Forgiveness

For such a long time, I have wrestled with the theology of forgiveness.  I understood a great many things about it.  I understood that a thing forgiven is no longer indebted.  I understood that payment for my sin was death, a price that Jesus paid physically so that I wouldn’t have to pay spiritually.  I understood that it only took the smallest amount of sin to send my life to hell.  I understood these in a broken, unconnected way.  It made sense to me cerebrally, but the greater truth, the emotional freedom, the absolute assuredness and hope of salvation was still outside my grasp.  Maybe no one is as thick as I was, but my heart was in jeopardy!

You see, although I gave my allegiance to the Lord at 9, I was still in the process of giving Him my heart.  I would still sin (big shocker, right?).  I was (and obviously am) still imperfect.  My sin was the only spiritual reality that I allowed myself to fully realize.  The salvation of Jesus Christ seemed to be held out before me as something that I dearly wanted, thought I had sometimes but, most of the time, it was something from which I felt alienated.  It took decades of struggle before God gifted me with a greater understanding of forgiveness.

This understanding is what later prompted the writing of my song, “My Sins Are Gone.”  The flaw in my understanding of forgiveness was more fundamental than anything.  I was constantly focused on the fact that sin separates us from God.  It’s true.  Sin is what drove Adam and Eve from the garden and caused them to have to stop physically walking with the Lord.  Isaiah told the Israelites in Isaiah 59:2, “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”  As I continued to mess up, I felt the wedge grow between the Lord and me.  From time to time, I allowed myself to feel forgiveness…but it was a fleeting, emotional thing.

You see, there’s a huge difference between “feeling” forgiven and “being” forgiven.  Praise God we are forgiven even when we don’t feel like it!!!  What I never realized was that the separation from God only spelled out condemnation before Christ, not after Him.  Romans 8:1 tells us that there is “now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  Even back in Isaiah 59, the chapter states that a Redeemer would eventually come and change everything.  Sin would no longer separate us.

The forgiveness of Jesus Christ that was purchased on the cross is for all time.  All sin of those who claim Jesus Christ as Lord and choose to wrestle against sin to minister reconciliation to the world is forgiven.  You see, whether your sin was committed the day before yesterday or will be the day after tomorrow, as of today, it is forgiven…as of the cross it was forgiven.  In fact, Jesus died for all sin.  That means His redemption rippled forward and backward through time.  For those who have given their allegiance, their hearts, their lives to God’s ownership, he forgets their sins.  He promises Israel by way of His prophet Jeremiah that through His coming Messiah, “I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34)

So where does that leave us today?  Sin does certainly keep us from communicating and growing with the Lord.  When we choose to abandon the perpetual love of God in pursuit of a life devoted to sin, we cement that separation.  However, if we, in our Christian walk, struggle with our sin it’s not counted against us.  We are washed clean even in the midst of sin because we don’t belong to it.  Though God’s grace is not a license to continue to sin, it is the reason we who belong to Christ are allowed to walk guilt free.  We are forgiven.  We don’t gloat, but neither do we sulk.  This Easter, be free from anger, from depression, from self doubt and perpetual uncertainty.  Remember Hebrews 10:10, “We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

In His Grip,

BJ

He Is Christ in You

Do you have Sunday School memories from way back?  I know I do!  I remember flannel-graph, sticker-boards and stacks of Bibles in the middle of the table. You wanted to bring your own Bible, not just because you got a sticker on the board, but if you didn’t, and it was your time to read out loud, you’d have to muscle your way through a King James Version!  I remember watching those flannel-graph disciples walking with Jesus remember the white robe and blue sash?) and thinking Man!  Everything would be easier if Jesus were physically walking with me today!  The irony of that didn’t dawn on me until years later, and only after I became a vocational youth minister.

Now, I am about to refer often to ministering to people, and before any reader declares to his or herself, “Thank … GOD … I am not a minister!” remember that all who are in Christ Jesus are called to be His ministers of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18).  We all share in this burden and blessing. 

Ministry is difficult because we don’t do people well.  Some of us run from them and some of us throw in completely with little or no regard for our own convictions and priorities.  Jesus prays that we find the right balance in John 17:16-18 which says, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.”  There are countless verses that show us that our purpose is people.  Ephesians 1:12 also shows us that we are to be for the praise of God’s glory, but, we see in scripture that we love others in our effort to love the Lord.  It’s all for the praise of His glory, but specifically, we are ministers to people, and that purpose is our definition, our reason to be. 

For many, it is easier to be among people than it is to connect with them.  This is a problem for many, if not most people.  Some declare that they “love” people out of a sense of duty to God, not a care for     others.  Yes, that’s right, they infer that a person can love people out of an indifference to people … no!  Others do a very similar thing.  They believe that they can love people at arm’s length out of a distrust for people.  It makes sense from the place of self-defense, but the problem in both views is this common   issue: how can we feel close to people if we push or keep them away?  For this reason, and so many more in our ministry to people, we need the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit to counsel us!

This brings up the second rub.  We don’t do the Holy Spirit well.  For some of us, the Holy Spirit is a    concept, a personification of an idea, a way to explain warm fuzzies and strange miracles.  For some of us, we wouldn’t recognize the voice of the Spirit if he were to speak directly into our ears.  Scripture tells us that we need to submit to the Holy Spirit (John 16:13) for He is God (2 Corinthians 3:18).  Let’s ask ourselves these questions, how can we submit to the Holy Spirit of whom we don’t know, and if we don’t submit, how can we feel His presence in us?  Is it any wonder, in those times that we reject his leadership, we feel absent from His presence?

We must surrender to the Spirit who will teach us how to live up to our purpose on this earth!  Christ tells us from John 14-16 that the Holy Spirit is Christ in us.  He is what we always wished.  He is the God who is always in us and with us.  We shouldn’t ignore Him … but we do.  Let’s get to know Him more.  Let’s pray through the Spirit.  Let’s read scripture under the discipleship of the Spirit.  Let’s do ministry under the direction of the Spirit. Let’s allow the presence of Him to shape us into loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle and self-controlled (Galatians 5:22-23) ministers of the reconciliation of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen,
In His Grip,
BJ

Let's Get to Know the Holy Spirit!

Why do we need to learn about the identity of the Holy Spirit?  I think that's a question that many entertain but few can actually get past.  Would you trust a complete stranger to invest money for you?  Would you trust a newly met individual to watch your children?  Would you trust some guy off the street to operate on you?  How can we trust someone about whom we know nothing?  We as Christians are in the war; we are pinned between the enemy and a hard place with enemy fire over head...we need to be able to trust, but who?  Many of us have learned so much about Jesus and the Father, but learn so little about the very person of God who lives inside of us.

In youth group we have been spending time talking about the Holy Spirit, someone to whom Francis Chan refers to as the "Forgotten God."  It's a real shame that we can give so little though on the presence and influence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  Please notice that I said "can."  Not every Christian by far struggles with this, but many do.  Many refer to God's Spirit as an It instead of a Him, not realizing just who the is Spirit of God.  He is a person, not a feeling or an idea lovingly referred to with a masculine pronoun.  John 14:17 says, "But you know (the Spirit of Truth), for He lives with you and will be in you."  He is a person, the person of God sent to dwell in each of us.

But He doesn't take up residence on our left ventricle watching blood go by.  His presence in each and every one of us has a purpose.  He helps us pray!  Did you know that the Holy Spirit actually prays for us?  That's what Paul means when he says in Romans 8:27, "He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God."  How amazing is that?  God the Spirit prays for you as He watches you struggle!  Furthermore, Paul says in the previous verse, "The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans."  He hears our heart and interprets our needs to God with wordless groans!  How amazing is that!

But that is only part of what He does!  There is no way we can get into all that the Spirit does for us, but in the context of speaking boldly for the Lord, Jesus tells us in Luke 12:11-12, "When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say."  That's fantastic...but can we trust that?  Do we trust that?  Are we good at moving and speaking on the reliance of the Spirit of God to give us the words to say?  If the answer is no, it should not be a huge surprise!  How can we trust in the one we don't know?

Let's get to know the Holy Spirit!  The Bible talks about Him from cover to cover.  He hovered above the waters of Creation; the book of Job states that it was through the Holy Spirit that mankind drew his first breath.  The Spirit of God empowered men and women of God all throughout the Old Testament, and that same Spirit actually fills us!   We are possessed by the Spirit of God!  Let's long to get to know Him better so that on that day God calls us to take a stand we can rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to speak through us and provide power and self discipline (2 Timothy 1:7)!

In His Grip,
BJ