What a Jesus-Follower is Like

That phrase in I John 2:5-6 has always been more than a bit intimidating: By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

Are you kidding me??? is a very common reaction. Jesus walked in the closest communion with His Father, experiencing temptation but never committing sin – His heart and mind were pure. And I’m supposed to walk like him? I’m a cesspool of foul desires, evil thoughts, and guilty actions.

But there it is. The expectation is that Christians will reflect Jesus. The Holy Spirit comes, not as some mystical theory, but as a living Presence, changing the heart of the believer and pouring, daily, the life of Jesus in our souls. Slowly, we are becoming like Him. In my case, there are extra o’s: sloooooowly.

Sometimes it feels like we’re actually becoming worse, but that is because as God gives light progressively into our minds and hearts, we simply see more of the reality of our fallenness. Yet, that same light is also purifying us, in the most consequential and sequential daily miracle the world will ever see. Sinners transformed.

I see 5 words that can sum up what I John teaches us about a growing-into-the-image-of-Christ disciple:

1. Authentic – a formerly dishonest heart is becoming truthful, leaving behind hypocrisy and embracing – before God and men – spiritual reality.
2. Believing – the one who despised Jesus Christ and took His name in vain now gladly acknowledges Him as the only Savior – his/her only Savior.
3. Holy – once running in the ways of the world, and delighting in sinful pursuits, the follower of Jesus has now broken with worldly patterns, even while still loving those yet trapped in their sin.
4. Loving – the hallmark of Jesus’ presence in the heart is love – a formerly self-centered soul now increasingly acts on the impulses of love vertically (God-ward) and horizontally (with other men).
5. Obedient – God’s commands now take precedence over the expectations of others; and, even at great cost, over our own preferences and desires.

Every one of these things is a miracle. We don’t need to divide the sea or multiply loaves of bread to prove the existence of God. We just need to follow Jesus and give Him the reins in our lives.

No disciple of Christ walks perfectly in these things – none of us can come close to living in the perfect holiness of Jesus. It will be a source of utter futility to read the text as if it meant, “the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk perfectly in the same manner as He walked.” That interpretation is the fastest way into the pit of despair.

Nonetheless, the evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit is clear – when these five traits increasingly fill our lives, even starting in small measures, we are walking with Jesus. And, the converse is true – no matter what we say with our lips, if we are not practicing authentic, believing, holy, loving obedience, then (as John so bluntly phrases it) we are liars.

A Jesus-follower looks like Jesus. It’s gradual, slow, step-by-step, and discolored by the power of remaining sin in the heart of the believer. But now, the true disciple grieves over that sin and consistently turns away from it. The Jesus-follower brings his/her foulness to God and receives pardon and fresh power. The believer falls six times and gets up seven times, and keeps moving forward.

That, too, is a miracle of grace.

Satisfied

We all want to be satisfied (in the most common use of the term). I made some (smoked) pulled pork last night – and believe me, we were all satisfied at meal’s end!

But, our temporary feelings of satisfaction pale into insignificance when we consider this question: Can God be satisfied? Clearly, we’re going to need to consider a variant meaning of the word compared to, say, the appeasing of our fleeting appetites!

“If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation (satisfaction) for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.” I John 2:1-2

For God to be satisfied, in this case, means that His wrath is fully appeased through an effective, once-for-all-time sacrifice to take away the guilt of sin – healing the breach caused by our rebellion.

Yes, God IS satisfied – utterly, totally, and universally satisfied – and it has something to do with an advocate for sinners, Jesus Christ.

Satisfied here implies complete, without flaw – when Jesus said, “It is finished!” as He perished on the cross, it meant that satisfaction for sin was now reaching a whole new level. One sacrifice for all sin, for all peoples. A satisfaction that anyone in the entire world could enter into, at any time, and be reconciled with God.

We don’t sacrifice a lamb for our daily sins – that is to go backwards into the time when God was instructing the human race through types and symbols. All those temporary sacrifices were like brush strokes, painting the portrait of the Lamb of God to come who would fully satisfy the wrath of a just God with a perfect sacrifice.

We need no Mass to crucify afresh the body and blood of Christ. We can do no good works to appease God when He has already satisfied His perfect requirements through the giving up of His Son. Our acts of devotion are to be from a wellspring of gratitude and joy that God is satisfied with those who embrace His Son.

We cannot earn favor. We cannot cancel our guilt. We cannot cleanse our own stains. We cannot appease our offended consciences or obey a law that we already despise; and we certainly cannot satisfy a holy God. Our feeble efforts at reconciling ourselves to God through ANY religious observances or good works are like sitting on the beach digging through sand with a bent spoon to try to find a bit of water, when the whole ocean is in front of us. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that God is satisfied – with Jesus Christ. Embracing and following Him, we enter into a rest that nothing else can give: the smile of a satisfied God.

If I put a heaping plate of nourishing food in front of you, and you decide instead to scratch around on the floor looking for crumbs – would that satisfy either of us? So, when God makes abundant provision and we embark on a do-it-yourself project, we stiff-arm the only One who can satisfy.

We can be washed in the ocean of God’s grace. Bent spoons and crumbs don’t bring a smile to God’s heart. Anything that has the trappings of Christianity without the satisfaction of God as its constant heartbeat is simply missing the point.

It is vanity to think that we could satisfy a God who has already satisfied every requirement of His holiness. We can, however, bow to worship and humbly receive His gracious kindness.

“If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness.” I John 1:8,9

The Balance of Freedom and Form in Personal Devotions

When I became a believer in Jesus, I was taught early on to have very regular daily personal devotions. It was a valuable discipline, which carries through to this day. However…

Form – - – Freedom

I have also learned that there is a balance of freedom and form in the life of worshipper.

This lesson came home to me most powerfully when we were about to have our first son. Babies have an odd habit of thoroughly disrupting anything resembling a schedule, and my wife was concerned about how the sleep/feeding cycles were going to impact her (very regular) schedule of Bible-reading and prayer. Turns out that God is perfectly capable of sustaining His people in the midst of unpredictability and relative chaos.

Most believers find benefit from a disciplined and regular schedule, and most believers also find, over time, that rigidity can be unproductive and a period of less-structured free-form devotions can be exactly what is needed. Liberating ourselves from the mentality that there is one “right” method to personal devotions is important in experiencing the freedom of grace, and giving God room to work in new ways.

Also, a word about fixed notions of the “right” time to have devotions. I am wired as a morning person, so the standard advice that one should have devotions first thing in the morning fits easily into my modus operandi. However, it is vital that we respect our internal makeup in these matters – some people feel nearly worthless in the morning but really come alive in the evening. For them, the oft-quoted maxim, “Be sure to see the face of God before you see the face of man,” while well-meaning, may lead to hopeless bondage. Instead, built your devotional schedule around your best times, and give yourself (and others!) flexibility. We are free to experiment, evolve, and discover what works best in our lives.

So, to sum up – don’t get locked in to one framework, and don’t bind others. God is big and powerful enough to accomodate our many styles and makeups. Embrace the necessity of discipline, enjoy the flexibility of freedom, and above all, walk in the liberty of grace.

How have you grown and changed in your devotional approach? Have you found a good balance of freedom and form, or are you still struggling to find a path of peace in personal worship?

Clueless Birds

As I sit in the (relative) quiet of my study this Sunday morning, there is a squawking noise outside – sparrows happily jousting with one another for their turn at the feeder that hangs from the red maple by our deck.

Wings flapping as they hop from deck rail to seed-holder, they greedily go after their morning breakfast, provided by someone they’ll never know, someone they’d fear and flee from on sight.

Someone who gladly provides for them anyway. Because they are alive and have a purpose; even if that purpose is only to sing and look pretty and propagate and remind us that we are but one species in a glorious pantheon of wonderful creatures.

A mourning dove has now joined them – big, slow, with its incredibly distinctive and plaintive cry. And sometimes, my ears will delight at the calls of the neighborhood mockingbird (my favorite), one of the many reminders that God has a whimsical sense of humor.

These birds are clueless about higher purposes, yet they glorify God, even when not conscious of it.

Sometimes I wonder how clueless I am. Yet it is my calling and privilege to knowingly glorify God.

Not just take the daily abundance that he gives and fly off in fear…

My Idea of Justice

I find that I have a very ambivalent relationship with Justice.

Like every human being made in the image of God (well, I guess that’s all of us!), my instinct for justice is undeniable. Murderers should be severely punished. Thieves (corporate or otherwise) should be locked up and have their assets liquidated and returned to their victims. People who do great work should be promoted.

We are hard-wired to seek consequences for choices, on both the reward and the punishment level.

Some feel squeamish about justice. But steal our wallet, smash our car, hurt our kids – we pretty quickly find out that we yearn for justice like everyone else. On a personal and societal level.

But then I read statements like this today, in Psalm 58:

Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges the earth!

…and I look around and say, where? Isn’t it often the case that the wicked “get away with it” while the righteous suffer (see Psalm 73)? If God is just, and a Judge over all the earth, why is there so much injustice? In the timeline of our experience, it all seems so uneven and inconsistent. What’s up with that?

This can be a real stumbling block to faith. Of course, reading through the Scriptures, we do find numerous places where God actively brings judgment on those who oppose Him, and even judges His people when they stray off from His ways. But other times, He seems silent. Is this injustice? Impotence? Absence? Or something else?

From our (admittedly limited) perspective, it looks like there’s not a whole lot of justice going on! But maybe – just maybe – this is a good thing.

The same psalm opens with this bald statement of our universal human sin: “the wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth speaking lies.” If just our little white lies were subject to the justice they deserve, we’d all be living through a Category 10 hurricane of wrath each day. Let alone all the other ways in which we daily fall pitifully short of perfect holiness.

God is just…and patient (or, in older English – longsuffering). God is a God of justice…and mercy. God is opposed to the wicked…and inscrutably wise in His eternal purposes.

In other words, justice will not always occur in the way and in the timing we expect. It WILL occur, as sure as day follows night – but, as for me, I am glad it is not immediate and fitting to the crime. Because I’d be a dead man 100,000 times over for all of my violations – in action and in heart – of God’s law.

Throughout the Torah, we see the principle of substitutionary sacrifice for sin – justice taken out on an animal substitute, such as a spotless lamb. Blood was shed as payment for human sin. Day after day, year after year. This understanding continued forward into the Christian faith, with the full outworking being a once-for-all sacrifice of Christ, the Lamb of God, for sinners of every race.

Justice satisfied via sacrificial substitute??? My sin cancelled out by the sword of justice falling on a willing, and faultless, sacrifice?? What’s up with that?

Scandalous idea. And that, my friends, is the gospel.

It’s God’s idea of justice, linked in mysterious wisdom to mercy for fallen men and women. Justice, and deliverance from justice. Holiness meeting humanity over a table of atoning love.

I’ll take that over my idea of justice any day.

The End of Greed

There’s a lot of talk about greed in our society these days – the greed of the rich, the greed of politicians – even the greed of the unproductive.

We get agitated about the enormity of greed that surrounds (and infects) us; and when it leads to illegal and unethical activity, which it often does, our hearts cry out for justice. Well  – ahem – except for our own case. Then we have a few ready rationalizations…

While we might like to think that we live in a uniquely depraved time, in fact, there truly is nothing new under the sun. If we look back through human history, for however many thousands of years, two of the underlying bass notes of the performance have always been pride and greed.

And death. While government will never be able to “fix” greed, there is one sure-fire cure.

Here’s how it was put, many generations ago, in Psalm 49:

Give ear, all inhabitants of the world, both low and high, rich and poor together…Even wise men die; the stupid and senseless alike perish and leave their wealth to others. Their inner thought is that their houses are forever…but man in his pomp will not endure; he is like the beasts that perish…Do not be afraid when a man becomes rich, when the glory of his house is increased; for when he dies he will carry nothing away; his glory will not descend after him.

Stark, yes? And unavoidably true.

When our eyes ascend to the feeble and temporary heights achieved by those who accumulate wealth and power, we often feel a sense of fear, of outrage – and a need to bring them down. But this is because our gaze does not ascend high enough – to a just and holy God who looks with far keener eyes upon the pride and pitiful wealth of men. Rich and poor alike are like a flower in spring – vibrant but for a moment, then soon gone. Not a single greedy, wealthy, arrogant baron who elevated himself a few millimeters above his fellow man in the 1800′s is still around to be feared. And when we look around at the living faces of people in our generation – they, and we, will soon be gone.

God, however, remains – unmoved, unchanged, unsullied by our sin. He is the one to fear. He is the one to depend on. His justice will make things right.

We can’t “fix” greed – all attempts to do so by human means are misguided. We can enforce laws against illegal behavior, but a pure heart is beyond the reach of societal and governmental enforcement.

We can, however, look ahead to the end of greed, and see that it cannot and will not endure. The Lord, our Redeemer, will see to that.

There’s plenty enough for our attention to be cleansed of the greed that infests our own hearts. God can see to that, too.

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I, Me, My, You

God is not a third-person abstraction, though we often treat him that way.

We are often inclined to talk about God as if He is not personal; as if there is no genuine one-to-one relationship. And perhaps for many, there is no such personal relationship – God is best kept in some box, only to be dragged out in time of desperation and appealed to as some mystical caster of spells for my benefit in desperate times.

Ugh. Can you imagine children treating their parents this way?

Reading through Psalms 40, 41, and 42 the last few mornings, I was struck afresh by the cornucopia of first- and second-person references. Here is an extremely abbreviated sample:

• I waited patiently for the Lord…He inclined to me and heard my cry
• Many, O Lord, are the wonders which You have done, and your thoughts toward us
• There is none to compare with You
• My ears you have opened
• I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart
• Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; make haste, O Lord, to help me
• As for me, I said, “O Lord, be gracious to me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against You”
• As for me, You uphold me in Your integrity, and You set me in Your presence forever
• As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God
• My soul thirsts for God
• Why are you in despair, O my soul…hope in God, for I shall again praise Him

I, me, my, You. That is the proper language of a soul engaged with the living and personal God.

Whatever anyone may think about the God of the Bible, and the faith of those who follow Him, there is no such thing as a far-off, third-person, unapproachable deity in the entirety of the Scriptures. Unless, of course, you choose to build that wall.

From Genesis to Revelation, I see an open door…and those who seek, find.