Portrait of Faith

“It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God–that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.” 1 Corinthians 1:30 NIV

As a mom, I know what it’s like to have someone in side of me. When my children were “in me”, I took care of them. I protected them with my body and nourished them. Inside me, they thrived and grew.

It is the same with Christ. We are inside him. He takes care of us. He protects us and nourishes us so we can thrive and grow. Dwight Edwards says, “As believers we no longer have the option of thinking of ourselves as separate from him.”

“For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” Colossians 3:3-4

So every time the enemy throws lies in our faces and says we’re unworthy or incompetent. Every time someone reminds us of our sin. Every time we want to quit and feel like this Christian life we’ve chosen is too hard, we need to remind ourselves that we are in Christ. Jesus is protecting us like a pregnant mother. He can handle what comes our way.

How does this truth apply to your every day life?

Many believers see themselves as sinners covered by the blood of Jesus. Or as Dwight Edwards puts it many believers see themselves like “costume jewelry. Worthless metal covered with an attractive coating.” But he goes on to explain that we’re more like tarnished silver.

“While we’re covered by the infinite righteousness of Christ, we’re also new creations in Christ (silver) clothed in an earth suit that is sin-saturated (tarnished.) The new you isn’t a sinner but rather a saint who struggles with the tarnish of sin. We’re golden eagles with prairie-chicken tendencies still hanging on.”

This lesson from Edwards had a profound impact on me. I had always heard the phrases “covered by the blood of Jesus” and “sinner saved by Grace” which held a “hopelessness” for real transformation. If I’m covered by the blood of Jesus (which I believe I am) I’m still the same old person underneath. A sinner saved by Grace gives the same image. Yucky ol’sinful me under neath the Grace of God.

What a different picture Ewards paints. Sure, I am covered by the blood and saved by Grace, but I’m also a new creation through the blood. No longer am I worthless metal, but silver still tarnished with the pull of sin. By seeing myself as a saint who struggles with sin instead of a sinner saved by Grace, it gives me hope of true transformation.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 says “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 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.” NIV

It doesn’t say that’s what we ARE but WERE! We’re new creations. Tarnished silver! This doesn’t mean that we’ll live perfect lives or never do anything to hurt or annoy another human being. On the contrary, we will fail. Even the apostle Paul recognized he was sinful by nature.

Romans 7:17-22 “As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do–this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law;” NIV

Paul didn’t see his primary identity as a sinner, but one of righteousness, someone who wanted to do good, someone who delighted in God’s law. Edwards says, “Sin is still resident in our overall condition, but it’s no longer the primary homeowner. The ‘Christian life is simply the process of becoming who we are,’ as someone so boldly expressed it. We don’t change our living in order to become godly; we change our living because we’ve already been made godly. We stop scratching around like prairie chickens, not in order to become golden eagles, but because we really are golden eagles In Christ we’re complete (Colossians 2:10), though not yet completed.”

What a beautiful and hopeful picture!

Unlike the eagle in my last post, we’re all born a praire chicken. We become eagles through Jesus Christ and undergo three fundamental changes.

1. Colossians 2:13-14 “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.”

Jesus canceled the written code with its regulations. He took our sin away. They are NO MORE!

2. Romans 8:15-16 “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

“We become God’s children and thus heir, co-heirs with Christ. If indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may share in his glory.”

3. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefor, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.”

When we accept Jesus and decide to follow Him, we become new creations. The old has gone. The new has come!

So what happens to us at conversion? Legally, we go from guilty to acquitted. Relationally, we go from being slaves to being adopted children. Internally, we go from being “children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3) to “partakers of the divine nature.” (2 Peter 1:4)

Dwight Edwards illustrates this so beautifully. I will try to paraphrase. Imagine standing before the judge, knowing you’re guilty of the crime, but having the judge slam his gavel down and pronounce you “not guilty.” (Justificaiton)

Then before you leave, he puts his arm around you, the criminal, and tells you he wants to adopt you and make you part of the family. (Adoption)

The judge has done all he can for you. The last part is up to you. Your inner renovation is dependent upon how much you, the criminal, want to change.

But with Christ it is different! “We’re changed inherently as well as legally and relationally.”

But I still feel like that praire chicken, clucking around, you say or was that me who said it? How come I don’t feel like an eagle?

I will address this subject next time! Until then, there’s so much to digest in this post. Don’t chew too fast, but savor every morsel.

Chapter Seven

This chapter starts out with a Native American Fable about at young brave who swiped a golden eagle egg from it’s nest and placed it with a bunch of prairie chicken eggs. The eagle egg hatched and grew up thinking he was a praire chicken. He scratched and clucked like all the other chickens and never flew more than a few feet off the ground.

One day the eagle saw a great shadow pass over him. He looked up to see a huge bird soaring with wings widespread. He marveled at the beauty of the bird. His praire chicken brother told him it was an eagle. “A golden eagle. He’s king of the air. No bird can compare with him. But don’t give it a second thought; you could never be like him.”

And the eagle didn’t give it a second thought, but went back to clucking and scratching like all the other praire chickens.

What a powerful visual of the way too many Christians live out their lives and faith. Though God created us like eagles to soar and to know Him more intimately than others, who are content to scratch around, picking our way through our faith and missing the intimacy God has planned for us.

I am so guilty of this. I let life get in the way of knowing the One who is life. If you’ve noticed the date of my last entry, that’s the last time I really dug into the word of God. If I’m not willing to fly, how can God possibly teach me to soar?

Releasing your new identity, according to Dwight Edwards, is all about “falling in love with our true design.” I believe my “true design” is to soar. To rise above my current circumstances and existence to a place greater than I can dream or imagine. Then why do I rarely walk in my “true design?” Maybe because I haven’t completely embraced the fact that I’m no longer who I used to be. Maybe my daily sin reminds me of the praire chicken I still think I am. Maybe I feel I can only live in the shadow of the mighty eagle.

This chapter radically changed how I viewed myself. It made it easier for me to see the eagle I truly am. I look forward to sharing the details next time!

Dangerous and Worth the Risk
Part III

Last time we talked about the amazing transforming power of Grace, but how does one grab a hold of this incredible gift?

Through faith.

Most of us can quote the scripture, many of us quote it wrong, but “We are saved BY grace THROUGH faith in Christ Jesus.”

Grace is what saves us, our faith is how we receive it.

So what is faith? In the margins of my Experiencing Christ Within workbook, I defined it as this, “Even though I may have some doubts, I CHOOSE to believe.”

Dwight believes, “the essence of faith is dependence, a dependence so rooted in genuine and overwhelming need…The verse that describes true saving grace is Romans 4:5

‘However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.’

Notice how the verse demonstrates a recognition of personal need, the refusal to trust in any personal effort or religious rite, and a sole reliance on the justification that comes from God through Christ.”

It’s not enough that we believe Christ died for sinners, to receive this incredible gift we must realize that we, YOU are the sinner Christ died for.

So what is saving faith? In simply terms. Believing only Christ for salvation and not a combination of something else like works, prayers, and sacraments. Where do you put your trust for salvation? Mine is solely in Jesus, if I put my trust in my works I’d be headed for Hell with a one-way ticket!

Isaiah 64:6 “For all of us have become like one who is unclean. And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”

Did you know you can give your life to Christ and NOT be a Christian? Don’t believe me, read this…

In this instance people knew the Lord, even sat at his table, but they were not welcomed  into his house. Think of the Pharisees or today, people who put thier faith in serving Christ instead of trusting in what Christ has done for them through salvation.

The Gospel is about a person, not a lifestyle. It’s about relationship, not works. It’s putting your trust in Jesus, not a bunch or rules and laws.

So what’s your faith in, today?

Dangerous and Worth the Risk
Part II

Handing out grace is tricky business. When I use it in my parenting I run the risk of my children taking my grace and running, without a changed heart. But do I stop offering grace? No. Because true grace will transform a person’s heart.

It’s the same with God and sinners. You know the kind. The ones who party all week and go to church to ask for forgiveness with the full intention of living a life of sin the very next day. Is that what God wants? Is that what He expects when he offers grace?

Of course not!

Dwight Edwards explains that is the flesh’s response to grace, and even Paul anticipated that reaction from followers of Christ. Romans 6:1-2 says, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!” So why not? Let’s see what Paul says.

We died to sin! We’re not who we used to be so we shouldn’t live like we did. Notice, Paul doesn’t say if you continue to live in sin you’ll lose your salvation. But even the most devout Christian sins, what then? We’re already cleansed by Christ’s blood, and our sin doesn’t cancel our relationship with God or Jesus’ love for us. It does affect our intimacy with God, though.

“Our new purity through Christ’s blood ensures God’s everlasting acceptance, while confession of known sins ensures His present communion with our souls.”

Lightbulb moment! I’ve often wondered why God seemed so far away at times in my life. Could it be because I had unrepeated sin? It’s so easy to forget that though we are forgiven and covered by the blood, we still need to ask for forgiveness. Personally, for me it makes me own my behavior and helps me realize I truly can’t change on my own. I need Christ’s help!

Grace is amazing, but it can also be dangerous in the hands of someone who doesn’t care to understand it’s true purpose.

Dwight says, “grace can sometimes be abused, and such abuse is terrible and tragic…but the cure is never to control grace through restrictions and qualifications. If grace doesn’t have the potential to be abused, it won’t have the power to transform. For grace to move powerfully in our lives it must remain unbridled and unrestricted from our well-intentioned safeguards.

So how do we receive God’s grace? That’s a whole post in its own.

Dangerous-And Worth the Risk
Chapter Six Part One

Then suddenly there dawns upon us the vast, entire endowment of God’s free love and forgiveness…It is this which bowls us over…frees us…transforms us.

Paul Tournier

Saved by Grace.

Christians throw that phrase around to express their faith, but do they really know what Grace is? I’ve come to a deeper appreciation and revelation about God’s Grace. It’s so amazing, even my six-year-old is still too young to understand it’s power and meaning.

I’ve come to understand through my own Christian walk the difference between Grace and Mercy in these simple terms:

Grace is getting some reward I don’t deserve. Mercy is being forgiven or pardoned from a wrong I did and a punishment I deserve.

The most remarkable thing about the God I serve is that He offers these to us generously, every day. Other religions of the world can’t boast this about their gods. They promote religions where man gets exactly what he deserves or that he’ll have to pay, or make atonement for their sins in another life or another time. They also promote works, and striving to gain the approval of their God and to enter into their idea of heaven everlasting life. I’m so glad I’m not a slave to their religions, but found the power of Grace through the gift God gave the world in his Son Jesus Christ.

Dwight Edwards uses the example of the story of the Prodigal Son to illustrate God’s grace and mercy. When I had read the story in the past, my focus was always on the two sons, the wayward one and the one who stayed by the father’s side. But let’s take a look at the father.

Edwards pointed out that most of us think of prodigal as meaning wayward. I have to confess that’s what I thought. But prodigal means “excessive or overflowing” as in the word prodigy, a person who is overflowing or gifted with exceptional abilities. In light of this revelation, let’s look at the story a new. The story about the Prodigal Father. You may want to take a moment to read the story for yourself found in Luke 15.

Grace is the theme of the Prodigal Son, and it’s demonstrated in the father’s response to his son. In the story we read that “while the son was still a great way off, his father saw him.” This can imply that though the son had done a terrible thing by taking his inheritance and running away, the father was still looking for him. Amidst his daily chores, the father was watching the road, hoping to see his son.

And when the father finally saw his son returning home, instead of saying “I told you so” or “I knew you’d be back”, he had “compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.” Edwards points out that in that culture, an older man running toward someone was considered undignified and wouldn’t normally happen. Now consider how this culture felt about pigs. They were unclean, defiled animals and his son smelled like a pig, covered in sweat and grime as he traveled in the hot son down dusty roads.

Now imagine the scene again. An old man running toward this filthy, defiled broken vessel of a man. How great the father’s joy had to be to do this in front of all his servants and family. What a prodigal love the father had for his son!

Then the father restored his son to his rightful position as a son. What better picture of Grace is that? Being accepted back in the family though he didn’t deserve it. Do you think the son was surprised? Of course, the best he had expected was to be a servant in his father’s house. And the Grace didn’t end there. “Bring out the best robe…a ring…sandals…kill the fatted calf…” The older brother sat by and witnessed his father’s grace and didn’t get it. That’s because “Grace is unimaginable in generosity. It gives beyond all reasonable expectation.”

It’s the same with God and us. He sees our sin, our waywardness, and yet waits, scanning the horizon for us to return, never giving up hope that we will someday be reconciled with Him.

Edwards says “God’s Grace is the most unreasonable thing in the world. It’s also the most powerful. Nothing is more effective for transforming lives, risky though it is.”

I have to agree as I marvel at God’s prodigal love for me.

Last time I left off with an analogy of being licked by a gentle lamb or roaring lion. Which lick would mean more?

The Lion, of course seeing that it could kill you in one bite. “Our Lord will never be appreciated as a Lamb unless He’s first encountered as a lion? And it’s because of the Lion’s perfect wrath that there’s such a place as hell where sinners spend eternity in torment…”

God’s wrath (Hell) is awful, unalterable and eternal. Not a fun topic, but one that needs to be explored!

I really don’t like to think about Hell, but the Bible says in Mark 9:43-48 it’s place of everlasting fire that “is not quenched.” No one really knows if the fire is literal or figurative, but one thing is certain your soul is separated from God forever and will live in torment.

Hell is also a place from where you can’t return. I grew up believing in a place where you could make amends for your sins after you die in a place called Purgatory. But after I read the scriptures myself, I found no mention of such a place and no need for one because Christ took on ALL of my sins at the cross.(Luke 16:19-31)

Hell is eternal. It says in 2 Thessalonians 1:9 it is an everlasting destruction.

Jonathan Edwards , a revivalist preacher in the 1700’s, is best known for his sermon titled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” This is what he had to say.

It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery. When you look forward, you shall see a long for ever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all.

You will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains. So that your punishment will indeed be infinite.

Oh, who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is! All that we can possibly say about it, gives but a very feeble, faint representation of it; it is inexpressible and inconceivable: For “who knows the power of God’s anger?”

So was Jonathan Edwards’ sole purpose to scare the Hell out of you!?! R.C. Sproul believes “He [Jonathan Edwards] did this not out of a sadistic delight in frightening people but out of compassion. He loved his congregation enough to warn them of the dreadful consequences of facing the wrath of God. He was not concerned with laying a guilt trip on his people but awakening them to the peril they faced if they remained unconverted.”

Dwight Edwards says “All this is why we commit an unspeakably grave offense toward unbelievers when we highlight for them only the love of God and fail to warn them with tears of the horrors lying ahead if they remain unconverted.”

Then he asks a question. “How do you respond to the points made in this section about Hell? Do you fully accept and believe them? Do they raise any doubts or questions in your mind?

My answer: My mind believes and accepts, but my heart cannot comprehend it.

Maybe that’s why I’m guilty of not sharing my faith more. Maybe I don’t really believe my God could send people to Hell. But He does.

Yet, the good news is we don’t have to spend all eternity facing the wrath of God. Through accepting/believing in God’s son who died on the cross taking away all our sin, we receive the New Covenant and God remembers our sin no more.

Edwards says “This forgiveness means that we can look forward with absolute assurance to an endless future spent in the place where ‘there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. (Revelation 21:4)

Christianity is the only religion that guarantees heaven and its unending enjoyment upfront. Ever believer is guaranteed eternity in heaven- no matter what happens after we trust Jesus for salvation.”

But that’s a subject for next time.

Lord, help me not sugarcoat the Gospel, but tell the whole story of your holiness and wrath and your love and forgiveness. I know it is your wish that no one perish, and spending eternity with you is so easy. Amen.

If you’re reading this and are not sure if you died today you’d go to heaven, pray this prayer…

Holy and loving, I know that I have broken your laws and my sins have separated me from you. I am truly sorry, and now I want to turn away from my past sinful life toward you. Please forgive me, and help me avoid sinning again. I believe that your son, Jesus Christ died for my sins, was resurrected from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer. I invite Jesus to become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day forward. Please send your Holy Spirit to help me obey You, and to do Your will for the rest of my life. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

Here are some resources to help you get started on your new life.
http://www.christianwomenonline.net/ready.html

http://www.allaboutgod.com/Sinners-Prayer.htm

To read previous posts in this series go here.

“The love that provides us with a new purity will never astonish us unless it’s seen against the bsackdrop of God’s raging fury toward sin. When he’s viewed almost exclusively as a God of love, we see forgiveness as just part of His job. That leaves His love with no punch for us, no fizz, no sparkle. Assumed Grace can never be transforming Grace.”

Wow! Dwight Edwards puts God’s love and holiness in a new light. I’ve been guilty of seeing God as a loving, though distant Father, probably becasue that’s what I knew my earthly father to be. I’ve never really wanted to look at God’s holiness and wrath as a part of His true character, but Edwards says, “We must be primed by the blazing holiness of God before His love and forgiveness will be genuinelly life changing.”

Then he asks the hardest question of all,

“Are you willing to risk coming to God as He is and not as we would like Him to be?

My answer to this question was this…For me that would mean pleading the blood of Jesus almost every hour because I sin so much in my attitude with my kids and my husband.

What’s your answer? What if you came to God as He really is wrath and holiness, love and forgiveness? Seeing God as He is instead of picking the attributes we like like side dishes on a value meal.

Here’s a paraphrased analogy for you from Edwards book.

What if you were at the petting zoo and a tame little lamb came up and gave you a lick on the hand. You’d think nothing of it. But what if a ferocious lion, who’d just escaped his cage came tearing off toward you with his mouth looking for his next lunch. Your paralized with fear, and when he’s breathe is upon you, he licks your cheek and stands by your side.Which lick would mean more to you?

The sacrifice of Jesus the peaceful lamb will never be appreciated to its full extent unless at first He’s seen as the roaring lion.