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| Two questions every believer should answer... |
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Two questions every believer should answer once asked are:
1) Are you holy and acceptable before God?
2) If so, on what basis does He accept you?
I will try to answer these in detail. My wife, Carmen, and I went to a youth camp a few weeks ago and they had an adult Bible study that was as feeding and as satisfying as any meal I have ever prepared. Funny how God's food will do that!
The Bible study leader this particular day was John Cordova. He is younger than I and far more educated. His BA is in Biblical studies and he minored (here's the real education) in Biblical languages.
Let's look at the first question, "Are you holy and acceptable before God?" And I mean right now as you sit reading this. Not in the future. Now. What devastation often permeates the life of one, young or old, rich or poor, saved or unsaved, who is not sure of being accepted, even on the human level.
So many believers struggle without this precious fact to rest and build upon:
Eph 1:3-6 ESV Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
There are some things to notice from above:
1) We are holy...
2) We are blameless...
3) God chose us to be His adopted children...
Now in Ephesians, it is important for us to note that Paul has written this letter with a Temple analogy woven throughout. He is using language that 1st Century Christians would understand, that we sometimes overlook today. Holy and Blameless are terms used in the Temple in Jerusalem concerning the sacrifice they would offer. He continues this analogy, this example here:
Eph 2:11-22 ESV Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called "the uncircumcision" by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands-- remember that you [us] were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Continuing to use the Temple as an example, Paul said that You and I (us above) were afar off. Gentiles were not allowed into the Temple complex. We were allowed into the Court of Gentiles, but now further. BUT, Jesus came along and was such a perfect sacrifice that He brought us near. He came preaching peace that we might enter in. Before Jesus, You and I had no hope and no God. The early Christians reading this would have recognized what Paul was explaining. Many of them were formerly only allowed outside. Now, they could come in.
So, keeping in mind this Temple example Paul is using, let me ask you this, "What is an acceptable sacrifice?" Where would we even go to find out? Well, the book of Leviticus has God's instructions to the early preisthood concerning just this:
Lev 22:19-21 if it is to be accepted for you it shall be a male without blemish, of the bulls or the sheep or the goats. You shall not offer anything that has a blemish, for it will not be acceptable for you. And when anyone offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the LORD to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering from the herd or from the flock, to be accepted it must be perfect; there shall be no blemish in it.
Now, according to God's word, the sacrifice must be perfect to be accepted. We know that Jesus was the perfect sacrifice and He was holy and accepted in God's eyes. In Romans 12:1-2, Paul said:
Rom 12:1-2 ESV I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Paul was a "Hebrew of the Hebrews." He was a Pharisee when it came to the law. He knew what Leviticus said about sacrifices. And yet, he is compelling You and I to present ourselves as sacrifices. Folks, we have to be holy and acceptable right now to be in a position to do that. Or do we?
You see, when Jesus went to the cross, He took our sin upon himself and placed His righteousness on us. If, and this is the hinge to everything I have just shared, IF you know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, then when God looks down on Us, He sees the blood of His Son, Jesus, and sees the Righteousness of Jesus Christ. He no longer sees the sin. Are we still sinners? Absolutely. Will we continues to sin because we are sinners? Absolutely. It has nothing to do with You and I making ourselves righteous, we cannot do that. But we can yield ourselves to God at those moments when the flesh has taken over and "Walk in the Spirit..."
If we are in Christ, we are holy and acceptable in God's eyes. Not only does He love us, but He accepts us. He can only do so because of the blood of His Son.
Stop beating yourself up trying to please God and earn favor with Him. Realize that without Jesus living within you, you cannot please God. It is Christ within you, not anything you can do. You cannot keep ANY law and be righteous. The particular version of the Bible you read, the clothes you wear to Church, the amount of witnessing you feel pressured to do amount to nothing for they are man made laws. Realize that Christ has done it all and all you need do is enter into the rest that Jesus has provided.
If we could be made holy and acceptable by any other means, the Jesus died for no reason.
I am not teaching sinless perfection. We will continue to sin, because we are sinners. When we sin, we should realize that we are walking in our own power and not walking in the Spirit. Someone asked, "Will God still love me after I sin?" Absolutely! In fact, He will love you so much that He may even correct you or punish you. Just like a loving parent would.
I know this is long, but I hope it helps somebody else. I come from a legalistic background. After years of being frustrated because I didn't feel as "spiritual" as some of the other people in our church, I have realized true freedom in Christ. I didn't have the same kind of Bible, I didn't wear the nice "church clothes", I didn't go on visitation like the others, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't.... Do you get it? God never meant for me to try to do it in my own power! That's legalism in a nutshell. I'll close with this:
Gal 5:1 ESV For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
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| To add a comment to "Two questions every believer should answer..." |
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| July 31, 2007 |
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Excellent Chris, simply excellent! A beautiful follow-on to this!
Thinking... You said we should stop beating ourselves up trying to please God. Do you mean it should be easy to please him? ...not a challenge, just an opening for discussion.  |
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| July 31, 2007 |
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Mike: Thanks for the kind words. I mean that the only thing we can do to please Him is accept the work of His Son. Once we do that it's no longer me, but Christ that lives in me.
As a Father, I wonder sometimes if my children know that I accept them. I know they know that I love them, but I wonder if they know that I accept them. And nothing they could ever do can change that. I think our Father in Heaven wonders the same. We know He loves us, but do we know He accepts us as well? |
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| July 31, 2007 |
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| Chris, This is a outstanding blog. I wish all on mychurch could read it. It would help them have a better understanding of God. |
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| July 31, 2007 |
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| I am overjoyed that our relationship with God is based on love and reedemption as opposed to justice ! In justice He would have every right to reject me, in justice He should allow death to rule in my life, but in love He has made me an heir, adopted, grafted into the vine, one who'se direction constantly is moving towards reconciliation and holiness. God is indeed merciful ! |
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| July 31, 2007 |
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| Amen! Thanks for the response. |
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| July 31, 2007 |
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| Alright, I opened this in a new browser tab earlier because I intended to read it (and I still do), but I'm not feeling the best and just wanted to say "Welcome Back YPC" before too much time passed! (And yes I actually do have the Welcome Back Kotter theme song stuck in my head thank you very much) |
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| July 31, 2007 |
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| Oh and some day, will you explain the mystery of the disappearing bulletin? :) |
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| July 31, 2007 |
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| Norm: I realized after I sent it out that some of my friends are still in a church very much like the one I described and I did not want to offend them by directing them here. If they find this on their own, I think the message might hits its mark better. Hope you feel better. |
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| August 02, 2007 |
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| I talked with a friend this afternoon that was in tears after reading this. She told me that there have been times when she has felt so defeated because she felt as though she wasn't doing enough. And that's what she had been taught and had preached to her. |
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| August 05, 2007 |
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| Woohoo! I'm happy it took me a while to read this, because it's been quiet around here and that gives me an opportunity to bump this back up. (You had me at the comment about "sinless perfection"... well OK you had me before then, but it's always so good to have the reminder that I don't have to be perfect and still have Jesus love me. :) ) |
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| August 05, 2007 |
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| Thanks Norm. I appreciate tha kind words. |
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| August 05, 2007 |
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| Okay YPCE :) This is awesome! Your reformed studies are paying off bro! This is not an area of struggle for me, but one of freedom. You know grace is my hobby horse doctrine :) Keep the great post coming! |
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| August 06, 2007 |
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| Hey there is an E there! When the heck did that show up? (I'm pretty sure "What's Fresh" isn't gonna tell me.) |
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| August 07, 2007 |
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Hey Chris, This is a very timely post that I just happened to find. I attended a church in the past, actually it has been a while, that was very legalistic in attitude. I always felt condemned because I was not doing enough for Jesus. When I felt tired and did not want to help a brother, someone would be there to confront me in “love” but that usually left me feeling even more miserable. I praise God because he has set me free from that misery. I still struggle with doing what I know would please God, but I also know that I am already forgiven and set free. Your post reminds me of Mike’s post http://www.mychurch.org/blog/41440/What-if-free-really-meant-FREE along the same lines and now a very long read. Anyway, I appreciate your taking the time to remind me Christ has set me free from the baggage that would hold me back. I know the answers to your questions, and it is all Christ and Christ alone. peace out, Glenn |
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| August 07, 2007 |
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Glenn,
I also came to realize that I can do nothing that will please God. I have to bring myself to yield to the Holy Spirit if I am going to get anything done. It makes me look at Christ saying, "I will build my Church" in a whole new light.
Chris |
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| August 08, 2007 |
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| 8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
I'm eating cheese sandwiches and starring you!
It was very freeing when I realized that I didn't even do the works, I just have to put my foot in the footprints where Jesus has already ordained the work for me to walk into. Not easy, but freeing. Very Good! |
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| August 08, 2007 |
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| Is this a cultural thing? Is eating cheese sandwiches the equivalent of rubbing your tummy and patting your head? |
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| August 08, 2007 |
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DUDE, YOU CHANGED YOUR NAME!! ok, just your MyChurch profile. But still, now we have to get used to the new moniker.
btw, in my comment at the top I totally meant to link to the freedom blog. But that's ok, Glenn did it for me!
God bless you YPCE!
~mike |
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| September 14, 2007 |
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It's a Gift
1.1 Corinthians 1:2 . . . We are writing to . . . you who have been called by God to be his own holy people. He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus, just as he did all Christians everywhere.
1 Corinthians 6:11 . . . Now your sins have been washed away, and you have been set apart for God.
All who believe in Jesus Christ are made holy.
Ephesians 1:4 . . . Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.
1 Corinthians 1:30 . . . [Christ] is the one who made us acceptable to God. He made us pure and holy.
We are brought into a state of holiness not by what we do, but by what Jesus did for us, cleansing us from sin through his forgiveness.
Ephesians 5:25-27 . . . He gave up his life for [the church] to make her holy and clean . . . to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish.
To be holy means that God looks at us as though we had never sinned.
John 17:17 . . . Make them pure and holy by teaching them your words of truth.
We grow in holiness by constantly learning the truths of the Bible and living by them.
2 Corinthians 6:17-18 . . . Come out from them and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord. Don’t touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you. And I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.
2 Corinthians 7:1 . . . Let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit.
We grow in holiness by working hard to keep sin out of our lives.
1 Thessalonians 4:3, 7 . . . God wants you to be holy, so you should keep clear of all sexual sin. . . . God has called us to be holy, not to live impure lives.
Sexual purity is a necessary prerequisite for holiness.
Romans 12:1-2 . . . I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice-the kind he will accept.
How can we hope to live holy lives? On our own, it is not possible, for we are sinful people. But we can give our bodies to God as an offering, a living sacrifice to him. He will help us to become holy.
Hebrews 10:12-14 . . . Our High Priest offered himself to God as one sacrifice for sins . . . by that one offering he perfected forever all those whom he is making holy.
Holiness here on earth is not perfection; it is striving for purity. However, God promises that those who are believers will one day, in heaven, be perfect.
I am
2.Holiness means to be wholly dedicated and devoted to God, distinct and separate from the world’s way of living, committed to right living and purity. Holiness is the absence of sin, evil, and wrongdoing. It is being spotlessly free from blemish. But holiness is much more than the absence of sin. It is the presence of righteousness, purity, and godliness. When we become Christians God makes us holy by forgiving our sins. He looks at us as though we had never sinned. But while he sees us as holy, we have not perfected holiness. We must still strive each day to be more like Jesus, more holy. Only when we get to heaven will we be completely holy.
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