lion rebel

Recently I was reading in Peter’s second letter in the New Testament and I came across a verse that caused me to realize that I needed to grow in knowledge. (“Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance…” 1.5, 6) I spent the next two or three months discovering every where that the Bible talked about knowledge; the knowledge of God was primarily what I found and spent my time on. I decided this was important because Peter said that they key to self-control was knowledge. Needless to say I felt super-Christian as I “gained” knowledge and understood more what it meant to have a knowledge of God. I mean, I spent months on it, picking apart verses, finding new meanings – it was a great time of growth in my relationship with God.

And now, six months later, I find Paul saying this in the first three verses of his letter to the Romans in chapter ten: “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved…They are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Coincidentally, in my search for knowledge, I discovered my understanding of the righteousness of God was lacking as well – and I spent a large amount of time on that. But these six months later, I am discovering that my own “knowledge” has built myself up – on my own standards, my own abilities. Just like the Israelites. What’s interesting to me is that Paul says that the Israelites zeal was not based on knowledge – it was, just the wrong kind of knowledge. These people knew the book of the Law forwards and backwards. They knew their history, they knew what God had done, but they never equated it with his righteousness.

In submission to God’s righteousness, we find true peace and life. When we establish our own righteousness, we fall far short, every time.

What I want is to be zealous – but not zealous because I’m a “super-Christian” – rather I want to be zealous because I know the goodness of God and what he’s done and how he will never let me fall if I simply trust him and his ways. Glory to God!

Romans 3:9-20

What shall we conclude then?  Do we have any advantage?  Not at all!  We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles are alike under the power of sin.  As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”
“Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.”
The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
ruin and misery mark their ways,
and the way of peace they do not know.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

            Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.  Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by observing the law; rather through the law we become conscious of our sin.

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This passage stirs a few things in my heart.  I read it a few times yesterday and I was really challenged by Paul’s use of the Psalms to describe the lack of righteousness and God-seeking people.  Mostly because as I read the words I felt like I was being described in one way or another. 

The first thing that speaks to my heart is the very fact that I am not righteous!  I try hard to be – but truth is, I’m not.  Truth is I am quite unrighteous and I try to find my satisfaction in being good and right.  But I am not – I constantly struggle with pride, selfishness, and fear of what others think of me.  So I try to be good, I try to look pretty, I attempt to be perfect. 

But I fall short.

Every time.

Every time.

And that is why Paul tells us that “through the law we become conscious of our sin.”  There is no perfection in the law – only observance of imperfection.

Yet, the other thing that stirs in my heart is to be the opposite of the first Psalm, Psalm 14, that Paul quotes:  There is one who is righteous, there is one who understands – but only because he seeks God.  He does not turn away, and he does good because his only pursuit is that of God.  And in God, he finds satisfaction and wholeness.

:My goal::Our goal:
to acknowledge that righteousness by pursuit of the law is not righteousness at all.

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Romans 3:1-4

What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision?  Much in every way!  First of all, the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God.  What if some were unfaithful?  Will their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness?  Not at all!  Let God be true, and every human being be a liar.  As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.”

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There is a bigger scheme of things here that Paul is getting at.  But for the moment we’re going to focus on the minutiae.  By using the Jews as an example, he proves here that mankind does not do away with God’s righteousness just because they have been unrighteous.  I think this has to do with his desire for us to have free will, in itself proving that he is righteous no matter what.  What dictator has ever been truthfully called righteous?  None that I know of – so because of God’s willingness to allow us to be unrighteous or unfaithful, he proves his own righteousness and his own faithfulness.  It is in our discrepancies that God’s truth is made known – that he loves us and cares for us and wants to be in right relationship with us.  If everyone was perfect because God dictated it there would be no life to be found in the midst of mankind!  We’d all be drones, drowning in our perfection, never fully satisfied.  It is in our desire to be one with him that we are fully complete.  God’s faithfulness is proved through his willingness to let us screw up so that we can come back to his arms with rejoicing and gladness.

:My goal::Our goal:
to participate in life with God, proving his faithfulness to us.

Romans 1:21-32

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.  Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal human beings and birds and animals and reptiles.

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.  They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever praised.  Amen.

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts.  Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.  In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.  Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.  They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.  They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice.  They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.  Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

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“They…exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal human beings…”  Knowing what I know about God, his righteousness and his response to man’s unrighteousness, it is incredible to me that man would have ever walked away from the glory of the immortal God.  Yet, I walk away, I choose my own glory, the glory that is in the image of mortal me. 

It must have broken his heart – but he did it anyway – he allowed men to have their way.  He has allowed them to destroy themselves if they must.  I cannot imagine what that must feel like.  It must shred his heart to see mankind turn away from him, from his immortal glory, his immortal riches, his immortal greatness for things that will never last.  It is so plain to see, right now, in this moment.  But I know, at some point, either later today or tomorrow, it will make more sense to me to indulge in the depravity of my sinful nature.  Why?  Because I “did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God.”

How do you retain knowledge of God?  How did I retain all that sports knowledge that I’ve got locked up in my brain?  By going over it, again and again, never tiring of the “benefits” of it – never tiring of the “glory” I received from it.  It can be the same – it takes growing your appetite for God and his ways, his truth and his life.

:My goal::Our goal:
to retain knowledge of God and not walk in the ways of mortal men, but of the immortal God

Romans 1:18-20

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of human beings who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

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God has made it plain – he has made known what may be known about him.  Even just wrapping my mind around that is difficult.  Apparently, there are things about God that cannot be known.  Why?  Well – he’s God, I guess, and I suppose there are aspects to his nature that are too difficult for us to understand.  And yet, it is amazing to me what qualities have God have been made known: his invisible qualities, such as eternal power and divine nature.  Paul says they have been clearly seen – and that gives people no excuse to live apart from God.

Yet, just as his righteousness is being revealed, so is his wrath, because there are those of us who, by our wickedness and godlessness, repel the righteousness of God.  It seems that he is specifically speaking about those who know the truth of God, yet stand against it.

The scary thing about that is, too often, I am that man.  Rarely on purpose, but out of the rote repetition of my life, the bad habits I have instilled, distract from the beautiful truth of God.  There is a thing of repentance that needs to be walked out.  To turn away from godlessness and wickedness, and wallow in the grace of God, allowing his spirit to conform me to his ways.

:My goal::Our goal:
to walk in the truth, not in godlessness, repentant and in awe of his invisible qualities.

Romans 1:11-17

I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong – that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles. 

I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish.  That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.  For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed – a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”

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Paul’s reason for wanting to be in Rome is two-fold: his desire to impart and receive spiritual gifts for the purpose of edification, and his desire to preach the gospel to those in Rome.  I like how he is straight up – he is truthful in that he wants to visit them so that he can be with them and encourage as well as be encouraged, but he also wants to be there because he knows that the harvest is ripe and ready for the “power of God” to bring salvation. 

                  That changes everything about “preaching.”  In my limited viewpoint it has often been about me getting up on stage and convincing people to change their lives somehow – but for Paul, as it should be for everyone, it was about allowing the power of God to work through him and bring salvation to those who believe. 

                  And it is all about the righteousness of God being revealed.  I have got to believe that people are not satisfied with their dirty lives – I know that I am not and that I struggle with it every day.  Why would the mess satisfy those students who are too cool for school?  Under the covering, I know they have to hate it and want out.  I know that I did – even though I probably didn’t realize it until after the fact.  There is a certain level of self-awareness that must take place. 

                  It is about learning righteousness and faith.  Living by faith – that is how the righteous do it. 

:My goal::Our goal:

to preach the gospel unashamedly – and to live by faith.

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Recently I have been thoroughly investigating righteousness and it’s relationship to God and man.  That was based on my discovery that I was lacking in self-control based on my inadequate knowledge of God and who I am because of God.  I learned that God is righteousness – it is the foundation of his throne.  Therefore, if God is righteous and he made me in his image, I am to be righteous as well – in fact, because of Christ’s sacrifice, I already am [justification] and I am becoming more righteous leading up to the day of Christ’s triumphant return.  I am becoming what I already am.  It seems confusing, but it’s the beauty of the mystery of Christ.  It’s not always something to be understood – but accepted.  This is my faith.  

And so with that knowledge I press on.  Peter says, “Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ our Lord.  His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.  Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
      For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance, and to perseverance, godliness, and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.  For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ…For if you do these things you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

It is interesting – Peter says that grace and peace is ours, in abundance!, through our knowledge of God and Christ.  How often am I at war with myself, feeling uneasy or that I am not good enough for the grace of God?  Yet all it takes is a better understanding of God.  If you struggle with living righteously, take some time to better understand God [it's a life long process for sure!].  And then note the next sentence – Jesus, with his divine power, gives us everything we need to live righteously [a godly life], again, through our knowledge of him.  Note the phrase “divine power.”  Divine comes from the Latin word divus, which simply means god-like.  Power finds its root in the Latin word posse, which simply means to be able.  Jesus has godlike ability, which is important because through that godlike power he gives us promises which lead to our ability [or power] to participate in the godlike nature.  Nature comes from the Latin word natura, which means birth or quality of something.

To be able to be like God – righteous, just, self-controlled, loving, peaceful, joyful, faithful, patient, kind, gentle, and many more things – is inherent in us – if only we would turn and learn, turn and grow, turn and be.  That is bigger than big.  That is life changing.  Knowing God is the most important thing.  Being with him is the result.

Exploring man’s varying responses to righteousness:

1. an act of putting on righteousness as clothing
2. a love of righteousness
3. an act of walking the way of righteousness
4. a pursuit of righteousness
5. a casting of righteousness to the ground
6. turning the fruit of righteousness into bitterness
7. hunger and thirst for righteousness
8. fear

Acts 24 tells the story of Paul as he is put on trial before Felix a governor for the Romans in Caesarea.  Paul has many opportunities to plead his case with Felix, but instead he only talks about his faith.

“Several days later Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish.  He sent for Paul and listened to him as he spoke about faith in Christ Jesus.  As Paul talked about righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and said, ‘That’s enough for now!  You may leave.  When I find it convenient, I will send for you.’”

It says earlier in the chapter that Felix was quite familiar with the Way, as they called it, the “sect” of Jews who had become Christians.  But as he listened to Paul it says he became afraid.  Obviously he was afraid because of the judgment, but it is interesting to me that Paul also talked about righteousness and self-control.  And it is apparent that Felix was not interested in living righteously or with self-control, thus his fear of judgment.  But for some reason he was not convinced because he sent Paul away.

Righteousness brings two kinds of fear as a response: 1] the fear that you’re not living righteously and so will be punished at judgment; and 2] the fear of the Lord.  That fear comes because you are living righteously and you understand the greatness of God at the same time – it is a healthy fear.  The first is based on the fact that your hope is placed within yourself; the second is based upon your hope being placed in God.  

And yet, where is the element of grace?  Obviously perfection now, in these days, is not an option.  There is always something that we do or have done that is a marred effect on our life.  Yet, there is grace, because it’s not just about being righteous, it is about wanting to be righteous.  From that comes self-control, which, if you recall with me all the way back to this post, three months ago, is the next step in becoming effective with our knowledge of God.  If you desire righteousness, you will learn self-control, from which you will then persevere to godliness, which leads to mutual affection, which directs you to love.  

Which leads me to believe that I’ve come full circle – not that I’ve discovered everything I can about knowing God, or even just simply knowing him, but I think good progress has been made, to which we now turn to self-control [which, as I think about it has increased through out this summer as I've been discovering more about the knowledge of God].

Exploring man’s varying responses to righteousness:

1. an act of putting on righteousness as clothing
2. a love of righteousness
3. an act of walking the way of righteousness
4. a pursuit of righteousness
5. a casting of righteousness to the ground
6. turning the fruit of righteousness into bitterness
7. hunger and thirst for righteousness
8. fear

In Matthew’s gospel account, he relates one of Jesus’ sermons:

“He said,

‘Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.’”

 Obviously there’s a whole lot to approach in this “sermon,” but I only want to address the last sentence – noting that things such as “poor in spirit,” “mourning,” and “meekness,” are pretty feeble sounding circumstances to be blessed.  What I mean is that Jesus lays out rules of blessing here and all of them seem to be opposite of what we determine to be realities of life.  We know that those who are well off in spirit will be the ones who conquer others, for how can someone who isn’t up to the task because they don’t feel right take on and destroy a nation in order to rule it?  How is it possible that mourning will bring comfort – many of us know of the lonely moments we’ve spent mourning with no one to even come and hold us.  And the meek inheriting the earth?  I’m sorry but you’ve got to be an ass-kicker now, take names later kind of guy for that to happen – it’s a dog-eat-dog world.  

And yet we know that what Jesus speaks is truth.  Which, first of all, means that the things we believe reality to be are lies.  And if that is the case, then the last one stings poignantly: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.  So does this mean that we believe, in our wicked twist of reality, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness won’t be filled?  Or is it simply that there are too few of us who actually hunger and thirst for righteousness, which is why Jesus addressed it?  

Obviously the easy way out is to say that both are what we believe.  When Jesus says this, I think of all the prophets going back to the days of Abraham who waited and yearned for God and his righteousness to overtake, only to watch it all fade away, with perhaps glimpses of what was to come.  And yet they were never filled.  But also, I think of the Pharisees of that day, what they longed for was power and rule, not righteousness.  And even they, in their hunger and thirst for power would be left unfulfilled.

In self application, I believe that I too often simply do not hunger for righteousness – it’s not the thing that quenches my soul each day.  Why?  Because I have allowed the unrighteous things of living in this world to pacify me, to try to make me whole.  So, how do you hunger and thirst for righteousness – you whet your appetite with it, more and more and more until you can’t get enough of it.  So I’ll keep coming back to the buffet table.

Exploring man’s varying responses to righteousness:

1. an act of putting on righteousness as clothing
2. a love of righteousness
3. an act of walking the way of righteousness
4. a pursuit of righteousness
5. a casting of righteousness to the ground
6. turning the fruit of righteousness into bitterness
7. hunger and thirst for righteousness
8. fear

Amos 6:

“Woe to you who are complacent in Zion,
and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria,
you notable men of the foremost nation,
to whom the people of Israel come!

…

You put off the evil day and bring near a reign of terror.  You lie on beds inlaid with ivory and lounge on your couches.  You dine on choice lambs and fattened calves.  You strum away on your harps like David and improvise on musical instruments.  You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest lotions, but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.  Therefore you will be among the first to go into exile; your feasting and lounging will end.

…

[continuing on in the Message]
God, the Master, has sworn, and solemnly stands by his Word…”I hate the arrogance of Jacob.  I have nothing but contempt for his forts.  I’m about to hand over the city and everyone in it.’  … Do you hold a horse race in a field of rocks?  Do you plow the sea with oxen?  You’d cripple the horses and drown the oxen.  And yet you’ve made a shambles of justice, a bloated corpse of righteousness [or, in the TNIV, 'You have turned justice into poison and righteousness into bitterness.']. 

This speaks to me on a few levels: 1] the importance of facing the evil of the day; and 2] how that is unjust and lacking righteousness.  

Recently the Lord has been transforming my personal level of compassion for others to greater levels – it is still a work in progress – but before this I was quite settled with letting whatever happens happen because I figured the world is supposed to get worse before it gets better, so why fight it?  But what I am coming to see and understand is the evil that is apparent in our world and growing bigger affects people differently than it affects me.  How can I sit back and let that happen?  How can I lounge on my couch and enjoy my choice foods and strum away on my guitar, jam with the boys, drink my wine and take care of my body, all the while there are others being travestied by this great evil that is invading and attempting to rule our world?  

You see, the world is going to get worse before it gets better – but there should be hope stood upon for others.  I shouldn’t settle for allowing these poor people to go on living with out hope, to allow them to feel despair.  There’s a difference between choosing and being affected.  I get the joy and privilege of choosing every day – but some don’t, because they do not know.  

If I continue on the way I have been I will be as guilty as those Amos was addressing – I will make a shamble of justice and righteousness a dead, bloated body lying next to me.