I remember vividly an episode from my teenage years. Like all teenagers, I had a rebellious streak. I didn’t want to abide by all of the rules and impositions my parents had instituted. I wanted to stretch my wings. Do the things that I wanted to do. I was very much like most teens in the world. And on one such occasion, I lost my temper. I wanted to do a particular thing–I don’t remember what it was–and I was denied. I threw a fit.
And my dad responded, “Whenever you think you are grown enough to do what you want to do, just pack your suitcase and leave.”
I went to my room and pulled out my suitcase. And then I began to plan. I had exactly $274 in my wallet. I would go to my friend Kevin’s house. It was a long walk, but I could make it. I would ask to stay there. But what then? Would they let me stay long term? Would they feed me? Would they buy me clothes? What would happen if I spent all my money and had nothing left? What would happen then? Where would I find myself. Visions of standing at the end of a sidewalk with no place to go, no place to stay, broke and alone filled my head.
I put my suitcase up.
Maybe you can relate, but I want to intentionally shift the focus of this story, because I don’t want us to think about us for the time being. I want to shift the focus of this story to my dad. Because it is only in hindsight that I can see what my dad was doing. He was giving me up. I worded that last sentence very carefully. My dad was not giving up on me. He was giving me up. Essentially he was saying, “If you want your freedom, take it! There is the door. Go!”
Even though I didn’t know what my dad was doing at the time, when I began thinking about it, it scared the hell out of me. I realized I still needed my parents. Freedom wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
What would happen if God granted us that freedom? What if God gave us up? We don’t have to wonder what would happen. We know. We have a biblical history of what that looks like, and that biblical history informs St. Paul as he continues laying out his condemnation of humankind in the book of Romans. Once again, I warn you, this journey is a dark journey for a while. We will travel in darkness before we see the light. And once again–like last week–I offer my apologies in advance. We will not get to Jesus’ saving action today. We will not hear John 3:16-17. Our hearts must be prepared to hear the Gospel. As I said last week, by the time we are done with the next two chapters either our hearts will be hardened so that we no longer want anything to do with God, or they will be crushed to the point that we rediscover just how amazing God’s love through Jesus is. We will rediscover amazing grace.
Last week, I ended my sermon revealing how we are deserving of God’s wrath because we do not honor or worship Him as God. We chase our idols of family, wealth, status, free time, government, and the like. We chase them because we believe they will bring us fulfillment. We believe they will bring us safety and security. We believe they will bring us true life. But they do not. They lead us down a path of destruction. Deep down, there is a part of us that knows this, but as Paul said last week, we deceive ourselves. We tell ourselves that we are just fine–that there is nothing wrong with what we do or what we live for. Stubbornly, we cling to our idols.
And this is where Paul continues today. Verse 24, “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves, 25because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen.” God said, “If you want your freedom to follow your heart’s desire, you have it. Go get it!” One commentator said it best. God did not simply give us freedom. No, that would mean we would be without desire and free to choose whatever we wanted. God gave us the freedom to pursue the lusts of our hearts. Not only did God say, “Go pack your suitcase.” Essentially God said, “Here, let’s pack. And then after helping you pack, He shoved you out the door.” Sometimes there is no reasoning. Sometimes there is no begging and pleading. Sometimes there is no sitting down in a rational, loveable manner and showing another the consequences of his or her actions. Sometimes a heart is hell bent on trying to get what it wants, and no matter what you say; no matter what you do; you will not prevent a person from trying to get it.
Have you ever tried to keep an alcoholic from getting another drink?
Have you ever tried to keep an addict from taking another hit?
Have you ever tried to keep a sexual pervert away from porn?
Have you ever tried to keep a Cowboy’s fan from reliving the 90's? Okay, perhaps that last one wasn’t fair.
But you know the futility. You know the impossibility. And if you have ever reached your wits end, you know what it is to give a person up. You know what it is to let that person go on in his or her self-destructive behavior. And if you are angry enough, you push them toward rock bottom.
When humanity decided to worship the creature instead of the creator because of the stubbornness and warping of their hearts, God gave them up.
Verse 26, For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, 27and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error. I can hear the thoughts of some of you. “Oh, here we go. Time for some gay bashing.” I can hear the thoughts of others, “Now, it’s time to bring the hammer on the gay agenda and show them what God really feels toward those sinners. Time to tell them to repent of their sinfulness or end up in hell.”
First off, there will be no gay bashing–unless you call explaining what Paul says here gay bashing. And a Christian is not allowed to bash anyone–much less condemn a person to hell, so don’t expect me to do that either. These verses have been used as clobber verses toward gay people, and when used in such a fashion, they drive people away from the Good News. They drive people away from Jesus. This must never be our purpose. But we must not shy away from what Paul is conveying in these words either. He is making a very salient point.
More than a few scholars find it odd that Paul begins with homosexual acts for aren’t there other commands–other revelations of God which are seemingly more important? I mean, Paul himself argues later in Romans and in the book of Galatians that the entire law can be summed up in one great command, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Why not begin with that command? Why begin with homosexual, sexual relations?
In this section of the book of Romans, Paul is showing us what happens when God gives us up. Paul is showing us what happens when God gives us the freedom to pursue the warped desires of our hearts. Paul is showing us the consequences of what happens when we replace God with idols. Nearly every scholar I consulted for this sermon agreed that the finely woven fabric of what God created begins to fray and come unraveled when we don’t have God in His proper place. Nearly every scholar said that when God is not the center of our lives and worship, then our lives begin to descend into chaos. God’s created order unravels. This is important. Let me say it again. God’s created order unravels.
So why start with homosexual behavior? Let me ask you a question: what is the first recorded command in the Bible? What is the first thing that God told humankind after He created them? Do you remember?
Let’s take a look. Please pick up the Bibles in your pews and turn to Genesis chapter one. For those of you who have forgotten the books of the Bible, knock the dust off, and turn to page one... Skip down to verse 27, and let’s read verses 27 and 28 together, “27 So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”
So, what is God’s initial command to humanity? “Be fruitful and multiply and have stewardship over the earth.” Can a man and a man be fruitful and multiply? Can a woman and a woman be fruitful and multiply? You know the answer to that question. And before anyone starts in on me: yes, I am aware that there are couples who cannot have children, and no one thinks they are sinning. I am aware there are people who actively work to make sure they have no more children, including myself and no one causes a stir. But this isn’t about having children or not having children. It’s about how God ordered creation and how that order is maintained. Homosexuality is against that created order, and it contradicts the very first command given to humanity–a command which was issued BEFORE the giving of the Law to the Jewish people–a command woven into the very fabric of creation.
Paul begins with homosexuality for these reasons. Not that it is above other sins. Not that it is because homosexuality condemns a person to hell. I mean, as Timothy Keller says, “I know very well that heterosexuality doesn’t get you to heaven.” Not that it is to be the focus of the church’s activity in the world. Paul shows that when the Creator is replaced, even the most basic order of creation begins to be violated.
And then, it gets really, really bad. Verse 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done. 29They were filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious towards parents, 31foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32They know God’s decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die—yet they not only do them but even applaud others who practice them. God gave them up to pursue the desires of their hearts, and in doing so, their minds became debased; warped; unhinged. The created order began to suffer even more. Take another look at that list of vices that St. Paul puts forward. Tell me that you have managed to escape every one of those vices. Tell me you have been able to avoid such things your whole life through. Tell me that to this day, you never boast, become greedy, spread gossip, or get upset at what someone else has. Tell me that you are not under the power of sin. Even you are corrupt and violate God’s natural order of things. God has given you over to the freedom to pursue the desires of your heart.
And the picture of reality isn’t pretty. Think about a world full of those vices. Think about a world full of people who are greedy, selfish, envious, foolish, faithless, heartless, and ruthless. Think about a world full of strife, deceit, murder, slander, and gossip. Think about a world where people applaud you for getting away with evil–where people encourage you to give into your every desire; where people affirm every decision you make whether it seem good or bad; where people call you a prude for doing good. Where people long for the hero to fall and gleefully laugh when he does. Would you like to live in that world? Do you believe that we thrive in such a world? Would you agree that a world like that could be described as hell?
When God gives us up to the freedom to pursue the desires of our hearts, then that’s exactly where we end up. Hell is not simply a reality after we die. It’s already here. It takes place when we replace God with idols. It takes place when we demand our freedom from God’s rule. God says, “Okay. Let me help you pack your bags. Let me walk you out the door. Good luck.” Continue down the path, and sooner rather than later, we will find ourselves at the end of some God-forsaken sidewalk with nowhere to go; nothing to do; alone; abandoned–in hell. Amen.
Showing posts with label Hell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hell. Show all posts
Monday, September 19, 2016
Monday, October 26, 2015
Cutting Off Your Hand Doesn't Work
Last week, as we read through the book of Mark, we saw how Jesus coached His disciples in dealing with those who were not members of the “in” group. An exorcist was casting out demons in Jesus’ name, but this exorcist was not a part of the inner 12. Jesus sternly said, “Do not stop him for someone who does such a deed in my name will not soon turn against me.” These are powerful words as we deal with our fellow Christians who do not believe as we believe. Jesus name is what unites us, and doing what we do in His name renders most differences moot.
Then, Jesus spoke about those who do not follow Him as a disciple. “Truly I tell you anyone who gives you a cup of cold water because you bear the name of Christ, that person will not lose the reward.” Again, hearing Jesus’ words is important because this isn’t about the things we do–this is about how people treat Jesus’ disciples. If a non-believer gives YOU a cup of cold water, then they will not lose the reward. If Jesus regards even a non-believer this highly, the disciples should as well. For Jesus came to save the world, not just a select few. Only those who blatantly reject Jesus, whose hearts are consumed by other things, who seek their own satisfaction and self-preservation will bear some serious consequences.
This is why Jesus teaches what He teaches in our snippet from Mark chapter 9 this morning. Jesus shifts the focus from those who are outside the faith, from the outer life, so to speak, to the inner life of the believer. Jesus cuts through all external things and gets to the heart of the matter. This is extremely important to grasp, especially since today is Reformation Sunday–a special day for those of us who call ourselves Lutheran Christians–a day when we strongly emphasize God’s grace and our inability to save ourselves. How does this all come together? Let’s turn to the text.
Jesus begins with some powerful, strong words: 43If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 45And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell., 47And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, 48where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.
It is important to note that in the ancient Jewish world, people literally did blame their extremities for sin. William Lane in his commentary on Mark says, “It was not a Palestinian custom to refer to an abstract activity but to the specific member of the body which is responsible for it.” So, in the culture, it was acceptable to say, “My hand sinned. My foot sinned. My eye sinned.” Jesus confronts this thinking and says, “Well, if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. If you foot causes you to sin, cut it off. If your eyes cause you to sin, pluck them out.” Jesus pushes the culture’s logic to its logical conclusion. It’s better for you to be lame or blind than to be sinful. It makes perfect sense, but it is horrifying.
Not only is it horrifying, it’s also forbidden by Jewish scripture:
Deuteronomy 14:1 reads, “You are children of the Lord your God. You must not lacerate yourselves or shave your forelocks for the dead.”
Deuteronomy 23:1 reads, “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.” (Bet you didn’t know that one was in there!)
There is a reason behind these laws for the Jews understood God to be holy and whole, complete. If you were incomplete. If you were not whole, you were seen as further away from God. You were seen as less than what you should be. For Jew to hear Jesus say, “Cut off your hand. Cut off your foot. Pluck out your eye.” would invoke absolute horror! The Jew would have thought, “You are asking me to separate myself from God–to become incomplete–to make myself less than I should be!”
But is Jesus doing such a thing? Is Jesus telling us to cut off our hands and feet or pluck out our eye. No serious scholar believes such a thing because of this pertinent fact: if you cut off your hand, you will still sin. If you cut off your foot, you will still sin. If you pluck out your eye, you will still sin. The cause of sin does not reside in your hand or your foot or your eye. The cause of sin is much deeper. Jesus knows this. Jesus has taught this. Unfortunately, it is not sinking in.
Remember way back in Mark seven, there was an exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees where the Pharisees were complaining that Jesus’ disciples were eating with unwashed hands. There’s a lot that is happening in that exchange, but eventually, we get to the place where Jesus says this, “4 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.’ 17 When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18He said to them, ‘Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, 19since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?’ (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20And he said, ‘It is what comes out of a person that defiles. 21For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
It is from the human heart that evil intentions come. Hear that one more time: it is from the human heart that evil intentions come. Jesus pushes the cultural logic to its horrific conclusions to get people past the absurdity of it. Jesus pushes the cultural logic to its horrific conclusions to show that blaming hands and feet and eyes for sin is asinine. Sin is a condition, not of the extremities, but of the deepest recesses of the human heart.
It is easy to blame a hand for stealing. It is easy to blame a foot for walking into a house of ill repute. It is easy to blame an eye for looking at another person with lust in your heart. It is easy to blame the rich for all the world’s problems. It is easy to blame those on welfare for their unwillingness to work. It is easy to blame capitalism for poverty. It is easy to blame communism for destroying human rights. It is easy to blame Democrats or Republicans or conservatives or liberals. It is easy to blame teachers for kids failing to learn. It is easy to blame elected officials for failing to deal with the problems of a given community. It is easy to put the problem “out there”, residing in someone else. But Jesus won’t let us get away with that. The problem isn’t in the hand. It isn’t in the foot. It isn’t in the eye. The problem isn’t out there with any group or institution or form of government. The problem is in the human heart.
Now, most folks don’t like this. Most folks would like to blame circumstances that are out there. It absolves them of responsibility. However, the Christian faith is not about shirking responsibility. It’s about accepting it, and accepting the fact that each and every one of us is indeed sinful. We are not just people who do bad things–who are imperfect. No. We are much worse. We are rotten to the core. We are self-centered and seek our own self-preservation.
You may not like me saying that, but let me see if I can show you the depths of your own sinfulness. Why do you do most of the things that you do? What is your motivation for getting up in the morning and going to work or engaging in any sort of activity? What drives you? I am not asking you to give me a superficial answer to this question. I really want to know.
You see, I get up most mornings and exercise. I make two laps around Cat Spring doing interval training. Most of you know I have lost quite a bit of weight in the past couple of years, and I want to keep it off. Some of you know my motivation behind it. A couple of years ago, my kids and I were visiting my parents. We were going to go to the Texas State Aquarium, and my kids ran up to their grandpa and said, “Grandpa, are you going too?” Grandpa, my dad, said, “Sorry, I can’t. My knee is hurting too badly.” Now, my dad hurt his knee playing football. He is also on the heavy side. These two things came back to haunt him. I hurt my knees playing football. I was on the heavy side. I saw the future in an instant–a future that if I am blessed with grandchildren that I could face. And I did not like that picture. I did not like the idea of my grandchildren asking me if I could go with them and having to turn them down. I decided right then and there to lose the weight and hopefully save my knees. Now, who did I lose the weight for? You could say that I did it for my children and my hoped for grandchildren. But that is not the truth. I didn’t want to deal with the disappointment of my grandchildren. I didn’t want to deal with their hurt. I didn’t want to see that in their eyes because IT WOULD BOTHER ME. My reasons are selfish. They have nothing really to do with my future grandchildren. They have nothing to do with this body that was given to be by God. My motivations are purely selfish. Purely.
Do I need to give further examples? Do I need to delve into why you get up and drink a cup of coffee? It’s because you enjoy it, right? You like the taste. Would you drink it if you didn’t like it? Would you drink it if you got no benefit from it? Oh, here’s another story putting the crosshairs directly on me. When I was on internship at St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Waco, I did a lot of visitation. I really enjoyed visiting the little old ladies who were all too happy to provide snack for me. They found out I liked to eat, and they were happy to spoil me. One day, I went to visit Emma. I was told that Emma tended to be on the depressed side. She hadn’t done well after her husband had died. I hoped to cheer her up. Emma and I visited, and then she said, “I have something for you. It’s some fresh banana bread.”
A little part of me died inside. I hate bananas. I really do, especially since the taste of a banana makes me gag. Literally. I will gag when I taste banana. So, here is this wonderful lady; who went out of her way to make me this bread, who was a little on the depressed side, who didn’t need her intern making any sort of negative comments; what was I to do? I choked down the bread. I did something I didn’t like in the least. Hiding my gags and chugging water, I got that darn bread down. Self-sacrifice? Hardly. I wanted Emma to enjoy the visit. I wanted her to think positively about me and what I brought to her. I choked that bread down for purely selfish reasons.
Are your motivations any different? Do you engage in activities that you get no benefit from; no enjoyment out of; no satisfaction at all, yet continue to do so because it is the right thing to do? Most of us don’t. Not in the least. In fact, most of us know the right things to do, but we don’t do them because it costs us. It costs us dearly.
Which is why Jesus says, “Everyone will be salted with fire.” Most scholars are perplexed by this saying, but interestingly enough most of them link Jesus’ saying with Leviticus chapter 2:13, “You shall season all your cereal offerings with salt; you shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be lacking from your cereal offerings; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.” These offerings were sacrificial offerings. They were offerings set forth showing a radical dependency on God. They were offerings saying, “Lord, we trust that you will get us through thick and thin, and we bring the first fruits of our grain to you to be burned in fire, with salt.”
But Jesus is taking this offering a step further. It’s not the first fruits that are offered and burned and refined and salted–it is us. We are refined and salted. We endure the fire and refinement as living sacrifices. St. Paul puts it this way in Romans chapter 12, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
This is the calling Jesus gives to His disciples. Don’t be superficial. Don’t look at your hand, your foot, or your eye. Look at the deep recesses of your heart and let the sinfulness of it be burned and refined. Offer your very self as an offering to God. Discipleship is not for the faint of heart.
Now, anyone who grasps this and understands this should be terrified. Really. If you understand what I have proclaimed to you to this point, you should be shaking in your shoes. For Jesus is demanding your entire being. He is asking you to walk away from all the desires of your heart. He is asking you to walk away from your own motivations and selfishness. He is asking you to forsake your identity and your well being to follow Him. It’s not a very good sales pitch. Most of us, if we were honest, would say no. We would say not a chance. None of us here this morning would accept such terms because they are just too difficult. The need for self-preservation and self-satisfaction is just too strong. We are unwilling to sacrifice ourselves.
But there is One who was willing. There was one who was able. There was one who did such a thing in our place. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it dozens of times, we must understand all scripture through the cross. We must understand all of Jesus’ teachings through the cross. The cross is the center of our faith and understanding, and Jesus knows you cannot and will not sacrifice yourself. Jesus knows the depths of your sinfulness. Jesus knows the hold that sin has over your heart. And He must break that hold. He must show you that following Him and trusting Him is worth the sacrifice.
And so when you could not sacrifice yourself, He sacrificed Himself. When you were afraid to face the fire, Jesus descended into Hell and faced that fire for you. When you were afraid of the pain of forsaking yourself, Jesus faced the ultimate forsakenness as the Father turned His back on Him as He hung on the cross. Jesus looked at you in the midst of your sin and in the midst of your selfishness, then looked at His Father and said, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do.” Jesus offered Himself as a sacrifice on your behalf.
When you could not do; when you were in bondage to your self, Jesus did. He saved you from yourself when you could not. This was not something you earned; rather it was given to you by sheer grace. And when you are moved by this, when those chains fall off your heart because you know you are deeply sinful yet deeply loved, you want to die to yourself. You want to become a living sacrifice. You want to be salted with fire. You want to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus. Your heart beats with a deep gratitude for the One who gave Himself up for you because He loves you.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that all those who believe in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world not to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through Him. This is most certainly true. Amen.
Then, Jesus spoke about those who do not follow Him as a disciple. “Truly I tell you anyone who gives you a cup of cold water because you bear the name of Christ, that person will not lose the reward.” Again, hearing Jesus’ words is important because this isn’t about the things we do–this is about how people treat Jesus’ disciples. If a non-believer gives YOU a cup of cold water, then they will not lose the reward. If Jesus regards even a non-believer this highly, the disciples should as well. For Jesus came to save the world, not just a select few. Only those who blatantly reject Jesus, whose hearts are consumed by other things, who seek their own satisfaction and self-preservation will bear some serious consequences.
This is why Jesus teaches what He teaches in our snippet from Mark chapter 9 this morning. Jesus shifts the focus from those who are outside the faith, from the outer life, so to speak, to the inner life of the believer. Jesus cuts through all external things and gets to the heart of the matter. This is extremely important to grasp, especially since today is Reformation Sunday–a special day for those of us who call ourselves Lutheran Christians–a day when we strongly emphasize God’s grace and our inability to save ourselves. How does this all come together? Let’s turn to the text.
Jesus begins with some powerful, strong words: 43If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 45And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell., 47And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, 48where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.
It is important to note that in the ancient Jewish world, people literally did blame their extremities for sin. William Lane in his commentary on Mark says, “It was not a Palestinian custom to refer to an abstract activity but to the specific member of the body which is responsible for it.” So, in the culture, it was acceptable to say, “My hand sinned. My foot sinned. My eye sinned.” Jesus confronts this thinking and says, “Well, if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. If you foot causes you to sin, cut it off. If your eyes cause you to sin, pluck them out.” Jesus pushes the culture’s logic to its logical conclusion. It’s better for you to be lame or blind than to be sinful. It makes perfect sense, but it is horrifying.
Not only is it horrifying, it’s also forbidden by Jewish scripture:
Deuteronomy 14:1 reads, “You are children of the Lord your God. You must not lacerate yourselves or shave your forelocks for the dead.”
Deuteronomy 23:1 reads, “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.” (Bet you didn’t know that one was in there!)
There is a reason behind these laws for the Jews understood God to be holy and whole, complete. If you were incomplete. If you were not whole, you were seen as further away from God. You were seen as less than what you should be. For Jew to hear Jesus say, “Cut off your hand. Cut off your foot. Pluck out your eye.” would invoke absolute horror! The Jew would have thought, “You are asking me to separate myself from God–to become incomplete–to make myself less than I should be!”
But is Jesus doing such a thing? Is Jesus telling us to cut off our hands and feet or pluck out our eye. No serious scholar believes such a thing because of this pertinent fact: if you cut off your hand, you will still sin. If you cut off your foot, you will still sin. If you pluck out your eye, you will still sin. The cause of sin does not reside in your hand or your foot or your eye. The cause of sin is much deeper. Jesus knows this. Jesus has taught this. Unfortunately, it is not sinking in.
Remember way back in Mark seven, there was an exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees where the Pharisees were complaining that Jesus’ disciples were eating with unwashed hands. There’s a lot that is happening in that exchange, but eventually, we get to the place where Jesus says this, “4 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.’ 17 When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18He said to them, ‘Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, 19since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?’ (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20And he said, ‘It is what comes out of a person that defiles. 21For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
It is from the human heart that evil intentions come. Hear that one more time: it is from the human heart that evil intentions come. Jesus pushes the cultural logic to its horrific conclusions to get people past the absurdity of it. Jesus pushes the cultural logic to its horrific conclusions to show that blaming hands and feet and eyes for sin is asinine. Sin is a condition, not of the extremities, but of the deepest recesses of the human heart.
It is easy to blame a hand for stealing. It is easy to blame a foot for walking into a house of ill repute. It is easy to blame an eye for looking at another person with lust in your heart. It is easy to blame the rich for all the world’s problems. It is easy to blame those on welfare for their unwillingness to work. It is easy to blame capitalism for poverty. It is easy to blame communism for destroying human rights. It is easy to blame Democrats or Republicans or conservatives or liberals. It is easy to blame teachers for kids failing to learn. It is easy to blame elected officials for failing to deal with the problems of a given community. It is easy to put the problem “out there”, residing in someone else. But Jesus won’t let us get away with that. The problem isn’t in the hand. It isn’t in the foot. It isn’t in the eye. The problem isn’t out there with any group or institution or form of government. The problem is in the human heart.
Now, most folks don’t like this. Most folks would like to blame circumstances that are out there. It absolves them of responsibility. However, the Christian faith is not about shirking responsibility. It’s about accepting it, and accepting the fact that each and every one of us is indeed sinful. We are not just people who do bad things–who are imperfect. No. We are much worse. We are rotten to the core. We are self-centered and seek our own self-preservation.
You may not like me saying that, but let me see if I can show you the depths of your own sinfulness. Why do you do most of the things that you do? What is your motivation for getting up in the morning and going to work or engaging in any sort of activity? What drives you? I am not asking you to give me a superficial answer to this question. I really want to know.
You see, I get up most mornings and exercise. I make two laps around Cat Spring doing interval training. Most of you know I have lost quite a bit of weight in the past couple of years, and I want to keep it off. Some of you know my motivation behind it. A couple of years ago, my kids and I were visiting my parents. We were going to go to the Texas State Aquarium, and my kids ran up to their grandpa and said, “Grandpa, are you going too?” Grandpa, my dad, said, “Sorry, I can’t. My knee is hurting too badly.” Now, my dad hurt his knee playing football. He is also on the heavy side. These two things came back to haunt him. I hurt my knees playing football. I was on the heavy side. I saw the future in an instant–a future that if I am blessed with grandchildren that I could face. And I did not like that picture. I did not like the idea of my grandchildren asking me if I could go with them and having to turn them down. I decided right then and there to lose the weight and hopefully save my knees. Now, who did I lose the weight for? You could say that I did it for my children and my hoped for grandchildren. But that is not the truth. I didn’t want to deal with the disappointment of my grandchildren. I didn’t want to deal with their hurt. I didn’t want to see that in their eyes because IT WOULD BOTHER ME. My reasons are selfish. They have nothing really to do with my future grandchildren. They have nothing to do with this body that was given to be by God. My motivations are purely selfish. Purely.
Do I need to give further examples? Do I need to delve into why you get up and drink a cup of coffee? It’s because you enjoy it, right? You like the taste. Would you drink it if you didn’t like it? Would you drink it if you got no benefit from it? Oh, here’s another story putting the crosshairs directly on me. When I was on internship at St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Waco, I did a lot of visitation. I really enjoyed visiting the little old ladies who were all too happy to provide snack for me. They found out I liked to eat, and they were happy to spoil me. One day, I went to visit Emma. I was told that Emma tended to be on the depressed side. She hadn’t done well after her husband had died. I hoped to cheer her up. Emma and I visited, and then she said, “I have something for you. It’s some fresh banana bread.”
A little part of me died inside. I hate bananas. I really do, especially since the taste of a banana makes me gag. Literally. I will gag when I taste banana. So, here is this wonderful lady; who went out of her way to make me this bread, who was a little on the depressed side, who didn’t need her intern making any sort of negative comments; what was I to do? I choked down the bread. I did something I didn’t like in the least. Hiding my gags and chugging water, I got that darn bread down. Self-sacrifice? Hardly. I wanted Emma to enjoy the visit. I wanted her to think positively about me and what I brought to her. I choked that bread down for purely selfish reasons.
Are your motivations any different? Do you engage in activities that you get no benefit from; no enjoyment out of; no satisfaction at all, yet continue to do so because it is the right thing to do? Most of us don’t. Not in the least. In fact, most of us know the right things to do, but we don’t do them because it costs us. It costs us dearly.
Which is why Jesus says, “Everyone will be salted with fire.” Most scholars are perplexed by this saying, but interestingly enough most of them link Jesus’ saying with Leviticus chapter 2:13, “You shall season all your cereal offerings with salt; you shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be lacking from your cereal offerings; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.” These offerings were sacrificial offerings. They were offerings set forth showing a radical dependency on God. They were offerings saying, “Lord, we trust that you will get us through thick and thin, and we bring the first fruits of our grain to you to be burned in fire, with salt.”
But Jesus is taking this offering a step further. It’s not the first fruits that are offered and burned and refined and salted–it is us. We are refined and salted. We endure the fire and refinement as living sacrifices. St. Paul puts it this way in Romans chapter 12, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
This is the calling Jesus gives to His disciples. Don’t be superficial. Don’t look at your hand, your foot, or your eye. Look at the deep recesses of your heart and let the sinfulness of it be burned and refined. Offer your very self as an offering to God. Discipleship is not for the faint of heart.
Now, anyone who grasps this and understands this should be terrified. Really. If you understand what I have proclaimed to you to this point, you should be shaking in your shoes. For Jesus is demanding your entire being. He is asking you to walk away from all the desires of your heart. He is asking you to walk away from your own motivations and selfishness. He is asking you to forsake your identity and your well being to follow Him. It’s not a very good sales pitch. Most of us, if we were honest, would say no. We would say not a chance. None of us here this morning would accept such terms because they are just too difficult. The need for self-preservation and self-satisfaction is just too strong. We are unwilling to sacrifice ourselves.
But there is One who was willing. There was one who was able. There was one who did such a thing in our place. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it dozens of times, we must understand all scripture through the cross. We must understand all of Jesus’ teachings through the cross. The cross is the center of our faith and understanding, and Jesus knows you cannot and will not sacrifice yourself. Jesus knows the depths of your sinfulness. Jesus knows the hold that sin has over your heart. And He must break that hold. He must show you that following Him and trusting Him is worth the sacrifice.
And so when you could not sacrifice yourself, He sacrificed Himself. When you were afraid to face the fire, Jesus descended into Hell and faced that fire for you. When you were afraid of the pain of forsaking yourself, Jesus faced the ultimate forsakenness as the Father turned His back on Him as He hung on the cross. Jesus looked at you in the midst of your sin and in the midst of your selfishness, then looked at His Father and said, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do.” Jesus offered Himself as a sacrifice on your behalf.
When you could not do; when you were in bondage to your self, Jesus did. He saved you from yourself when you could not. This was not something you earned; rather it was given to you by sheer grace. And when you are moved by this, when those chains fall off your heart because you know you are deeply sinful yet deeply loved, you want to die to yourself. You want to become a living sacrifice. You want to be salted with fire. You want to deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus. Your heart beats with a deep gratitude for the One who gave Himself up for you because He loves you.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that all those who believe in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world not to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through Him. This is most certainly true. Amen.
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Aw, Hell
I remember vividly sitting in my Introduction to Theology class at Texas Lutheran. One of my classmates made a comment to the professor about the devil.
My professor replied, "I don't know what you are talking about."
The student said, "Satan. The devil. The guy talked about in the Bible."
The professor responded, "I don't believe in the devil, so I don't know what you are talking about."
A bit of hyperbole on my professor's part, but his point was made abundantly clear. He didn't believe in the devil. None of us in the class were willing to challenge him on this assertion. It's little doubt why. Our grades hung in the balance.
Yet, it was a bewildering thought to me how a professor of theology who was an ordained pastor and practicing Christian could blatantly admit no belief in the devil--especially in light of what Jesus revealed to us in Scripture. Yet, as time progressed, and I learned more, I began to understand.
I also found out, my college professor was not alone. More and more folks in the "progressive" strain of Christianity do not believe in the devil, Satan, or even hell. And as I perused the Living Lutheran website the other day, I found one more--the head of an ELCA seminary.
Dr. David Lose published an article titled, "Do We Miss Hell?"
You can read the following in context, but I will delve into a few things in succession:
Second point--the God we know in Jesus doesn't consign someone to hell. Dr. Lose should know better. We consign ourselves to hell. Read Dante's inferno. Dr. Lose seems to be heavily influenced by the "far right of the religious spectrum" instead of the orthodox understanding of what hell really is--separation from God. The fact of the matter is: God loves us enough to allow us to chase our deepest heart's desire for eternity; and if that desire is not God, then we will chase that other desire forever and never, ever be satisfied--hell.
I must move on to more of Lose's article to continue the points:
Nothing less than what God has done for us. But before I get to that, one more paragraph:
Oh, I know. I know. The most difficult thing for most folks outside the Christian narrative to accept is their sinfulness or how that sinfulness has separated them from God. I know the idea of original sin is passe in some circles. I know many folks in the mainline and emergent church tend to talk about sin in terms of corporate structures. I get that. But the Gospel is meant for individuals to begin with. "Truly I tell you, no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born from above." (John 3:3). And if one is truly honest with one's self, one knows one is sinful. Evidence abounds for this. The desire to be our own god and rule our own little worlds reigns supreme in damn near everyone. ("If everyone would just do what I say, then everything would work out fine," said everyone at some particular point and time in their lives.)
And yet, when the Gospel takes hold, a corporate structure begins to take shape:
Worship becomes the place where we gather in thanksgiving for what God has done through Jesus--to place Jesus at the center of our hearts and lives as we strive to combat all the other false gods which diligently sink their claws into us to pull us away from the One, True God. Worship becomes the place where the Good News--the Gospel--is announced over and over and over again: God, through Jesus has accomplished salvation for you! Live into that freedom! This Gospel cannot be lived out. You cannot accomplish what Jesus accomplished. It is already done. Period. It is no "mother of all reward and punishment schemes." Every other world religion and philosophy operates in that fashion. Those are all the ones which say "do this, and you will be rewarded." Christianity says, "You are rewarded (accepted), now do this." It stands alone in that category and is blatantly contrary to the way the world operates.
And when you know you are accepted...
When you know you are justified...
When you know that even in the midst of your failure, you are loved...
When you know the cost God paid to claim you...
You can't help but want to worship Him and lift your voice. For in Him is life--abundant life right here and now. A life, not full of wealth and riches (although some are lucky to acquire them), but a life full of peace and joy knowing one does not have to work to justify one's self. One can freely engage in love without fear and anger.
And if fear and anger take root in you...
If you feel like you constantly have to justify yourself...
If you think wealth, or health, or sex, or property, or what have you will satisfy...
You already have hell grasping at you.
But, aw, hell, what do I know?
My professor replied, "I don't know what you are talking about."
The student said, "Satan. The devil. The guy talked about in the Bible."
The professor responded, "I don't believe in the devil, so I don't know what you are talking about."
A bit of hyperbole on my professor's part, but his point was made abundantly clear. He didn't believe in the devil. None of us in the class were willing to challenge him on this assertion. It's little doubt why. Our grades hung in the balance.
Yet, it was a bewildering thought to me how a professor of theology who was an ordained pastor and practicing Christian could blatantly admit no belief in the devil--especially in light of what Jesus revealed to us in Scripture. Yet, as time progressed, and I learned more, I began to understand.
I also found out, my college professor was not alone. More and more folks in the "progressive" strain of Christianity do not believe in the devil, Satan, or even hell. And as I perused the Living Lutheran website the other day, I found one more--the head of an ELCA seminary.
Dr. David Lose published an article titled, "Do We Miss Hell?"
You can read the following in context, but I will delve into a few things in succession:
For the last few decades at least, you see, “hell” has stopped being a particularly lively or compelling topic in mainline preaching and conversation. Given it’s relatively scant place in Scripture, that may be a far more faithful treatment of the topic than many on the far right of the religious spectrum would guess. But while many of us have a harder and harder time imagining the God we know in Jesus consigning someone to a place of eternal torment and therefore applaud this development, I have wondered from time to time if we’ve figured out exactly what is a good substitute for hell.There are a few assumptions here. First off, the idea that a "scant" amount of discussion in scripture equals a sense of unimportance. I mean, geez, the idea of hell was only conveyed by Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, God incarnate as He taught his followers and others. Sure, it only seems to be relegated to the New Testament to the friggin' teachings of Jesus, but it's scant. O.K. Am I the only one who kind of sees this as a fishy assumption? What else did Jesus say that we can simply ignore because it is "scant?" Anyone? Anyone? Let's not play this little game here. Jesus made reference to hell numerous times, and unless you want to say the NT writers were not credible--which there are more than a few who do--then you've got to deal with what Jesus said. And if you decide to go down the road of simply dismissing such sayings as "Matthew's Jesus," then I am equally able to dismiss any other saying of Jesus in the same attributive fashion.
Second point--the God we know in Jesus doesn't consign someone to hell. Dr. Lose should know better. We consign ourselves to hell. Read Dante's inferno. Dr. Lose seems to be heavily influenced by the "far right of the religious spectrum" instead of the orthodox understanding of what hell really is--separation from God. The fact of the matter is: God loves us enough to allow us to chase our deepest heart's desire for eternity; and if that desire is not God, then we will chase that other desire forever and never, ever be satisfied--hell.
I must move on to more of Lose's article to continue the points:
What, that is, is the motivation for our gathering, our giving, our serving and volunteering? At least things were pretty clear when you had heaven as the carrot and hellfire as the stick. But what now? Even heaven seems increasingly difficult to talk about, as we perhaps too narrowly defined it as, well, the opposite of hell. So if we don’t have the mother-of-all reward-and-punishment schemes to fall back on, have we figured out exactly what we’re offering people. Community? Perhaps, though a little vague. Justice, certainly, though harder to attain (especially, some might argue, absent the threat of hell). Abundant life? This one appeals greatly to me but has been at times co-opted by the prosperity-gospel folks on the one side and Madison Avenue on the other.*Sigh.* The mother of all reward and punishment schemes. Really? I am starting to hope this article is tongue and cheek. I really am hoping so. With Luther's explanation to the eighth commandment ringing in my ears, I am desperately hoping Dr. Lose is being blatantly humorous here. What is the motivation for our gathering, our grieving, our serving, and our volunteering?
Nothing less than what God has done for us. But before I get to that, one more paragraph:
Yes, we live in a world of many faiths, many narratives, and many, many ways to make sense of our lives; however not all of these faiths, narratives, and ways are equal or truthful. There is such a thing as objective Truth--even if we cannot know it objectively. And Christianity stakes its claim on the God who became flesh and lived among us--the God who knew we were making a mess out of our relationships and our world--the God who loved us so much, He could not stand to see our destructive behavior toward Him and toward one another and after numerous times of trying to get us to change our ways through punishment and obedience to the Law, sent His Son to perfectly fulfill the Law, to pay for our sin, and to clothe us with His righteousness. And on the third day to rise again to point us toward the hope to which we are guaranteed--a new heaven and a new earth with no separation from God.
I think if the mainline traditions are going to have a future, we need to be far clearer about why we gather and what we imagine participation in our communities yields. I’m not advocating for a return to hell, mind you, just recognizing that we need to recognize that in a world of many faiths, many narratives, and many, many ways to make sense of our lives, we need to get straight what we think is the heart of the Christian faith and offer that in as winsome and compelling a way as possible. I don’t miss hell, but I’m not sure we’ve quite figured out what to do without. And that needs to change.
Oh, I know. I know. The most difficult thing for most folks outside the Christian narrative to accept is their sinfulness or how that sinfulness has separated them from God. I know the idea of original sin is passe in some circles. I know many folks in the mainline and emergent church tend to talk about sin in terms of corporate structures. I get that. But the Gospel is meant for individuals to begin with. "Truly I tell you, no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born from above." (John 3:3). And if one is truly honest with one's self, one knows one is sinful. Evidence abounds for this. The desire to be our own god and rule our own little worlds reigns supreme in damn near everyone. ("If everyone would just do what I say, then everything would work out fine," said everyone at some particular point and time in their lives.)
And yet, when the Gospel takes hold, a corporate structure begins to take shape:
Worship becomes the place where we gather in thanksgiving for what God has done through Jesus--to place Jesus at the center of our hearts and lives as we strive to combat all the other false gods which diligently sink their claws into us to pull us away from the One, True God. Worship becomes the place where the Good News--the Gospel--is announced over and over and over again: God, through Jesus has accomplished salvation for you! Live into that freedom! This Gospel cannot be lived out. You cannot accomplish what Jesus accomplished. It is already done. Period. It is no "mother of all reward and punishment schemes." Every other world religion and philosophy operates in that fashion. Those are all the ones which say "do this, and you will be rewarded." Christianity says, "You are rewarded (accepted), now do this." It stands alone in that category and is blatantly contrary to the way the world operates.
And when you know you are accepted...
When you know you are justified...
When you know that even in the midst of your failure, you are loved...
When you know the cost God paid to claim you...
You can't help but want to worship Him and lift your voice. For in Him is life--abundant life right here and now. A life, not full of wealth and riches (although some are lucky to acquire them), but a life full of peace and joy knowing one does not have to work to justify one's self. One can freely engage in love without fear and anger.
And if fear and anger take root in you...
If you feel like you constantly have to justify yourself...
If you think wealth, or health, or sex, or property, or what have you will satisfy...
You already have hell grasping at you.
But, aw, hell, what do I know?
For
the last few decades at least, you see, “hell” has stopped being a
particularly lively or compelling topic in mainline preaching and
conversation. Given its relatively scant place in Scripture, that may be
a far more faithful treatment of the topic than many on the far right
of the religious spectrum would guess. But while many of us have a
harder and harder time imagining the God we know in Jesus consigning
someone to a place of eternal torment and therefore applaud this
development, I have wondered from time to time if we’ve figured out
exactly what is a good substitute for hell. - See more at:
http://www.elca.org/Living-Lutheran/Blogs/2014/09/140911-Do-we-miss-hell#sthash.eO9H4oBt.dpuf
For
the last few decades at least, you see, “hell” has stopped being a
particularly lively or compelling topic in mainline preaching and
conversation. Given its relatively scant place in Scripture, that may be
a far more faithful treatment of the topic than many on the far right
of the religious spectrum would guess. But while many of us have a
harder and harder time imagining the God we know in Jesus consigning
someone to a place of eternal torment and therefore applaud this
development, I have wondered from time to time if we’ve figured out
exactly what is a good substitute for hell. - See more at:
http://www.elca.org/Living-Lutheran/Blogs/2014/09/140911-Do-we-miss-hell#sthash.eO9H4oBt.dpuf
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
It's a Heart Thing; Or, If you Want to Lose Your Salvation, Make Your Deepest Desire Something Other than God
There are many who struggle with the concept of grace.
I understand--more than one might realize.
For it is only after really starting to get what the Gospel is all about that I can now look back and see where I was and how I preached a modern day type of Pharisaism.
Did I believe Jesus died for our sins? Absolutely.
Did I believe we were saved by grace through faith in Christ alone? Yep.
Did I believe that Jesus' death and resurrection were totally and completely sufficient for my salvation? Nope. I didn't. I believed there was still something I had to do. I had to maintain my salvation by living a life worthy of my justification. And I thought it my duty to inform others that they had to live such lives as well.
You see, I believed in the sacrificial atonement of Jesus Christ, but I didn't believe that I was clothed in His righteousness. I didn't realize that not only did Jesus die the death I deserved, but He lived the life I was supposed to live. And since He fulfilled the Law, I am no longer under its discipline.
1) How in the world could I say such a thing? 2) Aren't we supposed to do good things? 3) Aren't we supposed to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God? 4) Aren't we supposed to love our neighbor as we love ourselves? 5) Aren't we supposed to strive for moral righteousness? 6) Won't we end up receiving God's wrath if we don't seek such things?
First (1), I didn't say such a thing. I'm parroting St. Paul. Galatians 3,
Second, (2) yes, (3) yes, (4) yes, (5) yes, and (6) no.
But, you might point out to me, St. Paul says that we will endure God's wrath and will not inherit the Kingdom of God. He is straight forward in 1 Corinthians 6:
"But," you might say, "What if I still am greedy? (Anyone out there NOT want more money? If you want more money to live on, you are exhibiting greed, even if it is slight.) What if I still am an idolater? (If you love anything more than God at any point, you are an idolater. Most of us fit here easily.) What if I lust after another? (Most people still do this thereby breaking the Sixth Commandment and the direct teaching of Jesus.) Will I still inherit the kingdom of God, or am I on the outs? Do I still have my salvation, or have I lost it?"
Let's read verse 12 because it is vastly important. "12 ‘All things are lawful for me’, but not all things are beneficial. ‘All things are lawful for me’, but I will not be dominated by anything."
The key word here, I think is dominated, or in the Greek: exousias. The word connotes power and authority. St. Paul says, basically, I will not come under the power of or be subject to the rule of anything--anything, that is, except Christ.
Paul is addressing the desire of one's heart, and all the things he lists in verses 9 and 10 have to do with the condition of one's heart. "You used to be these things," because these were the deepest desires of your heart. You wanted more money, more sex, more pleasure; these were your idols. These were your gods. But now, Christ reigns in your heart. These things might rear their ugly heads from time to time, but Christ now is your ruler--you are subject to and dominated by Him.
Paul echoes Jesus here. For Jesus explicitly talked about the nature of one's heart in regards to sin and salvation:
Now, we know an eye does not cause a person to sin. Neither does a hand. What causes the eye to look and the hand to grab? The condition of one's heart. If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. But it is not the hand. It is not the eye. It is the heart. And lest you think I am simply explaining Jesus' words away, please note, He says so Himself a little later in the book of Matthew.
For this is the kicker to the whole deal. God loves you so much, He will allow you to pursue your deepest, heart's desire for eternity. If your desire is to be separated from Him, He will grant it. If your desire is to pursue sex for eternity, He will grant it. If your deepest desire is for money, He will grant it. Here's a frightening one: if your desire is to perfectly follow God's Laws so that you will not lose your salvation; God will grant this too. If you build your identity upon these things, God will see to it that these things are yours forever. And you will never, ever be satisfied. You will always be hungry. You will always need more and more and more. Forever.
This, my readers, is hell. Absolute hell. Read Dante's Inferno to get a little more insight if you choose.
And speaking of choice, this is how you can ultimately lose your salvation. Not by committing sins. Everyone sins. Day after day after day. No one perfectly follows the commands of Jesus or the Old Testament Laws. No one fulfills them. This why we are saved by grace. This is why our salvation is maintained by grace. Not by our own doing, but by Jesus' doing. And this is why we pursue Him; not the Law. For when He is our deepest heart's desire, our salvation is absolutely assured.
I understand--more than one might realize.
For it is only after really starting to get what the Gospel is all about that I can now look back and see where I was and how I preached a modern day type of Pharisaism.
Did I believe Jesus died for our sins? Absolutely.
Did I believe we were saved by grace through faith in Christ alone? Yep.
Did I believe that Jesus' death and resurrection were totally and completely sufficient for my salvation? Nope. I didn't. I believed there was still something I had to do. I had to maintain my salvation by living a life worthy of my justification. And I thought it my duty to inform others that they had to live such lives as well.
You see, I believed in the sacrificial atonement of Jesus Christ, but I didn't believe that I was clothed in His righteousness. I didn't realize that not only did Jesus die the death I deserved, but He lived the life I was supposed to live. And since He fulfilled the Law, I am no longer under its discipline.
1) How in the world could I say such a thing? 2) Aren't we supposed to do good things? 3) Aren't we supposed to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God? 4) Aren't we supposed to love our neighbor as we love ourselves? 5) Aren't we supposed to strive for moral righteousness? 6) Won't we end up receiving God's wrath if we don't seek such things?
First (1), I didn't say such a thing. I'm parroting St. Paul. Galatians 3,
23 Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. 24Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. 25But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, 26for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.
Second, (2) yes, (3) yes, (4) yes, (5) yes, and (6) no.
But, you might point out to me, St. Paul says that we will endure God's wrath and will not inherit the Kingdom of God. He is straight forward in 1 Corinthians 6:
9 Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, 10thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. 11And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.First off, please note the sequence to which Paul addresses: These folks will not inherit the kingdom of God. Period. Short list. Followed by, "And this is what you used to be." Used to be. But because of God's grace. Because of Jesus life and death, you ARE NOW WASHED, SANCTIFIED, and JUSTIFIED. You are now no longer these things because you are looked at differently.
"But," you might say, "What if I still am greedy? (Anyone out there NOT want more money? If you want more money to live on, you are exhibiting greed, even if it is slight.) What if I still am an idolater? (If you love anything more than God at any point, you are an idolater. Most of us fit here easily.) What if I lust after another? (Most people still do this thereby breaking the Sixth Commandment and the direct teaching of Jesus.) Will I still inherit the kingdom of God, or am I on the outs? Do I still have my salvation, or have I lost it?"
Let's read verse 12 because it is vastly important. "12 ‘All things are lawful for me’, but not all things are beneficial. ‘All things are lawful for me’, but I will not be dominated by anything."
The key word here, I think is dominated, or in the Greek: exousias. The word connotes power and authority. St. Paul says, basically, I will not come under the power of or be subject to the rule of anything--anything, that is, except Christ.
Paul is addressing the desire of one's heart, and all the things he lists in verses 9 and 10 have to do with the condition of one's heart. "You used to be these things," because these were the deepest desires of your heart. You wanted more money, more sex, more pleasure; these were your idols. These were your gods. But now, Christ reigns in your heart. These things might rear their ugly heads from time to time, but Christ now is your ruler--you are subject to and dominated by Him.
Paul echoes Jesus here. For Jesus explicitly talked about the nature of one's heart in regards to sin and salvation:
Matthew 5: 29If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.
Now, we know an eye does not cause a person to sin. Neither does a hand. What causes the eye to look and the hand to grab? The condition of one's heart. If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. But it is not the hand. It is not the eye. It is the heart. And lest you think I am simply explaining Jesus' words away, please note, He says so Himself a little later in the book of Matthew.
Matthew 15:18But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. 19For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. 20These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.’The deepest desire of your heart is that which dominates you. It is that which rules you. It is that which keeps you hungering after more and more and more. And, unless that deepest desire is Jesus, it will never, ever be satisfied. Never. For all eternity.
For this is the kicker to the whole deal. God loves you so much, He will allow you to pursue your deepest, heart's desire for eternity. If your desire is to be separated from Him, He will grant it. If your desire is to pursue sex for eternity, He will grant it. If your deepest desire is for money, He will grant it. Here's a frightening one: if your desire is to perfectly follow God's Laws so that you will not lose your salvation; God will grant this too. If you build your identity upon these things, God will see to it that these things are yours forever. And you will never, ever be satisfied. You will always be hungry. You will always need more and more and more. Forever.
This, my readers, is hell. Absolute hell. Read Dante's Inferno to get a little more insight if you choose.
And speaking of choice, this is how you can ultimately lose your salvation. Not by committing sins. Everyone sins. Day after day after day. No one perfectly follows the commands of Jesus or the Old Testament Laws. No one fulfills them. This why we are saved by grace. This is why our salvation is maintained by grace. Not by our own doing, but by Jesus' doing. And this is why we pursue Him; not the Law. For when He is our deepest heart's desire, our salvation is absolutely assured.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
What Happens when We Die?
I received the following email this past week:
Since the passing of my father recently the question of what happens when we die is ever on my mothers mind. I might add mine too. I have read a lot on it on the internet and the Bible and I must admit it can be overwhelming for a simple minded person like myself. I wanted to ask you if on your blog did you address the question and if so when. I tried looking in the archives but was unable to find one...After reading a lot of thoughts from other people and their reasoning I always came to the thought of what is Pastor Haug's thoughts.
Heady topic with lots of stuff out there.
Interestingly enough, this week's Living Lutheran: Ask a Pastor section was on this very topic. Answers there vary. Answers with a lot of pastors and professors vary.
Here's my short answer: we don't know exactly. That's the truth.
There's only been one person that I know of who experienced the fullness of death for three days and then returned, and He didn't do too much talking about what was going on when His body lay in the tomb.
Sure, there have been others who have had near death experiences. Some have tried to explain these experiences as the brain going into shut down mode and having a hyper-burst of activity. However, there are some experiences where the brain is completely shut down for days, and yet these experiences still occur. Some have recorded these experiences and sold them on the market. At the recommendation of church members, I have read both:
Heaven is for Real
Proof of Heaven
Both of these books are quite interesting and intriguing. Both have sold thousands of copies, but they are vastly different in what they convey about life after death. Vastly different.
So, what is true?
I don't know, but this is what I trust:
When I die, I believe I will go to be with God.
Yes, I know this doesn't exactly gel with St. Paul's understanding of death: that we fall asleep until the resurrection. But it does gel with other portions of scripture.
For instance, this Sunday's Gospel passage from the book of Luke. Jesus is asked a question about the resurrection by the Sadducees. Of course the Sadducees don't believe in the resurrection of the dead. They believe once a person is dead: that's it.
Yet, Jesus doesn't buy that train of thought. He answers them rather profoundly (bold emphasis mine):
27 Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him 28and asked him a question, ‘Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. 29Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; 30then the second 31and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. 32Finally the woman also died. 33In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.’ 34 Jesus said to them, ‘Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; 35but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. 36Indeed they cannot die any more, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. 37And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. 38Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.’ 39Then some of the scribes answered, ‘Teacher, you have spoken well.’ 40For they no longer dared to ask him another question.
"Now, He is God, not of the dead, but of the living; for to Him all of them are alive."
This is quite the interesting statement, is it not? How can Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob still be living? Their bones have surely decayed and returned to the dust long sense? How could they be considered living?
Jesus offers more insight when He gives the parable of the rich man and Lazarus:
19 ‘There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. 22The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. 23In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. 24He called out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.” 25But Abraham said, “Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. 26Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.” 27He said, “Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— 28for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.” 29Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.” 30He said, “No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” 31He said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” ’
While this indeed is a parable; it does tell us something of how Jesus viewed what happened after death.
#1. There is life after it.
#2. Some are taken to be with Abraham wherever he may be (With God?).
#3. Some head to torment.
#4. There is a separation between these two places that cannot be crossed.
Some might like to stop here, but Jesus certainly doesn't. Jesus, as Paul talks about the resurrection.
Some folks like to do an either/or. Either heaven and hell or resurrection to a new heaven and a new earth.
I like to combine them with the both/and. Some part of us goes on living--goes to be with God (or torment) as we await the last judgment. Then, on that day, we are reembodied at the resurrection.
Again, I don't know for sure. Haven't been on the other side to check. One thing is for sure: we'll all find out.
Since the passing of my father recently the question of what happens when we die is ever on my mothers mind. I might add mine too. I have read a lot on it on the internet and the Bible and I must admit it can be overwhelming for a simple minded person like myself. I wanted to ask you if on your blog did you address the question and if so when. I tried looking in the archives but was unable to find one...After reading a lot of thoughts from other people and their reasoning I always came to the thought of what is Pastor Haug's thoughts.
Heady topic with lots of stuff out there.
Interestingly enough, this week's Living Lutheran: Ask a Pastor section was on this very topic. Answers there vary. Answers with a lot of pastors and professors vary.
Here's my short answer: we don't know exactly. That's the truth.
There's only been one person that I know of who experienced the fullness of death for three days and then returned, and He didn't do too much talking about what was going on when His body lay in the tomb.
Sure, there have been others who have had near death experiences. Some have tried to explain these experiences as the brain going into shut down mode and having a hyper-burst of activity. However, there are some experiences where the brain is completely shut down for days, and yet these experiences still occur. Some have recorded these experiences and sold them on the market. At the recommendation of church members, I have read both:
Heaven is for Real
Proof of Heaven
Both of these books are quite interesting and intriguing. Both have sold thousands of copies, but they are vastly different in what they convey about life after death. Vastly different.
So, what is true?
I don't know, but this is what I trust:
When I die, I believe I will go to be with God.
Yes, I know this doesn't exactly gel with St. Paul's understanding of death: that we fall asleep until the resurrection. But it does gel with other portions of scripture.
For instance, this Sunday's Gospel passage from the book of Luke. Jesus is asked a question about the resurrection by the Sadducees. Of course the Sadducees don't believe in the resurrection of the dead. They believe once a person is dead: that's it.
Yet, Jesus doesn't buy that train of thought. He answers them rather profoundly (bold emphasis mine):
27 Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him 28and asked him a question, ‘Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. 29Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; 30then the second 31and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. 32Finally the woman also died. 33In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.’ 34 Jesus said to them, ‘Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; 35but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. 36Indeed they cannot die any more, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. 37And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. 38Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.’ 39Then some of the scribes answered, ‘Teacher, you have spoken well.’ 40For they no longer dared to ask him another question.
"Now, He is God, not of the dead, but of the living; for to Him all of them are alive."
This is quite the interesting statement, is it not? How can Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob still be living? Their bones have surely decayed and returned to the dust long sense? How could they be considered living?
Jesus offers more insight when He gives the parable of the rich man and Lazarus:
19 ‘There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. 22The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. 23In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. 24He called out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.” 25But Abraham said, “Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. 26Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.” 27He said, “Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father’s house— 28for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.” 29Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.” 30He said, “No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” 31He said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” ’
While this indeed is a parable; it does tell us something of how Jesus viewed what happened after death.
#1. There is life after it.
#2. Some are taken to be with Abraham wherever he may be (With God?).
#3. Some head to torment.
#4. There is a separation between these two places that cannot be crossed.
Some might like to stop here, but Jesus certainly doesn't. Jesus, as Paul talks about the resurrection.
Some folks like to do an either/or. Either heaven and hell or resurrection to a new heaven and a new earth.
I like to combine them with the both/and. Some part of us goes on living--goes to be with God (or torment) as we await the last judgment. Then, on that day, we are reembodied at the resurrection.
Again, I don't know for sure. Haven't been on the other side to check. One thing is for sure: we'll all find out.
Monday, May 13, 2013
Does God Give Warning Tickets?
Last Sunday after church [Sheriff of Austin County] Jack Brandes asked me a very good question, "Does God give warning tickets?" "You know, pastor," Jack said, "we issue a lot of warning tickets. Does God give warnings?"
Jack, of course was referencing my sermon last week about the reasons we follow Christ’s commands and God’s laws. My initial response was, "Yes, God does issue warning tickets." And I stand by that. This might seem like a rather odd topic for Mother’s Day, but bear with me. I’m trying to be faithful to the biblical texts appointed for the day and answer a really good question brought forth by one of our members.
The Old Testament is full of references of God sending warnings to His people who were disobeying the law. All one need do is read through the prophets. When the people sinned, God repeatedly sent men of faith who called Israel to repentance. "Stop worshiping false gods," they would cry out, "lest God bring forth punishment." "Thus says the Lord, stop your pious festivals because what I really desire is for you to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God. Do this, or there will be consequences."
Warning tickets. Such things are issued to get you to think about what you are doing wrong and turn around to do the right things. But what about the New Testament? Are such warnings found after Jesus’ death and resurrection? I think there are.
Let us look once again at our second lesson this morning from the book of Revelation chapter 22. This is the very end of John’s vision, and in this vision, John is being shown around heaven. John paints the picture of this reality several times in this final book of the Bible including in these last few verses, "12 ‘See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work. 13I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.’ 14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. 15Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood."
"15Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood." A warning ticket. Now, those of you who read my blog know this verse was omitted by those who were choosing today’s Bible passages for some reason or another. I wasn’t happy about its exclusion, so I made sure it was printed in the bulletin. We need to see what is in scripture and be allowed to think about it, wrestle with it, and ask tough questions about it. Like, why would God keep people outside of heaven?
Now, this might not be a troubling question for some. I mean, there are many Christians who willingly accept the Christian doctrine of hell, but there are a good chunk of people who find this problematic. How could a loving God destine people to eternal punishment?
Well, let’s start with the fact that God does not destine anyone to hell. God does not destine anyone to eternal punishment. God doesn’t condemn people. They condemn themselves.
Now, that might sound harsh, but let’s go through this step by step. First off, remember that you don’t have the power to come to belief in God on your own. Some people have trouble with this concept. Some folks believe you have to consciously make a decision to believe in God and follow Jesus Christ. I respectfully disagree as Scripture is very clear. St. Paul writes that no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the power of the Holy Spirit. For those of you who want verse references, it’s 1 Corinthians 12:3. If you have an argument with me about this, you will first have to argue with St. Paul. Martin Luther, namesake of the Lutheran Church picked up on this in his explanation to the third article of the Apostles’ Creed when he wrote, "I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him, but it is the Holy Spirit that calls me through the Gospel, enlightens me with His gifts and sanctifies and preserves me in the true faith." And now, if Andrew Newberg’s brain research is correct, we know that we are actually hard-wired for belief in God. The brain is wired for belief! In my book, that means God has predestined each and every one of us to believe in Him and have salvation.
So, why hell then? Why people sitting outside heaven? Well, because God gives us the choice to walk away. We can freely stay in a relationship with Him, or we can walk away from it. We have free will.
"But why does God give us this free will. If He loves us so much and wants us to be with Him, why does He allow us to walk away?"
Well, let’s think about that a moment. If He didn’t give us free will, then we would simply be puppets on a string. God would control us. That’s not exactly a relationship now, is it? True relationships, relationships which are built upon love and trust require freedom. They require people having the ability to say yes to each other or no to each other. It’s that simple, really. There must be a choice involved when it comes to our relationship with God, and that choice remains squarely with you and me as to whether or not we stay in that relationship. God doesn’t waver in His resolve toward us. He wants us to be with Him, and He will do everything in His power to make that relationship work. It is we who choose to walk away.
Which brings us back to those sitting outside of heaven: the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. How do we reconcile such things with grace? How do we reconcile those sitting on the outside with the knowledge that it is not by our actions that we are saved but purely by God’s love? Doesn’t God love even those who are outside the gate?
Of course. In fact, God loves them so much that He gives them their heart’s desire.
Verses 16 and 17 read, "16 ‘It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.’ 17 The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift."
Stop and think a moment about your heart’s desire. Stop and think a moment about what is at the center of your life and what your life revolves around. Consider for a moment that your heart’s desire is your thirst. Consider for a moment that your life revolves around what you believe will quench that thirst. And consider that God wants to give you your heart’s desire. God will allow you to pursue your heart’s desire for eternity. And consider now, that if your heart’s desire isn’t God, that desire will never be quenched. Yeah, that would be hell.
Now, consider the fact that the only desire that can be quenched completely when we enter into eternity, is our thirst for God. "Let everyone who is thirsty come. Drink the gift of the water of life. Be satisfied. Be filled. Enter into the peace that passes all understanding." Heaven.
What is your heart’s desire? Do we need a warning ticket? I sincerely hope not. Amen.
Jack, of course was referencing my sermon last week about the reasons we follow Christ’s commands and God’s laws. My initial response was, "Yes, God does issue warning tickets." And I stand by that. This might seem like a rather odd topic for Mother’s Day, but bear with me. I’m trying to be faithful to the biblical texts appointed for the day and answer a really good question brought forth by one of our members.
The Old Testament is full of references of God sending warnings to His people who were disobeying the law. All one need do is read through the prophets. When the people sinned, God repeatedly sent men of faith who called Israel to repentance. "Stop worshiping false gods," they would cry out, "lest God bring forth punishment." "Thus says the Lord, stop your pious festivals because what I really desire is for you to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God. Do this, or there will be consequences."
Warning tickets. Such things are issued to get you to think about what you are doing wrong and turn around to do the right things. But what about the New Testament? Are such warnings found after Jesus’ death and resurrection? I think there are.
Let us look once again at our second lesson this morning from the book of Revelation chapter 22. This is the very end of John’s vision, and in this vision, John is being shown around heaven. John paints the picture of this reality several times in this final book of the Bible including in these last few verses, "12 ‘See, I am coming soon; my reward is with me, to repay according to everyone’s work. 13I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.’ 14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they will have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by the gates. 15Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood."
"15Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood." A warning ticket. Now, those of you who read my blog know this verse was omitted by those who were choosing today’s Bible passages for some reason or another. I wasn’t happy about its exclusion, so I made sure it was printed in the bulletin. We need to see what is in scripture and be allowed to think about it, wrestle with it, and ask tough questions about it. Like, why would God keep people outside of heaven?
Now, this might not be a troubling question for some. I mean, there are many Christians who willingly accept the Christian doctrine of hell, but there are a good chunk of people who find this problematic. How could a loving God destine people to eternal punishment?
Well, let’s start with the fact that God does not destine anyone to hell. God does not destine anyone to eternal punishment. God doesn’t condemn people. They condemn themselves.
Now, that might sound harsh, but let’s go through this step by step. First off, remember that you don’t have the power to come to belief in God on your own. Some people have trouble with this concept. Some folks believe you have to consciously make a decision to believe in God and follow Jesus Christ. I respectfully disagree as Scripture is very clear. St. Paul writes that no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the power of the Holy Spirit. For those of you who want verse references, it’s 1 Corinthians 12:3. If you have an argument with me about this, you will first have to argue with St. Paul. Martin Luther, namesake of the Lutheran Church picked up on this in his explanation to the third article of the Apostles’ Creed when he wrote, "I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ or come to Him, but it is the Holy Spirit that calls me through the Gospel, enlightens me with His gifts and sanctifies and preserves me in the true faith." And now, if Andrew Newberg’s brain research is correct, we know that we are actually hard-wired for belief in God. The brain is wired for belief! In my book, that means God has predestined each and every one of us to believe in Him and have salvation.
So, why hell then? Why people sitting outside heaven? Well, because God gives us the choice to walk away. We can freely stay in a relationship with Him, or we can walk away from it. We have free will.
"But why does God give us this free will. If He loves us so much and wants us to be with Him, why does He allow us to walk away?"
Well, let’s think about that a moment. If He didn’t give us free will, then we would simply be puppets on a string. God would control us. That’s not exactly a relationship now, is it? True relationships, relationships which are built upon love and trust require freedom. They require people having the ability to say yes to each other or no to each other. It’s that simple, really. There must be a choice involved when it comes to our relationship with God, and that choice remains squarely with you and me as to whether or not we stay in that relationship. God doesn’t waver in His resolve toward us. He wants us to be with Him, and He will do everything in His power to make that relationship work. It is we who choose to walk away.
Which brings us back to those sitting outside of heaven: the dogs and sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. How do we reconcile such things with grace? How do we reconcile those sitting on the outside with the knowledge that it is not by our actions that we are saved but purely by God’s love? Doesn’t God love even those who are outside the gate?
Of course. In fact, God loves them so much that He gives them their heart’s desire.
Verses 16 and 17 read, "16 ‘It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.’ 17 The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift."
Stop and think a moment about your heart’s desire. Stop and think a moment about what is at the center of your life and what your life revolves around. Consider for a moment that your heart’s desire is your thirst. Consider for a moment that your life revolves around what you believe will quench that thirst. And consider that God wants to give you your heart’s desire. God will allow you to pursue your heart’s desire for eternity. And consider now, that if your heart’s desire isn’t God, that desire will never be quenched. Yeah, that would be hell.
Now, consider the fact that the only desire that can be quenched completely when we enter into eternity, is our thirst for God. "Let everyone who is thirsty come. Drink the gift of the water of life. Be satisfied. Be filled. Enter into the peace that passes all understanding." Heaven.
What is your heart’s desire? Do we need a warning ticket? I sincerely hope not. Amen.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
The Conversation Goes to Hell
Satan: You love them? So you say. If you love them so much, why do you let me have some of them. Don't get me wrong. I mean, I'll take them when I can get them, but if you love them so dearly and your love is so boundless and you are willing to die for them, then why send them to hell?
God: I was with you right up to that last statement.
Satan: I'm confused.
God: I tend to keep you that way on purpose, but I don't send them to hell.
Satan: Wait a minute? You don't send them to me?
God: No. I don't. I just give them what they want.
Satan: Now, my confusion is even greater.
God: I am not surprised. Let me try to put it into terms even you can understand: I let you fall from grace. That was your choice not mine.
Satan: You mean you could have kept me up in heaven.
God: Do you really want me to exercise that power?
Satan: On second thought, no. I kind of like my freedom. I like doing things my own way, calling my own shots, being in charge of myself. I don't like the idea of submitting to you and your set of rules and regulations. I like being independent and on my own.
God: Exactly. You are on your own. You have chosen separation from me. You have shunned my protection, my providence, my goodness and gone your own way. I did not force that choice upon you. You took it yourself.
Satan: And your point in all of this.
God: Look, heaven is where I AM. Hell is my absence.
Satan: And some people are perfectly content without you.
God: Yep, and I let them go on their way. Eternally. If they want to do it their way, be their own boss, call their own shots, take care of their own salvation whether they believe it or not, I let them go.
Satan: But what about punishment? What about eternal justice? What about your wrath?
God: Ignoramus. What do you think the cross was for? I don't need to send someone to a place of eternal fire. That's nothing. Being separated from me is far, far worse.
Satan: In what manner?
God: If people choose to walk away from me, they walk away from all those who believe in me. They walk away from eternity with those they love. They are completely and utterly on their own.
Satan: Well, they do have me.
God: Do you really think that is a comfort? Lies, manipulation, never fully knowing the truth, wondering what the purpose of life is and what everything means. They find those things with me. When they choose separation, they forsake all of this.
Satan: But don't you want them afraid of hell? Don't you want them afraid of me? Pitchforks and everything? Don't you want them scared of such eternal damnation?
God: Well, then that would mean they turn to me out of fear instead of out of love. That's not an option as far as I am concerned. I don't want people believing in me in order to save themselves from some sort of everlasting bar-b-q. That's not what I am about. That's not what the cross is about. Plus, when you turn to me because you are afraid, then you are simply trying to save yourself. That's counter to grace. So, no. I don't want them to be afraid of hell, but I want them to know the consequences of the choice they make.
Satan: And you give them that choice because...????
God: I...
God and Satan in unison: ...love them.
Satan: Phooey!
God: I was with you right up to that last statement.
Satan: I'm confused.
God: I tend to keep you that way on purpose, but I don't send them to hell.
Satan: Wait a minute? You don't send them to me?
God: No. I don't. I just give them what they want.
Satan: Now, my confusion is even greater.
God: I am not surprised. Let me try to put it into terms even you can understand: I let you fall from grace. That was your choice not mine.
Satan: You mean you could have kept me up in heaven.
God: Do you really want me to exercise that power?
Satan: On second thought, no. I kind of like my freedom. I like doing things my own way, calling my own shots, being in charge of myself. I don't like the idea of submitting to you and your set of rules and regulations. I like being independent and on my own.
God: Exactly. You are on your own. You have chosen separation from me. You have shunned my protection, my providence, my goodness and gone your own way. I did not force that choice upon you. You took it yourself.
Satan: And your point in all of this.
God: Look, heaven is where I AM. Hell is my absence.
Satan: And some people are perfectly content without you.
God: Yep, and I let them go on their way. Eternally. If they want to do it their way, be their own boss, call their own shots, take care of their own salvation whether they believe it or not, I let them go.
Satan: But what about punishment? What about eternal justice? What about your wrath?
God: Ignoramus. What do you think the cross was for? I don't need to send someone to a place of eternal fire. That's nothing. Being separated from me is far, far worse.
Satan: In what manner?
God: If people choose to walk away from me, they walk away from all those who believe in me. They walk away from eternity with those they love. They are completely and utterly on their own.
Satan: Well, they do have me.
God: Do you really think that is a comfort? Lies, manipulation, never fully knowing the truth, wondering what the purpose of life is and what everything means. They find those things with me. When they choose separation, they forsake all of this.
Satan: But don't you want them afraid of hell? Don't you want them afraid of me? Pitchforks and everything? Don't you want them scared of such eternal damnation?
God: Well, then that would mean they turn to me out of fear instead of out of love. That's not an option as far as I am concerned. I don't want people believing in me in order to save themselves from some sort of everlasting bar-b-q. That's not what I am about. That's not what the cross is about. Plus, when you turn to me because you are afraid, then you are simply trying to save yourself. That's counter to grace. So, no. I don't want them to be afraid of hell, but I want them to know the consequences of the choice they make.
Satan: And you give them that choice because...????
God: I...
God and Satan in unison: ...love them.
Satan: Phooey!
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