Father, Protect Me from Myself

[This a journal entry from my quiet time with God a week-and-a-half ago. I hope you find it helpful.]

Look: [God said:] “...Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death....Nothing impure will ever enter [the heavenly city], nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” (Revelation 21:7-9, 27)

John receives a vision of the new creation descending to this old creation, supplanting and replacing the old. He describes those who inherit this kingdom in which God dwells in fullness by speaking of who will not be part of it: “the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars.” Their place will be in the condemning fires of hell. He goes on to say that “nothing impure will ever enter [the heavenly city], nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

Listen: No human being, no matter how much faith in Christ they have, will ever be fully free of sin on this earth. We’re sinful by nature. Sin is in our DNA and to fall prey to it is like breathing to us. Our only hope is in Christ, on Whose grace we throw ourselves in trusting faith and through Whom we receive forgiveness and new life we don’t deserve. Thank God for grace!

But these words from Revelation show that willful sinning, insistent sin on the part of believers who simply ignore God and do whatever they want to do, will not enter God’s eternal kingdom. When we willfully go against God’s will--away from true love of God and of neighbor, we build a wall between ourselves and God’s grace. This is what Jesus references when He says that, “every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.” (Matthew 12:31)

It’s the Spirit Who, by the Word He inspires, both convicts us of sin and convinces us of the power of God’s grace given through the crucified and risen Jesus, can save even us. It’s the Spirit Who creates faith within us by the power of the Gospel Word about Jesus.

But when we think so little of God’s grace or so little of the Lord Who dwells in His people or so little of ourselves that we turn a deaf ear to the Holy Spirit, we set ourselves up for separation from God and from the life He gives to those who believe in Christ.

Response: Father, when I am tempted to ignore Your clearly disclosed truth about a sin that tempts me, give me the power to resist it. Help me not to make excuses or rationalizations.

There are no excuses or exceptions for a disciple of Jesus to willfully ignore Your will, to sin because I may think it’s a good idea or an excusable breach. Even these sins are forgivable, of course. But the problem with willful sin is that after you’ve done it once, it becomes easier and easier to do the next time and the next. We think that we’re living free as we descend into a life apart from You in this way and may even convince ourselves that these sins are simply part of the freedom in Christ you give to those who believe. But, in fact, we’re only handing Satan, the world, and our sinful selves the shackles to re-enslave us.

Paul wrote to the first-century Galatian church: “Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?” (Galatians 4:8-9)

The preacher in Hebrews says, chillingly: “It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.” (Hebrews 6:4-6)

Is it possible for those who have experienced the saving grace of God given through faith in Jesus Christ to depart from the faith? The Word seems to say this is possible. Why else would the devil spend so much time trying to take us from Christ? Why else would Peter write to the first-century churches in Asia Minor?:

“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8)

I take comfort from the words of the apostle John:

“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.” (John 2:1)

God loves to welcome home we prodigals.

Respond: Lord, You know me. You know the ways in which I have rationalized and excused my way to the sins I wanted to commit even as I heard Your Holy Spirit telling me to repent and believe, to return to You. Protect me from myself, Father. I ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen 

[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

Hope for Hypocrites

[This is the journal of my quiet time with God this morning. I read Matthew, chapter 25; two verses particularly stood out to me.]

Look: “[Jesus said] The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 24:50-51)

Matthew 24 begins with Jesus leaving the temple and the disciples coming up to Him “to call his attention to its buildings” (Matthew 24:1). Jesus stuns them by saying that “all [the] buildings” of the temple mount that so impress them will one day be destroyed.

It’s the disciples’ conflation of the temple’s destruction with “the end of the age” in verse 3 and Jesus’ response to their question without distinctions between the temple and the entire world that show that Jesus’ prophetic words in verse 1 apply to end of the whole cosmos. His answer applies to the demise of both the temple and the cosmos.

Jesus never tells the disciples when these cataclysms will happen. He does tell them what to expect as signs preceding them. But above all, He says to remain faithful to Him without knowing when these ends will come: “...the one who stands firm to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13).

According to Jesus, there will be Christians who are lulled into complacency and sin because the end when Jesus returns hasn’t come yet. The love of many will grow cold and, intimidated by the persecution to which faithful Christians are subjected, will defect from the faith, betraying fellow believers (verses 9-10). False prophets will arise bringing false hopes or exploiting the immature faith of some believers (verse 11).. Entrusted with stewardship of the gospel, the complacency of some believers, who will think that they have time to get away with sin before the Master Jesus returns, will cause them to treat other believers harshly (verses 48-49). (Although nobody knows when Jesus is returning, can there be any doubt that these very behaviors are exhibited and have been exhibited within the Church since Jesus’ ascension?)

But, Jesus is says “the master,” Jesus Himself, is one day returning. He’ll do so without forewarning. And, He says, He will destroy “the hypocrites,” those who have made it their lifestyles to breezily ignore Jesus’ lordship over their lives. He will consign them to a special place of punishment reserved for hypocrites.  

Listen: I am a hypocrite. That’s part of why Christ and His Church are so important to me. Where else would a hypocrite, aware of his sins and hypocrisy about them, go? I know that I need Jesus. “Lord, to whom shall we go?” Peter asked Jesus. “You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68)

Where else am I to go to hear God’s Word of condemnation for my hypocrisy as well as God’s Word of grace for those who repent for their hypocrisy? I must go to the Church to hear this Word, to have it claim me in Baptism, to have it fill me in Communion. I must go to the Word in the book the Holy Spirit gave to and through Christ's Church, the Bible.

In the fellowship of the Church, my complacency is challenged and my life is called from hypocrisy to authentic preparation for one day seeing Jesus face to face.

A friend, a fellow believer, in whom I reposed great confidence, aware of an abiding sin in my life, once asked me, “Do you ever read your own sermons?”

That friend was lovingly confronting me with a hypocrisy in my life, an area in which, despite my confession of faith in Christ, my desire to conform my life to God’s will, and the very sermons I preached, caused me to  breezily and complacently ignore God’s call to me for repentance and faith.

My friend was calling me out of hypocrisy. This loving administration of the Law drove me in repentance to Christ, the One to Whom all hypocrites must go for grace, with its forgiveness, restoration, and new life.

It helps me to know, through the fellowship of the Church, that I’m not the only one who struggles with the temptation to complacent hypocrisy. The Church is meant to be a hospital and a support group for recovering hypocrites, for people who want to live faithfully for Jesus but still sin. (And therefore need Jesus every day and into eternity.) The Church is a place for those who are simultaneously saints, saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus, and sinners who deal with the reality of their sin until the day they die.

The apostle Paul knew of this struggle. Hw wrote revealingly in Romans:

“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

“So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law;  but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 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.” (Romans 7:15-25)

So, we’re all hypocrites, even Saint Paul.

Does that mean we should go on being hypocritical despite Jesus’ words in Matthew 24? As Paul would write elsewhere when asking if Christians should therefore go on willfully sinning, “By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:2)

We are to neither keep living in complacent hypocrisy nor in fear that because we are hypocrites, we’re irredeemable. Those are both pathways to death and they’re not of Christ.

The question isn’t whether I’m a hypocrite or not. If I’m living, I am a hypocrite. If I’m a Christian and live hypocritically, denying my sin and my need of grace, I should feel authentic guilty and turn to Jesus for forgiveness and the power to live in Him alone (Hebrews 6:4-6).

When I acknowledge my hypocrisy, the question is: What do I do with my hypocrisy?

Do I ignore it?

Do I embrace it?

Do I falsely cling to the notion that Christ justifies the sin along with the sinner?

Or do I daily turn to Christ, confessing all of my sins, including my hypocrisy, and take shelter in the grace of God given in Christ, trusting that, as I allow Christ to tear the sins and hypocrisy in which I live and that I love from my life, He will replace it all with Himself?

Hypocrites need Jesus and can be daily saved by Jesus.

Thank God for that, because when it comes time for me to meet God face to face, I don’t want to stand there with my hypocrisy--the false faces I wore to fool the world into thinking that I was righteous--as my only justification and defense. I want to be covered by Jesus so that as the Lord looks at this sinner, it’s Jesus He sees, not me. That’s who I want God the Father to see in me as I come to Him this morning, this day.

I want to be covered by Jesus, filled with Jesus, protected from myself by Jesus. Even when I want what I want, I will turn to Jesus and ask Him to help me to want Him more.

And I will trust in Him to overcome my hypocrisy and all of my other sins, to conquer me, to keep making me a new creation.

Respond: Father God, for the sake of Jesus Christ, God the Son, forgive my hypocrisies. Cover me in the grace Jesus died and rose to give to sinners like me and help me to be an authentic, grateful disciple of Jesus who daily seeks to follow Him. Amen

[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

Grace and Wrath

Here's the journal entry from my quiet time with God today. This contains an explanation of how I approach this time with God.

Look: “Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?’” (Revelation 6:15-17) 

The day of Jesus’ return, when He will judge the living and the dead and usher in the new heavens and the new earth, will not be a happy time for those who have relied on their own wisdom, who have wielded power without the call or guidance of God.
It won’t be a happy day for anyone, “slave and free,” if they haven’t trusted in Christ to spare them from the wrath that we reap when we set out to be our own gods (Genesis 3:5). 

In fact, absent repentance and faith in Christ, we cannot be saved from the wrath to come (Matthew 3:7). 

Wrath, as I understand it, is less an action of God, than it is the inevitable result of living life contrary to the will of God. We choose wrath when we choose not to follow Christ. Wrath (and death) belong to us when we fail to turn from sin and fail to trust in Christ, Who alone can give us new life and grace. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). 

According to John’s vision, those who have gone their own ways (Isaiah 53:6; Proverbs 16:25), will beg God to destroy them rather than to be forced to come into the presence the blinding holiness of the Lamb or deal with His wrath. 

Listen: As uncomfortable as it is, I need to share this truth with others. 

God says, “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?” (Ezekiel 18:23) 

People need to hear about the wrath to come in order to know God’s desire for them to avoid it. 

Also, I must be careful that in “handling the holy,” I don’t take God and His grace for grantedH, that I not become immune to His call for continuing repentance and belief in Christ. 

This must be part of what the preacher in Hebrews 6:4-6, is getting at when he says: “It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.” (I readily confess not to fully understanding all of the implications of these words.) 

Finally, I need to call out self-righteousness, in myself and others. There are broods of hypocritical vipers in Christ’s Church today (Matthew 3:7). They’re weeds among the wheat and Christ will deal with them at the judgment (Matthew 13:24-30). They’re wolves in lamb’s clothing (Matthew 7:15). They’re “whitewashed tombs” (Matthew 23:27-28). They turn Christian faith into a series of dos and don’ts. (Although they themselves fail to keep their preferred versions of “Biblical morality.”) People must be warned about them and their capacity to tempt us away from humble faith (Galatians 6:1). 

Respond: Daily, it seems, in ways I haven’t experienced before, I am being called upon to speak the hard truth about:

• How the God of the universe views sin and self-righteousness. 
• How God wants desperately to save us and how Christ’s death and resurrection brings that salvation to those who repent and believe. 
• How we must not see the gift of salvation as our achievement or reflective of our virtue. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9) 

Wrath is real. People who have run from God throughout their lives or made God into a pliant caricature who approves of our sins, will run from wrath on the day of Jesus' return. But God’s grace overcomes wrath for those who repent and believe, not just as a rote affirmation or in a single thrilling moment, but all through our lives--in this ups, the downs, and everywhere in between--as we live in humble communion with Christ and His Church. 

Today, help me to heed this call, the call You give to every Christian, Lord. In Jesus’ name.

[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]