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To see things…

Here is written a message to you, myself from many years ago, and I trust with my whole heart that these things, past and present, are all part of God working out His plans for His own glory.

Hello dear self,

I see you speak with passion about your failings, wishing, wanting, begging for God to work change your heart. I see you reading books, listening to sermons and podcasts, reading blog posts, looking for some small hidden key that will bring change. I love you. I love your heart to love better. I love your heart that hates your sin and your selfishness and longs to be a selfless channel for God to use to speak truth to people. I see God’s Spirit working in your life and it is a joy to walk with you while you wait on Yahweh to do His work.

But this is what my heart longs for, that you might be free of the guilt and the shame that you feel and that you might spend more hours of your day resting in and enjoying the knowledge that you are pleasing to God, here, right now.

We have discussed the Biblical statement that “unless Yahweh builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.” And we both agree that it is God Himself who can change the heart, which is from where our outward actions become also changed. We have discussed His sovereignty, how He uses even our failings and sin to work for His glory and for good, just as He used the murders Paul committed as a greater encouraging testimony for 2000 years of mankind, assuring us that if God saves even the murderer of His own precious people, then God can save me and you, too.

Yet in spite of surmounting evidence that your own efforts can effect but the smallest of outward changes and that true heart change can only be done by God in His own timing, you hold onto guilt and shame. You feel you must wallow in grief over your sin. You feel it is your duty to make outward actions to attempt that which you cannot accomplish. And I don’t blame you. It is both human for us to be fiercely independent, and also is it taught to us that the way to prove ourselves true children of God, we must do these pointless and hurtful things. We’ve come to a place where the appearance of fighting sin is now labeled as “most righteous” and the presence of sin in our hearts is overlooked…. ultimately because we know deep down that we can’t change ourselves. But we cannot accept a God who wants things different than we want them. So for generations our human instincts to “do what we can” and to “be better” and the biggest unholy thought of all, to be righteous in any small way before our Creator God has been passed down and built upon so that our twisted thinking in this way has been what is normal throughout history.

The thing is, none of that is what God tells us He wants of us in the Bible. God does not tell you to keep up your feelings of shame and guilt over things in your life that you cannot seem to conquer. He does not tell you to wallow in grief over your sin and focus your time and energy into surrounding yourself with every bit of human wisdom which you hope will conquer it. God doesn’t tell you to try your hardest to do something which you cannot do. These things are not found in the Bible, they are not in the heart of God for you.

Let’s imagine for a minute something a little random. Let’s say God gave you a free pass on the way you love people. Ridiculous, ami right? But go with me. Use your imagination. What if He told you that it was really ok with Him for you to not love people well for the rest of your life. That He wanted you to use the energy and emotion you were pouring into this and use it however you wanted. What if He promised that He would give you the rewards for a life better than you could ever earn in exchange for letting go of this stuff and participating in this little experiment. And let’s pretend you believed Him and that hearing these things made you take a huge sigh of relief. The pressure to conquer and perform was off. Breath now, iiiiiiinnnnnnnnn and outttttttttttt. Relax your shoulders, let go of that knot in your belly. Imagine a peaceful mind. If you knew that God had promised to be abundantly pleased with you when you stood before Him for judgement. And let’s say that you also would be immune to judgement or praise from another human for the rest of your life. No one could approve or disapprove of you. What if you were free from the judgement of God and the fear of man.

Here’s the crazy thing. That is exactly the message God has for us through the Scriptures. Does God hate sin? Of course! Should we hate sin too? Yes, and God has promised that His children will have a hatred of sin…. though it may not be as intense of a feeling as we would like. God has promised that part of our salvation includes a hatred of sin, and the intensity is exactly according to His will. In some it may look greater and stronger and in some it may look weaker, but who are we to question God’s will, to give a hatred of sin to each according to His own plan? We get to rest in God restraining our sinfulness as much as He chooses, and as little as He chooses. To believe this is impossible for us.

Does God want us to be righteous? Yes! Is there anything we can do to become more righteous? Heavens, no. “More righteous” is simply not a thing. One is either all righteous or not righteous at all. That’s what God tells us in His scriptures. Even IF one could achieve partial righteousness, which they can’t, God would toss them in the bin with the next guy because God is ALL holy and ALL perfect and ALL pure and there are no brownie points for trying or striving or wishing for righteousness. So, is there a way for us to be righteous? All of God’s children ARE righteous, they ARE holy, they ARE set apart, each and every single one of them, from the highest pharisee to the lowest wretch. Perfectly completely righteous. And you simply cannot ADD anything to complete perfection. We get to rest in Christ’s perfect righteousness and trust that included in this gift, as stated in the Scriptures, comes also perfect unity with God, just like Christ has. And standing perfectly pleasing for God, just like Christ does. And a beautiful perfect rich inheritance beyond what we could imagine, which Christ earned and has allowed us to share with Him. To believe this is impossible for us.

But what if I just don’t get how I can BE righteous AND sinful at the same time. Seems like I need to pick one or the other to really focus on and let God deal with the other. Yes! That’s pretty much spot on, you just need to pick to focus on the righteousness that you are and trust the sinful part to God. Indeed, we are redeemed perfect righteous beloved spotless creatures, our very life IS Christ, in whom we are kept and because of whom we are one with God in a perfect union, right now, here today. We are made so perfectly pleasing that nothing can be done to add to it. And yet our souls are bound by the flesh, bodies of flesh chaining us in this fallen earth in which we still are stuck connected to the sinful wretched old self which is no longer our identity but a filthy garment yet to be shed. It is the fallen flesh which is untamable by us which causes us to act against the things we long to do according to life, which IS Christ Himself, doing His work within us. So while we do long to restrain our fallen flesh from hurting ourselves and those around us, we recognize that this flesh cannot be “fixed” or “made righteous” or anything, but has been condemned to die with Christ’s death. It is a thing that must be removed wholly and cannot be altered or transformed. We can reign it in sometimes, and surely God is so kind to keep so many reigned in as much as He does. And so while we do continue to reign in and restrain our flesh, while we do aim to do actions which make up for the wretchedness of our flesh, we do not dwell there. We do not judge ourselves before God by them, and God does not judge us by them. They were crucified with Christ and will fall away when we are made alive in Christ. We do the best we can for now but we focus our hearts on the God who has given us His favor, on the God who has restrained our sin as much as He has chosen, on the Savior who loved us, died for us, crucified this flesh which must die, and has planted Himself as LIFE within us, who is working out His will to His own glory right now in us, using both the actions and desires of the righteous us and the fleshly us. To believe this is impossible for us.

And so, in my sorrow and in great overwhelm I see my own wretchedness, my own inability to please God even to believe the most basic pieces of His great news to us about salvation in Jesus Christ. And yet it is here in this honest view of ourselves, this is exactly where God dwells within us. This is where He dwells within us, living in us in spite of all of this wretchedness. Indeed He loves us better than we do ourselves, for we cannot stand this view of ourselves. It crushes and destroys us, it torments our pride and vanity and independence. Often the circumstances required to bring us to a place where we can see these things is so terrible that they destroy us, and so though wiser for knowing our true depravity, our minds and hearts and lives are often shattered in the process, perhaps never to recover.

So this is why I wait for Yahweh. To be ignorant of our depravity is to exist in a dependence on something we can do for God and the end to any bit of that pride is condemnation. To be made aware of the depth of our depravity often does permanent damage to our hearts and minds and lives and the lives of those around us. Surely the wrath of God is unendurable and destroys both the flesh and the soul. And surely the love of God also is unendurable, destroying the flesh. This is the truth. As God has communicated Himself to us in His Scriptures.

Praise God who has never forgotten that He made us from dust. Praise be to God who has always done all things for us in His timing, according to His will, in His own way for His own glory and has brought about so much kindness for His children. Praise be to God who often leaves us blind to the depravity of our souls and the totality of everything He’s done for us in Christ, preferring to allow us to go merrily along our way in blindness, waiting to share this revelation with us once we’ve been united with Him and our flesh has fallen from us. Praise be to God who has sat faithfully alongside us, in the deep dark pit of sorrow, as He has revealed Himself to the death of our flesh.

Have mercy on us, oh God. Show us not too much of your truth here on earth, bring us through our life to a life with you where we will better be able to behold your glory. We praise you for the mercy you have shown your beloved children, even going so far as to endure millennia of humans giving themselves the credit and flaunting their superiority around, though all credit belongs to you. You have shown us such great mercy. We bow in awe and reverence.

In our humility we beg for mercy on behalf of those whom you have not chosen. We cling to those instances in the Scriptures where you used the prayers of your saints to “change your mind” and work out salvation for more people that was your “original plan” and we beg that you might show mercy on each soul that you have created. For we see that our “decent” or “good” lives are the result of You, behind the scenes, restraining the flesh of many. And we see that every bit of good in us is only there because Christ overcame our flesh and produced the good Himself in us. We are completely and utterly humiliated. And yet, with the realization that we are less than worthless, You lift our faces from our own filth and bring our gaze up to your glorious smile and you laugh and you hold us in a tight embrace and you tell us that we are loved and approved of, more than we can ever know.

Now to Him who is able to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen.
Jude 24-25

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A Disappointing Conversation with Saint Peter

She peaks in. She stands with just a toe inside the pearly gates. A booming voice from somewhere above announces “Here stands Rose Smith! She was wholly sinful, did no good before God, yet is wholly loved and adored by God and has been given all things in Christ Jesus! Rose, enter into your rest!”

In an instant, Saint Peter is just at her side, taking her by the arm, greeting her, “Welcome, friend! There are a few more yet to arrive, Jesus will be here in one hour to take us all Home to Heaven! Refreshments are over there, if you like….”

Peter meets resistance for though her eyes seem to linger on the punch bowl near by, she is clearly hesitant to take a step forward, she is trying to process something.

“What is it, friend?” Peter asks her.

Lifted from her thoughts she meets his eyes and pleads, “But, what about…. well, I hate to disagree with you, Peter, but what about all those good things I did for God? That big voice that announced my arrival didn’t mention them, and I’m just wondering if maybe there is an error on my account?”

“Oh, yes!” Peter replies, “The good stuff Christ Jesus did through you! It’s all here!” He motions to the tablet in hand, “Jesus will tell you about that Himself!”

“Ok cool!” Rose half smiles letting herself be lead along, hoping more than believing that he’s answered her question to her satisfaction. They stop by the punch bowl, Peter smiles and nods to Jonah then turns back to Rose who adds slowly, “Do you mean, like, the stuff Jesus helped me do? That I did in His strength? That stuff? When I obeyed, you know, for God’s glory?”

“Well everything you did was paid for by Jesus’s blood, Peter explains, with just a hint of compassionate understanding creeping into his eyes, “and all the good stuff was just stuff Jesus did that he let you observe up close and in-person!”

“Oh but surely not everything I did was paid for by Jesus’ blood?!” Rose says, half to herself, “No, that doesn’t make sense!”

“Oh yes, everything you did was surely paid for by the blood of Jesus.” Peter smiles hopefully.

“No, no! It can’t be! This is no good! Sorry, I mean, of course it is good, because here I am, I’m saved by Jesus blood. But also not good, because I did some really hard stuff! I sacrificed for Jesus, you see, and chose to glorify God! I ran the race, I fought the fight, I put on the armor of God and did battle with the forces of evil! Yet I get to heaven and you seem to have lost my entire file! Maybe if I tell you some of them, you can do a search? You must have me confused with someone else!”

“I think maybe you are confused about who you are. You see, Jesus did all those things –“

But Rose cuts in, her panic rising. “Yes, yes, of course, Jesus did all the things. I know, I know, I was a Christian for a long time, you know. I meant the stuff I. Did. For. God.
Like how I looked after that old neighbor lady for years. And that year I taught toddler Sunday school because no one else was willing. And, oh man, I worked really really hard to become a better wife! And all that stuff I did so for my kids that other parents didn’t do! And I made sure my husband didn’t work on Sundays when he thought it was ok! And those years that tithed to the church even while paying off student loans!
Is none of this on my file?! I can’t have done all that for nothing!!”

“Well hang on,” Peter interrupted, “I never said your deeds were for nothing! Let me ask you this, the elderly lady you tended to, was her life better because you kept an eye on her?”
“What?” Rose blinked, “Well yes! I mean especially that year with all the snow –“
“And the toddlers in the Sunday school class,” Peter interrupted, “did you hug them and talk to them them and tend to their needs and tell them about Jesus?”
“Of course, but –!”
“And would you say it was a blessing and a joy to your husband that you became a better wife?” Peter pressed on.
“Yes! I mean I think so! I sure hope so! I did try!”
“And did your kids gain benefit in their adult lives from the extra stuff you did for them?”
“Well, not from all of it —
“But from some of it?”
“Well, yes but –“
“And do you think your husband felt more rested by Monday when he had to go back to work, having rested on Sunday?”
“I… I don’t know, that’s not why we… huh?”
“And was your church able to use the money you gave them while you were paying off student loans to better care for it’s members and the community around them?”
“I mean, I guess so….”
“And did you receive satisfaction or pleasure or joy from any of those things?”
“Well, yes, many of them…”
“Then there you go! Not a waste! Not at all!”

“But… but… I did them for God!” Rose wailed, “I obeyed and everything! I ….. well, are you telling me you cannot find find any of that stuff on my account?!”

“Well, honestly, no, everything you did was done in your flesh and died with Jesus Christ, remember? We don’t keep records of those things since they have been paid in full! Here on your account, is a list that is so infinitely better than the one you think you should have. This one says that Jesus fulfilled the whole law for you, paid in full! You are as delightful and pleasing to God as you could ever be! Nothing you could ever do could make God happier with you! You are perfect, by the life and death of Jesus Christ!”

But at this Rose starts to cry, the poor thing. We can relate, can’t we?

Wrapping Rose in a big hug, Peter aims a sad smile and a nod at a man conversing nearby. The man pauses his conversation and hustles over.

“Here’s another one. ” Peter says, “I’m afraid this one will probably be disappointed and confused until Jesus Himself comes and wipes away her tears. But we shall do our best.”

“It is quite the shock for them, isn’t it? Poor weary souls.” The man replies, putting his arm around Roses shoulder, letting her tears fall onto his shirt.

Peter bends near to Rose’s tear covered face and explains over her sobs, ” “This is the man who died on the cross next to Jesus, he’s going to sit with you while you chat with Ezekiel, these explanations are his specialty. Perhaps he’ll be able to bring you more comfort. And don’t worry, Jesus will be here very soon to wipe away all your tears. I know you are so weary, have patience, my dear, Jesus is coming very soon.”

Redefining Sanctification from Scripture

Sanctification: How It Is Used in the Scriptures Part 1

Today we will begin to look at the New Testament for every mention of sanctification and see where we end up!

Acts 20:32 And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

Acts 26:18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

(both hēgiasmenois) past tense – “Having been sanctified”

Here the writer of Acts uses “sanctified” as the very title for all people who are saved. He calls all saved people “the sanctified” which suggests that all saints are sanctified. And I note he doesn’t say “those who are being sanctified” or “those who are sanctifiyng themselves”. The context suggests that all Christians are sanctified as part of their salvation. All who are saved by Jesus, and only those saved by Jesus, will receive and inheritance, or have their eyes opened, or turn from darkness to light or receive forgiveness. The subject of this context is saved people, all saved people.

– So far, no indication that this is something we can do ourselves, that it’s progressive or that it has anything to do with our behavior.
– Scripture suggests that all who are saved are already sanctified.

Romans 15:15-16 But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
(hēgiasmenē) past tense – lit “Having been sanctified”

The author here is speaking again of saved people, people who have already been sanctified. And who does it say sanctified them? The Holy Spirit sanctified them.

– Still no indication that this is something we can do ourselves, that it’s progressive, or that it has anything to do with our behavior.
– Scripture suggests that all who are saved are already sanctified by the efforts of the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 1:2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:
(hēgiasmenois)

Again, this is calling all of the saints by the term sanctified.

1 Corinthians 1:30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,

(hēgiasmenois)

This is pretty clear that our sanctification is Jesus Himself, just as completely as Jesus is our salvation.

– Still no indication that this is something we can do ourselves, that it’s progressive, or that it has anything to do with our behavior.
– Scripture suggests that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is the salvation and the sanctification of all who are in Him.

1 Corinthians 6:11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

(hēgiasthēte)

Once again this passage puts sanctification in the past tense and says it was done by the Spirit.

Ephesians 5:25-27 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

(hagiasē)

Here we must remember that “washing of water” alludes to baptism and baptism is where we get to identify with Christ’s death as the wrath of God was unleashed on His own Son, and the victory of Christ over death and the salvation of our souls when He conquered sin and death and He arose from the grace. And the Word refers to Christ who is the Word of God.

So the author is saying that says husbands should love their wives so much, just like Christ loved the church, so much, such that He baptizes us in Himself unto salvation and so presents us to God without spot or wrinkle. And this, the author says, is sanctification.

– Still no indication that this is something we can do ourselves, that it’s progressive, or that it has anything to do with our behavior.
– Scripture says that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is the salvation and the sanctification of all who are in Him, because of His death and resurrection as He presents us before God clothed in His own righteousness.

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

(hagiasai)

Here we are told that the sanctifying is done by God, He is the one to whom the Author asks for sanctification and also the one he indicates by “He who calls you.” So the author is calling on God to do what God has said He will do. And when you also remember that this letter was written to a whole church, not a single individual, then the author was sharing His prayer to God that God would continue to bring salvation to the people of Thessaloniki and that He would keep and strengthen the faith of His saved ones.

– Still no indication that this is something we can do ourselves, that it’s progressive, or that it has anything to do with our behavior.
– Scripture says that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus is the salvation and the sanctification of all who are in Him, because of His death and resurrection as He presents us before God clothed in His own righteousness. And that all those God has called, He will be faithful to bring to salvation.

2 Thessalonians 2:13 But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.

(hagiasai)

Here the author states that salvation itself comes through through sanctification by God’s Spirit and by belief in the truth (of Jesus’s sacrifice for our sins)

– Still no indication that this is something we can do ourselves, that it’s progressive, or that it has anything to do with our behavior.
– Scripture says that, by the power of the Spirit, Jesus is the salvation and the sanctification of all who are in Him, because of His death and resurrection as He presents us before God clothed in His own righteousness. And that all those God has called, He will be faithful to bring to salvation.

Hebrews 9:12-14 (NIV) He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

(hagia)(hagiazei)

First we notice that the word for “Most Holy Place” is the same root as sanctify. This is where God lived and accepted sacrifices for sin.

Here the writer is saying that the animals’ blood covered the sins of man pointing to the blood of Christ which would save us. Once again our sanctification is done by Jesus, cleansing us with His blood, making us perfect, which is our salvation.

So after 11 mentions of sanctification in the New Testament, we still have zero indication that this is something we can do ourselves, that it’s progressive, or that it has anything to do with our behavior.

Instead we have gathered the following information about sanctification:
By the power of the Spirit, Jesus is our sanctification through which we are saved, where He cleanses us by His death and resurrection and presents us before God clothed in His own righteousness. And that all those God has called, He will be faithful to bring to salvation.

We’re far from done but that’s more than enough for today!

Redefining Sanctification from Scripture

Sanctification: I Do Not Think That Means What You Think It Means

Redefining Sanctification from Scripture

The following series hopes to put together evidence from Scripture that neither the way we currently use the word “Sanctification” nor the meaning we give the term are Scriptural. This first post is an introduction to lay out some initial thoughts before we dive deeper.

How the church currently uses the word “Sanctification”

Today the church would define sanctification as the process by which saints, with the power of the Holy Spirit within us, practice Biblical disciplines (study, learn, meditate, confess, praise, fellowship) to fight our way out of sin so that the count of our sins on a daily and weekly basis grows smaller and that by doing so we become more Christ-like which brings glory to God and fulfills our purpose on earth. Included in this definition is a concept that the sin of saints pushes them away from God but as they are sanctified they grow closer to Him. Also the belief that, after securing our souls from His eternal wrath, God’s dearest wish is for us all to pursue holiness and to wage war against our sins and that if we are faithful in these things we will receive from God a variety of blessings in reward.

In summary:

Sanctification is done by the Christian with the support, guidance, and power of God
Sanctification is achievable if you do it right
Sanctification results in a smaller sin count over time
In Sanctification we become more “Christ-like” or “holy” or “righteous”
Sanctification shortens the distance that our sin puts between us and God
Sanctification fulfills God’s will and plans for us on this earth
Sanctification receives natural blessings and wisdom from God

Although we may claim to believe that salvation is “by grace alone”, we create a false distinction when we then claim that this “growing in Christ-likeness” must be done by the saint. But in fact, I argue that, according to Scripture, it is all one in the same and that both the salvation and sanctification have to be on the same side, either done all by God or all by the saint. Did it bother you that I cut that statement short, “by grace alone”? I left out the “by faith alone” which is very important to most circles of Christianity. I never knew how much we depended on that last part. But it’s the key to the whole thing, the bit that gives it away. While we do believe in salvation that is given to us by God, we also believe that God gives us certain things called faith and repentance and we must, in a sense, activate them or use them in order for us to be saved. There is a part that is dependent on us and that is very valuable to us. We wouldn’t say it quite like that, but you DID squirm when I left out the faith part didn’t you? Because we’d hate for someone to think they could have salvation without also repenting and turning from their sin and taking up their cross and working hard and spending the rest of their days striving and sweating to prove their devotion and gratefulness to God for the salvation He’s entrusted to them.

Salvation is, in fact, according to God through His Word, by grace alone. Full stop. And that includes this thing called sanctification.

Taking a look at Colossians 2

Colossians 2 makes a lovely summary of the things we’ll be thinking about in this series. Let’s begin in verse 6 where Paul reminds us that, since we are in Christ, let us remember that we are in Christ and walk through life with that in mind. What does that look like? Finding our security and confidence in His work and in everything He’s done for us.

Colossians 2:6-7 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

Paul references being rooted and built up in Christ for us so that then He can contrast it with the lies and deceptions that they have faced.

Colossians 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.

Paul announces that there are philosophies and human traditions and spiritual things practiced among the saints that are not of Christ. Paul warns that Saints not be caught up believing the lies and deceptions of these philosophies and human traditions. What lies and deceptions? Well, he goes on to declare again, that all fullness of God is in Christ and we are now totally full in Christ who is higher than any other anything so the lies and deceptions would be anything that says otherwise. Anything or anyone who says, “Yes, of course we have fullness in Christ, but…”

Colossians 2:9-10 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.

This blows out of the water any idea that there is anything for us to do to be fully saved, and here many would say yes! But fullness means fullness and can’t mean anything else. Fully acceptable, fully pleasing, fully having fulfilled the law.

Paul goes on by describing everything evil and wicked and displeasing in us as “flesh” and uses the picture of circumcision to illustrate that Christ is the one who removed our old evil flesh from us, died with it, was buried with it, and when He was raised from the dead, He raised us also into new life. Any part of us that was insufficient or wicked has died and was buried with Christ and no longer remains. And Christ took our hollow core and filled it with life in Himself.

It is in this new life that we exist. As Christ is no longer under the law, having completed it, so are we. As Christ is pleasing and acceptable to God, so are we. And all this fullness is ours because of Christ. As we walk through life remembering that we have fullness in Christ, we experience rooting and a building up of our faith.

Colossians 2:11-13 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ.

Because all of the evil flesh was destroyed, we have been forgiven, the debt, as we might say, has been paid in full. There is nothing left to defeat or conquer because Christ did it.

Colossians 2:13-15 having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Christ paid the debt to the last penny and even the record that we ever owed a debt has been destroyed. With the debt paid, the law fulfilled and complete in Christ, it behind us now, no longer part of our existence. The law was meant to be for the entirety of our lives and determine our existence after death, but since it has been fulfilled and yet we still live, we live outside the law, “it is finished”, as Jesus said.

Just like those in Colossia, to whom this letter was written, who believed there were rulers and powers and authorities that were necessary to add to Christianity, we today think that there is a host of things for us to do to add to what Christ did for us to make us pleasing to God and to fulfill His plans for us. But verse 15 takes it all over the top and reminds us that Christ is so much higher than all that stuff that He made a royal spectacle of them all when He triumphed over them on the cross. Not just powers and authorities were put to shame, our very efforts were put to shame. Especially when we remember that it is perfection itself and perfection alone that He requires.

In the same vein, to compound our error, our tendency to think of sins as a plural thing and when we do that we go all sorts of wrong by trying to weigh and count sins. We picture God counting up all the things we’ve ever done that were wrong. We weigh hate as a sin that is so bit, but hate plus murder is two sins and murder is bigger and weightier. We picture Christ hanging on the cross for each sin as though they were piled on Him in a heap. And we teach our children that sin is everything we “think, say and do that is wrong before God” as though we are neutral and our thoughts and actions are the problem. But I can’t find that God says these things, rather He uses things we think say and do that are in error to reveal to us the fact that we ourselves are the problem because we ourselves are dead, rotten and decaying. It is the heart that is not positioned up to its Creator as God that is the problem. In our own flawed terms we could say that this incorrect heart positioning it is the One sin, the only sin, the biggest worst sin. Since Christ made this heart position right in each of us, what is there left for us to do?!

Colossians 2:16-17 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

Paul says for us to be encouraged by our fullness in Christ, to ignore the lies that would tell us there is anything we can or should do to attain fullness, again tells us that Christ really did do everything needed to make us fully pleasing to God and His work was so complete and final that it puts everything to shame. And because of these things, Paul continues, we ought not judge each other by what we do.

Those who are move by His Spirit to enjoy the freedom Christ bought for them should not judge those who either choose to participate in traditions nor those who’s callings involve more business or more restraint than they’re called to. As well, those who rejoice in Christ’s work by celebrating traditions must not judge those who are called to lay them aside, nor those who’s callings involve being more busy or more restrained should not judge those who have not been given those callings.

It comes down to trusting God’s Spirit at work in each of us. And trusting that God’s decisions to give different callings to each of us is perfect to accomplish His will. That neither the one or the other is more “Christ-like” as both are following God’s plans for their lives, to God’s perfect glory. And so we get to trust that Christ made us fully pleasing to God and that Christ made our brothers and sisters fully pleasing to God as well.

Colossians 2:18-19 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.

Paul finishes these thoughts with this: since we are no longer tied to the counting of sins, our One great sin has been removed and replaced by life in Christ, and we are no longer slaves of sin and thereby doomed to damnation, why do we worry ourselves with “Why is that person doing something different than me?” “Why do they get to do that?” or “Why don’t they restrain themselves as I do?” Why are our eyes on these petty things as though what we do could change anything about us? As though the fleeting things we do could somehow tarnish what Christ has done which is everlasting? Is there nothing greater to take our attention?! Have we actually mastered that to which we are called, to place all our faith in God’s will through the work of Jesus Christ?

Isn’t sanctification – the idea that we can be closer to God or further from God or the idea that there is some holy ladder to climb – one which stems from the belief that Christ’s work only went so far to make us pleasing before God? Isn’t the suggestion that our sin moves us from Christ, the idea that our actions are greater and stronger than His sacrifice? Was His sacrifice not complete? You cannot say His sacrifice is complete and also say that we have work to be fulfilled. How can God be more pleased with us by our tiny actions than He already is, completely pleased by the great and mighty sacrifice of His perfectly obedient Son?!

By worrying ourselves with what we do and what someone else does, don’t it show our lack of faith in Christ’s work for us?

Colossians 2:20-23 Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

These teaching, Paul says, are not from God. And even he says that by merely restraining our outward actions, we do not change our hearts, choosing restraint or choosing to do an action isn’t proof of a lack of sin! When God said He required perfection of us, and then Christ provided perfection, was that in some way insufficient? How then can our fleeting actions, born from hearts that are usually selfish and self-satisfied, add anything to His righteousness given to us! Do we believe that in that day, we will stand before God as creatures who were once dead but were brought to life, creatures who were vile and decaying, made new and sparkling clean and now good and healthy and wholesome, creatures who stand before their Creator clothed in the perfection that Christ earned for Himself, full sweet glowing tributes to Christ’s miraculous works — and we’re gonna stand there with our arms full of petty deeds that we forced ourselves to do???

Paul goes so far as to say these have zero value before God, that these things are not true faith. Romans 15 says they are called weak faith.

And lest we lose heart, let us remember that in Philippians Paul describes the truth plain and clear. For us, to live IS Christ. We tend to think that means, for us to live means that we must choose to do things to please Christ. But no where do the scriptures say that! We’ve added that meaning. Paul means that if he did nothing for the rest of his days but breathe, his life IS Christ. Everything He does is redeemed. His vile flesh has been defeated, the core of His dead heart removed and Christ placed Himself inside, and created life, that life is Christ Himself, so taht every breath, every moment is pleasing to God, life IS Christ. God is pleased with Life.

Saint, as you walk through your day, God is not counting your sins, your life is a pleasing aroma to God because your very life, your very breath is Christ’s life coming out of all your pores. That is what the Scriptures say. These are things worthy for us to dwell on.

That I Will Be Their God Series

It Was Never About the Fruit

Part 1 of series: That I Will Be Their God and They Will Be My People

God gave us answers in His Scriptures to our questions, “Why did God make us?” and “Why did God save us?” And from the beginning to the end of the Scriptures He tells us:

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
Revelations 21:3

This is a deep and beautiful thing that is beyond our understanding but still God took thousands of years, hundreds of authors and dozens of word pictures to describe it to us and to show us the lengths He has gone to secure it. One of the many analogies we find in Scripture has to do with fruit.

Unfortunately for us, when we see these word pictures in Scripture, we filter them through an unbidden belief that God thinks about fruit the same way we do, we don’t look critically at the text, and we come to wrong conclusions. We incorrectly think that God made us so that we would be beautiful and perfect and produce lots of good fruit. We assume that when we sinned and began producing bad fruit, God saved us so that we could get back to producing good fruit. We filter everything God has said and done thru the lens that God thinks of and values fruit the same way that we think of and value fruit.

A farmer’s view of fruit

You would agree that usually, when we plant fruit trees, our goal is bountiful fruitful trees, our goal is the cider, the pies and crisps, the apple butter and applesauce, and a well stocked pantry. Having and obtaining the fruit itself is our goal. If we have a tree that produces bad fruit we seek to restore the health of the tree so that we can get the tree back to producing lots of good fruit. If by some magic, a sick and rotting tree still produced copious amounts of healthy fruit that was good for eating, we’d thank our lucky stars and not bother to restore health to the tree because it was already giving us plenty of what we wanted. Our goal was met in spite of the poor health of the tree. When your end goal is to have fruit, you will approach everything about the plant with that in mind, this goal shapes how you tend and nurture the tree. Since we approach fruit more from the perspective of a farmer, who’s end goal is a bountiful harvest, we see mention of fruit in God’s Word from that perspective.

And if we’re honest, we have to admit, that no matter what God says about it, we do just like fruit. We are all pretty obsessed with fruit. We like having fruit, we like people who have fruit. We like real fruit, we like fake fruit, we like anything that resembles fruit. We categorize fruit, we like to assign values to different kinds of fruit. We like to think we can evaluate the quantity and quality of everyone’s fruit and make declarations about their core. At the end of the day, an unbeliever with something that looks like fruit is more pleasant to us than a saint who doesn’t appear to be bearing fruit at all.

A gardener’s view of fruit

In our own obsession over fruit, we overlook the Scriptures and forget many things that we know to be true about God’s character and intentions.

While we’re busy counting, categorizing and weighing fruit, we seem to have forgotten that no where in Scriptures does God tell us that we have been given discernment about the fruit that He bears in His children. We forget the plain fact that, to us, an un-believer’s fruit can look more like what we think “real fruit” looks like, than the “real fruit” of a saint. We have not been given insight to make these distinctions.

And we totally fail to see that God has never been all about the fruit. We must remember that God looks at fruit from the perspective of a gardener. A gardener plants things for the sake of having a garden. A gardener delights in being surrounded by plants, in tending to plants, in nurturing daily their little lives. A gardener values the fruit more because it is an evidence of the overall health of the plant than for the value of having the fruit itself. A gardener sees bad fruit as one of a variety of signs that the plant itself is in poor shape and that the plant itself needs tending and healing.

Where we may see something that looks an awful lot like beautiful healthy fruit, God can see and will judge the dead evil hearts of the unbelievers. And where we think we see withered vines and dried up grapes, God sees His precious and redeemed Beloved, complete and totally alive in Christ.

We see this clearly in Jesus’s teachings and in old testament descriptions of our dead hearts and our evil ways. He speaks that it’s not just in our actions – to murder a brother – that is the sin, but even having hate in one’s heart is a sin. If we think of a fruit tree, the rotted fruit is proof of decaying branch which is proof of a dead core. Murder is proof of hate which is evidence of the twisted evil and dead soul of the man who has not the right heart position up to his Creator as God. We, on the other hand, get caught up in the murder, we get caught up in the hate, and we forget about the position of our hearts up to the Creator as God. We celebrate when we restrain the murder, we suppose that we can reteach ourselves not to hate by somehow wielding the power of Christ living in us, but still we forget about the position of our hearts up to our Creator as God.

In the same vein, to compound our error, our tendency to think of sins as a plural thing and when we do that we go all sorts of wrong by trying to weigh and count sins. We picture God counting up all the things we’ve ever done that were wrong. We weigh hate as a sin that is only so big, but hate plus murder is two sins and murder is bigger and weightier. We picture Christ hanging on the cross for each sin as though they were piled on Him in a heap. And we teach our children that sin is everything we “think, say and do that is wrong before God” as though we are neutral and our thoughts and actions are the problem tainting our insides over time and with exposure. But I can’t find that God says these things, rather He uses things we think, say, and do to reveal to us the fact that we ourselves are the problem because we ourselves are dead, rotten and decaying. It is the heart that is not positioned up to its Creator as God that is the problem. In our own flawed terms we could say that this incorrect heart positioning it is the One sin, the only sin, the biggest and most offensive sin.

God wants us, not our fruit

God has created and sustains many trees that are dead and rotting trees that produce good fruit. They love and care for people with more selflessness than a thousand Christians. But still, in their core, they are dead and rotting and decaying. Their heart position is not up to their Creator as God. They are not His people, and He is not their God. In the day of judgement, God will look to their core and see that they are not alive in Christ and they will receive judgement.

So too, God has many trees to whom He’s given life through Jesus Christ, who don’t appear to have much fruit, but they are most precious to Him, bought with His own blood and they are His delight. He is their God and they are His precious people. In the day of judgement, God will look to their core and see that He has made them alive in Christ and they will receive blessing, reward, and inheritance.

We are His people, and He is our God

All of us who have been washed in the blood of Christ and clothed in His righteousness have had our dead stone hearts removed and given new hearts of flesh which are positioned up toward our Creator as God. We ARE God’s people, and He IS our God. And we who are redeemed are more than even Adam and Eve were in perfection in the Garden of Eden, for we have been adopted and are now God’s own beloved dear Children. Our purpose, the reason for which we were created, is now fulfilled in Christ. In every breath we take, we are IN CHRIST and fully completely pleasing to God, and when we die we will be raised with Christ and get to experience our purpose in fullness and perfection.

These thoughts spark my imagination. In my mind I picture the Garden of Eden. They had someone who was in charge and responsible. They had everything they needed to live. They had jobs to keep them busy, pleasures to delight them, purpose and play in proper amounts. They didn’t have to decide and be the final authority. And their very Creator walked alongside them through life, engaging and participating with them, enjoying them. And they enjoyed Him.

He created then He redeemed, for His own enjoyment, a beautiful garden over which He is the kind gardener. Though we know this is true now, we only can see and enjoy a small token of its fullness but one day we will get to enjoy God as our God, with perfect heart positions that can love and adore and submit and obey and enjoy Him as our God and Father, in blessed peace and rest.

Rest today, for He IS your God and you ARE His beloved redeemed child. God’s purpose for your creation has been completed by Jesus Christ.

And God says that the best is still yet to come.

M.S.E Dominic

Thank you for stopping by my blog, and please, just call me Sam.

The only thing that is important to know about me is that God has made me one of His beloved Children by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the power of His Holy Spirit. As God’s children we are united to Christ and each other by bonds forged by Christ Himself that nothing can either break or tarnish. We have His Spirit within us who speaks comfort and courage to us and is also a promise of the things yet to come.

“I am not going to tell you my name, not yet at any rate. For one thing it would take a long while: my name is growing all the time so my name is like a story. Real names tell you the story of things they belong to in my language.”

Treebeard from JRR Tolkien’s Two Towers