Nudge Not The Hand

I write this morning for my benefit, and if God wills for my children or grandchildren someday. If somehow it is helpful to the one and a half people who read my blog, then that will be an added benefit, I suppose.

What the Spirit of God has urgently impressed upon me this morning is something that I want to put down and return to frequently because I am so weak in remembering things that I ought to remember.

Recently I have been like a child learning from his father to ride a bike, or I have been like a hard-headed child learning to ride a bike. Imagine the father of this child first looking through his picture window at his son crashing and burning time and again. His son is bleeding and bruised and finally frustrated. The father had asked his son several times if he would like some help, but his son had refused each time. But, the father had sensed that his son was about to quit. He sneaked up behind his battered son and gently took hold of the seat of the bike as the son pedaled down the street. The son looked back and smiled from ear to ear as he realized how fun it was to ride a bike and how much his father loved him. Up and down the drive they go with the son smiling from ear to ear.

After a few trips, the boy’s pride once again grips him; he reaches back and gently nudges his father’s hand away. Without saying the words, he is saying to his Father, “I can do it by myself.” 

The patient father releases his grip but compassionately stays right behind. The little boy begins leaning; his front wheel begins to jerk back and forth; he does not even notice that he is heading for a deep ditch. The father again takes the back of the seat, rescuing his son from an inevitable disaster. This time, the son remembers. While yet hard-headed and far from becoming an expert cyclist, he has at least begun to learn the need he has of his father. He is little aware of the injury that awaited him if his loving father had not been there for the rescue.

This illustration breaks down if carried out, for though this little boy may learn to ride a bike without the instruction of his father, I will never be able to walk through this life without the instruction of and obedience to my heavenly Father.

The Lord has been gracious over the past few years to teach me that my sonship had nothing to do with my choice. I love Him because he first loved me. Learning that salvation has been all of grace, all of God, and all for His glory has been humbling and assuring.

Now, assured of my sonship by His word, rather than my performance as a redeemed son, I am often like a hard-headed child, nudging my Father’s hand from my life and by this saying, “I can do it by myself.”

All of Paul and Peter’s epistles first lay the foundation of our sonship as being a work of God alone for His glory alone:

“...to all who are beloved of God...called as saints…” (Romans 1:7) 

“to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling…” (I Corinthians 1:2)

“...who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen.” (Galatians 1:4-5)

“But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying “Abba! Father! Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.” (Galatians 4:4-7).

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to the adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:3-6)

“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6)

“For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:13-14)

“And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach” (Colossians 1:21-22)

“We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father, knowing, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you; for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction…” (I Thessalonians 1:2-5)

“Peter...to those...who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…” (I Peter 1:1-3)

“To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence,” (2 Peter 1:1-3)

So now, after this much-needed refresher on who has rescued me from inevitable disaster, I thrust myself into His arms to keep me safe. He has given me His Spirit, who He jealously desires to dwell in me (James 4). 

Once, an uneducated man who was without much education in the Bible, and had grown up in a criminal environment, said to me: “I think the most important verse for a Christian must be ‘quench not the Spirit.’” That stuck with me. I think he was on to something.

The peace that the Lord gives by the forgiveness of sin is corrupted when our life is full of ease and comfort, and material blessing. We think we are riding along just fine, and before we know it, and we nudge the Spirit away with little compromises. Perhaps God has not called us to yield all of our bodies as a living sacrifice. Maybe we CAN serve God and money. Maybe these little idols of mindless entertainment, earthly kingdom-mindedness, and idle words and meditations are not hindrances to my calling as a Son.

But God has warned us in many places to be sober, vigilant, ready, walking worthy, running, holy, free of idols, suffering, loving, and living as seated in heavenly places. Yet, as our adoption as sons was wrought by His power, so will be our obedience as sons.

Without even a backward glance, I so often nudge the hand of the Father (the indwelling Spirit) from my life. I begin to lean, but my childish ignorance does not notice; my wheel jerks back and forth, but I smile in my selfish indulgence; I do no see the ditch lurking, but my loving heavenly father gently takes hold with a kind smile, for He has given His life for me. He will never let me go. I have heard His voice.

Clothed Not Crushed (Birthday Thoughts)

Today is my 42nd birthday. Just saying those words highlights that indeed as the Scriptures say life is like a vapor that appears and then vanishes, and all flesh is like grass - beautiful today but gone tomorrow.

I wanted to put thoughts on paper today that I could share in return for the kind words and wishes that my friends and family send to me today. Those who write me well-wishes today for the most part see me as a good guy worthy in some way of at least some sort of praise and at least one special day of spoiling and pampering. I appreciate that and am grateful that I even have such a thing as friends and family who love me and care to let me know that they are thinking of me and that they appreciate me. But my desire here is to turn their thoughts as much as possible away from me and away from themselves and to think rather on the great love of God and the indescribable mercies of God given to us freely through the shedding of the blood of His Son the Lord Jesus - my master to whom I am joyfully enslaved.

That said, I think one of the best ways to do this is to highlight first the wretchedness of the man to whom you are wishing well and to some degree praising. Now, if I were to do so in a very specific way such as to lay out before you all of my specific disobediences, lusts, prideful thoughts, angry thoughts, better than you thoughts, and outright breaking of God’s laws from just this 41st year of my life, you would not be so anxious to send such warm wishes next year. You would wonder “how could God love such a sinner, and is it right for me to do so?” Because you do love me and because you have seen the grace of God at work in my life you would be conflicted as you are when you read of Noah’s drunkeness after God saved Him from His wrathful judgment upon the earth, or Abraham’s lies to save his own skin even over the molestation of his own wife, or Jacob’s lies and deceit, or Lot’s (dare I even type it out), or David’s adultery and murder, or Peter’s denial and cursing of the one who had said “follow me”. You would be tempted to put out of your mind that you know those things about me and would try to focus on the good that you know about me.

If this is how you would react to my listing of my true wretchedness, then perhaps you need either a reminder of or maybe even a beginner lesson in the great salvation of God and how much He is to be praised for His rescue of sinners. As shocked as you would be to know the hidden evils of my heart, it may be that our reaction to such news that the description of man in Romans 1 is actually true in the lives of those we know shows that we actually have a light view of sin. We still think that it can be erased by balancing the scales with more good than bad. We think that the outward is more important than the inward and we say to each other subtly…”we aren’t that bad”, or “look over here at this good thing that I have done”, or “look at the changes in my life”. Rather I say to you that the sins of the Bible men I mentioned are as evil in the sight of the Lord as they have ever been and when our imagination begins to deal with their sin by seeing if their obedience and good works outweighed their disobedience, we are ignorant of the gospel. In the same way when today you feel even a bit uncomfortable with me ( a good guy in your mind) telling you - no, I’m not and in fact I’m not in many of the same terrible ways that those men were not.

Yesterday I read in the letters of John Newton (the author of Amazing Grace) a response to a friend who was concerned about certain Bible passages that are difficult to understand fully but seem to imply that perhaps even the sins of believers will be exposed at the judgment seat. While Newton did not give a firm exposition of the passage, instead admitting that they were difficult to understand, he did comfort his friend by writing that perhaps if this is indeed to be the case then it must be that the glory of God in His salvation of only sinners will be the great highlight of that day by reminding sinners the sinfulness of their sin and the greatness of His salvation.

So, if I’ve made you wonder - how bad is this guy that I am wishing happy birthday to? Well, yes whatever your imagination might come up with - it’s worse. While I am not a criminal in respect to the laws of earth (by God’s grace only), I have broken every one of God’s commandments in some way. I will break more. Does God overlook them? Did God overlook the idol worship, adultery, murder, deceit, and denial of the men of the Bible whom Sunday School teachers have taught us were heroes? Absolutely not. In fact, He hates sin with a deadly hatred. It cannot be overlooked. The criminal cannot tell the judge that he’s sorry and he will not do it again. These crimes against the Creator can only be paid for with a dreadful price. That price is the shedding of blood. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin.

So who is this man that you praise if even just a little? He was born a son of Adam - a rebel agaist God, dead in his sins and lawbreaking, awaiting the just wrath of God. But God in His great mercy promised on that day that there would be a seed of the woman who would crush the deceiver Satan. He had promised death for disobedience but rather than crush Adam and Eve with the death deserved, He demonstrated His wrath at sin by shedding the blood of an innocent animal and clothing the shame of Adam and Eve in the skin of that innocent animal ultimately as a demonstration of His final salvation by sending His own son the Lord Jesus (as that innocent lamb) to bear upon His own body the wrath of God at sin. All of my wretchedness at which I have left you only guessing deserved a million times over the deadly wrath of God. I did not deserve to have a 2nd birthday, much less a 42nd birthday. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved.) and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:4-10).

So as you congratulate me on another birthday, let it be known that I am His workmanship. I am clothed in a righteousness not my own. Jesus was crushed by the wrath of God and He rose from the dead giving my life by His Spirit. Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling. I hide myself in Him. Just as God brought Noah into the ark to save Him from His wrath, He has brought me into Christ. I am safe in Him. He has made me a new creature that hates my sin, confesses my sin, wars with my sin, and longs to be with Him where I will be like Him for I will see Him as He is.

Thank you my friend and those who love me for your warm birthday wishes. Let what very little of Christ has been at so few times been demonstrated in me point you not to a good man, but to the Savior of men - the Lord Jesus Christ. If you are not yet reconciled to God, you never can be without it being all of God and all of grace. Believe on the Lord Jesus today, look on His wonderful face , the lamb of God. For He was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be the righteousness of God in Him. Are you safe from the wrath of God by being in Christ or are you still trying to bring your own offering?

To the praise of the glory of His grace I write these things today. I can’t wait to be with Him at His feet saying loudly “worthy is the lamb who was slain”!