« ..No Condemnation.. » The Best Two Words in the Bible

April 28, 2011

Maria Romans , , , Leave a comment

A speaker at chapel the other day mentioned that his favorite two words in scripture were, “But God..”   Compelling indeed, these two words introduce hope into a situation where none is by nature.

I now offer you my favorite words in the Bible.  If you want hope plus something else, think about Paul’s startling announcement: “No condemnation!”  Paul reinforces and explains this comforting fact in his letter to the Romans. He describes the freedom belonging to those who have been transferred from the world where Death dominates to the world of Everlasting Life.

Do you remember Venn Diagrams from Geometry Class? They can provide a visual representation of these two worlds.   Everyone born to human parents is born into the Kingdom of Darkness, one of the two Venn circles.  Growing up and living in this ‘Death Camp’, one is under God’s justifiable wrath for her inherited God-hostility (thanks Father Adam!)  No hope there!

But God (okay – these 2 words ARE pretty cool!) can transfer us OUT of the Kingdom of Darkness into the other Venn diagram – the Kingdom of Light, the Kingdom of the Son.  It’s a legal transfer – a one-way, one-time, permanent judicial action.  Why judicial?  Because our guilty charge has been dealt with.  Our name has been cleared, thanks to Christ who has assumed onto himself our guilt.  There’s NO LONGER any guilty sentence tied to us.

Since we have a new status, there is no longer any condemnation.

Here are a couple glorious implications –

1)    If I do something wrong, hurtful, embarrassing, sinful, I can remember that Jesus has already paid for this. What else do I need to do?  Repent and make restitution as necessary.  But under NO circumstances should I indulge in self-condemnation.

2)    I have perfect access to God as Father since I have been freed from any condemnation.  I have Jesus as my big-brother advocate.  And I have the presence of the Holy Spirit within in me.  Besides all the ‘stuff’ the Trinity does for me as an adopted child in the Kingdom of Light, as one who is freed from condemnation, I have fellowship with the Trinity and with other believers.  Don’t you long for genuine community?

I find myself recalling multiple times throughout the day, ‘no condemnation, Maria’.  I need that truth check because the world is pretty hostile.

But since the other night, I have paired that two-word fact with another equally powerful reminder.  This thought comes courtesy of Jonathan Edwards who was quoted in a book about puritan prayers.  He described the Holy Spirit as the ‘choicest of gifts’.  What an uplifting way of looking at the 3rd member of the Trinity!!   If we are IN CHRIST, in the Camp of Christ, in the Venn Diagram of Life, in the Kingdom of Light, in the Kingdom of the Son whom God loves, then we already have the ‘choicest of gifts’.  We have the Holy Spirit who permanently lives in us, directing and encouraging and helping us with God’s resurrection power, God’s universe-creating force, wisdom and love.

What gifts!  What a God!

My Asherah Pole – destroying an idol

April 22, 2011

Maria Grace, Idols , 1 Comment

You must break down their pagan altars and shatter their sacred pillars. Cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols. – Deuteronomy 7:5

If repetition is the mother of learning, then there is hope for me.  God keeps working the same lessons deeper into my soul.  I give up an idol for a while.  Time passes and subtly I’m lured back to my familiar friend/enemy with assurances that this time I can really control it, that it won’t hurt me.

My bathroom scale is my Asherah pole.  A week ago, I put it up;  that is ‘I removed it from the high place, but did not destroy it’. What high place was that? – the high place in my heart.  Each morning, awakened by the alarm, my FIRST thought of the morning was, “Maybe THIS time the scale will show me what I want to weigh and I WILL BE HAPPY!”  It was a temptation that held me in a vise-like grip.  More often than not, the numbers were NOT what I wanted and my outlook was set for the day – disappointment and gloom.  But on the rare days that my weight was what I wanted, I was VERY happy.  No matter what would happen, I could say with some peace of mind, “Well, at least I weigh XYZ”

Over the last few years, I have known this was not only sinful and wrong but demoralizing and unhealthy.  The Holy Spirit has often suggested the TRUE alternative to cheer me on,  “Well, (if my day is less than desirable)  at least I am chosen and dearly loved by God with 10,000 promises of future joys and pleasures, fellowship and peace with God and the company of the saints  awaiting me in heaven.”  Now that’s a life-giving picture.

I define an idol as a creaturely way to provide one’s own pleasure, significance or security.  When we create and worship (i.e. elevate its value in our life) something, we communicate to God that WE know what is best for us, that we can’t trust Him to provide what we need or want.

How do you identify idols? (Yes, there is often more than one)  For me, it’s the groove my thoughts run to automatically, habitually in order to self-console or self-medicate. “Hmm, what will give me a ‘divertissement’ from this present unpleasant day?”  I am like a child sucking his finger, a smoker lighting up, a nosher providing herself mouth-pleasure, a man de-stressing with porn, or on the other hand an over-achiever in competitive events (sports, sales, style, materialism or academics).  I have found solace in finding an achievement about which I could feel good and actually superior to my peers.  Weighing a certain weight has been the ultimate source of self-worth.

But a cruel slave-driver is my scale.  What power it has over my day.  Knowing this and trying to rebel against its tyranny,  I would often try to fight my idol’s hold over me with the logical reminder that before long I will have a new body in heaven.  I would ponder why such a temporary physical thing like a few pounds could mean that much to me?  Each day I reasoned how stupid I was to let an inanimate object determine my well-being.  But reason could not counter the siren pull of the scales, the temptation to validate myself by weighing my dream weight of 127.

So last Saturday, I put the scales in the closet for good.  I have asked God to help me resist ever getting that cruel taskmaster back out.   I will let my annual visit to the doctor be my only monitor.  So far I have felt free. I know that living by Grace is a daily endeavor.  I will need to feed on Grace thoughts to counter my natural bent to living by the Law.

Please post what helps you live idol-free!  Or how we can pray so that you may be free from the tyranny of the Law!

Grace Redux

April 12, 2011

Maria Grace, Isaiah, Philippians, Romans , Leave a comment

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.  Phil 4:13

I have finally awakened to the PRESENCE of supernatural GRACE (“charis – # 5485”) in the new Maria.  What new Maria?  I’m referring to the new creature that I became when I was born again.  God’s Holy Spirit was deposited in me at that moment when I passed from death to life.  I am now a daughter of God the Father and equipped with a new nature and new rights.  As His child, He deposited faith in me and gave me access to all the grace needed to obey His will.  And if the HS was powerful enough to raise a dead Jesus to life, He can do anything in me that is His will.

Newly aware of the GRACE that is rightfully mine (according to the inheritance stipulations), I am sorting out logical implications.

What is this logic?  If God saved us by GRACE, can’t we now expect God to continue to provide us with GRACE to live faithfully day by day?  Why would we, once we began the life of faith, then revert back to living our lives powered by our own strength, skill, talent & knowledge?

To be honest, you & I probably were unaware that GRACE saved us, that it was not something we did ourselves.  (It might FEEL like we made a decision to follow Christ, but that only was possible once God made us alive in Him.  Dead men don’t choose God and we were born dead.)   A moment in time changed our status and destination forever.

And since that time, we are growing into mature Christians.  (If we are not growing, maybe we haven’t been born again!).  We are learning from Scriptures how we were saved by GRACE, through faith deposited in us by God.  Once aware of this GRACE as redeemed sinners in the process of being renovated, we have time to savor, to muse about this GRACE.

Understanding GRACE is important. Remember the silly Galatians?  Paul saves his harshest words for them.  He point blank asks them whether they intend to walk with God, powered by their own strength or in total dependence on God’s strength.   This is not a trifling point of doctrine.  Paul did not call them silly, but sinful.

The Bible is very clear that anything we do on our own, not relying on God through faith is sinful, disobedient and repugnant to God.  He calls all such works filthy, no matter how ‘good’ in the eyes of the world. (Isaiah 64:6)  In Romans 8, Paul calls deeds done on our own, ‘deeds done in the flesh’.  And what is done in the flesh God calls a hostile deed, leading to death and by definition SIN.  Further in Romans, Paul wraps up God’s view this way: “…. and everything that does not come from faith is sin?” (Romans 14:23b).  ‘Coming from faith’ means ‘done by/ powered by faith’

In conclusion, EVERYTHING we do in our own strength without relying on God’s supernatural, Holy Spirit is not even worth doing.  This morning I heard a pastor pray, “Lord, I have so little time left in my life at age 57 that I don’t want to waste my life doing anything that requires no faith”.  Francis Chan asks his readers in Crazy Love, something like, “What are you doing in your life that requires any faith?”

As we seek to avoid the sin of assuming we can do ANYTHING pleasing to God powered by human strength, let us not forget all we will be able to do in obedience to God IN/ BY/ THROUGH Christ.  This is reassuring and freeing.  We are like little one-year-olds, learning to walk.  Picture a daddy, holding on to both raised hands of his little one, ‘walking’ his precious child.  The child is being held up by his dad as his little feet move.  But Dad and all the family applaud warmly and with resounding ‘bravos’ as the soon-to-be toddler takes his first assisted steps.  This is how God wants us to be.  He gives us all the help we need to do His will and then praises us for depending totally on Him.  What a deal!

What’s the catch?  It feels costly, since it deprives our most precious sin of any food.  We can no longer boast that our deeds were due to us!  But, in both the long and short run, this is a small price to pay to please our heavenly father.

Freedom that comes with Grace

April 9, 2011

Maria Grace, Hebrews, John Leave a comment

I just learned that the Greek word to justify (phonetically: dik-ah-yo, # 1344) also means to free, to declare righteous.  Since as a Calvinist I believe that we are saved only by grace, grace is always on my mind.   And recently books, blogs and sermons on living or walking by grace have converged to grab my attention.  If repetition is the key to effective education, then I have absorbed the message. Apparently, this message could not have come at a better time: “Needs rescuing!” has been my epithet.

Like most Christians, I grew up in a legalistic culture, both in the church and in society.  “Be a good girl,” has been the life-sucking, pride-producing shackle that I have willingly worn.

What a ‘good girl’ looks like depends on the culture one is in.  In civic society, one is considered ‘good’ if one pursues education, works out, keeps up the yard, volunteers, etc.  In evangelical circles, one is considered a ‘good’ Christian if one has a quiet time and family devotions, goes on mission trips, serves at church, and raises conforming and polite children.  All these are ‘good’ things, but the danger to Christians is similar to that faced by Odysseus as he navigated the perilous and narrow strait between the Scylla and the Charybdis.

If we walk the path of Law (following the rules in order to earn Christian ‘brownie points’) one of two consequences will ensue.  Either we fail to meet the standards,  condemn ourselves and suffer disapproval from others.  Or, we believe we have succeeded in our own strength, take the glory and revel in our accomplishments.  There you have it: Draining condemnation or prideful strutting (however sophisticated & subtle)

There is a better way.  Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life”. (John 14:6)   Jesus’ way is the way of freedom.  When we accept the Creator’s assessment that we are sick (totally depraved with a long legal rap that qualifies us for God’s wrath) and turn and embrace the medicine offered (mercy) we are set free by God.  In exchange for trusting both God’s diagnosis and remedy, Jesus pays off our penalty and credits us with his perfect righteousness.

In addition to this priceless gift, we are given the supernatural, powerful Holy Spirit both as a deposit guaranteeing our future inheritance (perpetual pleasure at the right hand of God) and also as power for living in the flesh.

It works like this.  Jesus said He did not abolish the Law when He gave us the new covenant.  Instead, He sent a helper, God himself.  As new creations bonded and fused with supernatural Holy Spirit power, we CAN obey the law. But something is different.  We no longer strive for obedience to win God’s favor and love.  We already have it (Jesus’ death proves it – when we were still failing at law-keeping, He died for us – Romans 5:8).  Tullian Tchividjian likens it to being assured by the teacher that you have the A before the class even starts. The teacher gives you a helper to get all the work done.  And with this helper’s presence and guidance, you are guaranteed the A. That’s a promise.  So why struggle on your own?

Foolishly we forget.  Paul chastises the Galatians and asks with genuine astonishment why they would want to revert back to their own power once they have been rescued from the futile illusion of self-dependence, autonomy.  After all, if we are saved by grace (the bigger miracle), why shouldn’t we walk/live by grace? (the lesser miracle)

There you have it: acceptance, freedom and power.  But where does the Law fit in? God gives us the law as a wise way to live, to please Him.  But He also gives us the Holy Spirit to enable us to do what pleases Him.  We get His praise for pleasing Him and He gets the glory for enabling us to do so.  It’s a win-win system and much easier.  We know where we stand – basking with love and acceptance from our Father in the inner circle of the throne.   We are totally loved and totally secure.  Out of love, and with Holy Spirit enablement, we then aim to please Him, knowing that we cannot fail.

What’s the hitch, ‘le hic’ as they say in French?  It’s that every hour we forget about grace.  Our default setting is works.  We have to remember what Christ has done for us.  This is where good Christian friends can help.  The author of Hebrews exhorts us, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Hebr 10:24).  The best deed is to point our friends to the Cross.  Jesus said, “It is finished”. Revel in and comfort yourself with the fact that all the work has been done.  Look to the cross and be free from both the condemnation and the boasting that result from living by the flesh.