Finger thinking 070113

The secret to the successful Christian life is a very very well kept secret.  It is buried in mound of flesh and tons of skewed and twisted teaching.  That's why it's a secret.

We try so very hard to come up with the scheme that will allow us to win God's favor and in doing so we nullify the cross and make mockery of the resurrection.  We challenge the sovereignty of God and refuse His right to have dominance over all of our lives.

We don't really like God much.  We want to just live our lives in comfort and ease singing silly songs about Jesus and playing the game the world offers us.  We are weak, sultry, rebellious and stupid - and that's just believers.

There is NO secret to living the successful Christian life.  It's written on every page of scripture.  We also find the why of our pathetic attempts to live for ourselves while giving lip-service to Him.

OK - hard stuff - and maybe just maybe it's just me.  If that is so than Praise God the rest of you are doing so well.  Maybe I'm just one among a few who while trusting in His death and resurrection for my salvation have little interest or appreciation of His desire to conform me into the likeness of His Son.

Of course there is only one way to be conformed to Christ and that is to share in His sufferings.  He suffered every day in every way and more so than we can ever - ever - comprehend.  He suffered and calls us to suffer with Him.

But we don't want to suffer, we just want to be saved.  We want a nice cozy road to heaven.  We want to just kind of slide right through the gates.  but tht is not His plan for any of us.

For some the suffering is great for others the suffereing is common.  Those who suffer greatly know Him greatly.  Those who suffer "commonly" tend to have a lack of appreciation of the suffering they do experience.  They are able to ignore the meaning and purpose of their suffering.  It is a light and yet constant suffering that they are able to mediate, medicate and/or minimize and so they miss the blessing and honor for the sake of comfort and acceptance.

In my trial(s) I find that in moments of sweet communion I can accept and appreciate what God is doing in my life.  But before me I experience a deep sense of shame and failure and that gives rise to resentment of the trial(s).

God's desires to conform us to the likeness of His Son is a key issue in our lives.  do we want it or not?  If we do we have to enter the forge.

I have some friends who work a a company that makes tools.  Two things are needed to forge those tools into useful and dependable tools (upon which lives depend).  It takes heat and force.  The metal they use comes prepared for forging.  All the trash has been removed - there is no dross left - it is ready for the forge.  Then are with the purifying process heat - very high heat is applied to make the metal pliable.  then great force is applied to hammer the metal into the tool.  The force is so great that "hammed" has to have a special foundation and the whole plant shakes with each blow of the hammer.  But the heat and the hammering produces the desired tool.

Christ has purified us by His blood.  Yes we still have to wrestle with the evil principle that remains but my point is that while we wrestle with that remaining flaw He is busy heating and hammering that we might be forged into the tools He desires us to be.

Yeah, all analogies have problems but I think that we will do well to look at His conforming us are necessitating the heat and the hammering.

Those of you who know me know I like to keep things simple or as my guy Alistair Begg says I like to stick to the, "main things and the plain things."  So here you go brothers and sisters - a simple "secret" to living the life and being conformed -

Joshua 1:6-9 NASB
"Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. [7] "Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. [8] "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. [9] "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."

Free slaves?!? Faithful Master!!!!

Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.   (1Pe 2:16)

Free!

Free?

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.   (Rom 6:22)

This is the whole of our freedom.

Whether Peter is referring to a freedom from the Law is not certain, but we know that Paul references it:

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.   (Gal 5:13)

We are free from the bondage of sin and free from any pretense that we can in and of ourselves resolve the conflict we had with God when we were still unredeemed. 

We are free but it is not a wide-open freedom rather it is a freedom in Christ, by Christ and for Christ.  What we undertake, that we cannot undertake in His name, is never an act of freedom.

Jesus said:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.  (Joh 8:34-36)

Sin and freedom are mutually exclusive.  We are free from the imposed rule of sin but when we sin, we are submitting to that which has no rights over us.  When we sin, we are re-shackling ourselves – binding ourselves to that from which we have been loosed.

We receive our freedom for we have been redeemed, forgiven, saved.  But though the grace of God has no limits for us, to abuse and misuse it, to rebel against His rightful authority over us, is to bring into question the surety of our redemption. 

Consider:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,   (Heb 12:1)

Forgiven we may be – free of sin’s bondage we may be – but free of Christ, never. 

It is sometimes the way of believers to see themselves so utterly apart from the “world” that they may do or say what they will for they are “saved.”  Yet ours is a freedom that is defined by the One who provided it, the One into whose hands God has delivered all things.

Many use their freedom to vilify unbelievers.  Many use their freedom as a red cape to a bull.  Many use their freedom as an excuse to disassociate from those to whom they are called to witness.  Many use their freedom to – just go along as they have – only avoiding the grosser types of sins.

But this verse has a catch.  We are free – free servants of God.

But – that word “servants” is troublesome.  The “authorities” I regularly consult in my studies hold that it is more accurately translated slave.

One reason for this is quite simply:

for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.   (1Co 6:20)

and 

For he who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freedman of the Lord. Likewise he who was free when called is a slave of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men.   (1Co 7:22-23)

We were bought out of our bondage to sin to be the slaves of Christ.  In this we have great freedom – freedom from sin and freedom to serve God as His.

Though it may irritate some, our freedom in Christ is far beyond any freedom a document written by man can give – anyone.  The tough side of our freedom is that we are free to be oppressed, harassed and even killed because of it. 

In chains, on the rack, in dungeons, on desert islands, and even in the flames we are free.  We have to keep in mind that this freedom is not of man and indeed is often opposed by man.   With this freedom we need to accept:

Luk 21:17  You will be hated by all for my name's sake.

Father, help me understand and appreciate my freedom as well as Your ownership of me.  Make me quiet and trusting under Your loving hand.  Teach me, patiently, to be a good and faithful servant.  Teach me Your faithfulness as my Master.

Calm my heart and still my mind with the assurance of Your sovereignty and grace.

Amen