Ministry of reconciliation / Have we lost the plot?

Three things:

1) Dogs bark.
2) Ducks quack.
3) Sinners sin.

When dogs bark, we don't say, "that's just not right, dogs just shouldn't do that," because we know it's in the nature of dogs to bark. When ducks quack, we don't think that anything is out of the ordinary, because that's what ducks do. So why do we become so incredulous when sinners, whose nature it is to sin, sin?

In our own culture, we think things are getting worse and worse. And you know what, perhaps it's true that more people are pushing more buttons and are blatantly committing more and more sins. And sometimes I think some of it is a result of Christians laying down the law, trying to get sinners to stop their doggone sinning! See, it really has the opposite effect of what's intended! Law doesn't stop sin. The Apostle Paul called the law "the ministry of death" and "the ministry of condemnation" (see 2 Cor 3:4-11) for good reasons!

Rom 7:8-11
But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.

When groups of Christians go around raising a fuss about the various sins of the world, it doesn't seem to have a such a redeeming effect upon sinners! Does it? I guess one of my questions that I keep asking is... is there not yet enough evidence out there that shows that our holier than thou stance against the virus of sin only serves to strengthen the virus, rather than kill it? Whether it comes in the form of politics, or from the pulpit, or in one-on-one relationships with unredeemed people, do our rules, laws and policies really help out when it comes to redeeming the culture?

And I don't mean conforming the people of our culture into moral behavior. I mean redeeming the people of our culture. I mean bringing people into a true, living relationship with God through Jesus. I mean, if we stick up our noses at the bad things people do, does that really help out in the matter of people coming to know God?

Have we (the church) lost the plot? When Jesus redeemed us individually, was it His plan for us to then get on out there and make a big fuss about all the sin that's in the world? Is it His purpose for us to be worried about the state of our culture, and to therefore go out and protest all the barking dogs and quacking ducks? (the sinning sinners). Is JESUS running around worried about all the sin that's going on in the world?

Or is our mission and ministry towards sinners of a different nature?

As I already noted (and have noted lots of times in the past and will continue to note in the future), the ministry of death and condemnation (the law) has never done one thing to redeem a human being. Never! It can't! "For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law" (Gal 3:21). The law condemns. The 'Letter' kills.

But the Spirit gives life, and it's solely because we're "in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God - and righteousness and sanctification and redemption..." that we can even begin to walk in the fullness of the life and righteousness and sanctification and redemption that we've been given!

And it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us (Rom 5:8). Jesus, "being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross" (Phil 2:6-8).

Do we understand all that God did in order to redeem us? I've only touched on the tip of the iceberg here! And yet somehow we think our laws and protests and avoidance of sinners is going to be what saves our culture?

I think Rom 5:8 must have been rewritten in some people's Bibles to say, "while we were still sinners, Christ avoided us and wrote protest letters to us about our behavior and made a big stink of our sins."

Instead, Jesus came to meet us where we were at. His big stink was with the holier-than-thou's, as far as I can see it. But to the sinners, to those dogs who barked and to those ducks who quacked, he didn't place a muzzle on them to try to get them to conform. Rather, He touched them and came to live in them and gave them a brand new nature! He did all of this as a gift of grace.

What I really want to get at here is that His ministry toward us carries on through us towards others. Not that we're going to go through a physical death, burial and resurrection as Jesus did in order to meet others where they're at, but spiritually speaking, with His life and grace in us, we can look at sinners in the same way He does. We can bring to them this message of God's peace and goodwill toward mankind.

Instead of rehashing the ministry of death and condemnation, we have a different ministry. The ministry of reconciliation.

2 Cor 5:18-21
Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation , that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

What do you think? Has the church lost the plot? If God's good and holy law has this effect on people: "sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire" and "when the commandment came, sin revived and I died," then do we really expect man-made laws and 'moral standards' to have any more desirous of an effect on unredeemed people?

The letter of the New Testament - Part 4 - Conclusion

I know I posted 3 fairly long posts on this already, and I pretty much figured that Part 3 was the final post on this subject, but I keep thinking of one of the underlying reasons that all of this means so much to me, and so I'll just go ahead and share it. I've posted my story before, so some of this won't be new to some of you.

I mentioned something in the comments of Lydia's "Spurring On" post that would probably shock a lot of people... but it's something that is true as true can be. I said, "My marriage was hurt... by Biblical marriage principles!"

Gasp!

I'll try to explain. It's not that the words about marriage in the New Testament are bad or wrong. It's just that I had unwittingly replaced Christ with marriage principles when it came to wanting to have a great marriage. See, there was a period in my marriage in which I thought I didn't love my wife. And the sad thing is that this all happened long after I had begun to be firmly established in grace. My problem was that grace and biblical principles had become letter to me, rather than me seeing them and understanding them in the light of life.

I saw many areas in my marriage in which I felt I was falling short. Well, actually, I was "doing" a lot of good things that a Christian husband "should" do, but in the long run it was really out of either "duty" or out of an attempt to try to be a good husband, whether it came from a heart of love or not. So much of this became duty and not delight, that I began to think that I didn't really love my wife. "I'm just faking it," I thought. "Sure, I want to do things to please my wife, but what good is any of it if all I'm really doing is going through the motions."

I was looking at things through the wrong eyes. My beautiful, loving wife - and my marriage as a whole - had become more of a "project" for me to work on, rather than the relationship and union that it's meant to be. Ok... not that marriage doesn't involve work! Any amen's? :D But instead of viewing my marriage through the eyes of grace, I was viewing it through the eyes of living by marriage principles.

Like I said, I was actually "doing" a lot of good things, at least as I saw it. However, something was festering beneath the surface and I didn't quite know what it was. No matter how much "good" I was doing, I always felt like I fell short. The reason, as I've come to now see it, is because of the constant preaching and teaching of biblical marriage principles! I would go to church and hear principles for Christian living. I would turn on Christian radio and I would hear principles. I would go to my small group and hear principles. I couldn't go anywhere without hearing "this is how a husband should treat his wife," and "husbands, we need to be doing this or doing that for our wives..." I can't say enough, it's all good stuff! But the constant preaching and teaching of it all was very overwhelming - especially when God's grace was only mentioned in passing, rather than being taught as the foundation for the Christian life that it is. I felt that just as I was achieving victory in a certain area, I'd find that I'm so far away in other areas from being this wonderful "biblical" husband that I want to be.

Finally, something happened that got the light of true victory shining again. We went to see a counselor who really helped me see my folly. I really had resisted going to a counselor, because I thought all I would hear would be more principles! But in short, this man listened a lot, and in the end he said one word to me that turned everything around and gave me the right perspective again.

That word was "identity." My whole problem was that rather than living out of my true Identity in Christ… the New Creation that I truly am, in which Christ is my life… I was trying to be all the things that I thought I was supposed to be for my wife! I can hear the gasps of legalists now. :) But all I can say is that it wasn't working and it never will work!

We may have a nice, shiny appearance on the outside that makes us look as if we're really doing well at "living the Christian life," but on the inside we're dying, because we're living by letter and not by Christ's life.

Grace is the essence of the Christian life. "Doing" is not the essence of the Christian life. Rather, "doing" is the fruit of resting in grace, and growing in grace! As Lydia says in her post that I linked to, we need to be constantly encouraged in grace. As we submerse ourselves into pure grace and into God's unconditional love, we will find that we don't have to "try" to live the Christian life, but that the life of Christ in us cannot help but overflow into our doing. Anytime we go back to "trying," we quench the Spirit of grace and we find ourselves going backwards and not forward.

I see my wife with such different eyes today. That day - the day when the counselor said "identity" - I knew things would be different forever! See, I had taught grace. I had lived a life of grace, to a big extent. I could share grace doctrine and I could encourage people in who they are in Christ. But in a big sense I had backslidden. I had fallen from grace in my marriage. To fall from grace means to start trying to live by law and rules again, rather than by grace! That day, I repented of "trying" and I began trusting again. I changed my mind about how this marriage was going to be lived out.

Can you understand how "marriage principles" hurt my marriage? They became New Testament letter to me and they did what letter does... "kill." Life has now replaced letter. The New Testament exhortations and commands are wonderful reminders to us of what Life in Christ looks like. But if our lives become a matter of simply studying them week after week, and trying to live by them, we can very easily miss out on real Life.

The letter of the New Testament - Part 3

Tell me something. Is the fruit of the Spirit meant to be a list of things that we work on in our lives in Christ? What do you think when you read these words from the Apostle Paul? "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." Do you zero in on perhaps one or two (or more) of the "fruits" that you think perhaps you are lacking in, and then determine to start working on making them a bigger part of your life in Christ? If so, it's my personal belief that you have missed the whole point! :) It would seem to me that your daily life in Christ is not really a matter of life, but a matter of letter.

I've heard of so many different Bible study groups that study these fruits as if they were rules that we need to follow or as if they are projects that we can work on in our lives to become better Christians. For example, I've heard people say things like, "I'm really working on patience right now." I've heard of nine-week study guides... with a focus on each different fruit every week. I've even listened to nine-week sermon series' with the same sort of focus.

By the way, did you ever stop to think that perhaps the fruit of the Spirit is so much more than a simple list of nine things??? These are nine wonderful things that the Spirit works out in our lives as we abide in Christ and walk in step with the Spirit, but God's fruit goes far beyond this little list!

The point is that so many of these things that are really a result of us abiding in Christ and allowing the Holy Spirit to work in and through us are turned into should's and shouldn'ts, and do's and don'ts. They become letter to us. They become things we shoot for or aim for, rather than things we trust the life-giving Spirit to produce in us as we rest in Christ.

I might turn a head or two with my next statement, but yet I think many of you "get" it. I think we can even turn grace into letter! How is it possible to turn grace into law? It's very easy! I've seen it done time after time.

Grace is God's power working in us as we rest in Christ. Grace is not a matter of "you should do this" or "you ought to do that." Grace is the source of holiness and godliness in us, but it never operates out of an insistence that life be lived a certain way, or else. Grace is not pushy. Grace is not manipulative. But man oh man, some people can use grace to be manipulative and pushy!

I heard a sermon on "giving" one time. (Actually, I've heard countless sermons on giving)! But this one sermon in particular pushed a few of my buttons because while grace was mentioned, I think it was misused. In the midst of this sermon on giving, Paul's words from 2 Cor 8:7 came up. "See that you also excel in this grace of giving." Not only was this tiny phrase taken out of context, but in the midst of this sermon on giving, giving became a "should." It became a rule for us to live by, rather than something we do cheerfully as we truly grow in grace. It got even worse, at least from my point of view, because the insistence that we grow in the grace of giving was topped off with what I believe was a manipulative invoking of the Holy Spirit. In short, the gist of it went something like this: "The Holy Spirit is in you. And if the Holy Spirit is in you, and if you are living by God's grace, then you 'should' be more generous and you 'should' start giving more!"

(By the way, this reminds me of something I've heard Paul Anderson-Walsh share at least a couple of times. This is not verbatim... it's from memory so forgive me if the details are fuzzy. I think Paul said he was visiting Bob George in Texas. He was going to be speaking, and a woman asked him what topic he was going to be speaking on (I think she wanted to put it in the bulletin?). He said the topic was going to be, "Don't Let Anybody Should On You." :) If you say that out loud, it might end up sounding like not such a nice topic to be talking about! I think the woman said something about not being able to print that (what she thought she heard). ;) Anyway, the point is clear: don't let anybody 'should' on you!)

So many things that were meant to be a representation of life are very easy to turn into letter. For example, we've had some great discussions on this blog and other blogs lately about the subject of "church." The matter of the assembling of the saints can very easily become letter to us if we make it into some sort of rule to follow rather than a wonderful part of our life in Christ in which we can freely come together to encourage one another and build one another up.

Even our "gifts and callings" can become letter. We may feel called to a certain function within the body, and at first we may gladly embrace what the Spirit is doing in and through us, but eventually it might become something we "must" or "should" do. It becomes a "rule" in our life in Christ rather than a joyful expression of His life in us.

And what about Bible study? What about prayer? What about "being a witness?" What about "go and make disciples?" All of these things are spoken of in one way or another in the New Testament, and sadly they've become letter rather than an expression of Life.

Can you think of other things that are meant to be life, but we (the church) have turned them into letter?

Why do I bring all of this up? It's most certainly not just to "complain!" I don't think complaining in and of itself will do a whole lot to help the problem. But I do bring it up because I believe all of this causes lots of problems in the church and I hope we can all encourage one another in the truth. The Spirit gives life but the letter kills. Now, our spirit will not actually die because of any of this! Our spirit remains one with God even if we don't fully realize or understand it all! But the part of us that can be "killed" by letter is our soul. Our joy, our peace, our understanding of God's unconditional love for us and His acceptance of us. Our overall desire and love for Christ can actually be quenched when we replace Christ with godly principles! That doesn't sound right, I know! But if you've tried living by "principles for Christian living" for any amount of time... I don't really think I need to try to convince you.

The substance of the Christian life is a Person. He has a name. Jesus. He is our life.

"We have died and the life we now live in the body we live by rules, instructions and principles?"

MAY IT NEVER BE! :)

The live we live in this New Creation life is not our life that we live. It's the life of Christ.

The letter of the New Testament - Part 2

Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills , but the Spirit gives life. (2 Cor 3:5-6 NKJV)

As I said in Part 1, the above passage is referring to the Law. The ministry of death and condemnation (the Law, the letter) kills, but the Spirit, through the Person of Jesus Christ, who came to dwell in us because of grace, gives life!

But is it only the "established" law that kills (the Ten Commandments and the other six hundred Old Testament laws and precepts)?

Really, any rule or regulation that takes the place of the PERSON of JESUS CHRIST, can bring us down. If we read the New Testament epistles with the mind that they are a matter of principles or instructions or rules for Christian living, they can quickly and easily become a matter of "letter" for us rather than LIFE.

Consider just a small sample of the "instructions" we find in the New Testament epistles:

Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love... continuing steadfastly in prayer... distributing to the needs of the saints... repay no one evil for evil... flee from idolatry... do not think too highly of yourself... associate with the humble... husbands, love your wives as Christ loves the church... pursue love... desire spiritual gifts... forgive one another... confess your sins to one another... do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers... love one another... grow in the grace of giving... the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control... be angry, and do not sin... let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification... children, obey your parents in the Lord... do all things without complaining and disputing... be anxious for nothing... put to death the deeds of the flesh... pray without ceasing... avoid sexual immorality... avoid every kind of evil... avoid the appearance of evil... do not neglect your gift... fan into flame the gift of God... fix your thoughts on Jesus... bear one another's burdens... add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love...

I'm sure you have all those things covered, right? ;)

Ok, seriously, let me ask you... do you feel better about yourself after reading this list, or worse? And remember, this list is just the tip of the iceberg!

See, we can preach this stuff week after week after week after week... and all of this is really good stuff... I mean, who's going to argue that doing things without complaining is a bad thing? Or fleeing idolatry and sexual immorality? But the problem is that in preaching all of this good stuff, we preach it as "rules for Christian living," and in doing so we're trying to help people live like Christ, but in reality we're leaving Christ out of the picture! We can very easily turn New Testament words into "letter" rather than understanding that all of these words are the result, or fruit, of the life of the indwelling Christ.

Now, if you can honestly say that most or all of the words in the above passage are a true description of your life in Christ... then you know that it's not because you've worked them all out as a matter of following them as rules.

However, I would bet... and I'm not really much of a betting man, but I would bet a LOT on this... I would bet that if you're like most people who regularly attend a church that preaches all of those things week after week, then the above list made you feel a lot worse about yourself, and not good at all about your walk with Christ. I would bet that you've heard it all. You've been taught week after week "how to live the Christian life," based upon all of these New Testament "rules" and "principles," but in fact you're nowhere close to living these things out consistently.

The reason: They've subtly become "letter" to you, and no matter how many times you hear them preached, you find no power to actually live by them. In fact, at times, perhaps many times, you feel yourself stepping backwards and not forward. And the reason for that is because in all of this ongoing teaching of how to live the Christian life, Christ is missing. Christ has been replaced by principles for living for Christ! And you may not have even realized it! You may have figured that since you're trying to do all those things, and you're trying to apply all those New Testament principles week after week and day after day, then that shows that you're following Christ. But you have unknowingly and unwittingly replaced Christ with lists of should's and shouldn'ts, with lists of do's and don'ts and with lists of rules and principles for Christian living. The lists go on and on, and they very craftily disguise themselves as "Christ," but what they really are is a carry-over from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

I'm not saying that all those things were inspired by God and written down for no reason! And I'm not saying that we should ignore them! What I am saying is that the substance of the Christian life is Christ Himself, living in and through us. The substance of the Christian life is a Person, not principles. We in the church have grown so accustomed to hearing principles, rules, instructions, etc, taught week after week after week, that we have been lulled to sleep. We've grown accustomed to pastors and teachers simply giving us rules and lists of things to do, and in doing so, we've missed Christ.

I can see this getting increasingly longer than I thought it would be, so I guess there will be a Part 3!

The letter of the New Testament - Part 1

Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills , but the Spirit gives life. (2 Cor 3:5-6 NKJV)

I would most likely be preaching to the choir if I talked about how the Apostle Paul is referring to the Law in the above passage. In the verses that follow, Paul talks about "the ministry of death" and "the ministry of condemnation" - AKA "the Law." He contrasts this with "the ministry of the Spirit" and "the ministry of righteousness." Contrary to popular belief in modern Christian culture, the Law is not the ministry of the Spirit nor the ministry of righteousness! The Law is the ministry of death and condemnation! The ministry of the Spirit and of righteousness is all based upon Jesus Christ, not Law.

If you try to mix the two, you end up with the ministry of death and condemnation. Just say I had a glass of clean water and I offered it to you. But just before you drank it, I added a tiny little speck of cow manure. Are you still going to drink it?

That's what happens when you put even a tiny bit of Law in your Grace drink. It contaminates the whole thing!

So... we "get" the Law thing. Or at least I hope we do. The Christian life is not about living by the Law. Mixing the Law into the Christian life is like mixing cow dung into pure, clean drinking water.

But there is something else... something much more subtle... that can just as easily contaminate the Christian life, if not "applied" properly.

The New Testament.

Huh?

Yeah, the New Testament.

Before I get to my point, I do need to say that the true New Testament (or New Covenant - the Will of God), in and of itself, really is the basis for our life in Christ. The actual New Covenant does not contaminate us! The New Covenant is LIFE! The New Covenant is Christ-in-us.

However, we have these 27 books... Matthew through Revelation... that we call the "New Testament," and if we don't apply these written words correctly, they can very easily become "law" or "letter" to us. Indeed, the pure words that are meant to be LIFE can very easily become like pure water contaminated with cow excrement!

How? Why? What the...?"

Ok, I'll get to the point. In Part 2. :)