Tag: grace

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Is God Telling His People to “Be Better”?

“Put off your old self . . . and put on the new.” That’s one of the central teachings of the Christian faith.

Does this just mean “be better”? You could take it that way.

And, of course, there is one sense in which God commands us to be better. It is always our moral obligation from God to be better: to love more, to hate less, to be more kind, and to forgive.

There is also some advantage to a reminder to “be better.” How often do I think, for example, that I’m supposed to pursue “compassion” or avoid “slander”? It’s good for me to be reminded that this is what I’m supposed to do.

The problem is that I fail. The commandment just isn’t enough to get me where I need to be. It’s more like the New Year’s resolution that I continue for a week and then forget (and usually don’t do perfectly even that one week!).

Further, the Bible teaches that salvation and transformation is a gift of God’s grace from first to last. How do we square this with the call to “be better”?

One way people have understood this is to recognize that the commandment is good but that we need God’s grace to fulfill it. As Augustine said, “Command what you will, and give what you command.”

I do believe that this is taught in Scripture. However, I’m not sure that this is what the Apostle Paul is after in Ephesians 4:22–24 when he tells us to put off the old self and put on the new.

I take his command more like this: accept the work of God’s grace in your life and avail yourselves of everything God provides in order to make you what He calls you to be.

Let me suggest that this involves at least 5 things.

First, confront the issue. Sin is not simple. It is complex. It involves a way of thinking, wrong desires, and even ignorance (see Eph. 4:17–19). We need to do more than look at the outward action. We need to consider where our heart is, what our mindset is, and what our thinking is.

Two ways that I have found particularly helpful for discerning the pattern of sin are to look at my strong emotions and desires. When we feel strong negative emotions like anger or anxiety, it is an opportunity for us to examine what’s going on under the hood. When our desires take over us and lead us in wrong directions, it’s a good idea to ask, what is the source of these desires? Why am I wanting this recreation, relationship, or reaction so much?

This consideration will help us see more clearly how we need God’s grace to work in our lives.

Second, convert our thinking. It’s not just about behavior. It’s what’s in our hearts and minds that is the issue. Paul begins his discussion of the old self in this passage by saying there is “futile thinking.” The new self involves being renewed “in the attitude of our minds” (Eph. 4:23).

For example, if we think our acceptance is based on what other people think of us, we will be continually frustrated (futile thinking!). If we believe our acceptance is based on God’s view of us, we are open to the peace that is available to us in Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:7). So, we convert our thinking by keeping in mind all the things that God has said about His grace in Ephesians 1–3, that we have “every spiritual blessing in Christ.”

Third, connect to God’s grace. In the first part of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul speaks of God “enlightening our hearts” and “giving us power to see.” Transformation is a gift of God’s grace.

However, there are places where God’s grace is flowing. We call these “the means of grace.” They include the Word of God, the sacraments, prayer, and people. If we want to experience God’s grace, we should humbly make use of the means that God has given to experience His grace.

Fourth, continue in grace-empowered effort. It is important that this not come first, but it plays a part. I believe we should try hard to be compassionate and kind, but this is not always the effort that is needed. Sometimes the effort is working on re-shaping our thinking, making time to spend with Jesus, devoting ourselves to prayer, and taking the risk of connecting with people who can help us.

Fifth, conform to the pattern of Christ. It is important for us to remember that the call to transformation is always directed toward Christ as the power for transformation and as the example to which transformation will conform. “Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself for us” (Eph. 5:2).

If we just look at ourselves, we might not have any hope for transformation. Looking to Christ and the power of His resurrection, we have tremendous hope for change! We don’t have to rest in the same old patterns. By God’s grace, we can experience the grace of out with the old and in with the new. Christ is risen!

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Thank God for Workers!

This weekend, we will celebrate Labor Day. For many, this is just a long weekend. For others, especially people who live in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, it is a time of intense labor as they work to make this a place of rest and recreation for the people who come here.

I would like to encourage you to take some time this weekend to think about the workers that contribute to your life and prosperity and to the life and prosperity of your communities.

In our day, people want to be independent. People imagine that they don’t need people and can do everything themselves. The irony is that we are more dependent on more people to do the things we do on a daily basis than we have ever been. Greater technology requires more hands, more minds, and more resources.

Take this computer on which I am typing this article. I could not put it together. The various components come from all over the world and involve the labor of innumerable hands, from those who brought the petroleum for the plastics and the metals for the sensitive electronic parts from the ground to those who assembled the various parts in factories around the nation and around the world, the amount of people involved in this one thing is staggering!

To write this article, I use a program (WordPress) that I did not invent using an extensive network that links me to computers around the world (internet).

To run this computer I need electricity. This electricity is not something I could generate. It comes from the massive planning and projects of the Tennessee Valley Authority. Workers for Sevier County Electric labor night and day to make sure that this electric grid is up and running and that electricity is available whenever I need it.

In light of the astonishing amount of people and labor that is involved in just one aspect of my life, I should be much more grateful than I am! This is a reason to celebrate and reflect on Labor Day.

Of course, the ultimate source of all of this is God Himself. He is a Creator and maker. When we do menial tasks that involve getting dirty, we may wonder if God cares about it. But remember! God made the dirt. He Himself designed this material world in all its intricacies and said that it was very good.

He also created human beings to be workers like Him. When He created them, He blessed them out and said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it!” In other words, don’t just take the world as it is! Take it up, re-shape it, re-combine it, and make it more and more serviceable for you, and this will bring me glory! God says.

Christianity is rightly called a religion of grace not of works because God offers a renewed relationship and reconciliation with us as a free gift to be received by faith. No one should boast about their relationship with God because it’s all His gift!

However, part of this gift, is that He restores us to what He intended us to be. We are God’s handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do (Eph. 2:10).

And what if we can’t do the things we used to do? We are still valued as God’s handiwork. That doesn’t change, and one day God will restore our worn out bodies in the resurrection in the new heavens and new earth where things won’t break down anymore. He still loves us and values us.

God is a worker. He has created workers. He values workers. They contribute to our lives in innumerable ways, and so we should thank God for workers.

This Labor Day, give thanks for all the workers who contribute to your life, and be sure to thank the workers you meet for their continued service to you and to your community.

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God Wants a Relationship with You

I have always loved science fiction. I have always wondered about what life could exist in the vast expanse of the universe.

Within the past decade, scientists have taken a step forward in their quest to answer that question. Amazingly, they have been able to “see” planets orbiting around other stars in our galaxy. In fact, astronomers have discovered over 4,000 of them. This is astonishing in light of the fact that there are two large planets in our own solar system that you cannot see with the naked eye (Uranus and Neptune), and these new plants are thousands of times further away.

Among those 4,000, a few of them seem to be similar to earth in size and are located in the habitable zone of their solar system. Astronomers have focused their radio telescopes on these planets “listening” for patterns of communication that would be an indicator of intelligent life there.

And what are they looking for? They are looking for patterns that would be improbable in nature. For example, if you find two sticks in the woods that are shaped in a V, you will probably not conclude that they were there by intelligent design. However, if you find sticks arranged in the form of the word BIOLOGY or even a series of 40 V’s in a row, then you probably cannot not conclude that they are there by intelligent design. That’s the sort of pattern astronomers are looking for.

But I think they have forgotten one very important question. Is there intelligent life . . . on earth?

A friend of mine recently described his laughter at seeing that question as a title of an article, but it brings up an important point. Is there evidence of intelligent life besides our own on earth?

I think there is all sorts of evidence of it, but one of the most astonishing is the language that exists inside your body: DNA. DNA is almost like a computer language. It contains information that is the basis of the construction of our bodies. The information contained in even one cell is so extensive that it could fill several libraries. It includes code that makes it able to reproduce itself over and over again.

If we found that sort of code in space, we would easily make the induction that there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. So why not with the code in our own bodies? I believe that this code demonstrates that there is intelligent life other than humans. That intelligent life created us (for a more detailed case, see Stephen Meyer’s book Signature in the Cell).

So, who is this Creator? There was a man who lived 2,000 years ago who actually claimed to be the Creator of all things. His name is Jesus.

Normally, when someone claims to be God, you should start to worry. Better yet, run!

But Jesus is not the sort of person from whom we would run. He’s such a compelling person that even his enemies admit the power of his teaching. So, how could a person whom people would normally think is a liar or a lunatic be one of the most eloquent teachers of all time? The only conceivable answer is that he is who he said he was. In this person, our Creator has actually come down to live with us. As C.S. Lewis, the atheist turned Christian, said, he is either liar, lunatic, or lord.

If that is true, I think there are certain things that follow:

  1. God is very interested in connecting with us.
  2. Our lack of interest in him and refusal to connect with Him is very serious. This is often called sin. How do we know it is serious? Because Jesus had to die for our sins. He didn’t come just to teach but to do something: to live, die, and rise again.
  3. However serious sin may be, it is dealt with because Jesus was raised from the dead. This is not just a metaphor. It actually happened.

And this is the good news: God wants a relationship with us that is by grace and not by works. It’s a free gift to us that we simply say, “yes” to. God has done everything necessary to clear the way to a restored relationship of love with us.

I did a wedding earlier this summer. One woman was talking with another woman and said, “I’m not going to put up with this s—.” Then, she saw me and said, “OMG, I’m sorry!” presumably because she knew I was a minister.

Well, she didn’t understand the God of grace. God doesn’t run from us or smash us in our sin. He comes near to us in our sin. He is a God of grace, and his ministers should be ministers of grace.

Jesus shows us this. He comes right into the middle of a world that is totally messed up and distorted by evil and the effects of evil, real wrongs that real people have done to real people. He comes right into people’s lives and loves them where they are.

Now, here is where people get really nervous. They start to think, then that means people can do whatever they want. Well, honestly, if people never ask that, you probably aren’t preaching the God of the Bible, the glorious Father of Jesus, and the God who made our DNA.

But there is an answer to that. God comes near to us in our sin, but He doesn’t leave us there. He restores us to what we are supposed to be. That’s part of His grace. Eph. 2:10 says that God’s grace saved us so we are His “handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepare in advance for us to do.”

What that means to me is something like this. We may not be in a relationship with God, but He wants to be in a mutually loving relationship with us. We may think we’re worthless, but God has significant things for us to do. Our relationships may be a mess, but God wants to make us a center of healing. We may be depressed and struggling, but God wants us to be able to enjoy Him and His creation.

That’s the healing power of grace. That’s how the God of grace comes near to us and restores us to what we were meant to be. That’s the relationship God wants to have with you–a relationship by grace and not by works.

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Will God Forgive Me?

A young man came into my office after our worship service one Sunday morning. He was clearly distraught. As he told me of the wrong things he had done and the guilt he had experienced, tears came to his eyes.

What message did I have for him?

The most basic message of Christianity: no matter what we have done, where we have been, or how much we have sinned, God freely offers to us a restored relationship with Him and the healing and forgiveness that go with it.

Guilt is a universal phenomenon. It is based on the fact that we have not done what we should have done and and not become what we should have become. It is a basic reality of human existence (this side of Adam’s fall).

What are we to do with the guilt we feel? The message of evangelical Christianity is to come, come back to God, come home, and receive forgiveness and new life.

I love the way Isaiah describes this. He compares a life of a restored relationship with God to eating at a banquet table. He says: “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost” (Is. 55:1).

This is a message not only for unbelievers. It is a message for believers. As Christians, we have not made our Christian life what it should have been. But: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

I have encountered so many people who have felt that they were worthless because they had failed. They failed God. They failed other people. They failed themselves.

The good news: God still wants to use you. He wants to restore you. He wants you to come home. He values you even others don’t, even when you don’t value yourself.

It’s crucial to see that though this forgiveness is free for us, it cost God something very weighty: His own Son. Isaiah 55 comes on the heels of Isaiah 53: “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (5–6).

He pays. We get life for free.

That is an astonishing and joyful message. It is a message for the weary soul burdened with guilt and for those searching for meaning. It’s the joy of this message that led people like Billy Graham to preach to millions. He wanted to let people know that the way to God was wide open because of Jesus.

In Isaiah 55, there are several pictures of what happens when people receive this offer.

One of these pictures of new life in God is this: “instead of briers the myrtle will grow” (v. 12). Since I’ve been in the South, I’ve grown to love the myrtle trees. I finally got tired of the ugly trees on the side of my driveway and replaced them with two myrtle trees this winter. I have great hope that these will beautify my landscape and symbolize the beauty of God’s forgiveness.

Isaiah also says that these things are “for an everlasting sign, that will endure forever.” I recently hiked the Chickamauga National Military Park. There are monuments everywhere: to man’s sacrifice and to his strength in the face of battle.

When people accept God’s forgiveness, they become monuments, too. Not to man’s strength and sacrifice, but to God’s sacrifice and grace.

And we can be sure that God’s Word will produce such monuments wherever we announce God’s free grace. “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (10–11).

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How to Live by Grace

In Philippians 1, the Apostle Paul tells the Philippians that he prays to God that their love would increase (v. 9). This means that love is a gift of God’s grace, and we should ask Him to give us that gift. We can’t just manufacture love on our own.

This is further confirmed by what Paul goes on to say in the same passage. The fruit of righteousness “comes through Jesus Christ—to the praise and glory of God” (1:11).

In addition, the Philippians can be assured of the grace of God because “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (1:6).

Our virtues are gifts of God’s grace.

This is more controversial than it should be among Christians. One reason for this, I believe, is that people take these truths out of the broader context of Scripture.

So, Christian A will say, “Did you work out your own salvation with fear in trembling, or was it God who was working in you?”

Christian B responds, “I worked. Christianity has not been easy.”

Christian A responds, “No, it was God working in you.” And the conversation spirals down from there. Continue reading “How to Live by Grace”

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