The chastening of our Lord is not easy.
And it is not about punishing us for not doing enough.
Following a set of rules, and doing more or less, all of this appeals to us.
We live in a world drowning with suggestions, tips, commandments.
Jesus invites us to receive Himself and His caring:
"28Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Matthew 11: 28-30)
and then
"The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10: 10)
For so long, I have spent my time looking at my thoughts and feeling, convinced that how I felt or what I was thinking was blocking me from seeing and receiving more of Jesus in my life.
God does not ask us to fix ourselves, but rather to fix our eyes on Jesus:
"1If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." (Colossians 3: 1-4)
This is the harder struggle. So much in our lives, our prior experience tempts us to look at ourselves, to fix ourselves.
Yet even if we do, we should not despair, because Jesus is right there, in fact He is right here, guiding us and living in us.
He asks us to take His yoke, and let Him lead. Too many have turned this invitation into another work, but Jesus was not kidding when He said "My burden is easy, and my yoke is light."
When we see what He accomplished at the Cross, taking our sin, becoming son, and making us the righteousness of God in Him, then we are transformed from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3: 18)
We are not transformed by fixing ourselves, or looking at ourselves, but looking at all that Jesus is and has done for us:
"25But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." (James 1: 25)
Now, many will read this and say: "Look at the Ten Commandments", but the Mosaic Law, the Ten Commandments, is a ministry of condemnation and death:
"4And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: 5Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; 6Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." (2 Corinthians 3: 4-6)
The letter kills, people. How can we have liberty if we are dead?
"7But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: 8How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? 9For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. 10For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. 11For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious." (2 Corinthians 3:7-11)
So, what is James talking about?
A little translation adjustment will help. James actually writes about "The perfected law of liberty."
How was the law perfected, or completed? Through Jesus' death on the Cross:
"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." (Matthew 5: 17)
and
"13And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it." (Colossians 2: 13-15)
Jesus rendered the law inoperative against us because He fulfilled all of its demands:
"1There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (Romans 8: 1-4)
In the passage above, we find the law that we look on, that we meditate on: the law of the spirit of life.
The Holy Spirit now lives in us and guides us:
"4Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. 5For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. 6But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." (Romans 7:4-6)
and also
"20But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things." (1 John 2: 20)
and also
"27But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him." (1 John 2: 27)
As we focus on Himself, and receive His righteousness and grace, we reign in life, and the sins, hurts, bad habits, addictions do not.
Not by trying to remove the bad in our lives, but receiving the better what He has given us.
No comments:
Post a Comment