All,  I started today (Tuesday) but now this will end up being Wednesday’s WFTD…you’ll see why from the length.  I hope you all had a great weekend and this finds you well.

C.S. Lewis said that there was two ways for a Christian to think about him or herself and be in line with Biblical teaching; either the Christian could continually see himself as a depraved sinner, capable of no good within himself, or he could forget himself altogether and look to Christ.  If you’re like me, it is VERY easy to think like the first person.  I am confronted daily with my failings in interactions with those around me, current struggles, and even recalling past sins.  For someone who focuses on their failures, it’s very easy to see and understand the wrath of God, and God’s justice – The wrath of God is poured out on sin, God’s holiness does demand perfect justice.  The result of that mindset, however; one continually reminded and perhaps dwelling on current and past personal failings, however true they may be, is not helpful and does not give the whole story.  Our sin, and our enemy in Satan,  would enjoy nothing more than to convince us that we are defined by what we’re struggling with today, or what we’ve done in the past.  It’s is a dark way to live; God may have used that brokenness to bring us to Him when we were first called, but as new creations in Christ we were not designed to dwell on it.  One mark of a mature Christian is whether or not we keep short accounts of ourselves with others and God.  We should be broken in our sin, repent, and turn to the Lord, but our day to day mindset shouldn’t be on ourselves, but joyful in seeing and savoring Christ.

I’ve found personally, and in others, that the hardest part of the gospel isn’t accepting that Jesus died for sinners; it’s accepting that He died for you, and your sins.  Jesus knew you from before you were born, he knows when you will die, He knows the depths of your heart, He knows your past, present, and future sins, and He took every bit of it with Him to the cross.  We hear this, but the familiar questions raise up from within; doesn’t God know what I’ve done in my past?  Doesn’t God know that I’m still struggling with sin in my life?  How can it be that this God loves me?  Why would He die for me and my sins?  How can it be that today, right where I’m at, in the midst of my struggles, that I’ve struggled with for YEARS God has declared me to be righteous?  The greatest offense of God to us, what is so hard for us to understand and accept, is His love.  We simply have the hardest time allowing ourselves to rest in this fact, that God would love us, wretched sinners as we are.  We feel the need to “get our life in order” and then go to God.  We feel like God’s love for us is tied to our success at obedience to Him.

What I want to argue for, what I believe God wants us to press into us, is that we were not meant to dwell on ourselves, but to stand with joy in awe of Him.  Do you realize that in Colossians 3:2, when is says “to set your minds on the things above, not on the things of the Earth” that is a command, not a suggestion?  Do you know that the command is deeply rooted in your identity as a redeemed son/daughter of God?  Let’s look at that verse in context from Colossians 3:1-4 – “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”  Do you view yourself this way day to day?  Do you live with your eyes focused on Christ and the cross or focused on you?

When I was in Driver’s Ed many years ago, one of the instructors gave me a very helpful piece of advice (hopefully none of you were on the road then. I think the instructors must’ve drawn straws to see who had to ride with me… it was pretty scary) The (unlucky) instructor told me to focus on a spot ahead in the road, to not pay immediate attention to the road right in front of me, and that my arms/body would naturally drive to that point.  It took an initial measure of faith, but actually does work – try it some time.  This is similar to the way God wants us to live – to rejoice in the complete, finished work of Christ on the Cross, identifying ourselves not with our sin, but by faith to identify ourselves with Christ’s death to sin once and for all, and His (our) being made alive by the Spirit.  See it in Galatians 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loves me and gave Himself up for me.”  Paul’s very identity is in Christ.  He cannot think of Himself differently or in a way apart from Christ, because as a believer, He is joined with Christ, and Christ lives in Him.  His mind is constantly savoring Christ, his life is spent with Christ in view.

Three things happen when you take your eyes off Jesus, when you cease to rejoice in the cross and your identity in Christ, and put your eyes only on yourself and your sin – 1) you will become very frustrated very quickly 2) you will lack a fullness of joy God means for you to live out of and 3) it will become impossible for you to please God, even if you are able to change some of your behavior (Ref Deut 28:47-48 below)

So let me ask you?  Are you consistently frustrated by past mistakes or your current sin struggles?  Why do you think there are so many laws in the Old Testament?  Something like 630 I believe total.  They’re there to teach you that you can’t ever be righteous.  You can’t do it!  Worse, in Deuteronomy 28:16 we’re told – “But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.”  I won’t go into all of the curses, but needless to say they are not pleasant. 

Moreover, if you first came to Christ in faith, confessing your inability to be righteous as He requires, why then would you beat yourself up over and over for your past sins or ongoing struggles?  Don’t you realize that this is why Jesus came to die?  Brothers/Sisters in Christ, remember what you first professed when you came to faith – you have no hope apart from Him.  Paul addressed the church of Galatia, which had begun walking with Christ, but because of false teaching was being led to focus on themselves to be right with God based on their works.  Gal 3:1-6 – “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this:Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith— just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”?” 

My exhortation then is to continue on in the same manner as when you first came to faith, set your eyes on the cross, become meek and humble before God, and let your soul be refreshed by Him.  Learn from David in Psalm 51, when he had committed rape, murder, and numerous other sins related to his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba – vs 16-17 – “For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”  God doesn’t want you to “make yourself better”, He wants you to come to Him today admitting you can’t.  As believers we do not overcome sin primarily by “doing better”, we overcome sin by God’s grace through changed hearts and minds – which is the work of the Spirit.  Rejoice in the cross.  Rejoice that God loves us enough to die for us.  Today ask God to give you greater affection for Him than for your sin, to give you a passion for him that will overwhelm your temptations that God may be seen as He is, worthy and glorious above all things. 

Let me ask another question.  Maybe you feel like you’ve already overcome some sin in your life, but there is a massive chasm 1,000 miles between what your head knows about God, and how your heart feels about Him.  You feel no joy.  You’ve got your theology down, you’re reading your Bible daily, you attend church, give of your time and resources, but everything has become mechanical, routine.  You find that you are your own worst critic.  You’ve become very good at introspection, and changing your behavior to be in line with God’s Word, but you feel no joy.  Is that ok?  Obviously this a leading question, but what does the Bible say?

If perhaps for you, you feel like obedience is more important than joy, but read what God has to say in Deuteronomy 28:47-48 –  “Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.”  I love the Old Testament – no mincing words here, you will be joyful in the in the Lord, or God will make you a slave, hungry, thirsty, naked, without anything, until he destroys you.  Yep, not my words, those are God’s.  If our goal becomes changed behavior instead of fellowship with Him, does that make God look worthy of praise and glorious as He is?  How did Jesus speak about the Pharisees who outwardly appeared righteous, but ultimately had no love for God, as evidenced by their crucifying Him?  Is that how we are to live as Christians?  Followers of Christ, but without affection for the one we follow?

Now I want to deal very gently with those of you who maybe just got rocked back in your chairs as you’re reading this a bit – maybe if you’re honest with yourself you don’t have a lot of joy for God.  Maybe other things – football, TV shows, magazines, clothes, etc. have always been a great source of joy for you, and God has just been some impersonal force that you pray to every once in a while – know that God loves you right where you’re at, that it’s ok how you feel, but it’s not ok to stay that way.  Who would want to anyway?  No one wakes up in the morning and says, hmmm, I can be depressed or joyful today… I think I’ll take a little more depression in my life, life isn’t hard enough.  For some of us, however, this may not even be a decision – God may even cause us to go through “dark nights of the soul” where joy is difficult to find, if only to grow our faith even deeper, so that as we wait on Him for joy, our faith matures, producing in the end even more joy when God awakens our joy in Him again.  

My exhortation for each of these persons I’ve described above (of whom I have been in each of these camps at varying times), is to turn to Christ, where our hope is found.  Christ came into the world to die for sinners, to reconcile us to God.  God loved us so much that He wanted to give us the greatest gift in the world, Himself, for us to enjoy.  What does it say about God if we do not delight in Him?  What does it say if we turn our attention to ourselves instead of to Him?  Do you think there will be mirrors in heaven?  Do you think you could stand to look away from Christ, if a fullness of joy is found in Him alone?  Often times people ask me questions like – “Do you think my mother of father are looking down on me from heaven?”  My honest answer is this – “I think those persons who have gone to be with Christ are so infinitely joyful in fellowship with Him, that the idea of looking away for ANY reason, would never even offer a temptation to them, but if it did creep into their mind it would instantly be dismissed not as merely a bad idea – but insane.  Christ is that glorious.  My hope in sharing this – my goal is that I want to expand your vision of what that day will be like, when we see Him face to face, so that you will develop a passion for pursuing it now.  I want to help free you from the lies of Satan that you are defined by your sin, to see that in Christ, He gives you your identity, and He has called you a Son, Daughter, Heir, and Friend.

Jesus is to be the object of our attention and affection for all eternity, and because He died for us, by grace through faith, we get Him – we get God to enjoy forever.  That is the greatest good news of the Gospel, we get God.  You see, contrary to my Baptist upbringing, and perhaps many of your understanding of God and the church, God is very much after our joy.  In John 15:11, Jesus says “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”  I want that kind of JOY!  If God has all power at His disposal to work all things for infinite joy, and that is the joy that is to be found in Christ, I want to be looking for that, fighting for that, every day.  Psalm 16:11 says this “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”  What is at the right hand of God?  God Himself, Jesus Christ.  Hebrews 10:12 – “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,”  My encouragement today, is wherever you’re at, whatever your struggles are, bring them to God, turn from them by turning to Him, and rejoice in God.  Stop managing sin, and start pursuing Christ.  As you pursue God in His Word, in community with believers, in manifesting Christ to others through service and evangelism – in all things, let your affections for Him drive all that you do.  Let the world marvel at your joy as you set your eyes on Christ.  “God is most glorified in you, when you are most satisfied in Him” – (John Piper – paraphrase Phil 1:21).   

Grace and Peace,
Adam