Saved by the Skin of their Teeth

"It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. "It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. (Luke 17:28-30)

I wonder if there may be two groups of Christians in that day. One group will be like Abraham living in harmony and close communion with God and keeping a distance between their lives and the corruption concentrated in the cities. The other group will be living very close on the edge of sin, living in the midst of sinful environments and having their witness for God compromised by their familiarity with it. Their families will be contaminated and they will only be saved by the skin of their teeth, dragged out by angels and suffering losses of members of their families in the process. Their works will be tested by fire and will be burned up but they will be saved – barely. (see 1 Cor. 3:12-15)

Intensifying Light

And law came in, that the offence might abound, and where the sin did abound, the grace did overabound, (Romans 5:20 YLT)

A realization came to me this morning while I was listening to God through my morning devotional books, that enhanced my understanding of this verse. I have often quietly puzzled over this statement. It makes it seem on the surface that God gave the law to accelerate sin or even create more sin, which on its face seems counter-productive. But some ideas from the two devotional books acted like catalysts this morning to shed more light on this verse.

In fact, that was the essence of the thought – light. The law is nothing more than a severely condensed, left-brain statement of the character of God. As such, it was like a powerful light that was switched on in a very dark room that had filled with rats, snakes and all sorts of other revolting evils that thrive in the dark. As a primarily intellectual, factual revelation of God, the Law was a light that suddenly exposed or highlighted the many sins in the world that had thrived and multiplied since the first sin of Adam.

Paul says that “before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.” (Romans 5:13-14 NIV) “Breaking a command” is the favorite technical definition for sin given by those who insist on religion and righteousness being externally and behaviorally oriented. “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” (1 John 3:4 KJV) I know, I was raised that way very carefully. It is also the natural human condition to view sin or righteousness as external issues of behavior.

That is where the implied question arises in Paul's statement here. He too was intensely trained in the external-oriented mode of left-brained, behavior-based religion so he knew the arguments that his words would arouse. “If you never specifically told me not to do it, then why are you getting me in trouble for it?” Have you ever heard that reasoning before? That is the logic of an immature child who is learning the nuances of how to play the externalism game. If he learns it well it will help keep him in a state of permanent immaturity for the rest of his life.

Paul points out that the symptom, the evidence that sin is present, which is death, was plainly evident even though the legalistic external commands were not obvious between Adam's time and the event at Mount Sinai. The only thing the Law really did was switch on the bright light and as a result all the existing sin became much more exposed. But where God is present there is grace, for He has never changed, and His character also is full of mercy and grace. The people in the Old Testament had to be saved exactly the same way the people under the New Covenant have to be saved – by grace alone. God provided more than enough grace for them to have, but, like too many of us yet today, most of them failed to realize that their only hope was embracing their hopelessness and throwing themselves into the grace that was waiting for them in the heart of their Creator.

The whole span of the Old Testament/Old Covenant was a period of immaturity where God had to relate to the world and His chosen children as a father has to relate to the very immature reasoning of a rebellious child. They were so stuck on defining right and wrong in terms of externals that He had to switch on a bright light to explicitly show them how out of sync they were with the ideals, character and heart of their God. The Law was not designed to save them but to expose their desperate condition and stimulate them to realize their helpless condition and cry out for mercy. Instead, they cried out with promises of obedience which plunged them into centuries of exploring every attempt to achieve righteousness and earn favor with God imaginable. Of course that is impossible – sinful humans cannot become like God by trying harder no matter how intense their desires are or how sincere their motives.

Nothing has changed in that regard. Most of us are still attempting in some way or another to help God out by working on changing our lives so we can somehow motivate Him to do something for us or answer our prayers etc. Jesus revealed that mentality in the heart of the debtor who, instead of asking for and receiving mercy in the face of a ludicrously impossible debt, took the course of promising to pay it off somehow if he was just given enough time. (Matt. 18:23-26) If you look carefully at the size of his debt, any reasonable person would realize the absurdity of his promise. The debt amounted to 150,000 YEARS of wages for the average man. Given enough TIME? Just how much eternal life can you generate on your own to pay off that kind of debt anyway? But his subsequent actions demonstrated that, indeed he fully intended to launch into his grand project of paying off his debt so he could sing, “I did it my way”.

What I realized this morning is that in a sense, a very similar event happened in the New Covenant as what happened at Mount Sinai. Jesus is a perfect revelation of the Father; He is the character of God personified. He repeatedly referred to Himself as the Light of the World. "The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world." (John 1:9 NRSV) As a light He exposed the intensity and vileness of the sin that had filled the whole world in spite of the light from the Law given at Sinai. But there was a big difference with this Light. For Jesus was not just a left-brain explanation of God's character written in words (left-brain only function) on hard tables of lifeless stone. He was a demonstration, an example (right-brain function of imitation) of what God looks like in attitude and relationships and feelings. He came to expose the real wickedness and helpless condition of our hearts, not just our actions and words.

The light that blazed in the world through the perfect life of Jesus was not primarily to show us what perfect behavior looks like but how to live a life from our heart in total dependence on another Source for everything. Jesus was a much brighter light than the Law because He demonstrated and taught how impossibly great the chasm really is between us and God's perfect character. We must not make the same mistake that the Children of Israel did at Mount Sinai and promise that we will try harder and be obedient. In His teachings Jesus raised the bar of perfection so high that when we realize the truth in what He said we will fall into hopelessness – which is exactly where God wants to meet us.

If Jesus had just come and lived a perfect life and gone back to heaven without dying on the cross for our sins, He would have not done anything much different than what happened at Mount Sinai, only the results would have been much worse. We need much more than an explanation of what God is like and even much more than a living demonstration of what He is like, as helpful as those are. What we must come to realize is that we need to become swallowed up in Christ by dying to ourselves in hopeless despair and throwing ourselves constantly into His grace and mercy. One reason Jesus came was to make us despair of ourselves, for it is only in total despair that we become ready to trust fully in Jesus to save us whatever that involves.

The Light keeps getting brighter; the glory will soon fill the whole earth. (Rev. 18:1) The intensity of God's passion, the fire in His bones, His intense desire to be close to us and have us with Him for eternity – this consuming fire will either ignite our reflected passion for Him and draw us closer to Him as we allow our sin to be consumed in its invading presence, or it will harden our hearts like Pharaoh and we will ultimately be baked to extinction by the very love we rejected. We cannot blame the light for the rats and snakes. The only thing the light does is reveal reality. And likewise we cannot blame the passionate love that God has for us for the ultimate destruction of the lost. But as the light and heat intensify, we are all forced to choose which side we will live on, which view of reality we will embrace, which master we will present ourself to in loyalty and service. (Romans 6) Our choice is the only thing we have in freedom and everyone will exercise it one way or the other.

Elijah then came near to all the people, and said, "How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him." The people did not answer him a word. (1 Kings 18:21 NRSV)

He must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does. (James 1:6-8 NIV)

See, I am sending you Elijah the prophet before the day of the Lord comes, that great day, greatly to be feared. And by him the hearts of fathers will be turned to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers; for fear that I may come and put the earth under a curse. (Malachi 4:5-6 BBE)

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Slavery Options

In my further investigation into this concept of slavery I scanned through Romans 6 and 7 to isolate out the two sides being presented by Paul. So far I have only condensed the “sinner” side of the issue and in another post I will do the same for the “saved” side. It is also very helpful to notice that these chapters are primarily addressing different classes of “sinners” that were outlined in the first two chapters of the book. The analogy that Paul uses to address the first group is the slave/master paradigm which was quite familiar to those to whom he was writing at the time. The second group addressed in Romans 7 were the ones he identified in Romans 2 who were the religious people attempting to live a righteous life and being a Christian by keeping the rules. Their situation is different in many respects from the first group and for them he uses the analogy of a stifling marriage arrangement. This too was quite familiar to many of those living in that day and likely to many of us as well. So to start out with, let me just share what I have condensed so far and then see what emerges after that.

Elements of slavery to sin in the life of lawless sinners:

• Through one man, Adam, sin entered into the world, and death through sin, so death spread to all men, because all sinned. 5:12

• By the transgression of one many died. v.15

• Judgment arose from one resulting in condemnation. v.16

• By Adam's transgression death reigned through him. v.17

• Through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men. v.18

• Through one man's disobedience the many were made sinners. v.19

• The Law came in so that the transgression would increase. v.20

• Sin reigns in death. v.21

• Lives in our body of sin, our old self. 6:6

• We have not died. v.7

• Death is master over us. v.9

• Sin reigns in our mortal body so that we obey its lusts. v.12

• We present the members of our body to sin as weapons of unrighteousness. v.13

• Sin is master over us under the law. v.14

• We present ourselves to sin for obedience resulting in death. v.16

• We are slaves of sin. v.17

• We presented our members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in more lawlessness. v.19

• As slaves of sin we are free in regard to righteousness. v.20

• The benefit, fruit or outcome derived from those things is death. v.21

• The wages of sin is death. v.23

Notice that the results in this category are measured out in wages. The next category uses the analogy of sexual union in marriage resulting child-bearing to produce its outcome.

Elements of slavery to sin in the life of Law-obsessed sinners

or

Marriage to the Law instead of Jesus:

• I am under jurisdiction of the Law. 7:1

• My real self is bound (to my sinful self) by the Law. v.2

• I am in the flesh where my sinful passions are at work, aroused by the Law, in the members of my body to bear fruit (children) for death. v.5

• I serve (God) in the oldness of the letter. v.6

• Sin takes opportunity through the Law to reproduce itself (conceive offspring) in me. v.8

• (This kind of) sin can only live (as a parasite) with the Law. v.8

• The commandment causes sin to come alive, deceive me and causes the real me to die. v.9-11

• Sin is the cause of death for me through the commandment – not the commandment itself, which is good. v.12,13

• I are of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. v.14

• I am doing the very thing I hate while not practicing what I would like to do. v.15

• I agree with the good Law while doing what I do not want to do. v.16

• It is sin that dwells in me that is doing all this, not me. v.17,20

• Nothing good dwells in my flesh, even though the desire for good is present in me. v.18

• I practice the very evil I do not want. v.19

• I realize that I am under the control of an inescapable principle that evil is present in me. v.21

• I joyfully concur, delight in, the law of God in my inner (real) self. v.22

• I see a different law (inescapable controlling principle) in the members of my body waging war against the law (my good intentions) of my mind making me a prisoner of the law of sin. v.23

• I am wretched and bound to the body of this death (a dead corpse tied to me). v.24

• I see that in my flesh I am serving the law of sin and with my mind the law of God. v.25

Sifting through these two chapters to condense this list has been helpful for me to begin to clarify the real problems in my own experience. I am far from finished yet, but the confusion and fog that has surrounded Romans 7 in particular for most of my life is beginning to clear away some more. It greatly helps to study it in the context of a clearer understanding of the rest of the book that has come before it instead of just dropping into the chapter from outside and trying desperately to figure it out.

I find it very helpful and useful to isolate one side of an issue and collect all the items together in one place so that their identity can be more clearly seen like I have done here. Then the contrast between the two sides becomes much easier to identify and remember instead of going back and forth from one side to the other as is usually the way they are presented. I am not saying that it is wrong to present them that way. It is just very helpful to separate them for awhile until it becomes much more clear in my mind and then when I read them again mixed together I can understand them much better and appreciate the contrasts more intelligently. I suppose maybe it is part of my adaptation for accommodating my weaker mental capacity at times to get me up to speed with brighter minds. But I also find it useful for being able to explain it more simply and clearly to others as well.

I welcome your thoughtful input.

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Slavery 101

I received a comment on my last Romans post that stimulated my thinking. This is the kind of thing that I experience when participating in an inductive study with other people and I enjoy that immensely. I wish that I could do that again; it has been years since I have enjoyed those experiences with others. Anyway, this forum has been a weak substitute in the meantime for expressing my plodding discoveries in the book of Romans and the comment from Josh stimulated my curiosity to look deeper into the real meaning of the idea of slavery as talked about in Romans 6.

The verse that I am focusing on for this is Romans 6:16. The way it reads in the translation I am currently studying is “Do you not know that 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?” (Romans 6:16 NAS95)

I really like the rendering of this text from the Bible in Basic English which reads, “Are you not conscious that you are the servants of him to whom you give yourselves to do his desire? if to sin, the end being death, or if to do the desire of God, the end being righteousness.” (Romans 6:16 BBE)

Josh mentioned that he looked up the Greek word for slavery which is “doulos” and wondered how that fit into what God is trying to reveal about our relationship to Him. That prompted me to look up the word as well which, as usual, flushed out a great deal of very interesting implications as I wandered through the various definitions both of the original word and the words that form its roots. I also did the same kind of trace on the word translated “present” or “yield” which is the precursive action that we do to choose which kind of slavery we will end up in. That too yielded rich results.

I suspect that this subject could grow and deepen indefinitely which I could not exploit to its full capacity here, but I would like to take a good bit of time to do some in-depth exploration of this aspect of salvation and see what God wants my heart to learn and experience in the process. I invite your participation in this. After all, if I and everyone around me have no alternative but to be in total servitude to one master or another, it seems quite reasonable at the very least to explore what that relationship is going to look and feel like and what outcomes it will produce in our lives for our future. That only seems reasonable so we can make a more informed choice of which master we want to link up to.

So the two words that I am looking at here describe, first the means by which we choose and then a description of the situation in which we will live after our choice. Maybe in this post I will simply focus on the facts and try to clarify the intellectual meanings and definitions surrounding the words. That is the first step in healthy inductive study and is very important for laying a good foundation for further, deeper heart work.

The first word I would like to look at is the Greek word “paristemi”. I scanned through the various translations that I have available in my computer to see what different options they used to translate this word into English. The words used are yield, present, offer, give, surrender. This gives a good flavor for what the Greek word means but I found some very stimulating surprises when I went one level deeper and looked at the meaning of one of the roots of this word. It comes from two words, “para” and “histemi”. “Para” seems to be a rather generic preposition that gives movement to the word. But when I looked at “histemi” I uncovered a treasure chest of meaning with far-ranging implications for this study. Here is a condensation of Strong's definition for this word:

“to stand (transitively or intransitively), which properly denotes an upright and active position,: – abide, appoint, bring, continue, covenant, establish, hold up, lay, present”

The word “covenant” particularly caught my interest here after the life-changing teachings I recently received about what are involved in covenants, what they mean and the powerful implications surrounding them. What I am beginning to see here is a choice involving entering into a covenant relationship with someone who will then become the dominating force in our life. They will become the model into which we will be shaped in our covenant relationship with them.

This leads me to the next word “doulos”, translated into English as “servant” or “slave”. Strong's defines it this way: “a slave (literal or figurative, involuntary or voluntary; frequently, therefore in a qualified sense of subjection or subserviency): – bond(-man), servant.”

What I also found fascinating here is when I checked the root word for this which is “deo”. That word means “to bind (in various applications, literally or figuratively): – bind, be in bonds, knit, tie, wind.”

Given the many things I have been learning lately about attachment bonds being at the deepest foundational roots of the human brain, I am beginning to see that being bonded is not an option for us as humans – only who or what we become bonded to is an option. And while it is true that the bonds we have in the present were all primarily formed by our family surroundings, culture and upbringing to this point, Paul is stating here that we now have a choice to establish new bonds that can radically override and replace our old bonds if we choose to offer our deepest self to a new Master. This offer involves entering into a covenant relationship with the very One who designed us originally and craves the opportunity to restore us to that original design far beyond our wildest imaginations. This will happen by having all of our fear-bonds replaced with love-bonds that are far stronger and better suited to make us thrive.

When we choose this “slavery” to our Creator and Designer, we are choosing to be knitted, tied, intertwined at the heart level with the greatest Lover in all the universe. And how do we choose this? One of the definitions for describing the word translated “present” is “abide”. That reminds me of John 15 where Jesus laid out very explicitly what this servant/master relationship would look like – abiding. Repeatedly Jesus talked about abiding in us and us abiding in Him. This is the real model of “slavery” that we are looking at here in contrast to the dominating, fear-based, controlling, exploitive, force-oriented kind of slavery that is ultimately the only alternative to this. We may be conned into believing that we are free and can enjoy life independent of a covenant relationship with our Creator, but in the long-term it will become very painfully obvious that selfishness and independence only disconnect us from the only source of life there is. And like a computer disconnected from a power source the only option left is pain and death.

Well, I am verging on writing more than my heart is producing which is always a hazardous function at best. I need to think about these things today and let them soak deeper into my mind and heart as I ponder them, hopefully with others. God has a way of bringing many things to my attention to enhance what I am learning after giving me a subject like this, so I am looking forward to what is coming.

Shabbot Shalom.

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Compulsive Interference

Sometimes I feel like this blog idea is taking on a life of its own, and what it does to me is not always desirable. I started out many months ago doing this as an experiment in self-disclosure and it certainly assisted in doing that, maybe too well, I don't know. But it seems since then to have morphed into something different somehow and now it tries to assert undue influence over my thinking processes at times. I sometimes find it interfering in my personal times with God, trying to formulate how I will write down what I am experiencing. The trouble is, the very act of writing things down sometimes dampens the fire that is just starting to flicker in my heart as it struggles to hear and see more clearly the face of God. The right brain/heart part of me becomes confused by all the language processes of the left brain and quietly slips back into hiding if my left brain doesn't shut up and back off soon enough.

Both devotional readings today addressed this very thing and now I am here formulating a post about it – how ironic. But that is because of the other aspect of this “journaling” experiment which has provided a lot of benefit and growth for me. Many people have found that journaling during their quiet times with God has greatly enhanced the depth of their experience and accelerated their spiritual growth. I believe that has largely been the case with me as well, though I may be doing it much more publicly than most. What bothers me is this subtle nuisance pestering of my left brain eager to translate what my heart is experiencing into language terms before the experience has even taken form or is fully entered into yet. I have written about this before and it is still pestering me to the point that sometimes I deliberately stop writing for awhile to create time and space for my heart to grow more easily.

Along this same line I have noticed recently much to my chagrin that I have very often been writing things that I soon regret writing, usually in the comments section either on other's blogs or even in my responses to comments on my own. I have been thinking about this and trying to understand why I have such a tendency toward foot-in-mouth syndrome in this area. It seems that at least part of my problem is a sense of pressure – time pressure, sometimes due to my fears of what people will think about me if I don't respond quickly. But when I come under the influence of this pressure and try to write something profound on the spur of the moment I almost always end up writing something very regrettable instead. It is becoming more apparent to me that wisdom is not something to be hurried or forced, it is something to be accepted, respected and treated with great humility, something of which I am in far too short of supply many times.

So I should like to take this opportunity to apologize for my insensitive or coarse remarks written in the passion (and pride) of the moment that have caused some to wince when they read them. I am not being moved here on a self-inflicted guilt trip for this as would have been the case a few years ago. I am simply becoming more aware, though still just a very little bit I am afraid, of the possible enormity of my insensitivity toward others that many on the outside might be quite willing to communicate to me if I were of a mind to listen and receive.

As far as balancing the pros and cons of writing or journaling, I have sometimes felt the need to write out my feelings very explicitly to get them more exposed so they can't hide so easily in my mind but then take that document and lay it aside out of the public view. I know this sounds like just common sense and I'm sure it is, but though I need to be maybe more selective about what I “publish” I still need the assistive benefits of this form of expression (writing) to give more definite shape to what my mind and heart is grappling with at times.

I will share quotes and my comments from the two devotionals that I just read for anyone interested.

Our power is not in our talents of education or means, neither is it in our popularity; it is in self-sacrifice, our willing obedience to Jesus Christ. Those who truly surrender all to Him, will carry a weight of influence, and will carry others along with them, because they walk in the light. Brain power will be inefficient, purse power of little account with God; but heart power, thorough godliness, humble fidelity, will bear a weight of influence that will be irresistible. {SD 236}

I found this statement to confirm much of what I have been learning over the past few years. This is a powerful affirmation of the importance of living from the heart. It even states that when I learn to live from my heart in harmony with my Creator instead of just from my “mind” that my influence will be irresistible. That is stunning to me.

Likewise, the reading from My Utmost for His Highest today reinforced this lesson I am trying to learn at the heart level. Here it is.

Yet lackest thou one thing; sell all that thou hast. . . and come, follow Me. Luke 18:22.

“And when he heard this. . .” Have you ever heard the Master say a hard word? If you have not, I question whether you have heard Him say anything. Jesus Christ says a great deal that we listen to, but do not hear; when we do hear, His words are amazingly hard.

Jesus did not seem in the least solicitous that this man should do what He told him, He made no attempt to keep him with Him. He simply said—‘Sell all you have, and come, follow Me.’ Our Lord never pleaded, He never cajoled, He never entrapped; He simply spoke the sternest words mortal ears ever listened to, and then left it alone.

Have I ever heard Jesus say a hard word? Has He said something personally to me to which I have deliberately listened? Not something I can expound or say this and that about, but something I have heard Him say to me? This man did understand what Jesus said, he heard it and he sized up what it meant, and it broke his heart. He did not go away defiant; he went away sorrowful, thoroughly discouraged. He had come to Jesus full of the fire of earnest desire, and the word of Jesus simply froze him; instead of producing an enthusiastic devotion, it produced a heart-breaking discouragement. And Jesus did not go after him, He let him go. Our Lord knows perfectly that when once His word is heard, it will bear fruit sooner or later. The terrible thing is that some of us prevent it bearing fruit in actual life. I wonder what we will say when we do make up our minds to be devoted to Him on that particular point? One thing is certain, He will never cast anything up at us. (Chambers, Oswald: My Utmost for His Highest August 17)

One thing that impressed me in this is the extreme sensitivity of Jesus in regards to our freedom to choose. While He certainly may allow great pressure to build up in our lives to align ourselves with reality and God, He is very careful not to force our will in the slightest, contrary to what many of us may believe. God puts a great deal of value on freedom being the basis of our love for Him.

This statement also gave expression to the growing sense of frustration I am having with myself about my growing impulsiveness for expounding even when my heart is not ready for it. I have much to learn about guarding my heart times in the presence of God from the noisy interference of my intellect-oriented left brain eager to “expound or say this and that”. I want to deliberately focus on listening with my heart to the hard word that only Jesus can share safely with my heart. Parallel to this, I also want to be careful not to preempt Jesus in His work of delivering a hard word to someone around me by trying to unduly assist Him in that work. Only the Holy Spirit knows how to deliver a conviction with the least cause for resistance or defensiveness in a perfect atmosphere of love. I need to let Him do His job and learn how to simply cooperate in the ways He wants me to relate to others.

Sometimes I find myself running out of inspiration and then discovering that I am just filling in words hoping that they will turn out to sound right, which of course they won't in the end. (I just did that in the last paragraph) What I apparently need to learn is to stop immediately when I sense this is happening (I did) and simply wait for my heart to finish what it needs to do or contemplate before my left brain overrides the “better part of wisdom” (as my folks used to say). I think that this counsel, if consistently followed, would keep me out of a lot of regrets and embarrassment, not to mention possibly allowing my heart more breathing room to feel safe to thrive and engage more actively. (Be patient with me while I have these open discussions with myself.)