The Cross

"Do we enjoy new identities, so that we are no longer to see ourselves as nothing but failures, moral pariahs, disappointments to our parents--but as deeply loved, blood-bought, human beings, redeemed by Christ, declared just by God himself, owing to the fact that God himself presented his Son Jesus as the propitiation for our sins? All this secured by Christ on the cross and granted to those who have faith in him," Scandalous, D.A. Carson.

This question that D.A. Carson asked really hit home with me today. So many times in my life I find that I identify myself by what I do or don't do. I think this is because of the pressure that our world puts on us to produce a product and that we are only as good as our efficiency to produce that product. What happens though when there isn't a real visible product that we are producing? For me, not working, being home most of the time, what am I worth? We become what we do. Our value and worth is defined by it. If we aren't "doing" anything, well then we must not be worth anything. How false that is!

We are deeply loved, blood-bought, human beings, redeemed by Christ, declared just by God himself. Period. The End. The Lord has given us a value and a worth, not based on what we do, but based on what Jesus has done for us. This is good news for sure.

I need to let this reality seep into my brain. I need to think about this day and night...maybe then I will start believing what the Bible says about who I am. Maybe I'll stop letting the world, culture, or even my family define my worth.

Dilemma wretched: how shall holiness

Of brilliant life unshaded, tolerate

Rebellion's fetid slime, and not abate

In its own glory, compromised at best?

Dilemma wretched: how can truth attest

That God is love, and not be shamed by hate

And wills enslaved and bitter death--the freight

Of curse deserved, the human rebels' mess?

The Cross! The Cross! The sacred meeting-place

Where, knowing neither compromise nor loss,

God's love and holiness in shattering grace

The great dilemma slays! The Cross! The Cross!

This holy, loving God whose dear Son dies

By this is just--and the one who justifies.

Legalism II

Today was supposed to be a day filled with beach, sun, books, and nothingness, but the rain came. So I am inside, still in my pjs at 11am listening to sermons and reading the Bible...still good, but not the beach or sunshine.

As I said in the previous post, I am reading through Galatians. It has been a wonderful, challenging read. I find that I rely way too heavily on my own perceived goodness. I would highly suggest listening to this Mark Driscoll sermon on Galatians 3: 1-14. <-Click on Gal. 3 for the link. Its pretty great, although its an hour fourteen minutes. I would explain it, but that would take too much time. So, let me sum up. All we need is Jesus. It doesn't work when we say that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus, but we need to clean ourselves up by our own strength, merit, traditions, or morals. This is a Christianity based on works. Jesus died on the cross becoming a curse for us. He rose again, and is seated at the right hand of God. It is finished. We only need to trust Jesus is who he says he is and that what he has done was for us so that we can be reconciled to God.

Habakkuk 2:4, "...but the righteous shall live by his faith." Its not by morals, some movement, culture, a manual, our conscience, or self-discovery that we are made righteous. Its by a faith that continues to trust in God and cling to God's promises in Jesus, even through the darkest days.

Legalism

I started reading through Galatians the other day and got stuck in chapter 2. Most people probably get stuck at chapter 3 when Paul talks about works/faith, but not me...

The reason that I got stopped in chapter 2 was because I read verse 12 talking about Peter, "for before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing, the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him..." He "drew back and separated himself." This idea that Peter is better than others because he doesn't upset the Jewish custom and culture threatens the gospel of justification by faith alone through Christ alone because it implies that all Christians had to live like Jews, specifically in their dietary habits, in order to be justified before God.

Chapter 2 deals with the gospel and culture. Let me explain a bit more using some words from your friend and mine, Mark Driscoll. There are 3 groups out there, one says as Christians we should be completely separate from the world, another says, we should meld with the world/popular culture, the last is somewhere in the middle. The deal is that the gospel should be our primary concern. It exists in different cultures around the world(which is GREAT and BEAUTIFUL). The Church(big C) gathers in community with thousands of cultural differences to celebrate our freedom in Christ. Sometimes we forget that the gospel comes first and we put culture above it, creating hierarchies of Christians (ie, we pray 5 times a day at 6am, we wear cool clothes and play our worship really loudly.) This shouldn't be. Therefore, we must always come back to the gospel as culture changes around us.

In ch. 2 we see that this whole ordeal happens because the people are putting culture (circumcision) above the gospel. They say, you can't be Christian if you aren't circumcised. This is wrong. They are legalists who bring culture as high as the gospel and doubt Christians who haven't participated in the ways of their culture. The thing is though, that Jesus fulfilled the law, so we don't need more rules and regulations, we need Jesus.

I find myself and others putting culture first before the gospel of Jesus. We say, "this worship is boring", or "this preaching is a bit dry." There are also those who just think they are better than others because they know more Bible, or can talk the spiritual talk better. We fail to even think about whether or not the gospel of Jesus is going forth and if lives are being changed by it. We add the prerequisite of culture to the gospel, "if your faith doesn't look like mine, you are not a christian or you are not as good of a christian as me." The fact of the matter is, that one is not better than the other. We are ALL saved by grace through faith in Jesus. He saved sinners, messed up and crazy people. ALL of us have sinned and fall short of His glory, yet through Jesus and HIS redemptive work on the cross we are reconciled to God...AMAZING and BEAUTIFUL!

Galatians 2: 19,"For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose."

Costly Grace

I've been having a rough night...I think it mostly has to do with the fact that the more I sit silently, the more I realize my humanity, which isn't necessarily a bad thing...just hard. There is just so much ugliness in my heart, so much refining that needs to be done. Sometimes in the silence, when all my thoughts come up, I wonder if I'm truly saved and if I've been changed even in the least bit by the Holy Spirit. John was talking today at church about Jesus and that it was a costly grace. I feel like I need a deeper revelation of what the truly means. I need a deeper knowledge of who Jesus is. Then I will know that despite ALL of my shortcomings, He still is working in my life. I'm not questioning my salivation really...I guess you could say that I am aware of my need for a Savior. I don't even understand fully.

"Oh wretched man that I am." "Oh to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be."

I guess its a good thing that I am learning to hate my sin. How is it possible to stop sinning? The outward action sins aren't too difficult to stop, its the ones that are rooted in my heart, in my brain...bitterness, jealousy, pride. How do you stop those?

Jesus let me know you more!!!

"This is Jesus in His glory, King of Heaven dying for me. It is finished He has done it. Death is beaten. Heaven beckons me."