Blasphemy is a strong word because it has deadly implications. When scripture speaks of ‘death’ in this context, it is referring to eternal death as opposed to eternal life. Not as much emphasis is put on physical death simply because humans do not cease to exist when their bodies die. The emphasis is on humanity’s eternal whereabouts and scripture applies emphasis to eternal existence.
Blasphemy is an informed disbelief, which is why it is the only unforgivable sin, or ‘the sin that leads to death.’ It makes sense when you consider that the only way to have eternal life is to believe in Jesus. The opposite is the way to have eternal death.
Unbelief out of ignorance is not the blasphemy that leads to death.
“…though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief,…”-Paul, 1 Timothy 1:13 ESV
If you bad-mouth the Son of Man out of misunderstanding or ignorance, that can be overlooked. But if you’re knowingly attacking God himself, taking aim at the Holy Spirit, that won’t be overlooked.-Luke 12:10
A person cannot say that he or she believes in Jesus and His grace while refusing to offer it out of that belief to another. It’s double-talk. Scripture calls is, ‘sawing off the branch on which you are sitting.’
This is war, and there is no neutral ground. If you’re not on my side, you’re the enemy; if you’re not helping, you’re making things worse. There’s nothing done or said that can’t be forgiven. But if you deliberately persist in your slanders against God’s Spirit, you are repudiating the very One who forgives. If you reject the Son of Man out of some misunderstanding, the Holy Spirit can forgive you, but when you reject the Holy Spirit, you’re sawing off the branch on which you’re sitting, severing by your own perversity all connection with the One who forgives.-Matthew 12:30-32
It’s not possible for one person to condemn another definitively. Only God can do that. It’s more likely that they cannot stomach God’s grace for another. That is not blaspheming, it is a symptom of the shock and confusion of pain. When emotions keep someone from the ability to reconcile, it is not blaspheming. It’s a momentary spot on the individual’s journey.
You’re not dead, so there is still some traveling to do. If you’re both headed toward God, one destination, it is certain that you will meet each other there. We meet God as one body, one bride, so you have to reconcile eventually. Your focus should just be on God as you head in the direction in front of you. Each person must travel down their own personal path gathering souvenirs and seasoning before the place where reconciliation is possible. The timing will be obvious. Reconciliation is asked of us, God has the final say on the timing.
To blaspheme, you have to fail to believe what you believe. Logic tries to imagine someone finding evidence contrary to the Truth and believing evidence over scripture. However, there is no evidence that can outweigh the Truth. It’s not logical to assume evidence, which doesn’t exist, has been found. If, to them, it has, then they didn’t know (haven’t been ‘enlightened’ with) the Truth. This calls for quiet patience out of the assurance of hope. Unity is the ultimate goal and it requires individuals to remember that we are all in process.
You can’t forget grace. Whatever may compete with the revelations and clarity God gives you will not win. Things will expand out of those initial revelations and your faith will grow. If it seems like your faith has dwindled from a fire to a smoldering coal, it is because God is refining it. The boat of faith rocks when it’s about to explode and expand.
When you consider the things that make your faith wane, they are the painful things. This is God showing you how big He is. He’s not limited to being your Dr. Feelgood. He has a Sword of a scalpel that will cut you wide open and make you more dependent on Him. He’s setting you up to win because the mere experience of being human is rigged for your utter failure. The human condition is clothed with the need of a Savior and the Savior has been provided. He’s created a loophole and is knocking everything out of the way so that you can fit through it. It hurts, but it’s for your good. You can withstand more pushing and prodding when you see them as crucial to your spiritual molding. …warm clay on a spinning wheel.
Life is a journey. You’re not finished yet. Drive.
If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and Godwill give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.-1 John 5:16-17 ESV
Everyone wants to know how to respond correctly when someone sins. This scripture makes it clear. Above ‘correcting them’, or reciting the law, you are supposed to pray that God gives them life. To put this in practical language, I’ll tell you what I pray for people more than anything else. ‘Show them who You are.’
The only stipulation is that it has to be a sin that does not lead to spiritual death. We are not supposed to pray for that. I don’t completely understand why we aren’t supposed to pray for that, so I have been studying up to try to find the answers in scripture.
Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. -Matthew 12:31 ESV
The sin that leads to death is blasphemy. Blasphemy is speaking sacrilegiously about things of the Spirit. A person who speaks sacrilegiously is someone who misuses things of God or things of the spirit. A blasphemous person misuses scripture, the Gospel.
I hope you’re following me. I am trying to be as clear as I can be. This turns everything on its head. This changes everything. According to scripture, it is not the person who falls down in their spiritual walk who is at risk for losing their spiritual life. We all fall and Jesus came to give us life in spite of our mistakes. God does not give up on the person who fails morally. This puts the pressure on the person who uses things of God to undermine what Jesus did and attempts to condemn that person. The person who ignores the life giving power of the resurrected Christ is the one who blasphemes (misuses) the message of Christ.
‘Everything we do wrong is sin’, but all of it can be forgiven. The only thing that cannot be forgiven, the only sin that leads to death, is believing there is something that a human can do that cannot be redeemed. When you water down the Gospel in such a way that you remove the hope of salvation and redemption by putting the responsibility on the person and not on the free gift of grace, you blaspheme the Holy Spirit.
It’s a bizarre twist of human logic for scripture to not be pointing at the sinner, but at the one who claims scripture as the grounds to give up on the sinner. People who use the name of Jesus as the fuel to hold another under the strong arm of guilt and shame are the one’s who are committing the sin that leads to death. I believe that we are instructed to not even pray for that situation because it is so muddled and twisted that we can get caught up in the confusion that we end up trapped in the barbed wire logic in the process. Scripture is trying to protect us from the traps of logic the enemy (who knows scripture better than we do) sets to trip us up and make us feel like we’re pleasing God when we’re kicking our fallen.
How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? -Hebrews 10:29 ESV
The punishment is worse for the one who has disrespected the gift of Jesus, grace, because grace is the only thing that made them okay in the first place. To say it another way: When a person, who is saved by grace, makes it harder for another to believe in the free gift of God’s forgiveness (the blood of the covenant), they remove that covering from their own sin. It’s worse for that person because they are trying to make another earn what they, themselves, did not earn. It is a person who was forgiven a debt they could not pay, but will not forgive the debt of another. The only reason a person would hold another’s sin over their head, fail to restore them with forgiveness, or give up on them altogether is because they believe that is what Jesus did for them. Those people may be religious, they may know scripture, but they do not know Jesus. Blasphemy turns the Gospel into a lie. It turns grace into something that has to be earned. It ‘outrages the Spirit of grace’.
Every once in a while someone will let me know what they don’t like about me as a writer. Either I’m too heavy on grace or I don’t talk about God’s wrath enough. If I engage them, I find that they are usually people who don’t believe in God’s sovereign power, especially pertaining to His foreknowledge, time transcending control, and purpose in choosing and orchestrating.
From where I stand, grace is the nectar of the Gospel, so there isn’t much else to talk about when grace enters the scene. Also, my belief in God’s sovereign control keeps me from drifting off into cul-de-sacs of confusion and fear.
But, for those who wield a hammer for judgment purposes, lovers of wrath, I found a passage of scripture that refers to God’s wrath. Here goes my best swing at the the hammer of God…
For God’s [holy] wrath and indignation are revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who in their wickedness repress and hinder the truth and make it inoperative.-Romans 1:18 AMP
We have some ‘holy wrath and indignation’ to work with here. Perfect terminology for those looking forward to seeing ‘God’s adversaries’ fry. The only stipulation is, the ‘holy wrath and indignation’ are for those who ‘hinder the truth and make it inoperative’. So, now we have to figure out what the ‘truth’ is, that way we can make sure to properly condemn the guilties.
The following scripture says that the ‘truth’ has not been hidden, so there is no excuse for those who suppress it.
…that which is known about God is evident to them and made plain in their inner consciousness, because God [Himself] has shown it to them.-Romans 1:19 AMP
We need to know what ‘has been made known’. That’s what is going to help us understand what ‘ungodliness’ the wrath of Romans 1 wants to lay into.
For ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal power and divinity, have been made intelligible and clearly discernible in and through the things that have been made (His handiworks). -Romans 1:20 AMP
The ‘truth’ that ‘has been revealed since creation’ is God’s eternal power and divinity. The truth is, there is no limit to Who God is and what He does, allows, and uses. His divine nature is a mystery and instead of embracing the opportunity to worship ‘in Holy fear’, people trivialize everything to the point of making God someone who resembles themselves. They do this so that they can effectively control their version of ‘the mind of Christ’ and ‘go therefore’ to preach condemnation to sinners. There are many versions of the street corner brimstone artist.
So [men] are without excuse [altogether without any defense or justification]. Because when they knew and recognized Him as God, they did not honor and glorify Him as God or give Him thanks. But instead they became futile and godless in their thinking [with vain imaginings, foolish reasoning, and stupid speculations] and their senseless minds were darkened.-Romans 1:20-21 AMP
People sit on their throne of judgement with their scepter of wisdom petting their bobble head lion of Judah and consider the shortcomings of others in order to determine their eternal position. The disease of the religious insider is the complacent familiarity with the profound evidence, turning the sovereign power of God (which should scare the skin off of us) into pathetic beliefs based on ‘vain imaginings, foolish reasoning, and stupid speculations.’ They would much rather serve a god who sits on their mantel, over seeing their living room lives with stoic approval. They don’t hear God speaking any more, their ‘minds have been darkened’, so they feel compelled to speak for Him.
Claiming to be wise, they became fools [professing to be smart, they made simpletons of themselves]. And by them the glory and majesty and excellence of the immortal God were exchanged for and represented by images, resembling mortal man and birds and beasts and reptiles.-Romans 1:22-23 AMP
Not everybody who claims to have godly wisdom and ‘the mind of Christ’ is speaking for God. You have to study scripture for yourself. Develop your own relationship with God so that you can turn to the lying voice and say, ‘My savior has never spoken to me in that way.’
People who have created god in their own image think that God is displeased with the same people they’re displeased with, that God follows them as they walk out on you, and that God can’t hear your cries for mercy because they can no longer hear you.
‘Claiming to be wise, they have become fools.’ Exchanging God for something that better resembles man. It’s easier for the fool to understand.
You know who has exchanged God for their own version of god because Romans 1 tells us how these people behave. They’re heartless and cruel and they give God the credit for it. They’re an excited mess as they grasp at bits of gossip mixed with truth in order to build a better case against another. They’re arrogant as they revel in the strife of another, boasting in their own blameless ways as they ignore mercy, compassion, and love. (verses 28-32)
I think I failed to empower those who want less grace from me and more judgement. They’re counting on God’s wrath to vindicate them.
The only people Jesus condemned were the religious know-it-alls.
But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.
So God said, in effect, “If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.” -Romans 1:18-24 MSG
The hammer fell on innocent hands so that the guilty can go free.
Better is the end of a thing than its beginning. -Ecclesiastes 7:8 ESV
The process of becoming whatever it is you’re becoming is much like that of an uncut diamond becoming a jewel worth showing off. You have to experience the vice grip, the relentless grinding, and the inevitable loss of things that shape you.
Vice grips, grinding, chipping, and loss don’t feel like the ‘gentle’ touch of God we’ve been taught to look for. They feel like the opposite of our growth stunted idea of God. Especially when these things are most effective when they’re the result of hardship and trauma. The deeper the cut, the more effective the procedure. If you walk around like you’re a victim of life, like everybody else is causing your difficulty and making life harder than you think God wants it, then you’re rejecting the process and blaming your circumstances.
Scripture says that wisdom comes from the ‘fear of the Lord’. When you think of your version of God, is there reason to fear Him?
People usually reserve their fear of God for the times when they mess up. They fear the lightning strike, hell, or the removal of ‘blessings’. That’s a superficial fear and is, no doubt, keeping you trapped like a cow in narrow livestock shoot. You’re getting used to the claustrophobic faith. People can withstand an unimaginable amount of pain if they believe they’re doing it with an eternal spiritual payoff. Suicide bombers are able to do what they do because they believe that kind of death is the door between this world and 72 young virgins just for them.
Most religious motivation has nothing to do with devotion to God, it is intensely motivated by what the individual thinks they get from it. It’s a reward based devotion. Remove the reward, is there any devotion left?
Fear of the Lord has less to do with His angry punishment and more to do with the lengths God will go to when He’s intent on showing you who He is. There is nothing outside of His reach. He’s the God who turns evil intent into something that is good for you. This means, He doesn’t keep evil intent from you because He doesn’t have to. Even your own sin is used to bring about something good. This doesn’t make your own sin less painful to own up to, it only makes it easier to get up.
Do you know what it is to fear God when His intentions are awesome for you? The problem with being a human being is we usually don’t learn, grow, or become unless our world is horribly rocked or destroyed. We’re stubborn as mules and need to lose what we keep going back to, otherwise, we’ll never risk the loss for the trade-up.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding -Psalm 111:10 ESV
If you want to learn how to tap into that kind of ‘fear of the Lord’, then look at your life and consider the possibility that every bit of it is part of God’s plan. There are things, good and bad, that God allows and it’s always for a purpose.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can be in the ‘special forces’ of a spiritual army if you’re not willing to accept the terms of training. To reach the ‘fear of the Lord’ part, you have to undergo a complete undoing of everything in your faith that holds you together. Broken and destroyed to be rebuilt and re-birthed.
God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. -Romans 8:29
Look at what His son went through. You want to be a follower? You have to walk along His path. Jesus had no sin in Him. You do. You don’t get to pick the terms of how God chooses to mold you into who He has created you to be. We build things that we want, but if they’re keeping you from His purposes, then He will destroy them. It’s not a matter of keeping everything in line so that He doesn’t take it away, it’s a matter of doing your best knowing that He knows better and can use the wrecking ball of life to reshape you. You ask to be used, to have a purpose, to not be just another believer with no impact, then you go and reject the very process that God is using to answer your heart’s desire.
‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.‘ When you know that God is sovereign and that the will of another can never supersede His, then and only then do you have nothing to fear.
With God on our side like this, how can we lose? -Romans 8:31
Wisdom that comes from a ‘fear of God’ enables you to be patient with yourself and others in the most gut wrenching experiences. Wisdom enables the deep assurance of grace and reason. You may never know the answer to ‘why’, but wisdom keeps you locked in trust and assurance that everything will be worked out in His time and for His purpose.
Solomon said, ‘Better is the end of a thing than it’s beginning.’ Wisdom is knowing that there is a ‘thank you’ at the end of a horrible beginning.
You must bear the cross, or you shall never wear the crown; you must wade through the mire, or you shall never walk the golden pavement. -Charles Spurgeon
To accept God’s grace, you have to accept a lot more about God than you knew existed to begin with. If your foundation of belief is corrupted by fear and the power of self, you cannot give or receive grace.
In accepting grace, your eyes are opened to the purpose of it all. Grace is easier to accept when you can trust that God is who He says He is. He knows everything and has made everything to work for His purpose. His purpose is Jesus. God did not set up a plan from beginning to end. He set it up from end to beginning. He calls things that haven’t even happened ancient.
I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ’My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ -Isaiah 46:9-10 ESV
God’s purpose, Jesus, came first, His plan came after. Your failures do not mess up God’s plan. They are already accounted for. Things happen slowly for us, but they’ve already happened for Him. His words and His purpose never change because they are already accomplished from where He’s standing. What we see as ‘current’ God sees as history.
Still, it’s what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain. The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life. And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him.-Isaiah 53:10
Grace gives you your dignity back. Your dignity is rooted in the identity of Jesus. Jesus came FIRST. He’s not a plan B. He’s not an afterthought. He’s not a result of God saying, ‘Fine. I’ll do this.’ God wanted to ‘do this’. So He created us.
When we sin, we have all of hell trying to get us to believe that we have ruined everything. However, sin illuminates the need for Jesus. Hell wants you to believe that you’re only good enough if you’re good enough. God is trying to get you to see that He created you to need Him, therefore, without grace you are never going to be good enough. It’s not about your failure, it’s about the way this whole thing is set up. We’re useless without Him. Would you want it any other way?
I don’t know how else to say this, but I know I have to be more explicit to make you see beyond basic understanding.
God is love and wants to demonstrate His nature in the most powerful expression.
‘Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.’ -John 15:13 ESV
God is only himself. His plan is for us to know him. In order to know Him, in His fullness, we must first know our sin. He sent the law to create a path for Himself. Jesus completed the law and now you have a connection with God that your own shortcomings and failures can’t take away.
Sin is real and it hurts and it’s supposed to. Knowing the truth about God will never take that away, but it will keep you equipped to get back up and grow from it. God uses everything to glorify Him. He even twists sin into something that reorganizes things to bring you closer to Him. The only thing holding you back is your belief. Yes, please try to avoid hurting yourself and the people you love, but don’t let your failures convince you that you’ve gone too far. You can never go so far that He can’t find you.
He feels your belly when you breath. He hears your sobs that you try to hide in your pillow. He knows you want to be strong, you want to be a big girl/boy. He KNOWS. When you fall, He hurts, too. Not because you hurt Him, but because you hurt you.
Reach for Him. Die to what has been lost. And because He is who He says He is, let Him give you your dignity back.
One of the things that believers and non-believers pray the most is to know God’s will, to be in God’s will, and to do God’s will. People want to do more, to hurt less, and to be on the winning end of life. Frustration and anger fester in our veins when things aren’t going the way we want and our response is to question the location of God’s will. It doesn’t even have to be a blatant expression of selfishness. It can be an extremely debasing attitude of just wanting to get it right.
I want to help. I have my own theories and perspective, but I don’t write about those unless I have, what I believe, is definitive answers from scripture. I am fully aware that I’m just a girl in between loads of laundry. I don’t look for scriptures that fit my theories because I want to grow, too.
My theory and belief about God’s will is that it IS. I believe that God IS, therefore His will IS. That’s Kingdom talk and I always try to put it in practical language because there are people who don’t understand Kingdom language. That’s the role of any one of us who try to provide spiritual insight to others. I am a deep thinker and I love the challenge of abandoning my avenue of understanding and jumping on the fast moving train of spiritual understanding.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.-Romans 12:2 NIV
I could live in that box car for the rest of my life going through papers, letters, art, music, maps, and anything else left behind by those who have been there before. We’ll never get to the bottom of the mystery. Our brains and understanding will always fail us, but the more we practice and the further we get away from the superficiality of our human nature, the more we learn. The thing that makes me laugh and shake my head, is that the more we learn, the more there is to learn.
I spent the morning searching for scriptures mentioning God’s will. I searched in five different translations and read commentaries on the subject. I searched for ‘God’s will‘, ‘my will‘, ‘your will‘, and ‘his will‘.
Every reference I found was directly associated to God’s sovereign will. Because God is sovereign, there is absolutely nothing that can happen outside of His will. You can either look at your circumstances and be angry that God allowed it, or you can find comfort in the fact. It’s where a decision for or against God really comes in to play.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.-Romans 8:28 NIV
We have a promise from God. Let me ask you something: Does God make good on His promises or are those promises up to everybody else? When you think about the good things, it’s easy to believe and rely on His sovereignty. When God’s will doesn’t line up with yours, then it’s a struggle. God does not have double standards, you (I, we) do.
Shortsighted and immature faith makes a woman curse her pain because she forgot about her baby. In avoiding the child birth, you reject the child. Shortsighted, self-focused, and immature. The funny thing about God’s will, you can reject or accept the pain, but neither amounts to changing the course.
Compare the phrase, ‘If it’s God’s will…’ to ‘If it doesn’t rain….’
You can’t control the rain.
If you’re into studying this more, read this article and all of Romans 8.
One of my favorite verses has God caring for a vineyard and never leaving it. He’s capable of destroying anyone who messes with it, even itching to have someone oppose the vineyard so He can burn them up. No sooner does the thought play itself out that He wishes for them, the opposition, to make peace so He can care for them, too.
His love outweighs His desire to destroy.
Take a cue. You may have the ability to crush someone, but that’s not strength. Strength pushes past the details to find a way to see the diversity of the big picture.
You know you’re in the presence of God when you feel small in your ‘rightness’ and embarrassed to have been so bold in your finger pointing. His correction is gentle and the nudge to make amends is undeniable. Freedom is found in submission, not in the public recognition of self-importance.
We are all His vineyard. How can you be cared for, when He has to fight you for fighting someone else? Stop looking at the person next to you, as though it’s your place to correct them. You’re a branch, love is your fruit, not people. If someone falls, they fall to their Master. You’re not their Master. You’re their brother or sister. Help them up.
“A pleasant vineyard,sing of it! I, the LORD, am its keeper; every moment I water it. Lest anyone punish it, I keep it night and day; I have no wrath. Would that I had thorns and briers to battle! I would march against them, I would burn them up together. Or let them lay hold of my protection, let them make peace with me, let them make peace with me.” -Isaiah 27:2-5 ESV
We’ve stapled so many addendum’s to the Gospel that it looks tattered, and the only thing legible is the freshly printed addendum. A list of stipulations.
What I mean is, when you tell people about God’s grace and what Jesus did for them, you make sure they understand that they ‘have to believe it’ first. That’s not how it works, because you’re turning the attention from God to the person. People and their actions never come before God and His. You can compare it to starting a car. The Truth is the fuel, the physical act of hearing the truth is like turning the key, and belief is what happens as a result.
Sofaith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. -Romans 10:17 ESV
God’s promise (Jesus and the aggressive forgiveness of grace, [the fuel]) is the only sure thing there is. There are no stipulations. Forgiveness of sins is for every single person right now and always, no matter what they or you did or will do. That’s it. It’s not waiting on you to nail the religious dance moves.
Say it so they’ll believe it. No adding to it or taking away from it. You’re not smart enough. You’ll mess it up.
Steps to redemption, or a guide to achieving grace, makes a person focus on the checklist, which makes them focus on their ability to perform the duties. That’s not grace, that’s probation. That’s serving time, like community service. That’s saying that Jesus is not enough for the one who spilled his neon sin on your over-bleached righteousness.
You’re shooting bullets at their feet and making them dance to the beat of your trigger finger. Somebody needs to come and take your gun away.
Grace is not earned.
Grace removes the need for them to make excuses or stick up for themselves. It changes a person. It breaks them down so they can be built back up.
If someone is giving you excuses, it’s because they’re not hearing grace from you and/or they’re not believing it for themselves.
Pour it on them and they won’t be able to move. Sin ends at the point of grace. It’s the concrete blocks on the feet of sin. Grace will tear them to pieces with a love that no sin can match. No human can stand.
Grace that confuses. Love that terrifies.
The Truth, alone, changes people and sets things right. People who have not asked for forgiveness have already been forgiven. People who don’t even try to line up with God’s will are lined up with God’s will. People who don’t seem to care, are given insight that the best studied student can’t attain.
“I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.”-Romans 10:20 ESV
It’s not about what a person does, what they think, or how much goodness they can muster. God makes a point to give His best to those who least ‘deserve’ it, just to prove how opposite His Kingdom is from ours. It practically takes a mugshot to get into Heaven. Grace is like reverse psychology designed by the one who created the mind.
The wise become angry, the purebred become jealous, because this gritty band of thieving gypsies get to carry the torch across the finish line.
“This is the Great Reversal: the last in line put at the head of the line, and the so-called first ending up last.” -Jesus, Luke 13:30
…sounds like a rock band. ( of which I may or may not consider starting. )
The Bible calls the Law, ‘the ministry of death‘, ‘the Government of Death‘, and ‘the Government of Condemnation‘.
The Government of Death, its constitution chiseled on stone tablets, had a dazzling inaugural. -2 Corinthians 3:7
I don’t know why this stuff surprises me, but it does. I was taught the same thing, in a church pew, that most everyone else was taught. However, actually studying scripture and paying attention to what it says, instead of trying to make it fit what I was taught, still blows my mind. I can’t make this stuff up. It’s why I write.
So, back to the ministry of death.
The name is appropriate because the rules only point out where you’re wrong. Not only that, they make things you didn’t even know were wrong, wrong.
Anytime you talk about the Law, or rules, you run the risk of making them look like the bad guy, especially when you compare them to Jesus. However, when compared to Jesus, they are.
If the Government of Condemnation was impressive, how about this Government of Affirmation? Bright as that old government was, it would look downright dull alongside this new one.-2 Corinthians 3:9-10
Rules had (past tense) a purpose, but the rules are spirit and we, who try to follow the rules, are flesh. We’re doomed. The rules doom us. (Unless you think you can follow them, then you’re on your own. You don’t need Jesus.) People wouldn’t be called hypocrites if they would take a cue from the Master and stop spouting off rules to keep you forgiven. If you follow a set of rules, why do you need to be forgiven? Rules don’t keep you forgiven, ‘forgiven’ is a free gift. Rules give you an alternative to the gift.
God gave us His law to babysit us until Jesus came. Now that His work is ‘finished’, the rules are obsolete. ‘There is no condemnation…’ because, without the rules, there is no wrong.
For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression. -Romans 4:15 ESV
You can’t break the rules if there are no rules.
If those who get what God gives them only get it by doing everything they are told to do and filling out all the right forms properly signed, that eliminates personal trust completely and turns the promise into an ironclad contract! That’s not a holy promise; that’s a business deal. A contract drawn up by a hard-nosed lawyer and with plenty of fine print only makes sure that you will never be able to collect. But if there is no contract in the first place, simply a promise—and God’s promise at that—you can’t break it. -Romans 4:14-15
God gave us a promise. His promise was sealed by Jesus. The promise is, there is nothing you can do that can make Him turn His back on you. You can’t mess this up. As mean as you can be, as wrong as you can be, as many mistakes as you can make, you still can’t mess this up. It’s a promise, sealed by Jesus, experienced through belief, and that’s it.
That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith… -Romans 4:16 ESV (emphasis mine)
There are those who are terrified of what this means. They think that if you don’t give people guidelines, they’ll go nuts. God has done away with the babysitter and put His Spirit inside us. We have right and wrong written on our hearts and no longer need the stone tablets.
In Matthew 15:1-3, the religious people were asking Jesus why he played ‘fast and loose with the rules’. It appeared that He gave no regard for religion or anything that any God fearing person regarded. Jesus’ response was perfect. He asked them why they ‘used their rules to play fast and loose with God’s command.’
The most important command in scripture, besides loving God, is to love others. According to scripture (see, we can’t make up our own minds what these things mean), loving others means never giving up on them and not keeping a record of their sins, among other things. What do you see the religious people currently doing? Disassociating themselves from people who mess up. In order to do this, they have to keep a record of their sins. They do give up on people. Using ‘their rules to play fast and loose with God’s command’.
Jesus is the failure’s best ally. Scripture is the best news for the complete screw up. If you’re having a hard time feeling accepted by the Christian community, bypass them and get right into scripture. You know those, who really know God, by their Love. Those are who your brothers and sisters are. All the others are just disoriented for a bit, but they’ll get there.
Posted: November 2nd, 2010 |
Filed under:God, life | Tags:grace, personal |
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We all have a story. We have things that we’ve survived. We’ve been the victim and we’ve been the criminal. I can tell you, with intricate detail, about both kinds of pain.
My church asked me to put part of my story on video for a series they’re teaching. I’ve posted it below.
My experience with grace is not found in my ability to move forward after my failure. Though growing is an effect, anyone, who has the will to survive, can move on after personal failure. Your past is always there and healing comes when you can see God in it. Grace, for me, is found in the undeniable knowledge that I can see Jesus clearer now, because of my failure. He’s more than my example, my teacher, or the name uttered at the beginning of my prayers. He’s my ransom. He gave me a gift, an insight. He gave me Himself. And the swirling whisper continues to speak, ‘No one, unbroken by their own sin, can see Me like this.’
God used my failure to show me who He is. His grace relabeled my sin and me. My failure destroyed me, but if not for that death, I would not really live. Grace enables me to be thankful for the hell.
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