theologyinplay

[theologyinplay]

My Life as a RPG

Have you ever played a role playing game?

One of my favorites has always been Final Fantasy VII.

Like many RPG’s, FF7 follows a characters story as it unfolds from one place to another. Typically you begin in the middle somewhere and during the course of the journey, you venture back and learn some necessary details from the past. Your character doesn’t know who she is and slowly puts the pieces together to see the bigger picture of what’s going on. There’s some sort of conflict that changes the character and the course she’s on. As the story unfolds and develops you meet different characters who all have various traits, skills and influences on the story itself. These characters come in at just the right time to encourage and assist through the stage you’re in.

And similarly, the arc progresses as one stage is completed or fulfilled and you move on to the next. And sometimes you have to go back where you’ve been because you missed something you found out later on you’ll need and you can’t progress without it.

Despite decisions made, you could go off on a side quest, but the overall plot and theme doesn’t ever change. Over time your character evolves and transforms. She becomes stronger and wiser as the tasks increase in their own difficulty. You can’t move on until you’ve gotten everything out of where you are now.

My faith life is very similar to a RPG.

There’s one main plot with many storylines being told within it. You move from town to town, meeting new people and being influenced by what they know. And you take what they give you in order to move on to the next place.

After the “event” nearly 15 years ago when I awoke to God's embrace of my life, I ventured back into a familiar world I knew but with new characters who taught me how to do it differently. I grew and learned from so many who helped expand what I knew and how I functioned in that world.

It was during this time I moved away to a new town and spent my next 4-5 years leveling up and developing skills and attributes I never knew were there. Some of the most helpful characters at the time were people like John Wimber, Rob Bell, N.T. Wright, Donald Miller, Mike Turrigiano, my pastor and my spiritual parents, Gary and Pat. Among many others.

At some point during this season, I was introduced to a new group of friends who in turn introduced me to new characters. People like Bill Johnson, Rick Joyner, John Paul Jackson and Kris Vallotton. The list could go on.

From here, that same world expanded. It may have been a small side quest, but all played out in that same town. I began venturing into yet another way of doing church and ministry.

And then there was another event.

A conflict event, where my worldview and the way I understood everything changed. Before I could move on into the next town, I needed to be transformed. I would need the wisdom and influence from these new characters in order to be prepared for where my story was about to go.

During this conflict I met several others that helped smooth out this internal transition and eventual exit from that previous world into what I call the badlands.

Characters, to mention a few but certainly not all, like Baxter Kruger, Thomas Torrance, Karl Barth, John Crowder, Francois du Toit, and Robert Capon.

The badlands took over for a few years until I found myself in a new town. I was very different this time. Wiser, softer, eyes opened much wider. These badlands weren’t all bad. There was a lot of leveling up being done. A lot of learning and healing and maturing taking place.

This new town has also reintroduced some old characters, Rob Bell and N.T. Wright, mentioned above. Their and my stories seemed to intersect again and their influence continues. Part of that influence was introducing me to new characters like Richard Rohr and Peter Rollins.

These have been my most recent character introductions as my story progresses and who I am continues to develop.

The great conflict event remains the cornerstone that all others influence from, but the skills and wisdom and reach grows and expands further. My view of the plot is deeper. My understanding of how I function and how the world around me functions is greater.

The reason I tell you this story and try to make this analogy is because we typically see our life as a puzzle. I know I did. But I don’t think they’re pieces to fit in so we can see the bigger picture. I think it is more like a role playing game. A story you’re working through. And along the way you meet different characters who’s influence carries you to the next town and you level up along the way and grow stronger and wiser.

I won’t ever forget what impact John Wimber had on me. And likewise, what impact Bill Johnson had on my life. John Crowder was a necessary catalyst to a whole new realm of characters. One in particular, Robert Capon, who single handedly may have impacted me the most. You take what you need from these characters. At times, you may even revisit some to remind yourself of where you’ve been and some wisdom you picked up long ago. The path you traversed was not bad. You may be in a very different place than when you started but each stage and phase was a necessary step to get you where you are now.

We need these characters to help us develop our own. We move forward in our story as they influence us. I want to honor all of them that have spoken into my life. I wouldn’t be where I am in my story if it weren’t for them. Sometimes, in gameplay, you may lose friends who left a lasting impact on your story. The losing shouldn’t outweight the impact. They played the role they were meant to play.

So, for you, don’t be discouraged with where you are. And don’t think this is where you’ll stay. And don’t judge others for where they are in their story and what characters influenced them and how they got to where they are. We are all playing the same game but the storylines are all personal. What each of us needs is subject to where we are and when we need it at the perfect time. Maybe your story didn’t take you to the same places and into the same battles as someone else. That doesn’t mean they’ve derailed or lost the game.

Honor the path you took to get where you are today. Don’t forget what gameplay got you here. Keep playing.

You know, in a game, when you’re in a town and you’re supposed to get some info from someone in order to move to the next part? Find them. Be influenced by them. Let what they have to give you, change and challenge you and carry you to the next level.

Grace + Peace

[theologyinplay]

Leaving the Grave Behind: a reference point

With Friday in the rear view, our reflection changes.

This used to be a big celebration growing up.

But growing up, this wasn’t very personal for me. Similar to the Friday events. These were separated from me. They were something Jesus did, evidently for me, but somewhere else, to someone else.

Reimagining what the resurrection means to you means reimagining who Jesus is to you. As mentioned in Friday’s post, Jesus wasn’t simply the Son of God who came to die for people as a sacrifice. He came as mankind and died humanities death.

But we don’t leave the story there. Sunday is here.

Today is not simply about honoring the resurrected Christ, but recognizing and observing our own resurrection from a dead, hopeless, self-centered, meaningless existence. It’s a day we can practically say, (in the words of a really popular worship song now) if you left the grave behind you, so will I.

All the scriptures referenced Friday indicated that we not only died with him, but were raised with him.

Whatever we were, whatever life we tried conjuring up for ourselves is irrelevant compared to the life given to us in Jesus.

Resurrection is not something far off and displaced from my life or yours. Resurrection is a necessary realization if we are ever going to walk out anything we claim to believe.

If I, in fact, take scriptures’ word for it, and believe that I hung up there too, every bit of my broken, sinful, prideful, ego-fueled insecure, anxiety riddled self, and watch it come to an end in his end, I have hope for something new in his resurrection.

Why?

Because, as Paul says, “we know that if we shared in death with him, we will equally share in resurrection with him.” (Rom. 6:8)

If all I ever knew of myself, made for myself, ruined for myself died with him, I get something totally brand new in him when we rise.

Easter is not simply a day we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection. Today is a day we celebrate our resurrection in his.

Paul says to the Corinthians, “If our co-resurrection is not proclaimed then the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is no longer relevant. If Christ is not raised from the dead there is nothing left for us to preach and nothing left for you to believe. We would be misrepresenting God since we declared that he raised Christ from the dead; when in fact he did not, so it would be man’s word against God’s! If there is no universal resurrection from the dead then there can be no individual resurrection from the dead; then Jesus did not really rise from the dead. And if Jesus is still dead your faith has no relevance and you are still in your sins.” (1 Cor. 15:13-17)

If I don’t include myself in this resurrection, I’m only left chasing a resurrected Christ and hope that when I catch up, I know the right things to say and believe. And maybe, just maybe, he’ll accept me and introduce me to his dad.

If I do, however, recognize that I have new life in him because he not only rose to new life but I rose to new life when he did, I have hope beyond my own efforts and striving. I have a reference point now.

My reference point is the life of Jesus.

I can either affirm or deny the resurrection on a daily basis whether or not I live out that new resurrection life.

It’s easy to pass it off as his new life. Then I can remain in my self-centered, hopeless, insecure and broken ways because this is a nice day for him and all and well celebrated as a Christian, but that’s not good enough for me.

I need that reference point. I need to know that I am something more than whatever I was before Christ. I need to know that new life is not meant just for him, but for me because of him. I need to know that when I died with him, we didn’t just stay in the grave, we left that behind and moved into new life, a resurrection life.

So what does a resurrection life look like?

This is what Peter Rollins says about the resurrection:

“Without equivocation or hesitation I fully and completely admit that I deny the resurrection of Christ. This is something that anyone who knows me could tell you, and I am not afraid to say it publicly, no matter what some people may think…

I deny the resurrection of Christ every time I do not serve at the feet of the oppressed, each day that I turn my back on the poor; I deny the resurrection of Christ when I close my ears to the cries of the downtrodden and lend my support to an unjust and corrupt system.

However there are moments when I affirm that resurrection, few and far between as they are. I affirm it when I stand up for those who are forced to live on their knees, when I speak for those who have had their tongues torn out, when I cry for those who have no more tears left to shed.”

Jesus wasn’t raised from the dead because he needed a new life. He was raised because we did. My own reference point is what was broken and selfish. I look out for me. I don’t consider you or anyone else, I consider me. And I am totally free to still live that way if I so choose. But choosing to live that life is choosing to live a lie.

I am living a resurrected life every time I love my neighbor as myself. Every time I forgive rather than retaliate. Every time I consider the one right in front of me. Every time I serve my friends and enemies alike. Every time I choose to challenge the status quo and be a voice for the oppressed. I affirm the resurrection every time I am tempted to resort back to old habits and I resist. Every time I choose to see the Christ in others rather than judging them based on their actions and behaviors. Every time I affirm that I am not broken and sinful but new and whole.

And the biggest one for me: I affirm the resurrection every time I choose to not rely on my own diminished confidence and abilities, but in his, in his life which is now mine.

The life Jesus modeled was the true resurrected life on display. He showed us the reference point. He showed us how to live and love and care and serve. If I dilute my Christianity down to a set of beliefs, I can pat him on the back for loving so well and then carry on in my own prejudice, selfishness, insecurity, anxiety, sinfulness, and brokenness.

So, today, maybe for the first time, recognize that this day is not only a celebration of Jesus’ new life. He didn’t need a new life. This is a celebration of your new life in him. This isn’t something you chose. This is something he chose for you from the foundation of life (Eph.1:4).

Today, I choose, once again, to leave the grave behind. Today is a spotlight illuminating your reference point for a full, abundant life. That reference point is Jesus Christ. His life, on display in you.

Live it. Love it. Enjoy it. Be grateful for it.

Happy Easter.

Grace + Peace

[theologyinplay]

A Good Friday...and why we don’t get it

Good Friday has always been a morose day for me growing up.

Historically it has been the day observed by Christians (this includes Catholics by the way) as the day Jesus was crucified.

I remember growing up and going to a Maundy Thursday foot washing service at my childhood Episcopal church. After the foot washing, there was a time of silent reflection as they stripped the alter bare to lay still in dim light until Easter Sunday morning.

What were we supposed to reflect on?

As a child I’m sure it was how boring this was and, when are we leaving? As I got a little older it was probably something along the lines of how sad and unjust it was that Jesus would have to go through all that for me (or so I was told). And then there was the season I didn’t think about it at all.

When I went through my, what I call, awakening, and returned to church, there was a deep sincere sense that I was greatly loved and it was this love that fueled Jesus’ motivation to endure the cross so that I could have, if I received it, eternal salvation.

Looking at it now, my reflection is much different.

When I think of the crucifixion, I don’t think of it as a payment being paid to ease the raging wrath Jesus’ dad had towards me.

It’s like hanging out with Jesus as a contemporary and then his father coming down the stairs, pissed off at the ruckus, and we quickly situate ourselves in a quiet respectable way that would appease dad and send him back upstairs to leave us alone.

Good Friday for me is a deep reflection of every part of me and my life, past and present, that is incongruent with love and grace.

Every negative thought of myself. Every time I cursed myself out in my own head. Every time I make decisions contrary to a good and beneficial enjoyment of my life. Every lie I tell. Every time I betray the ones I love with my selfishness.

I reflect upon every drug I ingested to numb the pain and hopelessness. I reflect upon every time I ran the box cutter across my arms to feel anything at all. Every time I felt rejected and abandoned. Every time I felt alone. Every time I looked in the mirror and felt disgusted at the person looking back at me. Every moment of self-hatred and deep anxiety about existing at all.

The crucifixion for me and what I see in scripture is not simply the moment Jesus died for me, but as me.

Look at what Apostle Paul says in his letter to the Romans.

“His appointment with death was once-off. As far as sin is concerned, he is dead. The reason for his death was to take away the sin of the world; his life now exhibits our union with the life of God.

This reasoning is equally relevant to you. Calculate the cross; there can only be one logical conclusion: he died your death; that means you died to sin, and are now alive to God. Sin-consciousness can never again feature in your future! You are in Christ Jesus; his Lordship is the authority of this union.” (6:10-11)

This seems drastically different than how I grew up understanding what Jesus did.

Earlier in the same chapter Paul says, “We were like seeds planted together in the same soil, to be co-quickened to life. If we were included in his death we are equally included in his resurrection. We perceive that our old lifestyle was co-crucified together with him; this concludes that the vehicle that accommodated sin in us, was scrapped and rendered entirely useless. Our slavery to sin has come to an end.” (v. 5-6)

So, to me, Good Friday is a day to reflect on when Jesus, being the very personification of everything the Father, Son and Spirit had in mind when they thought of me, beckoned me to watch my very broken, disjointed, disoriented, and dysfunctional self be dropped down the black hole of his death (to steal a Robert Capon articulation). He didn’t ask for my permission. He didn’t run it by me first to see if that’s what I wanted. He chose to empty himself into my painful, sinful, hopeless self and show it to me nailed to a cross. He lifted my head, wiped salty tears from my eyes and showed me that whole mess was coming to an end.

In a second letter to the Corinthians, the same Apostle tells us, “Now if all were included in his death they were equally included in his resurrection. This unveiling of his love redefines human life! Whatever reference we could have of ourselves outside of our association with Christ is no longer relevant. This is radical and our most defining moment! No label that could possibly previously identify someone carries any further significance! Even our pet doctrines of Christ are redefined. Whatever we knew about him historically or sentimentally is challenged by this conclusion.” (5:15-16)

The difference is drastic. Jesus isn’t a son who died in my place so I could avoid some kind of punishment from an angry God. Jesus came as both God and man. Therefore, even in our darkest, bleakest hour, we’d be together, putting an end to our own marathon of pleasing and striving. In my own refusal to trust that I could be loved like that, that any of us could be, he tips our downcast gaze upwards to see the cross. To see who we were, all we thought we were, had to be, tried to be and hated ourselves for not being, strung up to be put to an end in Jesus’ death.

But it’s not like the story ends here.

This is Friday. Sunday is coming.

But until then...

Grace + Peace

[theologyinplay]

Holy Week: A Challenge

What does Holy Week mean to you?

Today is the beginning of what is arguably the most sacred and important season of the Christian calendar. Today is Palm Sunday and it signifies the beginning of Holy Week.

For our culture and society it may seem like Christmas is the high time for Christians. The birth of Jesus, the church services, the lights, trees, the family, friends, food and presents. And there is much to say about the incarnation and its implications in our lives. But the true focal point is right here, this week.

I want to focus on one thing in this post that I think will ring true throughout this week.

As with anything in scripture, and something I regularly harp on, we must read scripture in context. In the twelfth chapter of John's Gospel there is often three stories split and separated to make three different sermons. But what if they are one story? What if they should be understood together?

I don’t want to put the entirety of the text here as it would take up the whole post, but allow me to quickly summarize for you.

A week before Passover, Jesus returns to Bethany where he had raised Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus and his sister, Mary and Martha have been getting along and they welcome Jesus and his friends in for a meal. There, Mary anoints Jesus’ feet with expensive oil and dries them with her hair. This is where Judas gets offended expressing that the oil could have been sold and the money given to the poor. Jesus, in Mary’s defense, tells him to let her worship and honor as she wishes for they will always have the poor but his time is almost up.

The very next day they head towards Jerusalem. The crowds have been gathering in anticipation for Jesus’ return as the news of Lazarus had spread and because of the miracle, they wanted a glimpse of the magic man. They break off palm branches and hail his entrance as a king and the messiah. Here it says that the disciples didn’t notice the fulfillment of the scriptures taking place here, but once Jesus was glorified, it dawned on them and they could see the whole picture. I point this out because I will be returning to this later on.

At this time, some Greeks who had come to town for the feast approached Philip (one of Jesus’ disciples) wanting to meet the famed miracle worker.

This is where it gets interesting.

Philip and Andrew both tell Jesus there are Greeks here waiting to meet him. This is interesting because the Greeks were the gentiles the Jews figured were outsiders on life with God. This comes right off the cuff of the Pharisees commenting “It’s out of control. The world’s in a stampede after him.” (v. 19).

Jesus responds, “Times up. The time has come for the son of man to be glorified.” (v. 23a).

Jesus continues with a telling analogy using a grain of wheat as his subject. He tells them, “ Listen carefully: unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never anymore than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life as it is destroys that life. But if you go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and forever.” (v. 24-25).

The next few versus consist of Jesus referring to the condition of the world and their inability to see things as they really are. He hints at the turmoil he’s entering into and that’s when the crowd hears the voice of God they think is thunder. He tells them the voice is not for him but for them and that the way things have been coming to their end. He then announces the famous line “And I, as I am lifted up from the earth, will attract everyone to me, and gather them around me.” (v. 33).

For the rest of the passage we are looking at, Jesus responds to the crowds confusion about this statement. They ask that if the scriptures speak of the Messiah lasting forever, how can he be lifted up? This “lifted up” referred to Jesus being crucified and according to their estimations, no messiah the scriptures and their tradition would speak of could possibly die. He then gives them the same encouragement we see the apostle Paul refer to. He says that they have the light and will shine that light so the darkness doesn’t destroy them.

Here is where I want to bring all this back around and close with a Holy Week encouragement and challenge.

Remember where this passage begins. Jesus is dining with Lazarus and his sisters when his feet are anointed. Here, Judas focuses on his own priorities and concerns and misses the significance in what Mary is doing. The next day Jesus enter Jerusalem on a donkey and all the people praise and honor him according to who they think he will be for them and they and the disciples miss it because they are focused on their own interpretation and understanding about what’s going on right before them. Then, as the “outsider” Greeks are speaking with him, he explains how he will be buried like a seed and sprout back to life expressed in all sorts of unique and new ways. That if he is lifted up from the earth, he will be drawing all people to himself and be their light to shine in the darkness. The disciples and crowd miss the gravity of such a statement because they’re focused on understanding what he says according to their limited understanding and worldview.

What’s my point?

Holy Week provides for us a chance to reflect on our own approach to Jesus and the world. Holy Week provides us the opportunity to consider how we see other people, God and ourselves. It is quite telling if you pay attention to your modus operandi towards your own life.

Like his closest friends, they didn’t see what Jesus was trying to show them because they were too consumed with their own limited shortsightedness. At least for me, I want to remain open and aware of what Jesus is doing in the world and in the people around me that I least expect him to be doing something. I want to see things the way they really are, not the way I want to see them.

Look at what Paul says to the Colossians: “So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective.”‭ (3:1-2).

Here’s a practical way of exercising this: every time you want to be critical, judgmental, or negative about something or someone, catch yourself, and choose to find something positive to think & say.

Rather than defaulting to how you initially want to respond and react to a situation or conversation, pause and reflect on Jesus’ arrival in that moment.

This isn’t to say those negative things aren’t real or that the judgments you could make wouldn’t be true, it’s just refocusing your attention away from the bad and searching out the good, intentionally.

Become aware of what you’re feeling and thinking and filter it through what Jesus would consider that you may not have. Don’t limit your approach to life to emotional reactions and restricted understanding. Memorize Paul’s encouragement and meditate on it until it rewires your worldview to consider another way to see the world. Not in the crisis and chaos you believe it to be in, and very well often is, but according to the light you know to be shining through in every circumstance and in every dialogue you find yourself in.

In the words of Saint Paul, “Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.”

“Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.” (Phil.4:6-9).

So may this Holy Week be of a different reflection than in previous years. Enjoy this week of alternative perspectives. Enjoy your challenge of reconsidering your initial approach to life, muddied with critique and judgement and preconceived notions that blind us to what Jesus is really doing around us. Enjoy the light in the chaos and choose to be where it shines brightest.

Grace + Peace

[theologyinplay]

Role-Playing for God

I’ve been reading a lot lately.

It seems to come in seasons. In one, I feel inclined to write. In another, to read. One feeds the other, I think. And when I can sense one season coming on, I dive head first into it. I take advantage and read all I can or write all I can.

Whether I’m approaching the end of my reading season or not, I’m feeling quite pregnant with some words to spill and thoughts to share.

There’s a passage that stood out to me concerning an idea I’ve been reading about lately. The idea comes from Irish philosopher and theologian Peter Rollins. He says that it isn’t what you believe that is the point, it’s how you believe. How what you believe works itself out in your everyday life.

This idea seems to be what Jesus is talking about here in Matthew 6. As we’ve been going through the sermon on the mount these last few weeks, the sermon continues in this next chapter of Matthew's Gospel.

“Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don’t make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won’t be applauding. When you do something for someone else, don’t call attention to yourself. You’ve seen them in action, I’m sure—‘playactors’ I call them—treating prayer meeting and street corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that’s all they get. When you help someone out, don’t think about how it looks. Just do it—quietly and unobtrusively. That is the way your God, who conceived you in love, working behind the scenes, helps you out.

And when you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat?” (v. 1-5‬)

Jesus has just finished expressing to the crowd that truly being open and loving and relationship focused is the ultimate purpose of life. Not law abiding as they previously would have believed. And so, he hasn’t come to judge the law abiders or law breakers but to challenge their reasons for living according to the law in the first place. If it’s for law sake, trash it. But if it is for others’ sake, embrace it and let it flourish.

Here Jesus continues to a more personal point.

He says, “Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.

The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, pedaling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply...”(‭‭v. 6-8‬)

Similar to someone following the law to a T in order to be reckoned holy and righteous before the people. He expounds on the idea of prayer and service in a sincere way rather than in a religious dutiful way.

This is powerful for me because it also speaks to the sense of watching what we believe for others’ sake.

I grew up traditional evangelical, believing all the “right” things you’re supposed to believe if you’re going to be counted on the right side of God. But what happens when God challenges those firmly held beliefs? You’re faced with a choice. You can either reject what God is trying to show you for the sake of your current, albeit limited understanding and tradition, or you can lean in and have ears to hear what the Father may be trying to illuminate for you.

If we live so concerned with what others think of what we believe, and keep close their check lists of orthodox and well accepted doctrines, we may never truly find solace in that quiet secluded place Jesus encourages to retreat to for prayer. At the heart of the matter, God cares more about us and our hearts than he does our ideas and theologies. We’ve taken so seriously what we believe about God, we’ve forfeited the beautiful journey of figuring out how to live Jesus to the world. We’ve become more known for what we are against rather than what we are for. It’s exhausting. And I believe God is tired of it as well.

In the above passage I feel a deep sense of warmth and personal calling. A calling that speaks to something already within me, reminding me, encouraging me, calling me to abide in what I already know to be true.

Tradition and doctrine can become such a stumbling block in allowing ourselves to truly be open to what God desires for his children. I say that as someone who loves theology and doctrine and studying and researching and learning. I do. But I want to hold all that secondary to the greater reality of intimacy and relationship. I don’t ever want what I believe about God to convolute how God is expressed through my life. And while I say all that, I do also think what you believe is important. I don’t want to belittle that. What you believe often will determine how you believe. And so if I believe God is distant and requiring a certain kind of life from me in order to love and accept me (like I grew up believing) then I will spend my how on trying to appeal to him and make myself right for him and make sure I’m obeying so I don’t cross him. On the other hand, if I believe God has since the before time chosen to live with me and love me and enjoy me, that will automatically extend to my relationship towards others. We can’t avoid that. What you believe about God will project into how to interact with the surrounding world.

I don’t want my faith to be a big show for people so they can easily label me Christian and then write me off because of their rejection of Christianity. I want people to pause and stop and marvel at the extent of my love and inclusion in any and everybody. I want them then to be surprised to find out that I’m a Christian. Then I want to share that I love because I was first loved. And that isn’t a nice, cute bible verse I memorized when I was at bible camp as a preteen. That’s a reality I began to genuinely understand once I discovered its truth at the center of my being.

What I see in the above passage is encouragement to take a rest. Relax. Even though you may be tempted to approach God with certain formulas and rituals and stipulations, this isn’t some far off, heavy handed slave driver that’s hard to please. This is your heavenly Father we’re talking about. With a God like that, we can finally take that deep breath and let our shoulders and guards down. We can finally be at ease to just be ourselves because that’s precisely what he loves. That’s precisely what he’s made. He had you in mind and spoke the word and there you were. He took one look at you and fell in love, never looking back, never regretting his decision, never once wishing he had done things differently.

My heart breaks for people who I know sincerely love God but they don’t really believe that love is reciprocated. Of course they’ll tell you they believe God loves them, but it’s always with some kind of stipulations and conditions they must follow or abide by in order to have that love.

I grew up knowing what that’s like. I know it all too well. Even after my intense, intimate God experience, all I had to go on was the knowledge I had about God growing up. He had requirements and expectations of me and if I wanted to live right with him I better make sure I followed suit. Everything changed when I discovered that wasn’t at all what Father, Son and Spirit were looking for.

Look at what Paul says to the Galatians who, at that point, gave up enjoying the freedom of grace for the legalisms of a dried up religious lifestyle.

He says, “The obvious impossibility of carrying out such a moral program should make it plain that no one can sustain a relationship with God that way. The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him. Doing things for God is the opposite of entering into what God does for you. Habakkuk had it right: “The person who believes God, is set right by God—and that’s the real life.” Rule-keeping does not naturally evolve into living by faith, but only perpetuates itself in more and more rule-keeping, a fact observed in Scripture: “The one who does these things [rule-keeping] continues to live by them.”(‭‭Gal.‬ ‭3:11-12‬)

I think our lives are meant to be spent not only enjoying this life, but figuring out how to live that enjoyment because we finally see ourselves the way he’s always seen us. We finally think of ourselves the way he’s always thought of us. We’re quick to forgive ourselves as fast as we’ve come to forgive others.

What we believe is pivotal, but I think how that what lives out is even more important. Because it matters to the quality of our lives. Jesus didn’t die so we could believe the right things and practice the right faith. He died to separate us all from the sin that had us living lies rather than love. That’s the gift of salvation and he’s already done it for all. He invites us to trust that it’s real and see that reality play itself out in our everyday lives.

I spent the first part of my faith expressing how much I loved God. Everything I did was an expression of that love for him. Even the intimate times of just prayer and soaking in his presence. I loved him and I loved his presence. But it wasn’t until what I believed changed that I began to experience his love for me. I could finally receive it because I was finally free to just be me. Flaws and all, he loved every bit of me. He loved me for me. I’m his boy and he loves me. That’s also a necessity for finally being able to love yourself. Think about it, made in his image and likeness, once I can finally receive love from him, I can receive love from myself as well.

This has always been meant to be a love affair, not a contractual agreement. “You do this and I’ll do this” kind of relationship. That was old covenant style dealings. Here we have the books, the scorecards, the weights and balances all closed up, locked up and sent away. All the statements of faith and belief bullet points crumpled up and tossed aside. All that’s left is he and you right here, right now.

So “Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.”

Grace + Peace

[theologyinplay]

More Than This: discovering your true-self over your law-self

Sometimes in order to understand something, we need to start at the end.

That’s what I want to do with today’s post.

Continuing in the most famous sermon ever: the Sermon on the Mount.

At the end of chapter 5 in Matthew's gospel, Jesus says “In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.” (‭Matt.‬ ‭5:48‬)‬‬

I want to start here because otherwise, Jesus’ words get too easily convoluted if we don’t keep context in mind.

Picking up where we left off last week, Jesus is trying to get them to give up their efforts of law abiding and righteousness achieving and trust in him to be their savior. Remember, he wants people to repent (change their thinking) in order to even see this kingdom he’s talking about. A whole new way of living. A living more consistent with their truly created selves rather than the law-built self they’ve formulated.

Yes, he’s dealing with behavior, but telling them it isn’t because of something outside them, but that when their inner life transforms, the behavior follows.

This baseline helps us understand where he goes next.

He reminds the people of the rule to not commit adultery. He amps that up by telling them that if they even look at another with lust in their hearts, they’ve already broken the law (v. 28).

He goes on to say “Let’s not pretend this is easier than it really is.” If your eye is going to cause you to sin, pluck it out. If it’s your hand, cut it off. He isn’t telling the people that it’s better to be blind or an amputee than to break the law. He’s telling them it’s impossible to get where they want to get by following the law. If he’s the way, the truth and the life, they're going to have to forfeit their own efforts and rest in him.

And this is the context he’s in when he brings up divorce out of the blue. But there is an important point that’s easily overlooked. Jesus knows these people. He knows their hearts. He knows people are actually using loopholes in the law to be selfish and do what they want. This is why it’s a heart issue and not a law issue. He says “Too many are using that as a cover for selfishness and whim, pretending to be righteous just because you are “legal””. (v. 31) The point isn’t to find ways around the law so you can still lay your head down at night patting yourself on the back that you followed the law well that day. Jesus is trying to break through to the heart of the matter.

This leads to his next exhortation to keep your word. If you make a vow, keep it. Not for law sake but for your sake. For relationship sake.

He continues challenging yet another old saying. Remember Jesus is doing this to get them to a place of repenting (changing their thinking). They’re familiar with all these old regulations and sayings. Things people follow for the sake of following but don’t even know why they’re doing it.

He tells them that it’s better to be in relationship than to be right. If someone wrongs you, love them back. Forgive. Have grace. Serve them even more when they offend and steal from you. And this goes for love too. It’s easy to love your close friends and family, but how about loving your enemies?

Jesus adds, “This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.” (‭‭Matt.5:45-47‬)

What is so amazing about this is that it challenges our “in vs. out” mentality. God-blesses-those-who-love-him-and-turns-his-back-on-those-who-don’t nonsense.

And this brings us to verse 48 again. The whole point wrapped up in living out your true selves as opposed to your law-created selves. When you live that out, you’re going to see differences in your behavior. Not because the law is demanding of it, but because your God-created self is made for it.

Too often we Christians think that if we just live a good Christian life, we’re doing our duty to God and our country. If we pray, read our bibles, go to church, give, stay faithful to our spouses, and vote for whatever candidate claims to be evangelical. I hope you can see how ludicrous this is. These things, save the last one, should be things we do because we desire to do them, we want to do them, not because they’re a requirement of our Christian card.

We spend more time trying not to sin than to actually love and build relationships. Too often Christians are more known for what they are against rather than what they are for. Too often Christians can be more concerned with policies and law than the actual people those things affect.

But both go hand in hand.

We still think, as they did then, that Gods main concern is our actions and behaviors. There’s a reason Paul encourages the Corinthians that “everything is permissible but not everything is beneficial”. (1 Cor. 10:23) It’s not so much about what you do but how it affects your life. It’s not about is this right or is this wrong, but how discovering the you that God created you to be rather than whatever version you’ve been able to create over time. There’s a reason God warns of certain behavior. Not to control how we live but because he knows how he made us. He knows what murder, adultery, envy and all those types of things will do to us. He came to give life abundantly. If we peddle around in a lifestyle contrary to our identity (sinfulness), we’ll never find it.

To close, let’s see what else Paul had to say along these same lines:

“You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.

What this adds up to, then, is this: no more lies, no more pretense. Tell your neighbor the truth. In Christ’s body we’re all connected to each other, after all. When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself. Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry—but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don’t stay angry. Don’t go to bed angry. Don’t give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life.

Did you use to make ends meet by stealing? Well, no more! Get an honest job so that you can help others who can’t work. Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift. Don’t grieve God. Don’t break his heart. His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Don’t take such a gift for granted. Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk. Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.” (‭‭Eph.‬ ‭4:20-32‬)

The point isn’t living right for God. The point is living right for you, and for others. God doesn’t need you to stop sinning so he can finally love and accept you. He wants us to stop sinning because we aren’t sinners. Because sin bankrupts a fruitful, abundant life. His commands are for our sake and our enjoyment of life, not so he can control us and keep us under his thumb.

Grace + Peace

[theologyinplay]

You’ve Heard it Said: frustrating obligation for relationship

Continuing with our Matthew 5 series, sans the Beatitudes, which will be covered further at length in its own post, we move into law territory.

To recap, we’ve already covered Jesus encouraging the crowds why they were there. And not in some geographical or even situational terms, but a bigger picture, life-purpose kind of why.

He tells them that they are to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God flavors of everyone else. And that they are light-bearers to shine in the darkness.

He then speaks to the sense of law that by all accounts, to that 1st century Jewish culture, would have been more to the point of why they existed. To them, living according to the law and making themselves pleasing to God was all the purpose they understood.

Jesus was undoing all of that.

He began his ministry, remember, telling people to repent, or change their thinking if they’re going to see God's kingdom at all. This, of course, wasn’t so much a command out of fear, but simply letting them in on the fact that the way they understand and see things now isn’t going to give them the eyes to see at all. They’ll need new eyes to see this kind of kingdom.

He tells them that while they may be living according to an external law handed down by Moses, God's law was something woven into their hearts and inner beings. This wasn’t something to follow, but to awaken to and live out accordingly.

But he doesn’t leave them there. He expounds on the sense of law they were familiar with.

He even ends the previous section imploring those in ear shot that unless they do better, in the ways of right-living, than the Pharisees, they’ll miss the kingdom.

This brings us to verse 17.

Jesus was familiar with his Father as well as the humanity he’d been sent to. He was familiar with the law and the offering system of his day. That means he would have been familiar with all the different offerings, regulations and obligations one would have to adhere to if they broke the law. These included a peace offering, a meal offering, a sin offering, a trespass offering and a burnt offering. There were several other offenses that carried the consequence of death and the turning of Gods face away from them and cutting them off from their people.

Being familiar with these, Jesus dives right into the common law knowledge everyone would have understood.

He says, “You’re familiar with…”

He begins by bringing up the command to not commit murder. This, as were many others, was an external sin. Something you commit with your hands against someone else. But Jesus just opened up a can of worms concerning the importance that this law isn’t simply as external as previously understood. This is a heart issue. To further emphasize this point, he amps up the law.

He says, “I’m telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder.”

This certainly would have come as a surprise to those listening. They were familiar with the whole not-taking-someone’s-life deal, but now you’re telling me if I’m even so much as angry with someone, I’ve broken that law? How can this be?

He caps this instruction with a practical remedy. This, however, would have been as much, if not more shocking than the command itself.

He says that if you go to the temple for worship and are about to make an offering, and you remember a grudge you have, abandon the offering and go make amends.

What he’s ultimately saying is that, you may think you go about your business bringing an offering to make things right with God, but God doesn’t have the issue, you do. Go make it right.

This goes right along with Jesus’ connection with if you’ve trivialized the smallest thing in the law, you’ve trivialized yourselves. Jesus is making the claim that sometimes your religious duty isn’t as important as your relationships with each other.

This is what Paul has to say about it, “But that’s no life for you. You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you”. (Eph. 4:20-24)

The everything he’s referring to isn’t simply the actions and behaviors you’ve committed before awakening to Christ, he’s speaking of everything. He even emphasizes it because he wanted to make sure they didn’t leave anything out. Your behavior, your religious duties, the law abiding for the sake of law abiding. Everything.

What Jesus is doing with the people there and their precious law is scandalizing the purpose of living according to it. Essentially, he’s saying that you’ve all been following this law and you’re doing so because you think it will bring you righteousness but you’re mistaken. The issue isn’t your conduct as much as it is your hearts. Like Jesus told the Pharisees, you clean the outside but the inside is rotten. (Matt. 23:25)

He’s amping up the law so they can see what Paul described as the “obvious impossibility of carrying our such a moral program”. (Gal. 3:11)

Jesus wants them to see this as something they can’t do on their own. This righteousness is not something they were even made to obtain and strain and work for and earn on their own. He wants them to feel frustrated and give up trying and fall into the arms of a savior.

He begins this sermon letting them know he knows they are hungry and thirsty for righteousness. That’s why they’ve been killing themselves following this law to achieve that. But a moral program isn’t the point. It is relationship and always has been. God is more interested in his relationship with you than he is your moral behavior. The reason the Holy Spirit convicts us at all because of sin is because we aren’t sinners, so we shouldn’t be sinning. Live out who you truly are, not some lie you’re still believing about yourself.

Jesus was ultimately saying that the deeper rooted reason you don’t murder someone is not because it’s against God’s law, but because you love them. The reason you don’t steal from someone is not so you won’t disappoint God, but because you love them. There is relationship written at the center of everything God encouraged us with. When we think we need to behave in order to be good with God, we take those encouragements and turn them into law and regulations, rather than a love affair with the divine and our brothers and sisters.

These 1st century crowds actually thought they had a chance of becoming righteous on their own by following the law. Jesus wants to make sure his listeners know how impossible that is. They were never meant to be able to do it on their own because they have to have relationship to get it. And that’s precisely what Jesus is. Jesus Christ is your relationship with the Father. He has brought us into the very relationship the Son has with the Father.

He has told this people to change the way they think about things, everything, and trust in he who has set things right. Trust in he who has become our righteousness on our behalf. You can take those offerings you were going to bring to God and instead take them over to your enemy’s house and have a meal. God is good with you, he loves you. Now go and replicate that love with them.

Grace + Peace

[theologyinplay]

The Heart of the Matter: Matthew 5:17-20 & trivializing yourself

One of the easiest things to do when reading the scriptures is to forget that it must be understood in its own context.

Take, for example, the Sermon on the Mount that we started looking at last week.

Often, it is distilled down to nothing more than the Beatitudes. But understanding that what Jesus has to say in this section of Matthew is said in assembly with everything else, changes how we understand it.

Take, for example, the various ways this sermon is separated. You have the beginning where we find the Beatitudes. And then it goes into the salt and light, then the law, and then a list starting with murder and then adultery and then a bit about loving your enemy. It’s almost asking to be compartmentalized and taught individually.

And in the same way, the rest of scripture should be able to be used to verify certain context. For example, as we continue with this most famous sermon, we will also look at how the apostle Paul confirmed the same things Jesus is articulating here.

With these understandings, we will begin to see the larger narrative of scripture and how we fit into this crazy love story of God. So let’s begin with a recap of where we’re coming from before we move forward.

Jesus finds himself encouraging the locals that he knows them inside and out. He knows there are those who are meek, poor in spirit, hungering and thirsting for righteousness. He see’s right through them and even shares in some of those sentiments. But he’s also there to hearten them that relief, satisfaction and comfort are not far away.

He then continues telling them why they are there. He says that they exist to bring out the best in others. To illuminate the Godliness and goodness in everyone they come in contact with. He tells them that they’ve been made light bearers, and if they bear light, they will be spectacles set up on a hill to shine in the darkness.

He continues in the same vein easing their weary minds that he hasn’t come to demolish the law, but to complete it (Matt. 5:17). He says that he’s there to put it all together. To pull it all together in a vast panorama and that God’s law is more real and lasting than the stars in the sky and the ground at their feet (v. 18).

What becomes increasingly evident here is that Jesus is not speaking of the law as some external, separated thing. He is not speaking of the law that was given to Moses and then passed to them. He’s speaking of something greater, something that was there before all creation and something that will endure through after the end.

Jesus says, “Trivialize even the smallest item in God’s law and you will only have trivialized yourself.” (v. 19)

This is such a departure from what the people would have been used to hearing. All they’ve ever known was growing up in the law of Moses. Going to temple and studying the teaching of the law. But here, Jesus refers to it as God’s law. This law Jesus speaks of is the greater law of love, the law of the Spirit, the law of creation and life. Jesus is letting them know that there is something woven into the fabric of their beings that is not something outside of them to follow, but something that is the basis of their existence.

The apostle Paul says to the Romans in chapter 2 of his letter, “When outsiders who have never heard of God’s law follow it more or less by instinct, they confirm it’s truth by their obedience.” (v. 14)

Paul is saying the same thing Jesus articulated. Paul says that even outsiders, which would have been people unfamiliar with the law, live according to it even better than those very familiar with it proving that this is not something we follow but something we live.

He continues, “They show that God’s law is not something alien, imposed on us from without, but woven into the very fabric of our creation.” (v. 15)

The reason this is relevant is because Jesus knows how familiar and rigid those first century Israelites were when it came to living according to the law. He knows that they follow it simply because they were raised to do so. He just explained to them why they were here. Not geographically, on top of the mountain, but why they exist, what their purpose is in this life. He makes this point because a good majority would have originally just agreed they were here to follow the law of Moses and love God. Jesus is trivializing their understanding by including in his talk the fact that there is something greater and deeper about this law in the works than something handed down by their forefathers. This law, written onto their hearts, is why they can be salt and light. This law woven into the fabric of their creation is why they can exist to bring out the best qualities in their fellow man.

This part comes to an end with Jesus saying these words, “Take it seriously, show the way for others, and you will find honor in the Kingdom. Unless you do far better than the Pharisees in the matters of living, you won’t know the first thing about entering the kingdom.” (v. 20)

Now, this wouldn’t have been too shocking yet as we are still in the early stages of Jesus’ ministry. He hasn’t gone full on attack on the religious elite just yet. But stating what he did would have been completely understood by all who could hear. Everyone knew how the Pharisees lived. They made sure of that. But the Pharisees were known as the teachers, the elite who lived the most holy and righteous lives according to the law. They were stringent and rigid and judgmental. For Jesus to then say that unless they lived even better than them, in the matters of right living, they won’t even enter the kingdom would have been extremely disturbing to hear.

The Pharisees lived the best. They were the righteous elite. And now you’re telling us that unless we live even better, we’re doomed? What was he really saying?

Ultimately, Jesus was illustrating the fact that the Pharisees lived external lives. Unless you do far better, he says, in the ways of right living, he adds, you won’t know the first thing. This could mean they talk the talk and even walk the walk, but they are only doing it for show. Doing far better would be to have your whole world, internal and external, transformed in such a way that you’re not living according to some list of rules but living out your true selves. Jesus is essentially saying, the Pharisees think they know but they have no idea about the kingdom life. If you live to match them, you won’t either. But if you supersede them and realize that the kingdom life is far greater than rule keeping and law abiding, but a heart issue, now you’re getting somewhere.

In closing, to reiterate where Jesus has come from up to this point, he is starting out elucidating where the people are. He’s letting them know he knows them and sees them. He moves from that to explaining to them why they’re there, what their purpose is in this life. From there, he turns to clarify the well-known law is not being diminished because of him, but completed. Jesus Christ is the completion of the law. The law existed for righteousness’ sake. Here, he who knew no sin, is to become sin so that we can become that righteousness of God. He himself is the end result and completed purpose of the law. He’s there to illustrate that the written law is well and good, but not the point. The point is the law written on their hearts, woven into the fabric of their beings. This, he claims, is the true self you are to awaken to. Living conscious of that truth will make all the difference in how you see yourself, God and everyone else around you. By living according to that, you’re more apt to be the salt seasoning to the world. By understanding that deep truth, you’re more likely to shine that bright light that his presence inside you is for all to recognize and see.

Next week we’ll continue with the sermon on the logistics of how we treat each other and what Jesus is really trying to say.

Grace + Peace

[theologyinplay]

Salt & Light: let me tell why you are here

The season of lent if often marked off according to the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness fasting and being tested.

At the end of the 40 days, in Matthew chapter 4, it says that when Jesus heard John the Baptist had been arrested, he returned to Galilee (v. 12) to pick up where John had left off. This picking up where John left off ultimately meant Jesus begins by making the proclamation to “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand” (v. 17).

We’ve already spent time on repentance and the true meaning of the word, so I won’t go too far into that again. However, it is important to note this at the beginning of his ministry before we continue to the next part we will be looking at this week.

Jesus is addressing a first century Jewish culture. This culture grew up and lived with a knowledge of God and the promises passed down to and through their ancestors. Their entire world was formulated around that knowledge and those promises.

It’s no wonder that when Jesus went back to the temple after flipping the tables and driving out the money changers, the religious leaders asked him “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” (Matt. 21:23). If you notice carefully, they are asking about Jesus’ doings, not his person. They aren’t interested in who Jesus is, they are more concerned with the things Jesus is doing. They already had him pegged. There wasn’t any need to ask him who he was, they thought they already knew. He was no more than a rebel rouser, trouble maker, and blasphemer. So, someone like that better provide credentials for why they’re doing the things they’re doing.

To look deeper into the person of Jesus, we see someone completely outside of the realm of who they were waiting, anticipating and even hoping for. The Messiah was going to be majestic and a king. The Messiah was someone who was going to completely transform the world and the people living in it, but it was going to be done according to what made sense to them.

Since God had something else in mind, Jesus was completely unrecognizable to them. The beginning of John’s gospel articulates this well, “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (John 1:10-11).

And so we go back to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus, being fully God wrapped in our humanity, knew all too well our human condition (Rom. 8:3). When he begins his most famous sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, he addresses the crowds according to where he knew they were at. I used to think Jesus was saying that you’re blessed if… but now I can see, in context, Jesus is giving descriptions, not prescriptions.

So when he’s referring to those poor in spirit, thirsting for righteousness, mournful, merciful, pure in heart and peacemakers, he’s calling out the current condition for those sitting around listening to him. He’s essentially saying, “I know who you are. I know there are some of you who are poor in spirit. I know how many of you hunger and thirst for righteousness, but don’t lose heart. You’re blessed because satisfaction is on its way. In fact, satisfaction has a name, and I am he, standing here before you”.

And this would have really drawn the crowds in. They’re hearing this rabbi “read their mail”. Calling out their deepest desires, needs and struggles right before them and encouraging them that soon enough, relief is on its way.

As Jesus is on a role, he continues telling them why they’re there. And I think here too he isn’t referring to the mount or that geographical location as far as “here” goes. I think he’s still looking into the depths of them and inspiring them to see their true identities of fullness and completeness, rather than identities defined by lack.

In the Message he says, “Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage” (Matt. 5:13).

These appear as harsh words, however, in context (remember, always read scripture in its context to fully understand the nature of what it is saying) Jesus has just finished speaking right to the heart of the people there telling them not to be consumed with their current state because their rescuer and savior was at hand and is there to save them from that condition. He then goes into why they even exist. Why they’re there. The purpose of their lives is to bring out the goodness and godliness of everyone else. And if you can’t or don’t do that, you’ve missed the whole point of your life and are as useless as garbage, thrown to the side to be neglected and forgotten.

How do you bring out the best in someone else? You treat them according to who you know they truly are, not according to how they are behaving. And believe me, I know this isn’t easy. But it begins with knowing their true self, rather than the version they are displaying to the world. You love them according to who you know they really are even when they don’t know it themselves.

He continues, “Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand – shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven” (v. 14-16).

Here, Jesus continues to use the example of light. What’s important to note here is that Jesus is not giving them a choice in the matter. He’s not saying that if you accept these terms and condition, you’re light-bearers. He’s using the dreaded word, “If”, that we’ve come to discuss many times already. But in this context, he’s making a point that, “If you are a light-bearer, you’re going to be displayed to shine, there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s kind of you’re nature to reflect the light of your Father in heaven”. We know this is his context because he says in the same breath that he’s putting them on a light stand. He says that since he’s put them on display, on a hilltop, shine!

This isn’t good advice Jesus is offering. Remember, Jesus is still explaining to the crowd “why they are here”. This is a part of it. If you don’t know that you bear light, you won’t shine. If you don’t shine, you miss the whole point of your existence.

Jesus knows who he is. He continues to grow in that knowledge over the course of his life and ministry and you can see that knowledge reflected in the evolution of his parables and teachings. And he knows who these people are too. He knows you and he knows me. He is the Son, the Christ that existed before creation. He is the second person of the Trinity. He knows that all of humanity was conceived and birthed in and through him. He knows that because of that, there is a basic purpose and potential for all of mankind. His encouragement for them to repent is so they leave themselves open to see what God is doing. Right there at the end of the section we’re looking at he says, “Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven”. This reassurance speaks very contrary to their whole tradition and lifestyle. To them, God was holy and righteous and they were left scraping by to see how close they could get. What Jesus is revealing is quite different. He’s somehow indicating that by you opening up and inviting others into your life, they’re actually being introduced to God. Living that kind of life of abandoned, unconditional love, gives others the permission to open up and live it out too.

Next week we’ll continue with this same sermon and what Jesus adds to what he’s already articulated to them.

So for this week, allow the Spirit to speak to you why you’re here. Let the Spirit move you to the saltiness and light-bearing that you are made for. Allow yourself to repent (change your thinking) about your purpose and relationship to God. Allow the possibility that you are light-bearers, whether you know it or not, feel it or not, live it or not, or even believe it or not. Remember what John’s gospel says in the beginning, “All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (1:3-5).

Remember that the next time you feel darkness overcome you. Remember those words the next time you feel distant and far away from the light. The light is not something you can chase after or even accept for yourself. The light is Christ in you. He is your life. And that light within you shines through the darkness and whatever darkness you’re going through. It has not overcome the light that is Christ within.

Grace + Peace

[theologyinplay]

Repentance: a response, not a cost

When approaching the Lent season, it doesn’t take long before you start talking about repentance.

It’s a big word that’s meant a lot throughout the years. Growing up, I thought repentance was that thing required to be good with God. You had to acknowledge how sinful you are and accept the penalty Jesus paid on your behalf if you wanted to be saved from the wrath and judgement of God.

Well, if you’ve spent any time in this blog or just hearing or reading my stuff as it is, you know there is a very big difference between that way of understanding repentance and how scripture actually talks about it. I want to explore this a little this week as we approach Ash Wednesday and contemplate the role of repentance from a finished work standpoint.

We begin with the original language it was written in. In both the Hebrew and Greek, whatever word used, and varying from context to context, repentance has meant one thing: to change your mind. And not necessarily just your thinking, but to have a new mind about something altogether. To completely make a 360 degree turn in how you think about something.

Metanoeo, or as it is sometimes seen, Metanoia, is the word we’ll be looking at.

At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, Matthew 4 says that he picked up right where John the Baptist left off. Verse 17 says, “From that time he began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”

This is important context here. John the Baptist had just been arrested and that opened the door for Jesus to pick up where he left off. The nature of this word of encouragement came on the heels of his temptation in the wilderness and right before he began choosing his disciples. Why is that important? Because he’s beginning to share the message that unless you have a different mind about this kind of stuff, you’re not going to see it.

Jesus’ whole point in using this term and phrase is to help the people out, right off the bat, by telling them that the way they think of God and the coming Messiah is wrong, and unless you’re willing to have a new mind, to see things anew, you’re not going to see anything at all.

This is important for the way Paul uses Metanoeo. Paul is charged with bringing the message of the Gospel to the gentiles. He’s letting them know the same thing. Essentially, “Look, this is what God has done for us in Christ, unless we have a new mind about the way God works, we’ll never see it and therefore won’t live in its fullness”.

The beauty of what Jesus is doing here is setting a new tone. He’s basically saying that, “I know you think you know God and what the Messiah will look like, talk like, walk like and smell like, but that’s all wrong. You’re not dealing with a harsh, petty and angry God but a loving Father, Son and Holy Spirit who are trying to show you that they’ve brought you into their divine dance to enjoy forever. Unless you have a different mind about these things, you’ll never trust it, let alone even see it. So repent!”.

Repentance has gotten a bad rap throughout church history because guilt sells. If you can guilt someone into thinking they’re so rotten and bad and God won’t accept or love them unless they follow this certain recipe, they’ll do whatever it takes to make it happen. Just look at the middle ages when they sold indulgences for sin. People would actually pay a financial wage for whatever sins they had committed because they were told by doing so, they’d be forgiven and everything would be ok.

It may be called something different today, but the church still functions quite similarly when it comes to guilt and selling forgiveness.

To be perfectly clear, repentance is not a necessity for salvation, nor does it purchase our salvation. It is a response to it. Our repentance is a result of God’s kindness (Rom. 2:4). And in the same thread Paul encourages that unless you do repent, you’re simply storing up wrath against yourself (v. 5). This is massively important to understand aright before moving forward.

Think about it like this: You’ve grown up your entire life with a viewpoint of God. You’ve been taught who God is, who Jesus is, what Jesus’ purpose was to come here (which, let’s not forget was because we were such naughty boys and girls, so there’s kind of a complex issue here too), and you’ve been taught that unless you make things right, you’re doomed to burn in hell forever. So it’s essentially on us to make it right with our repentance and whatever faith we can muster up.

This is so jacked up I could never imagine teaching this to my own children.

But then hear this narrative: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, Jesus, who is God formed in the image and likeness, just like you, to show us what it really means to be human. In Jesus’ death is the death of our sin-riddled false identity and in his resurrection we’re left with the righteousness of God, new life and a whole new way to live. Whoever trusts in that Jesus, that he alone is where our lives are hidden, will live life and life abundantly. Whoever rejects God’s reality for creating their own has already given themselves to their own judgement and distortion and lives a wrathful, resentful, lonely life always trying to make up for themselves and set things right internally for themselves.

These are both radically different narratives. And while the Gospel is simple, the unfortunate necessity to explain it a bit longer than the first is because the latter is often the most foreign. If you simply tell someone that Jesus has made it alright and we say Thank You and go on enjoying the life he’s given, you’re left with a whole list of questions and raised eyebrows (believe me, I’ve experienced it). So as simplistic as it may be, it takes some initial explaining.

So the role repentance plays into all this is our trust. it’s like in 2 Corinthians 5 where Paul explains that God has reconciled us to himself in Christ (v. 19). He then goes on to encourage his readers to “therefore, be reconciled” (v. 20). He says that they are God’s ambassadors pleading with his children to simply trust in his work, not their own and put down the fists and fall into the arms of a loving savior who has made everything alright.

The late Robert Capon said it best, “Trust him. And when you have done that, you are living the life of grace. No matter what happens to you in the course of that trusting - no matter how many wavering’s you may have, no matter how many suspicions that you have bought a poke with no pig in it, no matter how much heaviness and sadness your lapses, vices, indispositions, and bratty whining may cause you - you believe simply that Somebody Else, by his death and resurrection, has made it all right, and you just say thank you and shut up. The whole slop-closet full of mildewed performances (which is all you have to offer) is simply your death; it is Jesus who is your life. If he refused to condemn you because your works were rotten, he certainly isn't going to flunk you because your faith isn't so hot. You can fail utterly, therefore, and still live the life of grace. You can fold up spiritually, morally, or intellectually and still be safe. Because at the very worst, all you can be is dead - and for him who is the Resurrection and the Life, that just makes you his cup of tea.”

In order to truly do that, it’s going to take repentance.

Repentance is important. Massively important, even. I would never tell someone they didn’t have to repent. But there is a big difference in telling someone to repent for God’s sake and to repent for their own sake. God’s mind doesn’t need changing, ours does. He’s confident in what he’s done for us. We are the one’s coming with a mindset of alienation and disillusionment.

Think about it like this: You commit a sin and the Holy Spirit convicts you of it. As we’ve discussed in previous posts, the Holy Spirit convicts because it is not your nature to sin and so you shouldn’t be sinning. This conviction hits close to home and you, looking in the mirror, tears streaming down your face, realize and rest in what the Holy Spirit is saying. You wipe the tears from your eyes, remembering that you’re not dirty, rotten, sinful and bad, but the very righteousness of God, made in his image and likeness. And that kind of child doesn’t do or think or say things like that (can you tell this comes from experience?).

That’s repentance!

It isn’t groveling on your knees before a hard task master looking to punish and scorn those who have offended him.

Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

You better believe there’s room for repentance. You’re repenting because, just like in the garden, this death is not physical, but spiritual. God knows the full implications of sin on his children. If we’re unwilling to recognize the detriment of sin in our lives, we won’t ever want to choose to live any other way. We would settle for whatever life we could come up with on our own. And realistically, we won’t ever believe there’s another way to live. But the reality is that God has already done away with sin at the cross in Jesus’ death. We’re the ones who still have a problem with it because we won’t believe in what he’s done. Even as believers we still don’t. We say we do, but we don’t.

As long as we live refusing to trust in his finished work, we will still continue in sin. And as long as we continue in sin, there will be a need for repentance. Again, not for God’s sake, as if to clear us and get us off the hook again. But for our sake, so we can recognize the dynamics of our true self from the way we just behaved warranting the Holy Spirit’s conviction.

Let me close by saying, as we approach Ash Wednesday and this season of Lent, let us think of repentance in the way that Jesus and Paul spoke of it in scripture. We are not encouraged to make ourselves worthy of forgiving by repenting. We are encouraged to repent because of the worth he saw in us to save. By repenting, we snap ourselves out of the camp of our own justification to the camp of renewal and grace. By repenting, we give up trying to live whatever life we think we should be living and we begin to see the life we were designed for. A life of freedom and grace and joy. A life defined by value and love. Not a life of bookkeeping and debt collecting.

In our refusal to repent, we perpetuate the lie that we can somehow make up for ourselves. We may not say that or even believe that. But because it is woven into the fabric of our DNA, we will most certainly find ourselves living it out some way. We may make a mistake or bad decision and think that by making a good one, we’ll make up for the bad one. This is bookkeeping and we weren’t meant for that. We were made to see ourselves the way he’s always seen us and live in the fullness of that beauty. When we repent we acknowledge that we missed the mark of our true selves and chose to act beneath who we truly are. By repenting we say, “Ah, that’s right, that’s not me, I’m sorry. Thank you for reminding me.”

Grace + Peace

[theologyinplay]

An Overwhelming Moment: a quick detour to Colossians

Taking a break from the Garden to Grace series, I want to tell you about this past week.

I was doing the shelter Bible study Wednesday morning and something rather significant occurred. We’ve been going through this little book called “Message of Hope”. It contains the gospel of Mark, a portion of the book of Romans (1-8), some Psalms, a portion of Colossians (1-3) and some of James. On this particular Wednesday, we were starting Colossians.

Right off the bat I have to give a little disclaimer for translations. Part of the experience is the purpose of the disclaimer. I had several men join me this morning that came from both the shelter and other residential programs of the Rescue Mission. One in particular gave special attention to The Message translation I had sitting on the table. He had brought his own and it was a King James Version.

We all opened up to Colossians as he flipped over and examined further the front, back and insides of this suspicious version of scripture.

“I, Paul, have been sent on special assignment by Christ as part of God’s master plan. Together with my friend Timothy, I greet the Christians and stalwart followers of Christ who live in Colosse. May everything good from God our Father be yours!” (1:1-2)

We began reading. The thing about Colossians, too, is that it is one of the premiere letters that more aptly articulates the Gospel Paul was traveling around to preach. I explained that the people of Colosse were made up of both Jews and Gentiles and because of that, there was an array of religious rituals and ceremonies that began to take shape in the culture. Unfortunately, this was happening in the midst of those who had heard the Gospel, believed its goodness and had begun living out its reality together in community.

When we don’t fully understand the person of Jesus, we will easily categorize him along with other great leaders and religious figures. Paul addressed this same thing in the beginning chapters of Romans as well. He started off with Abraham and Moses and then added in Jesus but decisively illustrated what the difference was. What Paul shares with them is that while Abraham’s and Moses’ faith was counted to them as righteousness, that righteousness went to the grave when they did. The difference with Jesus was that he didn’t stay there. And so by proxy, that righteousness has been passed on to us.

Why?

Because of who Jesus is. Jesus, being fully God and fully man, represented God and man in the same person. The technical term for this is the “hypostatic union”. In this hypostatic union, what Jesus did, humanity did through him. So when he goes to the cross and dies, so does all of humanity. And likewise, when he goes to the grave to be buried and resurrects to new life, so does the same humanity. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says that, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (ESV).

So because Jesus didn’t just die for you, but as you, and he didn’t just forgive your sins, but removed sinfulness from who you are, he is and remains to be our righteousness. You can’t get more righteous than Jesus.

So Paul continues in his letter to the Colossians, saying “God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He’s set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating. We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created” (13-15).

Paul is essentially saying that regardless of the wisdom and inspiration from other figures in history, Jesus stands a part simply because of who he is.

He continues, “You yourselves are a case study of what he does. At one time you all had your backs turned to God, thinking rebellious thoughts of him, giving him trouble every chance we got. But now, by giving himself completely at the Cross, actually dying for you, Christ brought you over to God’s side and put your lives together, whole and holy in his presence” (‘v. 21-22).

It was at this point I made a giant pause in the reading and asked a rather simply question but one that continues to actively rock people’s paradigms. I asked, “What stipulations does Paul give for this to be true?”

The men looked up and looked at me bewildered. So I reread that part. And again I asked, “What stipulations is Paul giving for this to be true?” They looked down, reread it yet again and looked back at me confused. Does Paul say that you have to accept this for it to be the case? Does Paul say you have to believe it and live it in order for it to be true?

No!

Paul is simply stating an objective truth of what God has done in Christ. He’s saying that God, in Christ, gave himself completely at the cross, bringing us over to him forever. There is no stipulation to that because we had no role to play in it. It was God’s decision from before the beginning of time (Eph. 1:4).

You could tell they were seeing exactly what I was saying, even rereading it again to make sure they didn’t happen to miss something that would have actually made what they’d previously believed to be true. Unfortunately, it wasn’t there. There was a real sense that the Holy Spirit was stirring something special right now.

Paul continued, “You don’t walk away from a gift like that! You stay grounded and steady in that bond of trust, constantly tuned in to the Message, careful not to be distracted or diverted. There is no other Message – just this one. Every creature under heaven gets this same Message. I, Paul, am a messenger of this Message” (v. 22-23).

We read on and paused and dialogued a bit more. The difference in what they came to the table with that day and what they were seeing clear as day in scripture was astounding. There was a message in these pages and it was absolutely good news, but it was different than what they were carrying in their hearts. This thing they carried called the shots on their worldview and how they conducted their relationship with God and others. What they were seeing now was that it absolutely was a free gift and not an offer. What Paul was doing was announcing the reality of that gift and encouraging people to believe it and trust it because of the glorious implications for when you do.

You could see across their eyes they were getting it and softening at the Spirit’s leading.

“This mystery has been kept in the dark for a long time, but now it’s out in the open. God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of their background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple” (v. 26-27).

At this point I felt that goodness bubble over and had to repeat what I’d just read.

“The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, so therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple.”

It really is that simple, but we’ve complicated it so much. We’ve added so much to something that is so free. And then continuing, we read, “This is the substance of our Message. We preach Christ, warning people not to add to the Message. We teach in a spirit of profound common sense so that we can bring each person to maturity. To be mature is to be basic. Christ! No more, no less. That’s what I’m working so hard at day after day, year after year, doing my best with the energy God do generously gives me” (v. 28-29).

This was so captivating, I read it again. It was so arresting for those present that they acted as if they’d never read Colossians before. I even had the one man read it from his King James Version so we could get it from multiple sources.

This is where we took a turn.

As we continued into chapter 2, I heard something like a grunt and looked up. The man was beat red, sobbing uncontrollably. Admittedly, there was a bit of an awkward pause because I didn’t even notice initially that he had been reacting that way.

We had just read where Paul encourages the Colossians, “My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you’ve been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master (again, no stipulation given, just stating the facts); now live him. You’re deeply rooted in him. You’re well-constructed upon him. You know your way around him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught. School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving” (2:6-7).

He broke the silence. “I’ve been so trapped. Locked up. I thought I was free but I had no idea...” He got out what he could because going into sobs again. “It’s like I thought I believed and I thought I knew...but I had no idea.”

I could feel the nudging of the Spirit and before continuing, I shared a little bit of encouragement with him, reassuring him that so many Christians are their own worst enemy. It’s like Jesus broke the prison doors, severed the locks and freed us. And there we are, putting out whole weight against the door, holding it shut, imprisoning ourselves in legalism all over again.

He began laughing and exclaiming, “But we don’t have to be! This is already done. I don’t have to be anything or do anything.” He paused and took a deep breath. It was one of those breathes that released tension and anxiety and took in peace and comfort and joy. Even I started getting a little teary eyed seeing the realization in this man. It was true and sincere and he wasn’t expecting it when he came to Bible study that morning.

I finished up our powerful time together confirming his newly discovered revelation with verses 8-10. I read them from the Amplified.

“See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception (pseudo-intellectual babble), according to the tradition (the musings) of mere men, following the elementary principles of this world, rather than following (the truth – the teachings of) Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity (the Godhead) dwells in bodily form (completely expressing the divine essence of God). And in Him you have been made complete (achieving spiritual stature through Christ), and He is the head over all the rule and authority (of every angelic and earthly power).”

I closed our time in prayer. I asked him to close his eyes and as I reread it, I wanted him to hear it being spoke to him directly. The words washed over him in newness and joy unspeakable. It was a good Wednesday Bible Study in the shelter that day.

Grace + Peace

[theologyinplay]

From the Garden to Grace, Wk IV: This isn’t That: the difference between being saved & going to heaven

One of the biggest misunderstandings in the church today is the belief that being saved means you’re going to heaven.

It makes the only reason for someone to “get saved” just so they don’t burn in hell.

We see something a little different in scripture, however.

What’s intrigued me in recent years is how quickly Christians can jump on the “all are in sin” bandwagon. But how reluctant they can be to acknowledge that all have been saved. Take a quick look at Romans 5. The Apostle Paul says, “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.” (v. 18).

The saving is by God alone. It was his idea and when we think we have some sort of role to play in it, we fall into the same trap as the Galatians. Just look at what Paul says to the Ephesians. “Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing!” (2:8-9, MSG).

The Galatian bewitchment is something Paul addresses in his letter and something I believe the church still struggles with today. The bewitchment was that we have a role to play in our own salvation. But what we see in scripture is quite different.

Paul tries to realign them after they’d been duped by some religious leaders that came in after him and convinced them to fall back in line with the law. This looks a lot like modern evangelicalism. There is a list of things we have to do in order to be saved, maintain the relationship, and be a good little Christian boy or girl. Paul had some strong words for them, though. “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified (3:1). Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it?” (v.2-3, MSG).

Another point is that being saved does not automatically mean you’re going to heaven. A common misconception with someone arguing universal salvation is that they’re often labeled a universalist. Let me make something clear up front: I am not a universalist. A universalist is someone who believes that all will eventually get to heaven. The error with this is twofold. I do not believe all will eventually be saved. I believe all have already been saved. I also believe in free will and our option to either accept or reject this reality.

Let’s try and break down a little bit of what scripture has to say as far as salvation being made complete for all.

It’s important to note the difference between trusting in the work of Jesus over the person of Jesus. If the person of Jesus is our salvation, then there’s more emphasis on the incarnation than we realize. If, in the incarnation, God actually did become man, this would be as representative of mankind as a whole. We see this in the second letter to the Corinthians too. Paul says that “If one died on behalf of all, all died” (2 Cor. 5:14). And in Romans 6 Paul says that if we have died with him, we know that we have also risen with him. Who is the “We” in the equation?

All!

I know this comes across as uncomfortable if you’re used to the notion of some being “In” and others being “Out”. The way you get in is believing in the right things. If you don’t, you’re out. But this has never been God’s heart. God’s heart was never to leave the decision of relationship up to us. He decided before all creation that he would rig things in our favor so he could be with us. The purpose of evangelism is to persuade others to know what God already knows, to accept our already acceptance and no longer live for ourselves (2 Cor. 5:15).

You see, it isn’t that Jesus was just the Son of God who was crucified for you on a cross and that by believing in that your sins can be forgiven. It is because God came as a blueprint for original humanity, your original design, whatever he went through, he went through it representing all of mankind. The Gospel of John eloquently beings explaining this. “The Logos is the source; everything commences in him. He remains the exclusive Parent reference to their existence. There is nothing original, except the Word! The Logic of God defines the only possible place where humankind can trace their genesis” (1:3, MIRROR).

If, then, we all originated in him, this puts the emphasis on the person of Jesus before the work of Jesus. And so, if all have died and raised in the death and resurrection of Jesus, why does that mean they’re not automatically going to heaven? Because the point of salvation was never about your decision. Salvation was his decision long ago. It is therefore up to us whether we’re going to agree or disagree with that reality. It’s the real life all around us. We can choose to continue in our disillusionment, or surrender to the love that’s been drawing us home all along.

If we agree, we see things the way God does. When we don’t we choose to hold ourselves according to our own judgement. The heaven and hell deal is another rabbit trail as well.

You cannot separate and locate heaven or hell in two different geographical locations, whether spiritual or not. Often hell is thought of as eternal separation from God. This, right off the bat, is a ridiculous assessment. There is no place where God is not present. David even says in his Psalm 139, “I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence” (NLT).

The whole point of this argument is that you’re not saved because you made a decision for Jesus. All have been saved because of God’s decision in Christ. I am free, however, to be an idiot and reject that kind of indiscriminate acceptance, though. If I do, I carry that into eternity. And in so doing, that eternal bash, at which God has been the dj, since before the foundations of the earth becomes a battle field to avoid and hide (in the nearest bush) from Love himself.

Picture this: there is an eternal party and everybody’s been invited. You die, and the veil of this physical world is lifted and there you are, standing in the ballroom, music playing, hors devourers being passed around by waiters, a stocked full bar, a buffet the length of seven football fields of all the fanciest things. You get the picture.

So there you are, standing in the middle of the room, looking around, observing, and checking out the scene. Let’s say you died a believer. This scene would look like the party that it is. The love that has captivated you in life envelopes you and he approaches. He wraps his arms around you as he nears, embracing you right against his chest. You sink into that love and feel at home. He directs you over to the bar for a cocktail as he snatches some bruschetta from a tray as it passes by. The party is in full swing.

Let’s take a look at the same party from someone who passed from life into eternity as a non-believer. There you are, standing in the middle of the room, squinted eyes, looking around, noticing the bar, the food and the waiters and it’s all suspect. As your eyes come across that love, your heart sinks. The butterflies in your belly go wild and that anxious sweat forms around your brow. You quickly look away as you see him notice you. You look behind you and around the edges for some place to get away to. He approaches and the stress increases. You quiver and move to a quiet hiding place. He gets closer as you depart. As love himself approaches, all you can feel is fear and strain. This isn’t comfortable. This is agony. This love that you see is not received as love to you. In your unbelief, that love has been wrath, judgement, impending punishment and doom. There is nothing comforting or joyful about that love. You can’t get away fast or far enough.

God is love and that love doesn’t turn to wrath based on who we are, what we do, believe or not believe. if we continue to reject that love, it becomes the burning wrath described in scripture (Matt. 10:28).

Or perhaps you like the image of standing outside the party you began at and stormed out of. And there God is, pleading with you to just shut up and come on in and enjoy yourself. It’s the picture of the forgiving father pleading with his eldest son to come in and celebrate. And there the father remains, pleading. The scene ends, as Jesus doesn’t neatly close out the parable, with that image.

You see, eternity is the place beyond this physical world. Like I said before, it isn’t something that’s 2 separate locations and when you die, God chooses which to send you to. I will be covering hell in another post later on. For now I want to simply focus on the fact that we have been located within the person of Jesus Christ, hidden in him. All have been saved because all have been included in the saving death and resurrection of Jesus. We are free, however, to reject such a gift.

I submit to you, this is the same situation we had there in the garden scene with Adam and Eve. This garden of paradise was set up as pure pleasure for them. As soon as they succumbed to unbelief and doubting God’s love and acceptance of them, it turned into hell. The garden didn’t change, they did. The point of salvation was not Jesus changing God’s mind about man, but changing man’s mind about God.

This is not something that happens when you believe. This is not something that, even by your faith, you can obtain and appropriate. This gift he gave, he gave indiscriminately. His death and resurrection is the invitation sent out to all. It’s right there in your pocket. It’s the million dollar deposit in your bank account. It’s there whether you accept it or not. But it’s quite the waste if you don’t.

Let me close with a quote by Robert Capon. He says, “I am and I am not a universalist. I am one if you’re talking about what God in Christ has done to save the world. The Lamb of God has not taken away the sins of some – of only the good, or the cooperative, or the select few who can manage to get their act together and die as perfect peaches. He has taken away the sins of the world – of every last being in it – and he has dropped them down the black hole of Jesus’ death. On the cross, he has shut up forever on the subject of guilt: “There is therefore now no condemnation…” All human beings, at all times and places, are home free whether they know it or not, feel it or not, believe it or not.

I am not a universalist if you are talking about what people may do about accepting that happy-go-lucky gift of God’s grace. I take with utter seriousness everything Jesus had to say about hell, including the eternal torment that such a foolish non-acceptance must entail. All theologians who hold scripture to be the Word of God must inevitably include in their work a tractate on hell. But I will not – because Jesus did not – locate hell outside the realm of grace. Grace is forever sovereign, even in Jesus’ parables of judgement. No one is ever kicked out at the end of those parables who wasn’t included in at the beginning”.

The reason this is an important enough topic to cover in one post is because of the common misunderstanding that often looms over such a theme. All have been saved because God said so in Jesus’ death and resurrection. He was fully capable and willing to finish the job on our behalf. Our role, as believers, is to announce to the world what God has accomplished in Christ. The joy of their salvation. The grace that has drawn all home. Our rejection of such a gift only makes sense if we do not have a true understanding of that gift. In other words, when we tell someone some list of things they need to do to get right with God. God took care of everything when he came as man and was strung up on a cross to die our death. He didn’t leave anything out.

When I enter into that eternal party, at which I am already very present being in Christ right now, I want to be able to melt in the arms of Love, not run and hide. I want to embrace that which has embraced me from before existence.

Do not think, though, that believing in universal salvation leaves no more room for evangelism. It certainly does! I love talking about and teaching this Gospel good news to people. Seeing their eyes light up with the news that God has picked them, chosen them, and included them from the beginning of time. The news, not of what God can do for them if they’d only believe, but what God has already done for them!

In John’s first epistle he says, “We saw it, we heard it, and now we’re telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy!”(1:3-4, MSG).

And so it is with me and this post. Be encouraged that you and everyone else have been included in that great love and grace. Be encouraged that he has not required something of you to have it, but ask that you simply trust that it’s true and free so we can begin to enjoy the endless bounties of such pleasure and gladness that is in Christ Jesus.

There are a lot of ways to think about life after death. It’s difficult to properly explain everything without each post being 16 pages long. I try my best to compound it as I can. Especially for concepts that may be very new to people who’ve never heard such perspectives.

My crass analogy is simply a way to better see something none of us on this side of life have seen yet. There are also plenty of other scriptural references for universal salvation as well as those seemingly to condemn those that reject the free gift. However, the general arc of scripture and the message of Paul in his letter leaves me with the impression that God was fully able to finish the work of drawing all to himself at the cross. We are, however of course free to reject it. How we receive or reject love will ultimately determine how love looks to us.

Grace + Peace

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From the Garden to Grace, Wk III, Prt 2: sin & the finished work of the cross

Continuing from part 1.

Paul closed out chapter 6 encouraging that you’ve been freed from sin, sin has been removed from your identity and therefore you should no longer give into sin’s lusts and temptations.

He begins chapter 7 by addressing a new audience. He’s now speaking to those who know the law. He’s referring to the religious leaders and scribes. The Pharisees of whom he was one at one time. He teases out something he mentioned briefly earlier in chapter 5. When the law came in, sin increased. So he asks the question they would have most likely been asking when they were reading this letter, “Is the law evil then?”. He explains that it isn’t. Without the law we wouldn’t have known the depths of our depravity. We wouldn’t have known how badly we truly did need a savior. It’s very similar as to why Jesus amped up the law at times as he did. Telling the crowds that they were familiar with a law (i.e. do not commit adultery) and he amps it up telling them, “But I tell you that if you even look at another woman with lust in your heart, you’ve already committed the sin (Matt. 5:28).” He’s puffing up the law so those listening in will come to the conclusion of their own inadequacy in obtaining their own righteousness by following the law. They might as well give up trying and fall into the arms of a loving savior who will be their righteousness for them.

But Paul isn’t finished with the teachers of the law. This is where he goes through his long diatribe of what it was like living under the law. He speaks in first person but addresses a past tense issue. He says that, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate (v. 15).” He’s saying that he knows all the right ways to live but finds himself incapable of living that out. He says, in effect, “I know the law I’m supposed to obey, but I can never seem to obey it the way I want to”. “When I want to do good, evil is right there waiting to pounce on me (v. 21).” He continueS, “It is not me who does these things but the sin dwelling within me (v. 17).” This whole argument is taxing if you pluck it out and read it on its own. However, in reading it in context with chapters 5 and 6, it is simply a segue to his next point. He makes this long argument about what it was like living under the law and caps it off with, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (v. 24)”. He cries out a cry he is very familiar with. One of struggle and imprisonment.

Paul is saying that this struggle is the sin living within him. We know this is not a present struggle for Paul because he just got through explaining how sin was done away with at the cross. He is speaking of when he was under the law, what it was like living that way. Those familiar with that law would have known exactly what he was talking about. They would have related completely with what Paul was saying. But he doesn’t end it there. He gives thanks saying that freedom is exactly what God has given in Christ Jesus!

And it rolls right into chapter 8 with, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death (v. 1-2).” So right off the bat, as long as we’re reading this letter in its context, we see that Paul could not have been referring to his current condition of being a prisoner to sin and death because right here he says that the Spirit of life has in fact freed him from that wretched condition he was once too familiar with.

The righteous requirement of the law was that if you followed it to a T, you were counted as righteous. Of course this was always impossible for us to do hence the consciousness of guilt Hebrews speaks of. The origins of this came from our inability to trust in God for our righteousness, but to lean on our own understanding and ability to make our own way.

Since Paul has been on a mission, he formulates his argument brilliantly. In chapters 1-4 he introduces Jesus Christ as someone in the line of the patriarchs of the faith, but goes even further. He then moves into sharing that that difference is between Adam and Jesus and how grace supersedes that of transgression and sin. And then he makes his claims on grace and what exactly was accomplished on the cross in Christ. He illustrates what it is like under the law, not forgetting that there are those who are so imprisoned by the law system that he needed to relate to them, sharing in the struggles he was very familiar with. But that it wasn’t the end because God has become the remedy in his Son, Jesus.

In chapter 8, he then addresses that since sinfulness has nothing to do with who you are anymore, it is imperative to remember that throughout your everyday life. You have a choice in the matter. You’re free and so what are you going to do with your freedom? Are you going to trust in the finished work of the cross, or continue in the ways which are familiar, albeit foreign, to us? He makes the distinction between living according to the flesh and living according to the Spirit. Paul is not giving us one or the other as if it were up to us. He’s reminds his readers that there is an objective truth and that is, “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you (v. 9-11)”.

Paul is not stating that “If” as in you may not. His argument is that the Spirit does dwell in you, you are a new creation, and you have died with him, were buried with him and were resurrected to new life with him. So, IF that’s true… Can you see it? This is so important to see the difference. For so long I read this as if Jesus did what he did but it was up to me to appropriate it for myself, and in effect, play a part in my own salvation. However, that’s not what Paul is saying. He’s illuminating the objective truth and telling his readers they can either believe it or not. Not believing it doesn’t take away the free gift of grace, but wonderfully allows you to live in its abundance and joy.

Let’s now move to 2 Corinthians 5 briefly.

Paul picks up his discourse to those in Corinth about the difference between the physical and the spiritual. He expresses his exceeding love and joy for the good news he’s come to know and shares with them the full implications of his message. He says, “For we have all been thoroughly scrutinized in the judgement of Jesus. We are taken care of and restored to the life of our design, regardless of what happened to us in our individual lives, whatever amazing or meaningless things we have encountered in the body. We persuade people in the radiance of the Lord! His visible glory is mirrored in us! Our lives are transparent before God; we anticipate that you will witness the same transparency in your conscience! (v. 10-11, mirror)”. He wants to take the interest off of them and their ministry and keep it on Christ and his finished work.

He goes on in verse 14 to explain why. He says, “The love of Christ resonates within us and leaves us with only one conclusion: Jesus died humanity’s death; therefore, in God’s logic every individual simultaneously died. Now, if all were included in his death, they were equally included in his resurrection. This unveiling of his love redefines human life! Whatever reference we could have of ourselves outside of our association with Christ is no longer relevant. This is radical and our most defining moment! No label that could possibly previously identify someone carries any further significance! Even our pet doctrines of Christ are redefined. Whatever we knew about him historically or sentimentally is challenged by this conclusion. Now, in the light of your co-inclusion in his death and resurrection, whoever you thought you were before, in Christ you are a brand new person! The old ways of seeing yourself and everyone else are over. Acquaint yourself with the new! To now see everything as new is to simply see what God has always known in Christ; we are not debating human experience, opinion, or their contribution; this is 100% God’s belief and his doing. In Jesus Christ, God exchanged equivalent value to redeem us to himself. This act of reconciliation is the mandate of our ministry (v. 14-18, mirror)”.

So here we have a clear indication of why Paul is doing what he’s doing. We can see clearly why he’s sharing what he’s sharing and is as adamant about it as he is. And what is this message? What is the point of this 2 part post concerning our old selves and the new? “That is, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation (v. 19).” And why is it of most importance to articulate this Gospel properly and not dilute it down to a DIY level where Jesus passes the baton from the cross to mankind and urges them to give it a go themselves? Because of this: “So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (v. 20)”.

God’s desire is that you would know the full extent of what he accomplished in Christ on behalf of all mankind. The fact that since that garden scene we dove into last week, we have been hiding out in the nearest bushes, ashamed of who we are, ashamed and reluctant to allow ourselves to be embraced and loved again by a Holy God until we can appease ourselves into thinking we’ve done our part to shine ourselves up and believe just right. God is making his appeal that he has emptied himself into our broken disillusionment of sinful false identity when he became incarnate. He’s making his appeal that he became the very thing that was keeping us from seeing and knowing the truth about ourselves and about God, sin. And, knowing our sinful ways, would, in fact, arrest and murder Mr. Love himself. He brilliantly allowed us to destroy the very thing that was destroying us by killing it in our creator.

Another part of this is seen in the letter to the Colossians. Paul tells them, “In him also you were made circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ (2:11)”. Before we continue, there is something here worth noting. The command to circumcise was to be an external sign of the covenant between the Israelites and God. This was the piece of flesh being cut away indicating that they were set apart for God. In the New Covenant, Paul is saying, as he does later in this letter, that this was, in fact, just a symbol. In the death of Christ, the sinful nature, the sinful flesh was cut away, but not done with human hands, this was done by God. It doesn’t exist anymore. It is the sign that you are God’s children.

He goes on, “and you were buried with him in baptism (there it is again with the baptism just like in Romans 6), in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, having canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the cross (v. 12-14).”

The emphasis here at the end is that sinfulness has not just been forgiven and covered by the blood of the lamb. That’s how it worked in the old covenant. In the new, however, sinfulness itself is actually removed from you when jesus took it on himself and went to the cross. God dealt with his issue with sin right then and there and urges us to trust and believe so we can deal with it too.

Again, there is far more on this subject and I could go on even further. As the weeks go on and the topics continue to unravel, I’m sure I’ll repeat some things and go into others.

For next week, we will be looking at the difference between being saved and going to heaven.

Grace + Peace

*all scripture references from RSV or ESV if not otherwise indicated

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From the Garden to Grace, Wk III, Prt 1: sin & the finished work of the cross

Moving on from last week, we continue with the topic of sin.

This one turned out to be rather long, so this will be part 1 of a 2 part series within the From Garden to Grace series.

As a disclaimer, I will let scripture speak for itself here with sprinkled commentary for continuity, but from this point on, this post will be very scripture heavy. That said, let’s begin.

One of the main objections to calling out the idea of original sin is that those who object believe it calls into question the purpose and need of the cross. I, however, do not think it calls it into question. In my opinion, because we were not created to be sinful yet find ourselves imprisoned in this sinfulness still, there remains a great reason for Jesus accomplishing what he did on the cross.

The Apostle Paul articulated this one message throughout his letters in the New Testament. I will begin in Romans 5 and work my way through Romans 8 and hit on points in 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, Colossians, Galatians and Philippians.

Paul begins his argument exposing the difference between the errors in the garden from the grace of the cross. He says, “The free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the effect of that one man’s sin. For the judgement following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. If, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of the righteousness reign in the life through the one man Jesus Christ. Then as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous. Law came in, to increase the trespass; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (5:16-21).”

Here, Paul is capping his argument he made in chapters 1-4. He is trying to introduce Christ as the composer and finisher of all things. He talks about Abraham and how he was counted as righteous because of his faith. And then he brings up Jesus and says, likewise he was counted righteous, but his righteousness didn’t end in the grave with him when he died because he rose from the dead. And it’s because of that, that his righteousness was passed down to us (Rom. 4:23-25).

He also makes a claim that Jesus is not simply a messenger or prophet of God. This is God incarnate in human flesh. God stepped into our human condition (Rom. 8:3) and died our death. He did not simply die for me as much as die as me. And so where he takes that here in what we just read, he articulates the very well-known understanding that all have been made sinners through the one man (Adam’s) trespass. In the same way, though, the all were made righteous through the one man’s obedience. Interestingly, nowhere in here does Paul say it’s through your faith in his gift or faith in his obedience. He states the case that you’re simply just made righteous because he died and rose again.

He talks grace up so much so here that he addresses his critics at the beginning of chapter 6.

“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? (v. 1-2)”.

He’s already indicating here once again that we have died to sin. There is no stipulation given to this reality. It’s simply an effect of Jesus’ death. In his dying to sin, so did you.

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his (v. 3-5).”

Before I continue, let me pause and tease this out a bit. Most Christians are aware that it is not by being baptized that you’re saved. That said, Paul is not referring to those who have gone through the public ceremony of being baptized that are baptized into his death. He’s indicating that in dying his death with him and being buried in the grave with him and coming up out of the grave into new life we are baptized. That was our baptism. So when we baptize today, it is our public declaration that we know we have died with him, were buried with him and have risen to new life with him. Let’s continue.

“We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin (v. 6).” In other translations it reads, “Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life-no longer at sin’s every beck and call!” (Msg). Or in the Mirror Bible, “We perceive that our old lifestyle was co-crucified together with him; this concludes that the vehicle that accommodated sin in us, was scrapped and rendered entirely useless. Our slavery to sin has come to an end.” Or in the Cotton Patch version by Clarence Jordan, “We are convinced that the person we used to be has been strung up with him, so that the sinful nature may be wiped out, and we no longer need be addicted to sin.”

Paul understood that we carried a disillusioned image of ourselves ever since the garden scene. He understood that we counted ourselves sinful and broken and through a distorted lens. God’s heart was to redeem how we saw ourselves back to how he’s always known us. So by, being creator, choosing to come in the likeness of sinful flesh, was able to be fully God and fully man. Not simply fully A man, but fully representing mankind. So when he died, all of humanity died with him. 2 Corinthians 5 says that “He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf (v. 21)”. God actually took on the nature of sin itself since sin had been abusing and molesting his children for centuries, distorting their ability to see themselves truly and therefore disabling their ability to see God clearly as well.

The beauty of Romans 6 is that you can split it in 2. The first half of the chapter, Paul is describing sin with a capital S, as in the nature and identity of sin. After he’s argued that it has been eradicated through the death of Jesus, he starts addressing sin with a lower case s, as in the actions and behavior. Because there is a distinction between being sinful and acting sinful. He essentially gives the first part argument that your sinfulness has been removed in the death of Christ. He then concludes, therefore, stop sinning. You’re not sinful so don’t sin. Trust in the finished work of the cross and rely on that in moments of temptation to remind you who you are. Don’t be swayed by the temptations of life, be swayed by the love and grace of Christ and him crucified.

Paul continues, “For he who has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (v. 7-11).”

This part here is radical because it confirms that in Jesus’ death, we find our own. Take into consideration our old selves. This old self is the sinful, distorted, broken, evil, carrying-on-however-we-want-to, scoffing-at-God selves. This is what died when Jesus died. When Jesus cried out, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me” on the cross, he was bellowing the heart cry of all humanity. Not to mention quoting Psalm 22’s opening line. And in so doing, concludes that “He has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; and he has not hid his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him (v. 24).” Jesus representing all of humanity on the cross, cried out our cry ever since the garden. The cross was God’s response that he has not hid himself away from us, he’s heard our cry for redemption and finished the work on the cross.

From this point on in the chapter, he addresses the actions and behaviors of sinfulness. He says, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies to make you obey their passions (v. 12)”. Since sinfulness has been eradicated from your humanity, don’t give in to sinful behaviors. It isn’t becoming of you. This is the whole purpose for the conviction of the Holy Spirit. When I screw up and do something sinful, the Holy Spirit is there convicting me, reminding me that that isn’t me anymore. That’s not who you are. You’re not sinful, so stop sinning.

This is the point he makes at the end of chapter 6. He says, “But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death (v. 21).” We understand too from last week that when this is referred to as death, he is not indicating a physical death necessarily. It is a deadness of soul and spirit. It is a death of life within and throughout. Paul mentions this as well in his letter to the Ephesians. He tells them, “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1).” Clearly Paul is not referring to a physical death, but that which is spiritual.

Paul adds onto that, “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. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (v. 22-23).” This is not something he is providing stipulations for. This is the core of the good news. It is an announcement of what God has done for all of humanity. The Gospel is not about you accepting Jesus into your life. The Gospel is the announcement that Jesus has already accepted you into his life. This last verse is the classic verse often used to scare people into repentance and repeating some non biblical prayer after them with the hopes that at that point they’ll be saved. As ridiculous as that is, the beauty of the real Gospel message is one that says, “God has not set up his relationship with you in accordance with your acceptance of it. Our accepting and believing is simply our YES and THANK YOU to him for what he has already done!”.

To close part 1, as we will see, sin is a very real thing. Sin is a very damaging thing. But sin is not your identity and nature. Paul says in another letter, his second letter to the Corinthians, “Now, in the light of your co-inclusion in his death and resurrection, whoever you thought you were before, in Christ you are a brand new person! The old ways of seeing yourself and everyone else are over. Acquaint yourself with the new! (2 Cor. 5:17, mirror)”. You are new and so should live and act like it. To believe otherwise is simply contradicting what God knows to be true about you.

Grace + Peace

To be continued in part 2...

*all scripture references from RSV or ESV if not otherwise indicated

[theologyinplay]

From the Garden to Grace, Wk II: the fallacy of original sin

The concept of original sin is so ingrained in the doctrine and dogma of Christianity, it is admittedly difficult to get someone to see things otherwise.

One of the best ways to do so is to take them to the very scripture they think teaches the idea.

It does not.

In fact, the concept of original sin did not come into teaching until the 2nd century. Right off the bat I’ll submit some verses you may be tempted to visit yourself in argument for original sin. These are Romans 5:12 and 1 Corinthians 12:22. You may also want to see Psalms 51:5 where David mentions that he was brought forth in iniquity and conceived by his mother in sin.

Before we go any further, though, I want to address the very word: sin. The word in the original Greek is Hamartia. This, in short, means “missing the mark”. This is important to understand because often we equate sin with actions and behavior. And rightly so. However, in scripture there are various uses for the term. In one sense, we have sin used in a capital S way, indicating nature and identity. In another sense, it is used in lower case s, indicating those actions and behaviors mentioned above. But, similar to those verses, missing the mark indicates there is a mark to begin with. That mark is our origin.

Over the centuries, Christianity got so caught up in the guilt and shame game, it confused the two. It could easily play on the anxieties and insecurities of people if it controlled how they viewed themselves. If they could, in one sense, keep the people believing they were identified sinfully, they’d be reliant on the church and the church’s services for their continued salvation and sanctification. It became a very lucrative business. Even in the 15th century they began selling what was called “indulgences”. These were basically full or partial remissions of sins given to those who also gave financially to the church. If you can keep someone believing they’re sinful and bad but that they should be holy and good and you happen to have the cure, you’ll forever have business with the masses.

Unfortunately this is still practiced today, albeit not as overt and open. It isn’t called the same thing but is still very much the way business is done. We may not be selling indulgences anymore but we very much still sell guilt and shame to keep the pews and chairs full.

So to go back as far as the garden, we need to look at “the fall”. This is where it all began. Keeping in mind the true definition of sin, “missing the mark”, we find ourselves with Eve and the serpent.

In the beginning, God made everything and called it good. God had given Adam and Eve the command that they could eat of any tree in the garden except that tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Interestingly, how I believe this makes the most sense is that God made man good and for goodness only. Once given the option, they had the ability to choose something outside of their original design. What was their original design? Goodness.

This command wasn’t a stipulation to follow in order to stay pleasing to God if they obeyed. They already were his good pleasure. The command was a charge for them to remain in their original goodness, their original intent and identity. God knew what was best for them and drew the lines to keep them there.

So then the serpent comes along and asks Eve, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?’”

Right off the bat you can see what the serpent is doing here. The first slip of man wasn’t eating the fruit, but their doubt. This isn’t to say doubt is a bad thing, but left unchecked, it can lead to destructive thought patterns and turning away from true love. Eve answered, “We can eat of any tree except for the one in the middle or we will die” (my paraphrase). The serpent continued playing off her words, “You will not surely die”. Of course, God’s definition of death was not one of physical death but that of spiritual. The serpent playing on her naiveté insinuates it is physical and the absurdity of thinking a piece of fruit could actually physically kill you.

He continues, “God knows that if you do eat of it, you’ll become like him, eyes opened, knowing good and evil”.

Right here we have the next slip up. Again, not the action of eating the fruit. It’s in the unbelief. The serpent was able to get Eve to doubt what God had said about dying from eating the fruit. If God didn’t mean what he said about the fruit, maybe he didn’t mean a lot of the other things he said, namely, that we are very good. And to add to that, they believed that in order to become like God, they had to do something of their own effort, forgetting they already were made in the image and likeness of God innately. And there we have the first identity crisis. If I’m not very good, as God said, I can therefore also do things that aren’t very good.

We will, more often than not, behave out of who we believe we are. Instinctively, when we believe we are sinful, we will sin. When we live out the truth that we have been made holy, righteous and very good, we will live and act according to that. We see this in the person of Jesus. Here God took on the full nature of humanity in the person of Jesus. In Romans 8:3 Paul says, “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.” Jesus carried the same disillusionment and distorted mindset we all carry but knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, who he was. He knew he wasn’t sinful and so despite being tempted in every way we are to sin, never gave in because he knew he wasn’t sinful.

So they eat the fruit. Eve and Adam. And for the first time, it says their eyes were opened and they saw that they were naked. In this Genesis story, the image of nakedness often is understood to mean they saw themselves in shame. They were embarrassed and hid in a nearby bush.

This is such a downward spiral from this point on. Their view of themselves has just been distorted. Their view of God has been distorted and they were afraid and hiding from pure love. So God comes along in the cool breeze and the warmth of the afternoon sun looking for his daily walk in the garden. God calls out, “Where are you?”. God obviously isn’t asking for their geographical location in the garden. He’s calling out their true identity. He’s asking where THEY are. I imagine God looking Adam right in the eyes and asking him, “Where are you right now? This isn’t the Adam I made. I didn’t make you shameful!”.

They begin by trying to explain themselves. “Well she said this, and she did that.” “Well, the serpent said this and the serpent said that.” This is the point where people often take the next dialogue from God to Adam and Eve as his curses and prescription for their situation.

Rather, I’d like to submit God was not prescribing curses as much as describing their current condition and the natural consequences that flow from that. God could see exactly what had happened and where they were mentally now. He could see that their minds had changed about themselves and about him. In all of this, it is important to remember that God’s mind did not change about man. He came looking for them, knowing exactly what had gone down, thinking of them exactly as he had when he made them, as very good. It was us that changed. Adam and Eve’s mind had changed. They no longer believed themselves to be good. They weren’t good enough for God’s presence anymore.

Remember Paul also says to the Colossians, “We were alienated and separate from God in our own minds because of our wickedness” (1:21, italics mine). He says this to them because this has now been the scenario since that garden scene, even to today. The truth is, we have never been separated from God. We were formed in him, by him and have remained there ever since. It was us who stopped believing that and seeing ourselves that way. We messed up and thought we had to make up for the loss and work ourselves back to God’s good graces. But we never left there. God never stopped seeing us as very good.

God sends them out of the garden with this description, “you will know no peace”. And ever since then to now, he was right. Living with this belief that we have to make ourselves up something holy and good in order to get back into his good pleasure has been the detriment to our enjoyment of God and our fellow man since the beginning. We really have known no peace by striving and trying and killing ourselves to be good enough.

Let me take you to Ephesians before I close up here.

“He associated us in Christ before the fall of the world! Jesus is God’s mind made up about us! He always knew in his love that he would present us again face-to-face before him in blameless innocence. He is the architect of our design; his heart dream realized our coming of age in Christ” (1:4-5, mirror).

When we speak of original sin we need to tread lightly because how we see ourselves, God and everyone else matters. Traditionally evangelical Christianity will have you believe that in the fall, you fell away from God into sinfulness. And that through the sacrifice of Jesus, you can receive forgiveness and salvation if you believe in him and his death and resurrection.

This understanding couldn’t be further from the Gospel. The Gospel announcement is that you have never been separated from God, you were never alienated, and that God, in Christ was redeeming all of humanity back to their original design. You were formed and found in Christ before the fall. You were united and wrapped up in him before being lost in disillusionment, lies and false identities. Jesus came to simply show you how God has actually seen and thought of you all this time.

The Gospel of John begins saying this, “All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (1:3-5, ESV).

Christ is our source, our home and our beginning and end. Sin is a very real thing and it began back in the beginning, but it is not our origin or design. Think of when David said that his inmost being was formed in his mother’s womb in Psalm 139. If we believe that as well, the question is, does God create us sinful?

Humanity is not innately sinful and evil. Our original design is that of Christ and of the Spirit. It became distorted when we started identifying ourselves according to how we live rather than with who he is. Jesus redeemed our original design at the cross. He didn’t die for our sins as much as died as our sinfulness (2 Cor. 5:21). He didn’t simply forgive and cover our sins, he removed the sinfulness from our humanity in order to reveal the true light of life that has been there all along.

It’s good news and its news that’s been true since the foundations of creation.

Next week we will continue with the doctrine of sin and what happened on the cross and how it is still thought of today.

Grace + Peace

[theologyinplay]

From the Garden to Grace, Wk I: what if you stayed?

I want to tell you a story.

If you’re one of the few who’s read my book “17 Flavors” you’ve heard this one before. If not, please enjoy.

This story takes place back when I lived in Maryland. There was a season I’d get waken up in the middle of the night by God. I knew it was God because after a while of tossing and turning trying to get back to sleep, I would give in and go out into the living room to pray.

Over time, it became a routine. I’d go sit cross-legged in the living room and pray and God would show me pictures or speak things to me that were words of encouragement for others. I’d share with them and it was fruitful and nice.

It got to the point where people would ask me specifically to pray for them for this or for that. I’d take the time in the middle of the night to pray and see if there was anything God had to say about it. And he often did.

This went on for quite some time. I’d sit there, eyes closed, sometimes I’d lay on my back and I would feel the weighty presence of God so strong and see things so vividly. Eventually I’d have to go to the bathroom so I’d get up and go. Then it was back to bed for me.

One night, it started no different than any other night. I woke up, tossed and turned for a little bit then got up and went out into the living room. I remember I could hear the cars passing on the highway close-by. So much so, it distracted me and I couldn’t get into my groove. So I got up and went into the office. There, the computer sounded so loud I couldn’t sit still enough to hear anything but the buzzing. So I got up and went into the nursery. My wife was pregnant at the time and we were expecting our first child. The room was set up but quiet. I sat in there, crossed my legs and opened the way that I did every other night, “Come Holy Spirit”.

At this point, I’d typically feel that peace flush over me, a presence that rested on me before I started seeing and hearing things. Now, the hearing was never audible I feel compelled to mention. It was always something in my inner mind that a thought would cross my mind spontaneously. I could even ask a question back and another thought would come through my mind, something completely out of the realm of what I would know or think on my own.

But there I was, feeling nothing. So I laid down on my back as I’d done a hundred times before. I prayed again and waited. Nothing. I then flipped over onto my stomach because you don’t get much more humble than lying prostrate on your face. Nothing.

After a little while I had to go to the bathroom. I told God, “I have to go to the bathroom”. I heard very clearly God’s response of, “So go!”. It was at this point I saw an image from the movie “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”. It was the scene towards the end where they finally get to the first time they met and the memory is about to be erased. They’re on a beach and a storm comes through. They break into a beach house to hide out in until it passes. As they’re in the house, Clementine is rummaging through belongings and mail. Joel is a bit apprehensive about it all and mentions they should probably just leave. In a moment of disdain, she shoots back, “So go!”.

The scene didn’t stop there. They go back and forth. Joel realizes this is the last scene before she’s completely removed from his memory. So he says back to her, “I wish I had stayed”. He’s thinking that if he stayed, they would have made more memories and it would take longer to erase and they’d have more time together now. She responds a bit softer this time, “What if you stayed this time?”.

At the moment I laid there on the floor, face down, sobbing. I heard as clearly as “So go”, “what if you stayed this time?”. I was wrecked! What hit me was the fact that all this time, all these nights, I was showing up for what I could get out of God. God was there just to be with me. I felt all that presence flood in at once and I stayed there that night for another hour or two, easily.

I share that story with you because over the next couple weeks I want to look further into the intimacy and love of God. It is still one of the most intimate moments with God I’ve ever had. Unfortunately for me, I didn't allow it to stay. What I believed about God and Jesus and sin and me and salvation and all those theological hot points limited my ability to remain in that intimate love and grace of Papa.

In order for us to dig deeper into that intimacy and love, we need to look further into this Gospel we hold so dear. The Gospel can get such a bad rap sometimes. It’s often seen as simply the first four books of the New Testament. But the Gospel, in its simplest definition, is good news. It’s the message that Paul shares throughout all of his letters. It’s the message that God has taken care of everything. It’s the message that God has shown up just to be with us.

Even having moments like that, we can still miss the undeniable, outlandish and outrageous love of God in Christ for all of humanity. We’ve sold it short for quite some time. It’s really much better than we’ve given it credit for.

I want to touch on sin. Separation. Closeness. The difference between being saved and going to heaven. I want to get into God’s idea about you. I want to look at this human narrative from the garden to grace. There is an arc to this story and it is a beautiful one that we are not absent from, even today. We are still very much telling this story that began in the garden.

What I didn’t realize at the time of that intimate night was just how close to God I was and how close he was to me. I may have felt it as real as it was but I missed how much God desired for me to know the depth of his love for me because after everything was said and done I still believed there was a formula to being right with God. Despite the fact that I would have disagreed with the claim, I still very much believed there were stipulations to his love and acceptance of me. Even then it was something I could feel and experience but didn’t have the theological grid to understand. After all that, I’d probably still tell you I was a sinner and that I needed to put in my time in order to maintain and sustain that relationship with God. Maybe you’re reading this now and that’s precisely what you think.

That’s ok!

I hope you’ll stay with me over the next few weeks. My objective is not to convince you to believe and think like me as much as it is to give another way to look at this good news. You may find it as freeing and life changing as I have. I spent many years teaching youth and adults about the love of God but it was always limited because it came with the “but…” factor. The “but…” factor for me is when we nod and give lip service to a statement about God’s love and grace and then add, “but…” along with some stipulation or condition for it. My understanding of it was limited to what I was taught was true my whole life. It was always human focused rather than Christ centered. It was always about the human response to what Jesus did rather than being all about Jesus and his finished work on the cross. And while even today I believe my understanding is still limited, I don’t know everything, I believe I have a clearer picture of what God has done in Christ for all of humanity. And I’d like to share some of that with you. My intention is to eventually turn this series into a short class where I can interact and communicate face to face with other people seeking a better understanding of things that speak to their heart.

But until then, next week, I will be looking into the idea of original sin, the garden scene and where it all began.

So, for now…

Grace + Peace

[theologyinplay]

Incarnation, Wk IV: what if God was one of us?

I want you to think back to how you remember Christmas in your childhood.

There were a couple traditions in my home that I still think of fondly. There was the initial house and tree decorating. Christmas Eve candlelight service at church followed by driving around neighborhoods looking at all the lights. And once we got home, my brother and I were allowed to open one gift before bed. We put cookies and milk out for Santa and maybe even wrote him a note. Then off to bed.

There wasn’t much sleep that night, obviously. Tossing and turning, going to the bathroom, getting a drink of water, etc. There was a rule that you couldn’t open any gifts before everyone was awake and you weren’t allowed to wake mom and dad until 8am. They did throw us a bone and let us open our stockings.

Once my parents were up, my dad would make a fire, put the breakfast pizza in the oven and the ripping and excitement and discovery began. There was usually some Disney VHS left on the couch we’d pop in for background noise.

At some point my dad would read either “The Night before Christmas” or “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” to my brother and me and all was well.

As far as Jesus was concerned, my parents always posted a sign out front that read “Jesus is the Reason for the Season”. And this is the idea I grew up with. We probably at some point even sang Happy Birthday to him. But to me, Christmas was Jesus’ birthday and Jesus was God’s son and loved me and died for me and I should love him back and behave myself in order to be a good Christian boy and go to Heaven when I expire. Jesus was like the divine Santa. He’s making a list, checking it twice to see whether you’ve been naughty or nice. And that’s all the interaction I had with him. He’d stay aloft up there, far away, and I’d stay down here, like an ant, begging for help and guidance through a life I was clueless about how to live. And on top of that, I had to live it in fear because I never knew if it would be good enough to “get in”. I never knew if I was good enough.

From my experience, most Christians have grown up with this understanding of Jesus. And Christmas was the day we celebrated the birth of God's son.

Have you ever heard that song, “What if God was One of Us” by Joan Osborne? Growing up I remember it being thought of as blasphemous and rude and bad doctrine at best. Revisiting it nowadays has me thinking a little differently about it. I think the problem we have with that song is expressed right in the song.

We think of ourselves as slobs and strangers, lonely and distant, always searching for connection and purpose. We all have names and identities and what would it mean if God was just like one of us? How dare the concept even exist, right? Our image of ourselves is so broken and disillusioned there is no way in hell God would ever be like one of us.

Sure, we nod to the idea that Jesus was fully God and fully man. We often simplify that to fully man as he was literally a man. We don’t like to admit it, but we absolutely see the Trinity as a hierarchy (as we discussed in week 1). Father is top dog and his Son and Spirit are subordinate to him. In that case, it’s more plausible that God could become a man because at least the Father was still separate, somewhere up there in Heavenly space. And it’s even further confirmed when Jesus cries out on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Well, of course God would turn his back on Jesus, he was bearing the sins of the whole world and obviously God can’t be around sin.

I’m not going to get into sin doctrine right now, that’s for another post sometime next year maybe. But, this is why it is so important to know what was incarnate when we talk Christmas.

If we now can understand that the Trinity is not a hierarchy and that God was not separate from Christ when he hung on the cross, that God was in Christ reconciling the whole world to himself (2 Cor. 5:19), we can begin to see this as an entirely different narrative. That God was in Christ when he was conceived in the womb and when he was born in a dirty, cold stable. We then recognize that Christmas isn’t when God’s son was in fact born, but when becoming a man, he was named Jesus, and embraced our humanity from within it.

Why are we so repelled by that concept? What if God was one of us?

If the apostle Paul was right when he told the Colossians that “we are alienated and enemies of God in our own minds…” (1:21) then we need to allow ourselves some grace when wrapping our heads around this beautiful incarnation.

He says later in the same letter, “the whole Godhead dwelt in bodily form in Jesus” (2:9). So you have this Father, Son and Spirit, face to face with one another in other-giving-love relationship emptying themselves into our human condition, into a human form that would be called Jesus (eight days after his birth at circumcision, Luke 2:21). As I said last week, you don’t get any more vulnerable than a new born baby. And similarly, you don’t get much more vulnerable than when you’re lying there on your deathbed. The beauty of this incarnation we celebrate is that in this birth, that Father, Son and Spirit emptied themselves into the most vulnerable places of their creation. In the incarnation, and in the crucifixion, the Trinity has wrapped its arms around our very lives, from beginning to end, and everything in between.

This means that because of the birth of Jesus, whatever life you’re living, you’re living it in him. Whatever dumpster of a life you’ve made for yourself, God has declared he’ll simply be the dumpster you live in. That means, in the birth of Jesus God has declared that when you stick that needle in your arm, run that razor blade across your wrists, empty another bottle, sign up for a bed in the homeless shelter, lose that job, get married, have your first child, fall in love, have your heart broken, lose a loved one, get a raise, close on your first home, lose a child, when you’re cold and alone and running into the sides of the grave you can’t get yourself out of, God has declared that he is a part of it right along with you. In the incarnation, God has said that whatever your life amounts to, it will amount in him.

Any part of your life, good or bad, he is a part of because of this incarnation. When God became man, he has forever woven mankind into his divinity and his life. You can’t separate that. You didn’t do anything to get into that relationship and you can’t do anything to get yourself out of it. His love is what compelled him to wrap you up into himself. His insistence that you see yourself the way he has always seen you is what compelled him to empty himself into your human condition.

We don’t like to think of God on our terms because he’s God and we’re broken, sinful, dirty humanity. But in the incarnation that is precisely what God has done. He has taken all of you and put it in all of him. He has taken all of him and put it in all of you. Every bit. Every piece. There’s no separation.

His desire is that in seeing ourselves as we truly are, we will live the life he truly meant for us.

So when those shepherds, in that field are startled by that bright light and that stranger standing there so ominously and wonderfully, hear the news of great joy that is for all men, you better believe they drop everything and go find him.

And it’s the same right now, today. We still celebrate this birth, not because December 25 is historically the birth of Jesus, we know it’s not. Not that God had pity on us and had to send his only son to be born, live, teach us fools how to live and then die a horrible death at our hands, for us. No. We celebrate this night because tonight is when God stepped into humanity. Tonight is when our loneliness went away. Tonight is when our cold, striving, trying-to-kill-yourself-to-be-good life came to an end. Tonight is when God declared, you are in me and I am in you and I’m meeting you on your terms because of my great love for who you are.

So if you’re reading this the day it goes live, tonight is the night. This is our focus and passion.

Tonight we fear not, for to us a child was born in the city of David. Tonight a son was given. And we still call him Wonderful Counselor, Everlasting Father, Almighty God and Prince of Peace. Tonight, God showed us that he has always been Immanuel. He has always been with us and we have always been in him. We began in him. We are maintained and sustained in him. Life as we knew it ended in him. And new life sprung forth from the grave, in him. Christmas is a celebration and recognition of what has always been true since before the beginning of time. Christmas is the celebration that Father, Son and Spirit still thinks of us as “very good”.

To close with words from Jars of Clay:

Love will be our token.

Love be yours.

Love be mine.

Love from God to all of us.

Merry Christmas.

Until next year…

Grace + Peace