Does God Deal With Us According to Our Sins?

A question that comes up from time to time has to do with whether or not God relates to us based upon our sins.  Do our actions cause God to judge us, think less of us, or even punish us?  Does God measure out a portion of wrath or punishment on us when our behavior doesn't hold up to a certain standard?

The good news is that while there was a sin problem in the world, from the time of Adam, God dealt with the sin problem once and for all.  And He didn't just "cover" our sins for a year at a time, as was the case with the Old Covenant animal sacrifices.  God did much more than that, and the fullness of what God did should not be taken lightly!

Far greater than merely covering our sins, God took them away!  "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world."  Also not to be taken lightly is that "(God) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."  Jesus became sin and we became the righteousness of God!  The problem of sin between us and God has been taken care of forever.

Our heavenly Father is not dealing with us or relating to us based upon our sins.  Think again about how God, in His great wisdom and grace, dealt with our sins in the first place.  Did He deal directly with us and punish us for our sins?  No, He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, and He made us righteous!  There is no way we would ever have been able to bear the weight and burden of our sins, so Christ Himself bore the weight and burden of our sins.  And He did it once and for all... not multiple times.  Once was completely sufficient for all our sins.

If God was dealing with us and relating to us based upon our individual sins today, again I must say that there is no way we would ever be able to bear the weight and burden of it all.  If our individual sins still needed to be dealt with by God today, Christ would have to come as a man and go upon the cross time and time again!

But He did it once, and it was sufficient for all time.  God isn't relating to you based upon your sins.  He has freed you from sin and has made you righteous - as a gift!  There is nothing you can do to earn this righteousness and there is nothing you can do to maintain it.  It's only received as a gift.

Do we mess up sometimes, and do things that are contrary to godliness and righteousness?  Sure we do.  But God isn't dealing with us as slaves of sin.  He is dealing with us as righteous sons, and He lovingly teaches and disciplines us.  This is quite different from judgment and punishment, and this is absolutely nothing compared to how He once and for all dealt with our sins through the finished work of Christ!

We can rest assured that our sins have been dealt with and that we have a loving Father who relates to us according to our sonship and not according to our sins!

Free book download through Friday night

I wanted to let everyone know that Andrew Farley's new book Heaven Is Now has been made available as a FREE download through Friday night.  It's available for the Nook and the Kindle.  If you don't have a Kindle, you can download it and read it on your computer with Kindle for PC or Kindle for Mac.

The Nook (Barnes & Noble) link is here.
The Kindle (Amazon) link is here.

I recommend this book very highly!  This is Andrew's third book, following The Naked Gospel and God Without Religion.  I had a three part interview with Andrew a few years ago.  You can find it here.

The Clouded View of the "Crusader"

When I was in radio a few years ago, I became familiar with a type of, shall we say, "enthusiastic" listener known as a "Crusader."  A Crusader is a very passionate and outspoken person, which, in some respects is not necessarily a bad thing.  A person who is freely animated by their passions has the ability to bring a lot to the table, in addition to whatever anyone else brings to the table.

However, a Crusader is a person who is not only very eager to bring his stuff to the table, but he does so with the thought that everyone should be equally as enthused and excited as he is about what he has brought.  He becomes unsettled and dismayed when others don't immediately jump on his bandwagon, and he may not even understand how others could not be absolutely thrilled about it!

In radio, a Crusader might be a listener who is all gaga over a new artist or song, and he calls and writes the station, insisting that the song be played in heavy rotation - all because he is infatuated with it!  Or it may be quite the opposite.  He may abhor a certain artist or song, and he isn't shy at all about letting the station know, over and over again, that they shouldn't be playing that song - all because he doesn't like it!  There are many other ways in which the "Crusader" comes out of a person, but in short, a Crusader wants his way and wants everybody to want what he wants and to see what he sees.  He's relentlessly insistent that everybody not only "gets" him, but goes along with him and does things exactly like he does.

Christianity has its share of Crusaders.  As a recovering Crusader myself, I can vouch for what it's like to be one and I can understand and be sympathetic to other Crusaders, while at the same time admonishing against Crusader-type behavior.  In the body of Christ, a Crusader might be a person who has a certain "gift" that he legitimately and predominantly operates in (as examples: evangelism, giving, teaching), and he thinks that everyone else should operate in the same gift to the same extent that he does.  Or a Crusader might be a person who has a passion for a specific cause (such as feeding the hungry or having a strong youth program), and he can't see why everyone else doesn't get excited about those things like he does.  A Crusader may have a zeal for or against a certain doctrine or set of ideas, and wants everybody to get on the same page as him, right here and right now.

Crusaders come in all kinds of different shapes, colors and flavors, and each Crusader might truly have legitimate hopes, passions, gifts and causes to be excited about.  But what Crusaders generally fail to see is that, while they are walking in their own God-given dreams and desires, not everybody else has exactly those same dreams and desires!  Crusaders tend to be limited in their view of the body as a whole.  Their vision of God doing all kinds of different things through all kinds of diverse and assorted people, tends to be clouded.

The body of Christ is one "unit."  Although it is made up of many different parts, the parts all make up one body (see 1 Cor 12:12, NIV). Each part of the body of Christ is unique.  We're not meant to all be the same.  We're not all meant to do the same things.  We're not all meant to get excited and passionate about the same things.  We don't all have the same "function" within the body.  It would be a very messed up body if all the parts were the same part!

As different as we all are, can we all be passionate about what God is doing in and through each other?  You bet!  What better way to celebrate the God-given uniqueness of each other than to lift up and exalt the diverseness through which God is making the one body work as a whole!

Grace Roots

The following is the "welcome message" that I have on my Grace Roots website. I've had the same message there for several years now, partially due to laziness (not taking the time to keep it "fresh"), but also partially because I simply like the message.

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Welcome to Grace Roots! If you're tired of striving and struggling to make your life worth something to God, then my hope is that you'll find some rest and peace here. I believe that what God wants from you more than anything else is... you! As a Christian, you have an unbreakable bond with God Himself (see 1 Cor. 6:17, Rom. 8:35-39), and as you become more and more established and solidified in His unwavering love, commitment and faithfulness to you, this relationship naturally results in fruit that fleshly struggling and striving can never produce.

In order for any plant to grow and thrive and to bear good fruit, it needs to dig its roots deeper and deeper into good soil. Grace is the fertile soil in which real life and godly nutrition for the Christian are found. It takes time for our roots to become firmly established in the fertile soil of grace. In one particular Psalm, we find a great description of what can happen in the lives of those who grow in God's grace over a period of time: They shall flourish like a palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall bear fruit and they shall be fresh and flourishing! (See Psalm 92:12-14).

Does the above description fit your life? If not, what should you do? Should you try harder to get yourself "right with God?" Perhaps you've got a list of things to do or resolutions to keep or steps to take or principles to follow or (you name it) in order to make your life more in line with God's ways. But yet you've been there, done that! You've tried and failed so many times you've lost count.

I offer you a suggestion. STOP trying! I know you want to bear godly fruit. (Or perhaps all the obligations of Christian 'duty' have left you so worn out and indifferent and calloused that you don't give a rip anymore). The point is, you don't need to try harder. You need rest and you need peace!

So remove the mask. Stop the charade. Stop faking it! End the struggle. Jesus isn't struggling with you! He's calling you to rest and peace. He says, "Come to Me and I will give you rest." Stop trying, and instead find the rest you need in Jesus, and get your roots established in the fertile soil of His love and grace. Let go of the notion that you need to do great things for God, and instead start trusting that He is the only one capable of doing anything great with your life! And He will if you quit trying!

...it is good that the heart be established by grace... (Heb 13:9 NKJV)

...grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ...
(2 Pet 3:18 KJV)

Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him, so you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught...
(Col 2:7 NLT)

- Joel Brueseke, Grace Roots

When Behavior Isn't About Rules, but Is About Dignity and Worth

God has created us with such a great deal of value. His love, value and acceptance of us is magnificent! He has bestowed upon us great dignity and worth. Psalm 8 says that "He has crowned us with glory and honor." Other scriptures show how God has made us holy and righteous. He has seated us with Him in heavenly places. He has placed an astounding value on us! All of this has nothing to do with our behavior. It's simply how God has fashioned us, through His love and grace. Psalm 8 also says that He has made us a little lower than Elohim. That is, a little lower than Himself! A little lower than God is a very, very, very high place to be!

We are worth a lot. We are highly valuable creations. We have been created by God with much integrity, much grandeur, much dignity, much worth, majesty, significance, beauty, prestige, renown, glory, honor, nobility. We are royalty - children of the King of kings and Lord of lords!

With all of this in mind, along with the good news of the gospel of God's awesome grace, our behavior isn't so much a matter of right and wrong, but it's more a matter of living as the creatures of glory and honor that we have been created to be! When we engage in ungodly behavior, such as sexual immorality, covetousness, deceit, gossip or whatever, it's not that we're condemned or judged or looked down upon by God, but rather it's that we're living below the true worth and value and glory and honor that God has lovingly and masterfully created us with.

Obviously none of us consistently lives as the holy, righteous, beautiful, astounding creatures that God has made us to be, so we have no right to judge one another.  We only judge ourselves when we judge others. But the point is that when we intentionally decide to live in these ways, we are intentionally degrading the beautiful, majestic, noble, prestigious creations that God has made us to be. We are deeming ourselves as worth-less. That is, we are esteeming ourselves as being worth far less than the magnificent value and glory and honor that God Himself has created us with!  We unfortunately view ourselves as so much lower than how God views us, and when we do, we act accordingly. We treat ourselves - and others - according to this low view that we have.

We all fall short in the things we do, and so this isn't about judgment and condemnation. This is about esteeming ourselves as the honorable and noble creations that God has made us to be, and reminding ourselves of this as often as we can so we can rise above the mediocrity of living beneath the reality of who we truly are.  The foundation of who we are - of all that God has truly made us to be, by His grace and not by our deeds - is vitally important to know and understand. It takes away the "law" and "rules" aspect out of behavior and it makes it about the dignity and worth that God Himself esteems us with.

When we realize more and more the true glory and honor with which God Himself has lovingly and splendorously crowned us, we will naturally want to live accordingly - treating ourselves and others with honor and glory, dignity and worth - and we will find the power to do so by God's grace.

You are really judging yourself when you judge others

Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge another; for in passing judgment upon him you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. Rom 2:1

In the second half of Romans 1, Paul talks about various acts of unrighteousness and ungodliness that have been committed by mankind, including wickedness, greed, evil, envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossips slander, arrogance, boastfulness, etc.

Unfortunately, many people have used Paul's words here to point fingers at *others* and to judge and condemn others. But that's not why Paul wrote those words. In fact, his reason was exactly the opposite. He wrote them to show how we're all in the same boat - "ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" - and therefore we ALL need the same Savior.

When we point the finger at others, we're really only pointing the finger at ourselves, because we're all equally as guilty. Fortunately we can all come freely to God and receive His forgiveness and life, by His grace, through faith.

Good Ol' Blogging

Hey everybody!  (I don't know who still reads this blog, as so much attention has been given to FB these days, but hello to anybody who's reading this!)

I really miss all the interaction we used to have on our blogs.  Facebook has been such a cool thing, with some good relational aspects to it, but it seemed we were much more of a "family" when we were all doing the blogging thing.

I had just mentioned on a comment over on Matthew's blog that FB has made it really easy to simply make quick, short posts, without really having to take the time to chew on an issue, or to construct a post that is made up of meaningful paragraphs (rather than just bites). I'm not complaining about the quick-bite aspect of FB, because I've enjoyed some very positive aspects of doing things that way, but at the same time I really miss the times that I would spent writing longer posts, and the thought process that went along with all of that.  I also miss reading other blogs and interacting with all of you.

Haha... Looking back, I remember (not really all that long ago) when I was overwhelmed by the number of blog feeds I had in my feed reader (over 80 at one time), and I had to conscientiously decide which blogs to delete from it.  I actually had to do this a few times over a span of three or four years, and each time, I felt guilty and sad for removing various blogs, because I didn't want to miss what anyone said, nor the chance for interacting with them.

But nowadays, I hardly ever look at my feed reader!  And that saddens me.  Again, I love the interaction on FB, but it's nothing like the good ol' blogging days.

And so, well, I guess I'm not saying anything will or won't change.  But just sitting here, looking at this very post in draft mode, I get a thrill, remembering those days when I was sitting right here, composing those blogs!  And having just posted a couple of comments on Matthew's blog, it brought back the same feelings. So who knows.  We'll see what happens!