Subtle boasting exposed

At times my mind works like a story-telling uncle whose thoughts rambled from A to B to XYZ and finally back to C. This happened today and my devotions rambled until thoughts finally added up and made sense. Easy for me, but difficult and shameful to describe.

First, I remembered a new believer in her late nineties who didn’t tell her family she finally trusted Christ. They had shared the gospel with her for years, but she did not tell her family she now believed. I told them, then suggested they change their words to suit a person new to the faith.

Then I read today’s devotional in which the author said Jesus motivated godly behavior by telling them the hope of being with God in heaven, and motivated radical purity with the fear of torment in hell. He added that for Jesus, a desire for heaven and a fear of hell were practical, daily parts of living a holy life. 

I don’t see Jesus doing that. Instead, His words depended on who He was talking to. Those with faith heard encouragement to live out their faith. Those who didn’t believe were reminded of the consequences. The reason for this distinction is that there is no danger of going to hell for those with genuine saving faith.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:1–2)
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. (John 10:28–29)
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. (1 John 5:13)

That reminded me of a church I once attended that taught salvation was my decision and I could decide to not trust God and change my destination. This teaching says I am ruler of my life rather than Jesus being Lord and Savior. I was a new Christian at the time, but was certain this thinking put me on the throne instead of Jesus. 

Since the OT defines sin like this: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6) I knew that going my own way was not only vanity and pride, but also sin. Besides that, the NT is filled with the gospel of salvation by faith. While I am told to believe, it says that both salvation and faith are God’s gift, not my doing. 

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9)

Boasting is ruled out because I would not and could not do this by myself: 

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12–13)

Then my mind took another leap to thinking about how even as a saved and secure child of God, this “doing my own way” too easily creeps into everything. And God startled me with another truth that was like a wallop on the side of my head. I realize at that moment that I can boast about what God is doing in my life but instead of putting the emphasis on God, put it on “in my life” as if I am now doing so good that I’ve earned all this blessing and answered prayer. DUH. How twisted to use God’s goodness as an ego trip.

At that, I then realized that it is easier to brag about His favor than to boast about my weaknesses. Even though Jesus spoke of hell to those without faith, He reminded me of what I am saved from, and that I don’t do any of that saving myself. I have nothing to boast about. Instead of humility, I have used His glory to build my ego. Shame on me.

PRAY: Jesus, this pride thing pops up. You are kind to me — I’m proud of that, as if I deserve it. You hear and answer prayer — I boast of that, as if I’m special. You surprise me with Your goodness — I boast of that, as if You treat me better than others. Sigh. You will humble those who exalt themselves. My pride is not from You and is a deception and a dangerous sin. Purify my heart. . . .  

God made a deal with me . . .

God is a dealmaker in His relationship with humanity. Theologians attempt to define how people divide the Bible into various sections using those relationships. One of them is called “dispensationalism” with seven major categories. They are innocence, conscience, human government, promise, Law, grace, and the millennial kingdom of Christ. This is a man-made way of understanding what the Bible reveals about God's purposes towards humanity, a system of trying to organize and understand God's work.

Another one is about COVENANTS. It is more complex. They are described as “contractual arrangements between God and a person or persons that require binding action from one or both with God having higher status in the arrangement.” Some think these were based on existing agreements in the pagan world between kings and their vassals. However, God’s covenants had several distinctives, one of them being that God initiates these agreements and people were recipients, not contributors. He determined the elements in the ‘deal’ without their input and expected them to respond as He demanded.

The Bible speaks of two types: conditional and unconditional covenants. The first is an “if you will, then I will” with God promising to bless His people if they fulfill certain conditions. Their response to the agreement brings either blessings or curses, and people must meet their conditions before God meets His. The two conditional covenants are the one made in Eden and the one made through Moses.

The second type is unconditional where God obligates Himself to bless His people. It is an “I will” agreement in which God determines to keep His promises by grace. Some conditions may be there, but they are to be fulfilled out of gratitude and are not the basis for God doing His part. The unconditional covenants are identified as Adamic, Noahic, Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic, and the New Covenant.

Also, four were made with Israel (Abrahamic, Palestinian, Mosaic, Davidic) and the others were made between God and man in general (Eden, Adamic, Noahic and New).

 The idea of covenants has always baffled me. It helps to know that the NT word is also translated as “testaments” much like our notion of a “last will and testament.” The person making it says what he wants done and it is binding (after a death) according to his will. The recipient cannot change or alter the provisions in the will. A covenant made by God is like that, particularly for the unconditional ones.

The conditional covenants are different. A comparison to a will might be a provision in the will that says a recipient must be 18-years old before receiving his inheritance. In the case of the conditional covenants, the first required that the initial people, Adam and Eve, did not eat from the tree of knowledge. Not far into the book of Genesis it says that they did not keep that condition, lost their place in a perfect environment, and were cursed by God for their disobedience. From then forward, all humanity has been born with a sin nature. We “all sin and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)

The second conditional covenant was the Mosaic one where God gave laws to His people and commanded them to fulfill them for blessings or they would experience curses and all sorts of adversity for disobedience. This was not about eternal salvation. Those laws described how they were to live as God’s distinctive people. They were already delivered from slavery to sin (illustrated in the Exodus) but needed to reflect the image of their Creator. This they failed to do, continually breaking their relationship of faith and love toward Him.

This is the bad news, a reality that most of humanity cannot see or accept. Those that do discover something wonderful about God — even though we cannot keep our promises, He always does!

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Thoughts about covenants will continue tomorrow, but today I want to focus on the promise-keeping nature of God. Since He is sinless and cannot lie, He also cannot break His Word. In simple terms, He tells me that if I put my faith in Jesus Christ and am reborn into His family, He will take me to His heavenly realm when my physical body is finished. Simple put: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” and “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (John 3:16 and Romans 8:1)

Jesus also promised this part of His unconditional covenant: “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” (John 10:28–29)