have a passion for one thing, and that one thing is to please God and to advance God’s glory…

The Full article is available here:

http://www.biblebb.com/files/ryle/zeal.htm

 

let my words be few

These two verses could easily have been in my last post of top ten verses God has used in my life to confront and convict my sinful heart.  After a sermon on Sunday on James I felt the need to confess my careless use of words to the God whose words made the world.  One from proverbs, one from the lips of Jesus himself (with context):

Matthew 12:33-37 (NIV)

“Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. 36 But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. 37 For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Proverbs 10:19 (NIV)

When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.

When words are many, sin is not absent.  I think too often I reason to myself that I am an “external processor,” when the reality is that my sinful heart likes to hear itself talk.  Sure, there are times to speak with conviction and clarity, but those of us who like to talk need to ask the Spirit to examine our motives carefully.  Am I trying to impress? Do I like to sound smart? Do I stretch the truth to make a point? Do I like to “win?”  Do I delight in speaking truth or in captivating my audience?  Am I distracting people from Jesus by carelessly filling their ears with my flawed words?  Perhaps.  And I will have to give an account for every word.  Something to think about.

 

Hide it, Hear it, Heed it

“How can a young man keep his way pure?
By living according to your word.
I have hidden your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.”
Psalm 119:9,11

Today I was talking with a friend and was reminded again how much God delights to use his word in the process of refining us – in particular, those verses that God uses to zap you.  Right there, in the moment, during temptation, before a decision, he zaps you with his word.  Below is my top 10 list – the verses that God bring to mind to convict and challenge me more than any other.  Committing them to memory has given God thousands of opportunities to speak clearly  in the midst of my daily life.

NUMBER 10 – Psalm 127:1 (ESV)
Unless the LORD builds the house,
those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchman stays awake in vain.

NUMBER 9 – 1 John 2:15-16
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If
anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

NUMBER 8 – Philippians 2:14 (NIV)
Do everything without complaining or arguing

NUMBER 7 – Luke 16:10 (ESV)
One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.

NUMBER 6 – Ephesians 5:3 (NIV)
But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.

NUMBER 5 – Luke 12:15 (NIV)
Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

NUMBER 4 – James 1:20 (ESV)
for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

NUMBER 3 – Philippians 2:3-4 (NIV)
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. ⁴ Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

NUMBER 2 – Galatians 1:10 (ESV)
For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

NUMBER 1 – James 4:17 (NIV)
Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.

 

are you running the marathon?

Today I ran my first marathon.  26.2 miles of joy, pain, hard work, and yes, even tears.  Soon the pain, the sore muscles, and the elation of the finish will fade.  What will stick with me from today’s race is the moment that brought me to tears.  Somewhere around mile 9 I was listening to “I stand Amazed (How Marvelous)” and I was struck with one of those moments of reflective clarity that occur under intense trial.  The thought was simple  ”I am running a race.”  Did you know that following Jesus is like running a race?  As I reflected for a few miles God was using the marathon to teach me something about the great race He has called me to run.  How hard, joyous, amazing, and worthwhile it is.  Below are my thoughts from today.  They are now organized, but in the moment that were RAW & REAL in a way that brought tears and worship.

I stand Amazed (How Marvelous) Lyrics:

I stand amazed in the presence
Of Jesus, the Nazarene
And wonder how He could love me
A sinner, condemned, unclean

How marvelous! How wonderful!
And my song shall ever be
How marvelous! How wonderful!
Is my Savior’s love for me

He took my sins and my sorrows
He made them His very own
He bore the burden to Calvary
And suffered and died alone

It is easy to ‘start’ and hard to finish

Anyone can start a marathon.  All you need to do is sign up and show up.  This point was driven home to me as I began to hurt.  It was getting harder.  I was struck with the simple reality that following Jesus is the same way.  It is easy to get excited, to make a verbal commitment, or awaken an emotional response but real and lasting discipleship is hard.  It calls for lifelong perseverance and it is a race of endurance.

As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.
Matthew 13:20-22

Trials and Tribulations are sure to come
Today there were more moments that I wanted to stop than I could possibly count.  Sometimes I would walk briefly, struggle to start running again, and a few steps later the desire to stop was back.  In following Jesus trials will come and the race will be testing.  The healthy get cancer, friends die, careers end, and the testing begins.  How do we keep running when we ache to stop?

Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
James 1:9-12

The grace of God sustains us
Many times today I was humbled to remember that I cannot receive even one thing unless it is given from heaven (John 3:27).  His grace gave me legs to run a marathon, and His grace sustains me every day.

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope–the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
Titus 2:11-14

There are many roads but only one route
Running this marathon means following the course laid out.  The runners don’t decide when to turn or where to go.  We too must look to Jesus, following HIM, because he is the way.

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6

We follow the Great runner, who endured for us
Every big race has elite runners who lead the pack.  They run every one of their 26 miles faster than I could run a single mile.  They run the race I could not run.  As one well known preacher often says, “Jesus lived the life I should have lived, and died the death I should have died.”  Let us consider Jesus, who endured such hostility, who endured the cross, who resisted sin and shed his blood.  We follow the Jesus who has run the race to the end, and persevered to ransom us.

“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. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.”
Hebrews 12:1-4

The prize is worth the pain!
We have in heaven an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade (1 Peter 1:4).  We have been adopted by God as His beloved sons and daughters.  He will make all things right, eliminating sin forever and we will see him as he is.  He will be our light and we will know Him for eternity.  Run to get the prize!

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”
1 Corinthians 9:24-27

 

A Prayer of Confession

from The Valley of Vision (Puritan Prayers)

Holy Lord, I have sinned times without number, and been guilty of pride and unbelief, of failure to find Thy mind in Thy Word, of neglect to seek Thee in my daily life. My transgressions and short-comings present me with a list of accusations, but I bless Thee that they will not stand against me, for all have been laid on Christ. Go on to subdue my corruptions, and grant me grace to live above them. Let not the passions of the flesh nor lustings of the mind bring my spirit into subjection, but do Thou rule over me in liberty and power.

I thank Thee that many of my prayers have been refused. I have asked amiss and do not have, I have prayed from lusts and been rejected, I have longed for Egypt and been given a wilderness. Go on with Thy patient work, answering ‘no’ to my wrongful prayers, and fitting me to accept it. Purge me from every false desire, every base aspiration, everything contrary to Thy rule. I thank Thee for Thy wisdom and Thy love, for all the acts of discipline to which I am subject, for sometimes putting me into the furnace to refine my gold and remove my dross.

No trial is so hard to bear as a sense of sin. If Thou shouldst give me choice to live in pleasure and keep my sins, or to have them burnt away with trial, give me sanctified affliction. Deliver me from every evil habit, every accretion of former sins, everything that dims the brightness of Thy grace in me, everything that prevents me taking delight in Thee. Then I shall bless Thee, God of Jeshurun, for helping me to be upright.

 

Daniel and the Sovereignty of God

In chapter two of Knowing God (J.I. Packer, IVP) the challenge to dive in to the book of Daniel was clear.  One section of Packers particularly stirred my interest:

“There is not space enough here to gather up all that the book of Daniel tells us about the wisdom, might, and truth of the great God who rules history and shows his sovereignty in acts of judgement and mercy toward individuals and nations according to his good pleasure.  Suffice it to say that there is , perhaps, no more vivid or sustained presentation of the many-sided reality of God’s sovereignty in the whole Bible.”

And so, after reading this, who couldn’t dive in to Daniel.  So far I have spent a few days reading over the narratives in Ch. 1-6.  The theme is striking – God’s sovereignty over men and kings, and nations is proclaimed by even those who set out to oppose Him.  These kings of Babylon are the most powerful men on earth.  They rule with total authority, worshipped as gods, unquestionable, and with every appearance of sovereignty. Nebuchadnezzar is such an amazing example of God’s sovereignty at work.  Here is the king who conquered Jerusalem and took Daniel into captivity in the first place.  He desecrated the temple of God and stole its contents.  And yet God works through him to proclaim His greatness to all people:

After Daniel interprets the first dream:

“Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face and paid homage to Daniel, and commanded that an offering of incense be offered up to him…and said to Daniel, Truly your God is God of gods and LOrd of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery.” (2:46-47)

After the failed execution of S, M, and A in the fiery furnace:

“”Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, tho trusted in him, and set aside the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God.  Therefore I make a decree:  Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be town limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.” (3:28-30)

Before explaining how God humbled him:

“King Nebuchadnezzar to all peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you!  It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most Hight God has done for me.  How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders!  His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation.”  (4:1-3)

After being restored

“…and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand, or say to him ‘what have you done?’” (4:34-35)

“Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are right and his ways are just; and those who walk in pride he is able to humble.” (4:37)

At the moment in Biblical history that it seems God’s people are lost to Him, God proves continually that he is in total control.  No king, no power, no nation, no oppression can stand against his will.  His sovreign reigh extends powerfully over every nation of the earth, every king, every army, and every force of evil.  He is not suppressed or oppressed, he is sovereign.  He ALWAYS does as he wills, and no one can stay his hand.

There are only a few responses to the sovereignty of God.  We can doubt it for various reasons.  It may make hardships easier to accept and allow us to experience a false sense of freedom, but the universe without a sovereign and benevolent God is a scary place.  We can find ourselves opposed to it, as rebels to his sovereign will, and this we are all familiar with.  We are born into some combination of these estates, doubting and rebelling against the loving hands of the creator.  Third, we can accept and submit to his will.  We can recognize that His will reigns and that seeking it, living it, loving it, is true life.  We can seek to be like his son who said “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.”  (John 6:38)  In this we experience true freedom, joy, hope, and peace as he leads us in the way we should go, the way of life, as God exhorts us through David:

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you.”
Psalms 32:8-9

 

“I will meet with you”

5 words, spoken by God to mankind.  Simple yet profound.  Intelligiable but unimagineable.

Jean Fleming says it like this in Feeding Your Soul

“Six times in the book of Exodus, God says, “I will meet with you.  Five short words.  The simplicity and economy of the statement belies the profound implication.  God, Creator of all that is, will meet with you.  God, ruler of universe upon universe, will meet with you.  The Word made flesh will meet with you.  God Who died in your place and rose again will meet with you.  God Who reigns in heaven, Lord of all, Who will come again, will meet with you.”

God has called for us, his people, to meet with him.   J.I. Packer reminds us (Knowing God – a must read for all Christians!) that knowing about God and knowing God, are two different things:

“One can know a great deal about God without much knowledge of him…We read books…We dip into Christian history, and study Christian creed.  We learn to find our way around in the Scriptures.  Others appreciate our interest in these things, and we find ourselves asked to give our opinion in public on this or that Christian question…All very fine – yet interest in theology and knowledge about God, and the capacity to think clearly and talk well on Christian themes, is not al all the same thing as knowing him.”

God’s primary interest in the life of every person is that they would know him.  We were made for knowing him, the way that Adam and Eve knew him, walking together in the garden.  I fear that many people have experiences similar to mine.  That we plod along in a habit of meeting God that melts over time into a habit of reading about God, and before we realize it, we have neglected God altogether.  We may be reading the Bible but when the pages close we venture into life apart from Him.  We may pray, but only in an instant of uncertainty, or piety, or desperation.

Packer explains that in seeking to know God we must be cautious not to miss Him all together:

“Our concern must be to enlarge our acquaintance, not simply with the doctrine of God’s attributes, but with the living God, whose attributes they are.  As he is the subject of our study, and our helper in it, so he must himself be the end of it.  We must seek, in studying God, to be led to God.  It was for this purpose that revelation was give, and it is to this use that we must put it.”

He is gracous despite our neglect.  He is patiently calling even as we are driving through days with little thought to his purpose.  Next time I open the Bible, my intention will be to hear from God.  To meet with him, and come away changed.  To hear from His word and to learn of his unceasing work to transform me.  To plead with him in honesty and submit to him fully.  To seek him, to reach out for him, and find him, for he is not far from each of us.  He wants to meet with us.

He calls, “I will meet with you.”  If only we would answer and know our God!

 

How can we be righteous before God?

This weekend I had the privaledge of preaching at the church where by brother in law recently became the pastor.  Here is an outline and a few main points of my study of Luke 18:9-14 (ESV):

9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Mark Driscoll aptly points out that this parable addresses one of the central questions of life, “How can we be righteous before God.”  Luke tells us that the audience had an answer: “They trusted in themselves, that they were righteous.”  Jesus shows us that the Human quest for rightrousness is often misguided and prone to failure, and we don’t even realize it. He teaches us through contrasting two men, a Pharisee, and a tax collector.

a Pharisee

In the time of Jesus the Pharisees were not necessarily rich or politically empowered but they garnered tremendous respect from the common people for their devotion to God’s law.  They made every effort to ensure that they did not even come close to breaking any of God’s commands and people took notice.

a tax collector

If the Pharisee was highly respected by the people, the tax collector could not be more the opposite.  Tax collectors were the agents of the Roman tax collection system.  Ultimately, they were working for the emperor of Rome who forced the people of Judea to pay debilitating taxes to maintain his personal wealth, the empire, the army, and Rome’s idolatrous temples.

Tax collectors were corrupt and as traitors.  This man would have been despised by every other person in the temple.  He had taken advantage of them, extorted them, in order to line his own pockets and preserve the oppression of the Roman occupation.  He did not belong.

shock and awe

Shock and awe existed long before the war in Iraq.  Jesus was a master of it.  Everyone listening to Jesus knows what to expect.  The Pharisee is an obvious protagonist.  He has his life together.  He is committed to God.  He is religious and respected.  This tax collector guy, he’ll be lucky to make it out of this story alive…right?

And then comes the Jesus shock and awe.  This tax collector goes home justified RATHER than the Pharisee…  What?  How can this be?  Are you starting to see how radical our Jesus is?  They came to the temple with starkly different histories and devotion to God, and public opinion but… Jesus tells us they have one thing truly in common.  They both come unrighteous before the Righteous God.

Jesus redefines our quest for righteousness.

1. Jesus redefines our need for righteousness (unrighteousness, sin)
2. Jesus redefines the source of righteousness (salvation)
3. Jesus redefines the pursuit of righteousness (sanctification)
4. Jesus redefines the relating of the righteous

A new definition of unrighteousness

The pharisee’s words show the shallowness of his conviction of sin: “God I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or this guy”

He comes to the perfectly righteous God and declairs his own innosence.  “I didn’t do this or that… so I am righteous.”  His concept of Sin was limited to disobeying a specific set of commands.  Jesus, in many places, teaches us that God see’s past our outward obedience.

Luke 11:39  And the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.

What is so different about the tax collector?  He doesn’t deny his actions and he acknowledges that his very identity is drenched in sin.  “God be merciful to me, the sinner”

Sin is not simply a list of what we should and shouldn’t do.  We can do good things with sin reigning in our hearts.  One way we often mix this up is by looking at other people to find our justification.  We say things like “Can you believe he did that…” and what our heart is saying is “I didn’t do what he did, I am not so bad, I am not so stained by sin after all, I am righteous right?”  NO!  Jesus tells us that to look at a woman with lust is to commit adultery with her in your heart.  Sin is an inner problem with outward symptoms.  We need to forget justification by peers, and stand before God, see his manifold perfections, and plead for his mercy.

The true source of righteousness

On the other side of the same coin, the Pharisee adds to his list of what he didn’t do, list of actions he has performed “for God.”  He fasts twice a week and tithes of all he gets.

This gets at the heart of our misguided quest.  Works righteousness is not real righteousness.  Isaiah tells us that even our good deeds are like “filthy rags” (menstreul rags) to God.  We bring God something disgusting and say “look God, aren’t I great!.”  How offensive is it to God when this Pharisee, who has been pursuing his own honor while despising others, comes to the holy temple, to the presence of the righeous God, and declairs all the good things he has done.

In the tax collector, Jesus again gives us a strong contrast.  He is not trying to dilute his sin away.  He is not trying to prove he is worthy.  He isn’t trying to earn God’s favor.  He is pleading for mercy.  He knows that our own works are not the source of true righteousness, GOD IS!

God has provided a rightousness that is apart from obedience to the law, that is by faith (Rom 3:19-26).  He becons us to recieve this righteousness, from Jesus Christ, by faith.  What does it mean to recieve it by faith? Faith is renouncing our own works of righteousness as a means of justification and instead relying soely on the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

This is what it means to be a Christian.  To rely on Jesus’ payment for our sin and his righteousness for justification before God.  Christianity is not another religion that teaches us how to EARN God’s favor. Christ calls us to recognize our own sinfulness and the deadness of our works, and rely on the saving work of the cross.

The real pursuit of righteousness

Just as Paul did in Romans 6 it seems important to confront a possible objection, that renouncing faith in our own works is the same as saying that we can just live however we want, that God doesn’t care how he live becuase of Jesus.  To think this illustrates a lack of true understanding of the first two points.  It is like saying “so we can mock Jesus as long as we trust in him.”  It makes no sense.

Now about how this works out.  If you are a Christian, then it is likely that like me, you struggle to get the pursuit of rightrousness right in your head.  We think things like this:

        I had my devotionals, God will be happy with me today

        My car broke down, God must be mad at me

        I got cancer so God must hate me

        I got the job, God must like that I am volunteering at Church

The Reality:  God has adopted us as his children.  We cannot be more accepted.  God loved us with the blood of Jesus, he could not love us more.  God has put his spirit in us, we cannot earn more intimacy with him!

This grace of God in the Gospel is the source of power for our good works.  If it comes unplugged, we revert to sinful, selfish motives that do not please God. If left unchecked by the gospel of grace, we will all revert back to a works based view of relating with God.  We need to preach the gospel to ourselves every day!

When we give to the poor give because when you were poor, God gave you his son.  When we serve, we must serve because Christ served us on the cross.  If we love others, love because Christ first loved us.  When we work, we must work because Jesus has done all the work of our salvation!

Righteous relating

Jesus redefines how the righteous relate.  The Pharisee’s “righteousness” caused him to view others with contempt.  This is the result of works righteousness – anyone who works at it another way is wrong!  When we are seeking to be justified by our own works we become hypercritical of other people and we judge people instead of being compassionate messengers of the gospel.

Driving is an easy illustration.  I drive my car every day.  Every day I find myself thinking that I must be the only sane, save, well-trained driver in the state.  How rediculous is that?  But I think it.  I have such a self centered perspective on my driving that I think everyone else is doing it wrong.  Ironically at the same moment they are probably thinking the same thing about me.

For us this can be much worse than our thoughts while driving.  The rightness of our doctrine, the purity of our denomination, the generosity of our giving, the way we worship, the way we serve the poor, etc, can all become means of “self justification” (unjustification).

The new relating sees that all people are people, God’s creation.  When we give to the poor we need to remember that they are people.  We need to engage them not just with dollars, but with our lives.  Every person we meet, regardless of religion, race, mistakes they have made, addictions they have – no matter how different they are, no matter how ugly their lives appear to us, we are the same in one significant way:

We are sinners in need of God’s Grace.

We need to live out of Jesus’ righteousness every day

• Recognizing and confessing our own sinfulness
• Looking to Jesus alone as our righteousness
• Working out our faith motivated by his grace
• Living with compassion for all people

 

on resisting sin

Thinking more about Hebrews 12 this weekend.  Probably one of the biggest “therefores” in the Bible in Hebrews 12:1.  Just aft a brief of the history of the mankind relating with God (chapter 11), and then the big “therefore…”

“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,  2  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.  3  Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.  4  In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.”  Hebrews 12:1-4  (ESV)

There are riches in these four verses that exceed my time for tonight but I want to focus on one sentence, verse 4, which caught my attention yesterday.  There are a few things to point out, each uniquely convicting to me and I think also the culture of many churches in America today.

In your struggle against sin… Struggle is probably too strong a word for me on many days.  I don’t think I am alone in this but I don’t like to struggle.  Things I must struggle with are things that I tend to avoid, but my comfort driven motives lie directly in the Holy Spirit’s path when it comes to sin.  He works in us to struggle against sin.

not yet… This phrase speaks a hard word: that our struggle against sin gets more difficult.  Sometimes I think we get this totally backward.  We look at great Christian leaders and think that being further into the pursuit of holiness means that the pursuit gets easier.  I think instead it is like running a marathon.  It doesn’t always get easier.  There are hardships and trials and they often get harder until the end.   God disciplines those he loves (keep reading Heb 12)

resisted to the point of shedding your blood…  I find this part especially convicting: that my willingness to struggle with sin is so comfortable most of the time that the idea of shedding my blood seems ludicrous.  But I am a Christian, named for and saved by the one who resisted sin as spikes were driven through his hands.  Being crucified with Him is my path to newness of life.  Verses 2 and 3 urge us to “look to Him” and “consider Him.”   The thought comes,  is he calling us to martyrdom?  Perhaps, if that is where He leads us in the war against sin.

The main point – We must continue the struggle against sin in this life, facing hardships, looking to Jesus, and setting no conditions.