guilty
The Ultimate Victory
By Linda Rex
May 5, 2024, 6th Sunday in Easter—“I wish I had your faith,” a friend said to me. We had been talking about a change God had done in my life. The Lord had given me a totally new perspective about what it meant to follow Christ. And his grace had transformed my life.
The interesting thing about faith is that we cannot drum it up ourselves. We can only receive it as a gift from God. It is the faith of Jesus Christ that we need most, for only Jesus truly knows the trustworthiness, faithfulness, love, and goodness of the Triune God.
This Sunday’s reading in the New Testament, 1 John 5:1–6, speaks of the need to believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God who lived in our human flesh, was crucified, and rose again. Bound up in the sacrificial self-offering of Jesus Christ is a profound expression of God’s love. As we believe, we receive this gift of love he offers us. This gift is God’s love poured out in the Spirit of truth. The Spirit bears witness within us to the reality that God has come to dwell in human hearts, through Jesus in the Spirit.
The love of God is poured out within our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5). It is Christ in us by the Spirit who is the law of God written on human hearts. It is Jesus’ own face-to-face relationship with his Father in the Spirit that we participate in. It is his triumph over evil, sin, and death that we share in. And we find within his victory our own victory over all that opposes God. This is the beauty of our new life in Christ.
Too often we focus on the dos and don’ts of our life in Christ. We focus on whether or not we (or others) are measuring up to the standards we believe God requires of us. We find ourselves trying to hide our failures to love. We stuff down inside, as best as we can, all those things we are ashamed of and feel guilty about. And they only seem to gain strength and power.
What we miss is the reality that, in Christ, we are who God has declared us to be—his very own beloved children. We cannot alter our inclusion in his life by our behavior or misbehavior. God’s love is unconditional. However, the reality is that our experience of his love is affected by our behavior or misbehavior. And we may need to be reawakened to the reality in which we exist.
When my toddler threw a temper tantrum, it did not change the reality that they were my beloved child. It did not alter my love for them or my desire to be with them and to have them in my life. It did require that I respond to them in the most loving way possible. They needed to know who they were—my beloved child—and that the behavior they were manifesting was out of sync with that reality. The reality was they could not continue their misbehavior and fully enjoy the fellowship of our family.
Every person who has ever lived was created to participate in God’s life and love. God has loved every person since before the foundation of the world. God knew we each tend to turn and go our own way. This has not altered his love for us. Rather, he has worked since before time began to ensure that nothing, not even our own stubborn disobedient wills, would stand in the way of us being able to participate in his life and love. For it is God’s purpose that every person be included in his life and love for all eternity.
We cannot do any of this on our own. Our own efforts as humans have sent us down the road to ruin, back to the nothingness out of which we were created. God is not willing that anyone perish, and so the Son of God came. Born of a woman, he lived a very human life in obedience to his Father, and died a painful, bloody death. And he rose from the grave to carry our human flesh with him into glory. Now we all are able by faith to participate in Jesus’ own life with his Father in the Spirit. Jesus sent the Spirit from the Father to us so he might live his life in and through us. We have been given Christ’s own life of faith, obedience, and right relationship with his Father, by the Spirit.
We stand with open hands and open hearts to receive this gift of God’s love and grace. We are God’s beloved children. He is our very own Father. Jesus, as our brother and friend, includes us in his own fellowship with his Father in the Spirit. And the Spirit says in our hearts, the words of the Father and Jesus, “I am yours, and you are mine.”
If you are struggling to believe, simply ask the Lord Jesus to give you his faith to believe. He will be happy to share everything he has with you, including the faith to believe.
We thank you, heavenly Father, for the gift of your Son and your Spirit. We ask for the grace to believe—free us from our unbelief. Enable us to leave each day, by your Spirit, in the truth of who we are as your beloved children, accepted, forgiven, redeemed, and renewed, through Jesus our Lord. Amen.
“Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.” 1 John 5:1–6 NASB
“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, the incarnate begotten son of God, loves the Father and esteems the son with equal affection. In this knowing [of mankind’s co-genesis revealed in the Christ-incarnation,] we love the children of God with the same love that we have discovered in God; we treasure the conclusion of his prophetic purpose with affection. For the love of God is realized in the way we evaluate his precepts; if love’s triumph is the conclusion of every prophetic pointer, how can this be interpreted as an unbearable burden? Whatever is born of God is destined to triumph over the world system. Our faith celebrates a victory that is already accomplished! This is the ultimate victory: the certainty that the human Jesus is the divine son of God; (that he is indeed the incarnate Christ—and the central theme of both the Word that was before time was as well as the key to understanding all of Scripture. He is the Savior of the world. …) This is he who was to come; he arrived in the flesh via his mother’s womb—by water and blood—Jesus Christ. And in his ministry as the Christ, he was not only borne witness to by John the Baptist in the prophetic baptism of water, but he went all the way into his baptism of death, in his shed blood, where he died humanity’s death. And it is the Spirit that bears witness according to her own being, which is truth!” 1 John 5:1–6 Mirror Bible
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Our Inner Wrestling
by Linda Rex
July 9, 2023, Proper 9 | After Pentecost—One of the things I appreciate about the writings of the apostle Paul is his honesty regarding his own personal struggles in his walk of faith. Paul was frank about his previous persecution of those who followed Christ, and about his own weaknesses and frailties. He also humbly acknowledged the ways in which Christ lived in and worked through him, calling believers to follow him as he followed Christ.
In this Sunday’s New Testament reading, Romans 7:15–25a, Paul sums up his previous summation of the need for both Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews) to be rescued from sin. He shows that even though the Jewish people had been given the law, they were unable to keep it, because their hearts were not right before God. The non-Jews, who had some idea of right and wrong, also did not live in ways that acknowledged God and were equally as guilty before God. In the end, both groups of people (i.e. all of humanity) were headed towards death, with no hope of salvation—apart from Christ.
During his time here on earth, Jesus understood the desperate situation we as humans were in. He knew this is why he lived and would die, so that we would be freed from our enslavement to evil, sin, and death. Throughout his brief life here on earth, Jesus intentionally prepared for and walked the path to the cross, because he knew that the only solution to our desperate dilemma was his life, death and resurrection.
So, as God in human flesh, Jesus lived the life we needed to live but could not. He wrestled in each moment as we wrestle, being tempted in every way as we are tempted, but without sin. Jesus, within his one being, held the two sides of his divine person and human person together, burning away the sin which so easily besets us as human beings. He, by the Spirit and in perfect union and communion with his Father, actively forged within our human flesh a new nature—a new way of being.
In the gospel passage for this Sunday, Matthew 11:16–19, 25–30, Jesus pointed out how he and John the Baptiser were received by those who were exposed to their ministry. On the one hand, John was ridiculed and rejected because of his austerity and restraint while on the other, Jesus was ridiculed and rejected because of his warm reception of the despised and reject and his participation in their celebrations. Jesus’ ultimate word to all those who were caught in this crossfire was, “Come unto to me all you who are weary and I will give you rest”. He called to them to learn from him—that in him they would find rest for their souls.
I really appreciate Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of vv. 25–30:
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
He shows that it is in our walk with Christ that we begin to learn how to truly live as image-bearers of God in Christ.
Looking at Jesus Christ, we see that our human experience will be of both our oneness with God in Christ and our human weakness and faultiness. Even though we have been born anew in Christ by the Spirit, we still wrestle with the evil, sin, and death that are a part of our human flesh right now. One day, when Jesus returns in glory, the truth of our existence—that which is hidden with Christ in God—will be revealed. Our true glory will be made evident, shining for all to see. But in the meantime, we are—as Paul puts it—earthen vessels, cracked vessels, which hold the glorious eternal treasure of God’s Spirit, Christ in us.
Jeff McSwain, in his book “Hidden in Contradiction” explains how we find within ourselves two sides, which are in contradiction, in the same person. In his placemat theology, he shows how these red and green parts of our person are interwoven—both are true at the same time. This does not in any way alter our relationship with God in Christ by the Spirit—Jesus has made that secure in his person. What Paul is explaining in Romans 7 is our inner human experience right now. We struggle, we wrestle. But our assurance is in Jesus’ finished work. He holds us in right relationship with God, and it is there we keep our attention and our focus.
Elsewhere Paul says that we do not wrestle against flesh and bones, but against principalities and powers in the heavenly places. This is a spiritual battle which is fought with spiritual weapons. The armor of God Paul describes in Ephesians 6:12–19 is essentially Jesus Christ himself. It is Christ’s life in us by the Spirit that is important here, and which already is triumphant. This is our hope and our joy. This is why Paul, in Romans 8:1, can joyfully exult, saying, “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” What matters is not our ability to get it right, but Christ in us having already got it right, living that out in and through us by his Spirit. Thank the Lord!
Thank you, Father, for loving us so much, that you would give your Son to do this great work in our human flesh, forging for us a new human flesh to live eternally with you. Thank you, heavenly Spirit, for living in us and with us right now in the midst of evil, sin, and death, and working to transform, heal, renew, and restore. Grant us the grace to allow you full reign in our heart and lives, through Jesus our Lord. Amen.
“For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Romans 7:15–25a NASB
“This is how the sell-out to sin affects my life: I find myself doing things my conscience does not allow. My dilemma is that even though I sincerely desire to do that which is good, I don’t, and the things I despise, I do. It is obvious that my conscience sides with the law; which confirms then that it is not really I who do these things but sin manifesting its symptoms in me. (Sin is similar to a dormant virus that suddenly breaks out in very visible symptoms.) It has taken my body hostage. The total extent and ugliness of sin that inhabits me, reduced my life to good intentions that could not be followed through. Willpower has failed me; this is how embarrassing it is, the most diligent decision that I make to do good, disappoints; the very evil I try to avoid, is what I do. (If mere quality decisions could rescue mankind, the law would have been enough. Good intentions cannot save someone. The revelation of what happened to us in Christ’s death is what brings faith into motion to liberate from within. Faith is not a decision we make to give God a chance, faith is realizing our inclusion in what happened on the Cross and in the resurrection of Christ! See Rom 3:27.) If I do the things I do not want to do, then it is clear that I am no evil, but that I host sin in my body against my will. It has become a predictable principle; I desire to do well, but my mere desire cannot escape the evil presence that dictates my actions. The real person that I am on the inside delights in the law of God. (The law proves to be consistent with my inner make-up.) There is another law though, (foreign to my design), the law of sin, activating and enrolling the members of my body as weapons of war against the law of my mind. I am held captive like a prisoner of war in my own body. It doesn’t matter how I 1weigh myself I just do not measure up to expectations! the situation is absolutely desperate for humankind; is there anyone who can deliver them from this death trap? (The word 1talaipōros occurs only twice in the New Testament—Rom 7:24, Rev 3:17—and both times it is translated wretched!? it has two components, talanton, which is the word for a scale of balance; that which is weighed, a talent; and poros from peira, to test as in testing the weight of something.) Thank God, this is exactly what he has done through Jesus Christ our Leader; he has come to our rescue! I am finally freed from this conflict between the law of my mind and the law of sin in my body. (In the Incarnation, in a human body exactly like ours, Jesus balanced the scales! He is the true measure of the life of our design—he revealed and redeemed the image and likeness of God in us as in a mirror! See Rom 1:16, 17 and 3:24 and 27.)” Romans 7:15–25a Mirror Bible
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Owing Others the Loving Truth
By Linda Rex
September 6, 2020, Proper 18—Lately I have been thinking a lot about how hard it can be sometimes to speak the truth in love to someone I am close to. In fact, as someone who learned painfully the desperate need I personally have for grace, I experienced in relationships the pain and destruction which come from truth applied without compassion or love.
It is important for us as human beings to get our minds readjusted to the reality that God loves us. And he loves us so much that he did everything he could to free us from the chains of evil, sin, and death we so often give ourselves over to. Our loving Abba could not bear to see us diminished into brute beasts enslaved by our passions and lusts. He created us for something so much more wonderful than this! So, whatever it cost him he did—even to the place of giving us his beloved Son in our place on our behalf.
When we talk about loving our neighbor or being good to others or showing compassion to the suffering, it is easy to assume wrongly that love permits unacceptable or abusive behavior. Love “bears all things” we read and so we let the people we love do whatever they want, even if it hurts us and others or is destructive or demeaning. We allow people to take advantage of us over and over and we show them infinite grace, not realizing that we are not genuinely loving them by doing so.
It is in view of this that we need to look at Jesus’ conversation with his disciples about going to one’s brother. To live in relationship is to open oneself up to the possibility of being hurt or offended. When people interact, they will inevitably do or say something that will create difficulties between themselves and another person. It is our human propensity to err that causes chaos and havoc in our relationships.
When we are in a relationship with another human being—any kind of relationship, whether business, friendship, marriage, companionship—we often are tempted to isolate ourselves and hide parts of ourselves away. We do this because we know that if the other person knew the truth about us, they would reject us or wound us, or shame us in some say. Not all people have our best interests at heart, so out of self-preservation, we learn to skillfully hide parts of ourselves away.
Our hiding is something we as human beings have been doing since the garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they knew they had done what God had asked them not to do. So, when God showed up in the garden, looking forward to spending time with them, they did what we as humans do—they hid. When faced with the reality of what we are and what we’ve done, we as humans find a way to hide from God and each other.
But notice what God did. He did not allow them to continue to hide. He gently sought them out, confronted them, and told them that he knew the truth. He told them the consequences of their choice and the pain it would bring to themselves and others. Then he tenderly covered them with skins and sent them on their way. God used truth to call them back into relationship with himself, and then did what he could to get them pointed in a new direction.
This brings to mind the story of the woman caught in the act of adultery who was brought to Jesus by her accusers. They believed she was worthy of being stoned and that Jesus was soft on sin because he was gracious. It is interesting that Jesus did not let either the woman or her accusers off scot-free.
The men who were interested in her destruction were told, “You who are without sin may cast the first stone.” At this, each man began to see in his own mind’s eye the truth—convicted of his own error by the Spirit of truth, he walked away. When all the men were gone and only the woman was left, Jesus asked where her accusers were. She said they were all gone. Then Jesus applied the truth gently to her as well, “neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.” She was not allowed to continue in her way of self-destructive relationship—she was told the truth in love and instructed to begin moving in a new direction.
In Ezekiel 33, the prophet wrote how God made him a watchman over the people of Israel, to give them a warning. The prophet was reminded that when someone is sinning and we don’t warn them about it, we are equally guilty of their sin. If we warn them and they do it anyway, then that’s on them. But we are to do what we can to help people see the truth about their destructive, disobedient behavior—this is an expression of divine love.
What we must do is difficult and can be painful—and it can result in severed relationships. But it must be done—and done in love. Jesus gave a template by which we can introduce a measure of God’s truth into our relationships, enabling a loving environment of grace and truth to help grow people into greater Christlikeness.
We begin first with a humble estimation of our own need for grace. Then we approach the person by themselves, speaking the truth in love and calling them back to what is right and true. If they refuse to hear us, then we take two or three others who know the truth, and bring them into the conversation to help this person see the truth for themselves. It sometimes requires someone other than us to say what needs to be said in order for someone to hear a difficult truth about themselves.
The worst-case scenario is when someone refuses to hear even under these circumstances. In this case, Jesus encourages us to create a protective boundary around ourselves as a church body, family, or other group until this person sees their fault and repents. It is unfortunate, but sometimes a person is so deeply entrenched in sin that it takes the loss of his or her significant relationships before he or she will repent and change.
To refuse to engage someone in this process is to enable them to continue in their sin, and in the destructive cycle that goes with it. We express love by speaking the truth in love, gathering others when necessary to lovingly share with truth along with us, and if necessary, call the church together as a body to call this person back to themselves so they might once again live in the truth of who they are as God’s beloved child.
This is a gift we can give one another if we are willing. It is so easy to be hurtful with the truth—to gossip, to tell everyone on social media what’s going on, to be demeaning and insulting with it. But God means us to use truth to create unity, to bring about healing and restoration, and to create a healthy environment in which people can grow into the fullness of the image of Christ. He means for us to speak the truth in love, to build the person up, not tear them down.
Today, then, what truth have we neglected to tell someone in our life? How are we going to lovingly approach them and talk with them about it? What would Jesus have us say? May God grant us the grace to lovingly build relationship and not destroy it in the process of speaking the truth in love. May we prayerfully and humbly work toward unity, healing, and restoration, by God’s grace and power, through Jesus Christ.
Abba, forgive us that so often we neglect to balance effectively truth and grace. Thank you, Jesus, that you brought truth and grace to us, and that you work to grow each of us more fully into your likeness by your precious Spirit. Enable us today to speak the truth in love to those you have brought us into relationship with. Give us the boldness to love people well by enabling them to grow up into all you meant for them to be. In your name we pray, amen.
“Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.” Romans 13:8 NASB
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