ResponsiveReiding

Continuing in our short series on The Principles, we take a moment here to consider #3 on my list. It is one which I have tried to articulate often the congregation here at ECF, and to keep at the forefront of my own thinking at all times – not always successfully.

Principle #3 The Christian life cannot be lived any other way than by conscious, constant, deliberate dependence upon the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Beloved, if you never learn anything from listening to or reading anything I have ever communicated, I pray this will drop down into the innermost recesses of your soul and find solid lodging there. So important was the giving of the Holy Spirit to us by Christ Jesus, that He raised it to the level of being a greater blessing than His incarnate presence with us before the cross.

Listen to the nature of Christ’s love for us, and the Father’s lavish giving Him to us with the Son in sending the 3^rd person of the Trinity to indwell us: John 16:7–8 “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. “Aren’t those words staggering? That it is MORE advantageous that the incarnate Christ leave and the Spirit be poured out upon us, than if He remained? It is mind boggling. Certainly we remember that in His going, He will die on the cross in our place and be raised again for our justification – but even those glories are not independent of His going SO THAT He might send the Spirit to. Salvation is not complete without The Spirit. And this He bids us to consider of such infinite value as to be looked for in His place with us. Amazing.

Now it is just because this is true, that the Apostle Paul can tell us that therein lay the secret to the Christian walk: “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” Galatians 5:16. Herein is power to overcome sin; The reality of fresh, vital, real communion with our God and Savior; gifts to bless the Church; illumination of God’s Word; power in prayer and ministering the Gospel – and countless other glories.

But note how we have put in in our principle. We must be CONSCIOUSLY looking to the Spirit as God’s indwelling presence. We must be cognizant on relying upon Him. And such reliance must be CONSTANT, not simply the fallback when things get rough. We must be DELIBERATE in our dependence – truly leaning upon Him, resting our weight upon Him, and not simply giving lip service to it. Running to Him 10, 100, 1000, 10,000 times a day. And it must be DEPENDENCE upon Him. He is not spiritual power steering, just giving us a boost to so that we can still do the job – but looking to Him to work righteousness in our hearts, to change desires and goals and ambitions and mindsets, opinions, attitudes and forging in us new likes and dislikes, loves and hatreds  in accord with His own holy nature.

Consciously, constantly, deliberately depending upon Him to impart to us and work in us God’s own love. Love that manifests itself in joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, uprightness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Recognizing these are not human characteristics to be psychologically developed, but the very character of Christ to be lived.

Apart from this way of living, we will walk in constant defeat at the mercy (mercilessness) of our lusts. We will be exhausted in “trying” to be holy. We will be frustrated at every turn, living either in perpetual self-delusion that we are fine as is, or in perpetual guilt and dismay at our brokenness.

This world is toxic. Like a scuba diver who puts on his equipment so that he can operate in an environment  that would otherwise kill him in minutes – we take up the “air” supply of the Breath of God, and cling to it and try to breathe no other way so that we might live, and thrive where no life can apart from it. And then, we can even enjoy the swim.

Yesterday I began a series touching on principles I have gleaned from Scripture over time that inform my overall view of things. As I said then, some of these are overtly put before us in the Bible, and others are gathered up from surveying the broader scope of the Word. But they stand as landmarks in my own thinking, and may prove to be beneficial to you as well.

I should add here that in some cases, the ideas discussed may be a bit controversial or will goad us into thinking more deeply about areas we may have previously viewed in a more surface manner. All along, what I am hoping for things that will be joggin’ the noggin.

Today, I would like to note as Principle #2 that: Forgiveness of sins is personal – even with God, while

First, we need to remember that God does not simply sweep sin under the carpet. Forgiveness language in the Bible often employs financial images to help us understand that in all forgiveness the one doing the forgiving, willingly takes a loss and does not seek restitution. Forgiveness costs something. It is free to the forgiven, but costly to the forgiver. In the case of God providing an atonement for our sin, He absorbed the losses of the honor we were due to pay Him, the obedience and the duty to reflect His holy image. More, in Christ’s death at Calvary, He even took on the punishment due us for those sins. This is the breathtaking wonder of the Cross. In Christ, God didn’t just say “I won’t punish the guilty” – but instead, punished the innocent One, that the guilty might be truly free!

Now all of this must touch on two different spheres. In human justice, people are punished for breaking the law, their offenses are against the state – it isn’t personal. But in God’s case, His holiness IS the law. When we sin, we do not sin against a code, impersonally – we sin against Him – very personally. He fully encompasses both the “judicial” and the personal in Himself. And as such, we continue to relate to Him in both ways. We relate to Him as the eternal Judge (Gen. 18:25) and, as the eternal Father. And this is where the rub comes for some – where a bit of confusion can arise.

Some, have confounded these two aspects in God, and as such have thought that because they are “justified” – judicially declared righteous by God through faith (Rom. 3:26, 30; 4:5; Gal. 2:16 etc.) – that they then no longer need to confess sin to Him and seek ongoing forgiveness. When in fact, the judicial act which has bestowed the righteousness of Christ upon us freely, does not remove the reality that our ongoing sins are still personal offenses which must be addressed if we are to retain a close, intimate relationship with Him.

This idea is brought home to us in the Teaching of Jesus as He gave us what is called “The Lord’s Prayer.” In it, while teaching His disciples to pray (and no doubt us by extension) He instructs us to pray “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Why? Aren’t we already justified? Isn’t Christ already our righteousness? Are we in right relationship with Him or not? And of course, all of that is true. But what is ALSO true, is that our relationship with and to Him is not ONLY judicial, it is personal. And in that respect, personal closeness requires dealing with sins against Him regularly, constantly, so as to preserve the sweetness of intimacy that belongs to a close personal relationship wherein offenses are always dealt with and the air always clear.

We are justified only once. But we seek and obtain forgiveness continually.

As most of you know, I’ve been away for the last 6 months on an unplanned sabbatical due to some medical issues stemming from not managing my time and resources better. Energy takes fuel, and rest is a key component of fuel. I’ve not been very good at that, and have paid the price. Hopefully though, I have learned, or AM learning how to do better on that front. We’ll know soon enough.

My time away however has not  been completely unproductive. I did plenty of reading I would not have done (in terms of the range of topics and genres) which has been most enjoyable and profitable. Don Carson says “there is reading, and then there is reading, and then there is READING.” Some things you skim, some things you swim in, others you really concentrate on. I’ve spent a disproportionate time only doing the latter and that renders the brain a bit dull. No comments from the peanut gallery thank you!

With that, I’ve also gone back and skimmed some old notes and thoughts and stumbled back into an area of interest I’ve had for several years. The idea is that there certain principles which emerge from Scripture which may or may not be stated very overtly, but which nevertheless are extremely useful in guiding how we filter the things we think about. And I thought for the next little bit I would visit some of these as I’ve jotted them down over time. They are in no particular order, but appear simply as they strike my mind on any given day.

Today’s Principle is: We are never under any obligation to assist evil.

Now keeping this in mind will keep us from stumbling unnecessarily over certain portions of Scripture which seem (on the surface) to be antithetical to the plain teaching of Scripture. For instance: It is almost universally agreed upon that Christians are to be truth-tellers, honest, and avoiding lies and deception at all costs. The problem is, how do we square that with the Hebrew midwives deceiving Pharaoh in Exodus 1 and God’s blessing upon it? Or consider Rahab’s deception of the authorities in Joshua 1.  Think too about the 3 wise men going back on their promise to Herod to relay back to him when and where they had located the Christ-child in Matthew 2. We could cite a number of other examples as well.

So, how do we reconcile these lies and deceptions with God’s blessing on them?

We see repeatedly that we are never under any obligation to assist evil. In each of these cases, the lie and or the deception was to prevent an evil act from taking place. And with such a principle, we also see how it is that many Christians righteously deceived the Nazis in their attempt to persecute the Jews. In fact, it wouldn’t be too hard to dredge up any number of instances where to protect the innocent or otherwise thwart evil (think of a Christian undercover cop for instance – lying to infiltrate organized crime) we might find God most pleased with one willing to distort the truth so as to keep evil and harm at bay.

Now no one (I would hope) would take this as carte blanch to be untruthful whenever they feel like it, nor to escape hard realities that are simply uncomfortable, or that would allow you to continue in your own sin, keep it from being discovered or merely fall into the category of self-interest – to make yourself look good. That is clearly not the idea here. But where evil looks to enlist us in aiding its attacks on others – we are not only free to, but have an obligation to undermine its success. And that is a very liberating and God-glorifying truth.

More tomorrow!

Ephesians 6:10–11 (ESV) Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

One of the key realities of the Christian life is that sinful and troubling thoughts and impulses must be fought against, not merely lamented or relief sought for.

It does us no good to simply complain of the woe, nor to seek an emotional anesthetic.

It is under these circumstances that the Believer must begin to tackle the offensives launched against them. Panic, doubt, fear, gloom, discouragement, despair, lust, greed, sloth, suspicion of God and man, etc. – these are enemies to be fought, not conditions to be treated or corrected.

If we do not appropriate the fitting response, we will remain under the influence of these things – in effect running from them rather than gaining victory over them. But make no mistake, they can attack again at any time. And attacks may be shorter or more sustained, weaker or more violent. Heavenly Father, give us courage, wisdom and insight.

The inhabitants of Canaan have to be challenged, not hidden from, nor plugging our ears to their taunts nor closing our eyes to pretend they are not there. We must gird ourselves like men and fight.