Attempts at Honesty

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A longing for justice

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Justice
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A fast scroll through the news or your Facebook feed can be overwhelming. This morning I am bombarded by news of bickering presidential candidates, government overreach, religious terrorism, friends dealing with disease and destructive wildfires. These are typical of what my world is facing on a day-to-day basis.

As Christians, we have the opportunity to bring all of our concerns to God in prayer, but where do we begin? It seams as though the list of things to pray about is way larger than our ability to pray about them. Perhaps this is why Paul tells us to pray without ceasing. But even when I pray, there are times when I wonder if things will ever be right.

But then, seemingly when I need it most, there are times when I read Scripture I find a nugget of encouragement that helps me see past the difficulties around me. I found one such this morning while reading through Isaiah.

“He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.” (Isaiah 42:4, ESV)

This verse is at the end of the first of the Servant Songs, which are parts of Isaiah’s prophecy where he writes about the Servant of Jehovah who Christians identify as Jesus of Nazareth.

This verse in Isaiah encourages me that at some point justice will be established. At some point, all the issues that I highlighted in my opening paragraph will be resolved. We will no longer experience terrorism, disease, or government corruption. We have a hope that rises higher than any flood of bad news that comes our way.

There will be an ultimate resolution, but we can also find hints of that resolution now.

We can actually see him working in the lives of some of those around us. Not only that, we see God working in ourselves. While we may feel that we take a step backward for every two steps forward, there is progress none-the-less.

I also like Isaiah’s reminder that Jesus will not grow faint or be discouraged about the mess we see around us. While we don’t understand why God allows any particular thing to happen, we can be assured that it is not because he has lost control or lost interest.

Because Jesus will not grow faint or be discouraged, we can find hope. That hope can then allow us to not grow faint or be discouraged. I am reminded of a verse from the old hymn, “My Hope is Built on Nothing Less”:

When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

Your Father knows what you need, then why ask?

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This post is Number 26 in the Sermon on the Mount Series.

In reading through Matthew 6, this evening I read two verses which raised a question. They are these:

“. . . your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. Pray then in this way . . .” (Matthew 6:8b-9a)

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The question is, why should we pray if God already knows what we need? It is not like I am going to provide God with a missing piece of data without which he could not make a good choice.

Also, when we look at the way that Jesus interacted with humanity, his behavior does not reveal a God who is reluctant to meet the needs of those who are seeking him. So the assumption in verse 8b is that God knows what you need and is more than willing to provide it. Later in the same sermon Jesus tells us that we are not to worry because God will take care of his people.

Why then are we to ask?

I think that we are to ask because through prayer, God grants us the dignity of participating in bringing about God’s will for humanity. He chooses to work through our prayers, even though he could accomplish his purpose without them.

It is a little bit like asking a 4 year old to help you paint the house. The little tyke will be excited about working with Dad, but won’t really contribute much that will benefit the house. Allowing the 4 year old to “help” grants him a dignity that he would not otherwise have.

Because God wants to be in relationship with us, he chooses to let us “help” him get his business done. He enjoys the fact that we come to him to ask for what we need.

Sometimes we are mistaken in what we think we need. But God, being the perfect father, will use the process of praying to shape our desires. Even when we ask for things that are not right for us, God will patiently answer our prayer. If it is not right for us, he will answer in the negative, but it is the correct answer.

I am thankful that I am ecouraged to bring my requests to God. I can do so knowing that even if what I am asking is wrong, he will make it right.

I’ll close with the first verse of an old hymn:

What a Friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit,
O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!

What is my motive?

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I find this verse to be challenging:

“When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the Lord of hosts.” (Malachi 1:8, ESV)

MotiveI understand that worship of God is not as much about what we do as it is about who we are and what our priorities are. Do we love God enough to give him the best? When I ask this question, I do not have material things primarily in mind.

I find that the reason that I do not offer the best to God is that I am often more interested in looking good than honoring God.

For example, when I read my Bible, am I getting a “check in the box” on a reading schedule or am I doing it to allow God to speak to me through Scripture?

Do I attend a Bible study to give Scripture and my brothers to mold me, or am I going because it is the thing to do and it would look awkward if I didn’t attend?

Am I serving out of a sense of calling or because I want to be seen as someone who serves?

Sure, we will never have completely pure motives for anything that we do, but an honest inventory is worth the effort to reveal parts of us are in need of redemption.

I should point out that there is value in doing the right thing even if our motives are not entirely pure (which they will never be in this lifetime). I’m certainly not saying that one should sit on the sidelines until something can be done with perfect motives.

My point is that we should be aware of the motive behind our activites and confess when our motive is selfish.

Perhaps the deciding question is “who gets the glory?” The recipient of the glory is either God or me, we cannot share it.

The softening of the Gospel

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Softening the waxListening to a Podcast on the way to work this week, I heard Tim Keller use an illustration that I found helpful. He used a wax seal to illustrate the impact of Biblical law upon the heart of a man (or woman).

To seal a letter, some wax is melted onto the letter and then a seal is pressed into the wax to show the identity of the one who sealed the letter. To do this properly, the wax had to be softened to take the impression of the seal.

Without softening, the seal would have difficulty in making an imprint upon the wax. Either the seal would leave a superficial impression on the hard wax, or the seal would crush the wax into pieces.

Without the Gospel, the Biblical law will have a superficial impression on a man or it will crush him. If a man does not operate under the good news of the Gospel, if he does not acknowledge his moral failure and helplessness to change, the law will either crush him or make him proud.

The result of a superficial application of the law is spiritual pride and intolerance. I saw an example of this recently when a well known comedian applied the ten commandments to his life in such a way as to prove that he keeps the Ten Commandments even though he doesn’t believe in God. To make his proof he had to offer a very superficial understanding and application of the commands. The result was that this comedian comes off as a bit condescending to those who have a different understanding of those commandments.

But non-believers are not the only ones who experience a superficial application of the law. Some who claim to believe the Gospel have also demonstrated this. They may even make every effort to live up to their understanding of the law and may genuinely believe that they are pleasing God by what they do and that they are in the right for the way that they live. The most extreme example of this can be found by following the misguided activities of the folks at Westboro Baptist Church. Their antics display the shallowest impression of the law upon their hearts and a law devoid of any Gospel.

On the other hand, if the law is applied without the softening of the Gospel, a man may be crushed by it. A proper understanding of the law will lead to the correct conclusion that no man can or will completely live up to the standard presented in the law. Any attempt to do so will end in disappointment or despair. If you doubt this, just think about how far into January the average person makes it with his New Year’s resolutions.

Prior to his understanding of righteousness coming as a result of faith, Martin Luther was a man that was crushed by the law. The best example of this is a line from the movie Luther, where Martin says to his superior, “I am too full of sin to be a priest.” Martin understood how far short of the Biblical standard he fell and was overwhelmed by that understanding until he discovered the Gospel.

When Christianity is presented as simply a moral code or philosophy of living, it is not good news, there is no Gospel in such a presentation. The only result will be pride or despair.

But, with a proper understanding of the Gospel, and how much we are loved by God, then the law becomes a tutor (NASB) or guide (ESV) to lead us to Christ (Galatians 3:24). When we understand that Jesus has satisfied the law on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21) we are no longer bound by the standard of perfect law keeping. Jesus kept the law for us.

Because Jesus has done this for us, we have no basis for pride or condemnation of others. An ever deepening understanding of Scripture leads to an ever deepening understanding of how much we have been forgiven.

Also, when we understand how much we are loved, we will not be crushed by the law. Jesus loved you and I so much that he was willing to endure the cross (Heb. 12:2) so that we might be in relationship with him. An ever deepening understanding of Scripture leads to an ever deepening understanding of how much God loves us and how far he has gone to bring us into relationship with himself.

Under the Gospel, our hearts experience the softening that allows for a proper understanding of the role of the law (Tweet this).

My guess is that each of us, apart from the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, will gravitate toward one or the other of these superficial applications of the law. Either we will be drawn toward pride over our law-keeping or we will be overwhelmed by our inability to live up to the standards in Scripture.  Personally, I am easily sucked into the vortex of the latter.

The antidote to both reactions is a proper understanding of the Gospel, which I like to summarize in two lines (this is a quote/paraphrase from Tim Keller). The Gospel tells me:

I am more deeply flawed than I ever dared to believe
I am more deeply loved than I ever thought possible

That is indeed good news.

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