Justified… Just if I’d Never Needed a Root Canal

by Steven Gledhill for FREEdom from MEdom Project

Feels like a failure, I am rotting in decay deep into the root of who I am. I need a root canal to remove the nerve.

God raised him from the dead so that he will never be subject to decay…I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you… Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin. Acts 13:34, 38

Most of my clients struggle mightily with the issue of guilt, remorse, and regret for so much wrong and evil they have perpetrated in their lives; and against so many people affected by their actions. The man who is really working to change his future in recovery finds himself battling the past and the present in order to even begin his journey into his future. He is a drug dealer, home invader, burglar, street thug, and in some cases, worse. The man that has returned to God through relationship with Jesus has this abscess protruding from his being; he calls it shame. Like rotting tooth decay, the only way to alleviate the disease caused by an overtly sinful lifestyle, he somehow needs to drill deep into the root of his problem to kill the nerve and drain the abscess. The abscess will not on its own drain. It swells out of control.

When it comes to his family, his loved ones see the worst in him again and again and again. He is drunk and high; he is verbally, physically, and emotionally abusive; he is psychologically dominating; he is up to what he is usually up to and then… BOOOOOM! He’s locked up for years. He is humbled by his circumstances, living in a bathroom with another smelly man he doesn’t know, separated by everyone he loves, and now sober in prison, fully aware and emotionally raw and exposed for who he is and what he has done.

The man is able to have articulate conversations with his new “friends”. He is typically angry, mostly at himself, but he is rational and usually considerate. He is sitting in a therapy group for a few hours everyday putting it out there and giving it away. When he is on the phone or in the visiting room with his loved ones… wife, girlfriend, mom, dad, grandma, and especially his kids… he is gracious and loving, kind and giving. He is at his best. As his therapist, one question I ask the man is, “Why is it that those you love only get to see you at your best when you are in jail? Why is it that your prison buddies get your best and not those you love and who love you?” That’s been the pattern. He’s at his best in jail, and then when he gets out and goes home, he returns to the hustle; right back into the mess. He is abusive and hostile to those he loves. Why not give them his best from home… why only at his best in prison?

Perhaps one of the reasons for his failures outside of prison is that psychologically and spiritually he continues to be imprisoned; imprisoned by guilt and shame that leads to all sorts of the other issues and addictions that can enslave a person. It is necessary to see life and the world through a new set of lenses, because if he could see the forest for the trees maybe he wouldn’t keep running head on into the trees. For now, his eyes are caked with mud. He wants what is right and best but he is blind and in search of a safe place to step. He feels like he is still rotting in decay deep into the root of who he is. He is caught up in what he has done, what has been done to him, and is believing the lie that what he has done defines who he is. He has discovered that his twisted values have defined his standard of morality and he is not at all comfortable with that. He wants to change what he believes so that his values are defined by a much higher standard of morality, rooted in truth and love and all that is right and good.

The man is troubled by his sense of identity as to who and what he is. His identity is based on what he has done as the villain, along with what he has endured growing up as the victim of abuse and hostility. There will need to be healing and deliverance, a time for mourning and grieving, some time for processing guilt and shame, and a period for amends and restoration. It will be a project and a miracle for this man to take on the identity as a child of God redeemed for each and every transgression. It won’t be easy to accept that the slate has been wiped clean and he gets to start anew, according to God’s purpose and plan for his life.

Then he (the thief) said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23:42-43

Even though his sins may on the surface appear to be more blatantly hostile and disobedient to the purposes of God than mine may appear to be, they are no less wrong, and no less evil compared to the moral standard of godliness. He doesn’t need grace—the undeserved favor of God—any more or less than I do; or than you do. Yet that is where grace comes in and is applied.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.
Romans 5:1-2

If what Paul wrote to the Romans is true, then why don’t I feel at peace? Why I am so ashamed of myself? My unrighteousness affects and hurts other people as well as myself. As I come under conviction considering how severely I have hurt others, especially to those I love and who love me, it causes me pain. I am wrought with guilt and shame. I am compelled to make amends with those I have wronged and wounded. How do I say I am sorry for something I have repeated so often? I don’t think I can. Why would they receive my amends? Why would they forgive me? How can anyone forgive me? Most certainly, how can a just God forgive me? I do not deserve that anyone have mercy on me; especially not God if He truly loves those whom I have harmed repeatedly.

O Lord, don’t rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your rage! Your arrows have struck deep, and your blows are crushing me. Because of your anger, my whole body is sick; my health is broken because of my sins. My guilt overwhelms me—it is a burden too heavy to bear. My wounds fester and stink because of my foolish sins. I am bent over and racked with pain. All day long I walk around filled with grief. A raging fever burns within me, and my health is broken. I am exhausted and completely crushed. My groans come from an anguished heart. You know what I long for, Lord; you hear my every sigh. My heart beats wildly, my strength fails, and I am going blind. My loved ones and friends stay away, fearing my disease. Even my own family stands at a distance. The cry of King David, Psalm 38:1-11 (NLT)

One problem I might have is that even as God reaches out to me to help me to change, as broken as I am, I tend to resist Him in the way that I only want God to change me where I hurt. If I have an alcohol or drug problem I want for God to deliver me from drinking so much or from needing to use drugs. If I have an anger problem, I need him to help me not to act out or be abusive when I am angry. If I am sick I need God to help me feel better. If I have had my heart broken I will ask God to help me to move on. But God wants to do so much more. He created me and He loves me. He sent His Son to die for me so that all of the broken places in me that are dying will heal and be transformed into something new. God loves all of me, more of me than merely where it hurts.

“When I was a child I often had a toothache, and I knew if I went to my mother she would give me something which would deaden the pain for that night and let me get to sleep. But I did not go to my mother—at least not until the pain became very bad. And the reason I did not go was this: I did not doubt that she would give the aspirin; but I knew she would also do something else. I knew she would make me go to the dentist the next morning. I could get what I wanted out of her without getting something more, which I did not want. I wanted immediate relief from pain, but I could not get it without having my teeth set permanently right. And I knew those dentists. I knew they started fiddling about with all sorts of other teeth which had not yet begun to ache.”
—C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

In my article, “Under the Influence”, I wrote the following response to C.S. Lewis:

“When you live under the influence of Jesus Christ in your life He is like the dentist. When you are submitted to the transformed life under His influence, God will go beyond the place in your life that aches. He will “fiddle about with all sorts of other teeth” because He knows that these are places that need His touch or they will become even more infected until you cannot move because of the pain and difficulty. What God does is take the things that are old and dying, and transforms them into something new and full of life, beyond what you even know to want for yourself.”

Here’s the deal. I have been justified by faith in relationship with Jesus Christ, as have you if you believe. It is a done deal. Yes, the event of the sacrifice of Jesus, but He did not endure all that he did so that I would continue to wallow in guilt and shame. He went through all that He did so that I would live in peace and joy full of love in my heart.

The definition of justify is as follows:

To demonstrate or prove to be just, right, or valid;
To declare free of blame; absolve;
To be free of the guilt and penalty attached to grievous sin.

So to be justified by faith in relationship with Christ is to be made right in relationship with Christ. To be justified by faith in relationship with Christ is to be absolved, declared free of blame in relationship with Christ. Jesus Christ has set you and me free of the guilt and penalty attached to grievous sin. This is our hope in relationship with Jesus. The Bible declares that through the sacrifice of His Son, God has declared us innocent of unrighteousness and so it is “just-if-I’d” never sinned at all, and “just-if-I” never sin again. I am justified by faith. Without faith I will continue in hopeless shame walking aimlessly in the guilt of my transgressions, according to me; not according to the Word of God.

Even King David understood this. This man deemed “a man after God’sown heart” struggled with sin, much of what anyone would consider to be evil and disgusting, including betrayal, adultery, other forms of sexual sin, and murder. Yet whenever David repented, he recognized that as a king, the only real consequence of his sin that really mattered was spiritual and eternal. He did harm to a lot of people but it was only sin against the One who judges sin.

Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight.
You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just.
Psalm 51:4

David understood that no matter how egregious his sin, once he confessed his sin it was over. His intention was repentance, to turn away from his sin in pursuit of righteousness. When you read through the Psalms you even get the impression that David understood the grace coming through the promised Messiah, as if he had a deep and uniquely personal relationship with God the Son (who wouldn’t be called Jesus until He was revealed in the flesh as a human being). It can be difficult to understand how David could continue in his sin while he had such intimacy in relationship with God—that is until I consider that it isn’t so difficult for me to continue in my sin considering my relationship with God and that, for some reason strange to me, He has chosen to communicate truth to thousands of people through me, ever the hypocrite.

“The Lord rewarded me for doing right; he restored me because of my innocence… I am blameless before God; I have kept myself from sin. The Lord rewarded me for doing right. He has seen my innocence.” 2 Samuel 22:21, 24-25

Considering the hedonistic lifestyle of the king at the expense of so many people, including loved ones, David’s proclamation of innocence sounds arrogant, if not inaccurate. David even suggested that he had not violated any of God’s laws. The promise and hope of grace was so realized in the forgiven spirit of David that he believed in the promise that his sins had been removed as far as the east is from the west.

But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
1 John 1:9 (NLT)

For his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. For Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. For he knows how weak we are.
Psalm 103:11-14 (NLT)

Apparently, David had deep insight into the truth about justification in his relationship with God, and as I suggested, deeply engaged with the Spirit of the Son of God. According to God’s Word, the hope of the promise good for David—that he was set free and no longer subject to decay unto death, is just as good, relevant, and applicable for you and for me.

We tell you the good news: What God promised our ancestors he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm: “You are my son; today I have become your father.” God raised him from the dead so that he will never be subject to decay. As God has said, “I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David.” So it is also stated elsewhere: “You will not let your holy one see decay.” Now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed. But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay. Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses. Acts 13:32-39

If I am no longer subject to decay as consequence of my sin (it’s no longer mine since Jesus took ownership of it), why would I think and behave as though I am decaying? If the root of the nerve from sin in my life has already been deadened by the merciful grace of God, why would I be thinking that I still need a root canal to deaden the nerve? That is what I do when I resist the reality of the mercy of God because what I have done is so awful that I have determined that even God can not possibly forgive me since I have disqualified myself from being loved by Him.

And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:5-8

What is left for you and for me is to let go of what is no longer ours to begin with. Jesus took our sin and disposed of it through His sacrifice… before we were born to commit sin in the first place. To hold on to my guilt is actually a matter of pride. It is selfish, not humble, to continue to wallow in the mire of guilt. What feeds into feeling guilty is the weight of still sinning. That is the power of justification. We are already forgiven for sin we have yet to commit. It isn’t a license to sin, but it is a kind of insurance policy, if you will.

Jesus found him… and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” John 5:14

When in a relationship with Jesus Christ, while I may continue to sin, I am under conviction and will confess my sin with the intention of repenting of it. Why do I say ‘intention’? I suppose it’s an admission that my repentant mindset and behavior isn’t as consistent as I wish it was. The problem with the man Jesus healed in John chapter five (the man couldn’t walk) is that he may have been engaging in sinful behavior with a heart that was hostile to the will of God, in betrayal against having relationship with Him. What God wants with us is relationship. In relationship with God we will appreciate the loving kindness that affords us grace and mercy. If that were the case with the man who’d been healed of paralysis, perhaps he would have shown more appreciation for what Christ had done for him.

The same can be said for experiencing God’s forgiveness. The incarcerated men I work with experience something powerful as the stream of God’s forgiveness courses through their being. Their issue with guilt doesn’t resist it because by then they are overcome by love. It is a force by then that the hardest of criminals can’t help but immerse themselves into the love they have longed for all of their lives. These men seem to appreciate the forgiveness of their Savior so much more acutely and deeply than I seem to.

36 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. 38 As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. 39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.” 40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said.

41 “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”

48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” 50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” Luke 7:36-47

Whether a prisoner like my clients, a murderous adulterer like David, or someone like you or me, we have been forgiven the same. We have all been justified by faith no matter our sin. Since some feel emotionally like a greater weight has been lifted, they will perhaps have a greater sense of gratitude. The person rescued from certain death might be more grateful than the person spared a little harm, even though the harm would have led to something fatal. That feeling of gratitude, whether intense or casual tends to mask the fact that we have all actually been rescued from certain death because of Christ’s sacrifice.

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
Romans 6:1-2, 6-7

The promise is that having been justified by faith, I can now live by faith that I have been acquitted of a lifetime of sinful thinking and behavior. I have sinned against God and God alone. He sent His son to take possession—ownership—of my sin and then through great sacrifice disposed of it. God looks upon me and sees Jesus resurrected, innocent and blameless, holy and made perfect. It’s not even up to me except to accept his mercy as oh so real and true. What is up to me is to have faith in the facts. I choose to embrace this truth. As I come to believe more fully in God as my higher power restoring me, surrendered daily to living out His purpose for me, then I can begin to reach out to those I have harmed and begin the process of reconciliation and hopefully restoration.

What about you? Let go, today, of what isn’t yours. Accept that you are no longer subject to decay. In Christ, you’re not breaking down, you’re being regenerated and built up. That is freedom that comes through the reality of experiencing the empowerment of a justified life.

He (Abraham) did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Romans 4:20-25

New Age Living (and oh by the way, your feet smell)

by Steven Gledhill for FREEdom from MEdom Project

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. Ephesians 1:17-21 (NIV)

Why is it that we who say we are in right relationship with Jesus Christ struggle to experience the freedom that Jesus talked about when He said that we are indeed set free by truth about faith? Why is it that we tend to give in to temptation and enact selfish lifestyle choices that rob and destroy rather than experience the abundantly full life that was promised by Jesus? Why is it that we tend not to trust God enough to fully turn our will and life over into His care and experience the transcendent peace that covers our hearts in relationship with Christ? Why is it that we cannot seem to let go of the history that we allow to shame us into self-condemnation when the debt for our sin was paid by Jesus?

Concerning the selfish mistakes committed by you and by me in this carnal body and mind of flesh, the Apostle Paul said the following that applies to what happens to us in the grace of relationship with Jesus Christ. Notice that Paul speaks of our sin in the past tense; not about what we did, but rather about what we were in comparison to what we are because of who we are in Christ.

In Our Mess

And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:11 (NIV)

I will admit right up front that I am sharing with you another message from Pastor Fran Leeman (YourLifespring.org) with my spin on what I received in my spirit from God’s Spirit. I was taken back by powerful truth Pastor Leeman shared from God’s Word concerning who, what, and where we are in the Kingdom of God.

If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:13-17 (NIV)

Pastor Leeman discovered something profoundly interesting and powerful in his recent study of the New Testament. He found that the Greek word in ancient manuscripts for the word ‘world’ in the context of this Scripture from 2 Corinthians and others has been translated poorly. When Apostle Paul is writing to us about “the new creation”, he is not necessarily speaking of transformation as “re-creation” of the person, so much as he is writing about a new age of how we are to be and live since we have been resurrected with Christ. We who have turned from our selfish sin as a way of life and have surrendered our will over to resurrected Jesus, have entered into the new age that is His eternal plan; the Kingdom of God having come. We have died to the former age, no longer living from the point of view of instant temporary gratification, but now resurrected with Christ into the new age of His Kingdom.

When Jesus absorbed our sin at the cross, our sin was condemned in the soul of Christ (Romans 8:3) for all eternity, removing our sin as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). I believe this is central to Paul writing that for anyone who is in Christ, having repented (turned away) from selfish sin, “the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” In relationship with Christ, we have died to the age that is condemned in its sin, and we’re reborn spiritually—adopted into the new eternal age that is the Kingdom of God, here today.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)

– For more on the subject of Transformative Recovery, read: BRAINWASHED into Something Beautiful (New Life)

In view of believing into what Jesus did for us through His sacrifice and resurrection, Paul urges us to take on a new age perspective about who we are in relationship with Him. Pastor Leeman pointed out that the original Greek word for ‘world’ in this passage is ‘aion’, which is translated in English as (can you guess?) ‘age’. What if this Scripture read, “Do not conform to the pattern of this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”? We might come to understand that having been saved by grace into the age of resurrection, what needs to change is how we think and live. This necessitates transformation to renew our minds into a new confidence because of who we are, and where we are, in the new life experience. This new age of resurrection into glory even on this side of heaven, if fully realized would indeed revolutionize our approach to each day that we live. How could it not?

In the Light of the New Age

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us. 1 John 1:5-10 (NIV)

There is the age of darkness and the age of light. While we walk in this age of darkness in our natural bodies, we do so with the light of Christ alive in our spiritual hearts. Pastor Leeman talked about the moment that Jesus breathed into the hearts and minds of His disciples as a life-giving experience. In the book of Genesis God breathed life into Adam who in time did sin, resulting in man’s separation from God.

Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said.As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” John 20:19-22 (NIT)

Jesus breathed new life into the disciples in the New Testament reconciling man back into right relationship with God, ushering us into the new kingdom age of resurrection by His grace. John wrote that this breath of life is the light of God shining brightly in the darkness. He writes that where we were was dark in those dark ages; but today we live in the age of grace, resurrection, and light. Whenever we confess our sin it is not from the place of darkness. God is just to forgive us as we live in the light of the new age—in the hope and certainty of resurrection. He sacrificed His Son from the beginning to make resurrection (new life) certain for us.

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. 1 John 3:1-3 (NIV)

This is Scripture that takes on much more powerful emphasis when it is understood from the perspective of who we are in the Kingdom age of grace. Scripture can be confusing on the subject of sin unless it is considered from this perspective. The next several verses in 1 John 3 go on to say that to continue in sin is to break God’s law; even to align with the devil. But when this Scripture is dealt with in the context of the two ages, those being darkness and light, it divides people into what they were and what they are, as opposed to what they did and what they do.

Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him… This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. 1 John 3:4-6, 19-22 (NLT)

Understand this truth: John is not writing that those who are in relationship with Christ will never sin. After all, he wrote that when we do sin and confess it, God is faithful to forgive. However, had we blown out the light of God and chosen to embrace the age of darkness, we would have never really seen or known Him. Had we, how could we reject the fullness of abundant life in favor of torturous death (hell)? How could we choose pain and struggle in favor of peace and joy? When trusting God by faith, we are certain of this hope of the light of the new day, trusting in the evidence of our spiritual experience, even if it is unseen by our human eyes.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. 1 John 2:15-17 (NKJV)

For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age,looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Titus 2:10-13 (NKJV)

Once again, when considering the translation ‘aion’ or ‘age’ in the context of this passage for the word ‘world’, it appears that Apostles Paul and John are stating the obvious. Since Jesus has buried into condemnation the sins of this former age, why would I cling to it? Why would I lust after, covet, and embrace the addictive things of this age that are passing away in the light of this new age of resurrection into grace? Why would I fall back into love with something that is dead and decomposing? My sin nature continues to look and reach back but in relationship with Christ, clean in the eyes of God, it runs contrary to my new nature in the hope of this new age of grace to take pride in what I was before. In relationship with God, I am reconciled, renewed, and restored into what God created me to be in the first place.

It’s a new day! It is a day of hope! It is the experience of such hope that we are pure in the sight of God. Since this is the truth about the age of light—because God’s Word says so—when we struggle with forgiveness (How can God forgive me this time?), it really is our problem between our ears since we are not who and what we were, but rather that we are now the new creation in the light of the new day.

Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. I Thessalonians 5:1-5 (NIV)

As Citizens of Heaven

Apostle Paul writes in this passage that there is a distinct difference between those living as citizens of heaven in the hope of the new day (age) and those who will be shocked by the sudden invasion of the Day of the Lord as if a thief invaded their home or like sudden labor pains when new life is breaking through from the woman who didn’t realize she was pregnant. Those who already realize they are pregnant with the hope and promise of new life are already living in anticipation of the experience of glory. The light of day in the new age of grace and resurrection is already at hand.

The challenge and promise is to choose to live in the light of the day. The challenge is to live in freedom. If only we could really… and I mean, really… believe this. We have the Bible, the written the Word of God. We have the testimony of the prophets and witnesses who have written of profound and powerful truth. What would it mean and do for us when tempted by our selfish, deceitful flesh if we could lay hold of the truth and promise of who and what we are in Christ?

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2 (NKJV)

Having heard this truth this past Sunday, redefines for me a whole lot of Scripture. The passage above from Hebrews 12 should remind us that we live in the age of resurrection with all of the great people of faith who have already passed into that side of heaven. The race set before us is new age living with a glorious purpose and calling. So why don’t we shed the weight? Why is it so difficult, for the joy that was set before us—what we have to look forward to, to endure our dealings on this side of heaven?

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Romans 7:24-8:4 (NIV)

What could not be accomplished by the law of Moses in the previous age, a temporary fix until the coming of the Messiah, is accomplished through the death of the flesh age and resurrected into the life of the new Spirit age. When I understand this, transformed with a renewed way of thinking from an eternal perspective as one alive today in the new age, it brings more life to so much more of what Scripture describes as our glorious future, while in a present tense. Paul obviously had incredible insight into this most glorious reality.

Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. Philippians 3:18-21 (NIV)

Apostle Paul is writing that we are already alive in the new eternal age as citizens of heaven anticipating the appearance of our Host. He is in the house preparing your room and mine as we anxiously prepare our hearts to break bread with Him at the banquet table. The table is set for a feast, but when our hearts are right, the food is an afterthought. It is being with the One we love that is at the forefront of our experience.

When I first dated my wife and took her to dinner, as hungry as I was for a meal, it hardly mattered to me. Her beauty captivated me. I was nervous. I desperately craved her attention and affection. As corny as it sounds, I got lost in her eyes and in her conversation. It was as though I was in a different place and time as if we were the only two in the room. Eating the dinner was a formality. All I cared about was relationship with her. I believe that is what Paul is writing about in Philippians chapter 3. It isn’t about the meal, Paul is starving for relationship with His Lord. He is lost in the beauty of His majesty. Paul is captivated by the Spirit of His compassionate mercy and love. Paul is overwhelmed by the attention and generous affection of Christ experienced in the depths of his soul. We live in that place with Christ right now, even as we walk and breathe with our mortal bodies still in this new, yet at the same time, former age.

With Dirty, Smelly Feet

Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. 1 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV)

Being that we are still here on planet earth, even while having minds focused on doing the will of God, Paul writes in Romans chapter 7 that we are still influenced by the presence of our sinful nature prone to selfishness. Our sinful nature is a slave to the law of sin, still. The law of sin is that it falls short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) and has been condemned to eternal dying (Romans 6:23). The sinful nature is attached to the former age, that which Christ has delivered us from. Paul writes that while our sinful nature continues to be a slave to the eternal consequence of sin, and we must continue to contend with the matter of that sinful nature present within us, we are no longer a slave to that sinful nature when we submit to the reality of who we are in the new eternal age in relationship with Christ.

The problem is that while we are cleansed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, justified by faith (Romans 6), we will still get dirty when we give in to our selfish sinful nature. We are clean in the sight of God, our sin removed at the cross as we are delivered into the eternal age resurrected with Jesus, but dirty at the same time while also trying to manage where we live in this world—in this current/former age that is eternally dying.

Take a look at this story from John 13:3-12 (NIV). Read it carefully from the perspective of what you have read here. Consider what water baptism represents for the believer, the former self (age) dying going into the water only to be resurrected into new life (the new age). Water baptism is also symbolic of being bathed in the righteousness of our resurrected Lord and Savior. Read this with eyes to see and ears to hear what the Spirit is saying.

³ Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; ⁴ so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. ⁵ After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

⁶ He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

⁷ Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

⁸ “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

⁹ “Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

¹⁰ Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” ¹¹ For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

¹² When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them.

So what did you get from this story that maybe wasn’t so obvious before? The story is about servanthood, no question about that. But something else is in there. Because of who we are as citizens of heaven today in the new eternal age of glory, we have been bathed clean in the righteousness of God through Christ Jesus in His resurrection. We are declared ‘good’ in the sight of God, just as Jesus was, only upon being resurrected into the new eternal age of glory while still a man, just before ascending to His position as King of kings and Lord of lords. We are adopted into the family that is the Kingdom of God, the eternal age that has come. We are in relationship with the Rock of… Ages.

In this reality, while we walk around in this world (aion) our new eternal age bodies are clean in the Spirit (new eternal age), but because of the sin nature we still contend with in this life on earth in the age of flesh, our feet smell. We have an Advocate in Christ who continuously washes our feet each time we return to Him to confess our sin. The whole body doesn’t need a bath, Jesus did that already. Only are smelly feet need washing. We are then called to confess to one another and disciple one another washing each other’s feet in a spiritual sense, carrying one another’s burden while persecuted in the “former” age for His name sake; representative of what Jesus does for us continually.

What amazing truth! Meditate on it for awhile. Allow it to be your inspiration for recovery from all of the stuff in this life gets your feet dirty. Recognize who you are from God’s perspective; then find joy in that, no matter what you are facing today.

Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. James 1:23-25 (NIV)

Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled and became slaves to many lusts and pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy, and we hated each other. But when God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. Because of his grace he declared us righteous and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life. Titus 3:3-7 (NLT)

Under My Skin (When the answer is “NO” in the Age of Grace)

by Steven Gledhill for FREEdom from MEdom Project

In order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (NIV)

This is a hard teaching; not because it’s so hard to understand, but because it is difficult to accept. As you consider the hard truth here, ask yourself, “Why did Apostle Paul ask three times that his difficulty, promoted by his spiritual adversary, be taken away?” If broken down into a one-word ‘yes’or ‘no’ response, what was God’s response to Paul’s pleading the first two times? What about the third time? Who else do you know of in the Bible that pleaded that his difficulty be taken away?

It is interesting to me that Paul is still writing his letter to the church at Corinth that just a few pages earlier indicated that his weapons for battling the enemy (addiction, oppression, spiritual adversary) are not human but spiritual. He wrote that when his finite mind wants to cast doubt from seemingly reasonable arguments against the certainty of the hope he has in relationship with Christ, he focuses on who and what he is with unwavering faith, capturing every thought opposed to such spiritual reality in order to remain loyal and committed to obedience unto God.

We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (NLT)

That’s a great truth but then as Paul continued to write he may have become discouraged that God would not (so it seems) remove the problem that had gotten under his skin; a problem that seemed to have tormented him on some level. In his letter to the church in Rome, Paul wrote about his internal struggle that may have riddled him with pride or guilt and left him feeling miserable about himself. But as he turned over his will and life into God’s care, he experienced peace and believed he could accomplish anything God called him to do. This seems to have represented a paradox in Paul’s life. On the one hand, Paul experienced deep insight and great revelation into the character of Christ and life in relationship with Jesus that undoubtedly humbled him, but then on the other hand battled his pride as it related to the “inside track” sort of relationship Paul had with Jesus. A paradox indeed.

A Control Problem

I admit that I tend to need, at least to some degree, to be in control. I need to be able to manage. I need for my life to be in order and for things to remain reasonable. Yet, my recovery is built on turning over all control to God in my relationship with Christ since I know and believe that He can do for me in my life what I do not have the authority to do on my own. Yet, if I honestly and authentically believe this to be so, why do I often !PANIC! as soon as things important to me fall out of the reach of what I can “manage”? Manage is the polite word for control. If I do not want to present myself as a control person, I’ll say that I am an effective manager—sounds much better, if not impressive. I don’t have to control or fix stuff, just manage it more effectively—reasonably.

The Apostle Paul said in his letter to the Corinthians that he had an issue with pride. It looks to me that as spiritual and insightful as Paul obviously was, he had a tendency to enjoy the approval of people. He referred to himself as conceited; a bit puffed up that the Spirit of Jesus Christ spoke to his mind with deep and profound revelation.

¹ And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. ² For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. ³ I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. ⁴ My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, ⁵ so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

⁶ We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. ⁷ No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. ⁸ None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹ However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”—the things God has prepared for those who love him— ¹⁰ these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. ¹¹ For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. ¹² What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. ¹³ This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. ¹⁴ The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. ¹⁵ The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, ¹⁶ for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2 (NIV)

My work at an Illinois correctional facility provides me the opportunity to play a substantial role in reshaping the lives of adult men (adult being at least 18 years old). These are men who have made decisions under the influence of alcohol, drugs, and a criminal mind that usually offend innocent people. Drug-using and drug-dealing, burglary, home invasion, robbery, aggravated battery, gang-banging, assault, stabbing people, shooting people, and so on, have defined the lives of the men I work with every day. These men are at our facility for the treatment of their history of alcohol and drug abuse and dependence. While it is a medium security prison populated by non-violent offenders, that only means that they are serving time this time for non-violent offenses; supposedly. Most of the inmates have been stabbed or shot. A significant number of them have shot or stabbed someone. Most of the men have carried firearms with the intent to use them when provoked. What percentage of them would you guess owned firearms legally?

My work counseling prisoners has been at least as equally rewarding as it has been challenging. These men signed up for change through recovery, though the degree to which they are desperate for change varies from man to man. They have families. While many have not considered marriage, most have children with more than one woman. They refer to these women as “baby mamas”. Sometimes they still love these women, but more often than not they hope to maintain enough of a relationship with their baby mamas to have relationships with the children they had with them. The men love their kids. They’d be the first to tell you that they have not been good dads; that they have not been role models to their kids. The problem is that love to them is so damaged and jaded that they are learning what it means to love for the first time in their life. Many of the men had children motivated by love—to offer love and receive love with some semblance of reciprocity for the first time. The stories of many of their childhoods are so brutal it’s sickening. So many experienced ritualistic beatings and torture at the hands of their fathers and mothers, stepparents and foster parents, that gangs, drugs, crime, and prison were inevitable.

I share this with you because I have a tendency to seek approval from these guys. For many of them it’s like I am their savior. I get to blow them away with profound insight and wisdom. What comes forth from my mouth is revelation to them, and salvation from a life dominated by terror and fear and guilt and shame; especially for the vast majority of the men who profess that Jesus Christ is their Savior—for real.The treatment curriculum of course is secular cognitive-behavioral therapy (cognitive: what and how one thinks, behavioral: what one does). Then I come along and attempt to draw transformative life-changing parallels between the cognitive-behavioral curriculum and cognitive-behavioral Scriptural truth, making so much sense of this 2000 year-old material.

I’ve got to tell you, it is awesome! So many of these guys are like sponges soaking it all in as relevant and applicable to their recovery one day at a time. In their cell, they live in what is essentially a small bathroom with another man. Rarely do they even have the privacy to use the toilet without making special provisions at only very specific times when privacy is possible. You’d think that the planets have to align for this to happen. Yet you ask the man who is at peace in his relationship with Christ how he is doing and he responds, “Great!” And he’s not kidding. The case usually, I have discovered, is that the man didn’t find God in prison. He returned to God in prison. And he can’t wait to thank me and sing my praises for the role I played in his enlightened new life. Sometimes he will tell all 100 men on the hall how he has the best counselor on the unit; sometimes he’ll say that I am the best counselor at the prison! Wow, am I something!

Now I absolutely believe the truth of First Corinthians Chapter 2. I believe that Jesus Christ dwells in my body and mind as the temple of His Spirit. There is profound insight and wisdom and revelation in this truth, and that I have been called to give it away to the men at the prison, to my family and friends, and to you if you’d like. The problem is that it can goes to my head. I say out loud that all of the credit and the glory goes to God but the truth is that I do enjoy the approval and recognition that comes my way. Some say that it is alright to feel good about doing good things, but it can go way beyond that in my head. Truth be told, I like feeling superior.

I believe this has much to do with what Paul writes when he writes about boasting and the need to be humbled by the circumstances that God permitted for him to experience because he apparently struggled to humble himself. When I go to that place of pride, I shouldn’t be surprised then when I am stuck in the flesh with a thorn. There are times when the thorn hurts real bad, and at times is unbearable. Trusting in myself avails nothing. It is then that am I humbled, in desperate need of my Savior’s grace.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:6-7 (NIV)

Please note that God permitting or allowing circumstances to occur means that life happens under the umbrella of God’s sovereignty. I am not in control; God is. But that does not mean that He is orchestrating the events of my life. I live in an evil selfish world. Included in that is the selfishness in me that can prove to be evil. I reap what I sow in the way I live with the decisions that I make. And then there is the unpredictability of life in the world. Since God is sovereign and in authority, it is imperative that I put my trust in Him to be God in my life and in the world. I am under the authority of law and the enforcement of it. I am protected by firefighters and military, and have access to healthcare and repair people. I am supplied by utility companies and food and clothing vendors. However, these directors, protectors, supporters, and providers in my life are not following me around or intruding into my life and personal space until I either invite them into my circumstances or subject myself to the need for their intervention. They do not seek to control me and provoke my every thought and direct my every step, although should I call out to them or should a need arise for them to get involved, they could certainly do that.

When the answer is “No”

So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (NLT)

What needs to be addressed is that our brother Paul is under attack from his spiritual enemy and it has invaded the circumstances of his life. What the matter was that Paul struggled with I don’t know. Some have said it was his failing eyesight. Perhaps, but I like to assume that when Jesus healed Paul’s blindness at the outset of his ministry that the healing was sustainable. I tend to consider Paul’s struggles in the context of his life to not be too unlike my struggles in the context of my life; that keep me grounded and might have influence in the growing of my character. It is possible, however, that Paul so lived in the Spirit reality of the new age of grace that it became difficult to absorb the persecutions of the former age that at times imprisoned him. (Read New Age Living… for the fuller meaning of this sentence.)

What we do know is that Paul sought God on at least three occasions pleading that He take away that which had gotten under his skin. Yes or no: did God take away Paul’s problem the first time he begged Him to take it away? Yes or no: did God remove the problem the second time he begged Him to remove it? Yes or no: did God remove the problem the third time Paul pleaded with Him to take it away? If you answered “no” to the first two times Paul asked you are correct. If you answered “no” to the third time Paul begged God to remove the problem, again you are correct. Instead Jesus Christ told Paul “My grave is sufficient” and “my strength is perfected in your weakness.” His grace is sufficient for what in this context? For Paul’s problem, that’s what. This is huge if I am going to trust compassionate sovereign God to be all that He is for and in me when I cannot seem to shake that thing that really seems to be putting my recovery at risk.

Paul did perceive the world and time he lived in much different than I have until recently. He understood the age of grace as an eternal time of glory and heavenly citizenship. He looked at people from this perspective as well as his relationship with God. Having fallen short of God’s glory in the flesh, that man (sinful man) had to die and died with Christ. The sinful man was crucified in the body and the sin condemned in the soul of Jesus. The new creation is man resurrected into the new age of grace and new citizenship. Even Paul’s relationship with Christ was no longer from a place and time of instant and temporary gratification but from a place of contented satisfaction from a far more glorious disposition and attitude.

Paul was humbled by his difficulties. He perceived that his difficulties were perpetrated by the devil. Whether it was Satan or whether it was evil in his world that was perpetrated by demonic forces, Paul was under oppressive attack from his spiritual adversary. He likely heard or read that Jesus said, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light”, and thought, “Come on Lord, how much of this am I supposed to endure? It’s too hard!” Or, perhaps Paul was under intense conviction that he lost focus on who he was in the age and time of grace and glory, persuaded at times by his earthly and spiritual enemies that the task was too heavy a burden to endure.

Jesus: “Is there another way?” Answer: “No”

“The death of Jesus was qualitatively different from any other death. The physical pain was nothing compared to the spiritual experiences of cosmic abandonment… On the cross he went beyond even the worst human suffering and experienced cosmic rejection and pain that exceeds ours as infinitely as his knowledge and power excels ours. In his death, God suffers in love, identifying with the abandoned and godforsaken.”
—Timothy Keller, The Reason for God

³⁶ Then Jesus went with them to the olive grove called Gethsemane, and he said, “Sit here while I go over there to pray.” ³⁷He took Peter and Zebedee’s two sons, James and John, and he became anguished and distressed. ³⁸ He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

³⁹ He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, “My Father! If it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” ⁴⁰ Then he returned to the disciples and found them asleep. He said to Peter, “Couldn’t you watch with me even one hour? ⁴¹Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak!”

⁴² Then Jesus left them a second time and prayed, “My Father! If this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will be done.” ⁴³ When he returned to them again, he found them sleeping, for they couldn’t keep their eyes open. ⁴⁴ So he went to pray a third time, saying the same things again. Matthew 26: 36-44 (NLT)

⁴¹ He walked away, about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, ⁴² “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” ⁴³ Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him. ⁴⁴ He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood. Luke 22: 41-44 (NLT)

Jesus Christ, while fully human in the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3), prayed at least three times saying the same thing, asking God to remove the cup of his suffering and that which he was about to suffer. Three times God said no. Jesus had to know that it was the will of God that he suffer and die as the price for the sin of mankind. He was equally involved as God developing the plan from the beginning of it all. He understood his questioning of the perfect plan was of the devil when he said to Peter, “Get behind me Satan”, when Peter offered himself as a substitute for what Jesus had to suffer. Then Jesus told Peter that he had no idea what he was suggesting. Yet still again as a man, imperfect in the flesh, Jesus appears to have sought emphatically to explore deviating from their perfect plan. Even when the angel appeared to comfort or perhaps rescue Jesus, he prayed with even greater intensity until his skin, so stressed under the weight of this psychological torture, broke open and began to bleed.

Jesus needed to know that God’s grace was sufficient and that God’s strength was perfected in his body and spirit as he carried the weight of our sin up to a hill, where he paid the ultimate price. God’s grace is sufficient for me because of what Jesus did. At some point as Jesus hung on that cross, my sin so permeated through the body, mind, heart, and soul of Jesus that he was separated from grace. Did I just say that? Jesus, Son of God, was separated from grace—fell from grace?

At about three o’clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” Matthew 27:46 (NLT)

Buried and ultimately condemned with my sin, Jesus walked away from fellowship with God, stepping outside of God’s grace, where the sin of the world and all mankind will remain for eternity. It is stunning to me that Jesus fell from grace but today sits at the throne of grace, offering it freely, available and accessible to you and to me. By the grace of God to you and to me, God gave up His Son. Had Jesus not been forsaken in my sin from grace, I would not experience redemption from disgrace into grace. Because of the sacrifice of Jesus, I can know as Paul did, the sufficiency of grace in relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. ¹⁵For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. ¹⁶Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:14-16 (NKJV)

Confessing Weakness and Need

My confession isn’t only my sin, but the confession of what I am feeling, haunted by, struggling with, and every obstacle challenging me on a daily basis. As I wrote earlier, I am challenged by my approval-seeking ego. You can read through the articles in FREEdom from MEdom and perhaps think of me as someone who has it together, pursuing God with all my heart as I come into insightful revelation of what God might be trying to communicate to you through my words, but I seek approval from a place of insecurity. From the insufficiency in my spirit and character I crave recognition. When I am criticized, especially harshly, I crumble inside.

I have lost control. I cannot adequately manage. I am weak. I need to humble myself. I need to know that I am better off with Jesus in the flimsy boat that is the goings on in my life, even when the wind and waves are crashing from all sides, and the thunder is loud, and my life is taking on water, than I am on the shore without Him. I need God’s grace to be sufficient for me.

⁴ Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! ⁵ Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon.

⁶ Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. ⁷ Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

⁸ And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. ⁹ Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.

¹⁰ How I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again. I know you have always been concerned for me, but you didn’t have the chance to help me. ¹¹ Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. ¹² I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. ¹³ For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. Philippians 4:4-13 (NLT)

I need to believe that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me as I trust Him to protect me with a heart and mind, not of anxiety but of peace, celebrating my relationship with Him in recovery from my addiction to me. I need to think and meditate on this truth and not get bogged down in all of life’s things that stall my recovery and stunt my growth. I must be willing to go through the things in life that get under my skin as I live and breathe and move in a world and an age that is evil, certain of the hope of a new life in a new age as I forge ahead.

God is building character in me through the struggle that is my life. He continues to reform and reshape me as I give myself to Him, surrendering my will to Him from a disposition of meekness. While I don’t feel joy so much as I experience trouble in my life, I do know that my spirit is joyful understanding who God is, what Jesus did and continues to do in my life, and that He is in the boat with me, though occasionally He might take me out once in awhile for a walk on the water. My weakness and all that goes with it is an opportunity to be made perfect in His strength.

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. James 1:2-5 (NLT)

P.S.

Incarcerated men who can honestly say from their heart that they’ve been blessed experience God’s sufficient grace. They have committed crimes and are in recovery from addiction to drugs as well as their addiction to approval and acceptance. Many are learning to love for the first time in their lives, so to be loved by Jesus Christ and in turn love their fellow inmate with Christ-like love is a joyous experience making prison life, not only bearable but truly a blessing. They have an arduous journey ahead in their recovery, especially when they leave for the other side of the gate and into a world where most of everyone they know is not in recovery and primed to sabotage theirs. For me, as proud a man as I am, this is humbling. The fact that I get to have a part in challenging these guys to radically challenge their irrational thinking about how to solve problems via alcohol, drugs, and crime through recovery into the new life of sufficient grace is an awesome privilege.

These men have learned that they aren’t as strong and tough as they thought they were and that they are strong in their weakness as God’s perfect plan is revealed to them and perfected in them. Paul is saying that these guys can delight in their weakness, that they are powerless and that the obvious unmanageability of their lives is an opportunity to experience joy as they put their faith in the certainty of God’s goodness, whatever they’re going through. I know of so many seeking wisdom and that God is granting them favor. Listening to the men articulate their faith in the midst of their circumstances is raw and real and refreshing. It hardly sounds or feels religious. The countenance on the faces of those living in right relationship with Christ is sincere, peaceful, and inviting. You wouldn’t know that they are in prison for heinous crimes. If you could see these guys in this light you would welcome them into your town; you would invite them into your church and embrace them, not out of pity, but out of respect and appreciation for the work they are doing for authentic recovery. Black, Caucasion, Hispanic, Asian, Arab… it wouldn’t matter. The men experiencing new life in Christ are special and it is transparent in how they carry themselves.

There are a lot of shows on television portraying men who are locked up in the corrections system as angry, violent, insane, and capable of anything. They are. The beauty of it is them who recognize that they are selfish and living according the irrational belief of entitlement; that they return to God through relationship with Jesus, and live each day according to the reality of belief that will revolutionize their life: that reality being the sufficiency of God’s mercy and grace. For many of these guys they will walk on water with Jesus, doing something extraordinary as they are empowered by God to live a blessed abundant life.

In the morning I will walk on the unit and ask the man who has embraced recovery in relationship with Jesus, “How are you doing today?” and he will respond, “Great” or “Grateful”. Some will say something like, “Happier then I’ve ever been” and “I finally got my life back”; free from the bondage of their addiction. These men will say this from prison and mean it with all of their heart. Please pray for them, as well as for those wrestling with the invitation to enter into the age of grace, that they may be persuading to come in and experience the love of family like never before.

God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him. John 3:17

Dying Into New Life: The Reason We’re Born… Again

by Steven Gledhill for FREEdom from MEdom Series…

Three times Jesus pleaded to our Lord for grace
Three times he was denied grace by the plan
Three times he was denied grace by a man
Three days he was denied grace by the debt
The third day our Lord Jesus became grace for us all

But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. Isaiah 53:5-6 NLT

For some, this concept of dying to your old self (or ways) in order to experience new life is new and mysterious. For others, the concept is familiar and worn and so easily taken for granted because it remains mysterious and has not really been experienced. For those in the process of dying to the selfish ways of thinking and doing into the transformative experience of new life, it is never old or worn out since the experience is something of a miracle every moment that it is realized.

What does it mean: dying to self?

As you read this, I presume that you accept and believe that Jesus Christ, equal with God as a member of God, humbled Himself to the point of embryonic human likeness and capacity, emptying Himself of all divine authority in order to experience the human condition and plight on every level. I presume that you accept and believe historically that Jesus lived on earth as an infant that grew into a boy and then a man. I presume that you accept historically that Jesus was an innocent man having been convicted of a crime he did not commit, sentenced to death by execution, tortured and then crucified on a cross. I presume that you spiritually accept and believe that Jesus died on the cross as the one and only acceptable sacrifice for your sin, reconciling you into relationship with God through the process of justification—just as if you had never sinned: past, present, and future. I presume that you accept and believe historically that the tomb turned up empty on the third day just as Jesus and the prophets predicted it would. I presume you accept and believe spiritually that Jesus arose from the dead through the experience of resurrection and is fully alive today. I presume that you accept and believe that the Bible is the written Word of God without exception.

But very early on Sunday morning the women went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. They found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. So they went in, but they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus. As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes. The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Remember what he told you back in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that he would rise again on the third day.” Luke 24:1-7 (NLT)

Finally, as you read this, I presume that you accept and believe that you have the opportunity to experience the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ—King of kings and Lord of lords—alive in you, directing your life; thoughts, desires, choices, and behavior. So, how does this translate into how you think, what you want, what you choose, and what you do?

I suppose the first question we should address is: Why did God give us into this human existence in the first place? Why are we here? Why do we need Jesus in the first place? Why didn’t God simply create us to live in the perfection of heaven from the beginning? I suppose if I was asked that question by my son or daughter, it would go something like this:

So God created us to live this human experience on planet earth. Our problem here is that we are not God and are therefore flawed and vulnerable to harm. He has a purpose for our lives that when left to figure it out on our own is a mystery to us. What does it all mean as you search for meaning, struggling through the obstacles laid out before you each day. What does it all mean considering the historical events throughout your life; hoping to rise up to each occasion, meeting the expectations hoisted upon you? What does it all mean in the face of the lies that you have come to believe about yourself and about your place in the world? How does what Jesus did according to the plan of God factor into your plans according to the systemic expectations you live with? How has painfully struggling to live up to a standard that you cannot possibly live up to worked out for you so far? What does it all mean?

I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die. Galatians 2:18-21 (NLT)

Let’s examine this truth from the Word of God.

What exactly happened here that Paul the Apostle declares that the old self has been crucified with Christ? What did Jesus experience, and if what Paul said applies to each of us, how did we… or do we… participate in the experience? Jesus, in human likeness, was reduced to being fully human during his time on earth.

As God, Jesus willfully laid down His authority and capacity as God (Philippians 2:5-8). As a human being, Jesus Himself said that he had no authority and was entirely dependent on the authority and capacity of God in order to live the life he was called to live (John 5:30). While Jesus, as a man of flesh, did not have a sin nature, he certainly did take on a human nature. (Remember that Adam did not have a sin nature, either. It was in his human nature that he gave into his selfish motivation and sinned.) Jesus did have control over his ability to choose with responsibility and accountability for how he would choose to live out each day. His choice was to depend on God as the only means by which he would not yield to temptation to give in to his human urges and desires.

This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. Hebrews 4:15 (NLT)

Advancing forward to the day of Christ’s betrayal, arrest, and surrender, let’s consider what Jesus experienced in his human flesh; physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Allow me the room to lay this out from various portions of Scripture so that we can more closely examine the experience of our Lord.

¹ When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, ² “As you know, Passover begins in two days, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.” ³ At that same time the leading priests and elders were meeting at the residence of Caiaphas, the high priest, ⁴ plotting how to capture Jesus secretly and kill him. ⁵ “But not during the Passover celebration,” they agreed, “or the people may riot.” Matthew 26:1-4 (NLT)

²⁰ When it was evening, Jesus sat down at the table with the twelve disciples. ²¹ While they were eating, he said, “I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me.” Matthew 26:20-21 (NLT)

⁴⁵ Then he came to the disciples and said, “Go ahead and sleep. Have your rest. But look—the time has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. ⁴⁶ Up, let’s be going. Look, my betrayer is here!” ⁴⁷ And even as Jesus said this, Judas, one of the twelve disciples, arrived with a crowd of men armed with swords and clubs. They had been sent by the leading priests and elders of the people. Matthew 26:45-47 (NLT)

⁴ Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them. “Who are you looking for?” he asked. ⁵ “Jesus the Nazarene,” they replied. “I Am he,” Jesus said. (Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.) ⁶ As Jesus said “I Am he,” they all drew back and fell to the ground! ⁷ Once more he asked them, “Who are you looking for?” And again they replied, “Jesus the Nazarene.” ⁸ “I told you that I Am he,” Jesus said. “And since I am the one you want, let these others go.” ⁹ He did this to fulfill his own statement: “I did not lose a single one of those you have given me.” ¹⁰ Then Simon Peter drew a sword and slashed off the right ear of Malchus, the high priest’s slave. ¹¹ But Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword back into its sheath. Shall I not drink from the cup of suffering the Father has given me?” John 18:4-11 (NLT)

There is a great deal to digest here in studying the event leading up to Christ’s crucifixion. Jesus knew that the time had come. In fact, it was Jesus who stirred up the pot and got the stew boiling when he defiantly ripped through the temple with a whip in front of everyone who was paying attention (as many as a million Jews were in the city of Jerusalem for Passover). In the midst of the crowd, the violent actions of Jesus got the attention of Temple leaders, including key Pharisees well connected to Roman authority. It was on now as it needed to be for Christ’s act of ultimate sacrifice to be realized.

Jesus had been betrayed by a friend he loved dearly, and went with his closest friends to a familiar olive garden to pray. This time of immense grief and torment reveals much about the state that Jesus was in as a fully human being apart from his divine nature. Jesus was alone—utterly alone as he prayed, depending on his Heavenly Father for any strength at all to get through this incredible distress.

We are told that Jesus asked God to consider another way to accomplish their eternal plan for you and me as he prayed, “My Father! If this cup cannot be taken away unless I drink it, your will be done.” We are told that He prayed the same thing again, and that as an angel from heaven descended to strengthen Jesus, it was not sufficient as Jesus prayed even harder; his physical body so distressed that blood vessels burst through his skin and Jesus sweat large drops of blood. I cannot begin to imagine his torment and struggle. And things were just getting started.

They came for him, armed with weapons in anticipation of a battle. Other Bible translations use words like ‘battalion’ and ‘contingent’ to describe the army that showed up to arrest Jesus. As many as 600 highly skilled Roman soldiers were on hand as they approached Jesus in the vicinity of the olive garden.

As they drew near, Jesus asked (keep in mind that he is not looking too good here), “Who are you looking for?” Led by Judas and Malchus (assistant to the high priest, very familiar with Jesus), apparently they did not immediately recognize him under perhaps moonlight and the glow of torches, as someone responded, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus responded, “I AM he.” This is incredible since though Jesus is fully human he reminds us all that He is still God, the great I AM. At his response, John the Disciple writes that “they all drew back and fell to the ground!” All 600 Roman soldiers in all of their combat garb were forced back and went down? Including Judas and Malchus? Or maybe Judas was left standing so that he could see the power of God at work in the vulnerable of moments.

Peter would draw his sword and seek to take off the head of Malchus. Peter was undeterred drawing his sword as this small Roman army was held down and unable to stop him. Apparently Malchus, pinned to the ground under the force of the Holy Spirit, turned away his head and Peter clipped his ear. Peter, one man in the moment, could have wiped out the entire battalion of Roman soldiers. When you really take a moment to think about this, it is an unbelievable event. It is everything that Peter, Judas, and all of the disciples had lived for over the past three years. Their time had come. Jesus would overthrow the Roman Empire and be king. They would all rule with him.

But that was not the plan. The plan was one of surrender and sacrifice. The Holy Spirit of God relented and the stunned army of soldiers returned to their feet and perhaps reluctantly approached Jesus. Jesus willingly surrendered and was taken away.

⁵² Then Jesus spoke to the leading priests, the captains of the Temple guard, and the elders who had come for him. “Am I some dangerous revolutionary,” he asked, “that you come with swords and clubs to arrest me? ⁵³ Why didn’t you arrest me in the Temple? I was there every day. But this is your moment, the time when the power of darkness reigns.” ⁵⁴ So they arrested him and led him to the high priest’s home. And Peter followed at a distance. ⁵⁵ The guards lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat around it, and Peter joined them there. Luke 22:52-54 (NLT)

The fact is… is that Jesus is just that: a dangerous revolutionary, and though the power of darkness continues to reign in the world, the revolution is coming. So, crucified with Christ having died into new life, we are participants in leading the greatest revolution in all of human history. More on that coming up.

⁶⁰ Then the high priest stood up before the others and asked Jesus, “Well, aren’t you going to answer these charges? What do you have to say for yourself?” ⁶¹ But Jesus was silent and made no reply. Then the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” ⁶² Jesus said, “I Am. And you will see the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God’s right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven.” ⁶³ Then the high priest tore his clothing to show his horror and said, “Why do we need other witnesses? ⁶⁴ You have all heard his blasphemy. What is your verdict?” “Guilty!” they all cried. “He deserves to die!” ⁶⁵ Then some of them began to spit at him, and they blindfolded him and beat him with their fists. “Prophesy to us,” they jeered. And the guards slapped him as they took him away. Mark 14:60-65 (NLT)

¹² Pilate asked them, “Then what should I do with this man you call the king of the Jews?” ¹³ They shouted back, “Crucify him!” ¹⁴ “Why?” Pilate demanded. “What crime has he committed?” But the mob roared even louder, “Crucify him!” ¹⁵ So to pacify the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.

¹⁶ The soldiers took Jesus into the courtyard of the governor’s headquarters and called out the entire regiment. ¹⁷ They dressed him in a purple robe, and they wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head. ¹⁸ Then they saluted him and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!” ¹⁹ And they struck him on the head with a reed stick, spit on him, and dropped to their knees in mock worship. ²⁰ When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified. Mark 15:12-20 (NLT)

The experience of Christ’s crucifixion was beyond the dread he had experienced in the olive garden. The torture was beyond anything that I could possibly imagine. Historical literature suggests that Jesus carried the cross (the beam of the cross estimated to be 125 pounds up to 300 pounds if Jesus carried the cross as shown in the picture), strapped across his exposed flesh, as far as half of a mile to his execution, and he collapsed three times. It has been said that the sin of mankind took residence in that beam of wood and began to embed itself into the flesh of Jesus; that the gravity of our sin was so much to bear that Jesus collapsed under its weight. Simon the Cyrene would be summoned to help Jesus carry the burden of the cross the rest of the way.

As Jesus hung from the cross, he was alone in his suffering. So alone in the darkness of sin and its eternal consequence (whose sin? yours and mine), Jesus alienated himself from God. We know this because he cried out, “My God, My God, Why?!” Jesus suffered alone and abandoned from anything good or holy or merciful. He had left all authority with the Father as he left humbled himself to nothing as a man of flesh and blood. Jesus was left to die; and die he did; paying the debt for the sin of all who have ever lived.

Jesus had told his disciples that his death would be like Jonah in the belly of the whale (Jonah 2), but that he would suffer in the belly of the earth for three days and nights (Matthew 12:40). What did he mean by that? We know about Christ’s death on what we call Good Friday, and his resurrection on Sunday. What happened on Saturday? Some like to romanticize this notion that Jesus flew like Superman into hell, Sheol, Hades, purgatory, or whatever you want to call it, and rescued all who had perished before his act of mercy at the cross. Paul says it quite differently.

¹ So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. ² And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. ³ The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. ⁴ He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit. Romans 8:1-4 (NLT)

While I tend to prefer the New Living Translation of the Bible, it seems to be missing something, particularly in verse three. Please consider the New King James Translation:

¹ There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. ² For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. ³ For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:1-4 (NKJV)

Do you see it? Do you see what Jesus experienced on the second day, between his crucifixion and resurrection? No one really talks about it. The soul of Jesus the human being, sacrificed for my sin, experienced condemnation on my behalf. He went all the way. Listen to how Jonah described his experience:

“ I cried out to the LORD because of my affliction, and He answered me. “ Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And You heard my voice. ³ For You cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the floods surrounded me; All Your billows and Your waves passed over me. ⁴ Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ ⁵ The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; The deep closed around me; Weeds were wrapped around my head. ⁶ I went down to the moorings of the mountains; The earth with its bars closed behind me forever; Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD, my God.” Jonah 2:2-6 (NKJV)

The critical difference between Jonah and Jesus is that for Jonah, his terror was simulated condemnation as a representative symbol of the condemnation of souls beloved by the Creator. Jesus experienced the literal condemnation of selfish sin. What occurred in the physical realm concerning the crucifixion of Jesus I can imagine, as brutally terrifying and painful as it was. What did Jesus actually experience by way of condemnation, damned to some form of hell in the spiritual realm? I have no idea. Praise God that Jesus arose, resurrected as a man into new life, then exalted into His rightful place as God; King of kings and Lord of lords.

So what about this dying into new life crucified with Christ? What does this mean for you and for me?

Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” Luke 9:23 (NKJV)

Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me.” Luke 9:23 (NLT)

To be crucified with Christ is not to hang on a cross. We will not die in the sin of all mankind. To take up our cross daily does not mean that we will be beaten to within an inch of our lives (although many have and will continue to be beaten, tortured and martyred for their faith in the risen Jesus) expected to carry on our ripped open flesh a 125 pound chunk of lumber. We are not buried with Christ, nor are we condemned with Christ. So what does it mean to be crucified with Christ and to take up our cross daily?

But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. Romans 8:9-11 (NLT)

Pastor Fran Leeman speaks of living a “cross-shaped life”. This means that we are to deny our selfish desires and intentions, willingly dying to what we have known to be the remedy of our discontent, to live a separated life—separated into the life committed fully to will of God. He has commented on the gesture seen in Catholic mass and private prayer. (In general, the gesture of touching one’s forehead, then the chest, then the left shoulder, followed by the right shoulder, symbolizes Christ’s journey from heaven to earth, then his descent to hell following his death, and finally being exalted to the right hand of the Father. It also represents the triune God of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.) Pastor Leeman stated that in the early century church, the demonstrative gesture of the cross represented a commitment to Christ’s command to take up one’s cross in commitment to a lifestyle conformed to living the way Jesus lived, humbly and willing to deny oneself sacrificially to the point of literally dying for the sake of the ultimate prize: resurrection.

Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:9-11 (NLT)

To be crucified with Christ is to willingly surrender as Jesus did. Jesus did not want to experience the struggle and pain of crucifixion and condemnation. He prayed desperately that He not have to endure that. Yet, even while in a position of strength (remember His captors were pinned to the ground), Jesus willingly denied Himself, surrendering to the plan and purpose of God for His life, and for all life. The cross that Jesus carried possessed the weight of all of our sin, which knocked Him to the ground. The cross we carry contains the weight of our selfishness in our old nature. Our cross contains our desires of the flesh. The miracle is that we are no longer bound by them. In fact, Jesus tells us that His yoke is easy and His burden light. He is our Simon of Cyrene with one important difference. Jesus Christ is God and in reality bears the weight of our cross if and when……………. you let Him.

(The image to the right is that of two bulls sharing a device called a yoke, which allows the stronger abled bull to carry most of the weight, compensating for what the less abled bull cannot do adequately on its own. The burden of the less abled bull is light.)

As we admit the obvious: we are not in control, that we have made a mess of things, and we cannot fix ourselves; having believed that God is in control and that we are crucified with Christ in loving relationship with Him and under His merciful plan of grace; surrendered, we now deny ourselves, empowered by Jesus Christ to carry the cross of our selfish intentions, and commit to the new life we have inherited in our experience of resurrection. When we experience the miracle of being crucified with Christ through our willingness to surrender ourselves into the hands of the miracle maker we die into new life (Romans 12:1-2).

The truth of the crucifixion of Jesus, along with the eternal reality that you and I have been crucified with Him, unfortunately does not mean that we will never again make selfish mistakes (called sin), because we most certainly will. The miracle is that we have been absolutely forgiven of our sin (1 John 1:9), and our broken lives have been resurrected into new lives. The tragedy is for those who reject this truth and choose to align themselves eternally with their sin. Jesus, in His death on the cross, condemned our sin to the belly of the earth. To align oneself with sin outside of relationship with Christ is to choose an eternity of condemnation with that sin. To confess the sin and experience forgiveness in relationship with Christ is to be crucified with Christ, resurrected into eternity with Him. Hallelujah! Praise God for this!

Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Romans 8:18-19 (NLT)

Please, take the time to meditate on this truth. If you have not already, take the time to read the scriptures linked throughout this writing. Please take the time to talk to the Sympathetic Savior who has blessed you with this wonderful opportunity to live a cross-shaped life. Finally, pray to get to know Jesus Christ in the fullness of who He is so that you may realize by experience the fullness of who you are in relationship with Him.

¹⁴ So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. ¹⁵ This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. ¹⁶ So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. Hebrews 4:14-16 (NLT)

Walk, not according to the old system of expectations that keeps you stuck and holds you down, but live in the Spirit of the truth of what you have realized today.

God bless you.

From Ephesians 5:8-14 (NLT):

For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. 11 Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret. But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, for the light makes everything visible. This is why it is said,

“Awake, O sleeper,
rise up from the dead,
and Christ will give you light.”

Lesson: Dying Into New Life—Crucified with Christ (TWIRL 033)

Sympathetic Savior… Christ’s Sacrifice

by Steven Gledhill for FREEdom from MEdom Project…

Three times pleaded for grace
Three times denied grace by the plan
Three times denied grace by a man
Three days denied grace by the debt
In three days became grace,
fulfilling the plan

Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

What Did Grace Cost Him?

Jesus was forsaken by his Father; forsaken by the plan for reconciliation and redemption; forsaken by the divided loyalty of a dear friend; forsaken by the cost of my sin; but then at the day of resurrection, having paid my debt, fulfilled the plan of redemption in becoming grace for me and for you. While our sin cost us everything, the wages of our sin cost God everything in the life of His son.

As we remember the sacrifice of our Savior and Lord celebrating His resurrection, it is important to consider the weight of the burden He carried and the pain He bore in the sacrifice for all sin. If this is your first visit to FREEdom from MEdom Project, everything that you read and experience throughout your time here is built on the premise that in relationship with Jesus Christ is the promise and opportunity for healing and redemption into new life, or what I like to call, the best of a new life experience. Let it all seep into the depths of your heart, mind, and soul.

4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Isaiah 53:4-12 (NIV)

This article is ridiculously long, so please come back to it from time to time if you’ve not the time to go through it all right now. Much of what is written is what I will dare to call revelation that I doubt you’ll have ever read or heard taught or preached. I prayed to know Christ in the fellowship of his suffering to attain resurrection, and what’s here is what I received from God’s Spirit. It came as knowledge to my spirit and it pierced my soul. I, therefore, do not apologize for any of it, but rather am anxious to share it.

Ask yourself this question: Why is it so hard to believe that the three-person union that is God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) could by choice “create” the visible manifestation of Himself to be of a fully human nature, void of His divine nature, with a need to depend on the divine nature and authority of the other two persons of God? Is it because it would be too great a shock to our religious traditions and customs of what we claim to be sound doctrine and theology? Some will not even ask the questions or have a discussion about it; perhaps since such a discussion would lead to quarreling about doctrine. I am asking that you be open to asking the question guided by Scriptural truth, particularly that spoken of by Jesus himself about himself while flesh as a human being.

(Sympathetic Savior is a four part series. The following are links to the other parts:
Part 1: Christ’s Humanity, Part 2: Christ’s Temptation, Part 3: Christ’s Relationships)

So then, since we have a great High Priest (advocate) who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. Hebrews 4:14-16 (NLT)

I think what we need here is a both/and approach to this revealing aspect of the humanity of Jesus. Jesus is both, by nature God, and, he chose to humble himself from heaven all the way down to the essence of earth and flesh, to lay down his divine standing, and become fully human.

Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God… Philippians 2:6-8 (NLT)

Having sacrificed his own divine nature to fully experience our human nature—a decision made prior to the creation of any living thing—it was paramount that Jesus surrender himself to doing the will of God. Remember that he said that he came not seeking his own will. Why not? Could it be that the human intentions of Jesus were flawed; compromised by his human intentions and desires of the flesh?

“Consider how our Lord regards His own Sonship, surrendering His will wholly to the paternal will and not even allowing Himself to be called ‘good’ because Good is the name of the Father. Love between father and son, in this symbol, means essentially authoritative love on the one side, and obedient love on the other. The father uses his authority to make the son into the sort of human being he, rightly, and in his superior wisdom, wants him to be.” —CS Lewis, The Problem of Pain

Recognizing his human inadequacy in comparison to who and what he was fully God, Jesus spent more time in prayer and communal fellowship with God than any person that lived before him and anyone since. (It was not merely a formality or ritual that Jesus went off alone with the Father fasting for forty days as he prayed fervently and most likely with a sense of desperate urgency preparing for an undertaking like no one has ever known.) Jesus did not act sinfully on his willful intentions in any way. He did not entertain his selfish desires in his mind or they would have conceived in him sin. Jesus grew to understand that his will was by nature flawed and weak, and he was powerless against it. It was, therefore, imperative that he direct his intentions unto submission to the will of God by way of willing obedience.

“I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will.” John 5:30 (NLT)

A. Jesus admitted that his will was inferior in the flesh rendering him powerless.
“I can do nothing on my own…”

B. Jesus believed that the will and authority of God the Father was superior to his own.
“I judge as God tells me… Therefore, my judgment is just.”

C. Jesus committed to turn his human will over to God in submission to his perfect will.
“I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will.”

Is this over-parsing the words of Jesus, or is it taking him literally at his word… that he meant what he said? Jesus did not tell us as merely a command to obey the commandments to love God with all of our being, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus knew that the only way he would survive the tug of temptation to satisfy his own selfish desires in the flesh, he must be obedient to the will of God, and to trust and depend on him so long as he was fully human in “the likeness of sinful flesh”, according to Apostle Paul.

Jesus sympathizes with our condition that leads to complex difficulties, not only because we have a sin addiction but because we are under the lure law of sin. We learn obedience because of consequences we suffer under the impact of sin. According to Scripture, this was the experience of Christ as well.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin… He can have compassion on those who are unaware and going astray, since He himself was also subject to weakness… Jesus, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to God who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, learned obedience by the things which He suffered. Hebrews 4:15 (NIV), 5:2, 7-8 (NKJV)

The Bible tells us that Jesus learned obedience by the things which he suffered. One aspect to learning obedience through suffering is having to suffer the consequences of, 1) your own selfish sin and, 2) enduring the consequences as an inhabitant of a world dominated—owned and enslaved—by selfish sin, or in other words, subject to the “law” of sin.

In our condition of human flesh we will definitely die. The body of Jesus was obedient to the law of sin, just as yours and mine is. Jesus needed rest and food in order to survive. Had he not died by way of execution, he would have died of old age, or from disease or injury. The physical body of Jesus would have declined and decayed as ours does as we get older, even though he did not sin, because he was affected by, even under the authority of, the law—the mandate—of sin. As we as human beings obey the law of gravity as a constant inevitability, we learn to obey the constant inevitability of sin by what we suffer at its hand. Jesus learned this as well by the way he suffered as a human being. The Bible tells us that Jesus was subject to weakness, and that he learned obedience by the things which he suffered, which I was the result, or consequence, of his weakness as a person of flesh. In other words, Jesus would, in his body and mind, be subject to the forces of natural laws.

I cannot know what kind of sacrifice this was on the part of Christ. I’d be lying if I said I understand how Jesus “gave up his divine privileges” (Philippians 2:7 NLT), that as God He came to us “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Romans 8:3) in order to share in our human experience. Jesus was obedient in his humanity to remain committed to serving us in human form to the extent that he would die sacrificially on a cross as the payment for your sin and mine. He would then rise up from the dead as the precursor of our resurrection from the graveyard of our sin.

Overwhelmed

As he rode along, the crowds spread out their garments on the road ahead of him. When he reached the place where the road started down the Mount of Olives, all of his followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen.

“Blessings on the King who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven, and glory in highest heaven!” Luke 19:36-38 (NLT)

What a difference a week makes!

One week later, Jesus would be so stressed and overcome about the immeasurable beating that would be levied against him; the unbearable pain of dying on a cross to take into him our sin disease; the immeasurable tragedy of being separated from God his Father; one week after being celebrated by thousands he would sweat blood through his pores anticipating the locomotive of torment coming right for him. Jesus would experience a deep sense of helplessness and despair, to the point that death itself may have been less painful than what he would have to endure through the events leading up to it, ultimately hanging by spikes on the cross.

He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Matthew 26:37 (NKJV)

“My soul is overwhelmed by sorrow, even to death.” Matthew 26:38 (NKJV)

As he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was in such agony and torment that even when the angel appeared to strengthen him, he sweat blood. His physiological and psychological condition was such that blood came through his pores and dripped to the ground. Jesus was already shedding his blood.

“Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” Luke 22:43-44 (NKJV)

We see in the garden and at the cross that the heart of Jesus bleeds for us. I think his Gethsemane experience reflects the phenomenal compassion that it took for him to go through with all of it. Anyone else executed by crucifixion was taken by force. Jesus did so willingly by choice.

Jesus, the physician for sinners

This incredible sacrifice; who is it for? It is for you and for me. Who are we? We are sinners addicted to self-centered sin. Jesus hung out with sinners, according to what we see in Scripture.

Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Jesus to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” Luke 15:1-2 (NKJV)

Now it happened as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples. “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard that, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those do who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Matthew 9:10-13 (NKJV)

We are all sinners! We are addicted to sin. (Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin.” John 8:34) We are sick with the sin disease. We are in bondage to it. Jesus died so that we would be forgiven of our sin and freed from our bondage to its addictive power and control.

There he was, in the middle of that huge crowd hanging on a piece of wood, with open wounds rubbing against it every time he would push against the spikes driven through his ankles in order to catch a breath. I don’t mean to sound redundant but you need to see this picture. And yet, until the very end he was not even thinking of himself.

Jesus was passionately focused on others. Jesus prayed for others while on the cross. Perhaps he was praying for the soldiers that nailed him down, or the Jewish priests that brought him to the place of his death. Perhaps he was praying for the multitudes looking on, either mourning his fate or mocking it; or for those he would consider friends that felt betrayed and denied knowing him. Maybe Jesus was referring to us; you and me, who willingly choose our self-centered wants over what God has and wants for us. Jesus, moved with compassion, humbly asked God,

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34 (NKJV)

Yet, after even that, he ministered to the criminal on the cross next to him and led him to faith. That very day the man would join God in Paradise. Considering he had a captive audience, Jesus likely would have tried to reach out to both of the criminals on either side of him. One criminal would believe that Jesus was indeed the way to God, while the other would reject Christ even as he hangs there to die. One would submit to the freedom only Christ could offer him, while one would remain submitted to his own cross for sin that bound him to death. As Scripture says, one will be taken and the other left.

“Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and the other left. Watch therefore, for you do not know the hour that the Lord is coming.” Matthew 24:40-42 (NKJV)

In the case of the two thieves Jesus died next to, both had the opportunity to meet Jesus. One received his blessing of merciful forgiveness and the other rejected it. One was prepared that day for the coming of the Lord, and the other wasn’t. To the one who received Jesus, he said, “Today, I take you with me to Paradise.” The other will be eternally bound to his sin having separated himself forever from the generous mercy and love of his Savior, Jesus Christ.

Dr. Michael Easley (Moody Bible Institute) points out that when Jesus said in John’s Gospel, “Let my friends go”, he was saying, “Take me instead of them”. Peter, as most of us are until truth is unveiled, did not understand that he was condemned for eternity unless Jesus takes his place. Jesus died and experienced condemnation on our behalf for the self-centered deeds we are responsible for. Dr. Easily points out that it’s as though Jesus essentially said to God, “Take me and let my friends go free.” In relationship with Christ, Jesus says that we are his friends. You are and I am a friend of Jesus as we are willing to participate in friendship with him. What breaks his heart is when we choose to reject the friendship Jesus offers. As our friend, he carried our cross and then died nailed to it. We were loosed from the master (sin) and set free (John 8:32-34).

Jesus could have established himself as the vehicle of God’s authority at any time. He in fact put his power and authority on display in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was approached by a battalion of Roman troops; hundreds, perhaps as many as a thousand trained soldiers. Here is what happened.

Jesus fully realized all that was going to happen to him, so he stepped forward to meet them. “Who are you looking for?” he asked. “Jesus the Nazarene,” they replied. “I Am he,” Jesus said. (Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.) As Jesus said “I Am he,” they all drew back and fell to the ground! John 18:4-6 (NLT)

Imagine that scene; an entire regiment of soldiers pinned to the ground by the Spirit of God long enough for Peter to draw a (from a soldier that couldn’t move?) and take a swipe at the head of the servant of the high priest and slice his ear. Imagine the look on the face of Malchus when Jesus healed his ear. Was it scary arresting Jesus at that point? Do you know why it wasn’t? Jesus surrendered willingly as yet another powerful act of sacrifice. Incredible. Even in the splendor of authority and glory in the garden that night Jesus lovingly set aside his will in yet another gracious act of compassion for your sake and mine.

Forsaken… Abandoned

What came next was the terror contained in his sacrifice. He would be abandoned by God: Father… Creator. Having by choice fallen from glory as himself Creator, Jesus the man would take the full blow of the tragedy of human selfishness.

Jesus would be blindfolded to suffer brutal torture from the soldiers of the high priests. Officials in authority struck Jesus in the face with the palms of their hands. They mocked Him, mercilessly, spitting on him while spewing crude remarks like, “You’re a prophet… you know all… who just hit you?”

The following is the actual description of what Jesus actually experienced:

Some of the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into their headquarters and called out the entire regiment. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. They wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head, and they placed a reed stick in his right hand as a scepter. Then they knelt before him in mockery and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!” And they spit on him and grabbed the stick and struck him on the head with it. When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified. Matthew 27:27-31 (NLT)

Jesus must have understood at some point that the sin of the world had entered him. It must have been dreadful. Our sin carried within him our dissatisfaction, our pain, our anger and rage, our frustration, and our resentment and bitterness. Our sin filled the person of Jesus with our pride, our lust, our shame, our regret, our loneliness, our depression, and our failure. Ultimately, Jesus was profoundly connected to our isolation, our alienation, our desperation, and our despair. It must have left a bitter taste in his mouth, a foul smell in his nostrils, and perhaps the screams of demons in his ears. It must have been dreadful and gut-wrenching. He may have seen unspeakable filth in his imagination, and felt sensations of paranoia and fear from his insides. We cannot even imagine what Jesus experienced.

Then finally, when it didn’t seem anything could be worse, the unthinkable occurred. Jesus felt all alone. He sensed that the one sure thing he could count on was missing. Where did his Heavenly Father go? Jesus felt abandoned by his Father, and cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken he?” This is first time we see Jesus responding to his own need as a man. Suddenly, something was missing in his spirit. All along the way until now, amidst the disappointment, discouragement and even despair, he had known and felt his Father’s presence. God’s Spirit had been alive in him… or as John Eldridge would say… God’s glory was what made Jesus fully alive while a man of flesh. No matter how treacherous the road of his ultimate destination would become, Jesus walked in the affirmation of his Father’s love and approval. As close as Jesus was to Mary his mother, their bond paled in comparison to the unique bond he had with God his Heavenly Father at this time in his adult experience.

In that moment, Jesus was in the deepest, darkest and most unbearable place of desperate need. He was feeling his insides pulled down by gravity against the nails in his hands and feet. (Note: According to a television documentary regarding archaeological evidence of Roman crucifixions, an ankle and foot were discovered with a nail through the ankle from the outside to the inside of the ankle, suggesting that Jesus’ legs and feet may have actually straddled the trunk of the cross, as if his death could have been more gruesome.) He could barely withstand the collapse of his torso causing him to literally suffocate as he attempted to push up to breathe. In the moment he took our sin into his being, Jesus needed his Father to be there for him now more than at any other time.

Something, or should I say, someone seemed to be missing.

And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” Mark 15:34 (NKJV)

Where was he? Where was God? Why was he not there?

What were the thoughts and feelings desperately coursing through the mind of our Lord alone on the cross?

“Father, I need you so much!”

“Where are you?!”

“How can you leave me?!”

“Why now?”

“O God, it hurts!”

“I beg of you, Father, return to me!”

“Oh please, come back to me!”

“I can’t take it anymore!”

“Make it stop!”

“Please, take me home!”

I suspect that went on for three days and nights as Jesus experienced the horrific torment for the sin he didn’t commit, yet became responsible for. Jesus was a human being like you and like me.

“My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?”

When Jesus needed the support of his Father more than at any other time, as he experienced something he was not familiar with, he no longer sensed the presence of his Father. We can know for certain that this was unfamiliar territory for Jesus because he cried out emphatically, “My God, Why?!”

I wonder if just maybe this was not part of “the plan”. Of course it had to be this way, but… I wonder if God the Father had every intention to be right there for his Son Jesus. Why would God forsake his only Son? I wonder if God the Father, in the moment that Jesus took our sin into his body, was Himself in deep anguish?

Had God abandoned his Son to the point that he didn’t even hear his cries for help?

Does God forsake sin as a matter of divine law or principle?

I was taught growing up that God cannot be in the presence of sin. It is almost as though sin is to God what kryptonite is to Superman, or sunlight is to Dracula. Superman and Dracula become less of what they are in the presence of these adversaries. Sin and the evil within it do not make God any less of who he is. There is no doubt that God finds sin to be utterly offensive and is repulsed by it and is saddened by its effects against his creation. But if God is bigger and more powerful than evil and our addictive sin, why would he have to turn away from it?

Consider this, that perhaps it is not God forsaking his Son, but that perhaps Jesus, having been consumed with our sin, had forsaken God his Father as you and I forsake fellowship with God when we submit to selfish sin. Think about it. That is what we do when we are consumed with addictive sin. It so affects us spiritually that we don’t even hear God when he calls out to us. Adam had sin in him and God called out to them, “Adam, where are you?” (Genesis 3:9) Adam forsook God in his sin against God. There was consequence for Adam’s sin, but God did not forsake Adam. I think it is possible that Jesus was so defiled by our sin, that he could no longer remain connected to God. I think it is the sin in the soul of the humanity of Jesus that broke the fellowship between Jesus and his God, not necessarily God breaking fellowship with his Son. While his body lay in the tomb, the sin absorbed into the soul of Jesus would experience condemnation.

The Wrath of God is Eternal Damnation

Jesus likened the time between his death and resurrection to spending three days and nights in the belly of a great fish.

“For as Jonah was for three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be for three days and three nights be in the heart of the earth.” Matthew 12:40 (NKJV)

We have a tendency to ignore those three days and nights. Our focus is on the cross and resurrection, but what about the three days in between when Scripture tells us that our sin was condemned in the human soul of Christ?

Let’s look at the story of Jonah for a moment. Jonah chose a course for his life that was in opposition to the will of God. The consequence of his choice not only brought grief and suffering to his own life but affected the lives of those touched by him along the way.

The men were exceedingly afraid and said, “Why have you done this?” For the men knew that he (Jonah) fled from the presence of the Lord, because he told them so. Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?” – For the sea was growing more tempestuous. And he said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will be calm for you. I know that this great tempest is because of me.” Nevertheless the men rowed hard to return to land, but they could not, for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them. Therefore they cried out to the Lord and said, “We pray, O Lord, please do not let us perish for this man’s life…” So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. Jonah 1:10-15, 17 (NKJV)

We need to consider Jonah’s description of what that was like. Jonah felt as though he had died and gone to hell, the Bible tells us. He cried out to God from the depths of his grave in the belly of the giant fish and God rescued him from the pit of death and destruction.

From the inside of the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said, “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry. You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me. I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again to your holy temple. The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you brought my life up from the pit, oh Lord my God.” And the Lord commanded the fish and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. Jonah 2: 1-6, 10 (NIV)

I can only imagine what Jonah must have experienced. In the belly of a whale for three days and nights must have felt like hell. It must have been pitch black in there—utter darkness. There was seaweed and likely scores of fish and a whole bunch of cold water. However, Jonah did not belong in the belly of the whale. Jonah’s presence there did not agree its stomach. Ultimately, Jonah, a disobedient prophet of God would look to the holy temple of God and vow to serve him. He would be restored by God and brought up from the depths of the grave into new life.

What happened to Jesus after he said, “It is finished” and died? Where went the soul of Jesus the man once his body was dead? Is it possible that the human soul of Jesus, having been infected by the sin of mankind, was condemned to a kind of hell, one that Scripture refers to as Hades? Did Jesus actually incur in his human experience condemnation of his soul of flesh? If so, it would be a human experience of the worst kind. It would imply that Jesus can even sympathize with all who are ultimately condemned to hell by their sin.

Look at what Jesus says to John in the book of Revelation.

“I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen (so be it). And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.” Revelation 1:18 (NKJV)

I believe this is most revealing about what happened to Jesus during the time between his death and his resurrection. His resurrection was not merely resurrection from his physical death, but resurrection from condemnation by way of our sin in him. As Jesus took our sin into himself, he was condemned.

For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh. Romans 8:3 (NKJV)

Condemned in the flesh? In who’s flesh? Not yours; not mine. Sin was condemned in the flesh of Christ Jesus. That the human spirit (soul) of Jesus experienced condemnation is not popular theology. I have been criticized harshly at times for such a suggestion. Did Jesus not at the cross say out loud, “It is finished… Into thy hands I commit my Spirit”? What did he mean? He told his disciples that his death would be like that of Jonah in the belly of the fish for three days and nights. Jonah was not dead. He experienced everything that was to be experienced being digested by a large fish. I gave you Jonah’s own depiction of his experience above from Jonah chapter 2. It was hell for Jonah. It was dark, cramped, and cold. It stank like death. He could barely breathe. Jonah depended entirely on the presence—the companionship—of God to survive with his life.

The difference for Jesus is that his fellowship with God was broken as he suffered the consequence for your sin and mine. While Jonah became angry that his experience led to God being merciful to repentant sinners (Jonah 4), Jesus experienced death into broken fellowship so that repentant sinners would be reconciled into new life in right relationship with God. I contend that when Jesus said, “It is finished… Into thy hands I commit my Spirit”, that the next three days were indeed out of his hands. He was finished following through on the mission to sustain obedience in the flesh. I contend that outside of fellowship with the Father he was lost—having not known grace until He became grace—until the Father would raise him up from the dead and Jesus would be exalted, returning to His rightful place on the throne as King of kings and Lord of lords; the throne He vacated when He humbled Himself into the “likeness of sinful flesh” (Paul’s words not mine).

The prophet Isaiah wrote that Jesus was “assigned a grave with the wicked… (and) was numbered with the transgressors… ” This bears importance to me. It seems to speak of a distinction between the destination of believers and that of those who will perish into eternal dying. My interpretation from this Scripture and those others cited in this article, is that Jesus experienced the fate of unrepentant sinners; eternal condemnation until being resurrected by the Father and exalted into His rightful position as King of kings and Lord of lords; fully God on the throne at the right hand of the Father.

Like you, I cannot fathom eternal damnation and what it altogether means for unrepentant sinners. Eternal damnation is the wrath of God poured out against the brazen will and activity of evil. That was my debt, and that was yours. It was—not is—because Jesus paid the debt of eternal damnation for those three days and nights.

But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day. 2 Peter 3:8 (NLT)

Peter writes that this is important and I must not forget it. Jesus suffered condemnation for three days and nights, according to my temporal perspective of mortality. But what if eternal damnation—eternal dying from the mortal position of Jesus was more like three thousand years? Paul wanted to know Jesus in the fellowship of his suffering. Jesus suffered on a level that no repentant sinner will ever suffer. Peter was crucified upside down. I believe that Jesus suffered immeasurably more than that—wrath of God punishment. That is why, when Peter told Jesus that he would die in his place, Jesus stressed emphatically to Peter that he didn’t any idea what he was asking for.

I am suggesting it is possible that what was three days on this side—the temporal side—of eternity may have been an eternity on that side—the eternal side (permanence)—of eternity. Why would it be thought egregious to think it possible that Jesus would come to sympathize through his personal experience the worst of human suffering, that being eternal dying, whatever that even means. I do not take it lightly to write of this as I have done so shedding tears for the unimaginable impact of my sin against my Savior and Lord.

The cup of God’s wrath against evil IS eternal punishment. It IS eternal dying. It IS the wage of sin (Romans 6:23). If that is the debt for sin… my sin… and Jesus paid the debt, then he would have experience the full weight of the ransom for my redemption; eternal damnation for my sin. Then… because God is merciful… the ransom was met, and Jesus was resurrected into new life and restored; then lifted up into full sonship (like the prodigal son) and thus (it bears repeating) exalted into his rightful place; fully God—King of kings and Lord of lords.

The Apostle Paul said of wanting to know Jesus,

I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so, somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Philippians 3:10-11 (NIV)

We need to realize that it is in his human experience that Jesus came to sympathize with our weakness, our vulnerability, our inner conflict, and our discomfort. The realization of the power Christ’s resurrection comes from understanding where he came from because of what he suffered. Jesus submitted himself to unimaginable suffering, falling from the heights of divinity to the depths of condemnation. Can we even begin to imagine condemnation? I imagine that Jesus experienced the horror of the worst of human suffering. I also imagine that Jesus experienced the horror of the worst of human need and want: greed, lust, rage, bitterness, fear, pride, jealousy, covetousness, and gluttony. I imagine that while he experienced the pain of victims, he also experienced and the sickness and horror of villainous depravity. But as condemned, he took it all—the full impact of our sin—so that we could be free. Our sin was condemned in the human suffering of the soul of Jesus Christ. Let us fellowship together in appreciation of the sufferings of Christ as we attain to the resurrection from the dead.

God ultimately removed from the human soul of Jesus our sin as far as the east is from the west. God resurrected his Son from the dead of sin into new life, and would exalt him, having defeated sin once and for all. God the Father exalted Jesus into his rightful position as God to be our higher Power. God does the same for us who turn away from addictive sin and are committed to him by faith.

We, like Jonah, have chosen to go our own way by choosing a course that is sinful. Our sinful course, like Jonah’s disobedience, carries the consequence of disruption, chaos, destruction and ultimately our death. Choosing a course of selfish sin not only drags us down, it takes others in our life down with us, no matter how hard they try to bail us out.

Jesus Christ, a fisher of all mankind fished us out. We were going down. But then he took our sin overboard into the depths of hell on our behalf. For three days and nights, Jesus, all alone, having broken fellowship with the Father over your sin and mine became lost in the pit. After three days in the belly of condemnation, hell got a stomach ache, because once Jesus the Son was restored by his Father, he no longer belonged there. Scripture tells us that the grave could not hold Jesus as he was exalted from the depths of condemnation to the heights of his throne as God. Just like a Jonah was rejected by the giant fish and thrown up and out of the whale, so was the restored Savior resurrected from the depths of hell. The human soul of Christ left hell empty-handed, having disposed of our sin there.

Because of what Jesus has done for us the key to passing from condemnation in our addictive sin into new life is only through Jesus. As the Scripture says, only Jesus Christ has the keys out of condemnation. We are condemned by our sin and must believe that Jesus is our Savior who can unlock and open the way to free us from condemnation.

And you He (Jesus Christ) made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world. Ephesians 2:1-2a (NKJV)

For the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ has freed us from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that is was weak in the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin; He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:2-4 (NKJV)

These verses clarify what I believe Jesus is telling us in Revelation 1:18. The only path to freedom from condemnation is through a relationship with God committed to Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul wrote in these Scriptures that because of the law of sin, we would all die since we do not measure up, and our sinful flesh condemns all of us, since we have all sinned. God, in realizing that we would all perish in our flesh according to the law of sin, and desiring that none perish, made a way of condemnation for sin so that we could live in fellowship with him.

Remember, there had to be a sacrifice for our sin. It was all necessary.

According to Scripture, it was mandatory that the most innocent and least blameless blood sacrifice be offered once, blamed for all into guilt and shame of the worst kind, so that you and I could be reconciled into agreement with God. Jesus would become the sacrificial lamb for our sin. Jesus voluntarily submitted himself to take on our flesh, coming down from heaven, giving up all he was and had as God, and laying on that altar, shedding his blood, as the lamb sacrificed for your sin and mine.

(Please watch this amazing video to “Revelation Song”. It’s worth the six minutes.)

Jesus is Risen, Jesus is King!

Remember that the disciples, like most of his followers, did not believe that Jesus would rise from the dead. It is my opinion that they may have very well figured Jesus not to be who he said he was, and even felt betrayed by their friend. They lost in the death of their dear friend their hope for a better life. They did not have spiritual discernment or spiritual faith to believe that Jesus was dying intentionally as heaven’s requirement to forgive their sins in order to restore them under grace back into fellowship with God. Their faith had diminished. All they could comprehend in their distress and sorrow was that their dreams of being an independent people had been dashed—their hopes and dreams shattered.

Then something amazing would unfold. But it wouldn’t come easy to them.

Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast out seven demons. She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept. And when they heard that Jesus was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe. Mark 16:9-11 (NKJV)

The eleven disciples of Jesus did not believe Mary Magdalene. Why not? Jesus told them he would arise from the grave on the third day, and it was the third day. Why would Jesus appear to Mary first? Perhaps because Mary still had hope as she went to treat his dead body in the tomb. The hearts of the eleven remaining disciples were hardened in their grief and unbelief. “They mourned and wept,” the Bible says. I agree that they mourned the loss of a friend they dearly loved. They also mourned their fate without Jesus leading them to their promised land where they would live freely, no longer held captive by their oppressors.

Later Jesus appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. Mark 16:14 (NKJV)

So when did the disciples believe that Jesus was the Christ risen from the dead to be their King everlasting?

Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. John 19:19-20 (NKJV)

One of the eleven, Thomas, takes a lot heat from some today for doubting the authenticity of the risen Christ until he put his fingers into the nail holes in Jesus’ hands. However, it does not appear that any of the disciples believed that it was him who had died and was now alive standing in front of them until they saw the physical proof of the resurrection of Christ with their own eyes.

After Thomas puts his fingers into the hand of Christ, and reaches and puts his hand in to his side, he believes, drops to his knees and proclaims,

“My Lord and my God!” John 20:28 (NKJV)

Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” John 20:29 (NKJV)

Jesus asks you today,

“What do you believe about me? What proof do you need? What do you need to see with your eyes?”

Ask Jesus to reveal to you the truth of His Word to you. Let Him know that you want to more fully believe but that you need help with unbelief, when you feel you doubt and lack faith.

“I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!” Mark 9:24 (NLT)

If you are looking for Jesus on the cross, you’ll not find Him there. The crown of your shame, like His crown of thorns, has been lifted from your head. Your sin that He took to the grave has been removed from your past, present, and future. The stone that has kept you in bondage has been rolled away. You have been raised up through relationship with Jesus. It is time to realize that your wounds have been healed, leave the stench of the grave clothes of your past behind, and step out into the sweet aroma that is the freedom of new life. He has extended grace to you. Get up and walk into your new life experience. Soak yourself in it.

Grace

Justified… Just if I’d Never Needed a Root Canal

by Steven Gledhill for FREEdom from MEdom Project

New Age Living (and oh by the way, your feet smell)

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In Our Mess

– For more on the subject of Transformative Recovery, read: BRAINWASHED into Something Beautiful (New Life)

In the Light of the New Age

As Citizens of Heaven

With Dirty, Smelly Feet

Under My Skin (When the answer is “NO” in the Age of Grace)

by Steven Gledhill for FREEdom from MEdom Project

A Control Problem

When the answer is “No”

Jesus: “Is there another way?” Answer: “No”

Confessing Weakness and Need

P.S.

Dying Into New Life: The Reason We’re Born… Again

by Steven Gledhill for FREEdom from MEdom Series…

What does it mean: dying to self?

(The image to the right is that of two bulls sharing a device called a yoke, which allows the stronger abled bull to carry most of the weight, compensating for what the less abled bull cannot do adequately on its own. The burden of the less abled bull is light.)

Sympathetic Savior… Christ’s Sacrifice

by Steven Gledhill for FREEdom from MEdom Project…

What Did Grace Cost Him?

Overwhelmed

Jesus, the physician for sinners

Forsaken… Abandoned

The Wrath of God is Eternal Damnation

Jesus is Risen, Jesus is King!

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