Spiritual adultery

I snagged the following quotes off of the first part of an audio series simply called "Grace" by Rob Rufus that I downloaded quite a while ago from the Grace in Flood blog. I enjoy listening to the series from time to time.

In this part, Rob is talking about Christians who go back to their old marriage partner, The Law, to try to get themselves straightened out and whipped into shape so they can be presentable to their new Husband, Jesus. But the Law only condemns, the Law only kills, the Law only pronounces judgment. The Law is perfect and holy and good and just, but the Law is a terrible, terrible husband.

Rob says:

Now I believe that what Jesus does is He looks at the church that does that and I just think that tears come down His eyes. I think He just looks at us and goes, "Do you think I'm an insecure husband? Did you think I didn't know you'd have all these idiosyncrasies? I never had any illusions. I knew everything about you when I took you on and embraced you. I am the perfect husband to my bride. I'm the perfect bridegroom. I'm the perfect husband of all husbands.

And I can love you unconditionally because the integrity of heaven's high call of justice was fully satisfied by Me on the cross on your behalf...

And you think you're impressing Me by going back to him to make me happy? You break My heart. I'm not the one putting you under the laws, the rules and condemnation. I'm the one that redeems you from it so that 24 hours a day Father's love and acceptance may pour into your life."

Perfection - Part 2 of 2 - The good news

I'll start this one off with some brief technicalities and then get on with it.

The words that are translated as "perfect" or "perfected" originate as two Greek words:

Teleios (Strong's 5046) is the adjective form of the word, and it's used more commonly. It means "brought to it's end, finished; wanting nothing necessary to completeness; perfect; that which is perfect."

The word that is used a little less often is Teleioo (Strong's 5048). It's the verb form of the word and it means "to make perfect, complete; to carry through completely, to accomplish, finish, bring to an end; to be found perfect; to bring to the end goal."

(The root word for both words is Telos (Strong's 5056), which, simply put, means "the end, the termination, the limit, the purpose, the end, the aim, the end to which all things relate.")

I bring all this up simply to give a bigger sense of what "perfect" means, but in short the words are all related and they have to do with being complete, finished, mature, lacking nothing, perfect, brought to the end goal.

In the first post I attempted to point out the "bad news" about man's lack of perfection. Jesus came as a masterful teacher of the law, and in case anyone thought they were doing ok in regards to being perfect or complete through keeping the law, Jesus made it perfectly clear that they fell far short. The rich young ruler, for example, after claiming to have kept certain laws since his youth, asked Jesus, "What do I still lack?" (In other words, "in what ways do I still fall short of perfection?"). Jesus answered him, "If you want to be perfect (teleios), go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." The man went away sorrowful.

Why?

I'll just cut to the chase. It's because it's impossible for sinful man to become perfected (complete, brought to the end goal, perfect) through anything he does (!) - no matter how well he thinks he has performed. We can pick on the rich young ruler for not wanting to give up his riches, but who among us could have a conversation with Jesus in which we bring to Him our mighty list of accomplishments and leave Him satisfied with our supposed state of perfection! To me, the whole purpose of the Sermon on the Mount was to get that point through to man's thick, self-righteous skulls!

But I said I was getting to the good news. :) Actually, I think Jesus gives the good news near the beginning of His Sermon, right before spelling out the bad news, and I think we zip right past it without realizing it. He says, "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill" (Matt 5:17). That's an earth-shattering statement!

"Excuse me, Jesus. Did I hear you right? Did you say you've come to FULFILL the law?"

"Yup."

Jesus goes on, "For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled" (Matt 5:18).

From that point on, He begins to lay out the bad news about the consequences for those whose righteousness does not "exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees."

"You will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."

Those words, along with the rest of the bad news in Matthew 5-7, make the good news all the more clear: Jesus came to fulfill the law! I believe that one reason Jesus went on to spell out all the bad news was to show how extremely important it was that He came to fulfill the law!

When sinful man finally realizes the truth about his lack of completeness and lack of perfection and lack of true righteousness, he can see much more clearly that standing perfect before God can only come as a gift. He will finally see that he can never earn it or attain to it through anything he does. If the Sermon on the Mount, in addition to the Law, doesn't get that across to sinful man, I don't know what will.

The good news is that Jesus fulfilled the law! And the result of that, along with His sacrificial death and subsequent resurrection is that "He has perfected (teleioo) forever those who are being sanctified" (Heb 10:14). Everything that was lacking in sinful man was completed, accomplished, carried through completely, perfected... through Jesus and only through Jesus.

Col 2:9-10 says, "For in Him (Jesus) dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power."

In Christ... and in Christ alone... we have been perfected and we are complete. We can't add to it or take away from it! This is our actual, factual standing before God. Perfect, complete, holy, justified, sanctified, righteous.

Of course there is another use of the word perfect/perfected. It can also mean to be mature or complete in the things we do, in how we live our lives. This, of course, is something that doesn't happen instantly, in the way that our perfect and complete standing in Christ did. This is a matter of a lifetime of being transformed on the outside to the reality of what is true on the inside. Now, if you think that following the Law or the Sermon on the Mount plays any part in this, please understand the true meaning and the true depths of the Law, and please read the Sermon on the Mount again... and again... and again... until you understand that Jesus is not talking about Christian growth and maturity!

But if you do find yourself truly growing in grace and growing in the love of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - not through your own efforts but through resting in Christ, who fulfilled the Law - you may just find your outward performance naturally lining up with some of what you see in the law and with the things Jesus said! If you truly find this happening, I can guarantee that you won't ever make the claim that it's all because you've followed the Law or the Sermon on the Mount. Either that, or you've deceived yourself into thinking you have!

I have been crucified with Christ. I no longer live, but Christ lives in Me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in Christ. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness (or perfection!) comes through the law, then Christ died in vain (see Gal 2:20-21). This is good news!

(By the way, I'm soliciting all comments about any or all of this - whether negative or positive, or neutral. This is my personal take on things, and I'm open to hear what you have to say).

Perfection - Part 1 of 2 - The bad news

During my Christian life I've often heard the term "God's Standard." Usually the term is used in the context of how well Christians are living the Christian life (i.e. "Are we living up to God's standard?").

My question is... What is God's standard? And... how do we know if we're living up to it? It seems to me that when many people say "God's standard," they mean things such as "God's laws" or "the rules of the Bible" or "the commands of Jesus." To some, "God's standard" seems to be more of a matter of "right vs. wrong" or "good vs. evil."

And so we (Christians) measure ourselves according to what we believe God's standard to be. But again, how do we know if we're living up to "God's standard?" Is it a matter of our "good" outweighing our "bad?" Is it a matter of "doing our best" to keep the Law or to keep the commandments of Jesus or to keep up with the standards of the Sermon on the Mount or to live by the New Testament principles given by Paul, Peter, John, etc?

What if God's standard was not a matter of any amount of human achievement - but rather was a matter of God's very own PERFECTION?

Jesus, speaking of love and hate in Matthew 5:43-48 (part of the Sermon on the Mount), said "if you love those who love you, what reward have you?" "And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others?" "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Years later, Jesus' little brother James would point out that "whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all." All in all, this sounds like quite a lofty standard!

Whatever is the extent of our heavenly Father's perfection... that is to be the extent of our perfection. Our heavenly Father's love is PERFECT, as is His righteousness. And in whatever way - even if it's the tiniest way - that we stumble in living up to this standard of perfection, we can only conclude that we are guilty of all. Have you ever stopped to think about the seriousness of Jesus' words about perfection and James' words about being guilty of all?

In the rest of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus had quite a lot to say about righteousness, perfection, etc. "If you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." "I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment." "Anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell." "Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you shall by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."

And that's just a tiny selection of verses from the Sermon on the Mount. Again... isn't this serious stuff? Even with this tiny selection, I think it's pretty obvious that the bar is so much higher than we'd like to think! Jesus doesn't just say, "here are some things to aim for in your daily walk with God." He says, "You must hit the bullseye." He says, "be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect." I think we find through Jesus' words that perfect law-keeping, perfect righteousness, perfect love, etc, is not simply a matter of "trying" or "doing our best" to observe 10 commandments. As if that wasn't already a hard enough performance to live up to. But it really goes much deeper than that.

In Romans 7 Paul proclaims the truth that "the Law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good." I'd also like to be so bold as to assert that Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount are holy and just and good. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the Law and there is absolutely nothing wrong with Jesus' words on the mountain. I think they are a representation of God's standard(s). In fact, what I see Jesus doing in the Sermon on the Mount is putting the holiness, justness and goodness of the Law under a microscope, exposing it at a much deeper level.

Look at your arm. What do you see? Skin, hair, etc. Imagine taking a sample of your skin and putting it under a microscope. You'll find that there's a lot more to your skin than the naked eye can see! Well, to many naked eyes it seemed as if the Law were a pretty simple concept. Just do these things "and you will live." But Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount and elsewhere, took "The Standard" (the Law) and put it under a microscope and exposed the depths of it in such a way that I would hope would help people to see that it wasn't quite that simple!

The Law, although holy and just and good, had a problem. As perfect and holy as it was, it could never do one thing to make a human being holy and just and good. As Hebrews 10:1 says, the law could never make anyone perfect. And as Galatians 3:21 says, the law could never make a person righteous and it could never give a person Life. And if the law itself could not do any of these things, neither could following any of Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount. But yet over and over in the Sermon, Jesus proclaimed "do this" and "don't do that." He laid out many conditional promises of blessings and many conditional warnings of judgment and curses. Why? Is this what our life in Him is really about??? Are we to take the Sermon on the Mount as God's word to followers of Christ?

Let's back up by taking a look at what the New Testament reveals about the Law. Paul calls it "the ministry of death" and "the ministry of condemnation" (2 Cor 3:7,9). Hebrews 7:19 says "the law made nothing perfect." Gal 3:12 says, "The law is not of faith, but 'the man who does them shall live by them.'" The law's job... the law's purpose... was to impute sin to man (charge sin to man's account) and to condemn man and to sentence man to death. Romans 3:20 says, "Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh shall be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." "The law was our tutor to lead us to Christ" (see Gal 3:24-25). But in order to actually come to Christ, we had to die to the law (see Gal 2:19 and Romans 7). In summary, the holy, just, good Law showed us our sin, charged us with sin and condemned us to death. It pointed us to Christ, but we had to get out from under it (we had to die to it) in order to be "married" to Christ.

The law is not the gospel! The law is holy and just and good, but the law is not good news! Now take a look again at Matthew 5-7 and tell me if what you see more closely resembles the bad news of the Law or the good news of the gospel. I'll just come right out and say it. The Sermon on the Mount is not good news! The Sermon on the Mount is not the gospel, nor is it part of it.

The law demanded perfection. ("One strike and you're out," to paraphrase James). Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount demanded perfection. Again, don't just skim by those words of His! It's serious stuff! And it's not good news if you've not been able to uphold this standard!

But this is Part 1 of 2. We'll get to the good news. You betcha!

Reformation

Yesterday, October 31, was Reformation Day. It's the day people put on masks and costumes and re-form themselves into something they're not! Haha!

But seriously, through what we've come to know as "The Reformation," God did some great things through people such as Martin Luther (and other "reformers" such as Calvin, Wycliffe, Tyndale and many, many others) that began to take Christianity out of the darkness of legalistic and unbiblical religious practices and back into the gospel of grace. Not that things are perfect these days! (I'll get to that below). But the truths that Luther's eyes were opened to (as he studied epistles such as Romans and Galatians) were finally brought out into the public arena, when they had previously been kept hidden by the religious leaders of the day who had agendas other than teaching the true freedom of the gospel of Christ.

I've never studied the Reformation deeply, but I always perk up when I read about it or hear discussions about it, and I'd love to delve into a deeper study of it. Nevertheless, I remain an amateur on this subject and so I simply want to share a couple of things that have stuck out to me during the past couple of days as I listened to Christian radio and read a little bit on the internet.

Terry Rayburn of Grace For Life has an excellent article called "Celebrating Halloween with Abraham, Martin & John." This is actually the transcript for his weekly Grace Walk Internet Radio program. This week's program (as with all his programs) can also be heard via his blog. I think the whole of it is well worth reading (and/or listening to), but if you scroll down to the section on "Martin," there is a paragraph that goes right along with some interesting things that I also heard on the radio yesterday.

"But no matter how he (Martin Luther) worked and strived and prayed and worked and strived and prayed, he had no peace. And the reason was that he understood how righteous and holy God was, and that man’s works can never gain favor from such a perfect and righteous and holy God."

I've always known this to be true about Martin Luther, but the words here pinpoint something specifically that I wish the world - especially those in the Christian church - would wake up to! Luther "understood how righteous and holy God was." There are two basic ways a person can go when he understands the perfect righteousness and holiness of God. Luther started off in one direction, but fortunately ended up going completely the other way. At first, he dedicated his life to try to live up to this righteousness. He struggled, strived, worked, prayed, and he even entered the monastery. But in all of this, he found he just couldn't live up to it and he did not find the peace of God.

Through his struggle, he finally came to understand that his striving and his works could never gain him favor with such a perfect and righteous and holy God. The more he tried, the more he understood just how righteous and holy and perfect God is and how far he fell short of it. Understanding the perfection of God should lead a person to understand that it's impossible for man to live up to it! Fortunately, all of this eventually led Luther to the grace of God.

One other comforting and reassuring thing I heard on the radio yesterday has to do with how God used various "reformers" in ways in which they didn't set out to be used by Him. One radio commentator, who was speaking specifically of Luther, said that he didn't set out to start a mass reformation of the church. In my own words, he didn't set out to change to world as we know it. But through his actions and the actions of the other reformers, the world was changed. The church began to take on another shape. The reformers themselves didn't call themselves the "Reformers" and they were not involved in some huge plot to "reform" the worldwide church. In simple terms, they simply spoke and wrote about what they believed. (Not that they didn't face huge obstacles and opposition). Another radio commentator, who was also talking about how the reformers didn't set out to change the world, put it this way (and I don't recall whether he was talking about Luther or another reformer): "It's as if he stumbled in the dark and grabbed a hold of a rope... and didn't realize there was a bell attached to it!"

May that bell sound loud and clear and for a long, long time to come!