Journey Outside the Camp

Direction, not perfection

One of the misconceptions about being a Christian is that we are goody two-shoes. People, including Christians themselves, think that once they believe on Jesus, they can become good people overnight.

How I wish that were true. It is true that believing on Jesus justifies us. This means that the punishment we deserve for sin we have (and for future sin we may commit) is paid for completely by Jesus. We can stand before God and be counted as righteous. That is what we call justification (see for example Romans 4:22–5:1).

That doesn't mean we gain perfection. That will only come with our resurrected bodies. In the meantime, together with God's help, we work on the process of sanctification. Romans 6:1–14 tells us that we need to fight to keep sin away from our bodies. Verse 12 says, "Do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies." Reign is the keyword here. The word reign conjures up images of rulers and slaves, kings and soldiers. Make no mistake, the process of sanctification is not a walk in the park. It is a daily battle of surrendering our body and mind to God, in order that we can be armed to fight sin in every area of our lives. Like the character of  Christian in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, we are on a journey, heading towards God's heavenly city. Galatians 5:16–24 reminds us to walk by the Spirit and we will not gratify the desires of the flesh. That to me is a clear indication that though we have been justified, the old sin nature still lurks beneath the surface. It is no surprise then, when it rears its ugly head and we by natural instinct obey its lusts. We are by no means perfect. But we are to use the Spirit and kill our sinful inclinations and keep marching on towards God.

This process we will never finish. We will always have more sin inside us to kill. But the promise of God is that "he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." (Philippians 1:6). We will see perfection on the day of Jesus Christ. What a promise. So having faith and being justified is only the beginning. That work is God's alone. Sanctification is God's Spirit working in us as we direct our lives toward God himself. Justification brings direction, not perfection.

Which is better: to do it yourself or to let God lead?

A friend of mine talked about a DIY life. My friend believes in making oneself a success through personal hard effort. This includes getting one's emotions under control, managing relationships and being successful at work. My friend believes that taking the road less travelled (and the harder road at that) will make one stronger in the end.

However, till date, my friend doesn't feel there has been much success or progress. My friend was in the dumps. My friend wanted to know how I managed my life. My simple answer was that I don't. I had recognised some time back how incapable I was at managing my life. I was making a mess of it. I had poor relationships at work, I had some rough patches with my wife and I genenrally was living a life of quiet desperation. Then the Holy Spirit helped me make the most counter-intuitive move: I surrendered control of my life. I surrendered because I had tried it my way and it didn't work. Now I was going to surrender control of my life to God.

It was the best move I ever made. After all, no one knows me better than God. He made me. He knows me better than I know myself. He knows what type of personality I have, he knows my strengths and he definitely knows my weaknesses since he designed me! Once I let God lead and I moved in obedience, things have taken a radical turn. I no longer worry about my career. I no longer worry about who will take care of my family. I love my wife in ways not possible if I were still hogging the throne of my life.

Not worrying about my life doesn't mean I don't have concerns. But whenever I do, I run to my Father, just like my children run to me whenever they encounter problems. But unlike me, my Heavenly Father has perfect knowledge, perfect control and a perfect plan for me. This plan will actually involve hardship and pain. It will involve loss. But it is the best plan for me. (Romans 8:28—"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, those who are called according to his purpose.") There is much joy and confidence when I rely my Father.

I explained all this to my friend. I hope my friend understood. I know how difficult it can be to understand if one has not experienced the joy of letting God take charge. My friend claimed to be not into spiritual things. But I left this challenge for my friend to think about:

Why are we here? What is the point in life?

Figure out the answer to that question and life makes a whole lot more sense and we can have purpose and meaning. For me, the answer was this:

God created me to have a loving relationship with him in order that his glory be displayed through my life. When I fulfill my purpose of treasuring him with my whole life, I get the joy and he gets the glory. I was made for this. To not do this would be a waste of my life.

It would be like using a silver spoon to dig a trench. Can the spoon be used that way? Sure, but it would ruin the spoon and the spoon will hate every minute of it. The spoon was made for a higher purpose. We too are like a silver spoon. We were made for a higher purpose rather than just the drudgery of living life and then dying. We were made to enjoy a deep and joyful relationship with God.

The Gospel is binary: Are you under law or under grace?

Here is one of the definitions of binary from the Merriam-Webster:

relating to, being, or belonging to a system of numbers having 2 as its base <the binary digits 0 and 1>; involving a choice or condition of two alternatives (as on-off or yes-no)

So binary is a choice between all on or all off. It's either 1 or 0. There's no in-between state. How does this relate to the Gospel?

As I was reflecting on Romans 6, it dawned on me that the Gospel could be described as binary. Consider the tail end of Romans 6:14—"you are not under law but under grace". Paul reminds us that we are under grace. That is, we are saved 100% by what Jesus did on the cross. We contributed nothing toward our salvation. Zero percent.

There are those in Paul's time—as there are in ours—who think that they can contribute something toward their salvation. They are trying to keep the law in order to attain righteousness. Paul calls them "under law". In his day, they would insist on doing parts of the law like circumcision. In our day, such people may insist on a sinner saying the Sinner's Prayer, or that going to church, or that regular tithing, etc., makes one acceptable in God's sight. They are under law.

Such thinking is wrong. Either we rely on Jesus 100% for our salvation, or we do not. We cannot think that we can contribute 1% towards our righteousness through right living or Bible reading or service to the poor. Christ either saves us completely by his effort, or he is not our saviour at all. 1% of our effort plus 99% of Christ's work on the cross does not equal salvation. It equals death. Paul makes this point very clear in Galatians 5:2–3—"If you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law." In other words, if you want to contribute to your own salvation, Christ's work on the cross is meaningless to you and instead, you must try to keep every letter of the law. Either God does all the work in saving us and giving us righteousness or he does nothing for us.

Hence my thought that the Gospel is binary. Jesus does it all (1) or he does nothing at all (0). It's all Jesus or nothing. Paul unequivocally states that believers of Christ Jesus are under grace, not law. Obeying the law has no part in our salvation because if we want to be under law, we must obey all of the law perfectly. And we know no one is capable of that. As James 2:10 says, "For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it." (Italics mine.) And again from Paul in Romans 3:23—"all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". So there is no one who is capable of keeping the whole law. It is death to be under law. It is life to be under grace. Jesus does all the work in saving us (grace) or he does nothing for us at all (law). Ergo, the Gospel is binary.

A vision for the glory of God

My wife and I have been preparing for our Spiritual Habits of a Child's Heart workshop. One of the main points we want to impress on the participants is the need to give our children a vision for the glory of God.

We're learning that how we move through life is determined by what we value most. Is it money? Reputation? A need for security? Pleasure? What we desire most will direct how we live. If we gain a vision for the glory of God, how will our life be? When we marvel at the sovereignty of God, when we are in awe of his supreme power and his all-surpassing wisdom, how will we react to him? How will our life be changed by this knowledge?

We were created with a need to worship. We love our Hollywood idols, our love to imitate the lifestyles of the rich and famous. But worshiping man was not what we were created to worship. We were made to worship God. But we have traded the greatness of God to worship other men.

Romans 1:21-23 says, "For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things."

If we value God more than anything in the world, we will live our life differently. We will not cling to money, reputation, pleasure, work, friends and material goods. We would cling to God. We could have nothing; we could be scorned by the world but we would be filled to bursting with joy when we love God more than anything in the world. Joy in the Lord and in his glory, that is the happy life.

I want to give this to my children. All parents should want to give this to their children. Worship God with all your heart, mind and soul and you will be truly happy. When you do, your physical circumstances will not matter. Your standing in the world will not matter. Your sick and dying body will not matter.

Now isn't that a vision worth giving to our children?

God is one

Romans 3:29-30 says, "Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith."

These are weighty words from Paul. And they have huge implications for everyone and every nation. These words are also very offensive to a lot of people if they understood clearly what Paul is saying. After reading up on it and listening to a message preached on it, I learnt several things.

God is one. There is only one true living God and he is the ultimate source of everything except God. How do we know there is only one ultimate God? Well, the very word ultimate is the key. You can only have one ultimate source. You can't have two ultimates. If there is one ultimate God, then everything comes from him. It's as simple as that.

Romans 11:36 says, "For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen."

The Bible states clearly there is only one God who made all things by his own power. There is no other. God is one also means that he has only one way for all the nations to get right with him. That is, justification through Jesus by faith alone. God has a oneness about him, he has a coherence in all his dealings with men. He doesn't reveal himself with one set of standards to one people and another set of standards to another group. In other words, he does not reveal himself in contradictory ways. He is always the God of sovereignty, grace and wrath. Therefore no one can claim they have a different way to be made right with God because God provided only one way.

For many non-Christians, this is no doubt starting to sound offensive. Such talk flies in the face of pluralism. In today's world people are saying, "I have my truth, and you have yours. We can live together, no problem." Such an opinion as God has only way one to salvation is offensive. How dare you say what I believe is not the right way! I learnt that we should not be too worried about this because the church of Jesus Christ was born in one of the most pluralistic cultures in the world. The Roman world was far more pluralistic with its plethora of gods and cultures. And the early church back then had far fewer members than we do today and still the church flourished and grew. We therefore have no excuse about finding it hard to fight a world steeped in pluralism. The church has been through it before.

With the message we carry of one God and one way to salvation, we will encounter the criticism of arrogance, presumption and offensiveness. Our faith is very threatening to pluralism. But we must not back down from the truth. We must however, go in humbleness. We can go in humbleness because we hold fast to another great truth. In John 18:36, Jesus declares, "My kingdom is not of this world..." Jesus was not interested in taking over geography and establishing an earthly kingdom where his subjects would rule and lord it over others. No, Jesus' kingdom is in the hearts of people. Therefore, as his followers, our commitment is not one of bringing others under our rule but rather going to others in love. Jesus' kingdom is not spread by violence, nor political maneuvering, nor coercion. His kingdom is spread by love, spread by service, spread by prayer, spread by proclamation, spread by being persecuted.

One last thought. Verse 30 says God will justify the circumcised and the uncircumcised. I think there is meaning here that goes beyond physical circumcision. Circumcision can be broadened to include all the things we do which we think will make ourselves right with God. This could be doing good deeds, being religious, reading the Bible and so forth. These things will not get us justified before God. The uncircumcised can be expanded to include all those who feel they are completely unworthy to be in the presence of God and do deserve his wrath. God says in verse 30 that he will justify both types of people through faith in Jesus. It is not anything we are or anything we've done that will merit God justifying us, i.e., making us righteous before him. This act of justification is done by him, outside of anything we could ever be or do. And that's the beauty of the Gospel. It is not gained by merit. It is freey available to all.

There is only one way to God but that way is available to all who believe and not based on any merit in a person. Now that truly is good news.