Nonsense
Nonsense
I’ve heard that some
believers mess up from time to time.
On occasion, so I’m
told, some actually behave so badly that if you saw them right then you
couldn’t tell them from any sinner in the world.
No believers in this
group, I’m sure, but up north; I’ve heard there are believers up north who
struggle with their behavior.
Believers like these
are often tempted to think to themselves, “I feel like a failure; I keep
sinning; my thought-life is black, black, black; I don’t control my emotions—so
I must be bad, I must be out of fellowship with God, I deserve punishment and I
need to set things right.” So what do we do? We punish ourselves, and sometimes
those closest to us as well. After all; someone has to pay!
Like most things we
struggle with, this type of thinking stems from believing something that looks
like it’s true, but really isn’t. Things appear true to us when they make sense
to our senses. They look true when they fit with what we see and experience.
This is why
spiritual truths often seem like nonsense to people. They don’t appeal to the
senses; they are literally non-sense. This is one of the ideas we can take from
1 Corinthians 1:27 (NKJV) 27 “But
God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise”, and “1
Corinthians 2:14 (NKJV) 14 …the
natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are
foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned.
Some have called this “the upside-down Kingdom”, but it is
more accurate to say that we live in an upside-down world. The Kingdom is
right-side up. Truth is defined by God,
not by our senses.
Here is what God says is true: 17
Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness
in the day of judgment; because as He is,
so are we in this world. 1 John 4:17 NKJV
But it’s hard to take a statement like that, “as He is, so
are we in this world”, at face value and simply believe that God meant what He
said. It’s more sensible to think that if we act poorly, we need to pay for it;
that has been drilled into our heads since we were very little. It makes more
sense that our fellowship with God should be broken when we mess up.
There are several ways to look at the error in belief that
causes us to think that we lose fellowship with God and need to be punished
when we mess up, but I think that perhaps the core of the lie has to do with
what happened at the cross.
It is not uncommon to hear teaching that goes something like
this: After you are born again you have a Spiritual nature, but you didn’t lose
your old sinful nature. Your old nature is at war with your new nature and you
have to walk uprightly and make sure the new nature wins.
Or you might have heard, it’s like two dogs, a good dog and
a bad dog. The one you feed is the one that will be stronger. So I guess if I
find myself struggling with sin I have only myself to blame and I am destined
for the fire even though I am Abba’s child.
Or maybe you’ll hear,
once you are saved, God will begin chipping away all the parts of you that
don’t look like Jesus. Boy that sure sounds painful. It certainly makes me
blanch when I think of loving and trusting God.
None of this sounds like the God of the Bible to me. God
says, James 1:17-18 (NKJV)
17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.”, and Matthew 7:11 (NKJV)
11 “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”
17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.”, and Matthew 7:11 (NKJV)
11 “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”
So let’s take a look
at what happened at the cross that gives us freedom from sin, freedom from
guilt, and freedom from condemnation—and all without feeding any dogs.
Colossians 2:4 and6-19 NKJV
4 Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words.
4 Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words.
Notice that Paul realizes that there are many persuasive
speakers who sound really great to our fleshly ears; who are very sensible; but
who are not accurately representing the Gospel. Remember that “gospel” means
good news, and there is no bad news in the good news.
OK, onward:
6 As you
have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord,
(by grace; through faith; not by works)
so walk in Him,
Walk by grace; through faith; not by works; remember it is He who works in you both
to want to and to do. Philippians 2:13 (NKJV)
7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.
Philosophy is appealing;
it feels dangerous to us to go against traditions…
And then we get down to exactly what we’ve been looking at:
the basic principles of the world rather than believing Christ means exactly
what He says.
9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;
10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.
This sounds a lot like as
He is, so are we in this world. 1 John 4:17 NKJV
11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
Something very interesting is going on here. Circumcision
was a sign that Israel belonged to God. But Jesus didn’t circumcise our
physical bodies, instead, He “put off”, or took away, the body of the sins of
the flesh. Some translations render this, “the putting off of the sinful
nature.” The Greek word here is sarx, which does have to do with the body, but
since our bodies remain unchanged when we are made new creatures in Christ, it
must refer to more than that here. Let’s go further.
12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
Who do you bury? Dead people!
13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh (also sarx), He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
ALL—not just those that occurred before you were reborn.
Parenthetically, it can be helpful to remember that when He did this, over 2000
years ago, you were not even a twinkle in the eye of your ancestors.
14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
What was that handwriting? Maybe the same handwriting Jesus
was referring to when He wrote on the ground as the Pharisees tested His
reaction to a woman caught in adultery? The “ministry of death, written and
engraved on stones.” 2 Corinthians 3:7 (NKJV)
15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths,
17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths,
17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
It’s always and only all about our wonderful Lord and King
Jesus—what He did and who He is.
18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.
Notice here how our freedom is a reward and that it is
Jesus, God, the Head who holds everything together and causes growth and
increase. We aren’t in there anywhere except on the receiving side being
rewarded with freedom because of what He did for us!
Romans
6:3-23 (NKJV)
3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
Sounds
a lot like what we read in Colossians, doesn’t it?
4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death,
Again
we see that we were buried with Him.
that
just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we
also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
Now
here comes the really great part. How did we get dead so that we could be
buried with Him?
6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
Our
old man—our Adamic nature—was crucified with Christ on the cross! That’s real freedom; that’s a real reward.
There is only one dog! We are in Christ, not in Adam. Many times the Bible
talks about someone having been in the loins of their ancestor. This is the
reason that Adam’s sin was inherited by all of us. He was what theologians call
our “federal head”. That fancy term just means that Adam was our ultimate
father and we inherited all that we are from him because without his seed, we
would not be here. So it is with Jesus now! We were crucified with Him and then
raised with Him to a new life. So we are dead to sin—dead to Adam and his
nature—and alive to Christ—alive to His righteous, holy, fully accepted nature.
Watch…
11 Likewise
you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
21 What
fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end
of those things is death.
Notice
that we are talking about fruit here. Branches don’t produce (cause) fruit;
they bear it. So when we were Adam’s children, we bore fruit based on his
sinful nature.
22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.
But
now we are God’s children and we bear fruit based on His perfect, righteous,
and holy nature.
Galatians 2:20 (NKJV)
20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no
longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the
flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
That sounds like a
real exchange of lives. The change was complete in every respect. It is no
longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. His life lived through us.
Romans 7:4-6 (NKJV)
4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another--to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.
5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.
6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another--to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.
5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.
6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
So we do not have to worry that we fall out of fellowship
with God when we mess up, even if we do it on purpose. We simply need to
remember that such behavior does not reflect who we truly are any longer. It’s
a kind of habit leftover from our old nature and the fact that we still live in
the world where our senses can sometimes get the better of us.
We are fully accepted by God. As we learn to believe more
fully that our old self was crucified with Him and we are totally new creations
we will find that the Holy Spirit within us produces the fruit of the Spirit
and we bear it and put it on display for others to see and feed upon.
2 Corinthians 5:16-17 (NKJV)
16 Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
16 Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
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