Sufficiency VIII – Accomplishment II

Very rarely will I be falling asleep at the keyboard for posts, but last night I just couldn’t keep my eyes open. Hopefully I’ll address the few loose threads left hanging here, and give a clean slate for A World Apart. So, to resume.

When I think about the sufficiency of the cross and of Christ, I am driven, as I said, to meditate further on why He had to die. The fact that he was so good and so completely able to meet the requirements of the law, and also to mediate a covenant of grace between the Father and His children, should give you sufficient reason to pause and think on it yourselves. What does it mean that He was able to, as at his baptism, do these things so that He might ‘fulfill all righteousness’.

I would hope that it means that Christ speaks truly when he says ‘It is finished’, and that we who claim Him now are covered by His mercy and his accomplishment. I would hope also that the doubts we face …that I face…from time to time regarding His sufficiency are minor things, not worthy of as much notice as we give them. But without knowing how it’s all worked out, I know that I’m going to have these dark times once in a while.

And that’s where sufficiency of accomplishment comes in. Jesus speaks against the lack of faith in both his disciples and in the Pharisees a great many times throughout the gospels. I could no sooner doubt that we face the same difficulty in faith now as they did so long ago than I could cease to breathe and continue to live. But with the promise of ‘It is finished’, Christ gives us grounds for claiming that sufficiency in our own lives, as well as the ability to believe it in faith.

We just don’t act on it. and that’s where we get tripped up by the illusion of it ‘not being enough’ or the illusion of it ceasing to be relevant to us, or the final and most keenly edged illusion of them all, the false belief that ‘my sins are so different, so much more painful than He can overcome’

He is sufficient, and, as I said at the very beginning of this series, I am nothing. He is everything, for everything is within His authority. John 5:26-27 gives us one of many touchstones on this:

“For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.”

All-in. It’s real. Next up: A World Apart. Be patient, and keep a weather eye.

Blessings;

Christ-bearer.

Power – Practicality

There are two different spectra of positions on the power of God to do what He says, and the power of God to work in the daily life of the believer, in my opinion.

The first is the spectrum of doctrinal undergirding in thinking about God’s power in church and in the daily lives of His followers. The second is the experiential spectrum. The conflict in these two different approaches to God’s power is ultimately, however, based on who gets the glory and why.

The doctrinal positions generally suggest that God, in His absolute sovereignty, retains all claim to power (and call me on it if I’m wrong here) and distributes it in the form of spiritual gifts as He sees fit. The experiential positions suggest a subtle variance, but a dangerous one, and suggest that those who have been given spiritual gifts are fit to distribute God’s glory, maybe even to embody it. Now, I’m not saying that this is wrong in its entirety, but the natural state of humanity post-fall is one in which false righteousness and Pharisaism are rather more rampant, and can easily corrupt God’s sovereign giftings so that they become qualifications for holiness, and thus qualities of admission to the church. What I’m trying to suggest here is that it is possible to presume upon the worthiness of humanity to direct God’s power in manifestation.

That rather long and dense passage above is meant to lead you towards one thing – that the church is not the source of God’s power, but that God Himself is the source of His power, and the church is a means whereby God should get the glory for His power, manifested in the lives of His followers. Practically, this means that the position we must hold is that God in Himself is sufficient, for his ‘power is made perfect in weakness’. He is the center and the the uttermost boundary of His power, and we are sometimes given the great gift of seeing it in action, rather than directing its flow. It is for God to decide what God is going to do.

I think that’s about it for this evening. I have but one more post in the Sufficiency series, and then I will attempt to summarize the hopes and realities of the posts before moving in to A World Apart.

Power – Belief

I’m going to be spending a lot less time on this than I thought, mostly because it’s late in the week and I’ve been wrestling with the questions of salvation, power and faith for the last few days. Now, I don’t know what this means, but it’s rather put a damper on blog posts, as you might have noticed. Still, Jacob received the name Israel when wrestling with God, and from him grew a nation. I note this because sometimes God uses great strivings to do mighty works. As I said earlier, when you have open eyes, things appear.

I had mentioned last time that I wanted to clarify some things a bit more for the remainder of the week. That means that this post and tomorrow’s will be dealing with the subject of power and Sunday’s will be a close to the Sufficiency series with ‘Sufficient Accomplishment” After that, I hope to start something called A World Apart. In the meantime…

I included, near the end of the last post, a little statement, throwaway at the time, that is going to come back in to sharp focus here. I said “Biblically, what marks a believer is a faith that declares the power of God to overcome in all situations. I’m drawing this from John 16:25-33 primarily, which declares:

“I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech. Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.” Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when each of you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. but take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Such a comforting passage in times of need, but also a word of great power. ‘I have overcome the world’ indeed.

I’m going to couple this with Romans 10:5-11:

“For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, ‘do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?” (that is, to bring Christ down) or “Who will descend into the abyss?” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).’ But what does it say? ‘”the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame”‘

I will also try to pull some meat from it for the post. What these passages seem to be saying is that belief in Jesus’ factual ministry and resurrection provides for two things. First, that he who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ and his resurrection, and confesses it publicly and with conviction is assured of salvation; Christ’s atonement is sufficient. Second, that the assurance of salvation is rooted in the love of the Father for his children because of their love for Christ and the belief in his heavenly origins. In this assurance lies the power to overcome because Jesus overcame.

It’s funny how these posts never come out the way I think they will. Ultimately, I get lost in something other than what I had planned for, and head off in a new direction. This one was meant to comment on the importance of belief in the power of Jesus Christ to save and to overcome all obstacles, and it doesn’t look like it has accomplished that to me. I’m probably wrong, at least about some of it, but regardless, here you are.

Blessings;

Christ-bearer

Sufficiency VII – Power

After a long week away, I’m taking up the keyboard again, with the latest on sufficiency. Tonight’s topic – sufficient power, and written, no less, on the occasion of the demonstration of such sufficiency.

One of the things that I struggle with a lot is the power of God to accomplish everything He’s said he will, and the power of Christ to have fully forgiven the sins of those who claim Him as Saviour. I may have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating. We live in a culture so conditioned to self-sufficiency that God’s power, it seems, can’t be trusted next to our own to accomplish His purposes in us. Furthermore, we can’t even claim to know His purposes, and what they include for each one of us. We place our faith in money, in our ability to pay our own way, and in everything we can do without God, even going so far as to question where He fits in a life full of everything we want. It’s a sinful condition of the heart to believe this, and one that we need to confront.

So what does it mean to the heart to see the Father’s love and the Father’s providence in action?

What should it mean?

To briefly answer these, I’m going to address them step by step. The first question is the most important, bringing into the light of truth the worship of God through the mediation and sacrifice of Jesus. I’d like to say that to see God in action in providence, in love, and in power restores the heart, brings peace to the soul and encourages the mind.

But I can’t, because in order for any of these to affect me, I’ve got to have open eyes. and thank God He does open my eyes. Like today, for instance, in the gift of seeing the tangible, valuable, and incredibly joyful results of fervent and heartfelt prayer and intercession. And that is a gift reserved only for those who believe in its power. The stumbling block here is, of course, unbelief.

Luckily for us, that’s covered in Mark 9:23-24, the famous Lord I believe…help my unbelief passage.

What I hope my little point suggests is that the knowledge of God’s sufficiency in power comes from the witnessing of that power in the lives of believers. If you look at one who calls himself a Christian but places his faith in such examples as financial pragmatism, or in an employer, or in a minister rather than He whom he ministers for, you will be confused, and you will not be given a clear picture of the character of a true believer. Biblically, what marks a believer is a faith that declares the power of God to overcome all situations.

What this should mean in the heart is a faith in the abilities of God, rather than in our own; an openness to the promise of God’s power, and a willingness to see that power magnified so that God might be given ever more glory.

I want to focus this particular understanding a little bit more practically, so the remainder ofthe week’s posts will be devoted to looking at this with, I hope, a little more clarity.

Blessings;

Christ-bearer.

Sufficiency VI – Love

I came across another verse from 2 Corinthians today, this one from Chapter 9, vs. 8. It reads something like this:

“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” This inclines me to read through all of 2 Corinthians over the next little while, but in the meantime, let me continue to develop the theme of sufficient grace into sufficient love. This verse also bleeds into sufficient power, but I don’t want to get too much ahead of myself. But keep this in mind as we go on.

Grace is the existence of surpassing mercy through love, a surpassing mercy that is powered by the same love. The character of Christ is such that in Him there exists both mercy and love in equal and incredible measure. This is one of the reasons He is so beautiful to behold, and also a second demonstration of His sufficiency. We all ache to be loved in the world we wander through, because we hope to know what it feels like to have it. But in order to experience what it means to be loved, we have to have some idea of what grace we have been extended. There’s where we run into trouble, because we don’t always have even part of an idea about the amount of forbearance, grace, mercy and tenderness expressed to us and felt for us in God. An amount so much that He sent His Son to express it in death for each one of us. See, as you go through the Bible, you begin to see some of the rich love and overflowing compassion the Lord had first on the Israelites and then on the Gentiles, we foolish people who also inhabit the earth. A pattern emerges in the Old Testament and begins to foreshadow the message of the New; a message that demonstrates itself in what has been given to us regarding Jesus of Nazareth. I’m taken to a verse or two in Romans to remind you of the point:

Romans 5:6-8
“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person – though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die – but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

I’m reminded, too, of a song by MercyMe, entitled “I would Die For You”. There’s a line resonant with purity and hope in the midst of that song that is pertinent to include here as well. It is simply “My life has never been this clear…now I know the reason why I’m here…You never know why you’re alive unless you know what you would die for…I would die for you.” And that is only the love that we as fallen human beings can express. How much more, then, is what God can express, and has expressed? Furthermore, consider this…how much of our pure needs, our God-seeking and worshipful ones, can this love meet?

Blessings;

Christ-bearer.

Sufficiency V – Grace

At long last, a return to the Sufficiency Series, this time with the upward-looking aspects of the sufficiency of Christ and his teaching in a post-modern world. I’ll begin tonight with a quote from 2 Corinthians 12:7-11, familiar to all who have looked at themselves and seen the truth of the weakness of the flesh.

“So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations [God gave me], 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.”

So let’s think about sufficient grace for minute. This point of Scripture is going to be foundational as we move ahead with the examination of sufficiency, because it addresses the very things I’ve been talking abut thus far.

First, ‘my grace is sufficient’: That is, all other things are insufficient in weakness but His grace, to look at it conversely.

Second, ‘for you’: Spoken directly to Paul, but by extension to the ‘you’ who reads the text, in the curious symbiotic relationship between a reader and the text, between the word and the audience.

Third, ‘for my power’: Inextricably related to grace is power; my grace is sufficient…for my power…’. God glorifies Himself in giving grace and in claiming His sovereign power over human frailty

Fourth, “is made perfect in weakness.”: Further to three, God actually reflects His very nature as outlined by Scriptures in making Himself perfect in weakness and dependency. Lest heresy should come from my keys, let me make that clear. God Himself is sufficient in grace, demonstrated through perfection in His power and our weakness. There’s a lot to be drawn out of that tiny phrase, and since this post is meant as an overview and beginning of examination in sufficiency, let me leave it there for the time being and switch to talking solely about grace.

So what is grace?

I may have mentioned a definition of it before, but regardless, it bears repeating. Grace is, in my opinion, the extreme form of mercy that allows God, in His absolute power, holiness, goodness and glory to see His Son’s righteousness in place of our own sinfulness if we profess Christianity and believe it in our hearts. I say absolute because by rights, we should not exist as worshipers of Christ in the state of sin we are born to, and by rights, we do not warrant the sacrifice of Christ despite any illusions of righteousness we may possess. But in perfection also lies grace, for perfection as we should define it is the consummation, the apex, the completely highest point of all that is good, taking good to be love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.

In other words…grace is the cleansing of profanity in thought, deed and action from the soul and the body.

And Christ’s sacrifice expresses this perfectly.

More next time.

Blessings;

Christ-bearer.

Sufficiency IV – Community

Acts 4:32 – 34
Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold…

Acts 2:42 – 47
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

So why aren’t we able to do this any more? What’s killed the gathering of the believers in such a form as this?

I’ve been building towards this entry for the last little while, because I know it’s the most tragic loss to the church, and the most important of what needs to be seen again in the age of isolation. This entry is both the last of an old and the first of a new subset of examinations. My aim here is to look at the insufficiency of the church community now, and the ways it needs to and can improve to be culturally missional, reaching out to the lonely and the alone, the isolated and ignored…those that we no longer choose to see or hear because we lock ourselves into worlds of smoke and mirrors.

I believe that everyone should go through the experience of leaving one place to move to another. I believe that it is of the utmost importance to learn to build community amongst one another in Christian fellowship. And most importantly, I believe that we need to get alone with our faith or lack thereof in order to get together with the sick and dying who need to share it.

Hell is real. The absence of community is one manifestation of Hell on earth, when the tender soul is isolated and attacked, dealt blows of guilt and accusation, and tormented with the maddening inability to feel a part of anything or anywhere. And it is just as rampant in the church as anywhere else – probably moreso in the church than anywhere else, actually. We are all alone in the pews on more occasions than we care to admit, feeling cut off from the people around us and outcast with our own terrifying sinfulness. So many feel as if nothing can establish a place of common ground. And what the average church offers to combat this is, frankly, worse than nothing. It is the illusion of togetherness in vast and empty buildings, in sanctuaries where the teaching minister or pastor appears in the pulpit on Sunday morning and not again until the next week, shakes your hand and wishes you well. This is the nightmare that so many face unless they live their lives intentionally outside of the church, seeking out fellowship worthy of the example of Christ, making efforts to seek out believers with whom we can share our inner selves, and living (most importantly, this), as exiles together.

I say exiles and mean a number of different things in it: exiles in a land of foreigners, sojourners in a country not our own; people who live lives with a sense of the difference Christ makes and the necessary exile from the ways of the world and the friendships or relationships formed within those confines.

So what am I trying to say?

That community is grown organically, and grown for a purpose…that being to glorify God in the tasks He has appointed for His servants. That we are exiles in this land, cast out from our true home and dispersed to do God’s work in a culture we cannot fall subject to and begin to live within the confines of. That we are not alone in being outcast. And these are the things to which I’ll be devoting some significant attention to over the next two or three posts (no more, as I need to begin looking at the truth of sufficient grace, sufficient love, sufficient power, and sufficient accomplishment). Keep a weather eye out!

Blessings;

Christ-bearer.

Sufficiency III – Institution

What’s happened to the church as an institution? What’s happened to good doctrine taught and practiced in the lives and in the worship gatherings of the congregants in this culture? These are the questions fueling this post, building towards the observations of the insufficiency of community within the body of Christ and its effects on those trying to follow the path of the cross. It’s within many communities of believers that these failures really show, leaving so many adrift and wanting more than an hour each Sunday to shut the world out, close the doors and sing praises to each other (but not finding it). I’ve been blessed with a great community, but it’s found not within the institution, rather it’s shown outside.

So what am I trying to say?

I believe that the church as an institution has become a lost and wayward child, somewhere along the way. I believe that in its anxiety to work towards the mission field ‘out there’ overseas or trans-culturally, it’s forsaken its roots, it doesn’t know its own heart, and it has not equipped itself to deal with the men, women and children who come through its doors cursed under Romans 1. I believe that central to this failure is the lack of conviction in preaching the Gospel, the lack of reflection and meditation in the lives of the hurried and anxious masses, and the lack of faith in the power of God to uphold His Word in the body of believers that call themselves ‘the church’.

Insufficient.

Forgetting what it means to be the ‘bride of Christ’ in church-ese as an institution leads, without fail, to the forgetting of the power and the importance of community. Just today I was listening to some teaching on prayer, and in it was mentioned Matthew 18-18-21

“Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

Next post, I’ll get into some detail on the nature of a failed Christian community and the necessity for a regroup and redeployment of gospel truths, intentional lives and resting in His sufficiency, but for now I’m going to leave it.

Blessings;

Christ-bearer.

Sufficiency II – Doctrine

Fundamentally, the truth of Jesus Christ comes from assurance. Assurance comes from the gospel, and the gospel comes from God. Yet so many churches neglect to preach the doctrines central to the Gospel, assuming knowledge that is simply not present any more, and as a result congregants fall away and non-Christians turn away. You will notice that this entry in the series will correspond closely to the Institution entry, with some details expanded upon and others newly introduced when I get to that one. At the root of it all is doctrine, however.

The Bible contains everything that one needs to understand about who Christ is, why He came to die, what the effects of his death and resurrection were and are, and what that means for His church. These truths are expanded upon throughout the letters of Paul, which compose the majority of the New Testament. The problem lies in the poor or neglected teaching and understanding of these things, and the unwillingness of many to ask questions of faith and seek answers in strong teaching on those questions. I am a firm believer in the fact that if we ask the right questions, we will be given the right answers. I take an illustration from the recent film adaptation of I, Robot, reminding you that in order to proceed, Detective Spooner had to ask the right questions to lead him down the right trail. I do have assurance in the fact that the Lord does answer questions as we ask them, and sometimes in great detail. And as we ask them, we grow in knowledge and understanding. But, we are still faced with the insufficiency, in many cases, of the teaching of doctrine in those churches that claim the name Christian.

My intent with these three first posts is to establish a claim for insufficiency in man and sufficiency in Christ and His teaching, and in careful prayer and meditation on what it means for each of us that He is sufficient. As I have said, the teaching I’ve had as I’ve grown up is only now appearing inadequate, and I want to share my examinations of what really is adequate. I’m coming at this with the intent of demonstrating sufficiency, so look forward, dear pilgrims.

Blessings;

Christ-bearer.

Sufficiency I

I am nothing.

This is the most important thing to remember as we get into it. I have friends who disagree with this statement, preferring to add glory upon glory to the human, to the victory of reason and achievement over faith. It’s a very old argument, however, and it’s one that we’re not likely to emerge from as long as we listen to what culture says.

One of my struggles, right now, is with self-sufficiency. I’ve let mastery pass from Christ to me, and I’ve smiled doing it. As a result, I have to grapple with God’s ability to provide. There’s nothing in my past that gives me the faith to trust Him with everything, even though I’ve been a ‘churchie’ all my life. What does that say?

That gives me cause to think that the foundation I need was never built. It gives me cause to think about what those who haven’t been brought up Christian have to deal with, if I can’t even claim a sustaining faith. No wonder there’s a trauma of despair that infects so many.

So the first few steps are looking at insufficiency, when we get down to it. Insufficiency in three parts: Of doctrine, of community, and of institution. I’m going to look at all three in the next little while.

Blessings;

Christ-bearer.