Four weeks of school have passed. I can't accurately relate the level of learning I have been going through. It's just like living in a green house with regular doses of fertiliser to extend the growth even more.We always have two or so books on the go that we're required to read, as well as a mammoth text book, "Grasping God's Word" that we need to be reading chapter by chapter and also reading allocations of the Bible throughout all of this. I'm pretty sure that I've already done more reading in this first four weeks than I did all throughout my teaching degree... (no comment necessary!)
The main theme I have been learning is the importance of having a relationship with God like that of a son or daughter and simultaneously allowing Him to work in us to remove the orphan mindset that all humans are born with and replacing our orphaned spirits with His Spirit - the Spirit that gives life. Let me explain a little more.
In one of my previous blogs (Orphans or Heirs?) I talked about this, but at that point it was an interesting topic that was close to my heart. But now, I'm realising that I'm still dealing with orphan issues. Even though I grew up knowing that God loved me - it was only in the last two years that I learned that God also liked me. He thought I was fun. He liked hanging out with me. I knew God loved me. He has to. It's His job. It's what He does. He's in the love business. But like? There are so many scriptures about God's love, but where are the scriptures about God's like? Who did He like? What did He like about them? I don't know. David's heart? Abraham's faith? Isaiah's prophesies? Gideon's weaknesses? The trouble is, when we look to Old Testament people, we don't get an accurate view of God's relationship to us. You see, the Old Testament or the Old Covenant is just that. Old. Man was still separated from a personal relationship with God because of sin. There are exceptions who managed to break through and have a friendship with God, but not many. Remember that The Law, or Covenant, was made between God and Moses for the Israelites. Before Moses, the people lived under Grace. There was no sacrifice for sin before the Law. Repentance, yes. Sacrifice, no. And let me clear something up quickly. Repentance is changing our thinking. It's realising that our current behaviour or beliefs are wrong and we need the Spirit of Truth to help us replace those unhelpful misbeliefs into God's truth. Repentance is not sacrifice anymore.
Under the Law the people had to offer a blood sacrifice for their sins. That is, until Jesus came in our place. "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world" (Jn 1:29) is how John the Baptist announced Jesus. Jesus came from Heaven, to live as a man, so that all of the world - past, present and future - might have access to God our Father. Jesus lived a perfect life. And died a sacrificial death not only that we may go to Heaven, but more importantly that we will be reunited with our Dad.
Jesus is perfect theology. If we believe anything about the Father that we don't see in Jesus, then we need to search the Spirit for His answer to our questions. Ok. I hear your thoughts. What about all the killing and wrath and anger in the Old Testament? God told the Israelites to kill entire nations. I haven't studied into this much so I'm not prepared to speculate. But what I do know is what the Bible says. Hebrews 9 mentions that when you have a will - you need to prove the death of the one who made it for it to come into effect. Jesus died so that the old will, the old covenant, would be fulfilled. Therefore a new will, or new covenant was made and this is demonstrated through the words of Jesus. While He was on earth he was proclaiming what? The will of the Father. The new covenant. But you can't have two wills in place. The new one overwrites the old one. The old one is null and void. If a rich grandpa dies and his two children are at the lawyer's office both holding different versions of their father's will - which one will be accepted? The latest one. Usually the previous one gets destroyed so there is no conflict of interest.
In the case of the Bible, the old covenant is made redundant, but it is contained in the history and chronicles of Israel. God is just. He is wise. He is good. This is not to say that he doesn't experience any other forms of emotions, on the contrary - He is as emotional as us. Or maybe it's better to say that we are as emotional as Him - we are created in His image. But He knows how to manage His emotions. We, however, are still learning. So sometimes we look at God in the Old Testament and put our own emotions into his words or actions and build a picture of Him in our minds. Maybe we think God is scared of sin. He can't be near it. This is true. But the good news is that Jesus already paid our price for sin!! We still sin, but the consequences of sin have been paid for!! We are no longer separated from God by sin. Not on his part anyway. The slate has been wiped clean. The price is paid. It is finished.
The problem comes when we think that our sin separates us.That we're too 'dirty' to be friends or children of God. Those thoughts there are the only thing that will separate you from a relationship with Father God. The Bible tells us that nothing can separate us from God's love (Romans 8:39). But we are perfectly capable of separating ourselves and distancing ourselves from His love. He'll never stop loving us, but as long as we feel we don't deserve it - we will struggle to believe and feel it. Let's look at a typical example with foster children. Often they go through life where people love them conditionally. When they do the right thing. When they say the right words. When they look just right. Whatever. They learn very quickly that they are unlovable (in their opinion). They believe nobody wants them. They believe they can't do anything right. And so that's who they become. Until someone takes them in who loves them for how God sees them. Someone who loves them for who they were destined to be. Something that people from good homes think will change their lives and turn their behaviour around. But it doesn't happen. Often these children have experienced good things, or blessings, with a price. Nothing ever comes for free. Heard that before? Often, these children don't know how to cope with this unconditional love because they've never experienced it before. They don't understand it. They don't believe it. They get suspicious. They will likely run away because they can't stand waiting for the moment when something is required of them. The more goodness they receive - the higher the price. It's all they've ever known. But in time, with wisdom and nurture, they will start to understand that nothing is required. They get food because they are part of the family. They get an allowance because they belong. They can have a close, trusting relationship with their new parents because their new parents already loved them before they could perform for love. The parents already decided that this child would be loved no matter what. If the child ran away, the parents would always keep looking. That there would be no anger. No punishment. There would be loving discipline and teaching.
This is how it works with an ideal foster family in this sinful world. How much more does our Dad long to gather us into himself and love on us. He doesn't do punishment anymore - He doesn't have to. Jesus took our punishment. There's this thing called double jeopardy and if you don't know what it means, it means that you can't be charged twice for the same crime. There is a movie based around this theme where a lady gets framed for her husband's murder and she goes to prison and serves her sentence. When she gets out she finds out he's alive and goes out to kill him. When she kills him, she can't go to jail again because she was already found guilty of murdering her husband and already served her time for it. Jesus already 'served our time'. He paid the price for EVERY sin - past, present and future. So if we are waiting for God to punish us for our sins - it's not going to happen. If we think that God is punishing us - you're loyal to a lie. God will not punish us for something that's already been punished.
So, if you're avoiding sin because you're avoiding punishment - make your next moves very carefully. Our motivation for not sinning should not be avoiding punishment - it should be to maintain relationship. I need to get to a place where I see that my sins affect other people as well as myself. Lying to someone is not loving them. Lying to myself is not loving me. If I'm loyal to lies then it's likely that I will feel distant from my Dad in heaven. Not because He can't come near my sin, but because I have an understanding of Him that's not real. But when we mess up, instead of going all internal and getting down on ourselves for sinning, try this. Try imagining yourself in front of God. Lift your eyes up, and say sorry. Ask Him to show you where you went wrong. Ask Him to expose the lie you were believing. Listen to His Spirit. He will tell you. Sometimes it's good to go through this process with a friend too. Ask Him for His truth that will replace the lie and start living life according to that truth.
I'm in the place where I need to let God's truth sink into my very being. Instead of running away when He showers me with goodness that I feel I don't deserve, I should run to Him and ask Him to replace those thoughts with His truth. The fact of the matter is - none of us deserve what Jesus did. So the fact that we can receive this gift for no other reason than God loves us - means also that there's nothing we can do to lose that gift. I want to release an encounter with God upon you that you might experience the wonderful goodness of God's love. That you won't run, or question it, or expect that He's going to ask you to pay up. Relax in it. Crawl into His lap and understand that you are His child and He already gave His son so that you might be in relationship with Him forever.
