March 28, 2010

Bits and Pieces 11

Posted in Uncategorized at 6:49 PM by bethwilson

The first two weeks of spring term have just flown by!  The first week back, Brian Reese taught the class on Galatians.  It really challenged my thinking in what it means to have freedom in Christ.  There’s a lot here, but it was all so good I didn’t know what to cut out.  On to the lessons from Galatians:

• If your focus is trying to obey or trying not to do certain things, you will be hypocritical – because it’s all about the outward things, sooner or later, you’re going to fake it.  Man cannot be made good by law.  Our mistake is in thinking that what God wants from us is obedience.  He wants to change us into the kind of person who would obey Him.  He wants to change the kind of person I am.
• There are three “gospels” that are prevalent today:
• Social gospel: we’re free to do whatever we want; the focus is on poverty and problems in society
• Ecclesiastical gospel: stay in good standing with your church and you’ll be okay
• Forgiveness gospel: sin management; a gospel entirely about forgiveness.  If you profess to believe, you won’t get the punishment you deserve, so you’ll get to go to Heaven.  Since this has happened, you should want to obey God – if you don’t, you haven’t proved by your life that you were forgiven.
• In these three “gospels”, the Gospel becomes simply about justification – it’s all about what you are going to do with your sin and how you are going to get to Heaven.  The Gospel is: Trust Christ.  Trust that He will pay for your sins – you can’t do anything about it.  Trust that He’ll live His life in you now.  Trust Him to teach you how you can live.
• The Great Commission: to make disciples and immerse them in the reality of the Trinitarian God and teach them to put into practice what Jesus taught.
• What you really think of Jesus is going to show when you find out you don’t have to do anything to earn His favor.
• Why is doctrine important?  Because if you know that the Virgin birth took place (for example), it changes your view of the world.  It’s understanding that if you believe miracles can happen, your life is no longer just secular.
• Christ didn’t die on the cross so you wouldn’t have to.  He died on the cross so you could join Him there.  He wants to change us into the kind of people that want to do what’s right.  He likes us and wants to teach us the best and most exciting way to live.
• The reason most people haven’t changed is because they don’t see the use of it since they are going to Heaven.  What is your intent?  Are you choosing to become like Christ?  We default to the easy choice of following our high moral rules instead of being transformed inwardly.
• Does the literal, glorified body of Christ live in me?  We become the hands of Jesus to do what He would do.  We become the mind of Christ to think the thoughts He would think.  What He did and taught while living on the earth, He wants to continue doing and teaching through us (2 Corinthians 4:6,11; Galatians 2:20, 4:19).  He wants to make us into the kind of beings that spontaneously live out His life.
• You don’t start with Jesus and then graduate to your own efforts – it’s all of Him.
• What is the evidence of salvation?  To give to the poor (Galatians 2:10; Matthew 25:31-46; Luke 4:17-21).  Ironically, the one thing we most often neglect.  Remembering the poor – practical, financial compassion to the poor right where they are.  It should be the number one commitment of the church.  We are not more like Christ because we do this, but we do this because of His life manifested in us.
• Legalism produces an attitude of pride.  Grace produces an attitude of humility.  When you serve the poor, you are serving people who can’t do anything in return.
• We forget who we once were; we think we deserve Jesus and forget where we would be without Him.  Review the Gospels.  He served the poor, outcasts, sinners, the losers and misfits, those entrapped by sin.
• God has never once bestowed His grace and mercy on anyone who deserved it.
• Christians are not those without failure, but those with the understanding of how often we fail.  We refuse to let those failures keep us from trying again, and our failures make us more compassionate toward others.
• We need to pick up our cross and follow Him.  The cross is for death.  Death to my dreams, desires, ambitions, myself.  But knowing what I’m like, it’s a good trade – to die myself and live Christ’s life.
• Now Christ lives in me.  So embrace the truth (no longer I, but Christ lives in me).  Abide in Him.  We are undertaking to do what we have the power to do so He can do in and through us what we can’t do on our own.  You’re not aiming at obedience; you’re trying to become the kind of person who would obey.  What did you do to be saved?  Nothing.  It’s all of Christ.  The fruits of the Spirit are just that – of the Spirit.  It’s not your fruit that you have to produce.
• The reason we don’t take on the character of Jesus is simply because we don’t intend to.
• We need more than simply a list of rules to keep us above the amoral world we live in; do we just need to work harder at it? No.  Do we need to exhort Christians to obey?  Tell them that it’s better to strive to obey out of fear than to not obey at all?  The assumption of legalists is they forget the indelible mark of a Christian: believers love to obey God’s commands because they are not burdensome.  We are literally indwelt with the person of Christ.  Instead of me proving myself to God, God wants to prove Himself to me.  He wants me to love Him and delight in Him and be satisfied with Him.  Because that’s when He is most glorified.  He will perform in you everything that He has demanded of you.
• We should be the kind of people where others see our lives and thank God for God.
• You never live contrary to your beliefs, though you may live contrary to your professed beliefs.
• Christ did not come and die to keep you from having a bad conscience, or to simply wipe out past sins, but to also clear the deck for Divine action.
• Are we so foolish as to think we can change ourselves by ourselves?  Can we go on to maturity in a different way than we came to Christ?
• God could have given very clear proofs that He exists and that Jesus is God – He gave sufficient proof, but the Bible never seeks to prove the existence of God, because God is concerned about whenter or not we believe Him, not whether or not we believe in Him.
• The teachers coming in to the Galatian church taught that trusting Christ wasn’t enough.  If you wanted to stay in a good relationship with God, you needed to obey the Law – or at least the parts they thought were more important.  If you keep the Law by trying to keep the Law, you focus on only outward performance, rather than transforming the kind of person you are.  Trying not to kill anyone isn’t a way to become Christ-like.  Becoming Christ-like makes it so you don’t have to worry about trying to not kill anymore.  If you are striving to become more like Christ and to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, you will do these good things naturally.
• It’s His promise, not my performance.  When we believe Him, we find that not only are His promises good, but they are the only things that satisfy us.  We begin to see sin as the absolutely foolish choice that it is.
• So how can we become like Christ?
  1. Get a vision that what God has planned for you is a good thing; form a vision that the life that God has created for you is the absolute best thing that is out there for you.  This is the best bargain ever – giving up yourself in exchange for the wonderful life of Jesus in you.
  2. Have an intention, a decision to do so.  If you don’t have the intention, nothing will happen.
  3. Implement the means.  God’s grace is what helps you to become like Christ.  What are the means to becoming Christ-like?  (We don’t have the means to be patient, but we do have the means to do some things.  Also, we’re not being legalistic about this.  You’re simply attempting to do what is in your power.  If it doesn’t work, that’s fine – that’s the freedom we have.)  The means – some things we can do: memorize Scripture, pray, fast, celebrate and remember what God has done for you, serve others without recognition or return, read the Bible, find a mentor/discipler.  Do the things you are able to do so that He can do in you what you can’t do by your own direct effort.
• Grace isn’t opposed to your efforts – it’s opposed to your earning (an attitude).
• The church is not here to teach people how to die.  The church is here to teach people how to live.
• People won’t remember what you teach, but they will remember how you live.
• Paul is not saying obedience is legalism.  But just not murdering someone isn’t indicative of what’s in your heart.  It’s a freedom to actively engage with the living Christ in me.  I should actively seek righteousness, not actively seek not to sin. I  begin to see the foolhardiness of sin.
• You will not drift into spiritual maturity – methodical practice and training is required.
• Discern between what you do and who you are.  You are His child and He is the one who produces fruit in you.  The genuine fruit in your life is a result of the Spirit – but it comes because of direct effort on your part – but it’s not your effort that produces it.  (In other words, you can’t just do nothing and expect God to give it to you, but you can’t earn it, either.)
• What Jesus found necessary in His life, you will probably find necessary in your life.  For example, rising early to spend time alone with His Father.
• If we saw the truth, we would see that sin is like sticking a pencil in your eye.  There’s no need to have a rule about it because no one wants to do it.

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