brianrushing.net

The gospel declares that we are not a perfect people; this is foundational to our understanding. In fact, the gospel unashamedly pronounces our lack of perfection and affirms that our hearts have been soiled with sin. But Christ has died for this and has given us a new heart. We are not the same people. Morality and integrity are the by-products — not of our own effort, but of the work of the Spirit. A man who is above reproach, then, is a man who is united to Christ.
–Matt Chandler

And so, we are not perfect people.
We are unrighteous.
We are soiled with sin.
We have rotten hearts.

But… Jesus died to change all of that!
He has given us new hearts, so that we are changed… transformed, even… into something new.

Now, by being united to Christ,
We have His righteousness.
Our sins have been wiped away to be remembered no more.
Our hearts are becoming more like His each day.
Perfection is knowing Christ and letting Him continue to transform us into that new creation.

That is why He can say to us:
“Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
The only way this is possible is with Him living in us and through us and making us new.

Yesterday, I wrote:
It is not that we don’t know how to live for God.
It is not that we don’t have enough information about what He wants us to do.
It is not that we don’t understand the difference between right and wrong.
These are not our problems, because God has clearly revealed His will to us. Rather,
“Our problem is not an inadequate education. It is a rebellious heart” (Ravi Zacharias).

(click here if you missed yesterday’s post and want to read it first)

Today’s quote contains a similar idea, but goes a step further:
One can know a great deal about godliness without much knowledge of God.
–J. I. Packer

What Packer means is that we can have a head knowledge of God, or information about God, without truly having an intimate relationship with Him. Packer explains it a bit more fully:

     It depends on the sermons one hears, the books one reads, and the company one keeps. In this analytical and technological age there is no shortage of books on the church booktables, or sermons from the pulpits, on how to pray, how to witness, how to read our Bibles, how to tithe our money, how to be a young Christian, how to be an old Christian, how to be a happy Christian, how to get consecrated, how to lead people to Christ, how to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit (or, in some cases, how to avoid receiving it), how to speak with tongues (or, how to explain away Pentecostal manifestations), and generally how to go through all the various motions which the teachers in question associate with being a Christian believer. Nor is there any shortage of biographies delineating the experiences of Christians in past days for our interested perusal.
     Whatever else may be said about this state of affairs, it certainly makes it possible to learn a great deal secondhand about the practice of Christianity. Moreover, if one has been given a good bump of common sense one may frequently be able to use this learning to help floundering Christians of less stable temperament to regain their footing and develop a sense of proportion about their troubles, and in this way one may gain for oneself a reputation for being quite a pastor. Yet one can have all this and hardly know God at all.
     We come back, then, to where we started. The question is not whether we are good at theology, or “balanced” (horrible, self-conscious word!) in our approach to problems of Christian living. The question is, can we say, simply, honestly, not because we feel that as evangelicals we ought to, but because it is a plain matter of fact, that we have known God, and that because we have known God the unpleasantness we have had, or the pleasantness we have not had, through being Christians does not matter to us? If we really knew God, this Is what we would be saying, and if we are not saying it, that is a sign that we need to face ourselves more sharply with the difference between knowing God and merely knowing about him.

I don’t want to know about God.
I want to know Him.
I want to be so content in my relationship with Him that neither “the unpleasantness I have had” nor “the pleasantness I have not have” matters, but only that I am walking with Him daily – learning that His Presence in my life is enough and meets all my needs.

God, I want to know you more. Help me to never settle for just knowing about You.

Our problem is not an inadequate education. It is a rebellious heart.
–Ravi Zacharias

It is not that we don’t know how to live for God.
It is not that we don’t have enough information about what He wants us to do.
It is not that we don’t understand the difference between right and wrong.

God has clearly revealed His will to us.
Not only do we have His Word that tells us how we should live, we also have been created in His image and the knowledge of good and evil has been written in our conscience.

Romans 1 tells us, “that which is known about God is evident within us; for God made it evident to us. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what He made, so that we are without excuse.”

So the problem is not that we don’t know enough about God and about godly living.
The problem is that we are rebellious.

One example is how we have an innate desire to rebel against authority, such as the amount of litter that can often be found at the base of “No Dumping” signs! Our rebellious hearts never like being told what to do, so we see a sign that gives us a command and we show that sign what we think about its authority.

Paul says – the good I know I should do is not what I find myself doing. Instead my rebellious heart continues to pull me into choosing things that I know are evil.

Our rebellious hearts have caused us to set ourselves apart as enemies of God.
Fortunately for us, God loves us so much that while we were still living in rebellion to Him, Jesus died for us.

A Rebellious Heart. We all have one.
That is why I am so glad that though the sin of rebellion is abundant in my life, God’s grace is even MORE abundant.

God, forgive me for my continued rebellious heart. Help me to be less and less rebellious and more and more obedient to You due to my embracing a better understanding of Your great love for me.

I want you to know that I love Air Conditioning!
I already knew that to be true, but as Paige and I have been without A/C for the last four days, it really reminded me of how true that statement is. The outside temp has been up at 96 degrees, and so our house has been a heatbox! To make it through these last few days, we plugged in our emergency one-room A/C and stayed hunkered down in the bedroom. But this exciting new situation kept me from being able to easily write/post, but as my favorite A/C man got my new compressor installed yesterday evening, I am back on track now, so here is a quote to think about for today:

The difference between Uncle Sam and Jesus Christ is that Uncle Sam won’t enlist you in his service unless you are healthy and Jesus won’t enlist you unless you are sick.
–John Piper

Jesus said: “It is not those who are healthy who need a doctor, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Unless we are willing to admit our un-health and our need to have it fixed, we won’t go see a doctor to ask for help.

In the same way, unless we are willing to admit our spiritual un-health and our need to have it fixed, we won’t ask the Great Physician for help. Thus, Jesus won’t enlist us for service unless we are able to admit our sickness and come to Him for healing and rescue. When we admit our inability to rescue ourselves, Jesus then is ready to enlist us in His service.

I hope you are able to tear down the walls of pride and ego that can keep us from admitting weakness and need. I hope that you are able to admit to God your daily need for Him to keep rescuing you from your sinful thoughts, speech, attitudes, and actions. As you do so with humility, God will use you to impact others for His kingdom.

The presence of evil guarantees that history will be full of strife and that the world will look unredeemed. For a period of time, the kingdom of God must exist alongside an active rebellion against God. God’s kingdom advances slowly, humbly, like a secret invasion force operating within the kingdoms ruled by Satan.
–Philip Yancey

Humans, in their freedom, invited evil and sin into our lives by believing Satan instead of God.
God, in His patience, has allowed evil and sin and active rebellion to remain while He continue pursuing and rescuing those that will choose Him as their King.
Christians, in His service, now wage war against evil and sin, helping others to “taste and see” how good our great King is.

Realize that while we are here on this earth, things will not be rosy and comfortable and peaceful all the time. We live in a world that is in active rebellion against God. Therefore, history will be full of strive and we will have to endure through it as we work for His kingdom advancement.

God, help us endure through the difficult parts of the battles, knowing that You go before us and behind us and that you will have the final victory in the end. Thank You for helping us choose to be on Your side. Help us help others to do the same.