Run Otter. Ruuuuuunn!

“33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;


    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  (Rom 8)

Close your eyes.  Wait.  No, open them again.  That only works when you can hear me speaking.  Pretend your eyes are closed.  Take a deep breath.  Innnnnn.  Hold it. 

Now sloooooooly let it out.

Focus on Justification.  Do you see it in this verse from Romans?  See how it’s complete?  You believe Jesus died for you.  You believe He rose from the dead and sits on God’s right hand.  It is finished.  Your sins are forgiven.  You will someday sit with Him.  He has promised.  You are His and He will not lose you for anything.  Right here, right now, you stand before the Holy God, Justified through Christ Jesus. 

Let’s do another breath.  Aaaaaaah.  Justification feels goooood!

Okay, pretend to open your eyes.

“3 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4 that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; 6 and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before. 7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 8 Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.” (1Thes 4)

Roll up your sleeves.  Dust off your Bible.  Find a soft spot for your knees.  This is Sanctification.  This is work.

Both Justification and Sanctification are accomplished by God’s grace through Jesus.  The power for both come from the Cross.  One however is done.  Your status as a son or daughter of God, a co-heir with Christ, a royal prince of the kingdom, is secured.  You are justified.  Like a trophy on a shelf, JUSTIFIED!  No one can take it from you.  Look at it every morning, noon and night and receive joy and strength for today’s race!

When we confuse Justification for Sanctification, we get legalism.  Our standing with God rises and falls with our performance.  We experience God’s pleasure only based upon our own opinion of how yesterday went.  Instead of falling on God’s grace and mercy when we sin, we fall into despair and despondency.  “Will I ever get it right, Lord?”  There is remorse in bucket loads but not repentance.  Conversely, when we think we’ve been getting it right, we are insufferable:  judgmental, arrogant, without compassion on those struggling with sin.  This is Matthew 7: 21-23.  Instead of experiencing God’s grace through prayer, scripture, repentance and good works, we try to earn grace through these things.  We try to buy joy and peace thereby in reality, robbing ourselves of the fruit of the Spirit.  Legalism is a two inch worm stretching out thinking all it has to do to enter God’s kingdom is be a three inch worm.  God’s cocking his head and saying, “Um, no, you have to be an otter.”  Can you make yourself an otter?  I didn’t think so.  So relax, little worm, believe in Jesus, trust Him.  He’s made you an otter.

Sanctification is the race we run today.  The big one’s done.  Our team, through our champion, has already won.  We’re on the podium with Him.  This race will just determine where we stand upon it.  How big a crown we’ll wear there.  How much glory we bring to our Lord when we throw that crown at his feet and we, who the world sees standing upon that podium, honored, glorified, sanctified by the undisputed, all-powerful, all-glorious King of all Universes, step down and fall on our faces before Him.  We don’t run this race for our glory.  We run this race to have something more to offer to Him when we get there! 

This is the Parable of the Talents in Matthew twenty-five.  This is why God is so displeased with the last servant who went and buried his.  This selfish servant said, “Good enough is good enough.  I’ll be happy just being justified.  Sanctification is too much work.  I’m in, that’s all that matters.”  This servant is all about this servant.  He does not love his Lord.  Jesus’ sacrifice is about him.  It does not move him toward Jesus.  Toward love.  The Master remarks there isn’t even a trace of baseline gratitude and obviously therefore no justification either and kicks this jerk to the curb.

When we confuse Sanctification for Justification, we get synchrotism.  Our standing with God cannot change no matter what we do now.  It’s all grace, baby.  Freedom.  So we live however we please.  We’re otters living in the mud instead of in the Living Water.  Instead of bringing glory to our Father, we bring shame.  We abuse our freedom to bring pleasure to ourselves.  We live for ourselves.  We justify ourselves and our own actions.  “Hey, this is how God made me.  Take it or leave it.”  There is no repentance, because very little we do is “wrong.”  How could it be?  I’m a justified child of God.  Obedience and submission are not paths to love; they are dirty words.  Spirituality is supreme.  If it feels good, do it.  Synchrotism is an arranged marriage where the bride-to-be has decided her beau is lucky to be getting “all dis!”  She then takes “all dis!” and sells it on the street corner to buy herself a new Lexus.

We cannot confuse the two; legalism is not love for“21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Gal 3)  Nor is self-justification,  “26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.” (Heb 10)  Both trample on the Son of God.  Both treat, as Hebrews says, “as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and [insult] the Spirit of grace”!  That’s not love!  We’ve been called to something so much better, invited by Love, justified by love, into Love so “let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer (justifier) and perfecter (sanctifier) of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” (Heb 12)

Run Otter!  Ruuuuuuun!

How Do We Do?

“17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.  18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1Cor 1)

I fell asleep on my face in my prayers this morning.  It’s not the weird patterns of the carpet left on my forehead or the thought of someone finding me in this undignified state which bothers me.  It’s this: if this is how my day starts, how can I hope to accomplish the works of God?  Where does the believer, the saved, the saint get the energy to live a life set apart?  A holy life?  A life lived for God?

I make lots words.  I draw funny pictures.  They have a point and I spend a lot of time and effort on them and I want to see their impact.  I believe they are at least in part, my calling.  When I don’t see direct ripples from the pebbles I’m tossing I get discouraged.  When I’m reminded I’m not doing enough to pay the bills, I doubt my calling.  To make matters worse, the sinful side of me wants to be glorified for them.  Where does the power come from to keep going?  To trust?  To overcome myself?

I was deeply effected in church on Sunday.  The hymns, the music, the words, the power of fellowship with so many others… it was worship!  Moments like those, where God feels so close and life makes so much more sense, are precious and few.  Like time alone in nature.  Like time spent holding a sleeping baby.  Life has such a clear purpose and meaning then.  How does one keep going when so much of the rest of life is Scottish?  Cold, wet, gray and ruled by someone else.  Paul, who knew something of hardship and suffering, tells us…

The Cross. 

For all its doctrines, for all its teachings, for all the volumes of words in the myriads of books printed about it, ours is a simple faith:  “8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom 5)  Get knocked on the noggin and forget everything else but keep this deeply tucked away and engraved in the center of your life and you will be just fine.

Pray it in the morning.  Repeat it at night.  Say it over every meal.  Whisper it before every fight.  Write it on every check, dollar and bill.  Cry it in the valley, sing it on the hill.  I love the way a cross marks a spot.  It draws the eye.  It centers.  It focuses.  It says, “Here!  Look here!”  The Cross sits in the center of History.  Hardly noticed by the residents of a single city at the time, it is now and forever the single most important event ever.  We must not grow weary of it.  We must not take it for granted.  We must remember!  It is the source of our strength, the source of our joy, the source of our faith!  It is by what we judge and why we don’t.  It’s how we forgive and why we’re forgiven.  Even the strength we use to remember it comes from it.  Wheels within wheels.  The Spirit testifies continually about the blood of Jesus, the grace of Jesus.  The Spirit is in us!  “7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” (2Tim 1)

So do whatever you must to keep this center!  “18 “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 20 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.” (Deut 11)

 “3 Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you;


    bind them around your neck;

write them on the tablet of your heart.” (Prov 3)

“14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Heb 5)

Amen.

five...

"Are you sure this is the way??"

(the new, impro...more inked picture)

You've come to a cross in the road...