"To Him be glory forever": grace

Showing posts with label grace. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Having a Thought Towards the Future

"Her uncleanness was in her skirts;

she took no thought of her future;

therefore her fall is terrible;

she has no comforter."

Those words come from the opening chapter of Lamentations, as the author expresses his grief over the fall of Jerusalem and the carrying off of the people of Israel into captivity. Last week I finished reading through Jeremiah, where the prophet makes repeated calls for the people of Israel to repent of their sin and turn to the Lord. The call for repentance is accompanied by a word of warning of the dangers of persisting in their disregard for God. Lamentations follows Jeremiah, with grief over the fact that God's chosen people got exactly what they were warned about.

As I read Lamentations that one phrase, "she took no thought of her future," hit me hard and stuck with me. The people of Israel are God's chosen people, called by Him and set apart by Him as His witnesses in the world. It is they to whom He has revealed His law and it is through them that He will work out His promised plan of redemption. When it comes to sin, or willful disobedience of the will of God, they, of all people, should know better.

They should know better, and they probably do know better, and yet they persist in following their own will rather than Gods. Living in the present, with whatever temporary sense of pleasure, or escape or what have you, as they disobey and disregard God, with no thought of their future.

I don’t know about you, but those words are convicting to me when I look back at my sin. It was something I did at the moment without any care for its effects in the future.

Ongoing sin, unfortunately, is part of the Christian life. We can understand our weakness in one area, and deal with it accordingly, and then find that as soon as we turn from that one thing we fall into another.

While I am convicted by the words of Lamentations, I am also comforted, knowing that in Christ Jesus there is a truly merciful Savior. The fall into sin does not have to be a free fall into a bottomless pit, or a fall to a hard landing and no possible way out.

My sin has consequences, affecting me, and, both selfishly and unfortunately, other people as well. May God, in His grace, make me more mindful of that truth, as well as the grace that come through Christ, the next time I consider taking a step into the pit. May I live with a thought towards the future in terms of the effects of my sin, and also a future where one day sin will be no more. Amen.

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Exactly Enough

The picture in this post is of Archuleta Mesa, taken from behind our house and looking north. I took it late in the day, near sunset. The top of the mesa is perhaps 3 miles from home, as the crow flies. Dulce sits at about 6800 feet of altitude, while Archuleta tops out close to 9200 feet. As far as Dulce is concerned, Archuleta Mesa is the dominant geographical landmark.

During my sermon on Sunday I talked about God's grace, but in order to understand God's grace we first have to have a sense of why a person would need grace. And the Christian standpoint is that grace is needed because humans sin, and they sin a lot.

How much do Christians sin? That is where Archuleta Mesa comes in. If each of the sins that I have committed throughout my life to this point were represented by a rock the size of my fist, and those rocks were stacked at the base of the mesa, the pile would probably be taller than the mesa. A big pile, and one that grows bigger each day.

That is a whole lot of sin. By comparison, how large is God's grace?

God's grace, His forgiveness of my sin, is exactly enough. Paul, writing to the church at Corinth, puts it this way:

"For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

Christ Jesus, who had no sin, took all of my sin, every last bit, every boulder and pebble, and exchanged it for His righteousness. The grace He had for me, the forgiveness of my sin, was exactly enough. Or given the fact that while forgiven I remain a sinner living in a fallen world, so that I continue to sin each day, I could say that in both the present and future tenses as well. He has forgiven my sin, He forgives my sin, and on the last day, He will forgive my sin.

I might be writing this in reference to myself, but being a pastor gives me no exemption before God as a sinner. The number of my sins is great, but the forgiveness that comes by God's grace is exactly enough so that one day I will stand before God in the righteousness of Christ.

And this isn’t a gift that is only available to a few people, for He has exactly enough grace to forgive each and every one of your sins too. All you need to do is to place your faith in Christ as Savior and Lord, and you, too, will know the forgiveness that He freely gives. The grace He has for you is exactly enough.

Monday, November 18, 2013

Two parts of a whole

I was reading a blog post today where the writer discussed the difficulty we can have in living as Christians and balancing the Law on one side and Grace on the other. Her dilemma brought me back to my sermon from yesterday.

I preached from John 1:14-18, which says this in verse 17:

"For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."

We could make an analogy using a scale and imagine that the scale only had the Law at first and that then God introduced Grace, in the person of Jesus, which brought the scale into a balanced position. Or we could even make a case that Grace tipped the scale permanently to one side. I haven't conducted a study but I think many people would agree with this analogy.

Or we could look at that verse and say that God created the Law as Plan A. Try as they might people couldn't fully keep the Law so he brought along Jesus as Plan B. Again, I think this portrayal would find pretty wide acceptance.

But I drew from somewhere else to clarify the relationship of Law and Grace. During the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says this in Matthew 5:17:

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them."

Jesus didn't eliminate the Law. Jesus didn't replace the Law. Jesus fulfilled the Law. The Law on the one hand and Grace on the other are two pieces of a whole. God's plan of redemption is built on both pieces.

The place where we can see a crystal clear view of the fulfillment of the Law and a true vision of Grace and Truth is on the cross and at the empty tomb.

The cross and the empty tomb are two parts of a glorious whole; one that redeems sinners like me, to God's eternal glory.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

"...ought never to complain."

The other day I read an essay written in 1702 by Wilhelmus a` Brakel, a Dutch pastor, who was writing about God’s acting through His free grace in bringing people to saving faith in Christ, and the consequent ways in which this faith might show itself in their lives. Late in the essay a pair of sentences just jumped off the page at me. They said, “Persevere in seeking the Lord. And friends, let me add that he who can pray ought never to complain.”

By way of context a` Brakel was writing about the Lord’s directing a believer’s path. In some cases God’s love may be clearly evident in a person’s life. But there may also be times when it may please the Lord to lead in a way of darkness. The story of Job comes to mind as an example of the latter, where Job went through a very difficult and challenging time, a time that was ultimately to God’s glory as Job remained faithful to God. This is an example of the dark places at which a` Brakel commends perseverance in faith and trust in God.

The phrase of a` Brakel that continues to stick in my mind is “he who can pray ought never to complain.” According to an online dictionary “to complain” means: “to express dissatisfaction, pain, uneasiness, censure, resentment, or grief; find fault; to tell of one's pains, ailments; or to make a formal accusation.” By the reasoning of the world Job was easily justified in making complaint to God over his circumstances.

By a` Brakel’s reasoning, if a person can pray then complaint should be removed as an option when their circumstances aren't to their liking. My human mind wants to rebel at this suggestion. It wants to keep the option of complaint alive. It wants to keep the option of complaint inside my toolbox so I can use it as I see fit. But a` Brakel is wise in suggesting that I discard complaint. The only reason he gives is that we have available the option of prayer, and that reason alone is more than sufficient.

In Hebrews 4:14-16 we have a biblical rationale for resting in prayer,

"Since then we have a great high priest who was passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

There is a lot of injustice in the world that we will never fully understand this side of heaven. There are often things going on in my life that I just don’t get, things that I would much rather turn out a different way.

God’s Word in Hebrews reminds us that Jesus has already experienced everything that we can imagine of the brokenness in the world and in our lives, at least as we see them from our vantage point. But we don’t have God’s vantage point.

What we do have is Jesus, to whom we can turn, in prayer, knowing that we will always receive His grace and mercy. And His grace and mercy are infinitely more satisfying than anything that could come from a complaint.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Welcome Home: Going Home, part 2

Last night I wrote a first installment about my mom and the journey we are on with her as she has gone on hospice. I think it will be an irregular topic, under the title of Going Home. Part 1 is here. I had no idea that the next chapter would come so soon.

My siblings and I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s. There are five of us and we range in age from 51 to 59. We know what the stereotypical family should look like because there were frequent images of it on display in the culture at the time. We also know that the stereotypical family is rare. In that case we are very normal, because there were many events in our growing up and subsequent lives that don’t fit into any stereotyped ideals.

At this particular time we are a mixed bunch relationally. Including our parents there are four living generations, with a very complex structure of who is close to who, who talks to who, who doesn't talk to who. And it goes on. The structure is endlessly complex, unique to our family but perhaps not very different from what is present in many families. And complex relationships are not unique to our place in time. The book of Genesis, read as a narrative story, is a broad survey of both healthy and dysfunctional relationships. (Disclaimer – Genesis is much more than a narrative of human relationships. Send me a note if want someone to read it with you to see the power, majesty and purpose of God in it.)

Long story short, in the past two days I have been able to reconnect with someone who has lived a very long time outside of direct contact with almost every one of us. And not just myself but several of us have connected with this person, and I have had the opportunity to share their story, as I know it, with several others, casting a few more strands onto the complex, perhaps web-like, structure of our family.

I have been able to hear this person’s story and to share some of my own. I don’t need to know all of their details. I am just glad to have had the conversation. And I hope there will be more conversations. And maybe one day a face-to-face reunion.

The story of someone coming back to our family brings to mind the story in Luke 15:11-32, the Parable of the Prodigal Son, particularly the part where the son is welcomed home unconditionally and with great enthusiasm by the father.

Dealing with my mom’s approaching death is something that we are all processing in differing ways. I never would have anticipated that as we anticipate a loss that we would also be celebrating a return. As Thanksgiving approaches among the things I am thankful for is the way God is at work. He is bringing people in our family home, in a relational sense, a movement towards home that points us to the unconditional and enthusiastic “Welcome home!” awaiting His children in heaven.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Pride

First things first. I was wrong about Lance Armstrong. I now believe that he cheated his way to the top of his sport. I was not an ardent defender of him as he was being investigated but if anyone was interested in my opinion I would freely state that I felt he was a clean competitor during the “era” when he dominated the main event of professional cycling, the Tour de France.

He was drug-tested frequently and had never failed a test. Besides, I didn’t believe that there was enough money in cycling to drive people to commit the level of deception that would be needed to “effectively” cover-up any cheating Armstrong would have to be involved in, if he was cheating. I had no problem in believing the evidence when his contemporaries fell to scandal. But I was certain that Armstrong had reached a previously unknown level of success the old-fashioned way, through combination of extraordinary physical gifts that perfectly suited his chosen sport and an indefatigable inner drive to find the boundaries of his limits. I loved to watch him ride.

The evidence is now clear that Armstrong pursued a different path, which is also a well-worn one, traveled over and over by so many of us, myself included: the path of pride.

Pride encourages us to relish the achievements of the present in such a way that we make sure that others take note of them as well. And when there is nothing particularly prominent in our life now pride makes sure that we point attention to some storied moment in our past, when we were really “special.”

What I have become aware of recently, through the grace of God, is my affliction with, and my affection for, pride. I think that if I had been asked if I was a prideful person I would have denied it, something that now seems to be an obvious sign of its presence, at least in my case.

And this awareness of pride is making me aware of what I really need more of. Not more of myself, or of my memories, but more of Jesus and the memories of the grace God has provided in my life. A grace that suits His purposes perfectly, even though at any moment it may not suit mine. (Think of Paul’s thorn.)

So today I feel God inviting me to attend more to the relationship between He and I, and to allow Him to shape me more into the image of His Son. John the Baptist summarized the changing relationship between himself and Jesus with these words:

“He must increase and I must decrease.”

An increasing self-awareness of my pride reminds me of whom it is that should really be exalted in my mind, in my heart, in my words and in my actions. Not myself, but the one in whom, and for whom, all things were made. (John 1)

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 3:20-21

Monday, September 17, 2012

Consoled

Yesterday I finished reading a book that I’ve been working on for two months, The Epistle to the Romans, by Karl Barth. I wrote a review, which can be read here. One thought that I took from the book and I am going to continue to mull over has to do with the way God shapes our conscience as we grasp the grace He gives us in Christ. Here is what I wrote:

“ In a section on the theme of grace he[Barth] writes, “Grace means also the possibility, not of a ‘good’(!) conscience, but of a consoled conscience.” (428, italics mine) We who know God through our faith in the finished work of Christ know that we will continue to sin against God, a God who continues to hold us and forgives us nonetheless. God forgives our sins. He removes them from our presence. But the sure grasp of this knowledge in our minds, the removal of our sin from God, does not remove the memories that we have of our sin. In Christ we are not changed existentially from ‘bad’ to ‘good.’ In the knowledge of who we are before God we are not so much ‘bad’ as ‘broken.’ And Barth reminds us that in our brokenness, through the work of Christ, we are consoled and comforted as we receive God’s mercy. This is a bit of the Good News that we need to be reminded of each day, sometimes many times each day.”

Monday, June 4, 2012

Justice

This morning I read a blog post by my good friend, Mike, around the theme of justice, particularly as it is displayed in the biblical accounts of Jacob and Laban. These sentences from the second-to-last paragraph really grabbed my attention:

“Rather what is happening is that we have an innate desire to see justice done. The problem is that we can often seek to see justice done even when it comes in the form of an act of injustice.”

What happens when we take the idea Mike expresses, i.e. our innate desire to see justice done, and apply it to what I consider its ultimate expression, the sin that we, that I, commit against God? The things I do day after day that are not in accord with the way God has called me to live my life. How do I reconcile a desire to see justice done when I am the very person guilty of the offense?

The Bible is crystal clear in speaking to the standing of humans who sin and their place before God, perhaps no more so than in the words of Paul in Romans 3:23,

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

The “all” that Paul is referring to is all of humanity since the beginning of time, Jesus excepted. All people who have ever lived have done so as sinners before God and deserve the punishment that God has established for their sin.

Paul speaks to that punishment as well, saying in the first part of Romans 6:23,

“For the wages of sin is death,…”

Thanks be to God that in that very verse that begins with God’s justice God also provides his grace,

“...but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Applied to myself, my desire for justice, even towards myself, is answered by God through his grace. He places my sin on his Son, who bears the punishment that is deservedly mine so that I can get the gift I could gain no other way but as God’s free gift…eternal life with my Lord and Savior.

And God offers this gift to all who come to him by faith. I invite you to read Romans 6 for yourself and consider how God may be speaking to you through it.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

What’s in the news?

While skimming the news online I saw a headline that caught my attention. It read:

Two cups of coffee a day cuts risk of dying by 10 percent, research shows

My friends know I enjoy my coffee, a habit I acquired while serving on board the USS Nimitz. My consumption of coffee varies. A cup or two some days. Other days without any. And others with a bit more. According to the article a person’s coffee consumption is relatively stable over their lifetime, so it seems that I would fit into that “two cups a day” group.

But what interested me about this headline, much more so than the article itself, was the connection between something a person might do and that action’s impact on his or her longevity. The headline connects coffee with a reduced risk of dying, but it can’t be as simple as that. There may be a reduced risk of dying in a general sense but in the end there is no such thing. We all will die. Enoch and Elijah excepted, no one has been bodily taken from life in this world to the next without passing through death’s door. And if a person is not a Christian, or is a Christian who has questions about the truth of God’s revealed word in the Bible, then even those two examples are without merit.

So no matter how much coffee I drink, or how much I exercise, or the amount of broccoli I eat, or any other habit, good or bad, that I may practice, will have any bearing on the ultimate fact of my death. Death will indeed come for me one day. My habits may influence the length of life to a small degree, and they may also influence its quality, but they will not stave off death’s inevitable arrival.

Whenever it may come, I believe as a Christian that only one thing will really matter: my standing with God. In the parable of sheep and goats in Matthew 25:31-46 Jesus is seen separating people into two groups, those who knew him truly, and those who didn’t. The ones who knew him as his own receive their inheritance, being joined with him forever, while those in the other group are cast out into the darkness.

We can make all kinds of arguments as we work out our understanding of the Bible, and particularly so as we deal with parables, whose meaning may be less overtly clear than in other texts. But I do believe that to be cast out in the darkness, separated from God eternally, is the ultimate form of loneliness and isolation there can be.

I don’t think that Jesus uses this parable to merely present us with an image of the stark differences between eternal life with or without him, as some sort of attempt to “scare” people into salvation. Jesus graciously shows us the contrasts and invites us to join him, now and forever.

With faith in Jesus we can read Paul’s powerful statement of confidence in God in Romans 8, knowing that his words apply to us as well. In verses 31-38 he writes:

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;

we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is truly the Good News. Earthly life will end but for the Christian it is merely the gateway to their eternal presence with God.

And that is something for me to remember again the next time I have a cup of coffee.

Monday, January 23, 2012

An “Aha!” Moment

Last night our small group from church was gathered in a member’s home. We were on our final session of the study, Gospel in Life: Grace Changes Everything. We had watched a brief talk by Tim Keller and then were discussing some questions that accompanied the talk. The subject of the session was justice and the scripture it was based on was Luke 10:25-37, which is also known as the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

We were discussing the implications of this parable and the ways in which Jesus calls his disciples to live in the world, being guided by several questions from a discussion guide. They included, “On the basis of Jesus teaching, who is our neighbor?” “Shouldn’t we help members of our own family and of our own Christian community first?” and “How does Jesus illustrate what the true motive should be for showing mercy for our neighbor?”

As our group discussed the questions, sharing examples of times in which we both followed Jesus’ teaching and times in which we were not shining examples of his disciples, I kept reading the text, thinking that maybe there was more in it than usually meets the eye or ear. And then, in what I can only describe as the action of the Holy Spirit in giving me an insight that was new to me, I lingered on verses 33-35, which read:

“But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’”

In giving an example of unselfish love of neighbor for us to follow Jesus is also providing an allusion, albeit not quite a complete one but with enough of the central elements, that shows the love that he has already lavished on those whom he has redeemed and made his own.

Like the Samaritan, whose entire ethnic group was considered to be outcast in relation to Jewish society, Jesus was treated as an outcast by many in his day. Today, for many people in our society, and throughout the world, he remains someone to be disregarded, at best, and hated, at worst.

And like the Samaritan in the parable, as Jesus journeys he helps those in need, people who are completely without the ability to help themselves. While the Samaritan helped someone who was physically injured, the help, the healing, that Jesus provides is more profound, touching our souls.

Without God’s action in our lives we are blind to our true condition, how badly we are beaten down by the sin in our lives. Paul writes in Romans 8:7-8,

“For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

The Samaritan takes care of the injured person, making sure that every need is provided for. And, in our spiritual brokenness, Jesus does the same for us, and he does so completely and eternally. Paul proclaims his confidence in the redemptive work of Jesus in the closing verses of Romans 8, and it is a confidence that we can claim as our own as well. He writes,

“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

My “Aha!” moment came as I pondered a familiar part of the Bible and noticed not just the familiar moral implications of Jesus’ teaching but also a powerful allusion to the love he lavishes on his disciples. As you read, pray and ponder God’s Word may he also grant you a deeper glimpse of the love he has for you.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

A Firm Foundation

As a Christian, what is your faith built on? The easy answer, the one from the old Sunday school story, is “Jesus.” And that is certainly true, because there can be no Christians, no Christianity, without Christ.

But if we dig a little deeper, how is God at work in us through Jesus? That question came to my mind this morning when I read the blog of a friend of mine, Michael Manning, as he wrote about the importance of names to God and what they can signify concerning our identity in God.

In describing himself to the church at Philippi, Paul wrote,

“circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.”

In Paul’s testimony he reports that in regard to his righteousness he is blameless. Paul believed, deep in his bones, that in his pre-Christian life as a Pharisee he was blameless in regard to the law. This means that he felt that because he was in conformity with the rules of the Jewish religious system he was okay with God. This is what we call “works righteousness” and it was one of several things that the Reformation sought to correct.

But we can’t “earn our way” to heaven. There is no way, absent the presence of Christ in our lives, in which any of our works are acceptable to God, no matter how good or noble, or even heroic they may seem to us at the time. Without God’s redemption through Christ everything we say and do is tainted by the stain of sin.

This is a truth that Paul learned clearly, as he told the Ephesians,

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

The key thing that Paul is pointing out here is that the Ephesians, and himself, and us today, were all spiritually dead when we didn’t have faith in God through Christ. The latter parts of the verses above suggest behavior that would universally be considered bad stuff, but the truth remained, and remains, that absent Christ, none of their works were truly good and neither are any of ours.

Having established the fact of spiritual death Paul then shows us the response that God would chose to make, for the Ephesians, and for all of his people throughout history. He writes,

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

“When we were dead” God, who is “rich in mercy,” “made us alive together with Christ.” We often call the Gospel the “Good News” and here in microcosm is the very best news. While we were spiritually dead and unable to act on our own in any way, God, through reasons that are beyond understanding, or at least fully beyond my own understanding, acted to give us life in Christ.

This, then, is the foundation, the bedrock of our faith. Not our works, as good as we may think they are. Not simply “Jesus,” although certainly with Jesus. Our foundation is that God chose to act where it was impossible for us to act, replacing spiritual death with spiritual, and eternal, life.

There are many places in life where our standing is based on what we have done. They may be our places of work, our families, or our social activities, we are often measured according to some standard, be it explicit or implicit. Thanks be to God that our standing before him is based solely on what he has done, claiming us as his own daughters and sons in Christ. God’s action to save us is the firmest foundation we could ever know.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Cowboy theology

I was running outside early one recent morning and I had a song stuck in my head. Many runners wear headphones but I’m not one of them. When I run I think one, or many, things over, or let my mind wander, or maybe I find some song passing repeatedly through my thoughts, its beat matching with the sound of my feet on the road. And that is what was happening that morning. I had a song stuck in my mind. Sometimes that happens with a particularly silly and/or annoying song but not on this morning. It was a song with a melody I enjoyed and as it “played,” over and over, I found myself pondering the lyrics and the meaning that might be found in them.

The song was Ghost Riders in the Sky. I had known it in the past as a duet by Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson. The other day I stumbled across a version by the Outlaws. In preparing to write this blog I learned that the first recording was by Burl Ives, in 1949. Since that time it has been covered numerous times by musicians of widely varying genres. It has a catchy melody and understandable lyrics. Below are the lyrics. Listen to one of the versions and ponder the lyrics before reading on. (Ives sings the lyrics in order, Cash and Nelson transpose verses three and four, and the Outlaws skip verse four.)

An old cowboy went riding out one dark and windy day
Upon a ridge he rested as he went along his way
When all at once a mighty herd of red eyed cows he saw
A-plowing through the ragged sky and up the cloudy draw

Their brands were still on fire and their hooves were made of steel
Their horns were black and shiny and their hot breath he could feel
A bolt of fear went through him as they thundered through the sky
For he saw the Riders coming hard and he heard their mournful cry

Yippie yi ohhhhh
Yippie yi yaaaaay
Ghost Riders in the sky

Their faces gaunt, their eyes were blurred, their shirts all soaked with sweat
He's riding hard to catch that herd, but he ain't caught 'em yet
'Cause they've got to ride forever on that range up in the sky
On horses snorting fire
As they ride on hear their cry

As the riders loped on by him he heard one call his name
If you want to save your soul from Hell a-riding on our range
Then cowboy change your ways today or with us you will ride
Trying to catch the Devil's herd, across these endless skies

The song, besides telling a story in a captivating way, is a call for repentance. The Old Cowboy is being warned, from those on the other side of eternity, that he needs to change his ways, soon, or else when he dies he’ll being joining their crew, condemned to chase the Devil’s herd on a hard ride that will never end. I won’t deny that there is a measure of truth in the message and its call to change, but from a Christian vantage point it is incomplete and slightly misdirected.

The Old Cowboy, or you, or me, can change our ways all we want but we won’t gain even a foothold on eternal life with God through our efforts. Salvation in Christ Jesus comes by faith alone, and it is the only way in which a person is joined to God in eternity. It is God who freely offers us this gift of eternal life, which is ours to accept by faith, and no other means. Repentance and changed ways are of no eternal consequence without a heart that is first changed and calls on Christ in faith.

The Heidelberg Catechism, which has been basic to teaching a Reformed understanding of Christian belief since the 16^th century, says this about faith in Question-and-Answer 20 and 21:

Q&A 20
Q. Are all people then saved through Christ just as they were lost through Adam?
A. No. Only those are saved who through true faith are grafted into Christ and accept all his benefits.

Q&A 21
Q. What is true faith?
A. True faith is not only a sure knowledge by which I hold as true all that God has revealed to us in Scripture; it is also a wholehearted trust, which the Holy Spirit creates in me by the gospel, that God has freely granted, not only to others but to me also, forgiveness of sins, eternal righteousness, and salvation. These are gifts of sheer grace, granted solely by Christ's merit.

The Old Cowboy, and you, and I, don’t simply need a change in behavior, we need a change of heart, and we experience that change when we come to God by faith in his gracious offer of forgiveness in Christ. Ephesians 2:8 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” In Christ, God gives us something that we could never gain through our own efforts, no matter how well-intentioned they may be.

Having faith in God, through the death and resurrection to eternal life of Christ, gives us a new reference point for our lives. Having faith, the Old Cowboy, and you, and I, can then change our ways, not to “save ourselves,” but in thankfulness to God for his good gift to us. And hearts that are changed for God proclaim his presence, his love, and his glory to the world.

Note 1:

The Heidelberg Catechism was written early in the Reformation as an aid to pastors in teaching their congregations the basics of Christian belief. It uses a question-and-answer format and is shaped along three movements; 1) Our place before God; 2) God’s grace towards us; and 3) our gratitude back to God. The first Q & A is perhaps its most widely known part. I find the entire catechism to be a wonderful expression of faith, one that stills speaks today with God’s truth. All of the answers have scripture references to support them. If you’ve never read it then please consider looking it over.

Note 2:

In the versions of Ghost Riders in the Sky I linked above I found Ives’ version to be haunting. This had something to do with the chords in the background. In that quality there is perhaps another cue to direct us away from sin and towards God. Cash and Nelson have put together a version that is sparse and haunting in its own way. And the Outlaws spin has its own power. They omit the last verse and its direct call for repentance but they pick up the tempo and intensity of the instruments, suggesting, perhaps, the way our sin can spiral completely out of any sense of control, and drive us away from the rest and redemption offered in Christ.

Friday, December 2, 2011

The Only Antidote

Any person exercising the ability to cast their eyes on God will find that when they turn their vision back to their own life, or onto the world around them, that there is much in our lives that displeases God. The thoughts in our minds, the desires of our hearts, the words from our mouths and the actions of our hands are very often contrary to God’s will. And things that we think, desire, speak and do that are in opposition to what would please God are what we know as sin. The essence of sin is anything that we do that is not aligned with God’s will, what is “good, acceptable and perfect” according to his standards, not ours.

The other day I was reading some thoughts related to a treatise on original sin written by Jonathan Edwards, the 17^th century pastor and theologian. The central idea of original sin, i.e. that humans are sinful by nature, from birth, runs contrary to the notion common to our time that all people are basically good. We may make occasional bad choices, but our reference point for our selves, and most of the people we know, is that deep down we are good people.

When we check our assumptions about the goodness of humanity with the Bible we find something profoundly different. In both the Old and the New Testaments we find God’s teaching on the true nature of our hearts. Psalm 51:5 says “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Isaiah 64:6 says “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” In John 5:42 Jesus says “But I know that you do not have the love of God within you.” And I John 1:8 sums up the notion of original sin with this declaration: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

God’s word in the Bible provides the corrective to our well-intentioned but misguided modern ideas about who we are. We are sinners, and have always been so. Original sin is not an arcane notion of long-dead theologians but a constant aspect of the human condition. Herman Bavinck wrote “If anything is certain, it is that sin is not an accidental phenomenon in the life of individuals, but a state and manner of life involving the whole human race, a property of human nature. The sinful deeds, which occur not just now and then but characterize all persons of all ages and circumstances, point back to a sinful inner disposition, just as bad fruit presupposes a bad tree and muddied water and impure spring.”[1]

The words from the Bible and people such as Edwards and Bavinck could lead us to believe that all is lost, that we are so sin-soaked as to have no hope. But those words merely tell us the truth plainly, so that we can more clearly see the solution, our only hope. And the problem of sin in our lives is dealt with by Jesus Christ. He provides the antidote, the only possible treatment for the sin that has infected us from our very beginning.

I like the idea of Jesus as the antidote to sin, because an antidote is “a remedy to counteract the effects of poison,” and absent the work of Christ sin is the most deadly of poisons, a poison with eternal effects.

Paul wrote to the Colossians “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross.” Paul then adds that being reconciled to God through the finished work of Christ has this effect: “And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.”

We who are in Christ are no longer alienated from God. We are no longer seen as hostile in mind. No longer seen as doing evil deeds. No longer slaves to original sin but free in Christ, to be presented by him before the throne of God as holy, as blameless, as above reproach. That we would be receive such love from God, that we would be reconciled with God through Christ is at the heart of John Newton’s hymn, Amazing Grace.

The other day, as I was reading of Edwards and Original Sin I was listening to Chris Tomlin and I as I heard his rendition of Newton’s hymn I was struck anew with the power of God’s love as the antidote for our sin. I invite you to click on the song link and listen. If you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, pray as you listen, giving him your thanks and praise for his great gift to you. And if you are unsure of where you stand before God then listen and ask yourself if this is the time that he is calling to you, offering to you the only antidote for the deepest of ailments. May you know the grace and peace that is only found in Jesus Christ.

[1] Bavinck, Herman, Reformed Dogmatics (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006) 3:88.