Friday, November 27, 2009

GOD PREPARED GOOD WORKS...WHY?

In Ephesians 2:10, Paul speaks about good works. These works were prepared by God for us. Why though? Thinking from a fleshly perspective, we would be tempted to answer, "Why? To do them, of course."

While it might make sense to think of good works as something to do, to perform, that is not why God prepared them for us. Don't get me wrong, he intends every good work to be done, carried to completion. The question is how, though. Let me confuse you some. We are to do the works that God has prepared, but not in the way we might think.

Notice carefully what Paul says:

Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.

What a difference between performing, or doing, something, as a requirement, as opposed to walking in something, which is a privilege, a relationship.

Ask yourself:

Enoch walked with God. Does that mean he did, or performed God?
We walk in the Spirit. Does that mean we do, or perform, the Spirit?
We walk in the light. Does that mean we do, or perform, the light?

Now here are some trickier ones:

We are to walk in love. Does that mean we are to do, or perform, love?
We are to walk in wisdom. Does that mean we are to do, or perform, wisdom?

The answer to each of these, including the last 2, is NO.

Now, you may be thinking..."Wait a minute. I know we can't "do" God, or the Spirit, or the Light, but surely you don't mean we are not to be loving, or be wise?" You would be right. I am not saying that. But as long as you think of love and wisdom as things to "perform," or "do," then you are missing the heart of what God is carrying out, which is something far better.

You see, HE alone is the one who is wise, who is love, and what he simply calls us to be alongside him, walking with him, as one spirit, and in doing so, to witness him showing his love, and his wisdom, in and through us, his vessels. Much more awesome and miraculous than simply trying to "perform" for God, don't you think?

To "walk", is simply another way of saying "to live." So let's look at these verses, not as a checklist of things to "do," but as the realities that they really are:

To walk in the Spirit is to live in the Spirit who is in us by means of our oneness with God.
To walk in the light is to live in the light that is by means of our oneness with God.
To walk in love is to live in the love that is ours by means of our oneness with God.
To walk in wisdom is to live in the wisdom that is ours by means of our oneness with God.
So also:
To walk in good works is to live in good works that are ours by means of our oneness with God.

We can trust our Lord to live out his life in us. He is doing it as pleases him. We, in walking with him, may not always outwardly conform, but that doesn't change the reality that inwardly we are perfectly conformed.

Instead of focusing on the outward, trying to make it happen, relax, and behold the Lord as he walks his life out through you, so that the outward is something you bear witness to when you behold it, rather than the old something you used to have to try to manufacture on your own. You will find yourself loving, and showing wisdom, but not because you are trying to do or show those things. It will be a natural fruit of a miraculous life lived in a miraculous Lord, who is tended to by a miraculous vinedresser, the Father.

We are the branches are we not? Do the branches of a vine concentrate on trying to abide on the vine? No. Do they think of ways to depend on the vine so as to bear fruit? No. Do they try to improve on their ability to live connected to the vine? No. They simply abide. They simply depend. They simply live. How? Just because they have been made to. And so have we.

Good works are not something we do, but something we have been made to produce, being connected to our Lord. Such works are truly fruit, things that are life-giving to others who partake of them.

Ron

IF THE LORD LIVES IN US, HOW CAN WE BE ABSENT FROM HIM?

2Co 5:6 Therefore, we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord;

This verse has always troubled me somewhat, because no matter how I tried to spin it, it always left me feeling like Christ somehow wasn't really as united to me as I thought. I knew that he lived in us, and was joined with our spirit as one, but when I would look at this verse I would instantly think of the Lord being way up in heaven, and me way down here on earth, and so because of that separation I was still absent, until the day I die and then travel to where he is to be with him.

Is this what Paul is suggesting? I mean, even if you want to think of him in this far away place called heaven (which I don't, but that's for another post) doesn't Paul say we are seated there in heavenly places with Christ? So if that is true, then no matter whether here on earth, or in heaven, we are present with the Lord.

Perhaps then we need to take another look at this verse and see if it doesn't mean something else. In what way can it be said we are absent from him?

It never dawned on me until this morning to look at the next verse:

2Co 5:7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.

Hmm...the "for" tells us that Paul is completing a thought here, connecting this to what he just said before...so...we could render it:

2Co 5:6,7 Therefore, we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. The reason this is true is because we walk by faith, not by sight.

And the "therefore" in verse 6 connects us to the previous verse, so let's add that and then look at the whole as a unit:

2Co 5:5-7 Now he who made us for this very thing is God, who also gave to us the down payment of the Spirit. Therefore, we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. The reason this is true is we walk by faith, not by sight.

He says we have been given the Spirit as a down payment, and that the Spirit is the reason for the confidence and knowing he speaks of in verse 6. What is he confident of? What does he know? That as long as we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.

At first glance, this sounds odd, does it not? I mean, why would Paul feel the need to say we are absent from the Lord? And why the need to be confident in that? The way most believers read this verse, and the way I shared earlier about how I understood it, you would think it were obvious. I don't think that is what Paul's confidence is in though. It is linked to his understanding of how a believer walks (lives his life).

I believe the reason Paul says that we walk by faith, not by sight, was to show that while to our physical eyes, it appears as though the Lord is absent from us, he in fact is not. It only appears so to our sight, which is why we walk by faith instead of sight.

God gave his Spirit to us as proof of that, for the Lord is the Spirit. Possessing the Spirit gives us confidence that, while we may appear to be absent to the eyes of sight, he is ever present to the eyes of faith.

That confidence and knowing was also related to the truth that one day we will no longer be absent in that way, for, as Paul goes on to say:

2Co 5:8 We are of good courage, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord.

A change will take place, where we will be absent from the body, and at home with the Lord, meaning we will no longer be walking by faith, for we will see him face to face as he is.

So, in a nutshell, I see the absence he speaks of, not as a literal absence, as in being separated from Christ, but rather an absence in having to relate to him by means of faith now, while in these physical bodies.

Ron

HEB 10:24

Heb 10:24 Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good works,

If you consider this verse as it is rendered here, it looks as Paul is encouraging believers to get other believers they gather with to show love and do good works. People then spend their time trying to figure out ways to motivate their fellow believers to action. That's usually when the "should's" come out. You "should" be doing this...that is what you "should" be doing...and so on.

Those who do this may very well end up getting some results here and there, something tangible they can point to and see success in their attempts to motivate others to "show" the world they are truly believers.

If you look at the verse in an interlinear you will see a difference though in the way it is rendered, which changes the meaning entirely. You see, the word "to" has been added to the text. It should not be there. Notice the difference it makes:

Heb 10:24 Let us consider one another, how to provoke love and good works,

This is a more literal rendering. The Aramaic Peshitta makes makes it even more clear:

Heb 10:24 And let us pay attention to one another by encouragement of love and of good works.

Can you see the difference? Can you see the subtle shift from encouraging reality verses encouraging fleshly effort? To provoke (which also means to irritate, stimulate, stir up, encourage) to love and good works is to try to get others to conform to whatever definition of love and good works you have in mind. It is a endeavor in the flesh.

The truth is that the love and good works are already in each believer, God's love poured out in our hearts...good works having been prepared for us...and we are to provoke, stir up, stimulate, irritate, and encourage that love and good works. What does that mean?

Here are a couple of word pictures to help describe it. Imagine a pot of water with veggies in the bottom of it. The veggies are in there, but hard to see since they are way down in the bottom. Likewise love and good works are in the hearts of every believer, but most of the time it is easy for us not to see it and them.

To make the veggies visible, you stir them up, stimulating the water, provoking it, if you will, and the veggies come to the surface where they can be easily seen. It is the same with love and good works. Paul is not trying to get believers to push others into doing good things and being loving. He is doing something far better than behavior manipulation.

Because he recognizes that we have love and good works already in us, and also that in the living of life it is easy for us to be oblivious to that reality, we are encouraged to stir those things up in each other, to make them come to the surface, so that we can see them in ourselves. And what will we see in seeing them? Christ, living his life expressed in love and good works, through us. I would rather us see Christ, and stand in awe at how he finds expression through us, than to see us trying to be more loving and trying to do good things, wouldn't you?

It is the difference between trying to get each other to "do" something for God, and bringing out the love and good works that are already resident within us, so that we may all witness that facet of Christ lived out in each of us in our own uniqueness.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

DEUTERONOMY 30 AND ROMANS 10 COMPARED

Deu 30:11 For this commandment which I command you this day, it is not too hard for you, neither is it far off.
Deu 30:12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it?
Deu 30:13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it to us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it?
Deu 30:14 But the word is very near to you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that you may do it.


Rom 10:6 But the righteousness which is of faith says this, "Don't say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?' (that is, to bring Christ down);
Rom 10:7 or, 'Who will descend into the abyss?' (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.)"
Rom 10:8 But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart;" that is, the word of faith, which we preach:

In Deuteronomy, we find the word, expressed through the commandment, described by Paul as Christ, and also as the word of faith. The word of God was in their hearts and mouths even back then. Then God send his word to become flesh, and thus became the fulfillment of that which was spoken of in Moses' day, the word pertaining to faith, in the person of Christ.

Most people say the commandments were too hard, a unbearable burden. But look again at what God himself says:

Deu 30:11 For this commandment which I command you this day, it is not too hard for you

Which commandment? The previous verse tells us"

Deu 30:10 if you shall obey the voice of Yahweh your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law; if you turn to Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul.

If that is true, then why do we hear it said so much that no one could keep the law perfectly? Is that not true? Yes it is. But the problem was never with the commandments, never with the law. Something else was in those hearts where the law lay. Sin. And it was sin that used the commandment to cause sin to express itself.

God of course, knew this, which is why he promised that one day sin, represented by the foreskin of a man, would be removed:

Deu 30:6 Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live.

This circumcision, which is also expressed by God as the taking away the heart of stone and giving them a heart of flesh, would then serve the purpose of their loving God and being perfectly obedient to him. We live in that time now where we have been made to be fully pleasing to God.