Building On the Truth of Love

I had an interesting experience recently.  Someone asked me a question…how do you balance being on the path of spiritual growth and maturity and the other side of the situation that we are a bunch of miserable sinners.  I thought that this was an amazing question, and it zones in on what so many Christians deal with…their identity in Christ.  

My answer to this wonderful lady was this.  It depends on where your story starts.  Does it start in Genesis 1 where God made all things, including people (you and me) and pronounced it good?  Or does it start in Genesis 3 after the fall?  I prefer to start my story in Genesis 1 and believe that God’s original intent will be completed in me.  He will complete what He has started.  I thought she was going to cry.  She said that not in her entire life had she been told this…and it is right in the Bible.  

I also shared with her that in Christ’s time and the early church, it was understood that we were born saved and only could be lost if we chose that path.  During Augustine’s time, he initiated the doctrine of original sin…that we are born lost and have to work really hard and convince God that we are worth saving.  It isn’t in the Bible.  It came from a man.  When I learned this, I finally understood why I felt that there was such discrepancy between God’s word and what I heard from the pulpit at church.  All of Christianity has chosen to follow and teach something that came from man. 

Why does it matter?  It matters because of what it says about God.  Is He for us?  Or against us?  God didn’t have to be convinced to save us.  Jesus is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the earth.  For God so loved that He gave His only begotten Son.  Knowing the truth about this makes Scripture make sense.  It is this type of deceit that has done huge damage to the image of God and made the Scriptures seem incongruent.  

I was raised with a get-you god.  He has you under his finger just ready to squash you.  Lots of people have the same hopelessness about themselves that this lady had.  Her question was honest.  Why would I want to go on a journey of spiritual maturity and emotional healing just to find a mad, vengeful God at the end of that journey.  And another part of the scenario is this idea that we are hopeless and beyond redemption…we just never seem to get it right.  I met someone one time who used to visit with me on Monday mornings.  It was a real challenge.  She had been to church the day before, and each Monday she came in spiritually beaten up.  God’s name and identity had suffered a severe blow at her church.  She never could get to the truth of who she is in Christ because she never heard the truth about God.

I have said it before, and it is worth repeating the story of the woman caught in adultery.  Her story is ours.  She was set up and deceived…trapped in a plot that would be used to trap Jesus.  When her pre-planned exposure gave her accusers the opportunity of throwing her at the feet of Jesus and demanding her death by the law, Jesus/God stepped in.  Jesus stooped down and started writing the sins of the accusers in the sand.  He that is without sin cast the first stone.  Their sins had been revealed.  They had no right to accuse.  This story is our story in the Garden of Eden.  We were  set up, deceived, and tossed at the feet of God.  He stepped in and made a way for us to come out from under the condemnation of the Accuser of the brethren.  Then we have an opportunity for “go and sin no more.”  Every day we have opportunities for do-overs.  It is when we get stuck in these lies that we are unloved by God and hopeless that we just are not able  to have the courage for trying again.  

In the example of Jesus on the earth, we have a visual aid of “on earth as is in heaven.”  He is bringing us a walking, talking, living, breathing, loving example of Heaven’s love for us.  Go to the Red Words in the Bible and start finding the truth about God/Jesus.  Jesus said that if you have seen Him, you have seen the father.  Any perception that is not of this is a distortion of men creating God in their own image.  God is love.   Sometimes our own experiences of familial abuse at home and spiritual abuse from the church has given us an experience of being caught and tossed at the feet of a vengeful  god.  Sometimes I hear people say: I must not be living right because such and such bad thing is happening.  This is another distortion of truth that turns the relationship with God into a business transaction.  This is western man’s way of sorting things out..not God’s character at all.  

The gospel is called the good news.  The meaning of “gospel” is that "the enemy is defeated and a new king is in charge."  That is the message.  Not a bunch of doctrine.  We are to go and teach others that a new King is in charge…the Kingdom has been taken back.  Praise God.