Prepositional Salvation and Imitative Growth

As I read through Romans 5 and 6 the thought occurs to me that maybe Paul's presentation of salvation here could be called “prepositional salvation”, because the way he presents it is so linked to the preposition “through”. The word “through” denotes movement. I think of the analogy taught us in grade school to understand what constituted a preposition – anything a plane can do to a cloud. Our lives are in constant movement – that is implicit in the very idea of being alive. Our cells are growing, our heart is beating and circulating blood, our thoughts are active, our spirit is stirring and our emotions move from one to another.

In all of this movement the decisions that are made, the choices as to where we will move next in every arena of our life determine the shape of our future character and personality and the identity that we are taking upon ourselves. We cannot escape the beginning fact that we have unavoidably been shaped through our history, both in being a part of humanity and in our own personal history, by sin and its death-producing effects on us. But while we cannot literally change the facts of our history, we can become free from the strangling, controlling effects of it by allowing God to bring healing and truth and new perspective to our interpretations of it at our heart level.

Sin by definition is transgression of the law (the likeness of God Who is the model we were designed after). That means that we are moving crosswise to what God is like and to our original design, cutting across the principles of reality, contrary to how we were designed to live which produces resistance to God's Spirit and conflict in all areas of our life.

• Sin entered the world through one man, Adam. (5:12)

• Through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners. (5:19)

• Death entered through sin and spread to all humanity, regardless of whether their sin was just like Adam's or not. (5:12)

• Judgment arose through the one who sinned and resulted in condemnation which all of us experience as a consequence of sin. (5:16)

• Through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men. (5:18)

• Death reigned (and all of its related emotions) through the one. (5:17)

So far we have a hopelessly bleak picture of our situation with no promise of improvement or help. But God, who is rich in mercy and love, will not allow us to remain trapped under our slavery to the cruel slavemaster of death. So He brought His own Son to the situation through whom He created this “prepositional salvation” to bring us hope and deliverance and life.

• While we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. (5:10,11)

• Having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. (5:9)

• Through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. (5:18)

• Through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. (5:19)

• We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (5:1)

• We have obtained our introduction by faith through Jesus Christ into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.

• The love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (5:5)

• We also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. (5:11)

• The free gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. (5:16,17)

• Grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (5:21)

These are the two options that we have in the movement of our life. The direction of our movement is decided by our power of choice and determines which end we experience, eternal death or eternal, abundant life. These chapters (Romans 5 & 6) also describe the activity of this power of choice and how we can relate to the redemption provided for us by God. We can choose to accept or reject the salvation provided for us.

These are the elements that we have the option to choose if we want life:

• If we choose to accept having been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. (5:9)

• God has provided the reconciliation, but we must choose to accept it. When we do, we have been reconciled and shall be saved by His life. (5:10)

• When we choose to accept this free gift from God we will choose to be baptized into Jesus' death – we have been buried with Him through baptism into death. (6:4)

• Our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. (6:6,7)

• As Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. (6:4)

• If we have chosen to become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, (6:5)

• Consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (6:11)

Paul then gets to the core of the issue of choice. He explains the unavoidable principle of ownership under which we all live whether we want to believe it or not. We cannot escape our condition of being owned as slaves – we can blame Adam for that, but in redemption God has provided an amazing option for us – we can choose to become “slaves” of the Author of freedom. By willingly becoming a slave Himself and receiving the consequences of sin that we should experience, He has provided an option for us to become slaves of God, the very Source of love and freedom and the original Model upon which we were designed.

The way that I choose which owner will control my life and my destiny is by the act and choice of presenting myself to that owner/power. “When you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness.” (6:16) There simply is no other option. I will choose to do one or the other every day and the results will become evident in my life – that is inherent in the condition of being a human being.

This choice is much more than simply an intellectual assent to an idea or a subscription to a set of beliefs or a creed. Those are not the choices Paul is talking about at all here. That is from the distorted teachings of “religion” and the ideas of man-made spirituality. Paul is talking about the choices we make from our deepest soul at the heart level. He is talking about obedience from the heart. (6:17)

This brought me to a verse that I have had marked with a question mark for some time now and this morning I decided to investigate it more thoroughly to uncover the real meaning that has been eluding me for so long. The verse says “you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed...” I have heard some expostulations on this phrase “form of teaching”, but I was not at all comfortable with the ideas that were being reinforced by their arguments. It seemed to me more of an excuse for supporting one style of belief or one denomination or ministry in opposition to another. But these ideas do not seem consistent with the flavor of the gospel that I have been tasting through my study of these passages. So I decided to check out the original words and see what the real meaning was behind them to see if that might shed light on what Paul was really trying to convey instead of just looking at the surface meaning of the English words chosen by some translators.

What I found confirmed my suspicions and brought me encouragement and enlightenment. It also resonated with what I have been learning about how the brain works and especially how our right brain learns.

I have come to believe that our right brain is the primary seat of what the Bible refers to as our heart (although new research is finding that our literal, physical heart also may be very involved in these feelings, emotions and thoughts more than we ever thought possible). Our right brain does not learn from language and words but primarily by imitation, by observing others behavior and spirit in various circumstances and then copying that when we find ourselves in similar circumstances. This is almost exclusively how very young children learn about life and perceive their identity.

The original words translated as “form of teaching” or “doctrine” convey the idea of imitating a model, a demonstration of what someone “looks like”. The word “form” in the Greek is “tupos” which has the following definition from Strong's dictionary: “a die (as struck), i.e. (by implication) a stamp or scar; by analogy, a shape, i.e. a statue, (figuratively) style or resemblance; specially, a sampler ("type"), i.e. a model (for imitation) or instance (for warning):--en-(ex-)ample, fashion, figure, form, manner, pattern, print.” The root word behind this word injects the idea of repetition as well.

The Greek word translated into “teaching” or “doctrine” is the word “didache” which means “instruction (the act or the matter)”. Because Paul specifically is talking about obedience from the “heart”, the primary focus and method of this teaching would be necessarily that of example more than just intellectual instruction since the right brain cannot comprehend language-based information. Example for imitation is the only method that is truly effective in maturing people in real growth. It happens when they learn truth not just verbally, but primarily watch it lived out in the life of others who demonstrate in daily life and sometimes under intense circumstances what it looks like to live as a mature person who is truly alive and thriving. The obedience based on grace and from the heart is something we must learn by imitation much more than by instruction.

So what I see as a better interpretation of this phrase is, “you became obedient from the heart by choosing to imitate what was repeatedly modeled to you in our lives that correlated to the things we were teaching you.” That, to me, is a much more consistent understanding of this verse that fits perfectly with the context of everything else that I am finding through the intense study of these chapters that I have been enjoying over the past few months. It also highlights the great need we have for real community where those who want to grow in truth and grace have access to observe and live in close connection with those who are more mature and know how to really live from their hearts with joy. I know I certainly need that kind of mentoring and have desired it for many years. I am still praying for God to assemble more of these kind of relationships in my life.

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The Gift is not like...

But the free gift is not like the transgression. (Romans 5:15)

I am struggling to understand the real meaning of this, so I need to compile a comparison of the similarities and differences to flush out what he is really trying to say here. The chart is extracted from Romans 5:12-21.

Through one man sin entered into the world
Through sin death entered and spread to all men because all sinned
Sin was in the world before “the Law”
Sin is not imputed when there is no Law
Death reigned over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam
Adam is a type of Jesus
By the transgression of one many died	The grace of God abounds to the many by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ
Judgment arose from one who sinned	The free gift arose from many transgressions
– Resulting in condemnation	– Resulting in justification
By the transgression of one death reigned through the one	Much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ
Through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men	Through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men
Through one man's disobedience the many were made sinners	Through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous
The Law came in so that the transgression would increase	Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more
Sin reigned in death	Grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord

My mind must not be perceiving correctly here and must be missing something. Even after lining up all these things side by side it seems to me like they are more parallel than different. I am sure that it has a lot to do with my culture and its effect on how I perceive the concept of “contrast” and “comparison” in contrast to the culture that formed the mind of the Hebrews that is confusing me. When I look at this chart it strikes me as being very parallel instead of being different. Of course the parallels are from opposite extremes, but they seem to be opposite parallels if that makes sense. So I am still musing over what is meant by “the free gift is not like the transgression” and “the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned”.

Maybe I need more time and more insight from others. I suppose I could go research a commentary but that is about the last thing I want to do. It feels like being programmed to simply reflect someone else's thoughts and beliefs instead of discovering truth myself. But on the other hand it could offer some suggested ways of viewing things that I have not yet thought of, so in that way it might prove useful.

Any input?

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Thoughts on Gratitude and "Through"

Gratitude is the act of taking ownership of a blessing. It is the final step in receiving something or someone into our heart and integrating it into our life. If we want to know the kind of person we are becoming we should take an honest look at what we are really grateful for. Even if we live in a mostly ungrateful state of mind there are things in our life that we use to numb our pain or escape from reality. We will begin to see this in what we honestly value and appreciate.

I notice the tendency in my own prayers that I can ask and beg and plead but often fall short taking the step of accepting in faith and giving thanks by faith. But that reluctance betrays a very subtle spirit of unbelief that leaves me short of fully experiencing the power of God and resting in the blessings and promises that I hear so much about. But when I remember to step over the edge of what I can see and feel and by faith and on the basis of His Word begin to consciously thank Him for the realities of the grace and blessings that I see there but do not yet feel inside, I usually begin to sense an immediate change in my spirit. If I persist in staying in that position of gratitude in God's presence and press my mind to continue to do what feels so uncomfortable at the moment or sometimes so illogical, my feelings begin to come more and more into alignment with God's Word and my perception of reality begins to rise out of the fog of confusion and depression into the light of God's view of reality.

This is certainly not natural for me and is nearly always quite uncomfortable, especially at first. I am not naturally as grateful as some others that I see around me. Of course it is quite possible that some of those I think are naturally grateful are just pushing themselves into that position with as much difficulty as I have but I cannot see the internal struggle in their mind, I don't know. All I know is what goes on inside of me and what God is teaching me personally. I guess that's what the word “witness” is all about.

As I again read Romans 5 this morning I noticed how frequent the word “through” appears in this chapter. It is almost like Paul decided to see how many times he could use this word in one section in his urgency to get us to perceive true reality. Everything we are, the condition we find ourself in both in sin and in grace comes to us “through” one of two Adams or representatives of the human race. It is impossible for us to be outside of that situation or to be independent. What Paul is trying to get through the fog of our confusion and self-focus is that a new reality exists through Jesus that already belongs to every one of us whether we choose to live in it and benefit from it or not.

Through Jesus Christ –

• we have peace with God

• we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand

• we have the love of God poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit

• we were reconciled to God while we were yet sinners

• we shall be saved from wrath

• we were reconciled to God while we were enemies

• we shall be saved by His life

• we exult in God

• we have now received the reconciliation

• those who choose to receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life

• one act of righteousness resulted in justification of life to all men

• through His obedience many will be made righteous

• grace will reign through righteous to eternal life

This list can look like so much religious jargon that can cause our eyes to glaze over with hardness from our heart, or it can be a resource of endless revelations of the reality in which every one of us lives that we can open our heart to receive with increasing gratitude, because gratitude really is the act of taking ownership. And what we choose to value reveals the direction our life is taking and the shape our character is forming.

Gratitude is both a reflection of what I already value, whether good or bad for me, and a choice of what I decide to value before I have the inward feelings of appreciation. My value choices in the past – and the choices of those who have shaped my life – have created the condition in which I currently find myself now. But the choices that I make now are just as powerful to determine what I am going to look like soon in the future. I do not have to remain in the trap of the lies that say I am stuck and I am a victim without any hope. The Bible presents the facts of a new reality that already exists if I will choose to live in it by absorbing it into myself through the doorway of gratitude.

As I was contemplating these ideas this morning the connection occurred to me of why our body language uses our hands to express this idea. One of the most prominent natural body language expressions of the spirit of gratitude is holding out my hands in a gesture of receiving. If someone were to come up to me and offer to give me a lovely gift and I just stood there refusing to hold out my hands to accept it, very likely I would miss out on that gift, because the message received by the other person regardless of their own unselfish motives would be that I am refusing their offer and rejecting their kindness. I certainly do not want to make this a monologue on the pros and cons of the holding up of our hands in worship or the various arguments surrounding that subject. I do believe that the closer I come to feeling free in my spirit and learn to rest “in Christ” the more natural will be my responses and I will not need to force myself to artificially produce the outward expressions. The externals of my life must always be viewed as the symptoms of the condition of my heart, not the core problems. “Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life.” (Proverbs 4:23)

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Breaking the spirit

Part of today's reading from My Utmost.

It is possibly an emancipation to the other person if he does not obey. If one man says to another—‘You must,’ and ‘You shall,’ he breaks the human spirit and unfits it for God. A man is a slave for obeying unless behind his obedience there is a recognition of a holy God. Many a soul begins to come to God when he flings off being religious, because there is only one Master of the human heart, and that is not religion but Jesus Christ. But woe be to me if when I see Him I say—‘I will not.’ He will never insist that I do, but I have begun to sign the death-warrant of the Son of God in my soul. When I stand face to face with Jesus Christ and say—‘I will not,’ He will never insist; but I am backing away from the re-creating power of His Redemption. It is a matter of indifference to God’s grace how abominable I am if I come to the light; but woe be to me if I refuse the light (see John 3:19-21). MUHH 7/18

This is a startling description of how I remember my own life in many ways. I was told “you must,” and “you will” for many years by many different authorities and my resistance to that produced a spirit of rebellion in me that still has deep roots. I can certainly affirm that this kind of “training” is designed to break the human spirit and definitely unfits it for God. It creates a slave mentality toward God and causes the mind to view God as a stern task-master looking for reasons to punish. I have spent years trying to fling off being religious and I have sometimes found it to be very necessary in my process of coming to God. At the same time I have attempted to not abandon the church completely while struggling to come to terms with reality. I am coming to learn about the true God who works at the heart level and is the only One worthy of entrusting my heart to fully. As my picture of Him slowly changes my trust increases and my love begins to awaken.

Although I cannot honestly say that there have not been numerous times I have said “I will not” to the Holy Spirit, I have tried to keep my heart open to His leading and responsive to His drawing. I am learning that knowing God requires that I develop greater sensitivity and carefulness to not resist but to more instantly obey.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6 NKJV) Leaning on my own understanding means that I want to know all the reasons why first so that I can decide to obey and have logical reasons for what I do. While there are good reasons for everything God asks me to do, if I insist on knowing the reasons first before obeying I place myself on very dangerous ground. It is like a young child wanting to know why he should leave the middle of the street before obeying.

But there seems to be a tension between these two things. How does one not break the human spirit and make it unfit for God while at the same time training the mind for implicit obedience? The two must not be contradictory but they seem to be at first glance.

Anyone wise have some comments?

Exulting in Hope

Romans 5:1-11 is full of deep truths that I am just beginning to see. There are so many things starting to emerge that I need to spend some time here unearthing them. Several points came to my attention as I mused over these verses this morning.

I noticed some linked repetitions that usually cue me in on something important to look for. The very first one is “having been justified”. It's first occurrence is in verse one where it says “having been justified by faith, we have peace....” Then in verse nine it says “having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.”

Another repetition is the word “exult” (in this version). It shows up three ways in this section:

verse two says, “we exult in hope of the glory of God.”

verse three says, “we also exult in our tribulations...”

verse eleven says, “we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ...”

These two patterns already deliver an enormous amount of research potential that piques my interest. But first of all I want to take a look at the very first question that came to my mind from verse one. I have reason to believe from previous study that the faith here referred to is not necessarily, or at least exclusively, our faith in Jesus. The strong emphasis that has typically been put on being justified by (our) faith has led us to believe that faith is the ingredient that we must bring to the gospel formula to make it work for us. This has produced untold amounts of discouragement in many who felt they just couldn't work up enough faith to make it happen for them. Much of our evangelism focuses on urging people to “have faith” or even attempts to provide faith for others in hopes that it will jump-start the formula in their life.

I believe quite strongly that the faith here referred to may be the faith that Jesus and the Father has in us to respond to the arrangement of redemption they have already put in place for us. This is the focal point of the previous verse that has such a powerful message implicit within it. Jesus was delivered over – given up, just like the people described in chapter one were given over by God to the consequences of their choices – because of our transgressions.

The real bombshell, at least for me, is when it says that Jesus was raised because of our justification. That means that the Godhead had some arrangement or agreement that if Christ's death could not bring about our justification then Jesus would not be raised from the dead. That is an expression of enormous faith on the part of God and Jesus to take that big of a risk of failure to create this arrangement of redemption for us while we were still enemies hostile toward Him.

If the faith referred to in 5:1 is our faith in Jesus and we are justified by our faith, then since our faith did not yet exist (for several reasons), then in actuality Jesus could not have been raised from the dead, because we were not yet justified due to our lack of faith. One reason we did not yet have faith is because we were not yet born. Another reason is that even after we were born we were born as enemies of God with innate hostility toward Him and needed to experience a conversion to come into alignment with Him. Verses 6,8 & 10 make it very clear that we were not in a condition of saving faith when Jesus died and was resurrected for our salvation. So I believe there is very strong evidence here for this justifying faith in verse one to be the faith of Jesus Himself.

In this verse the results of this faith and justification is peace with God. Again, the previous verse talks about transgressions as the reason for Jesus' death. The word “trans-gress” needs to be unpacked so as to be better understood here. “Trans” means crosswise to something, across or to go beyond the limits of something. “Gress” is part of many words that denotes movement: egress, progress etc. Basically to transgress means to move crosswise to the will of God. When the Bible says that sin is the transgression of the law, since the law is simply a simplistic revelation of God's character, then sin is moving crosswise to what God is like. We find ourselves at cross-purposes with God, resisting God's ways and desires, and definitely not at peace with God.

But according to 4:25 Jesus was resurrected because we were justified before God. That would certainly seem to me to include having peace with God. If a person is justified the very cause for them not to have peace would have been removed. 5:1 says that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Peace with God, at least as far as God's opinion seems to be concerned, is already a done deal, along with our justification. I believe that all of this is what Paul refers to in verse two as our “introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand.”

On God's side of our relationship with Him we see great faith in us and redemption which has already provided our justification and peace with God. Jesus has supplied all the faith necessary as an introduction into His grace, placing us, while still His enemies, in a place where we can exult or rejoice in hope of the glory of God. God wants us to share in His glory. His glory is to demonstrate selfless love and grace and to transform sinners into perfect reflections of His own character and be filled with joy and peace. Every person on earth has been placed into this position as an introduction to what God wants to expand dramatically in their lives if they give Him further permission.

So what is our part in all of this? We already know that many people will not be saved. What is the difference between the lost and the saved if everyone has been justified and has been given peace with God? What's the catch?

The transition point resides in the word “reconciled” which shows up in verses ten and eleven. And even there it starts out by making a strong declaration that, as far as God is concerned, as far as His opinion about us goes, we were reconciled to God “while we were enemies”.

I looked up the word reconcile on Dictionary.com and found some very relevant definitions that I think express what God is trying to do.

2.	to win over to friendliness; cause to become amicable: to reconcile hostile persons.

3.	to compose or settle (a quarrel, dispute, etc.).

4.	to bring into agreement or harmony; make compatible or consistent:

From God's viewpoint, when Jesus took upon Himself all the the results of sin when it is exposed to the presence of God's perfect holiness and died as a result, God considers the issues that separated us from Him as settled in Christ. There is no more dispute, the human race, as far as He is concerned, has been brought into harmony – compatibility – with Him. So how do we account for all of the disharmony and incompatibility with God that we see so evident all around us still?

First of all we need to get it solidly settled as irrevocable fact that it is not because of God's thoughts about us that we are still living in such a mess. God's thoughts toward us are only thoughts of peace. “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord.” (Jeremiah 29:11-13 NRSV) If we try to move beyond this point without anchoring it securely in place we will become very confused by the rest of the plan of salvation. Reconciliation is a done deal as far as God is concerned. But that does not mean that everyone who has been offered it will accept it and take ownership of it.

The last half of verse ten and then verse eleven I believe indicate a choice made on the part of those who choose to participate in this “done deal” by believing it and accepting it for themselves. “...having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”

When we understand the true nature of the gift that is already in place on God's side and then choose to accept the gift for ourself personally by receiving the reconciliation, we are then “in Christ” and are fully identified with everything that happens to Him, past present and future. We are justified in His death, we are saved by His life and we are blessed “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” (Eph. 1:3) Ephesians 1 is a grand expose´ of the incredible blessings that we can now enjoy and employ in our position as being “in Christ”.

There is much more to be explored here but I want to save that for another day. Until then I want to ponder and absorb the reality of my privileges of being in covenant relationship with Jesus and take much more advantage of the power and privileges available to me as a justified, reconciled child of God exulting in hope, in tribulations and in God.

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