How does God see us?

So many times, I've heard people teach this:

When God looks at you, He doesn't see your sin.  
All He sees is the righteousness of Jesus, covering you.

It has never settled well with me.  I am repulsed by the idea that God could somehow fail to see something that is true, even if it is my sins and shortcomings.

Just recently, I heard another famous, respected preacher say something about this, and I struggled.

God knows everything.

And no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.   ~Hebrews 4:13

God knows everything.

Psalm 139 tells us that God has searched us and knows everything about us.  He sees everything we do, and knows everything we think.  Yes, He knows our thoughts.  In fact, He knows what we are going to say, before we even say it (presumably even when we do not, when unplanned words slide off our tongues like an avalanche of soiled laundry).

Isaiah 46:10 tells us that God makes known the end from the beginning, or (in other words) from the beginning, He declares what the end will be.

There's a clue there.  From the beginning, God knows the end.  This is in line with Psalm 139:4, which explains that He knows what we are going to say.

It isn't as though He "doesn't see" our sin.  God sees, knows and completely understands everything.

Being creatures who are locked in a time-space continuum, it is nearly impossible for us to imagine an existence outside the boundaries of time. Yet, by the grace of God, He has given us the ability to begin to conceptualize such a thing.  God is eternal, and He inhabits eternity, which means that He is eternally present in the past, present and future, all at once.  It's mind-blowing, but even so, He can move our minds to try to comprehend these kinds of things about His existence, factors completely outside our experience and framework.

God does not foretell the future.  He knows the future.

He knows the future by sight, by experience, because He is in the future, just as He is simultaneously in the present and the past.  Yes, He is present in each moment with us, but He is not limited to the present moment the way we are.  He is in every moment, and He is able to process everything that happens, right along with everything that will happen in the future, never forgetting all that has happened in the past.

In fact, He does not only perceive and process all that happens.  He authors and ordains all events.  Therefore, He not only knows by experience, but He knows by design.  Back to Isaiah 46:10-11, God says, "I will accomplish all my purpose.  I have spoken and I will bring it to pass.  I have purposed and I will do it."

God can proclaim these things because from where He stands, unbounded by time, it is already accomplished.  He is perfectly faithful, and perfectly trustworthy, because He is almighty and eternal.  God can make promises that are altogether certain, because in His realm, He sees them completed.  However, He is completely wise and kind, and He knows that we cannot see what He sees; we do not see the completion yet.  He knows that we are locked in our present moment, and He has astounding patience for us as we fret and squirm under the bonds of time, wondering if He will come through.

Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?  ~Matthew 14:31

In our experience, we wait and worry and wonder.  At the same time, God is contentedly full of peace and joy, because He sees the whole of time and space, history, geography, physics, chemistry, biology, sociology, psychology and philosophy in one, big gestalt creation that He has pronounced as very good.

This is amazing.

And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.  And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.  ~Genesis 1:31

The more I ponder this, the more I think we are still in the sixth day, and the sixth day is the climax of God's story, the part where the evil villain rises against God's good creation, and God prevails over this evil, through the powerful paradox of the cross of Christ, Christ--our eternal Hero and Rescuer.  Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior rises up in the sixth day to conquer sin and death forever.  It is very good, this epic plot that preceded all epic plots.  The best story.

And that would lead us to the Seventh Day, the day of rest.

The writer of Hebrews mysteriously alludes to this in chapter 4, speaking about certain faithless ones who will never enter God's rest on the seventh day.

The Seventh Day: God is already there, and Jesus rejoined the Father there after He completed His work of redemption.

The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word.  After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. . . when This Priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God.  ~Hebrews 1:3, 10:12

Jesus mediated the New Covenant in His blood, and then He sat down and rested.  All who put their faith in Jesus will likewise rest.

There remains, then, a Sabbath rest for the people of God.  ~Hebrews 4:9

The Biblical writers could write about our anticipated Sabbath rest from the very first chapter of the Bible, because God, who knows the end from the beginning, was already there.  However, the mystery has unfolded over hundreds and thousands of years to the inhabitants of earth, and we have only gradually come to understand what it means that all of God's promises find their yes in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 1:20).  We will join our Lord in perfect fellowship for that glorious, eternal Seventh Day.  Until then, we practice every Sunday we can!

But this is about how God sees us, and what He sees when He looks at us, and whether our sin is hidden by the blood of Christ.

I think our sin is hidden by the blood of Christ, and God does see the glorious perfection of Christ when He looks at us.  But it is not as simple as a covering, or a lens, or a shield.  It is not about being covered by a veneer of perfection under which we continue to indulge in sin.

When God, who declares the end from the beginning right from the start, when this omniscient, eternal God looks at me, He sees the gestalt me.  He sees me as one being, with all my past, present and future, conglomerated into one, glorious, redeemed child who belongs to Him through the atoning sacrifice of Christ, purified and made righteous by His Spirit.

The Apostle John writes, "When He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.  Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure," (1 John 3:2).  And the Apostle Paul tells us that we are being transformed into the image of Christ from one degree of glory to another (2 Corinthians 3:18).

In our experience, this is a time-consuming process, sometimes an excruciatingly slow one.  But from God's point of view, it has already happened, ever since eternity past when He wrote our names in His Book of Life, when He predestined us for redemption through Christ before the creation of the world (1 Peter 1:20).

When God looks at us, He sees what we will be as though we already are, because He is not locked into this present moment with us.  Because His ultimate purpose is to perfectly conform us to the likeness of Christ, God even now sees Christ in us.  It's not an illusion or a disguise.  It's future reality.

When God looks at me, He sees what is absolutely true.  He sees the finished work of Christ made manifest in me, while He simultaneously sees my sin, my sorrow, my desperation for a Savior, and my present hope that the Holy Spirit is at work in me.  He sees my brokenness, and my restoration process, and my finished perfection by His power.  He sees His artistry and His therapy and His power and His completed purposes, all at once.  He is glorified because I belong to Him, which demonstrates both His goodness to me, and the all-surpassing glory of His grace.

You too.  He sees all these things when He looks at you, knowing that you are His, and you are responding to His grace exactly according to His plan.

Oh Lord, thank you for your sovereign power in our lives.  Lead us to consciously, purposefully rest our faith in you, as we find our rest in you, and we look forward to that seventh day of perfect rest.


Related:

The Eyes of God

Righteousness (part 1)

Righteousness (part 2)

Working on a memorization project

I've been trying to memorize this passage of scripture:

2 Peter 1:3-4

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.

I worked on it awhile back, and almost had it, but then I realized that I had copied it incorrectly onto the index card I was working off.  What a bitter disappointment!  Nothing is quite so difficult as unlearning a mistake, and relearning something correctly.

I am not sure exactly what I had copied wrong, but I think I left out the part about the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, thinking the precious and very great promises were what we were called to.

This passage has a lot of interweaving in it.  I can always memorize better when I understand something fairly clearly.  Perhaps I am not understanding this passage sufficiently to commit it to memory.  I thought I'd work it out, showing my work, like on a math test, right here where I can see it and come back to it.  Maybe that will help.

Okay.

It starts with His divine power.

What is God's divine power?  How do I picture it?  I think I picture it as a shining golden cloud in the sky at sunset, with beams of sunlight streaming from behind it.  God's divine power.  Of course, I know that the picture in my head is only symbolic.

God's divine power is actually the resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead, triumphantly conquering sin and death once for all.  This is something I've been noticing throughout the epistles.  The life-giving resurrection power of the Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead, and that same power is at work in us, raising our sin-petrified souls to new life in the Spirit (Romans 6:4, Romans 8:11, Ephesians 1:18-20, Colossians 2:12).

His divine power--the power of the Holy Spirit of God to produce life and faith where there was no life or faith.

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.

This is actually sort of stating the obvious, in a way.  God is the Source of life and goodness.  The power of His Holy Spirit breaks into time and space, to minister to those of us who will respond to Him, and bring us into contact with God's life and goodness.  As we connect with God, He purifies us by the power of His Spirit.  Romans 5:5 describes it as an enduring hope that protects us from being put to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.

There is no other source for life and goodness.  God is the essence of life and goodness, and His divine power, the power of His Holy Spirit at work in us, grants us everything we need to be in fellowship with God and to be transformed into the likeness of Christ.

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.

What does this mean, exactly?  What does knowledge have to do with it?

Perhaps it is about awareness.  We must be aware of God to be saved by God.  He gives us that awareness, awakens it in us and opens our eyes to see the light.  In Ephesians 1:17-18, Paul prays that the Ephesians will have the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of God, and that the eyes of their hearts will be enlightened to know the hope He has called them to.  In Ephesians 3:16-19, Paul prays that  they will have strength to comprehend (know and understand) the vastness of the love of God, and that they will know the love of God that surpasses knowledge.

It's a paradox that we have to know Him in order to be able to know Him.  I think that's why 2 Peter 1:3 seems redundant:

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.

It's almost as though Peter is saying, "The divine power of God has granted us all things that lead us to the divine nature of God through the knowledge of God who called us to His divine nature."

His divine power (the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit)
has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness (the nature of God as it touches and changes us)
through the knowledge of Him (He reveals to us His glory and goodness and love and salvation)
who called us to His own glory and excellence (the nature of God revealed to us, His perfection and beauty).

By His powerful Holy Spirit, God makes Himself and His glorious, beautiful attributes known to us, so we will taste and see that the Lord is good, and desire that goodness in ourselves, so we might be pleasing to Him.  Then He pours out His love into our hearts--everything we need--in a miracle of transforming grace, fulfilling our God-given, righteous desire to identify with Him.

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...

I might almost have that part.

Then:

...by which He has granted to us His great and very precious promises...

By which?  By what?  How did He grant us His great and very precious promises?  By His divine power?  Through our knowledge of Him?  By His glory and excellence?

How about this... His divine power grants us the knowledge of who He is and what His glory and excellence are like.

Who He is comes first, and it is followed by what He has promised and what He has done.  I alluded to this in my last post when I wrote, "I have meditated on God's attributes and found more comfort in who He is than in what He has done."  Promises of salvation mean nothing if they do not come from a faithful, almighty God.  I wonder if this is one of the reasons why the Old Testament is so important and beautiful.  God spent literally thousands of years creating a history for Himself, illustrating who He is and what He is like, before He sent Jesus Christ as a man to fulfill all the great and very precious promises.

God has demonstrated His existence, His faithfulness, His forbearance, His goodness, His lovingkindness, His mercy, His justice, His righteousness, His power, and His dominion, throughout history.  When people seek Him, He shows Himself to them, reveals who He is, and what He has done in Christ, how He has effected salvation for any who will humbly admit their need for it.

His great and very precious promises:

• forgiveness for all who ask
• salvation for all who come
• the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, present in each of His children, forever and all eternity
• purification
• Spirit-breathed gifts to use in service
• the fruit of obedience
• enduring faith
• a future in glory together with Him

All these are ours because of who He is, the most excellent and glorious God of divine power who calls out to us, inviting us to join Him in life and godliness (Christlikeness).  He calls us to become image-bearers of Christ, and He endows us with every power and resource we need to pursue the calling.

So this is how far we are:

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 great and very precious promises...

and then,

...so that through them, you may become partakers of the divine nature

The great and very precious promises enable us to become partakers of the divine nature.  I actually think I understand this part.

2 Corinthians 1:20 tells us that all of God's promises find their yes in Christ Jesus.  All of the the promises of God have been kept, are being kept, or will be kept through the victory Jesus Christ won in His work at the cross.  Jesus died so we could be forgiven, transferred from the domain of darkness to God's own glorious Kingdom, reconciled to God and saved.  Jesus died so we could be indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God Himself, purified and made productive, sealed and approved and nurtured and challenged and encouraged.  Jesus died so we could be united with God through the Spirit of God, transformed into the righteous image of God by the power of God, prepared to minister grace to the people on earth as ambassadors for God until the day when we are taken home to live in the presence of God, with His name on our foreheads and the glory of His awesome complexity engulfing our hearts and our minds forever.

Through the promises Christ fulfilled, we become partakers of the divine nature.  God draws us into a relationship with Himself, by which we identify with Him and become like Him (1 John 3:2).  This would move us to tears if we could actually understand it.

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 great and very precious promises, so that through them you might become partakers of the divine nature...

And then the end:

...having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

Sinful desire is that prideful root in us that turns us away from the love of God.  Satan fools us time and time again into thinking that something other than God (sometimes anything other than God) will be more satisfying than God.  Satan tells us we know best; we know better than our Maker what would be nice for us.  Satan tells us we've got to look out for ourselves.  "Look out for Number One," Satan whispers.  "You're Number One."  Of course, that is malarky.  God is Number One.  God is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the source of life, the absolute truth, and the fresh, clear water that satisfies and renews.

When the Holy Spirit opens the eyes of our hearts and souls to see the goodness of the Lord, and when He moves us to open our mouths and be filled with the bread of life, we enter a new realm of awareness.  When He reveals to us the paradoxical goodness of dying to our earthly desires and surrendering in humility to His overwhelming lovingkindness, He brings our hearts to new life through a new birth, and our new hearts have new desires for life and godliness which He is eager and willing to fulfill (Titus 3:4-7).

As the Spirit of God moves us to desire the life and godliness of God, working by His power in us, and reminding us of the faithfulness of God to all of His promises, we escape from the corruption that comes from sinful desires.  God gives us godly desires, so we will seek righteousness rather than sin, and He gives us His Spirit, His Spirit's power, His Spirit's guidance and teaching.  His Spirit reminds us of the teachings of Christ, the heart of God, and our sure hope in His promises.  Thus, He gives us everything we need for life and godliness, which also is our escape from corruption and sin.

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 great and very precious promises, so that through them you might 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

(I'm starting to get pretty good at typing that!)

The paradox of hoping after giving up hope

I spent a little time looking back over this blog today, and realized that I have been writing much less frequently on the topic of the journey.

The rhythms of life are always changing.  My schedule took on a decidedly different shape this year, starting in September, which precipitated a number of corollary changes.

Another life-altering transformation arose from the arrival of my sweet grandson, with all the promise and potential for great hope that a new baby births in us.

New activities came into my life, new things for me to set my mind to: Bible study preparation, for one thing, which was a tremendous blessing.  God taught me much about humility this year, while we studied 1 Corinthians.  These lessons came just in the nick of time, when I needed them sorely, and He helped me apply my studies to my real life, navigating a tricky situation with the powerful sufficiency of His Holy Spirit.  It was indeed a miracle.  I brim with gratitude and gladness.

The other blessed diversion in my life came in the form of trips to see my precious grandson.  What joy, what love a baby brings.  I've traveled to visit him four times.  That's four trips since Christmas, four trips in five months, essentially.  If that doesn't fill up one's mind to distraction from one's worries, I don't know what will.

In one sense, I stopped hoping about the things that worried me.  This is not to say that I've given up hope.  However, I have certainly given up any agenda I ever had.  I have one hope: the hope of grace, the hope of restoration and salvation.  I will never give up this hope.  My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.  God is faithful.   I hold this hope as an anchor for my soul, firm and secure, which is a phrase from Hebrews 6:19.

It was only a day or two ago when I realized that Hebrews 6:19 is in Hebrews 6 (I was familiar with the words, but not the reference).  Hebrews 6!  That is my nemesis chapter of fear, where it says, It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance (Hebrews 6:4-6).  This is one of those Bible texts where I have to squint as I read it, and hold my breath, because it is so completely terrifying to consider.

I don't know what it means, but having tasted the goodness of the Holy Spirit, and having received His great and very precious promises, and through these precious promises (which are all yes in Christ Jesus), having been allowed to participate in the Divine Nature and be indwelt by the Holy Spirit Himself, who promises never to leave me nor forsake me, I just wonder, could it even really happen?  Can someone who has been indwelt with the Holy Spirit fall away?  I don't see how it could happen, because the Holy Spirit does the work.  He convicts, He softens the heart with the gentle rain of His presence, He gives sight and illumination, He teaches, He encourages and sustains and empowers.  He comes in, gives life to the dead heart, and moves the soul into the process of transformation.  He renews and transforms.  He does it.

The writer of Hebrews gives the stern and terrifying warning in Hebrews 6:4-6, but he goes on to say in Hebrews 6:9, "Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case--things that accompany salvation."

When I made the connection that Hebrews 6:19 (the verse about how God's perfect faithfulness is a firm and secure anchor for our hope) is in this very same chapter, I was overwhelmed with relief.

Shawn always says, "Why would God give us the parable of the prodigal son, if those who leave the Father can never come back?  That would be the opposite of what Jesus taught."

Then there is the stunning proclamation in Hosea 14:4, where God says, "I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them."  Some translations even quote God saying, "I will heal their apostasy."  Healed apostasy!  Don't we call apostasy the unforgivable sin?  And yet, right here in the Old Testament, The Old Testament, mind you, which many claim showcases a harsh and ungracious God, right here in the Old Testament, God says He will heal people's apostasy.  It's amazing.  It's outrageous.  It's the best news there could possibly be.

I cling to my hope in the goodness and lovingkindness of the Lord, my hope in His faithfulness to all generations, my hope in His mighty power and the efficacy of the death and resurrection of Christ.

A number of years ago, I had been studying a few influential Christian teachers, John Piper being the one I remember.  I remember reading that the Lord wants our emotions and affections to be engaged in our worship of Him.  At the time, I was struggling to feel.  It seemed like I was surrounded by influences that encouraged me to prioritize an emotional experience over truth, and that made me backlash against the idea of feelings.  Personally, I long for truth.  When truth implants in my heart and becomes real to me, that is when I can feel something.  I need substantive truth to evoke emotions of gratitude and joy in me.

Conviction struck me as I identified my evasion of emotions.  Awkward, simple and confused, I did not know how to give the Lord my affections and emotions.  Back in the messy little study on Sugar Pine Circle in Liverpool, NY, I prayed for God to help me love Him as I should, for Him to teach me how to give Him my emotions and affections, for Him to let me feel what He wanted me to feel about Him.

I wonder, today, if part of this long journey I've been traveling is God's answer to that very prayer.  So much pain, fear and disappointment have assailed me; yet, He always holds me secure.  I have spent long nights curled in a ball with my Bible, crying into a filthy old t-shirt, because even that was not enough material to absorb the wetness falling from my face.  I have felt utter despair for circumstances, and yet I have found, through His power, the strength to push my pen down the line of a page in my prayer journal, writing out the words, "I will praise Him anyway."  I have meditated on God's attributes, and found more comfort in who He is than in what He has done.  I have met God, and laid on my face before Him, humiliated and broken, with nothing to say, no words.

Once when I had no words, I started to pray the Lord's Prayer.  That may have been when I started to learn to pray in a new way.  Thy will be done.  That is the prayer I must be willing to pray.  Not my will, but Yours.  Whatever it takes, I must be willing to pray.  Whatever it takes.  I trust You, because You are altogether good and altogether loving.  Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

How strange that the most terrifying prayer is also the one that brings all the relief.

The Lord has been bringing me to the end of myself, teaching me to die to myself and trust in Jesus.  He has taught me to pray, to seek Him and know Him, to dig deep into His word and learn the beautiful things He has for me there, even to memorize a little.  He's starting to teach me compassion, although the outward manifestations of compassion come slowly to one who is as skittish of people as I am.

He is working on me through this journey, so much work that I never could have imagined, never would have known to request.  Yet, I can honestly say that I love Him more than ever, as I stumble along this difficult pathway.  I give up my personal dreams, and I hope in Him, because, as 2 Corinthians 1:9-10 tells us, He brings us through deadly peril to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead--on Him we have set our hope.

The Lord is good to all; He has compassion on all He has made.

~ Psalm 145:9

Righteousness -- part 2

Last time, I tried to explain that righteousness is a good thing.  I tried to explain that God is righteous, and He calls us to righteousness.  God sent Jesus so we could be made righteous, saved from sin to live in righteousness.

Now I'm going to try to explain how it works.

Righteousness is when we do things the right way, rather than the wrong way.  Doing things the wrong way is sin.  Sometimes we sin on purpose, and sometimes we sin by accident, but all sin leads to death.

God is righteous, but the world is broken by sin, unrighteous.  Righteousness leads to life, while sin leads to death.  God, in His great mercy, calls us to righteousness so we can have eternal life instead of the death we would reap through our sinful ways (Romans 6:17-23).

Before Jesus came, God gave the Law.  The Law explains what righteousness is; it shows what is right, good and pleasing to the Lord.

The Law explains who God is, and how we are to approach Him.  God is our Creator, Redeemer and Provider, and we must love and revere Him above all else (Exodus 20:2-3).

The Law discusses practical examples of righteousness.  Be merciful to the poor around you, and offer ways for them to become more prosperous.  Do not charge your brothers interest when they borrow money (Leviticus 25:36).  When a man is forced to sell himself into slavery to pay his debts, you must treat him kindly and free him after seven years (Deuteronomy 15:12).  Leave the overflow of your harvest on the ground for the destitute to gather (Leviticus 19:9).  If you see your neighbor's donkey or ox fallen along the road, you should stop and help your neighbor (Deuteronomy 22:4).  Love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18).

Jesus, when He was on earth in the flesh, explained that the Law is all about love: loving God and loving your neighbor.  Jesus explained that love is the heart of the Law--in other words, love is the heart of righteousness--and if we learn to love as God would have us love, we will find ourselves keeping the Law--becoming righteous--by default (Matthew 22:35-40).

Now, some people take this to mean that in this age, after the death and resurrection of Jesus, when grace has been poured out, we don't need to bother about the law anymore.  They interpret it to mean that love has replaced the law; instead of keeping the law, they say, we now love instead.  But as I read scripture, I believe that theirs is a faulty interpretation.  Love is not a replacement for the law.  Love is the fulfillment of the law.  Only by loving can we keep the law of God and be righteous in His sight.

Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.  ~Romans 13:10

The problem is that, being broken by sin, we humans are naturally unable to love.  Sin turns us inward, in pride, to focus on ourselves.  Love turns us outward, in humility, to adore God and shed compassion on the people around us.  Love comes from a healthy heart, but our hearts were diseased, broken, even dead, because of sin.

Jesus came so we could have new hearts.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.  ~Ezekiel 36:26-27

This is precisely what Jesus did for us.  He died, cleansing us by the shedding of His blood, and once cleansed, we become temples for His Holy Spirit, who is with us always, enabling us to overcome sin daily as we struggle and persevere.

. . . hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.  ~Romans 5:5

This is how we become righteous, truly, substantively righteous.  God pours His love into us, so His love can then pour out of us, making us demonstrably righteous.  The Holy Spirit of Christ comes into our inner being and transforms us, miraculously, to be able to take our eyes off ourselves.  Only then can we authentically love and worship God in spirit and in truth.  Only then can we love our neighbors with deep compassion.

. . . and be found in [Christ], not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God that depends on faith.  ~Philippians 3:9

Christ did not annul the Law.  He fulfilled it, and in so doing, He makes it possible for the Law to be fulfilled in us.  He makes it possible for us to be righteous, through and through.

[Jesus said], Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.  ~Matthew 5:17

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.  By sending His own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  ~Romans 8:3-4

Do you see?  We do not attain only a covering of righteousness that would disguise our sin and trick a Holy God into receiving us by mistaking us for His beloved Son.  Rather, God, in a series of miracles, graciously recreates us as new, righteous beings, empowered by His Spirit to grow in obedience, love and Christlikeness.

Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."  ~John 3:3

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.  All this is from God . . .  ~2 Corinthians 5:17-18a

For our sake, He became sin who knew no sin, so that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God.  ~2 Corinthians 5:21

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.  For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.  ~2 Corinthians 3:18

It all comes from Him.  Apart from Him, we can do nothing, we would be hopeless (John 15:5).  However, with Him, as we already read in Romans 5:5, hope does not put us to shame.

Those who look to Him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.  ~Psalm 34:5

In Christ, our sinful nature is put to death and we rise in the new, righteous life of the Spirit (Romans 6:6-11) through the resurrection power of God who raised Christ and likewise raises us to new life.  We are set free from sin (Romans 6:7, 18, 22).  Being set free from sin, by God, we are empowered by God to bear the fruit of righteousness, to extend the grace and love of God for the the healing of the world, and ultimately to live eternally in perfect fellowship with our holy God.

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.  ~Romans 6:22

Sanctification is a tricky thing, because it is a process.  We are declared righteous by the blood of Christ, and deemed worthy to carry His Spirit in our bodies.  This is the first stage of salvation, called justification.  It happens in an instant, and we are amazed and full of gratitude to the Lord for this unaccountable miracle.   But justification is not the end of salvation; it is not the end of the work of God in us and on our behalf.  Justification puts the Spirit of Christ into us, and once He indwells us, the process of sanctification begins.  Unlike justification, which happens in an instant, sanctification is a slow, gradual process of ever-increasing righteousness in the life of a believer.  It happens over a lifetime.  It will not be finished until we die, or until Jesus returns.

Because sanctification is gradual, because it never reaches completion in this broken world, and because we are impatient, result-oriented beings, we tend towards two different errors in regard to how we approach sanctification. 

A few people try impatiently to commandeer the process from the Holy Spirit and hurry it along in their own strength.  They put on an act, presenting a precarious facade of righteousness that they think would be pleasing to the Lord, and demanding that other believers do exactly the same.  This self-fueled attempt to attain righteousness through independent striving is legalism.  Paul writes:

Are you so foolish?  Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?  ~Galatians 3:3

On the other extreme, there are people who renounce righteousness altogether, assuming that because they have been justified and forgiven in Christ, practical righteousness has no bearing on their lives.  To that line of thinking, Paul says:

What shall we say then?  Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?  By no means!  How can we who died to sin still live in it?  ~Romans 6:1-2

What then?  Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace?  By no means!  ~Romans 6:15

To accept the grace of God in justification, but to proceed to live in sin rather than in righteousness, this is what we call license, or licentiousness, which is immoral conduct.  Unabated acts of licentiousness indicate that what a person is counting on to be his salvation may not be salvation at all.

We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him and the evil one does not touch him.  ~1 John 5:18

 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."  ~Matthew 7:21

The goal of salvation is not merely to nail down an assurance that we won't have to go to hell in the future, when we die.  Neither is it to make us live clean and decent lives in the present.  Both of these are good things, and both are byproducts of salvation.  However, they are not the goal of salvation.  The goal of salvation is that we would be restored to a right relationship with God, whereby we find our full satisfaction in knowing Him, loving Him and being loved by Him, a love which spills out of our lives and into the world, through acts of kindness and sacrifice for the good of our neighbors, patterned after the example of Christ who is our hope of glory.  The goal of salvation is that we would be made righteous, and thus be able to share in the ministry of Christ for the healing of the world from sin now, and to share in the full glory of God for all eternity.

This is real righteousness, substantive and holy, true and effective.  Let's consider Romans 5:19 together:

For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.  ~Romans 5:19

This is how we know that our righteousness is a real thing, a complete inward renovation that begins with a new heart, and ultimately shows up in the way we love God and keep His commands with the help of the Holy Spirit (John 14:15-27).

The one man's disobedience is the sin of Adam, the original rebellion against God.  Adam did not steal or murder or commit adultery.  Adam did not deface anyone's property or defraud his neighbor.  Adam just ate a piece of fruit that God had explained he should not eat.  Adam decided that his desires were more important than God's instructions.  In that one twisted expression of an unrighteous heart attitude, Adam opened the door to all theft and killing and cheating and destruction.  When the Bible says, "The many were made sinners," it doesn't mean that humanity was simply labeled with the unfortunate term, "sinners."  It means that a real, substantive, pervasive sinful nature sprang up in the hearts of men.  It does not mean that every human baby born, although fundamentally innocent, is cursed by being categorized as a sinner in the sight of God.  It means that every baby born arrives in the world with an egocentric world view and an eye towards figuring out how to grasp its own way.  We are--every one of us--born fighting selfishly for our own perceived rights, and thus the conflict begins and continues.

As it is written, none is righteous, no, not one.  ~Romans 3:10

It's real conflict, real sin, a real problem.  We are sinners, from the core of our hearts, with a desperate need for help to escape our deathly situation.  We need real righteousness.  Not imagined, theoretical, here's-a-cloaking-device-under-which-you-can-keep-sinning righteousness.  We need true, deep, new-heart-formed-after-the-heart-of-God righteousness.  Just as Adam made us sinners, from the core of our wretched hearts, in a similar but opposite and overwhelmingly glorious way, Jesus makes us truly righteous, in our newborn, Spirit-filled hearts.

Adam made us captive to sin, caught in a vortex that sucks us down to death.

Christ, through His radical obedience unto death, offers us true, life-changing righteousness resulting in eternal life.

Adam's act of disobedience cast aside our immortality for mortality and death.  It made us captive to the devil and blinded us from even perceiving our predicament.

Christ's act of obedience makes it possible for our souls to be joined to God for an everlasting future in glory.  It makes freedom from sin possible, and opens our eyes to the truth which sets us free.  By this one act of obedience, many are made righteous, given new, changed hearts, empowered to walk in grace and love.

Righteousness is the living manifestation of love, and love is humility, and humility is a heart compassionately attuned to the needs of others, trusting and obeying God in everything, because God is love.

Righteousness is what I long for.  Righteousness is what I need.  And righteousness comes from God, through Christ alone, by the mighty work of His Holy Spirit in our hearts.

He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.  ~Psalm 37:6

He restores my soul.  He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake.  ~Psalm 23:3

Righteousness -- part 1

Righteousness is good.

I'm slightly astonished that this should need to be pointed out.  Yet, it does.

Righteousness is one of God's fundamental attributes.

For the Lord is righteous; He loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold His face.
~Psalm 11:7

God is righteous.

The Psalms are full of praise to God for His righteousness.

He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.  ~Psalm 33:5

Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your judgments are like the great deep; man and beast you save, O Lord.  ~Psalm 36:6

By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas.  ~Psalm 65:5

Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the high heavens.  You who have done great things, O God, who is like you?  ~Psalm 71:19

This is only a smattering.  Scripture is full of praise to God for His righteousness.

God's righteousness is part of His glory and His holiness.  It is both beautiful and desirable.

Let's try to define righteousness before we go any farther.  Sometimes it is helpful to define a word in terms of its opposite, in terms of what it is not:

Righteousness is the opposite of sin.

If sin is rebelling against the ways of God, then righteousness is cooperating with the ways of God.  If sin is doing the wrong thing, then we can see that righteousness is doing the right thing.   If sin is displeasing to God, righteousness is pleasing to God.

God's righteousness is bound up in His purity, His holiness, His perfect wisdom and justice, and the fact that He never makes a mistake.

Righteous people are kind, fair, patient, wise, honest and altogether trustworthy.  Righteous people exude peace, joy and love.  Righteous people reflect the righteousness of God as beacons of hope in a dark world.  Righteous people make mistakes, but they repent humbly and quickly, and seek to make amends.  Righteous people will never be perfect in righteousness (until they get to heaven), but they are always increasing in righteousness.

Within Christianity, there exists quite a powerful school of thought that renounces righteousness.   I'm not sure whether this stems from an irrational fear, or a blind justification for apathy towards sin, or even a base desire to preserve sinful habits.  Those who distance themselves from righteousness tend to associate seeking righteousness with what they call legalism.

Legalism (I've said this before, and I'll say it again) is when people think they can independently, through their own power, attain a standard of righteousness that would be acceptable to God.  Another word for this is self-righteousness, which is an oxymoron, and should never be confused with true righteousness.  Legalism is not when people aim to live lives that are obedient to scripture and pleasing to the Lord because they love Him.  Legalism is not when God's indwelling Spirit teaches and empowers righteousness in the inmost being of a believer.  Legalism is the farthest thing from righteousness.  Legalism grows out of pride, and pride is sin, and sin is the opposite of righteousness.  Those who are so concerned about legalism would do better to confront the problem of pride.  In today's world, we have fallen so far from righteousness that authentic legalism is essentially a non-issue.  Pride, on the other hand, is alive, well, and invading the lives of both believers and unbelievers everywhere.

We are called to be righteous.  We are called to live lives that are pleasing to the Lord.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.  ~Psalm 19:14

Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.  Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.  ~Psalm 51:6-7

But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.  ~Matthew 6:33

We are saved from sin, so that we can live good, righteous lives that benefit us and glorify God.

He Himself [Jesus Christ] bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.  By His wounds you have been healed.  1 Peter 2:24

Salvation is a real and practical event by which the atoning sacrifice of Christ cleanses us, declaring us justified, innocent not by our own merits, but because He bore the wrath of God in our place.  Although in our natural state we are utterly unworthy, He declares us worthy to experience fellowship with God through the tearing of His own priceless flesh; Christ was and is the the only intrinsically worthy one.

And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on earth.  ~Revelation 5:9-10

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.  ~Hebrews 10:19-22

As you can see from these scriptures, it doesn't end with our declared righteousness.  God continues pouring out more grace, transforming us (Romans 12:2, 2 Corinthians 3:18) into reigning priests under our High Priest, Jesus Christ, with clean hearts and purified bodies (Ezekiel 36:25).  God makes us new (2 Corinthians 5:17, Revelation 21:5).  We become righteous, internally righteous, substantively righteous and not merely theoretically or philosophically.  This is the mysterious and gradual, yet observable, work of the Spirit of God in us (John 3:8).

We will explore more about this real and miraculous righteousness, next time.

Goodness

People who don't believe in God say that they can be good without God.  They don't need God in order to be good.  They can work out their own good.  We, as cultures and societies, can be good without a God.

This is untrue.

People cannot be good if there is no definition of goodness.  They think they can define goodness themselves, without any divine standard.  It's a nice idea, but it fails in practice.  Even two people cannot agree on a standard of goodness between themselves, if it is up to them.  Certainly entire societies cannot do so.

Western civilizations place a high value on freedom, compassion, and the value of human life.  This is a lingering result from the permeating influence of Christianity, whether or not anyone will admit it.  Cultures that have never benefitted from the ethics of Christian belief, and cultures that have departed from these ethics, are cold, miserable places where the strong oppress the weak without conscience, and there is no recourse for seeking justice.  Contemporary western thought despises its Christian roots, often celebrating the intrinsic worth of "all cultures."  But all cultures are not equal in value and goodness.  No culture is perfect, but cultures with at least the sense to strive for liberty and justice certainly do better than those who do not.

We have a movie called, The Gods Must be Crazy, about some happy tribal people in Africa whose lives are upset when a Coke bottle falls into their midst from a plane flying overhead.  It is a whimsical, funny movie with a gentle feel to it.  The natives are happy, content and peaceful until the influence of the west upsets their balance, and eventually they return to their cheerful, charmed existence.  However, our DVD also contains some background footage of the project, film of the actual lives that the "actors" in the film lived, in their third world country.  We watched the movie with our kids and felt happy at the end of it.   We liked it so much, we started watching all the rest of the material on the DVD.  When we saw the seamy side, the things that had been airbrushed out of the story the movie told, we felt not only disappointed, but violated.  All was certainly not as it had originally seemed.

In the west, we have so ingrained an idea of what our rights are (life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, right?), and what sort of justice we "deserve," that sometimes our kids go off to countries on the other side of the world, break the rules, and are shocked when they receive a harsh punishment.  Sometimes they even die, and their outraged parents try to sue the foreign government, apparently not realizing that when you aren't in your own country, you can't insist on people respecting your country's values.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights . . ." says our Declaration of Independence.  And people don't realize--godless people do not realize that when you erase the Creator from the sentence, the truths are no longer self-evident, and there is no reason to believe that people are equal anymore.  It becomes about the survival of the fittest, the strongest, the richest, the most clever and the most heavily armed.  So, watch your back.

Whenever people think they have the right to define what is good and what is bad, they literally think, "I have the right to define what is good and what is bad."  We are so inherently selfish and prideful, we always think, "I am the one who is right.  I am the one who will be offended if it doesn't go my way.  I am the one who must not be offended, because I am the one who is right."

Essentially, we all insist on our own way, and we live at an impasse with others.

This is at the root of the sin Adam and Eve committed in the garden of Eden.  What's so bad about eating a bite of fruit?  Nothing, on the surface.  The bad part is that they insisted on their own way, declared their independence from God's standard of righteousness.  In essence, they said, "You can't tell us what to do, God.  You can't tell us what is right and what is wrong.  We will decide for ourselves what is right and what is wrong.  We know best what is right for us."

Satan had told them, "If you eat the fruit, you will become like God, knowing right from wrong."  Such clever words, just a few degrees off from the truth.  He would have spoken truth if he had said, "If you eat the fruit, you will be usurping God's rightful position as judge, and although you will not have the wisdom to know right from wrong, you will insist on trying to define right and wrong, forever after."

This is the human problem.  Heinous crimes are committed and we are shocked again and again, but we should not be.  People do evil because they are hopelessly lost in selfishness and foolishness, because they want what they want, without regard for God or the best interests of others.  There is no natural humility in us, no true concern for the interests of others--at least not if the interests of others will cost us anything.  This is the result of the curse of Adam.  Additionally, we have no wisdom to help us mitigate our selfish impulses.  Some people have a farther reaching view of their own best good than others.  Some people will tell the truth or refrain from stealing from you, or even be kind to you, because they realize that it is in their best interest to do so in a particular situation.  Others operate at a base level of animalistic greed.  But everyone works for his own personal best interests, until the Lord gets ahold of him and the Spirit of God changes his heart.

We have turned--every one--to his own way.  Isaiah 53:6

In those days there was no king in Israel.  Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.  Judges 21:25

If every person on this earth considers himself (or herself) to be the center of the universe, the one true hero, the most deserving of consideration, then there will never be any peace.  If there is no God, and we believe that each one of us has the right to decide what is right and best for us, there will be constant conflict and competition.  You see, when we adopt this mindset, we are all trying to be "god."  Billions of little, selfish gods spread across the globe, we compete for the chance to call the shots, when none of us is remotely qualified for this role.

It is only when we surrender to God as the rightful authority over the Universe that we find peace and harmony.  He is the Creator who knows how it works, and He is the only one who truly knows how to love.

God demonstrated His love for us in this: while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
~Romans 5:8

Jesus, the very Son of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself of His divine glory, took on mortal flesh, and humbled Himself to death on a cross.
~Philippians 2

God loves us, and He is the only one we can trust.  He is the only one who knows what our best interests are.  He is the only one who has the power and the lovingkindness to help us achieve them.  He is the only one who could and would sacrifice His own blood to provide us with hope, peace and joy.  He is the only one wise enough and sovereign enough to repair the universe for the benefit of all who will cooperate with Him.

I think it is safe to say that His promise goes something like this:  All Creation is broken by sin because of rebellion, but I am working to repair and restore it.  I am both able and willing to do this for you.  All you have to do is come to me and trust me.  Work with me, believing that I have your best in mind, and let my Spirit work in you.  Sometimes it will be hard, because there is trouble in this world, and I am not going to destroy my original creation just yet.  I am waiting to gather in all who will come to me, and that means I am letting this broken creation continue for longer than you will find comfortable.  But believe me, trust me.  In the end, it will be worth far more than any affliction you face in this age.  I have prepared for you an eternity that is far more wonderful than anything you could ever ask or imagine.  Come to me.  Trust me.  Cooperate with me.  Obey me.  I am working for your good.

God is the only completely unselfish being.  This is what the Bible means when it says that Jesus is humble (Philippians 2:8, Matthew 11:29).  He is completely unselfish, and wants only the best for us.  His desire is to share His glory with us.  He sacrificed Himself so we could become partakers of goodness and light and life.  Therefore, in our quest to find a standard of goodness--which we mortal, flawed humans obviously can never agree upon among ourselves--we discover that only God can be trusted to provide the standard that miraculously, by His grace, benefits all creation.

There is no good apart from God, only selfishness and conflict.

But God is good.  His love and faithfulness endure forever.

If you reject Him, He will give you opportunity after opportunity to change your mind and come back.  But if you continue to refuse to listen, to refuse to come, to refuse to let Him heal your spiritual sight so you can see the light of His glorious face, in the end He will give you what you want.  In the end, if you insist on your own way, He will give you your own way.  He will turn you loose to run into the abyss of darkness that you in your independence think you crave.

The Story of the Bible

There is a great deal of confusion about the Bible.

Satan, the great deceiver, likes it that way, and is always working to this end.  When people know and understand the truth, they are much harder for him to deceive, so he has a strong tendency to promote confusion.

He keeps bringing back two major points of confusion, which present as "new" ideas, but in reality are very old heresies.

Heresy #1:  We don't need the Bible.  We only need Jesus.

Heresy #2:  Christians only need the part of the Bible that is about Jesus, and that is the New Testament.  We don't need the Old Testament; it is irrelevant.

First, let's tackle the idea that we don't need the Bible, we only need Jesus.

This idea sounds like it might be all right, because Jesus is, indeed, the centerpiece of our faith.  These days, this idea usually comes to us via catchy or guilt-inducing phrases such as:

"It's not about a book, it's about a person!"

"Our faith is not based on a book, it's based on an event!" (Meaning the resurrection.  Not the crucifixion, mind you.  The resurrection.)

"If you love your Bible so much, you are making it an idol.  Don't idolize and worship your Bible!  Worship Jesus!"

But tell me, how can I worship Jesus, if I do not know Him?  And how can I know Jesus, or know anything about His purpose, His origin (or whether He actually has an origin), or the events of His life, unless there is an account of these things?  And what is the Bible, except an account of the history of God's redemptive work through Jesus Christ?

We need the Bible, because it is a long, continuous, miraculous thread of historical revelation that points us to Christ.  Without the Bible, we would have no knowledge of Christ.

Can I please just quote some scripture here?

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.  Through Him all things were made; without Him, nothing was made that has been made.  In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. . .  The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.  (John 1:1-4, 14)

Jesus Himself is the Word of God.

Let's think about that for a minute.  Jesus is the Word of God.  What are words for?  Words are for communicating, for sharing information, ideally for sharing truth, and for forging relationship through understanding.  Jesus is all these things.  Jesus is God's communication to us, His revelation of Himself.

The Bible, the Holy Scripture, is also God's revelation to us of Himself.  God has revealed Himself to us so that we can know Him.  Love Him.  Worship Him.  As God presented Moses with the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai amidst fire and cloud, so God presented the disciples with Jesus on a different mountain, in a great cloud, and transfigured Him with dazzling light to reveal His divine glory and authority, in the presence of Moses and Elijah (Matthew 17:1-5, Mark 9:2-7, Luke 9:28-35).  Jesus is God's message to us, the completion of all His great and perfect promises.  "This is my Son, whom I love, with whom I am well pleased," God said.  "Listen to Him!" God said.

Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law (Matthew 5:17-20), the completion of the promises (2 Corinthians 1:20).

We have arrived at Heresy #2 (above).  If Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets (who spoke God's promises), then how could we possibly think that we don't need to study the Old Testament?  How could the exact thing that Jesus came to fulfill be irrelevant?

Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law.  Some people misunderstand what this means.  They like to say, "Jesus fulfilled the Law, so I don't have to."  Their assumption seems to be that Jesus did all the difficult, good things that God required, and then laid down His life as the perfect sacrifice to pay for sin, so now the rest of us are free to participate in as much sin as we please, since Jesus bought our way in to this new "freedom" ("Freedom in Christ," they say, missing the point entirely).  This makes absolutely no sense, and it rises out of ignorance of both the Law and the New Testament (see Romans 6:1-15; we aren't freed to participate in sin, we are freed from the bondage of sin).

Since I'm defending the Old Testament, let's look at what we need to know about the Law:

The Law contains two parts.  When you read it--in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy--you will notice that there are two different categories of things the Law addresses.

The Law explains that God wants to dwell among His people (Exodus 25:8-9).  It gives detailed instructions for how the Israelites should construct a tabernacle, set up a priesthood, and offer sacrifices to facilitate this co-dwelling.  The problem is that sin had entered the world through Adam and Eve, so there was a blockage in accessibility between Holy God and fallen man.  This part of the Law enabled people (those who would obey) to gain access to God, while they waited for the promised Messiah to come with the real solution.  Messiah would complete the restoration of the God-man relationship through perfect forgiveness of sins that would be possible after His freely offered self-sacrifice (see Hebrews 9:22-28).  Since Jesus, the Messiah, has completed His mission, we no longer need to offer sacrifices for sin.  This effectually makes the sacrifices, the priesthood and the temple obsolete.  In fact, instead of dwelling in a hidden, holy chamber at the center of a temple, God now dwells in every believer, through His Spirit.  Each one of us is a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16).  We are forgiven in Christ and indwelt by His Holy Spirit in our very bodies.

The other part of the Law is not specifically about how to approach God.  These directions are practical (maybe even pragmatic) instructions for how people can best survive in a fallen world cursed by the effects of sin.  God explained how people should treat one another, so they could live peacefully together.  He gave Israel beautiful principles of justice that would help them mitigate the violence that sin inflicts on humanity.  He taught them to eat the meat of the least disease-prone organisms (no bottom feeders or carrion scavengers!).  He taught them how to wash their hands to promote personal hygiene, for goodness sake, thousands of years before germ theory was discovered.  He taught them to quarantine the sick to prevent the spread of disease.  He even taught them to rest the land every seven years (an alternative to crop rotation).  And yes (I know this is increasingly unpopular these days), He gave them instructions for how to cultivate the healthiest possible family structure through sexual relationships defined by faithfulness and judiciousness.  When Jesus came, He did not overturn any of these things.  He expanded them (Matthew 5-7).  He knew that once His followers were indwelt by the Holy Spirit, they would have more, not less, aptitude for following--and loving--the ways of God.

The part of the Law that deals with tabernacle, priesthood and sacrifice is sometimes called, "The Ceremonial Law."  This part of the Law was made obsolete after the finished work of Christ, although we can still learn much about the heart of God and the beauty of His redemptive plan if we will study it.  On the other side, the practical, day-to-day directives in the Law include, "The Moral Law."  The Moral Law is something like the Laws of Nature or the Laws of Science.  It's the way things work, which you can learn through experience (usually painful) or through study.  God created both the physical and the spiritual universe, the visible and the invisible.  Within His laws, we find both physical and moral principles for the way things work, shortcuts which God revealed to His people to save them pain and trouble, if only they would obey (Deuteronomy 10:12-13).  The book of Proverbs has a good deal of moral law in it, as well.

We love the Old Testament because it reveals God to us.  It shows us how much He loves us, and tells us of His mighty works and miracles.  I recently heard a famous preacher declare that the God of the Old Testament was not full of grace, and I wanted to tear my hair out.  God has always been full of grace.  The Old Testament shows how lovingly our gracious God bore with people who failed to obey Him again and again.  He always responded to their cries for help when they became desperate.  Even near the close of the Old Testament, when God had to punish His people during the captivity, He had graciously given them prophesies since the days of Moses, and all through the centuries, promising that He would gather them back as His people after seventy years.  His anger never lasts, and He always provides hope.  Every single book of the Old Testament points to the promise of the coming Messiah, the grace of God that would appear in human flesh to sympathize with us, relate to us, save us and bring us home.

We love the Law because it reveals the way of righteousness to us.  It helps us learn to live in love, joy and peace, as God desires for us.  The Law is good! (Romans 7:12, 1 Timothy 1:8)  The Law explains how we can live lives that are holy and pleasing to God.

The big confusion comes from mixing the idea of obedience to the Law with the idea of salvation by grace.  Please let me clarify, because it really isn't that hard:

Nobody can ever be saved through obedience to the Law.  Obedience to the Law does not produce salvation.  And anyway, perfect obedience to the Law is categorically impossible for anyone except Christ.

Salvation is a gift from God, and it comes only by faith in Jesus Christ, faith which God graciously awakens in us.  This faith enables us to believe that Jesus died and shed His blood for the forgiveness of our sins.  The only way to be saved is to understand our sinful state, hate it, turn from it, and cast ourselves on the mercy of God, who promises to forgive and cleanse us by the blood of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ's death and resurrection.  His death atoned for our sins and justified us before God.  His resurrection demonstrated the power of the Holy Spirit that raised Him up from under the cumulative sins of all humanity, and also raises us to a new life of living righteously through the Holy Spirit's power (Ephesians 1:17-23, 5:8-10).

Obedience to the Law 

can never produce salvation,

but salvation and the indwelling Holy Spirit 

will always produce obedience to God's ways--

not merely producing outward obedience to the Law,

but producing hearts that actively seek righteousness.

(see Ezekiel 36:27, Matthew 5:20-30)

The Bible is the story of God's plan for humanity.  The Bible begins with a perfect garden that contained two very significant trees, one whose fruit would lead to eternal life, and another whose fruit would burden humanity with the knowledge of evil.  The Bible ends with a city that has a river running through it, and on each side of the river stands the tree of life, yielding fruit every month, with leaves for the healing of nations.  At the center of the Bible, at the heart of this story, there is a single tree, a bare, cursed tree.  This tree bore no leaves, nor any fruit.  From its limbs hung our precious Lord and Savior, with nails through His hands and feet.  He was undoing the curse of the tree that brought the knowledge of evil, so that eventually all evil will be eradicated, all trees will bring forth pure blessings, and paradise will prevail for all eternity.

It is impossible to understand the New Testament if you do not understand the Old Testament.  The Old Testament tells us that there is a God who is the source of all life and goodness, and that we live separated from Him because of a rift caused by the original sin.  The Old Testament tells us all about God's plan to fix this problem.  Why is there even a nation called Israel, and why are there people called Jews?  The Old Testament explains this, too.  Israel exists because God planned to send Jesus as a human person, with genetics and a family background (Romans 9:5).  God chose Abraham to be the father of the nation that would eventually beget Jesus for the blessing of all nations (Genesis 12:3).  This is the whole point of Israel and Judaism, and it is the reason why God protected and preserved the documentation of their history:  It's Jesus' history!

It's all about Jesus, and of course Jesus is the most important part.  Without the Bible we wouldn't know anything about Jesus, and in effect, we wouldn't have Him.  We need the Bible in order to know Jesus.  The more we know and understand the Bible, the better we are able to know and understand Jesus.

Jesus Himself said, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God,'" (Matthew 4:4).

Every Word.

Faith in Happy Endings

I'm not a scholar.  Not a historian, nor a scientist, nor an archaeologist.  I have nothing but a lowly Bachelor's Degree in English, and even for that, I'm not particularly well read.  I do recognize a good story though.

I suppose you could (possibly even fairly) say that I believe the Bible because I am ignorant.  You might be right.  You might be wrong.

I'm tired, and I've been sick, and I don't really want to get into some big defense of why I see things the way I see them, and why I could possibly think that I, of all people, might be able to discern what is true.

Tomorrow is Easter, and here is what I am thinking about:

Happy endings follow terrible events.

In fact, you never even know how happy you can be, until you have experienced a loss of happiness and had it returned.  This is the truth, and I know it because I have seen it and experienced it, hundreds of times.

Stories are not any good without a conflict and a resolution.  Such is the basic pattern of every story.  Something goes wrong, and somehow this changes things fundamentally.  Some stories do not have a happy ending, and yet, even in stories where the main characters die tragically and the world is left scarred, the author almost always ends with some sort of poignant hope, veiled though it may be.

The human spirit hopes.  The human spirit hopes, and hope is from God, and hope is fulfilled in Jesus.  Those who turn to Jesus, to the light, to life and hope and joy and peace, those people will see a happy ending.

The Bible is the Best Story, the story of God, who created all things and infused His creation with beauty, love and great expectation.  Because it is a story, the Best Story, a problem had to arise: betrayal, separation, brokenness.  The Bible word for this problem is sin.  Adam and Eve brought sin and death into their perfect world, separating themselves from their perfect, holy Creator.

Throughout the Best Story, time after time, God reaches into His broken creation with signs of hope, words of hope, promises of restoration.  Over many, many centuries, smaller stories come together from the quills of many different writers, and these stories all fit together, sometimes creating patterns, telling simplified versions, partial versions of the amazing rescue to come.  Sometimes they give hints or present riddles; always, they remind of the promise of a Savior.  These little stories that fit together to tell the Best Story show us people just like us, people who make mistakes, people who do things that are stupid (and sometimes even wicked), people who are not particularly strong or smart or special.  When they stray from the Lord they are worthless, but when they cling to Him, He makes them invincible.

Like all the good stories, The Best Story has a climax.  Easter is the climax.  God Himself, having taken on mortal flesh, surrenders to a ghastly execution.  The glorious One who dreamed up the universe and spoke it into existence stood silent as deluded men whipped Him, swore at Him, spit on Him, pressed a ring of thorns over his His head and into His temples, and finally nailed His hands and feet to a cross of wood and stood it on a hill where crowds could mock and jeer at His suffering.  The sky turned black at midday, and Jesus Christ the Lord God died.

It was terrible.  All those who had believed in Him figured they must have been wrong.  Devastation, loss and despair reigned for three days.

But, on the third day, early in the morning, the most amazing thing happened.  There was a resurrection.  It happened mysteriously, and the dawning of understanding came slowly.  Nevertheless, the stone in front of the tomb had been rolled away.  The tomb was empty.  Angels appeared, saying things like, "He is not here, He has risen!"  And finally, He started to appear here and there, Himself, talking to His friends, reassuring and offering hope.

There is hope.  This is the Real Story, the story all other stories try either to emulate or to obfuscate.  No matter how bad it gets, we can always hope, because God is here, alive, attentive, almighty.  It's going to be okay.  If we can just hang on through the dark night, joy comes in the morning.  Every winter that turns into spring, every baby that arrives after a painful labor, every sunrise after a sleepless night reminds us of the same story: God plans good for us in the end.

There are a lot of stories in circulation that aren't true, but the truth is, there is a God.  He loves His creation, and He is working on the most glorious rescue operation ever.  It's going to take us all of eternity in heaven to study all the intricacies of His plan to bring His will to pass, all the millions of plot threads that He wove together for our ultimate joy and His surpassing glory.

It is going to be amazing.  It is going to be so good.

Please read Psalm 30.

Spring is coming slowly this year, but I'm holding on.  All I've got blooming is crocuses (it's the first year we haven't had Easter daffodils since we moved here).  But the crocuses are nice:

And here is my bleeding heart, which came back, even though it never bloomed last year . . .

If you liked this, here's another Easter post you might enjoy (from last year).