Relevant Non-Sequitur

In Christ, Righteousness

I have enjoyed poking around a bit with a non-sequitur recently. That’s a latin term that literally means ‘does not follow.’

So you could be talking about elephants and ask how big their wings are. Or when speaking of how fast a car can go, ask which color makes for a faster car.

Uhh… that just doesn’t follow.

So here’s mine. Consider Jesus’ teaching on the Sermon on the Mount:

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” (Matthew 7:24-27)

Great imagery. Housebuilding. Rain and storms and blowing and beating and houses that stand and fall.

But the question is, who works harder? Who do you think works harder in building their house?

If you’re not on the lookout for my non-sequitur, you might slip and say… the one who builds on the rock. I mean, he’s building on the foundation, he’s the Christian, he is building something that will last. That other guy, he’s building a shoddy piece of work that won’t even last a single storm.

And if you say that… you missed the point of Jesus’ teaching.

Because the point has nothing to do with effort. Nothing at all. There is no comparison between the two builders in that regard at all. There’s no reference to sweat, labor, effort. One might work much harder… or they both might work the same. That has absolutely nothing to do, in this teaching, with the point.

The point — and the only thing that matters — is… who you are building on. You can put forth extreme effort and not be on Jesus, and the house falls, or put forth little effort, and have the same result. There just isn’t a distinction made.

Your effort in your salvation is like speed and car color, or elephants and wings. It is a non-sequitur. Salvation is Jesus’ effort, and Jesus as the foundation. Faith’s object, not your strength.

May we guard our hearts such that we trust in Christ alone… even as we build.

Go Ahead, Jump In

Grace

“Go Ahead, Jump In.”

I think those are some of the scariest words in the human language. At least it appeared that way to me as a parent, watching one of my girls on the diving board being ‘encouraged’ to leap into the deep end of the pool for the first time.

I could see the fear written on her face… and even a few tears.

That didn’t deter the teacher. They’re prepared for fear, and for tears. Another helper comes up behind the diving board, ready to ‘help’ my daughter take the plunge.

So in she went.

And again. And again. And now… a swimming class isn’t complete without a jump off the diving board. She’s a fish… wanting to try the new leap, the dive, the cannonball… and swim to the side on her own. She can’t be stopped in the freedom that the deep end brings. Her huge smile belies the idea that she was ever afraid.

The deep end of Christianity is the incredible grace of the gospel. We fear that living in acceptance of God’s incredible favor will bring license or failure or harm; instead it brings freedom and joy and peace.

Overcome your fear. Jump in today!

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1)

Pastoral Authority

In Christ, Quotes

As a pastor, therefore, my real authority — my true authenticity, whether in the pulpit, or the office, or in the confessional, or at the end of a piano at a cocktail party — lies in my fidelity to the Gospel, not in my assorted competences (real or imagined) in other fields.

(From Robert Farrar Capon, in The Mystery of Christ)

I really like this quote… even though I’ve never been at the end of a piano at a cocktail party… as it points to the continuing center of our only hope and our only wisdom.

Grace. Dangerous Stuff.

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I ran across a wonderful and relatively extensive (for an internet post) treatment of the grace of the Gospel today. Here’s a quote:

Christians at their worst–and I know some, because I am one–are constantly making excuses and explanations for grace, as if stories like the Prodigal Son, the Lost Sheep and the conversion of Saul could cause a lot of trouble if not balanced out with various lists of commandments and duties. When obedience is paraded around like the final point of the Bible–and in many churches of diverse persuasions, that is EXACTLY what happens–we’ve lost our way badly. Living out some evangelical version of what it means to be “good Christians,” we wind up not being floored by sovereign grace, and therefore, not resembling people who are “Jesus people” at all.

It’s by the late Michael Spencer, at The Internet Monk. Read the whole thing.

Absurd

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Well… ok, one post on Ecclesiastes.

What a marvelous train wreck of a Bible book! I don’t mean that in a derogatory way, but in a worshipful one. It is this way because it takes my life, and the things that I naturally and normally value, and it one by one rips them away from my grasping fingers.

Pleasure? Fleeting. Wisdom? Huh. Like it matters. Achievement? You’ll be forgotten, and soon. Time? Justice? Can’t control either one. Merit? Worth nothing. Riches? Rusting, and you’re a pauper anyway. Death? Certain and without escape, no matter how ‘good’ you’ve been. Fool? Yes, that’s you.

When I act in a certain way in order to get longer life, or reward outside of the deed itself… my self-righteousness is exposed, and my actions worthless.

Despair would rule supreme in this world of absurd meaninglessness… were it not for the reality of an outside meaning, an outside rescuer, a kingdom that was not this world.

“Who will save me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Thank you, Lord, for giving us this wise book that shatters our little dreams, to drive us to more in you. Thank you that Jesus is our everything, and that you love us even though we fill our lives with self-righteous striving. Forgive us, Father, and help us to grow up in Jesus Christ.

Garments of Joy

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The heart of the Christian is a new heart, made that way by the Holy Spirit in union with Jesus Christ. Our lives are now about a response to that incredible grace that has spilled over onto our lives. That relationship births joy and freedom.

The reason that it births joy and freedom are not because joy and freedom are a duty, just as the way our relationship with Christ births good works are not because good works are a duty. The Christian life is internal heart change rather than conformity to a code; therefore our activities reflect this intrinsic motivation rather than extrinsic reward.

Another way to say this is that there can be disobedient obedience. Jesus teaches this in Matthew 22. The king gives a wedding feast for his son (Hmm… who might that be?!)… and those invited wouldn’t come (or worse), so he had his servants invite all they could find.

Here’s what happened (Matthew 22:10-14):

10 And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. 12 And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”

A couple of key observations: first, the bad and the good came. They all obeyed in an external sense. Second, the man singled out for destruction is not identified as ‘the bad;’ rather, he is singled out because he had no wedding garment.

This is not the lack of a tuxedo. You didn’t have to have an expensive garment on to celebrate a wedding. What you had to have was something celebratory… ribbon or flowers or something that reflected you were celebrating.

The king kicked out the one who didn’t have an intrinsic response to the wedding. Obedience without heart, if you will.

This is more important to Christianity than we often think. We are constantly bombarded by calls to “do.” And we are motivated often not by an intrinsic response to our relationship with God, but by an extrinsic reward/punishment concept. This is because we misunderstand righteousness – as if it were an external thing, some external behavior, instead of primarily a heart response that is reflected in action.

This is why justification and sanctification are so linked, why both are a daily walk, and both are upheld by our union with Jesus Christ. When I act in a way motivated by what it gets me… that’s self-interest… and it pulls me away from the Gospel.

When I act in a way that responds to what I’ve been given… that’s self-forgetfulness… and it shines forth the Gospel.

Bearing fruit includes… is perhaps primarily… heart motivation, where our bent towards self-orientation instead bends by the wonder of the Spirit to God- and other-orientation. Miraculous for such twisted creatures as we are.

That’s the wonder of the new creation… and the amazing truth that we are in a new kingdom, with a new heart, united to the only Savior.

Rejoice!

What’s Grace?

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From Mark Galli, editor of Christianity Today:

Grace is not a principle… making a new law. Grace is not a feeling or an experience… Grace is not a power, like electricity…

Grace is an eschatological reality.

Really like how we get glimpses of what will be as we see grace worked out in our lives.

The Hero

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Jesus Christ is our Hero.

That’s the Gospel, really. We must not be ashamed of it.

Righteousness, holiness, blamelessness, life. All given by Jesus. Our life in union with Him.

We hear this and we leap for joy and we agree. And then we look at the world.

The world does work a certain way. If you would like to get better at free throws, shoot a thousand or two or ten. If you would like to be a better reader, read a lot. If you would like to know a lot about a subject, study it with diligence.

From there it is only a small leap to… if you want to be closer to God, work at it. If you want to have a relationship with God, spend time at it. Utilize means of grace – bible study, prayer, fasting, etc. – to increase your spiritual position, your spiritual relationship, your standing with God.

You even can give this work you do to improve your relationship with God a further spiritual veneer. You can say that you are empowered or enabled by the Holy Spirit, so that even though it is your work and effort, all the glory goes to God. And then you can go back to working to improve your standing.

Here’s the problem: saying that doesn’t make it true.

Know this: Christianity doesn’t work like the world. Your relationship with God is based on Jesus Christ’s faithfulness, not your own. We are united to Jesus Christ, given his righteousness, and stand only by trusting him.

Our entire Christian life is a growing awareness and impact of Jesus Christ as the hero. Not you, not me. If your prayer time or your bible study or your body buffeting helps that awareness… go for it. If you are instead centrally aimed at personal improvement, making yourself acceptable, or some other reason that keeps you at the center… you are missing the mark.

Since this is so unlike the world, we are constantly pressured to slip back into thinking that it is up to us (with some impersonal enabling) to keep our relationship strong with God. Yet our relationship with God is based on our trust in Christ, who he is and what he has done. Not on us.

If you are thankful to Jesus for conversion and think the goal of your life is now to make yourself better… come back and read Romans again. Read John. Read Ephesians. Read Galatians. Soak in the reality, echoed in page after page, that Jesus is the hero. The goal of your life is to believe it. You will improve, because he has given you the Holy Spirit, as you work to trust in the Gospel – the good news that insists you live and breathe only in His righteousness.

Even the last line of Romans echoes this thought: “to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.” (Romans 16:27). See that? Through Jesus… not you.

The Bible does have much good instruction. You will be convicted to read and pray and wonder and worship… flowing from the humble, grateful reality that Jesus is the center, not you. Note that all that behavior is downstream from the settled reality that your relationship with God is solid, secure, and unbreakable through trust in Christ alone.

May God be glorified through Jesus. May we hide in Him. May we, in all our imperfections in this life, trust in His righteousness and rejoice in the fruit that we bear in the Spirit of Christ.

Jesus Christ is our Hero.