Sometimes You Can't Make it on Your Own

...Actually, all the time.

"So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy." Romans 9:16 (NKJV)

One of the hardest lessons for a Christian--even an old, experienced one--to internalize is the reality of the gospel of Grace: the fact that we can't make it on our own. Obviously, that's the reason we turned to Jesus in the first place, because we realized that we couldn't make it on our own, that we need His help, His redeeming love, His atonement for our sins, His Spirit at work in our lives to make us new creatures. But sometimes we lose focus and fail to "keep the main thing the main thing." We start to focus on our own self- righteousness and compare ourselves with other people, and we forget that it's not about our will or our desire, or our running or striving, but it's about the Lord's mercy.

Galatians 3:3 (ESV) "Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?"

The struggle between legalism and liberty is a struggle between the flesh and the spirit, and we have to recognize that. By adhering to a strict code of dos and don'ts, I'm actually operating in the flesh rather than the Spirit and giving strength to my carnal man--the sinful nature--rather than the reborn spirit He's given me. Legalism feeds the flesh and kills our spiritual life just as much as sinful indulgence does.

True holiness looks similar to legalism on the outside, but its motivation is different, and its attitude towards other people is different. If we become puffed up in our pride and start condemning other people for not being like us, then we cheapen God's grace. We say, in effect, "God's grace is enough for a good person like me, but not for a rotten scoundrel like you. If you want God to bless you, you better shape up, mister!" But only Jesus can make us shape up, and the only way we can get others to shape up is by evidencing the Spirit at work in our hearts, shaping us up from the inside out, and leaving room for the Holy Spirit to do the same in their lives. When others see grace at work in us, they will want it for themselves as well.

For those of us who are getting together with family during this season, I pray that we would remember to keep the main thing the main thing. Show grace to your brothers and sisters (or aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, grandparents, nieces, nephews, second cousin twice removed, etc.), show them the love that Jesus showed us. Let them see His Spirit at work in our hearts. Lord, let us trade in our hearts of stone for hearts of flesh. Give us a softness and a vulnerability that will help us show our family how infinitely valuable your grace is!

Listen to me now
I need to let you know
You don't have to go it alone

- U2, "Sometimes You Can't Make it on Your Own"

Faith Like a Book

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1, NKJV)

It is by faith that God's purposes are realized (made real) in our lives. If you look at the 'Hall of Faith' (Hebrews 11), from Abel to the prophets, you see that it's faith that creates the next link in the chain of God's redemptive history. It's faith that enables the next step in the ladder. It's faith that paves the way for those to follow. These all were following the Lord, looking forward to the hope, yet not fully understanding exactly what God was going to do. Abraham "went out, not knowing where he was going" (v. 8), "for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God" (v. 10).

And so faith is closely linked with God's sovereign plans. God's sovereignty is what Hebrews 11 looks like from eternity's perspective (it's not really mentioned in the chapter, but you can see God's hand at work throughout). Faith is what it looks like to us, while we're still walking, because we don't know the end from the beginning. We can read Hebrews 11 and see how it all makes sense now. But Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, et al., didn't know exactly how their lives would fit into God's redemptive plan. They were walking by faith.

Faith for us in the present means looking to the future, while standing on the solid foundation of the evidence we have of God's past faithfulness. Each of those guys in Hebrews 11 had to go through the same thing, trusting God, that he was faithful in the past, so he will be faithful in the future.

Henry Ford said, "History is bunk." Napoleon said, "History is a fable." But we know better. History is what faith looks like after the fact. History is God's story, written before the foundations of the world.

Hebrews 12:2 says Jesus is the author of our faith. And so faith is like reading a book. The moment we call 'Now' is where the bookmark is (or the sentence we're currently on). History is everything we already read. It makes sense to a certain extent, but the story's not finished yet and there are some loose ends that need to be tied up. The future is everything we haven't read yet. And faith is the act of reading, pressing on to the next sentence, turning the page, knowing that the Author is good and that when you reach the end, you will not be disappointed.

Time is a continuous link of consecutive 'presents'. The moment that I wrote this sentence is now past, but once it was present. The moment you first read this sentence is now present, but now it is past. The future is the same way, just in the opposite order. Walk by faith in God's promises--what He said, He will do. It's already been written. You just haven't read it yet. :-)

His purposes will ripen fast,
unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
but sweet will be the flower.

- William Cowper, "God Moves in a Mysterious Way"

Jacob's Presumption

Jacob, the grandson of Abraham and father of the twelve tribes of Israel, journeyed to his uncle's land in search of a bride in the same way Abraham's servant was sent to retrieve Rebekah. On his way, he has a dream in which the Lord shows him a ladder between heaven and earth, prophetically symbolizing that the Messiah will come through his lineage, bridging the gap between God and man created by the fall of Adam. (In John 1:51, NKJV, the Savior says, "You shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.")

It's important to note that Jacob is not yet fully committed to the Lord at this point. He contemplates it, and strikes a bargain with God.

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father's house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God. And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God's house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You. (Gen. 28:20-22, NKJV)

It's as if he's saying, Look, Lord, I'm going to Haran, and I'm going to do whatever I want there, but if you bless me while I do whatever I want, then I'll serve you religiously when I get home, tithing and all, okay?

God blessed Jacob despite his ignorance and presumptuous approach to worship. But God had some hard lessons to teach him. Do not assume that if God is blessing you as you do your own thing, that it means he's condoning your behavior and that you're in his favor. On our road to sanctification, it is God's goal to kill our flesh and any self-contained strength that would keep us operating on our own and seeking our own way. He wants to put our hip out of joint and give us a limp so we cannot walk without assistance. God wants us to come to him with "a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart" (Ps 51:17). He wants to change us, to make us like his Son, and his Son said he didn't do anything he didn't first see his Father doing. "If you've seen me, you've seen the Father."

God is more concerned about the internal process and the position of our hearts than the results. Abraham's servant prayed for God to show him specifically who he was supposed to bring for Isaac. Jacob merely copied the externals, thinking, perhaps, Grandfather's servant picked the first girl he saw at the well, so that must mean it will be the same way for me... But, unlike Abraham's servant, Jacob didn't sit down and pray for the Lord's direction, giving him glory each step of the way.

Jacob took the blessing of Bethel for granted. You may have God's blessing on your life, you may know that he has called you for a certain purpose. Maybe you're a worship leader or a teacher or a missionary, and you know that God's going to use you to "bless the Gentiles." But recognize that submission to God's will is a continual act, a continuous internal bowing of our hearts to the Lord. We need to live our lives in humility, empowered by the Holy Spirit. We cannot operate in our lives as if we have a divine mandate, and yet forget to open our written authorization to see what his directions are.

"As far as the east is from the west..."

There are some things the Bible says that are hard for us, as finite, fallen human beings, to grasp. One is the concept of eternity (see Kevin's article). Another is the concept of infinity. And another is the application of the concept of infinity to our theology.

The distance from the North pole to the South pole is 10,801 nautical miles over the surface of the Earth (source: Wikipedia). But now imagine trying to measure the distance between east and west. Say you were in a race around the world, like "The Amazing Race", or Around the World in 80 Days. But you have two teams, and they start in the same place, on the equator, but they go in opposite directions (say one team holds to the north side of the line and the other just to the south so they don't crash into each other on the other side of the planet). You say to one team, "Go, find East," and to the other, "Go, find West." And then you send them on their way. They would never reach the end. They would never come to the point where they can say, "Here I am, I've arrived at the furthest, most westernmost end of the Earth!" Now say they're solar-powered robots who don't have to worry about dying of old age. They'd keep going forever, always with the miles ticking away on their odometers.

So, what's my point, you ask?

He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor punished us according to our iniquities.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;
As far as the east is from the west,
So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
As a father pities his children,
So the LORD pities those who fear Him.
For He knows our frame;
He remembers that we are dust.

- Psalm 103:10-14 (NKJV)

God understands the infinite difference between us and Him more than we can. He knows that there's nothing we can do to fix ourselves (we are dust), that He has to do it for us. And David understood that, too, hundreds of years before Messiah came to pay for our sins and make Grace a Reality! You might even go as far as to call this a Messianic prophecy! Hebrews 4:15 (NKJV) says, "For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin." David had it right: He knows our frame. Not only as our Creator, but as a fellow Man.

So, what's our response to His offer of forgiveness? Serve the Lord wholeheartedly, and don't hold anything back from Him. If you are willing to let go of your past--your sins, your failures, your addictions, even your broken dreams--He will cleanse you completely! Don't clutch, whatever you do. In order for the Lord to heal you of those things, you need to release them to Him. "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He REMOVED out transgressions from us."

If I could, yes I would
If I could, I would
Let it go
Surrender, dislocate

- U2, "Bad"

Let it go.

Are you willing? HE IS! (See Mark 1:40-41.)