ARE YOU ABUSING GRACE? James Denney's Surprise

The grace of God is beautiful and glorious. Since it is not good to abuse what is beautiful, do you think that it is good to abuse God's grace? I suggest that this topic is full of surprises. Let's begin by making the issue personal.

• Do you think that you have ever abused the grace of God?
• If so, how did you abuse it? 
• If you were only pretending to abuse grace, would you want to know?

I suggest that you were only pretending to abuse God's grace. Read on to discover what you were really doing when you were pretending to abuse grace.

The Abuse of Grace:  an Important Concern

Does the abuse of grace concern you? Have you heard anyone express concern about the abuse of grace? I have read this concern in books and heard it in sermons. Mostly I have heard it in my many hundred annual conversations about grace with non-Christians.

The Reason for Concern about the Abuse of Grace

When I have declared that a person's forgiveness with God is guaranteed by the the sin-bearing death of Christ apart from any personal works, my non-Christian hearer has more than occasionally responded with concern that such a guarantee would give a person a license to sin. We Christians commonly emphasize our point with non-Christians by quoting Paul's declaration "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9).

It is common for non-Christians to continue their objection and declare that guaranteed forgiveness would mean that God doesn't care about good works. At this point it is common for a seasoned evangelist to respond that God actually does highly value good works and indicate such by quoting the next verse, Ephesians 2:10: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." This has generally not persuaded my non-Christian hearers. After many hundred such conversations I have concluded that the critics of guaranteed forgiveness are not really concerned about good works—though they declare that they are and I suspect that they honestly think that they are. But in listening closely to those who disagree on this point, it seems clear to me that what they are really concerned about is human effort. Since it is good to do good, they unwittingly think that good works are sourced in human effort—in trying to do good.

Many true Christians have expressed to me a concern about specific non-Christians, Christians, pastors, or authors—that these people are abusing grace. Have you ever wondered if another Christian might be abusing grace? 

• Have you heard a non-Christian declare that Christians are abusing grace?
• Have you heard a Christian express concern that some Christians are abusing grace?

Who is Concerned About the Abuse of Grace?

My conclusion from much reading, discussion, and meditation of scripture is that God is also concerned about the abuse of grace. Who do you think is the most concerned about this issue: you, me, your pastor, your favorite theologian, the apostle Paul, or God? 

I find that framing issues in terms of questions helps me to notice my confusion. Let's go back to the beginning and apply some questions to the assumption that you weren't pretending but were actually abusing grace.

1. Is it good to abuse grace? Yes or No
2. Can you abuse grace?  Yes or No
3. How can you abuse grace? Pause and write down your understanding of how grace is abused and how you have done it. If you are unsure then write down what you have heard other people say that it means. Note: Jude 1:4 may be the scripture you have heard used to explain this issue. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. What prevents you from abusing grace? Pause and write down what you understand or what you have heard. Note: Romans 6:1-2 may be the scripture you have heard used to urge people not to abuse grace. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
5. Are you meeting the standard you set in your answer to question 4? Write down the name of one or two people you think might be meeting those standards. Write out your understanding of the proper standard for evaluation of abusing grace or preventing the abuse of grace. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Who is Responsible to Prevent the Abuse of Grace?

If it is not good to abuse grace, then God must have a way for grace to not be abused. 

1. Who is responsible to carry out God's way? Write down your understanding of who is responsible. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Is God's way being successfully carried out by whomever you named. Explain if necessary. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In all your pondering of my above questions, did you consider God as the person who might be responsible to prevent the abuse of grace? Let me ask the question more clearly.

• Who is responsible to prevent the abuse of grace: God or humans? 

James Denney's Insight: God Guarantees that Grace Cannot be Abused

James Denney was a Scottish theologian and pastor. I. Howard Marshall called Denney the theologian's theologian. I find reading Denney to be like Jeremiah's experience of having his heart on fire while seeing the Lord as our dread champion (Jer. 20:9-11).  Denney saw all of life and theology to be about the sin-bearing love of Christ. In 1894 Denney gave a series of lectures at a seminary in Chicago. The lectures were promptly published as Studies in Theology. Currently there is one review of the book on Amazon Kindle. It is a very long review in which the pastor author declares: "I want to explore this point further to attempt an answer to a perplexing and disturbing question: Why has the evangelical church in America refused to embrace wholeheartedly this uniquely gifted pastor/theologian whose passionate expositions of the Gospel far exceed anything that has been written or preached in the entire twentieth century?" The author ends by urging saints to read Denney with an honest heart. 

Here is Denney's bold and surprisingly simple declaration that God is the only one who is responsible to prevent the abuse of grace and He does it perfectly. At the end of this post is the quote in a lengthy context that is full of light and life. 

"But in the death of Christ, and in faith laying hold of that death, we have the security against such abuses of the grace of God." page 146

Here are four explicit or implicit declarations in Denney's sentence. 

1. God is responsible to prevent the abuse of grace.
2. God guarantees, secures, and enables that grace cannot be abused on any condition.
3. Thus it is impossible to abuse God's grace.
4. God's way to perfectly prevent the abuse of grace is through the death of Christ, and the faith that lays hold of that death.

According to Denney, God's grace cannot be abused; therefore no human has any participation in abusing or preventing the abuse of grace. This should make us sigh with relief. Points 1 to 3 are equivalent statements that God makes it impossible to abuse grace. Point 4 summarizes how God does it. Is his meaning clear to you, even if you disagree with him?

Reading Denney takes some getting used to. It isn't that Denney uses too much academic language or lacks clarity of style. The exact opposite is the issue. We are the problem. First, we are not used to Denney's clarity. We are used to talking in circles and fooling ourselves into thinking that we are saying something useful. Second, we are used to using words in artificial ways that are disconnected from real life. Denney chooses his words so very carefully and roots them so deeply in the reality of life, that we feel intimidated. How can life be that clear and simple? Denney declares in the book "that the more we reflect upon it [the sin-bearing death of Christ] the more we shall be convinced that it is as simple as it is great." Wow! The great scholar declares that the atonement is very great and very simple. Can you explain how both are true?

• Thank the Father often that grace cannot be abused.
• Thank the Father often that the sin-bearing death of Christ is the door into freedom.
• Thank the Father often that true faith lays hold of the sin-bearing love of Christ.

If Grace Cannot Be Abused, Then Why is there a Problem?

First, we need to notice our common confusion about grace. If grace means unmerited favor, then why do we so often use it as a synonym for kindness or leniency? My Mormon culture has much helped me notice my confusion. In my culture grace has two common definitions: God's help to keep the commandments and God's additional chances to keep the commandments. These are both moralistic and un-scriptural. Let's remove more potential confusion from unmerited favor by sharpening our definition of grace as a relationship of total freedom from merited favor. This clearly implies that there is zero pressure from any source of obligation, duty or rules. Unmerited favor is not like an empty jar that used to contain law, though for many years I was trapped in that confusion. Unmerited favor is like a jar full of the performance of Christ, which always honors the perfection of the law. Every true Christian is full of the unmerited favor of God—of the performance of Christ, which is the life of Christ. Have you been tricked to seek to live your old life better rather than to live the new life? Paul declared in Galatians 2:20 that "you no longer live, but Christ lives in you and that the life that you now live in the flesh [the realm of human faithfulness] you live by the faithfulness of the Son of God." 

Second, the apostles speak much about forgetting and remembering and the power of both. Let's use Peter's letters. In the first letter he commands his readers to set their hope completely on the unmerited favor brought to them in Christ (1:13) At the end of the letter he commands his readers to stand firm in unmerited favor (5:12). Every word in the letter is an explanation of the power of unmerited favor. In 4:1-2 Peter declares that unmerited favor frees a person from sinning—from doing evil. "One who has suffered [experienced strong emotion with Christ] in the flesh [the realm of human faithfulness] has ceased from sin [rebellion against goodness] so as to live in this world for the desire of God." Let's be honest. Do you agree with Peter that unmerited favor frees a person from doing evil? If this seems unrealistic to you, then I suggest that you don't understand the simplicity and power of standing firm in unmerited favor. Christ's life is yours to live now, but Satan seeks to trick you to try to live your old life better. Read Peter's second letter and notice in the first chapter his triple declaration of the call to remember unmerited favor, which is the performance of Christ. Also notice that Peter declares that bad fruit is the result of forgetting unmerited favor. Can life really be this simple?

The Problem is Forgetfulness of Christ's Performance

You can't abuse unmerited favor, but you do have a problem. It is a problem of vision. Your every sin has been a natural result of disregarding Peter's commands to stand firm in unmerited favor—to set your hope completely on the performance of Christ—to resist the devil by standing firm in the faith [which means Jesus' faithfulness] (5:9). When you expect a person to be perfect and for Jesus' sacrifice to be enough for that person, it is impossible for you to be surprised and upset by the person's failure to perform. But when you lower your expectations from Christ, you are on your own. You are seeking to manage or control life your way and God doesn't support that way. This is not your job and you should not be surprised by your bad reactions. Also, since it is wickedness to lower God's expectations, why do it? This means that all the sins of people result from the disregard of Peter's commands. Let's get over ourselves.

I have discussed this with many hundred people [Christians, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, agnostics] in the past two years. Recently I discussed these matters with an old Chinese woman who didn't believe in God. She had heard of the Bible and Jesus but knew nothing about them. She was surprised to hear that Jesus had never done evil. She said that she should always do good, never do wrong. She feels bad when she does wrong. We started there and laughed together much as we talked about the power of comparing ourselves to perfection and the evil of lowering expectations to control other people. By the end of the long conversation she was surprised to understand the reason for her bad reactions, the importance of always judging life compared to perfection, which is Jesus, and her need to be free from having to obey her conscience. It made sense that God wanted to take her place in death to free her to do good without pressure. She gladly took a bilingual New Testament and materials I have written on this topic. 

What Were You Pretending When You Thought You Were Abusing Grace?

As you began reading this article, were you worried that you might have abused grace? You may even have been a bit worried about God's reaction against your possible abuse, but God knew that you were only pretending to abuse grace, even if you didn't know. This should be a relief and comfort for you about yourself and about all other people. God has guaranteed that grace cannot be abused, but He hasn't guaranteed that grace cannot be forgotten or neglected. 

Pause to let that sink in. 

All evil has already been put away by the sacrifice of Christ (Heb 9:26). Why not embrace God's way of sin management? All evil is a result of neglecting, forgetting, or losing focus on God's way of managing life. Distraction from the simplicity and purity of Christ is Paul's great fear (2Cor. 11:3). Are you familiar with Paul's words here? Have you ever heard a sermon on this passage or matter? This is Paul's introduction to his description of Satan and his helpers as counterfeiters of righteousness. I suggest that we need imitate Paul and make his concern ours.

Context for the Quote from James Denney

James Denney's words are simple and piercing. They cut through human pretenses, discomforting our pride. But is it possible that you have some blind spots that you need help to notice? Below is some context for Denney's declaration [in green] that God guarantees that grace cannot be abused. The passage is multicolored to facilitate meditation. I plan to write soon a post on his last sentence about miserable theology.

"This suggests the last remark which I would make on the subject. Reflection on the atonement, a recent theologian has observed, has in our time proceeded mainly under two impulses: (1) the desire to find spiritual laws which will make the atonement itself intelligible; (2) the desire to find spiritual laws which connect the atonement with the new life springing from it. The legitimacy of these desires no one will contest. There is certainly work for theologians to do under both of them. It has always been too easy, referring to this last point first, to treat the atonement as one thing, and the new life as another, without establishing any connection whatever between them. It has always been too easy, in teaching that Christ bore our sins and died our death, to give conscience an opiate, instead of quickening it into newness of life. It is a task for those who hold such a doctrine of Christ’s work in relation to sin, as I have just been asserting, to show that there is a natural, intelligible inspiration to a new life in the acceptance of it, and that it cannot be lodged in the heart, in all its integrity, and leave the life, as it was before, under the dominion of sin. Even in New Testament times the gospel which Paul preached was accused of antinomianism; and so will every gospel be accused which makes pardon a reality. But in the death of Christ, and in faith laying hold of that death, we have the security against such abuses of the grace of God. To accept the forgiveness so won is to accept forgiveness which has in it God’s judgment upon sin, as well as His mercy to the sinful; it is to have the conscience awed, subdued, made tender and sensitive to the holy will of God, and the heart bowed in infinite gratitude to His love. It is not the law which can secure its own fulfillment; it is not by gazing on the tables of stone that we are made good men. It is by standing at Mount Calvary, and taking into our hearts in faith that love which for us men and for our salvation bore our sins upon the tree. It would be a miserable theology that by any defect in this direction gave room to think of Christ as the minister of sin." pp.148-9

GRACE AND THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD: SOME SURPRISES

Is Grace Unmerited Favor?

Christians often and rightly say that grace is unmerited favor. This is a beautiful declaration. However, we Christians easily get tricked into forgetting grace when we we look at our relationship with God and with other people. To say that Christians have a relationship of unmerited favor with God means that merited favor has no place in that relationship. 

What Is Merited Favor?

Merited favor means that some personal performance is in the equation of the relationship. If my wife has to perform properly in order to avoid my displeasure, then I perceive her as needing to merit my favor, in part or in whole. If I were her employer that would be fine, but good personal relationships are free from merit. Since it is never good to lower the standards of goodness, merit in a personal relationship would necessitate moral perfection. Let's be real: none of us are perfect. Thus merit cannot be part of a good personal relationship.  Is a personal relationship about doing good things?

The Symptom of Merited Favor

In your relationships with other people, do you have check lists for them--do you require them to merit your favor? If you say that you don't because it is not good, then it seems reasonable that you would want to know when you violate your own principle. Here is the symptom that reveals that you (or someone else) have been tricked to include merited favor in a relationship. I would like to approach this from a different angle to increase clarity. Have you ever had others irritated, impatient, frustrated, or angry with you for something you did wrong? Of course your failure was not good, but did you appreciate the other person's reaction? We all have been on the receiving end of such treatment and know that it is wrong. But it is also wrong when we have these reactions. And these reactions have only one source: some flawed human faithfulness is perceived to be in the equation of the relationship--some check list must be met--some work done--satisfaction is not in God's goodness alone. Remembering to exclude flawed human faithfulness from the relationship creates peace with God and peace of heart in the moment. It is good to do good and it is good to be faithful, but it is never good to find satisfaction in sin, which is what you are doing when you perceive flawed human faithfulness to be a part of a good relationship. Sin is any violation of moral goodness. Let's be honest: human faithfulness is always flawed and thus is not good. So why not exclude merited favor from relationships? Faithfulness is good and necessary to put our minds at ease. But whose faithfulness? Perceive your relationships through the lens of God's faithfulness and goodness and you will be free to notice human sin in a razor sharp way with no bad reactions.

Does Merited Favor Belong in Parenting?

 Have you ever cringed when observing parents express disappointment, frustration, anger, or harshness toward their children? Did you ever receive such treatment from your parents? Was it helpful to you in learning love, forgiveness, trust, and good behavior? Hardly. Parents are entrusted with the lives of children and given the great privilege of helping those children learn to understand life, goodness, and how to thrive in relationships. Children are born with physical and moral senses that are immature and need development. They need to learn to walk and talk. This is a natural process. In the same way, it is a natural process to learn to navigate the moral world. And that process is shepherded by parents, relatives, and extended community. It doesn't happen in a vacuum. Good parenting is about shepherding a child's heart, realizing that right thinking results in right living. 

It is tragic when parents fail to realize that right behavior flows naturally out of right thinking and bad behavior flows naturally out of bad thinking. It takes practice for parents to notice bad behavior and not take that bad behavior personally. "How dare that child not do what I say." Alert parents will have been preparing themselves by applying this principle to themselves first and then to other people. This is intuitive knowledge and one need not be a Christian to grasp it. Personal maturity is skillfulness in applying this principle in its all-encompassing application to life. Identifying the principle clearly, helps us evaluate and understand our experiences and reactions. Because bad behavior is bad, it is so very easy to get distracted from the principle and then criticize human behavior as the problem. But the root cause of bad behavior is bad thinking--always. 

It is also tragic when parents don't realize that a child is born with a moral sense that needs nurturing. I think and teach that frustration, impatience, manipulation, rage, and abuse are always out of place in parenting, as well as in the rest of life. These reactions are the natural fruit of the parent being offended that the child is not conforming to the parent's wishes. This is a symptom of forgetting the child's common humanity, moral sense, and tendency to make excuses. All of us make excuses, so why be surprised if a child does it? The child's moral sense is very real and touches all aspects of goodness. It is a great privilege for a parent to help a child learn to be honest about that moral sense and to learn to honor it and not suppress it. A child is not his behavior. Realizing and remembering this frees a parent to have a compassionate, tender, and firm response while identifying clearly the wrongness of the child's bad behavior. A parent has no authority to dispense merited favor just as I have no authority to dispense merited favor in any personal relationship I have. The parent is not the child's sin manager, but rather an advocate to help the child learn that sin is managed fully and solely at the cross. Therefore, being disappointed (frustrated, impatient, angry) with your child is always wrong because it is a sign that you perceive that your child needs to merit your favor. 

Where Does God Find Satisfaction?

God is not an impersonal force or vending machine. As the creator of the universe, He is the source of what it means to be a person. He is the ultimate person--good, perfect, and righteous in all ways. We are made in his image, but that image has been distorted by human pride. Since God is a divine person and good, he desires a good personal relationship with people. To be a Christian means to have such a relationship. God initiates and maintains the relationship without our help, otherwise our flawed faithfulness would distort the relationship. 

God does want something from us, and it is good for Him to want it. But it is not our faithfulness, goodness, obedience, or works, for they are all flawed. If you are a Christian then you have done only one thing perfectly, the only thing that a person can do that is not a work. It is to rest in the work of another person--Christ. Paul declares this explicitly in Romans 4:5: "But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness." Christian faith is confidence, trust, rest, and satisfaction with Christ's faithfulness as all one needs to be in a good relationship with God. Our initial conversion was a pure rest in Christ's faithfulness. Jeremiah anticipated the Day of Pentecost when he declared: "I will fill the souls of the priests with abundance and my people will be satisfied with My goodness, declares the Lord." (Jeremiah 31:14) To be satisfied with God's goodness excludes finding satisfaction in your own work or in the work of other flawed humans. Is God fully satisfied with His goodness in the work of Christ on the cross? Are you fully satisfied with God's goodness? Isaiah also anticipated unmerited favor flowing naturally from the cross when he prophesied, "Lord, You will establish peace for us, since You have also performed for us all our work." (Isaiah 26:12) Do you see peace as a fruit of God doing all the work for you and other people? Conversion is entrance into this new mindset, but it is easy to revert back to the corrupt mindset of seeking some satisfaction in flawed human faithfulness.

Christians are Royal Children of God

All Christians have the great privilege of being adopted into God's family. In Christ we are God's royal and righteous children. Our righteousness is real and present, but it is not our own; it is the righteousness of Christ. He has taken our identity as lawbreakers under the law and given us His identity as children under the authority of grace. This is very difficult for us democratically-minded people to understand. Read here the testimony of a Jordanian Muslim attorney friend who did not become a Christian. He understands what grace means at a deep level because he has a real king with real authority. He told me that his impossible dream was to be adopted into the royal family. He added that if that came true, then he would be above the law and free to do whatever he wanted. He then made the amazing declaration that he would be so happy for what the king had done for him that he would never do anything wrong again. I pressed him and was finally able to shake his confidence. He admitted that he might do something wrong if he forgot what the king had done for him. He saw that remembrance of that great gift would motivate him to do good always. I suggest that this is what the New Testament teaches Christianity to be: that the death of Christ is what turns the world right side up to provide both a way of royal adoption and a way of good, pure, and sufficient motivation for good works, where they flow naturally and effortlessly out of a vision of love received. Does this seem to you to be too good to be true? 

Is God Ever Disappointed, Frustrated, or Angry with Christians?

Forgetfulness by an adopted royal child can have bad consequences, as my Muslim friend stated. But that forgetfulness and its consequences are not part of the relationship with one's king because human performance is excluded. This is not to deny that consequences can be tragic, but it is to establish satisfaction with the goodness of God as the center of the universe. "God passed over the sins previously committed so that he might demonstrate His righteousness at the present time [the cross]." (Rom.3:25) The cross resolves all evil not just the small stuff. God calls all people to be satisfied with that resolution and He leads the way in being satisfied with it Himself. If God is ever disappointed, frustrated, or angry with a Christian, then He is not satisfied with sin-bearing love at the cross and He perceives merited favor to be in the relationship. There is no way around this fact. In theory, merited favor has had no place in my parenting of my five children. I was tricked to put it in sometimes, but God is a perfect parent and thus never puts it in. This means that God has no disappointment, frustration, impatience, or anger toward any Christian. NONE! If you disagree, then there are two options: either I need to be corrected, or you are unwittingly reading the Bible upside down. If you were, would you like to know it?

Does the Lord Discipline Christians?

The Bible clearly teaches that God disciplines Christians. Have you noticed that the Bible also clearly teaches that God disciplined Israel under law? Discipline simply means training. The question we need to ask is this. What is the purpose of the training? In the Bible the purpose is clearly something moral and not anything like skillfulness at some musical instrument or sport. This leaves only two options for understanding what the purpose is: 1) to take sins seriously and control them, and 2) to grow in skillfulness in seeing life through the lens of righteousness (perfection). If my observation of scripture is true, and my Muslim friend's understanding of motivation is true, then sin by a Christian is always a result of forgetting righteousness. Therefore the two options are not equally valid. The latter is true, real, and good, while the former is counterfeit. If the latter is true then the former plays into the hands of Satan. Satan appears as an angel of light; he is the father of lies; he is a master counterfeiter. And he seeks to deceive us with his counterfeits. Do you ever get tricked by them? I do. What does he counterfeit? I have lived 85% of my Christian life, 33 years, in the den of master gospel counterfeiters. My Mormon culture uses Christian terminology and spins it to make life all about you becoming a better you, rather than about you getting a new identity as a royal righteous child in Christ. For Christians here, the conflict and contrast are very real. Still we get tricked sometimes. Paul declares in 2Cor. 11:15 (see the context of 11:3-15) that Satan counterfeits righteousness. 

Counterfeit Righteousness

I discuss the gospel with hundreds of Mormons annually. In a typical gospel conversation, a Mormon will tell me some or all of the following things about righteousness.

• It is not good to sin, therefore we should try not to sin.
• It is good to be righteous, therefore we need to try to be righteous.
• Righteousness is trying.
• God said to be perfect, which means that we need to try.
• God doesn't expect perfection, only that we do our best.
• It is unrealistic to stop all sins now, so we work on them one by one.
• Repentance is a slow process of turning from sins and obeying God.
• God forgives us for the sins we repent of.
• God will not give you righteousness as a gift. You have to try to be obedient.
• If you get righteousness as a gift, it will make you lazy. 

Do you see any counterfeits hidden in these statements? The focus is on me, my behavior, and my efforts. Merited favor is here. Mormons tell me that life is a process of learning to make right choices. They say that the discipline of the Lord is about getting people to be serious about their sins individually. All Satan's counterfeits are really just different nuances of the same thing: God's perfect goodness is turned into something manageable--something less than perfection. This is a suppression of righteousness (Rom. 1:18). It is fair to summarize the battle lines in my conversations with Mormons as identity versus behavior. They are striving to get their sinful thoughts and behaviors under control so as to be righteous. They openly declare to me that righteousness goes up and down with obedience and disobedience. They are their own sin managers. I declare to them that compared to Jesus we all are failures and therefore righteousness can only be perfection (all or nothing) and thus only available as a gift. This is the titanic struggle of the universe.  

Have you been tricked into the counterfeit thinking of my Mormon friends: that God's discipline is about controlling your individual sins? Of course your individual sins are bad, but the whole of your sins are bad. Of course it is good to be honest about your sins and take them seriously, but to be fully honest means that it is good for you to deal with them ALL immediately and simultaneously. Anything less is not good. Do you want to take them that seriously? Or do you want to be your own sin manager? You can't manage perfection, but Christ can and did at the cross. Also, your sins are not random actions. They are the simple result of perceiving life in a way that is not good. Read my articles on this: simplicity in Christ,  holiness as a way of seeing, obedience: success or trying? You sin only when you don't see life through the lens of righteousness (perfection as required and given freely as a gift). 

God's Discipline is Always About Righteousness

God's discipline is always about righteousness. The letter to the Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians living between Pentecost and the destruction of the temple. They were under intense pressure from their Jewish culture to go back to the law. From beginning to end, Hebrews is a reminder of the simple gospel to weary Jewish Christians who were giving in to that pressure. They needed encouragement to stand firm and not be intimidated. They needed a long refresher course in the simplicity of the gospel that had come to them at Pentecost and freed them to be righteousness by the work of Christ without their own works. They needed to hear again that though sin is bad, going back to the law is tragic. The Law is all about externals as part of what it means to be fully acceptable before God. The whole letter is about this conflict over righteousness. Hebrews 12 is the go to passage in the Bible on God's discipline. Since this teaching is in this context, do you read discipline in light of this conflict, or as my Mormon friends do? For 25 years I read it as my Mormon culture does. I am living proof that it is very easy to get distracted from identity to behavior and not even notice having been distracted. I still prove it every day. Have you realized that you do it too? Therefore, according to the context of Hebrews, the sin that so easily entangles (12:1) is going back to the law. The race (12:1,2) is about always considering Jesus (His work as all we need). Endurance (12:1) is needed to not give in to the pressure to go back to the law. The sinners (12:3) who were applying the pressure were the super religious Jews, not the prostitutes and irreligious people. Resisting them (12:4) meant resisting going back to the law, not resisting doing bad things. Joy is absent or suppressed while one is not considering Jesus (12:11). Christians are righteous by faith alone; we have a new identity as righteous children in Christ independent of our behavior. God disciplines, or trains, us every waking moment in every situation, to be alert to remember what this identity means and to live out of that identity. God wants us to always see and evaluate every situation in light of His goodness, of righteousness as perfection, not some manageable performance expectation. He wants us to grow in wisdom, and His wisdom is skillfulness in the word of righteousness. (5:13-14) 

Israel was Disciplined to Righteousness as Perfection

The discipline of the Lord is first mentioned explicitly in Deuteronomy 4:36. "He let you hear His voice to discipline you; and on earth He let you see His great fire, and hear His words from the midst of the fire," Was God's word to them some form of do your best, try harder, or partial obedience? No. We see this earlier in the chapter. "You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you." (4:2) We also read, "It will be righteousness for us if we are careful to keep all this commandment." (6:25) "All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to give to your forefathers." (8:2) Notice that God's word is inflexible--zero fudging by adding or taking away--it must be kept in full as it is. This means that God wanted Israel to keep their eye on His perfection and not compromise His perfection in thought, word, or deed. To be righteous required perfect obedience. The Old Testament is the record of God's compassion and Israel's dishonor of His perfect law. Their history is an ugly one. Finally Jesus arrived among them. He preached in such a way as to reestablish the honor of the law, that it required perfection. Israel hated that message and killed him for it. Jesus knows (taught, believed, understood) that God wants you and all people to keep all the commandments perfectly now and always, no matter the situation. If you don't believe this, by what authority do you compromise God's expectation of goodness and make it something manageable? 

Honesty About Sin

Let's be honest about sin. John declares that sin is lawlessness (dishonor of the law). (1John 3:4) In other words, sin is violation of goodness--any violation. Life is a spiritual battle to honor God's goodness. If you are not doing it fully, then you are not doing it, and you are a violator. God has brought resolution to this problem by making the cross the place where all sin has been put away by the sacrifice of Christ. (Hebrews 9:26) This concerns the power of sin as well as its guilt. The cross does not make people into robots. Rather it frees them to live in a good way, in a new identity in His righteousness without any need to find justification or satisfaction anywhere else--no matter how great the violation they commit, receive, or observe. God declares, and we all know, that it is not good to seek justification for any human failure in any human action. God is satisfied with Christ's sacrifice of Himself. Therefore, why be satisfied with a vision of God's discipline that does not honor God's goodness (perfection) or His satisfaction with Christ? Let Jesus be the sin manager of the world. Embrace His clarity about sin: that only perfection is good. Embrace His righteousness (perfection as required and given freely as a gift) as the point of His training for you and all other people. Embrace forgetfulness or rejection of righteousness as the cause of all sin. Embrace remembrance of righteousness as the place of restoration, healing, life, truth, peace, and joy. Let's together embrace and celebrate satisfaction with God's goodness and His good training of us. 

God's discipline or training is all about growth in skillfulness in seeing Jesus as ALL our righteousness, holiness, and redemption--our wisdom from God.

CAN YOU DRIFT AWAY FROM GRACE? SOME SURPRISES

"Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it." -Hebrews 2:1

I have had true Christians tell me that reading the Letter to the Hebrews troubles them. Some have called it scary. If I remember correctly, some have even admitted to avoiding it. Have you ever had these thoughts or heard others say such things? If the gospel is so beautiful and so powerful, then why do true Christians have this response to reading this inspired letter? I have heard this about the letter of First John as well.

Who is the Audience?

The Letter to the Hebrews was written to the community of Jewish Christians living around Jerusalem between Pentecost and the destruction of the Jewish temple and its rituals. That community had been previously under the law of Moses for centuries and had recently been freed by Jesus to live in unmerited favor. They were surrounded by pressure to go back to the old ways. 

Which Message is Superior?

The message of Jesus is about His faithfulness and His work of "putting away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." The message given by angels to Moses at Mt Sinai was of personal faithfulness and the work of the temple system to take away sin. Jesus sits in authority and the angels are merely servants. Therefore since Jesus is greater, His message overrides the old message. 

Is it Good to Get Confused about the Two Messages?

It is never good to be confused about anything, but since Satan is the author of confusion, it certainly is possible to get muddleheaded about what is good. It is easy to get fooled about how law and gospel fit together. It would have been especially easy if one lived in the neighborhood of the beautiful Jewish Temple with its old, respected, and inspired system of sacrifices and rituals.

Confusion in the Word Must

The little word must has two general senses. It is commonly used as some form of threat. "You must give me your money or I will shoot you." "You must clean your plate or you won't get ice cream." "You must give that back because I had it first." "You must change or I won't forgive you." Do you hear the threat in these statements. Another common meaning, that isn't so noticeable, relates to what is natural, fitting, or proper. "You must get here before noon if you want to see your grandmother, as her ride to the airport leaves at noon." There is no threat in this kind of statement. It is simply a declaration of how consequences naturally follow actions. The latter is the true sense in our verse. Those who unwittingly read this verse in the threat sense, can easily turn this verse into a command from God. But this verse is simply helping to set the stage for the first command (3:1). That command naturally follows chapters one and two.

Is it Possible to Drift Away?

 Is it possible to drift away? How confident are of your answer? Let me paraphrase this verse, but set it in the negative for emphasis and clarity. "In light of the above reasons, it is not good, fitting or right for us to not give more careful attention to the message of Jesus, that He has put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, lest we drift away." I suggest that drifting away is a far greater and more common problem than we think. Have you ever wondered if you or someone else might be guilty of drifting away? Have you ever thought that you need to be careful to not drift away? Have you ever thought that you can't drift away? The surprise is that it is not something that we do but rather something that happens to us naturally.  

Notice that the verse states that drifting away is the fruit of neglecting to do something else. That something is to give careful attention to the message of grace. In short, drifting away is the natural consequence of not considering the work of Christ. To be even more blunt, you do drift away when you don't consider grace. I drift away often every day. I don't intend to drift away, but it is the natural result of forgetting to see in the moment through the lens of grace. It takes practice to notice that it is this simple.

Here are some examples. When a preacher declares that people must be careful to not drift away, he has already drifted away himself, because he has unwittingly not considered that it is Jesus' job to keep a person from drifting away. When you sin in any way, you have already drifted away from grace. When you are looking at life through the telescope of grace, it is impossible for you to sin. You can't keep yourself from sinning or drifting away, but God can—WHILE you are considering grace properly.

Where Does Salvation Fit?

Salvation is like marriage. Marriage doesn't end with the ceremony; it begins there. In the same way salvation is a new kind of life, relationship, or identity with God—one of unmerited favor. It begins in the moment of conversion and continues on forever. It begins when one for the first time finds satisfaction in God's goodness or faithfulness without holding in reserve any satisfaction in one's own faithfulness. We are all born with our faithfulness in the equation of life. After conversion, only Jesus' faithfulness is in the equation. Thus Christianity is life in the faithfulness of Christ free from the pressure of pretended personal faithfulness. No one is faithful when compared to Christ, so let's get over ourselves. 

Since all Christians have their identity purely in Christ's faithfulness, it is impossible to drift away from one's own identity in grace. Period. If you think otherwise then you have been tricked into thinking that there is some merited favor in the Christian life. It is Jesus' job to keep you from drifting away and, unlike you, He handles His job perfectly. Satan has created many counterfeits and many of God's dear children have been tricked to see counterfeits where there is pure grace. I am currently preaching through Hebrews and in my first sermon declared that I plan to shine the bright light of the gospel on every scary verse so as to reveal the glory of the cross and remove all scariness for the Christian, all the while maintaining that God is a consuming fire. This includes chapters 3, 4, 10, 12, and especially 6:4-6. An article on the last one is almost finished and should appear here soon. Counterfeits, counterfeits, counterfeits. Let's put the blame where it belongs: on us for being fooled by the counterfeits. I have much experience here. Do you?

Whose Faithfulness Do You Consider?

Let's get real. Whose faithfulness are you considering right now? It is never good to be unfaithful. Therefore only perfect faithfulness is good. It is not good to have expectations that are not good. Therefore goodness includes expectation of perfect faithfulness. This makes it simple to realize that 1) only God's faithfulness counts, and 2) it is a deception to expect flawed human faithfulness to count. But the spiritual battle rages—the flesh versus the spirit—flawed human faithfulness versus God's faithfulness—trying to do good versus success at doing good. In the heat of the moment the pressure is on to drift from a vision of perfect faithfulness into Satan's counterfeit of flawed human faithfulness. We need to retrain our minds to what is good if we are to stand firm in God's faithfulness and not drift away into valuing counterfeit faithfulness. If you want to prepare your mind for battle, I would suggest frequent prayer of thankfulness for what God declares to be good, for example:

"Father in heaven, thank you for calling me to always value what is good. Thank you for making your faithfulness is to be all my satisfaction even when I fail or other people fail. Thank you for calling me to remember your faithfulness and to remind others of your faithfulness. Thank you for making Christianity to be the community of satisfaction in your goodness. Thank you that it is your job to keep me from drifting away. Thank you that your Son fully put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, and that he did this without my help. Thank you for making sin to be overcome easily by a vision that only perfect faithfulness counts. Thank you for making my job to be simple—to consider your Son's faithfulness at the cross as the only hope for anyone in any situation."   

Consider Jesus the high priest of our confession, that "He has put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."

WHAT IS YOUR SIN TOLERANCE? GOD'S IS ZERO.

Noticing Human Failure

When you look at yourself, other people, or the world in general, how do you deal with the failure you observe? Do you get disappointed, depressed, impatient, frustrated, or even angry? What do you do with these reactions? Do you wish you could stop having them? Do you wish that the people would change so that your life wouldn't be so troubled? Have you ever tried to not care so that then you wouldn't feel so hurt?

Let's approach this situation from a different angle. We have all failed morally, and more times than we notice.  Have you ever been surprised at your failure, wondering how you could possibly have done such a terrible thing, or done it again? Have you ever wished that you had tried harder so as to have avoided failure, or at least to have not failed so greatly? Have you ever found yourself surprised at the failures of others: your wife, your children, your friends, fellow saints, or even pastors? Why were you surprised?

God Notices Human Failure

God is never surprised at your moral failings or mine. It is good for us to always love Him with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. And it is never good to compromise those standards. God always loves perfectly. Since He is responsible to resolve all issues in the moral world, He notices every violation of perfect love. Perfect love doesn't pretend sin away, but rather deals with it in a righteous way--always--and sends it away. Read about the first failing of our first parents and see if you can notice any surprise, impatience, frustration, or anger on God's part. It isn't there. Adam and Eve sinned and hid in fear from God. But God didn't hesitate to draw close to them. He went to them and spoke to them like a kind father to bless them with words of a promise of hope, even while explaining the curse resulting from their sin. Have you ever wondered why God did not seem bothered by their sin? I suggest that it is because God's goodness is full of surprises and that this is the biggest surprise.

All Sin Converges at the Cross

All the sin committed from Adam to the cross was left unresolved by God in anticipation of the cross. God saw this from before the creation of the universe (1Peter 1:17-23) and desired to reveal His goodness in a glorious way. Read closely Paul's declaration in Romans 3:24-26 that God passed over ALL sin in order to reveal His righteousness at the proper time--at the cross. Notice that God both is righteous and makes righteous all who are persuaded that Christ's faithfulness is their only hope. David killing Goliath didn't reveal the seriousness of Goliath's mockery of God. The flood didn't reveal the seriousness of the world's sin. Sodom being consumed by fire from heaven didn't reveal the truth about their sin. Certainly these events hinted that sin was terrible, but only the cross reveals the seriousness of sin. The cross reveals that only the death of God Himself can overcome sin. Read Romans 1:32 in several translations and notice that God has written into the conscience of every person that every sin deserves death. Paul declared earlier in the chapter (verse 18) that we humans suppress that knowledge. Today we live in the light of the cross, looking to Christ as the one who 1) in His death and resurrection is our freedom, peace, and satisfaction in a broken world, and 2) in His future coming to bring physical recreation and make public to all His good judgment--that goodness is a seamless whole, that violation of it deserves death, that He gladly took the death all people deserve, that He offered as a gift life in goodness free from the pressure of personal performance, and that those who rejected His goodness will receive the full weight of His good judgment on their self-righteousness.

God is not Surprised at Human Failure

Notice the theme in the following three passages from Isaiah. "Lord, you will establish peace for us, since you have also performed for us all our work." -26:12 "The Lord is well-pleased for His righteousness' sake; He will exalt the law and make it glorious." -42:21 "By his knowledge my righteous servant will make many righteous, for he will bear away their transgressions." -53:11 Here it is again 100 years later in Jeremiah 31:14: "'I will fill the soul of the priests with abundance, and My people will be satisfied with My goodness,' declares the Lord." God is not surprised at human failure because He delights to be the provider of all we need. He has made His goodness to be our satisfaction. If God thinks this way how could He possibly be disappointed or surprised by human failure?

  

Your Surprise at Human Failure

Your surprise at human moral failing results from only one thing: not viewing the world in a good way--through perfect love--through the goodness of God being the satisfaction for His people. If you are a Christian, then God has declared for all time that His goodness is your satisfaction. Do you see how all encompassing that is? When you fail and get upset at your failure, you have two problems. When you see a fellow saint fail and you get upset about it, you simply have more of those same two problems. If you see a non-Christian fail and you get upset about it, you have those same two problems nuanced from a different angle. Here are the two problems.

Both problems are related to forgetfulness. First, God is not a God of second chances. Rather, He is the God of one chance and a new creation. If you had a zero tolerance for sin like God does, and you never forgot this principle, then you would never get upset with anyone who sins, no matter how great the violation. You may wonder at this point, "Then why is God's anger mentioned so often in the Old Testament?"  I plan to write on this topic, but for now would suggest two teaser questions.  In my observation the first mention of God's anger or wrath is toward Moses at the burning bush--2500+ years after Adam. I suggest that there is a surprise in the larger context that helps answer the first question: Why was God angry at Moses? I suggest that there is one event during Moses lifetime that precipitates the regular expression of God's anger that continues all the way through Jesus' preaching. What is that event? Notice the expressions of anger and work backwards in context to the point at which they disappear. 

Back to forgetfulness. it is a big deal--far bigger that we tend to think. Again, if you are a Christian, then God's goodness is your satisfaction. The only reason that you would not have an active experience of this satisfaction is because of your forgetfulness. You entered into the beauty of that satisfaction at conversion and have been called to grow in the understanding of it and remembrance of it. When you observe sin in self or others, the pressure is on to forget or get distracted from that true satisfaction. Certainly it is wrong for any person to do evil. But there is no satisfaction from God's view in a person stopping or not doing a specific evil action. The alternative to doing one evil action isn't doing that one thing right, rather it is doing all things right--perfectly right. Learning and remembering this is the spiritual battle. You get upset at sin because you forget that God has a zero tolerance for sin, and you forget that the goodness of God is your satisfaction, the satisfaction of all other saints, and the only hope for satisfaction for all non-Christians. The world preaches a counterfeit satisfaction, but God never honors that pretense. 

The Surprise of Grace

What is the opposite of grace? Is it some form of unkindness, meanness, or harshness? I suggest that the surprising and simple opposite of grace is law. The world sees grace as some form of niceness, kindness, or a second chance to be a better person. But heaven sees grace as total freedom from law--the obligation to do what is right. Even more surprising is the realization that to live in grace does not mean living free from performance, but rather living in the performance of Christ free from the pressure of personal performance. Living in grace is not living in a vacuum of no performance. That would be like buying a pet fish and laying it on the counter. A person rather puts the fish in a fish bowl full of water. A Christian is designed to swim and thrive in the performance of Christ. The performance of Christ is simultaneously a zero tolerance for sin and a full satisfaction in the goodness of God. Therefore, while you are mindful that you live in the performance of Christ, out of you flows a zero tolerance for sin and full satisfaction in the goodness of God--no matter how much people around fail. Mindfulness is the issue. When your mind is in the right place then your behavior and attitude will be in the right place. Practice setting your mind in the right place--on the performance of Christ in both of its aspects--and realize that your temptation is always to be distracted from that vision, and you might find yourself enjoying other people while they fail--even while they are mistreating you.   

Goodness includes both zero tolerance for sin and full satisfaction in the goodness of God. If we Christians embraced God's vision we might just be the happiest people on the planet.