Thursday, April 16, 2020

ARE CHRISTIANS JUST THE SAME AS OTHER PEOPLE?





We have been born from above, and the Scriptures tell us that we are new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17), “children of the light” (as opposed to children of the darkness) and even the Temple of God (6:14-16).

Instead, of rejoicing in this, we are embarrassed. Today, we are criticized, because such beliefs are now considered narrow, chauvinistic, tribal, and divisive. Instead, we are told that peace and justice will only come once we rid ourselves of our “us vs. them” distinctions.

We also encounter another problem. I met young man on a bus. We talked for two hours. After telling him about Jesus, he dismissed the Christian faith by claiming that he doesn’t see any difference between Christians and others:

·       You Christians have much the same problems as other people. However, you all seem even more depressed. Yet you believe that you are superior to others.

His challenge stung, but it gave me an opportunity to launch into my testimony. First, I admitted that I do have many of the same problems as I had had before Christ - anxiety, irritability, criticalness, and negativity. But now there were also a number of differences:

·       Before, I had to always be right. As I saw things, it was always the other person’s fault, not mine. Whenever my wife and I would have a dispute, I was sure that she was at fault, and she was sure that I was at fault. Consequently, we never resolved anything. However, with the encouragement of Jesus’ love and forgiveness, He began to show me the truth about myself, things that I had been unable to face. Consequently, when I see my sin, I now flee to Him in confession, assured that He forgives and loves me. He has also freed me from so much I had suppressed, even from myself.

However, this still left another problem: How is it that we can be new creations and children of the light, and yet continue to struggle with so many problems? I think that there are many Biblical explanations for this. For one thing, we will struggle if we want to be like Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:10-11).

Brokenness belongs to the Christian. Therefore, for many reasons, it is our faithful companion:

·       The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all. (Psalm 34:18-19)

As opposed to brokenness, wholeness can deceive us by convincing us that we can depend on ourselves. However, it’s God’s intention to teach us to depend upon Him. How? He places us in situations where we cannot rescue ourselves. Instead, we are forced to wait upon the only One who can deliver us (2 Corinthians 1:8-10).

In many ways, we are warned about such hardships, and there is no magic formula to make them feel okay. Instead, for God to accomplish His purposes, they must be painful but will eventually yield the fruit of righteousness (Hebrews 12:11). It is because God loves us that He corrects us:

·       For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 1 Peter 4:17)

We are the Spirit’s dwelling place, and therefore we are presently under renovation. This is a messy process. When I see a construction site, it seems like such a confused mess that I cannot imagine anything good coming out of it. However, I have learned to trust that our Master Builder can bring forth something beautiful form the wreckage.

Peter likens God’s renovation to precious metals refined in a crucible:

·       In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:6-7)

In order to purify gold, the ore is melted in a cauldron under intense heat. Then, the impurities will rise to the surface where they can be skimmed off. For pure gold, this process is repeated many times.

When we endure the fires off our trials, the impurities, the ugly things that we had hidden, are released and rise to the surface. At the sight of them – and we thought that they were now history – we are disgusted and are forced to helplessly and despairingly turn to our Savior, who then forgives and cleanses us from all the impurities (1 John 1:9-10). This too must be continually repeated.

Job had to learn these lessons. Beneath the surface of this blameless man, pride and arrogance reigned unnoticed by Job. However, his trials brought them to the surface in the form of denunciations against God. However, the Lord revealed to Him that he lacked the wisdom and knowledge to bring his arrogant charges against God. The Apostle Paul had written about his many hardships:

·       …with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned…(2 Corinthians 11:23-25)

However, this wasn’t enough. He needed to be subjected to more of the fire. In order to keep Paul humble, God also allowed Satan to afflict him with a thorn in his flesh (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). Understandably, our wounds and thorns aren’t very attractive. We are like a house under construction, and there is nothing very appealing about a construction site, which awaits its heavenly unveiling (1 John 3:2) once the job is complete. No wonder we aren’t attractive to the eye! Only those who are being drawn can perceive the beauty of our Lord’s workmanship in our lives:

·       But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? (2 Corinthians 2:14-16)

There is another weighty reason that our “fragrance” will not be appealing. God had chosen most of us from the bottom of the barrel:

·       For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. (1 Corinthians 1:26-29)

We hadn’t been esteemed in the eyes of the world. I certainly hadn’t been. However, our Lord loves to reverse the accepted order. He brings the proud down and raises the humble and broken:

·       Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:6-7)

It is only “at the proper time” that will our Lord exalt us. Meanwhile, we have little esteem in the eyes of the world. However, He promises that, one day, he will honor us in the presence of our despisers:

·       You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. (Psalm 23:5)

At this time, we will not be able to contain His blessings:

·       For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. (2 Corinthians 4:17)

How are we now different from others? A re-construction site often lays bare the internal structure of the building. Consequently, we begin to see what we hadn’t seen before. In our case, it isn’t very pretty. It consists of our lies, self-deceit, and the many things we’ve buried out-of-site. When these are exposed, we grieve and are humbled. However, we also begin to see ourselves as we never had before. We also encounter our deeply-entrenched and even immovable hidden motives. As a result, we have little choice but to flee to God, our only hope. It is in Him that we learn to trust.

Frankly, I am sickened by what has been exposed, but I exalt in the fact that I have a Savior who loves me despite my very evident unworthiness of Him (Luke 17:10). It is in Him that I have found comfort and confidence:

·       Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:19-23)

We might not perceive His faithfulness amidst our rubble, but He can assure us that He is our sure inheritance.

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