2 Corinthians 6:1-4

Here’s another journal entry from this week . . .

Journal Entry: May 12, 2009, 6:45 AM

“1 Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For he says, In a favorable time I listened to you,and in a day of salvation I have helped you.Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 3 We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, 4 but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way:”

What does it mean to receive God’s grace in vain? First of all, this is a message, I believe, addressed to believers. It is to those who have received God’s grace. To receive his grace in vain then has application to those who have been born again. It must be actions which nullify the power of the gospel in the individual and in the church. It is those actions which would cause God’s efforts in saving us to appear futile. Dissensions, factions, gossip, slander, adultery, strife, murder, envy: everything which Paul has admonished the Corinthians to expel from their midst.

My mind goes to the difficulties we are experiencing in the final days of our church building’s construction. God has been gracious to us throughout this process. Yet I, and others, sense an undercurrent here which could threaten to sweep us away and make all of God’s graciousness through this entire journey for naught. I personally only know a little bit. I do not know every detail of what is awry. But there is a tension in the air that is tighter than a snare drum. All I can do at this moment is cry out to Jesus to loosen the strain upon our emotions and to make things right. I know this: the deeds done in secret will be brought to light. If there has been any wrong-doing, the Holy Spirit will make it known. Judgment always begins with God’s people. And God will purify his church if there exists any reason to purify. It will be fearful, but it is totally avoidable if all is confessed and all is repented of willingly. But I am speaking to the air because I don’t know anything for sure. I just trust my discernment that something isn’t right. Willing confession and repentance will bring honor to God and prove his grace to not be in vain.

Now back to the verses. Today is the favorable time to repent. Today is the day of God’s favor. The urgency to respond to the Holy Spirit cannot be underestimated. True, this verse speaks of salvation and believing today, however the application is also to the killing of the flesh and our sanctification. The longer we resist the Holy Spirit, the deeper we plunge ourselves into callousness and hardness of heart. The maintaining of short lists with God keeps our hearts sensitive to conviction. Sin is toxic and it poisons you and everyone with whom we love and have relations. Even if it is an unseen sin there are still spiritual consequences with everyone in your life. So now not only have you sinned, then sinned again by resisting the Holy Spirit, but you sin again by bringing toxicity to those around you. YUCK! Today is the day to repent, for your sake, for the sake of Christ’s glory, and for the sake of the spiritual health of everyone surrounding you.

Paul said they put no obstacle in the way of people repenting. He added no difficult, extra requirements, he presented no moral objections to the way he conducted his ministry and his life. He made sure that no one could look at his life, ministry, or his message and make an objection. We too should be careful to ensure that no one can raise a legitimate objection against us, giving them reason to discount our message. This does not imply perfection, but rather along with striving to live holy, when we do fail, there is quick – if not immediate – confession, admission of wrong-doing, repentance, and where necessary, restitution. So long as we practice this, people who do raise objections will have no solid biblical ground upon which to accuse us. So then, even in our imperfections, God will glorify himself.

At times Paul uses the word “commend.” It doesn’t mean congratulate like we may believe it to mean. Often we use the word “commend” in a context of congratulating someone. That isn’t what it means here. The word “commend” really means “to present.” So when we say we commend something, we are saying we present something to you. Therefore when Paul says, “we commend ourselves in every way,” he means that they have went to great lengths to present themselves to them in such a way that there would be no obstacle in themselves which would prevent them from believing and repenting. In other words, they have gone through hell to present the gospel to them in a way which would keep the focus squarely on Jesus Christ and him crucified and raised. What lengths do we go through to ensure that the sin in our lives does not corrupt the message of the gospel? It is not legalistic perfection we seek, but rather a loving pursuit of holiness which is quick to confess, quick to repent, and easy to convict. (Ease of conviction meaning the Holy Spirit needs only offer gently correction instead of earth shattering rebuke.)

Election

As I was reading in Acts chapter 13, I came to verse 48. Before I quote it for you, let me say that if you do not believe in God’s sovereign election of his children, you will have a hard time dealing with this verse.

“And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.”

I’m not sure that one could find a more direct verse – outside of John 6:44 – concerning God’s sovereign election of His saints to salvation.

Election is one of those words which strikes fear into the hearts of many. When we speak of election, people tend to think of Calvinism, but the fact is that Armenians also believe in election. What is election? Election could be simply defined as God’s sovereign choice in eternity past of those who would be born again into His family. Calvinists and Armenians – again put simply – primarily disagree on His method of choosing people, not whether He chooses or doesn’t choose.

Why is the doctrine of election so maligned? It makes people angry, it makes them feel helpless. I know a brother who left our church because he couldn’t attend a church that believed in election. I think the heart of the matter is that it makes them feel powerless. The idea that we control our own eternal destiny gives us some sense of pride that we made the right choice in loving Jesus. It makes us feel like we’re in control. Scripture, however, teaches the exact opposite.

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” John 6:44

“As it is written: None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands;no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good,not even one.” Romans 3:10-12

If God is the one who calls people to salvation, and no one can seek God, we are left with little options. God is the one who calls, who elects people to salvation. He did it in eternity past before He laid the foundation of the world.

“even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,” Epesians 1:4-5

We are completely at God’s mercy to call us to salvation. There is no escaping this Biblical truth. I can do nothing to bring about my own salvation. I can’t earn it, I can’t buy it, it is completely God’s sovereign choice to call me to salvation.

How should we respond to this? Does salvation occur in a vacuum of human activity? Thankfully, no. God includes us in the process. We don’t do the saving, but we provide the catalyst through which God saves people. We proclaim the Gospel. It is through the hearing of the Gospel that the Holy Spirit regenerates the hearts of the lost. God has given us a role to fulfill in the work of salvation. Yes, God can and God has saved people in situations where the Gospel wasn’t being preached. Paul was saved on the road to Damascus by direct intervention from Jesus himself. I’ve heard of stories of people from closed countries where the Gospel has not penetrated who were saved through visions and dreams given to them by God. But this clearly isn’t the normal means by which God saves people.

“So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Romans 10:17

There is one objection people raise about election which is probably the most difficult for many to overcome. How can God be a loving God and choose some people yet reject others? This isn’t a new question. It arises out of a misunderstanding of our own innate lovableness.

Let’s say that a man’s daughter is kidnapped by a gang of rapists, who rape and kill her (This thought is intolerable to me and makes the point all the more potent). Through an amazing set of circumstances, they all end up on a plane; the father and the gang of rapists. The plane’s engines begin to fail and the plane begins spiraling toward the ground. In another amazing coincidence, the father has two parachutes. As hurt and wounded as he is, the father unshackles one of the rapists and gives him a parachute. And they both float safely to the earth while the rest of the rapists die a fiery death in the plane crash. Is the father unmerciful and unloving because he let everyone else on the plane die? No! It was GREAT mercy and compassion that moved the father to rescue the one rapist. They all deserved to die, yet mercy and compassion moved him to save one.

It is GREAT mercy and love which moved God to call any of us to salvation. We are the rapists! It was our sin which killed his Son. We think far, far, too highly of ourselves when we think God unjust for leaving anyone out of his redemptive works. Isaiah says that our best efforts to please Him are as clean as a woman’s menstrual cloths. Our best efforts at pleasing Him are utterly disgusting to Him. Why not? Wouldn’t you be disgusted if your daughter’s rapist and murderer tried to buddy up to you?

The fact that He called even one of us to salvation demonstrates that He is loving and He is merciful. And He has called an innumerable multitude of people to Himself which magnifies His love and mercy to an incalculable degree – truly love beyond degree!

Why Are We So Messed Up?

This weekend I received some troubling news concerning some one I care about deeply. I won’t go into the details of the situation in this venue, but suffice it to say that this is the latest in a long series of “troubling” news reports, and maybe the most hurtful. It has really caused me to think about why we make the decisions we make. Here’s what I’ve been pondering.

The more I have thought about this, the more I see it in people’s lives, the more I believe it is true. Sin leads to more sin. Bad decisions lead to more bad decisions. Poor understanding only degrades into worse understanding. Scripture clearly teaches this in Romans chapter one. When an individual decides to ignore God, to ignore repentance, the course of his or her life only goes from sin to sin, from bad choice to bad choice. And until you recognize the downward spiral you are in, you won’t escape it.

This is true for everyone, even for believers. I know Romans one is describing the actions of a person who rejects God, and not believers. However, all believers still struggle with the vestiges of sin, even though we are new creations in Christ. Sin still has its seductive attraction for believers and believers are no less susceptible to sin than lost people. Therefore, we too can become entangled in sin, and even deeply so.

What makes it worse when a born again person strays is that unlike the lost person, he or she is in willful rebellion against the One who saved them. Lost people don’t willfully rebel. They cannot choose any other way to live. Saints, though, choose to rebel on a daily basis. We can choose righteous living because the Holy Spirit enables us to live righteously.

So how do we get out of it? How do we recognize when we are in a spiral? The sneaky thing about sin is that it is most deceitful. Many times we enter the spiral without recognizing we’ve entered. Sin doesn’t usually present itself to us as outright rebellion. Sometimes it tempts us overtly. But many times it appeals to our hurts and wounds as a quick fix. And I think it is here, where our hurts and wounds lie, that sin finds the easiest door to open. Anything that will help us to feel better faster is what we tend to pursue. But the real answer is not a quick fix.

At least in my life, I’ve noticed that God most often is methodical and gradual about changing me. It’s almost as if He goes slow so I will take note of the ugliness of my sin as He removes it. And make no mistake, almost always, slow is painful. So for me to quick fix my pain with something else is essentially short circuiting what God intends to do. And you could say that what might have taken God six months, turns into two or three years of painful molding; all because I won’t allow Him to do His work in me in His way and in His timing.

So the question we all need to ask ourselves is, “What is my quick fix?” Is your quick fix food? Is your quick fix money? Is your quick fix sex? The person I mentioned at the beginning of this entry thinks that romantic relationships will bring the pain and dissatisfaction to an end. Failed relationship after failed relationship, each one worse than the last. And the last one was physically abusive. When will the spiral end?

For those of us who are born again, the spiral ends when we stop looking to the pleasures of the world for satisfaction. Jesus Christ is our greatest satisfaction and until we recognize Him as that, Jesus will continue to be one priority among many in our lives, but never what He should be – our ultimate, all satisfying, all powerful, all consuming King, Savior, and Friend.

For the person who has never been born again the spiral ends when you recognize that you have offended a Holy God, and need to be reconciled to Him. And He provided a way for you to be reconciled to Him that gives you all the benefits of Heaven at His expense. Jesus Christ died, and suffered the wrath that you deserved to endure for all eternity, on the cross. Believe in Him, receive the gift of forgiveness God offers you through Jesus, and be born again. Your spiral will never cease until you do this one thing.

One more thing. The fact is that many of us have made so many bad decisions upon bad decisions that our lives have actually spiraled out of control. When you make the decision to turn about and repent, the inertia of your life will continue to push against you. Consequences may never be lifted. But God gives grace to the humble. Repentance is an act of humility. God will extend grace to you in those moments. They will keep you afloat in the whirlpool. Ultimately, God will finish the good work He begins in you when you are born again. The sum of your life is not defined by your mistakes. It is defined by God’s grace and how He still wins in spite of our best efforts to cause Him to fail. In the end, He is left standing, and what we were in the beginning is lost to eternity because He has made us like Jesus.

My heart many times wants to explode out of my chest because I so badly want people to understand the Truth. I hope that this small burst of passion bodes well with you.