God uses ALL things...

 

When I don’t want to admit unloving attitudes, it is easy to rename them so they seem okay. I might be ‘righteously indignant’ about sin, or even excuse bad behavior because I am tired. This happens to many. Today’s devotional reading says: “The root and cause then of our wavering experience is not, as we may have thought, our sins, but is simply and only our doubts.”

The Bible clearly indicates that doubt and unbelief are indeed sins, the very sin that is the opposite of faith and trusting God. This is the same as any other sin and needs to be confessed as such. Merely moaning over such a lack does nothing. Nor does trying harder. Like any other sin, it must be confessed as such.

This ties to another reading, more from Charnock’s book in the section about why God allows sin. He describes how God uses it in our lives. Renaming it and calling it something else is a mistake that keeps us from experiencing His power to change our lives. Charnock gives many examples.

Without sin, I would have no humility or compassion for others to speak of them about salvation. Holy sorrow would have no fuel nor would God need to exercise His patience, nor would I. Charnock and the Bible say patience is one of the noblest virtues.

God also uses sin to produce the sense of need to depend on Him. Sin causes me to run to Him for refuge, to lower my self-confidence and trust Him instead. It brings me closer to God. He actually used it to bring me receptive to the gospel and also to further His work in changing my life.

By permitting lapses, the Lord shows me the folly of trying to live for Him in my own strength and teaches me to rely more and more on Christ. No one knows the nature of Paul’s thorn in the flesh, but God used it to bring this Christian leader to greater confidence in God and less in himself.

So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:7–10)

Just as God permitted sin to enter into the world to honor and reveal Himself in the Redeemer, we daily battle sin and even in losing that battle at times, I discover the greatness of His love and the persistence of His redemption, also the wisdom of imputed righteousness. If I had become sinless, I could easily boast in that and have no need for His continual saving power. If God removed all  remainders of sin and guilt, I would forget that I am a fallen creature and that He is my Redeemer. Sin reminds me of my condition without Him and of His perpetual care. God also lets me see what filth yet remains in me and how He keeps cleansing me so I do not forget about His blood that washes it away.

Again, sin reminds me of my impotency. I cannot expiate it, nor conform to the law. I must wrap myself in grace and say: “Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.” (Romans 7:24–25) and “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set (me) free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:1–2)

Sometimes my courage for God is sharpened by the shame of my sin. I want to serve Him more and be less apt to fall for Satan’s lies or the world’s temptations. He let the original fall happen for that end. Not only that, my errors and disobediences beat down pride. Charnock points to Hezekiah who was more humbled by his fall into pride than by all the distress he experienced (2 Chronicles 32:26) and  Peter whose confidence before his fall gave way to humility after it.

PRAY: Jesus, I don’t always understand all You do, yet realize if I make excuses for my sin, I will miss the wonder of You using even it to change my heart and realize the incredible value of Your wisdom and love for me. You desire a life change — and I need to admit what changes are needed, not rename or make excuses for what You call sin. Keep my eyes on You too, not only when I need instruction but also when I need rebuke and correction.

Getting up the mountain

As I read about David’s battles and compare them to mine, and as I read Paul’s exhortations and compare them to my experiences, it is plain that I will spend the rest of my life in this war between flesh and spirit. That is, the old nature will continually try to rule over the new life of Christ in me.

In Romans 6, Paul wrote about being dead to sin and alive to God, and about presenting ourselves to God as a person made righteous . . .

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin . . . . Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:6;12–14)

Then in the very next chapter he describes his battle with sin and how he did what he didn’t want to do. He ended with this:

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. (Romans 7:24–25)

How then am I delivered from this body of death? Chambers says it is a moral decision, a moment in life when a person decides that just as Jesus Christ died for the sin of the world, so sin must die in us. We do not curb, suppress, or counteract, but crucify. He says no one can bring any one else to this decision; we must make it ourselves and make the moral decision that sin in ourselves must be put to death.

I’m shaking my head at Chambers’ use of verbs and pronouns. Some of what he writes for today sounds a bit too much toward me being my own Savior through my own choices, as if it is up to me whether or not I am saved from sin. Paul said ‘thanks be to God’ not ‘thanks be to me that I finally decided to quit.’

Becoming a Christian means Christ came into my life. He grabbed hold of me and is in the process of delivering me from the power of sin and the control of my fleshy desires. Surrender needs to happen, but all resistance can do is delay the process. My old nature can try to take back control, but He keeps His Word and His persistence is far more powerful than my resistance. He promised to save me and He will do it; He is doing it.

I recall taking my father on the gondola at the Banff ski hill. He was afraid of heights and clung white-knuckled to the railing for the entire trip. He could have trusted the gondola and enjoyed the ride, but no matter what he did, he made it safely to the top and back down again.

Who delivers me from sin? Is it Jesus or is it my decision to enjoy the ride rather than resist it?

Paul says, past tense, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20) This statement is not “I will die to sin” because it had already happened.

Jesus teaches me to stop resisting His work of saving me. I’m to put off my old self. I’m to let go of whatever railing I cling to. My effort or lack of effort is not going to move me any safer, quicker, or more securely. It is my gondola, Jesus Christ, who is taking me up the mountain, not me. Thinking that way is equivalent to “considering myself dead to sin,” and to “putting on the new self,” and to enjoying the ride.

The power of worship

Autumn fades, but the glory of gold and orange lingers in the trees. The sky is still dark this morning, but the moon and stars brightly shine. I cannot see the mountains from my window but we have gazed up at their snow-clad peaks often enough that I can remember their glory. I can look even at photos of rivers and the sea and remember the sounds and smells. Our nearby pond is beginning to freeze yet a few geese remain. I stop on my daily walk and appreciate them, sometimes singing a few lines of, “It is my Father’s world . . . .”

Some say they can worship God in the woods better than in church. I’m not sure that is so, but respect it for God can be worshiped in any place and at any time. Even those who don’t know Him and don’t think of Him, can be in awe over creation. 

Yet even though the splendor of what God has made awes the mind, deep inside tugs a deep desire, unnamed, but that only God can satisfy. We may not name it, but as today’s devotional reading says, “our thinking is a mutilated fragment without God, and our hearts can never rest unless they rest in him.”

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. (John 4:24)

Worship is a good thing. At times, it is the only thing that can soothe my sorrows and calm my anxieties. When all else fails, when I have no words to ease the pain of others, or to comfort those who have lost loved ones,  I want to point them to God. Sometimes I feel that I cannot do it and afterward feel sad or ashamed that I didn’t because I know looking at Him is true comfort.

My own heart finds comfort and deep joy in worship, in submitting to God and trusting Him. He has taught me that He knows what He is doing. He sees the end from the beginning, and in all things works for the good of those who love him.

As well, worship aids me when I am tempted. Mere thoughts of “this is wrong” are not sufficient. The idea that sin is destructive and not beneficial cannot help either. I can recognize the enemy’s lies in the bait he dangles before me and still struggle. I may know what I ought to do, but that isn’t enough. As Paul said,

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. (Romans 7:18–19)

But worship puts all of it where it belongs. Moral behavior cannot live on ideas and values. Morals might be rooted in a strong sense of obligation, but that will not keep my heart pure. However, the desire to do right reveals a glory about human beings; we are made in the image of God. Yet I find that without worship, even a strong sense of moral obligation will give way to sin.

Worship does many things. It nourishes my understanding that God is a high, moral, spiritual Being who made me for himself. I belong to Him. As I worship Him, it also nourishes in me the highest and best as it points me to the One who can rescue me from sin and temptation. When Paul lamented his sinfulness and lack of power to overcome sin, he ended his lament with . . . 

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. (Romans 7:24–25)

Worship heightens the mind, lifts me above sin and those desires of the flesh, but without Jesus Christ, I would be unable to get from those base desires to holiness and higher ground. Because the Lord has delivered me from the power of sin, then worship gives me an increasing desire to serve Him instead of those selfish desires.

God is worthy of worship and that is sufficient reason to do so. All that He is and all that He does reminds me of the wonder of His great love, His almighty power, His amazing goodness. Worship is due Him, yet in the way that He created the human heart, worship is also good for me.

 (photo credit)

In all these things . . .

My uncle Edward was one of those story tellers who offered a hook so you wanted to hear the story, but then took you on a convoluted journey down many rabbit trails until he finally fleshed out the story and finished with the punch line. Sometimes the Apostle Paul reminds me of Edward.

For instance, today’s devotional reading is based on a verse that says, “In all these things we are more than conquerors. . . .” so my first thought is, “All what things?” Where does Paul’s thinking begin? I had to go back two chapters to find some clues.

His hook could be this statement: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Since this is the gospel in a nutshell, and certainly a hook, I’m going to consider this as one of “these things” and trace through to the punch line.

First, those who have accepted the “free gift” know that sin still happens. This hook raises a question: As a Christian, do I still earn sin’s wages?

Paul struggled with that too. In the next chapter, he describes how he did what he didn’t want to do, and didn’t do what he wanted. Could this be one of “these things” that he lumps into his punch line? At the end of the chapter he hints at it.

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. (Romans 7:24–25)

Is one of “these things” conquered this dilemma of having a Savior and still having sin? Paul knows that he is delivered, but also knows that in this life sin will always reside in his flesh. How then is he delivered? The answer immediately follows these verses,

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

It is not that Paul still sins (or that I still sin) that makes him a conqueror, but that because of Jesus, there is no condemnation from God. All the condemnation that sin deserves was put on Christ. He sets His people free from the wrath of God against sin.

However, the flesh does remain a problem, so Paul describes God’s solution. He gives His people the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we have the ability to serve Him instead of the flesh. For us, it is a choice.

So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. (Romans 8:12)

Yet there is a catch to this too. We are to “put to death the deeds of the body” and be “led by the Spirit” but this is not automatic. In fact, it is a learning process.

The story continues as Paul says we learn how to obey by suffering. We are God’s children . . . “and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” (Romans 8:17).

At this point, Paul has clarified two roads. I can choose to do whatever my flesh wants, which will not rob me of what God has done, but it will lead me into sin and death. Or I can follow the Spirit and learn how to obey Him through suffering.

At this point in the story of Christian living, some encouragement is a must. Paul offers it in his next statement. “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).

Suffering is now and glory is a future thing. Can I endure the suffering of learning how to walk as Jesus walked without being able to see this glory in my future? I like visible rewards. Yet Paul seems to anticipate my question. He goes on:

For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. . . . (Romans 8:24–26)

Again, the Holy Spirit will help me. I am weak. I don’t like to suffer. My body ached this morning and I didn’t want to get out of bed. I’ve suffered in many other ways. I’m a wuss. How will I ever deal with anything more? But he says the Spirit of God will help me. Then he offers this marvelous truth that has sustained me since I first became a Christian . . . 

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. . . . (Romans 8:28–29)

When Paul said “these things” he included the “all things” in this passage. God is so powerfully involved in my life that nothing happens to me without purpose. He is working to make me like Jesus and will use good things and suffering, all things, toward that goal.

In trying to cooperate with Him, I sometimes lose sight of His love for me. It seems that life is too hard, the challenges too great. Paul, in the power of God’s Spirit, anticipated those thoughts too, because he writes this punch line about “these things.” I am blessed by his words.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31–39)

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Oh loving God, the enemy’s biggest lie is that You do not love me. He jumps in when I struggle with sin, or when my flesh seems more powerful than the Spirit of God. This lie hovers over me when I suffer and when the “all things” of life include nasty and unpleasant and unexpected things.

Yet Your love is constant. Nothing can separate me from it, not sin, accusations, trouble, even physical harm and death. You use all things, even these things, to shape me like Jesus and You do it because You love me. That is why in all these things I am a conqueror, a winner — even more than a winner. You lift me above it all because You love me. You are an awesome God and I am in awe of You because of all these things!