Trophies of War

This is one of those mornings when the Spirit coordinated both books that I use each day to induce a unified revelation to my heart. The word “righteousness” has been one of the most troublesome religious terms that I have grappled with for most of my life. This is partially due to the abuse and misuse of the word to convey some of the lies about God embedded in most religion. So for the past few years I have been very alert to discovering more relevant and real definitions for this mysterious and difficult concept.

Maybe I have grown enough in my maturity to be able to put bigger pieces together now. As God has been teaching me many things they have become like sections of a puzzle partially assembled and laid aside for future insertion into a bigger picture. This seems like a couple of pieces that fit very well together and also fit perfectly into some empty spots within my experience and feelings.

As I look back over my experience, even in the past few hours, I can see more clearly what it means to look for satisfaction from shallow streams. This becomes even more clear to me after having tasted satisfaction from a much purer fountain of truth about God and experiencing the energy and stimulation that it brings to my soul.

The common thread of gold that runs throughout these two meditations is the passionate love of God that is available to transform my thinking, my life and make my heart come alive. It is the only true source of satisfaction to fulfill the cravings I desire in every area of my life. Putting this into words seems to diminish the inward intensity and “realness” of this understanding though. It makes it start to sound like religious jargon again that has bothered me for most of my life. But now the words come from an attempt to express feelings and connections deep inside that are real and true because I am beginning to taste them for myself and know the reality of what good love can feel like. And that experience makes me intensely hungry for much more, for in reality it makes me much more aware of how empty and parched my thirst really is.

Here is some of what I received this morning with highlights of the words and phrases that really spoke to my heart.

Righteousness is love, and love is the light and the life of God. The righteousness of God is embodied in Christ. We receive righteousness by receiving Him.

Not by painful struggles or wearisome toil, not by gift or sacrifice, is righteousness obtained; but it is freely given to every soul who hungers and thirsts to receive it....

We need not seek to quench our thirst at shallow streams; for the great fountain is just above us, of whose abundant waters we may freely drink, if we will rise a little higher in the pathway of faith....

The words of God are the well-springs of life. As you seek unto those living springs, you will, through the Holy Spirit, be brought into communion with Christ.... You will know that Christ is leading you; a divine Teacher is at your side. {SD 304}

Now thanks be to God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ. 2 Cor. 2:14.

The viewpoint of a worker for God must not be as near the highest as he can get, it must be the highest. Be careful to maintain strenuously God’s point of view, it has to be done every day, bit by bit; don’t think on the finite. No outside power can touch the viewpoint.

The viewpoint to maintain is that we are here for one purpose only, viz., to be captives in the train of Christ’s triumphs. We are not in God’s showroom, we are here to exhibit one thing—the absolute captivity of our lives to Jesus Christ. How small the other points of view are—‘I am standing alone battling for Jesus’; ‘I have to maintain the cause of Christ and hold this fort for Him.’ Paul says—‘I am in the train of a conqueror, and it does not matter what the difficulties are, I am always led in triumph.’ Is this idea being worked out practically in us? Paul’s secret joy was that God took him, a red-handed rebel against Jesus Christ, and made him a captive, and now that is all he is here for. Paul’s joy was to be a captive of the Lord, he had no other interest in heaven or on earth. It is a shameful thing for a Christian to talk about getting the victory. The Victor ought to have got us so completely that it is His victory all the time, and we are more than conquerors through Him. “For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ.” We are enwheeled with the odour of Jesus, and wherever we go we are a wonderful refreshment to God.

Chambers, Oswald: My Utmost for His Highest : Selections for the Year. Grand Rapids, MI : Discovery House Publishers, 1993, c1935, S. October 24

As I thought back over the life of Paul who wrote this, I realize how much his own life experience demonstrated the things I have been learning from what he wrote in Romans 7 & 8. Before he met Jesus in the confrontation on the road earlier in his life, he was the perfect example of living a religious life from the head, very studiously striving to keep every rule that could be found and working very hard to be a person that God could accept and bless. He was formula driven, Bible-based, proof-text perfect and full of passion for defending true religion against all corruption or threats from emotional contamination. He had succeeded so well in perfecting his religious life that he was considered the champion of God's holy church in his zeal to cleanse the church of all heresy.

But in living this way he had suppressed his real heart and was blinded to the real condition of his spirit. He lived in an increasing state of agitation fired by what he sincerely believed was holy zeal for the reputation of God and the purity of His church. His activities in persecuting the dissenters who were introducing new theology and heresy into his church made him a favorite among his peers and even his elders. Everything seemed to confirm that he was justified in his extreme positions and he was emboldened to take even more intense actions against those who disagreed with his views about religion. As his popularity increased so did his confidence that he was doing the right thing and that God was proud of his work to purify the church and protect the sanctity and holiness of the truth.

When God met him on the road to Damascus in his passionate intensity to defend “the truth”, He did not confront him about any of his theology or try to argue with his doctrines. He went straight to the emptiness of his heart, the long suppressed aching void and craving for love that Saul had tried to hide all of his life from everyone including himself. With just a few words of kindness and compassion all of Saul's defenses collapsed like a house of cards and his heart was left naked and exposed in the presence of the very embodiment of love Himself.

In that moment Saul, who became Paul, experienced the reversal of direction from living a head-led religion based on facts and formulas to being a captive of the heart led around by his spirit chained to the heart of God with the love of the Holy Spirit. These chains were nothing like the chains of force and fear that Saul had employed in his attempts to live the perfect life, protect the truth of God and enforce his view of truth on others. These chains were the silken cords of tenderness and love and affection that awakened such intense desires and hunger inside of Saul that he could not stop himself from falling madly in love with this God who treated him so carefully, so gently and cared about him so deeply.

In the days of the Romans it was quite common after great battles for the conquerors to chain together many of the people they had captured, particularly the important leaders and resistors, and upon returning home to drag them through the streets behind their chariot for the crowds to jeer at and gloat over. The prisoners were often dirty, smelly and many times even naked as it was intended that they experience the most humiliation possible after their defeat. It was assumed that the more their enemies were humiliated that by contrast the championing heroes would be elevated in the eyes of the people.

In the passage quoted by Oswald Chambers in the above reading, Paul takes this illustration and transforms it into an example of what God does in the lives of those who's hearts He has captured with His love. But instead of making them objects of humiliation and using chains of force and shame to demonstrate His power like humans love to do, God demonstrates the superior power of selfless love that captures more securely the hearts and lives of people who are stunned with amazement at the real truth about God's passion and love for them. They become “chained” to His heart with an intensity of responding love as they see the real truth about His feelings for them. They are paraded before the world as trophies of His conquering grace and goodness, but instead of being naked and ashamed they are seen to be wearing the very same clothes as the King Himself. And the odor that wafts from their bodies and spirits are the sweetest and most compelling fragrances ever encountered. This is God's version of a triumphal procession and a demonstration of how God treats prisoners of war. He makes them His sons and daughters and entrusts them with the full inheritance of everything He possesses.

We are not in God’s showroom, we are here to exhibit one thing—the absolute captivity of our lives to Jesus Christ. How small the other points of view are—‘I am standing alone battling for Jesus’; ‘I have to maintain the cause of Christ and hold this fort for Him.’ Paul says—‘I am in the train of a conqueror, and it does not matter what the difficulties are, I am always led in triumph.’