Slavery 201

As I think about it more I am becoming really enamored with the prospect of being a total slave of Jesus Christ. It used to set off a low-level reaction of rebellion and resentment inside of me that I have to be a slave to someone and there is no option outside of that according to Romans 6. But after recent experiences it is beginning to dawn on me that being a slave of Jesus Christ is an extremely desirable relationship to be in. It is a real privilege to be able to cry out for help to my Owner when I am in trouble and know that He is very interested in the welfare of every one of His slaves.

God is extremely jealous for His slaves. Since they are totally His property He is fully responsible for their health and welfare. Since it is His slaves that He has chosen to use as His instruments of outreach and self-expression in this world, He is very keen to do everything possible to equip them to accurately reveal the message of the truth about Him. I crave that kind of jealousy. When someone loves me so much they are furiously jealous of my affections and deeply desire my undivided loyalty to them, that conveys something important about their heart and the value they place on me. God does not want me to be compromised by any deceptions of the enemy, for all deception is designed for only one purpose, to get me to doubt God and create within my heart a handle for the enemy to manipulate me and to insert his destructive lies so that through me he can further wound the heart of God.

As a slave of Christ I am fully owned by Him. Naturally He takes extremely good care of all of His property and intends to restore it and maintain it in as premium a condition as possible. Unlike most slave-masters, He gives an amazing amount of autonomy to His slaves. He does so in order that they will reflect His own character and as He demonstrates His intense value for freedom. But since we are in the middle of an deadly war He cannot allow me the freedom of living outside the bondage of slavery to Him for I am not equipped to live on my own because of my fallen human nature. When I refuse to be a slave of Jesus I am immediately stolen and enslaved by the cruel agents of Satan that bind me with galling chains designed to torture, degrade and destroy me. Since there is no possibility of neutrality because of Satan's obsession for soul-snatching, my only safety is in remaining under the protective ownership of slavery to Jesus.

I am just beginning to comprehend a little bit how desirable it is to be in this slavery. It is really something to be greatly envied. In fact, the very angels of God are amazed at the privileges endowed on the slaves of God, especially those who have been rescued from the cruel bonds in Satan's kingdom. Jesus is extremely protective of His slaves and never takes His eyes off of them for a moment, not because He doesn't trust them but because He knows He cannot trust the enemy to leave them alone. The enemy is always plotting how to break their bonds to Jesus or to lure them away from His protection so he can viciously attack them unsuspectingly. Sometimes he launches an all out physical and/or emotional assault against them, but the slaves of Jesus learn to cry out for help at such times and Jesus always immediately comes to their aid in one way or another. It may not always be in the way they expect, but Jesus knows what is best and they learn to trust His wisdom and care for them even though they often do not understand the methods He uses to protect them. Sometimes it seems that they are abandoned, but they learn to trust even in the darkness of their ignorance of what He is presently doing. They trust the passionate heart of love that provides the glue, the bonding influence that binds their hearts close to His.

Many times the enemy comes with subtle attempts to deceive God's slaves in any way possible. He knows that if they will endorse any of his lies about God that he will then have an access point from which to launch even deeper attacks into their hearts and minds. He tries to allure them with promises of better satisfaction and pleasure than God has for them. Or he promises access to power and control over others that they think will bring fulfillment. These deceptions are almost always designed to be undetectable by the slaves as they are beyond their perceptive abilities to detect. The only protection and safety of God's slaves is to stay in connection and constant communication with God's Spirit at all times so they can be alerted by God who will warn them of deceptive dangers that they cannot perceive themselves. As they continue to trust the heart of God to protect and guide them they will be guided by His Spirit to avoid the many schemes of the enemy and will remain in the safety and inner peace enjoyed by all of God's loyal subjects.

Since God's slaves realize they are helpless to create provisions for their own needs, God has also assumed full responsibility for providing for all of the needs of His slaves. He gives each one of them the vision of what He wants them to do for Him each day and then promises to also provide the provision for them to fulfill that vision. Consequently they are free to focus their attention on carrying out the desires and instructions of their Master instead of wasting time grubbing around in frustrating attempts to keep themselves alive and healthy. That is not to say that they do not have to work or fix their food or take care of their bodies. Part of the duties of God's slaves is to participate and cooperate with the plans that God has for each one of them. But the plans of God almost always look very different than human plans, so His faithful and loyal slaves learn that as they carry out His instructions they are not only provided for but they become His means for providing for His other slaves as well.

God's kingdom of slaves operate under very different principles and relationships than the kingdom of darkness. While the slaves of Satan are driven by demeaning selfishness to directly clamor for whatever they can get to satisfy their own needs and desperate cravings, the slaves of God are arranged within a circuit of interdependence and mutual caring. In God's kingdom, life flows from the throne of grace – that flaming source of passion and limitless energy – out into the connected and dependent circle of all His loyal creation. As each receives life it immediately becomes an animated source of life to minister to the next recipients in the circuit while returning praise to the Source of life and joy. Each being in turn receives life and fellowship from the beings above and around them while allowing themselves to be open channels to let that life, love and energy flow out to others in need. All of this interaction is coordinated perfectly through the vibrant and interactive communication system directly linked to God in the Holy Spirit – God's nervous system.

Just like our body is designed to process nutrition and life-giving elements from its surroundings through the complex interdependency of all of the cells and organs, so too the body of Christ is designed for total interdependence and mutual support. And just as the body is primarily the container for our minds and hearts and spirits to interconnect with others and live in ways that extend beyond our own bodies, so too the slaves that make up the body of Christ are to exist as the supporting “container” for the head – Jesus Christ Himself.

And just like the brains and minds of a healthy, mature person will make sure to nurture and protect the body that supports it, even more so will the Head of the body of Christ jealously guard, protect and nurture every cell, organ and appendage of His body. He will not tolerate infections to spread or wounds to go untreated. Every attack on the body of Christ is instantly recognized and will be cared for by the head. But just like our own bodies, the head needs the rest of the body as the means to minister to itself. The hands will care for the feet and other parts, the eyes will alert the body to its surroundings. The ears will not only receive communications but will be the means of entry for enriching music and the calming sounds of nature. The feet and legs will support and carry the body and the internal organs will process and provide useful material to nurture and provide for every cell of every part of the body.

In all of these functions every cell or entity is a slave under the guidance of the nervous system designed to contribute to the perfect functioning of the whole. When any cells become rebellious and independent and grow out of their intended functions, eventually they have to be separated from the body like a tumor or cancerous cells that would threaten the health of the whole body if left unchecked.

But I am now getting too far away from my original thoughts. I still want to ponder on the privileges that I can enjoy being a slave of Jesus bound to Him with cords of lovingkindness that can never be broken. I want to train my heart to instantly cry out to God when I am afraid or in trouble. I want to learn to listen instantly to the quiet, gentle promptings of His “nervous system”, the Holy Spirit instead of just following my own instincts, impressions or cravings. I want to learn to consistently trust His heart and know that He can always take everything that happens to me, no matter how inexplicable or painful from my viewpoint, and will rearrange life to weave everything into an eventual blessing for me that I will eagerly and thankfully praise Him for in the end. And knowing that He is that kind of Master and Friend I want to train my heart to praise Him even before I can see how things are going to work out because I trust His heart, His ability and His desire to always bless me.

Luke 17:1-10 is an insight to what the slaves of Jesus look like. Because of their implicit, trusting relationship to the Master and because they are willing to serve Him first with an attitude of joyful humility, they will be filled more and more with the faith requested by the disciples and described by Jesus in the early verses of that passage. In fact, in the end those who become veteran slaves on a permanent basis will discover to their amazement that their own spirit of service is simply reflective of the very same spirit in their Master as He Himself turns the table on them and desires to serve them in the same way. (see Luke 12:34-37)

I suppose the problem that I and most others have to work on is the re-translation and reinterpretation of the words and their implications in this context. All of the negative, resentment-producing ideas triggered up in our minds and emotions by the words “slave” or “service” are because of the way the kingdom of darkness has used them to abuse us and those around us and skew our image of God. It is the counterfeit interpretations that have taken predominance in this world that leave us confused and afraid of God. Then when God invites us into an intimate, life-giving relationship with Him while using these words and illustrations we become afraid.

But really, our fear grows out of the ignorance of our heart about the truth about God's heart. We are afraid of becoming His slaves because of our past abuse, but the slaves of God are treated better than the unfallen sons of God. The slaves of Satan are harshly bound with chains of fear, shame and cruel, heartless pain while the slaves of Jesus are bound with love. (see Hosea 11:4) It is true that God's slaves will not be free from pain, but pain while in the service of God is recognized, shared and ministered to and becomes a means of growth and development and bonding while pain in Satan's kingdom leads to bitterness, anger, despair and finally death.

God's slaves are encouraged to come boldly to the throne of grace where their Master sits enthroned in the fiery passion of His love for them anytime they are in need. Jesus never drives His slaves with force, fear or intimidation; He always leads His slaves by example and attraction in gentleness. He protects and provides for His slaves everything they need to keep their spirit in harmony with His Spirit. They will not always be completely protected physically or even emotionally from harm, but He will always guard their spirit and will always turn the scheming attacks of the enemy into even greater achievements of grace.

I choose to present myself to God to be bound to Him with His love-bonds and become a slave of obedience to Him. (Romans 6:13-18) It is His work to do the bonding and the love has to be received from His heart. But I really like the privileges and pleasures enjoyed by the slaves of Jesus and I choose to be one of them.

(next in series)

What Did God Do?

Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin. Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 7:24 - 8:4 NAS95)

It seems clear to me that these verses cannot be properly understood unless they are closely connected, which the chapter break seriously disrupts. There are many places in my Bible where I have crossed out the chapter break to alert me to not hesitate in my reading at that point if I want to grasp the real meaning of the passage. This is definitely one of them.

As I look at the section I have several questions that I want to clarify. Those questions inevitably create more questions but the answers that come are almost always very interesting and stimulating. It is why I continue to dig my way through the Bible with a fine-tooth comb – not just to intellectually learn interesting facts but more so to interact with the original Author who wants to reveal Himself to my heart through this means.

I dwelt a little bit previously on what condemnation is, but I think there must be more I don't yet catch. I see two places where it is mentioned here and it creates a real question in my mind. What does it mean when it says, “He condemned sin in the flesh”? I want to go much deeper into that.

Another question that comes to my mind for God is, “What did God do that the Law could not do?” I want to know the answer that emerges directly from the context, not the first thing that comes to mind from typical religious thought.

Another pattern that I see even more clearly that is the backdrop for all the other things here is the paradigm shift from living in the flesh to living in the Spirit. I am convinced that living in the flesh as described at length in chapter 7 means living from the head with a focus on the externals. Living in the Spirit is changing my priorities internally from a head religion to a heart-led spirituality that is strongly rooted in the emotional, intimate side of my being. I believe that keeping this paradigm shift in mind will help greatly while looking for the answers to the first two questions.

Here are some clues that I find for the question about condemning sin in the flesh. Just two verses previously he says there is no condemnation for those.... The condemnation in this sentence is targeted at people, and implied in this statement is that previously these same people were feeling a great deal of condemnation, most likely while in the state of being described in all of chapter 7. However, in the second phrase the condemnation is directed at sin, not toward people. That makes me wonder if I really understand enough what the word really means. If condemnation is a feeling, how can sin have that feeling? Or is condemnation something imposed by someone else? We have to be very careful about our assumptions.

As I look at this and ask for clarification from the Holy Spirit, I begin to notice even more clues in the immediate context. Whatever it means that Jesus did it was a direct result and a part of the plan that His Father was carrying out to do whatever it was that He did related to the second question. It also is connected with Jesus coming “in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin...”

This creates another interesting connection. Jesus was in the likeness of sinful flesh (whatever that meant) and at the same time condemned sin in the flesh. That sound like He ended up possibly condemning Himself since He was in the flesh that was being condemned. I want to go deeper into that also.

But another clue lies just beyond that phrase. It is the results of His condemning sin in the flesh. It says “so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us.” Whatever it was that God did through Jesus expressed in the phrases it resulted in the Law being able to be fulfilled in us.

Now that raises another very interesting link, because it appears to me that in the previous passages it was the Law that was causing all of the troubling condemnation to start with. Many people reacted to that by trying to get rid of the Law and say that under the New Covenant the Law no longer applies to us. You know, we don't live under the Law but under grace mentality. That is another phrase wrested out of context to try to neutralize the thing that plagues our conscience and seems to create so much condemnation inside of us.

But Paul seems to have no interest here in sidelining the Law to fix the condemnation problem. Instead, he says that the real solution comes from God in such a way that, far from being sidelined or neutralized, the Law is suddenly quite satisfied with those people who are results of whatever it is Jesus did described in these verses. This is an echo of what he said back in Romans 3:31, “Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.”

So what emerges from assembling these clues and arranging them into the picture? What I am starting to see is the condemnation that results when a Holy God and sin get into close proximity with each other. In the Garden of Eden it was when God was approaching that Adam and Eve began to feel the increasing heat of condemnation in their hearts and ran to hide. Was God there to condemn them? Absolutely not! But their perception of God in their hearts had been twisted and distorted by sin in their doubts about His integrity, honesty and care about them. They now believed Him to be dangerous and even likely to be coming to kill them. Nothing much has changed since. We still have the same feelings about God based on the same lies embedded in our hearts.

But what happened when Jesus showed up, sent by God to this earth, and took on the likeness of sinful flesh? What was the result of God Himself in the form of Jesus getting that close to the very same contaminated flesh in which so many lies about Him resided? How was it that condemnation showed up in the middle of that mix? And furthermore, why did He do it that way? Why, really, was it necessary for God's Son to take on Himself our flesh, mix it up with the presence of sin and experience whatever this phrase means, “condemned sin in the flesh”?

I believe it is important to know the answer to these questions because those answers are directly related to the resulting effects of the Law being satisfied in the life of everyone who chooses to live in Christ Jesus. I also think it is vitally important to understand these issues to eliminate many of the confused and tragically mistaken ideas about why Jesus came to live and die as a human. We need to understand what it was that God had in mind when He sent His Son to do whatever it was that He did.

That launches me into the second question, “What did God do that the Law could not do?”

Well, I guess I would start by asking, what do we think the Law was attempting to do but not succeeding? I look back into chapter 7 and I see this in verse 10. “This commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me.” So if God accomplished what the Law could not, then God was able to produce the result of life for me through whatever it was that Jesus did.

Another thing that God did was mentioned even more recent in 7:24,25. He says that God will set me free from this body of death through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Well, I haven't really unpacked this very far, but I want to come back again and continue to listen to what the Spirit has to say to the churches. (see Rev. 2 & 3) You and me are part of the churches and the Spirit is very eager to communicate with us if we take the time to listen and receive and absorb the life that God has provided for us “in Christ Jesus”.

(next in series)

Restoring the Heart to Leadership

Why is it that in the condition described in Romans 7 that I feel compelled to do the things I don't want to do? What is the underlying drive inside of me that makes it so compelling?

I believe it is my heart desperately trying to express itself and stay alive under the suffocating repression of a left-brain domination. It is like a young woman forced to live in under the control of a stodgy old librarian and stays locked up in the library memorizing long lists of rules and constantly being forced to perform exactly to the external customs and manners of etiquette. She is never allowed to be expressive or allow her emotions to be seen but is expected to be always sober, reserved and rigid. Meanwhile her heart is churning inside of her to connect to other hearts, to explore and enjoy the beauty and charm of life, to engage in exciting relationships with young men, to break away from the suffocating restrictions and break out in singing and dancing and indulge in abandonment to her cravings and emotions. But no, she is never allowed to even speak or think of such things. They are considered wicked and completely off limits for her life and so she must live out her life pretty much like a nun cloistered away from contact with anything that would bring her joy.

As a result she finds himself daydreaming about forbidden things and hiding away with romance novels as an outlet for her starving heart. She feels tremendous guilt and condemnation every time she does it but she cannot help himself. She cannot even understand what is driving her to degrade herself in this way but neither can she stop herself. Like Paul she can only describe her experience as Paul did, “For I don't know what I am doing. For I don't practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do. But if what I don't desire, that I do, I consent to the law that it is good.... For desire is present with me, but I don't find it doing that which is good. For the good which I desire, I don't do; but the evil which I don't desire, that I practice. But if what I don't desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the law, that, to me, while I desire to do good, evil is present.”

The analogy maybe could be tweaked to fit better as far as the librarian and the rules. But the situation is that all of the rules of behavior are correct – there may be nothing inherently wrong with any of the rules (except that many times they are carried far beyond their original intent). The real problem is that there is no acceptable outlet or role for the heart and for the passions under this arrangement.

I believe that God is the most passionate being in the universe. The reason we do not perceive Him that way is because of the distortions that sin has put on our perceptions and beliefs about Him. Somehow many of us have been deceived to believe that passion itself is somehow sinful and should be avoided. Therefore we assume that since passion is sinful then when God gets passionate it must be anger. This has led to many destructive beliefs about God that have alienated the hearts of millions over the centuries which is precisely what Satan intended.

We were created to live from our heart first and foremost and our head (left brain intellect) was to play a supporting role as a resource and guardian for our heart. “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” (Proverbs 4:23 NIV) This describes the primary function for our heart – it is supposed to be the spring from which flows wellness for our life. It is the location within us where the life of God is to pour into and through us. Jesus said to the woman at Jacob's well, “those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” (John 4:14 NRSV) This is what our heart was designed to experience and provide for us. Our head has the job of protecting and guarding our heart, not attempting to replace it and usurping its place in our life.

So it makes perfect sense that since our heart is the most important part of us, our access point to the eternal life of God, that it would be the primary target of the enemy in his attempts to destroy God's work to save us. He has done this in many ways, but one of the most effective ways is to turn religion into an external exercise of performance while disconnecting our hearts and denying or suppressing our emotions. In doing so the engine that is to drive our lives has been disconnected and marginalized and the fuel for that engine, the passion of God, has been denied to even exist or is banned altogether.

As a result we find ourselves doing all sorts of things that we know we should not do. This is because our heart does not want to die, but since it is not allowed to function as originally intended it seeks outlets anywhere it can which always end up being counterproductive in the end. If it is not allowed to be the connection for receiving life from God and being a conduit of God's passion to others while energizing our life, it becomes a source of distorted passion that causes us to do all sorts of things of which we are ashamed. As a consequence we experience more and more condemnation and then are led to believe that those feelings are reflective of what God thinks about us which further alienate us from coming close to God. This is the sinful confusion that is our primary problem described in Romans 7.

In the analogy above, the solution to this heart condition would be to develop a healthy relationship with the heart of a prospective marriage partner that God has for us and to develop healthy love bonds. This would allow the heart to have a proper outlet and when the relationship deepened into marriage and the marriage deepened over time into more and more intimacy at all levels, we would see displayed a miniature demonstration of what God is like. The hearts of both lovers would be the primary leading force in their life while their intellect and knowledge base would supply the means for practical daily life, solutions for external problems that come up and protection from anything that would threaten their love or safety. Then the young woman, if she was properly bonded to her husband, would no longer feel compelled to indulge in fantasizing or any other coping addictions that kept her in bondage while holed up isolated in the library.

Again, the real issue here is not whether the rules and intellectual concepts she was forced to learn were right or wrong as much as the suffocation of her heart. Yes, the library of the mind needs to contain good and wholesome information or it will not be a reliable resource or a good protector for the heart to make good decisions. But humans were simply not created to be led by the intellect as the primary leader of their lives. We were created to be creatures of passion reflective of the reality of the God of passion who desires to bond with us through this means. Our intellect and database left brain is to play the supporting role in achieving this end, not a domineering role trying to repress the natural expressions and healthy desires that God designed for our heart to experience and enjoy. We are designed to live from the heart and anything less is a distortion of creation.

Our spirit is very closely associated with our heart. Our spirit is made up of our disposition, revealed in personality and by our emotions. (see some very insightful thoughts from the reading for today in My Utmost for His Highest)Yet our spirit is so deep and mysterious as to defy definition. Our spirit is a very real part of our identity whether it is recognized and appreciated or not. Our spirit is the access point for our heart for communication with other hearts through communion with their spirit. We are so little aware of this sometimes that we have very little appreciation for this part of our makeup, but it still is real nonetheless. Our spirit communicates with the spirit of others and also with supernatural spirits, both good and evil.

For us to live and function as human beings we have to form bonds with our hearts. As I have talked about before and as Jim Wilder has explained so well, there are two kinds of bonds – fear bonds and love bonds. These bonds become the foundation of all of our thinking and relationships with others. We cannot live without bonding – we will form bonds whether we intend to or not. Most of the bonds in this world are fear bonds of every nature imaginable, but the bonds in the kingdom of heaven are always love bonds. That is why there is such a radical change when we move from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. The Christian life is the process of becoming free from the many fear bonds that strangle our hearts and keep them in bondage, and replacing them with love bonds that feed and nourish our hearts and set them free to receive and give love with joy. This is the abundant life that Jesus promised, the life where we thrive and grow and feel fully alive in connection with others.

The problem with the kind of religion described in the first part of Romans 7 is that it fails to acknowledge the importance of a heart connection with God and puts all the emphasis on a head knowledge about doctrines and rules and behavior and spiritual facts. This results in the highly frustrating life described in the rest of the chapter due to the fact that the heart has not been allowed to take its proper position in our life. The reason we do not allow our heart to function as designed in this kind of setup is because we are afraid to let our heart express itself and take risks and experiment in life because it might cause us to make a mistake. These fear bonds are so strong that the heart is kept locked up to prevent it from ever embarrassing us or from causing us to make a mistake – which is always considered sin. This kind of religion is very keen on never making any mistakes or even taking any chances. It views God as a very strict and stern librarian and judge who is always comparing our performance with the “books” and rules and precepts and religious traditions. Any thought of making a mistake or taking risks in this kind of life immediately arouses fear and even terror at times. These fear bonds become the dominating feature of this kind of religious life and the heart is kept imprisoned to preclude it from causing any problems or creating any “trouble”.

The spirit of this kind of person becomes very much like the distortions of the God they imagine. They sometimes become stern and rigid and are often filled with fear and even anger. Or they may become depressed and despondent as they realize they can never measure up or satisfy the endless demands of this God. They never feel quite good enough to get God to love them. Over time a lot of internal (but repressed) resentment begins to accumulate and there is a good chance that bitterness begins to fill the heart. It is very hard to perform acts of love and unselfishness because the heart is not full of those attributes, so a great deal of energy is required to perform Christian acts of service for others because it has to look as good as possible while still devoid of the spontaneity of genuine love. Living a good-looking Christian life takes a horrendous amount of work and is very exhausting when the heart is kept locked away and is deprived of its primary fuel – the passion of God. These kind of Christians are often very tired if their bodies are not strong enough to compensate. They are sometimes very active and even aggressive in their outreach activities or religious performances but are prone to using force and pressure because of the absence of the natural attraction of genuine love and internal peace.

These kind of people are usually compelled to trans-mutate the meanings of most religious terms to fit the life they are living so that they can keep the Word of God aligned properly with the religious life they are experiencing. Am I saying this in condemnation? No, I am describing quite accurately the kind of religious life I have spent years living under trying to get myself into right favor with God, to earn His love and maybe even get to heaven.

The more I have studied and observed and learned, especially about the real truth about what God is like, the more I realize the importance of living first from the heart. This is the way I was designed to live even though it feels very scary given the background of my upbringing. The only safe way I can do this is to be led by the Spirit of God in connection and communion with my spirit, and being filled with a true knowledge about God. As I fill my mind – my database, my library – with more and more truth about what God is really like, this better information acts as a catalyst for my heart to begin to come more alive and take more risks and begin to stretch and move its atrophied muscles and appendages. I feel very awkward trying to live from the heart after a lifetime of living from the head and I really need people more experienced to mentor me in this growth. But despite my fears and apprehensions it still feels refreshing and invigorating and energizing as I start to experiment in living life in the reality of the presence of a passionate God who loves me and gives me His own life and love and energy.

(next in series)

Unpacking Condemnation

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1 MKJV)

I like the way another translation phrases it.

There is, therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in union with Christ Jesus; (Romans 8:1 TCNT) I believe this brings out a link back to the earlier part of chapter 7 where he is talking about the intimate union found in a marriage relationship. Those who allow themselves to become intimately involved with Jesus at the heart level will find themselves free from the sense of condemnation that has plagued them throughout all of their previous religious life when their intimacy was with the Law and their focus was on performance and keeping of rules.

The question that I want to explore right now is, “What is condemnation?”

I know that most of us believe we are familiar with the feeling and quite likely we are. But that does not necessarily mean we have an understanding of what it actually is or even where it comes from. When I ask myself this question I suddenly realize that there are gaps in my own library in my head when I look for the definition of this word. I certainly have some strong feelings and emotions and memories associated with it, but that does not mean I really know what it means, especially from heaven's point of view. So I ask again, what does this word really mean, both in a narrow and broader definition?

It may seem rather negative to dwell on such a word at length when there is so much exciting power and freedom waiting to be learned and absorbed from chapter 8. But I want to be thorough in my study through this book so that my heart as well as my mind can become saturated with the truths and the reality described here. If God says that I do not have to feel condemnation when I am in Christ, then I want to know just what it is so that when it tries to sneak into my experience deceptively or force itself onto my heart and manipulate my emotions, I will recognize it clearly for what it really is and have a better sense of how to respond to it.

To start with as I many times find helpful to do, I went back to look at the Greek word that was used to come up with this English word condemnation. Here is what I find in Strong's definitions.

Katakrino – from kata and krino; to judge against, i.e. sentence:--condemn, damn.

Krino – properly, to distinguish, i.e. decide (mentally or judicially); by implication, to try, condemn, punish:--avenge, conclude, condemn, damn, decree, determine, esteem, judge, go to (sue at the) law, ordain, call in question, sentence to, think.

As I look through these words and phrases I get the strong sense of a very negative disposition, of an adversarial relationship of one person against another. I see two things taking place in this word. First, a decision is being made about something or someone and second, the decision made is very negative and possibly even arbitrary. What I see here is what I realize that billions of people believe in their hearts and minds about what they think God is like and His disposition toward them to a great degree. Unfortunately it is also the attitude that many Christians display to a lesser or greater degree toward those who do not go along with their beliefs or accept their doctrines and lifestyle. However, Christians certainly do not have a corner on condemnation; every human being is capable of treating others with this kind of attitude and usually do at some point or another. Many religions make this almost the cornerstone and foundation of the way they relate to those around them.

What I also see embedded in this definition is the roots for a great deal of bias and bigotry. Not too many people are willing to admit that they have bigoted opinions about others, but in their actions and attitudes are betrayed the fruits of bigotry and exclusiveness that creates feelings of condemnation in those who are not in harmony with them. Again, a very great number of people believe, either consciously or unconsciously that this is a fitting description of the God of Heaven. It is too often deeply embedded in the attitudes of strict religionists and is institutionalized into the framework of many systems of belief.

But does condemnation really come from God? Does condemnation serve a useful function in motivating people into a saving relationship with God? Is condemnation a legitimate tool for raising healthy children into productive and mature adults? The correct answers to these questions are not necessarily self-evident to many who may be confronted with them.

I would also like to know what kind of feelings and internal results condemnation produces in a person's life. I would like to take time to ask people for reflective and honest responses to that query. If any of you would like to share your thoughts and stories on this word I would be very interested. I do not yet have a comprehensive grasp on this word and want to understand it better. I need input from other perspectives even if I don't agree with them. Condemnation is such a pervasive element of our society and especially of most religion that I think it will be very helpful to spend a bit of time unpacking it more thoroughly.

According to this verse, those who are really in Christ Jesus do not have to experience whatever it is that this word means. I also cannot help but remember the statement that Jesus said, “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:17 NRSV) Quite clearly, whatever this word really means it is an experience and feeling that God has no intention of imposing on the world. And yet it is so pervasive in our world and is generally attributed either directly or indirectly back to originating with God that something is terribly wrong here. Somebody is lying and an awful lot of damage and pain is being inflicted on hearts generation after generation, and too often in the name of God.

The very fact that this verse in Romans 8:1 insists that those who are in Christ are not under condemnation while at the same time so many Christians live with the feeling of condemnation indicates that something is very wrong, something is out of place and there is a lot more confusion than many would like to admit. Some would take this statement as an excuse to insist that any Christian who feels condemnation must not be in Christ. But sometimes the very way they say it comes across as condemning and the question then becomes whether or not they themselves are in Christ.

There is also the phenomenon of false guilt that needs to be addressed. This is where we may feel guilty and condemned when in fact it is not true at all. This verse does not say that a person “in Christ Jesus” will never feel condemned; it simply says that there is no condemnation for them. We live in a world where there is a miasma of swirling deceptions that constantly confuse and distort reality and truth. Spiritual darkness and error are the realities of the world we live in and only truth and light from heaven can dispel the confusion and false feelings that we experience.

My little children, let's not love in word only, neither with the tongue only, but in deed and truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and persuade our hearts before him, because if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our hearts don't condemn us, we have boldness toward God; (1 John 3:18-21 WEB)

(next in series)

Phase 3: My Latest View of Job

As I was driving yesterday I listened to some of the talks from the web site I recently found and linked on this site – HeavenlySanctuary.com. I have downloaded all of the audios that I could find on their site onto my computer so I can listen to them over time, especially as I am driving. I find this a very helpful activity for longer drives for several reasons. First of all I have a chance to fill my mind with better perspectives about God than I can ever get from listening to the radio and secondly it makes the time fly by much faster and long trips seem much shorter that way.

Anyway, as I was listening to one of the speakers talk about Job I began to sense that it was time for me to think again about my opinion of Job. There was still something much deeper and more profound than I have seen yet up to this point and whatever this next step was it had something to do with my concept of God as well as my understanding of what He thinks about me. After the message had finished I just drove along quietly (that is a relative term in my old car with the windows down) and contemplated what I had just heard while I discussed it with God. As the truth began to really soak into my head and heart I was soon overcome with emotion and had to respond by speaking out loud my feelings of awe and amazement at the goodness of God and the incredible faith that He had in Job. But that is getting ahead of myself a little bit.

Phase 1

To understand the context of where I am coming from I feel I need to explain the first two phases of my understanding of this much-abused book of the Bible. Phase 1 for me was what I suppose is the most typical and widely accepted view of the character and personality of Job that most Christians share. Most people have not spent much time reading or studying this book and what little time they do

spend in it they read the beginning and ending and think they have the gist of the whole story. Usually a few verses are plucked out of context from the middle of Job in addition and presented to make him appear quite noble and heroic (Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him... Job 13:15) and that is pretty much the end of it. For most people it seems like it would be far too much work to spend time trying to figure out all the confusing things his combative three friends have to say to him. Worst of all some of the most egregious ideas they present are sometimes lifted out of context and quoted as sound advice and pious platitudes for addressing our problems today. I have since become very wary of anything quoted from the book of Job and realize that we need to at least check to see which person we are quoting before we think it is useful or valid advice. But again, I am getting ahead of myself.

Generally speaking most people assume that Job is nearly the epitome of the perfect example of what a man of God should look like, think and how to respond to adversity. We make him out to be the hero of the story without any question as to his theology. We base this hazardous assumption on the verse where God declares that Job is a blameless and upright man. (Job 1:8) With a recommendation like that from such a highly reliable source, very few dare to challenge the integrity of anything Job says no matter how confusing or contradictory it may seem to other things we know about God in the Bible. This was certainly my take and opinion on Job from simply accepting what was taught me for most of my life. When I read the book at various times I simply interpreted everything through the filter of the assumptions that had been handed me and ignored anything that seemed too confusing. It makes for a good story and most people are quick to identify themselves with Job when a lot of bad things come into their life with sudden frequency. With Job they feel obliged to say “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord” without thinking of what that implies about how God treats us.

Phase 2

My unchallenged ideas about Job went through dramatic transition when a few years ago I listened to a series of messages by James Rafferty that undermined a great deal of my previous assumptions. Then a year or two later I listened to some more talks from Craig Hill that not only reinforced what James had said but took it much farther. During those periods of time I decided to take my own journey back into this book and make a much more thorough and skeptical examination of what was really there. I carefully spent time looking at the content of each of the friends presentations and began to note the differences between them which are sometimes significant. I wanted to get a better picture of their individualities and beliefs. I jotted down many notes in my Bible as I studied and also took a much harder look at the ideas and beliefs that Job was trying to defend. I realized that Job had some very serious flaws in his picture of God and my opinion of him quickly toppled off the pedestal that he had been on for most of my life. Though I did not usually think about it or talk about it very much, in my heart I began to feel a bit of disdain toward Job and wondered how he got such glowing reviews from God in the light of all the dirt that was becoming obvious to me in his ideas about God. As my own picture of God was changing quite dramatically I felt that Job had let me down in his stilted and self-righteous attitudes about his relationship with God. As I more closely examined his questionable testimony I wondered what had led God to make such a statement about Job considering all the false and incriminating notions that Job consequently propounded about God. What was God thinking anyway?

This phase was a very dramatic shift for me and stimulated a lot of discussion, questions and rearranging of beliefs and ideas in my own mind. It was refreshing to see Job in an entirely new light and the story made far more sense for me. I was a little puzzled by the lack of recognition for the fourth friend considering that he seemed to be the only person in the whole story that had a decent concept of God's character. While he was a genuine friend to Job and did not shrink from dismantling the false (but all too familiar) religious theories proposed by the other three, he also challenged Job to reconsider his own self-centered religious ideas and directed him to question his underlying assumptions. He presented God in a light that was so different than any of the others had even considered that by the time he got near the end of his thoughts he had created an atmosphere so conducive to the presence of God that God indeed showed up personally to take over the dialog.

There were a number of other very enlightening insights that I received from listening to these messages as well as in my own study, but that is basically where I have been up until very recently.

Phase 3

For some reason I have been sensing, almost subconsciously, that there was still more to this story. Maybe it was because of a little discomfort with my critical feelings about Job's attitude and my questions about God's gushing recommendation in spite of Job's obvious and serious flaws. This made for a feeling of unresolvedness (is that a word?) in my mind and I didn't really know what to do with it. So I just left it alone until it came to me on this trip and I realized it was time to face it. I still wasn't sure about the nature of even my own questions but I knew there was something I needed to learn. I also sensed that God would use it to say something to my heart, but I was surprised how strong and emotional it was when it suddenly broke onto my consciousness.

What I had to finally admit was that the beliefs that Job was living under and attempting to defend that I was so critical about were really quite similar to some of the feelings that my heart still has about God. This, in spite of the fact that my head has learned many things to the contrary that have made my heart glad and changed my view of God. But what I have to admit is that there is still a part of me somewhere inside still clings to the self-righteous and typical religious ideas about my relationship with God that is so common and that Job needed to be divested of. God wants to take me to another level of trust and wanted to reveal something about Himself to me in this story that dropped a number of puzzle pieces into place that have been assembling over the past few months.

What I suddenly realized was that God knew exactly all about Job's messed up picture of God when Satan showed up and asked for a showdown. God knew Job had some very immature and even incorrect ideas about religion and would say some things that would be quite wrong and even very self-righteous. But the most amazing thing is that God took the gamble anyway and let Satan throw everything at Job while allowing Job to spout off his false ideas about God before the whole universe, even after God declared that He considered Job perfect and upright. (That should make everyone step back and seriously question their preconceived ideas about what God might mean by those words. I suspect our ideas and definitions of perfection need some serious revision in light of this story.)

But the truly shocking part of this revelation to me is the nature of God to act like a seemingly reckless high-roller in a game of gambling. He is actually bragging about Job and putting His own reputation on the line while fully aware of the flawed thinking and self-righteous attitudes and immaturity that Job will demonstrate throughout this experiment. Somehow God looks past all of that and sees that even though Job may even cling to God throughout this experience for all the wrong reasons, he will still cling to God. And evidently that is what gets God excited more than anything else including any amount of correct theology or even glowing testimony in favor of God's character. God was demonstrating an incredible amount of faith in a very flawed man that He would have to come down and make some serious corrections in near the end of the story. Job would have to rethink everything he ever believed about God and reorient his feelings and relationship to God in light of the revelations he would experience. But God put His bet on Job and laid it all out on the table.

In short, the real transition for me was from a focus on Job's achievements to an appreciation of God's faithfulness. In phase 1 I thought of the book of Job as a description of a person who had such a strong spiritual will that he could determinedly outlast anything the enemy could throw at him. He grit his teeth and forced himself to have faith in God even in spite of his perception that all these bad things were coming from God and not from another source. Job was some kind of superhero that I was supposed to emulate as well as a victim who piously refused to give up his belief in God and in the process won God's approval even though God scolded him in the end. That was a tall order to fill, a tough act to follow.

In phase 2 my glossy view of Job's beliefs and character began to be seriously tarnished as I saw more clearly the many lies he believed and promoted about God. In many ways he shared the same confused notions about God that his sorry friends had but just argued them from a different angle. I received much more encouragement from the words of Elihu, the last and youngest witness to show up on the scene, than I did from most of Job's declarations and self-righteous defensiveness. I then viewed the book of Job as a mixed bag of platitudes and occasional nuggets of truth reflecting to a great extent the kind of world I live in. Job was no longer a superhero but more of a religious traditionalist with a strong stubborn streak that somehow God used for His glory.

Now in phase 3 I am starting to see the book of Job as a story about a man with faulty beliefs all too much like mine that God used to magnify His own faithfulness and goodness. The book is not about Job so much as it is about a God who is so proud of His children even in their immaturity that He is eager to brag about them to anyone willing to listen, even His enemies. He is so confident in His own work in their heart in spite of their confused ideas about Him that He is willing to take frightening risks that I would never imagine taking on anyone. This book is not about Job's achievements at all but primarily about a God who is passionate and bold and almost reckless in the risks He is willing to take because of His trust in us. I can't understand a God like that but it sure makes things much more interesting. It reminds me of what C.S. Lewis wrote in one of his parables of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, “Is he safe? Oh no! He is not safe – but He is good.”

As I thought about this in amazement while driving down the highway I asked God if that is what He thinks about me. Does He have that same kind of seemingly reckless faith in me? Does he trust me to cling to Him from a heart still full of confused notions about Him? Then I realized that even my questions tended to put the pressure back on me again. The questions implied that I was expected to perform by demonstrating faith and come through for God because of His faith in me. I can't trust myself to perform and that kind of pressure is overwhelming. What I immediately said was, “God, You are the one with all this faith. You're the one that is doing this work inside of me and I have to trust You to reproduce Your faith by living in me and living Your faith through me.”

I also began to sense that the more I realize this unbelievable notion of God's faith in me, like He had in Job, that I would be enabled to begin to invest that same kind of faith in others. I will be able to believe more and more in God's power to do the seemingly impossible in other people's lives and my faith will grow as I see more clearly the faith in the heart of the Source of all faith – the faithful One Himself.

Tears came to my eyes and about all I could do was worship and sit in amazement thinking about a God who is so full of faith and love for each one of us. This is the extravagantly reckless God who pours out blessings with abandon and desires to ravish our hearts with His passionate love. The limitations for experiencing this are not on His side but on mine. My willingness to believe and to receive is so shallow and dull that I am ashamed.

God, increase my faith. Increase my capacity to perceive and receive Your faith. Thank-you for this moment of light and for touching my heart the way You do. I want much more of You. I am getting more hungry to live in Your presence more often and to be more open to allow You to reveal Yourself through me. Forgive me for my slowness of heart and my lack of faith. I place myself in Your hands to continue Your work of shaping me for Your glory.