Maturity is not about age…

 
The few people I know that are afflicted with bi-polar problems struggle to explain what life is like for them. This is a difficult condition to understand. For me, the spiritual version is easier to understand. As a Christian, I have a new nature from Christ. My old nature is said to be “dead” meaning it is separated from God (and always has been) and cannot live like a godly person.

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. (2 Peter 1:3–4)

However, that old nature is a stubborn tenant and tries to remain in charge even though new life from Christ means that I have another way to think and live. My new preferences and purposes are like Christ’s desires. If this were not so, I could not call myself a Christian. I am defined by the divine nature of Jesus.

The goal of God is that I cease from my own efforts entirely and by faith put on Christ, letting Him live in me and work in me to both desire and do His will. The idea is to abandon myself entirely to Him. He is my life, my destiny and I am to be entirely committed to let Him rule my thoughts, words, everything. The NT describes it like putting off an old garment and putting on this new life.  

Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. (Colossians 3:9–10)

The problems come with shedding those old habits. Pride and practice make many of them seem ‘good enough’ or the old habits so easily happen without thinking. For instance, I grew up on a farm where every meal had a dessert. We worked hard and ate well. Now that the physical labor is not so vigorous, I don’t need that much sugar, but the habit has me craving a dessert after a meal. Mentally I know better but the habit is hard to put off.

It is the same with many behaviors. The new life in Christ wants me to think like Jesus but the old life fights it, along with the help of the world (all those TV commercials about food and recipes for yummy looking cakes and cookies, for instance) and the liar who tries to convince me that ‘everyone does it’ or that ‘just once won’t hurt’ or some other excuse to abandon old habits. But the Bible says:

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:11)

This is precisely why I need a Savior. The battle is hopelessly lost without the divine power in the new life of Christ. I need to trust Him for whatever is needed to put off those old ways and live for Him and be like Him.

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)

PRAY: Jesus, we who are getting older complain how much longer it takes to do normal chores and how much more difficult they get as our bodies become less cooperative. I recall the young man who said to me, “Getting older must make it easier to be a Christian.” I laughed, but there are days when this is not funny. The weakness of aging is one thing that discourages putting off the old and putting on the new. I am thankful that your “strength is perfected in weakness” — otherwise I fear this would be a losing battle.

The mystery of tested faith

 

2 Kings 23; Psalm 142; Joel 2; Hebrews 5

Biblical faith is an odd commodity. Some try to describe it as knowing electricity will work so we confidently plug in the toaster. Or we know something is true because the source of it has been proven trustworthy. I’m not certain either illustration captures the mystery of faith. God’s Word says:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. (Hebrews 11:1–3)

Faith is just knowing something is true. It is being certain of it without any logical reason for it. The example is creation. Despite theories of big bang and evolution, God’s people just know that He did it and the stuff we can see or the so-called evidence for the theories are not valid. This is one reason why faith is mocked; it makes no sense to the rational mind.

Yet God takes the irrational and makes sense of it to those who trust Him. The best example is Jesus. He came to earth emptied of His equality with God and taking the form of a servant (see Philippians 2:5-8). He was fully God yet fully man and by obedience lived as fully man. The implications are huge and make no rational sense. Why would fully God do this? Why become like us? He must — so that He could be our perfect substitute and die for us — without any sin of His own yet living in a sinful world and suffering the sufferings that we suffer.

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, (Hebrews 5:7–9)

Jesus knew about suffering before He came here. As fully God, He could see what was going on in this world and how the struggle with sin and its consequences hurt humanity. He could also see that some struggled to obey and were unable. Yet it was not until He experienced those struggles Himself that His knowledge of them was made perfect or completed. Could this be like something so ordinary as looking at a picture of a rich dessert and knowing it was a prize winner, but not really knowing what it tastes like until I took a bite?

Faith is made complete by knowing it in experience. God enables that initial knowing, the faith part. It is as certain as Jesus knew that suffering was a real struggle, yet that knowledge was completed when He came here and suffered the same as we do. He did not sin like we do but, in His obedience, He experienced what He already knew.

The writer of Hebrews goes on . . .

About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5:11–14)

I understand this dull of hearing thing. Trying to wrap my mind around the meaning of Jesus learning obedience makes my head hurt. Besides, it is easier to go with concepts than to be trained by experience. I can know God sustains His people in hardship without the hardship, can’t I? Well, maybe. I don’t want loss to know God sustains or sorrow to know that He gives joy. Yet these verses tell me if I want to be mature and perfected in my faith and to be like Christ, then what I ‘just know’ about God and godly living by faith must also be experienced. For this reason, Paul said that knowing Christ involves sharing in His sufferings (see Philippians 3:10).

APPLY: When my faith is tested by suffering, I must remember who God is and trust His wisdom and love for me. He does not arbitrarily do terrible things just so I ‘really know’ what I profess to believe. Like any child, I grow by inches, not huge leaps. Each truth He reveals and each experience He leads me into to perfect my faith is timed right not merely dumped on me. Not only that, His work in my life has purpose — that I will be transformed into the image of His Son. While the process is challenging, it is also an adventure that is worth every inch of the way.