Paradigm Examination Time

Trying to understand Romans 9.

He seems to be saying that God picks and chooses who will be save or lost, who will get mercy and who will get anger. That is the usual take on this passage.

We all come to new information with preconceived filters in place, paradigms about what is true and what makes up reality. Since all of us are born in sin we will have at least a certain amount of Satan's lies in place in our filters from the get-go. So it should be no surprise that the majority of people upon reading this passage would assume that God is arbitrary and selective. This is likely one of the writings of Paul that Peter was talking about when he said there were some things he had written that were difficult to understand.

God created everyone with the power to choose and the freedom to change. He fiercely defends that freedom all throughout the War which is precisely why the War has gone on so long the way it has. But it will be seen in the end that His choice to preserve freedom over forcing us to believe truth was the most effective one to restore the universe to unity and joy and peace,

In this context we have the freedom to misunderstand God when reading this passage because of our false preconceptions about Him inherent in our sinful nature and perpetrated by most religion. But we also have the freedom to challenge our own assumptions when we begin to see that our conclusions conflict with other more clear fundamental truths revealed to us about what God is like. What we will take away from this passage will reflect what previous picture of God that we have chosen to endorse. We can either reinforce the lies about God by using this passage to declare that it underscores His arbitrary, punitive tendencies or we can choose to bring in a more updated filter and examine this passage in the clearer light from other places throughout the Bible.

It is usually the case that the most troubling verses we run into in the Bible often are a cover for some of the most exciting and thrilling gems of beauty for the ones willing to dig and ask and wrestle and listen to the Spirit of God. Given that history I believe the same may be true of this passage as well.

So there are basically two paradigms or filters that we might bring with us to use in unpacking this passage. The first I mentioned above, assuming a God who arbitrarily decides who to use to display his wrath (read human-like anger) and who to selectively show mercy to for contrast. But to use this filter to interpret these verses is to reveal an underlying belief about God that is in harmony with the lies perpetrated by Satan since before the earth was created. Not a very safe position to work from I would say.

The other option is to question our own paradigm before jumping to conclusions about this passage and correcting our lies about God based on the most reliable testimony about Him, namely the life and words of Jesus who claimed to be the perfect expression of God. If we make the revelation of Jesus Christ the basis for interpreting this section of writing we will be enabled to see things not obvious to the unenlightened mind using the wrong magnifying glass. This is a place where we need the Holy fire of God's light to allow us to see things correctly. If we bring the light of strange fire to our study, i.e. our human emotions and false assumptions about God, we will never be able to discover truth in this passage but will only end up reinforcing Satan's misrepresentations about our loving Creator.

These are the things that have come to my mind this morning after reading this section and feeling confused and baffled. I asked God out loud to explain what is going on here to me. I told Him that He has some explaining to do and told Him what my initial reactions were upon reading this passage. It stirs up all sorts of triggers and doubts and even anger that God might override people's freedom just to justify Himself and His favorite people. That is not the truth about God that I have been learning lately but is very much a part of the false teachings about Him that have kept my heart at a great distance from Him for most of my life.

If God is arbitrary and selective and only extends mercy to just the ones He feels like while using others as playthings for His “wrath”, then I could never feel safe around a God like that and I can certainly never love Him. But that is emphatically not true, and I reject this filter as being sourced from the depths of hell as it comes from the father of all lies. I am going to seek the Spirit's guidance to listen for a more accurate paradigm through which to read this passage and wait to see what exciting things will be revealed to my heart. I want to use the light of the truth about God to shine into this chapter and I want to look through the magnifying glass of the life of Jesus to read these words until they reveal perfect harmony and I see the glowing gems of real truth that I know are buried below the surface of this chapter. I must be careful to see how this fits into the context of the surrounding passages so that I better understand the real points that Paul is trying to get across. I am looking forward to growing and deepening my understanding and appreciation of the beauty of God and His perfect consistency in love.

(next in series)

Darkness-dispelling Light

I want to flush out some more threads that I see running through Romans 8. I will not refer to each verse from which I get the phrases because it can be a bit distracting, but I am looking at the area from around 28 to the end of the chapter.

What I see here is the anchoring down of truths that have long been buried under lies about God. Paul is bringing the truth to light to dispel many of the religious mis-notions that have distorted our view of God.

In the old way of thinking we believed that God caused both good and evil to come into our lives.	God is actually at work constantly behind the scenes working for the good of everyone who gives Him permission by opening themselves to His presence and work in their hearts.
We have usually assumed that as sinners we are headed for hell and wrathful judgments of God unless we can figure out how to get Him to save us.	We have been predestined to become just like Himself as revealed in the life of Jesus. This is the purpose of the invitation He has given to us. He has justified us and is sanctifying everyone who does not determinedly resist it. The result is being glorified which means we take on the character attributes of God Himself.
We have thought that God was against us, that somehow we had to placate His anger and appease Him enough to be saved. We even thought that Jesus came and died for our sins so that He could get His Father to calm down and allow us into heaven through some sort of legal maneuver.	God is not against us but is all for us. Jesus did not come to placate an angry, vengeful Father but to reveal the compassionate heart of the Father to us. God did not send us Son to appease Himself but to change our mind about Him. They both allowed us to torture and kill Him to get us to see the true nature of the wickedness of the sin that is so deeply rooted in every one of our hearts and realize our desperate need to be healed.
We thought that God had to be bribed and manipulated to give us the things we need or want. We thought we had to earn His favor and His blessings with more and more perfect obedience to His rules.	God not only gave up His most valuable possession – His only Son – but is so outrageously generous that He is putting everything in the universe at the service of anyone willing to believe in His love for them.
We thought that the judgment was all about arraigning us before a stern judging God and recounting all of our sins and mistakes to shame us and remind us how worthy we are of condemnation.	Far from ever wanting us to feel condemned, Jesus came to reveal to us that it is not God but our own hearts and minds that cause us to feel condemned. Because we have a strained relationship with the Source of life we are feeling suffocated and think that it is the Source itself that is depriving us of life. But Jesus came to lay down His own life so that He could guarantee our eternal life if we will allow Him to live in our heart.
We thought that Jesus intercedes for us before God to change God's opinion about us.	God, who already knows everything about us does not need changing. It is us who needs our minds changed about Him and it is our minds and hearts that Jesus is wanting to change by His intercession.
We think that when bad things happen to us that God must be unhappy with us and when things are going well we must be doing something right.	Irregardless of any circumstances whatsoever, we can know that God's love is unwavering and unquestionable. No matter how we may feel or think we cannot change the impassioned heart of God from loving any one of His created children no matter how messed up or rebellious they may be. When we choose to allow this love to fill us we will find ourselves to be overwhelming conquerors.
In conclusion, it needs to become clear in our minds and hearts that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are all in complete agreement and harmony in their passionate love and pursuit of us. Nothing but nothing, not even death itself, can keep us away from the immense, love-filled heart of the great Ruler of the whole universe.

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Who? Not God!

Sometimes when reading a letter that addresses questions or issues that you don't know about you can discern the original issues and questions by extrapolating them from the answers in the letter. I think a lot of that can be done in the book of Romans. In this case there are actually two versions of the original issues and questions and sometimes Paul addresses them separately and sometimes he puts them together. Because at root they spring from the same internal problem – a false picture of God and salvation.

As I look through the last part of chapter 8 I notice a series of questions that indicate there was an issue that Paul wanted to counteract head-on; there were misunderstandings that needed to be rectified. If I condense the phrases down and put them together it becomes more clear. It is in the last section of the chapter that focuses on the love of God and most of the time when people read it they focus on the answers (the love of God) but do not notice that the answers are given to address specific questions with all sorts of underlying assumptions that need to be exposed so that the answers become even more stark and powerful by contrast.

• Who can be against us?

• How shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

• Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect?

• Who is he that condemneth?

• Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Paul is trying to reorient our paradigms, our context, our assumptions about what is reality. From this list of questions it looks like those he is writing to (which includes all of us) believed that someone is against us, and that is usually assumed to be God. That is why typical religion works so hard to come up with all sorts of schemes and practices and ideas that we somehow think will change God's mind toward us.

The next question exposes that false assumption even more. It is assumed that God is not very generous, that we have to do things to impress Him so that we can induce Him to bless us or save us. One does not have to look very far at all to see this kind of thinking in religion today.

The typical view of God as a stern judge sitting in austere settings in heaven and constantly looking for any mistakes, discrepancies or sins in our lives is exposed in the next question. Most people believe that the charges against them are coming from God the Father and that His kinder Son Jesus is interceding for us to placate His wrath and somehow appease His justice enough to slip us into paradise.

The next question reinforces that concept by revealing that sinful humans, ever since Adam and Eve cowered in the bushes, have felt that God was condemning them and are afraid to be in His presence. This feeling of condemnation is pervasive and is falsely attributed as to coming from God. But Jesus made it explicitly clear when He talked with Nicodemus that God is not in the business of condemning but of saving.

After all of these lies about God have been exposed for what they really are – blatant, bald-faced misrepresentations of God by his archenemy Satan (which means accuser) – Paul nails down the truth about God by confessing that it is God's passionate, unstoppable, inescapable love that is the true reality and that is our only hope. Furthermore there is simply nothing in the universe outside of our own personal choice that can prevent that love from having its intended results of restoring us into an intimate, fulfilling relationship with our Creator.

This truth about God's real attitude toward us in contrast with the lies purported by both open sinners and religious sinners is the gospel, the good news that has within it the power to save us. (Romans 1:16,17) Remember, the word “save” which comes from “salvation”, means to restore to original condition, to heal, to repair. As we allow our hearts and minds to be filled and empowered and excited by the reality of the love that God always has toward us and we let go of our lies about Him we will begin to experience the transforming process of restoration and healing that is inevitable in the atmosphere of perfect love.

(next in series)

The End is Near

I am coming to the end of a long relationship, the soon termination of a deep bond of friendship that I have enjoyed for many years. It may seem to some like a mystery that is shallow or silly, but to others who have likewise enjoyed similar relationships they will understand what I am talking about.

I am referring to the most affectionate and adoring creature that has ever laid eyes on me – my cat George. I have come to realize that he is a special gift from God to help me understand a little better the feelings that God Himself has for me. This gift is apparently to be soon interrupted for a time, but I have no doubts based on what I have learned about what God is really like, that I will someday see George again and enjoy his company permanently.

I will not take the time to write his eulogy before his time is up, at least not quite yet. But I thought I would just share on my blog what is currently happening. I think that he probably has some type of cancer that had demonstrated itself in the growing tumor on his nose. He has been becoming weaker over the past few months and is now failing to eat much or even get around. He spent the last day or so just lying on the floor in our bedroom but came out in the evening to get up into my chair.

As I shared a couple weeks ago in the men's group, I have very deep feelings and attachment for this companion that creates potential for a lot of pain. I never know how I will respond to a death in my family. I suppose it has a lot to do with how much it is expected and what kind of relationship I have with them. But death is still our greatest enemy and I can't wait until it is eliminated from the universe forever.

In the meantime I will continue to turn my attention to the Source of life who is greater than death itself and is, in fact, the reality of resurrection Himself. In my study, or more accurately my absorption, of Romans I am getting into the end of chapter 8 which is very appropriate for this situation. It is one of the clearest declarations of assurance in the whole Bible that there is nothing but nothing that can keep any one of us separated from the love of God, the unstoppable passion of God that craves to draw every one of us into personal and fulfilling intimacy with His heart. George's impending death, though it will likely be very painful for me, will be buffered and shared by my best Friend who has the power to remove the sting of death. He holds the trump card in this game and at the right time He will play it in favor of everyone who allows His love to infiltrate their hearts.

George has taught me a great deal about unconditional love and devotion. Over the past few years he has been more and more affectionate and sometimes literally follows me ever place I walk. He amazes me with his consistent positive attitude in spite of all the pain he may be feeling inside. Even as he is wasting away and growing thinner each day he continues to respond with purring and affection whenever I come to him. That is a lesson I know I need to remember myself.

I will miss George painfully and deeply, but I know that Jesus feels the pain with me. There is nothing too small that affects my peace that He will not notice and respond to. I will grow through this pain and will remember with great fondness all the years we have enjoyed together. And I look forward with hope to the final termination of all pain, all suffering and all death forever. Maranatha.

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.’