"good" news

A friend recently asked me why certain sins are judged much more severely by others. This got me thinking about the nature of sin itself and why God cares what we do, or don’t do. I think the biggest complaint a lot of people have against God is, “why does He gets to decide what’s sin and what isn’t?”

In the creation account in Genesis (the first book of the bible) God speaks creation into being. There is a beautiful poetic rhythm to the passage for each phase of creation which always concludes with “and God saw that it was good.” Six times we read:

“…and God saw that it was God”

“…and God saw that it was God”

“…and God saw that it was God”

“…and God saw that it was God”

“…and God saw that it was God”

“…and God saw that it was God”

And then the climax, in Genesis chapter 1, verse 31, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.”

Most of creation is created without an option of whether it will obey God or not. God says, “Let there be light” And there is light. However when God created humanity He created us with a unique capacity to choose whether we would obey Him or not. So far in the story “good” is seen from God’s perspective alone. However by creating humanity with free will God recognizes the potential for “good” to splinter into six billion different perspectives. God recognizes that something can be “good” for me and at the same time “bad” for someone else. Every war ever fought was initiated by the “good” someone decided to claim. This is why God says, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” (Genesis Chapter 2, verses 16-17)

God knew that our competing perspectives of “good” would do harm to one another. Think about this: at this moment there is more than enough food on this planet to feed every man, women, and child. Yet, because of our competing perspectives of “good” thousands will starve to death today. God desires to be our ultimate judge of “good” because only He really has this ability.

What we often fail to understand in a discussion of sin is that God’s hatred of sin directly relates to His love of us. Sin rebels against His will (what He knows is good), therefore, sin separates us from His Life. We were created to dwell in His Life like a bird was created for the sky, or a fish was created for the sea. As long as we are separated from His Life we will be have a persistent unmet longing which is meant to lead us back to Him. Tragically, we often think that sin is the solution to our deepest thirst when it’s really the cause. But Jesus’ primary mission wasn’t to take away the puddles we drink from, but to offer us clean, Life-giving, water. In Jesus, we can be set free from our perspective of “good” and surrender ourselves to His liberating perspective. We can be set free to dwell within the Life of God again, know His Voice which allows us to once again experience His good, satisfying, and completing will. (Romans Chapter 12, verses 1-2)

Does it sound like Good News?

Gabe said...

I grew up in a very judgmental and legalistic denomination and my current pastor put it in perspective for me. He said, "It's my job to tell you about the gospel -- not to compel you to behave according to it." Whereas the other church would beat you over the head with the message that you had to be holy or risk going to hell. I can't stand churches whose agenda is to change people's behavior.

Gabe mentioned "the gospel" which literally means "good news." If you ask 10 Christians was the Gospel is, you are likely to get 10 different answers. Often it's some form of the gospel of sin management like the churches that Gabe mentioned above who are only interested in changing behavior. A friend of mine was driving by a church recently whose sign read "free tickets to heaven, details inside." So apparently there's also the gospel of free tickets to heaven. Is this what the gospel is? Free tickets to heaven? What do we do after we get our tickets?

I'm more interested in what the gospel means to Jesus, then what it means to Christians. To answer this question, we must first understand that Jesus spoke these words to specific people, in a specific place, at a specific time. If you take any one's words out of the context in which they were spoke, you will likely end up with a very different message then the one intended.

Jesus described his own mission as proclaiming the Good news of the Kingdom of God. I mentioned in an earlier post how this is the exact same language that was used as political propaganda to refer to Caesar and the Roman Empire. It was Caesar who first proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God, not Jesus. Jesus intentionally used this same expression to convey that He was the Messiah which Israel longed for to save them from the oppressive empires.

Jesus' titles the Christ or the Messiah both mean anointed one. In Israel's history prophets, priests and kings are all anointed with oil to symbolize their divine calling and empowerment. King David, the most victorious military leader in Israel's history, was commonly referred to as the anointed one. After King David, prophets predicted the coming of another anointed one that would bring salvation to Israel and then the entire world. In the first century the salvation that Israel longed for was not a spiritual salvation, but a political one. The Roman empire occupied Israel, and Israel longed for their Messiah to bring them salvation from their enemies. When Jesus shows up proclaiming the the good news of the Kingdom of God he was intentionally going head-to-head with the power and authority of Rome. He was claiming to be the legitimate agent of God's Kingdom which Caesar pretended to be. Jesus invited all who heard His message to repentance (turn around, receive a new paradigm) in order to participate in the Kingdom of God.

With our American focus on individualism and democracy we need to unpack some of this to get at the heart of Jesus' invitation. In the United States we have set up a system to balance power because we recognize the danger of giving total power and authority to one individual. Balance of power and checks and balances are so ingrained in us that we hear Jesus use a word like kingdom and anything but a kingdom comes to mind. A kingdom is not a democracy. A kingdom is not a blending of it's citizens' desires. A kingdom is an extension of the will of the king. By will I mean intent, desire, plans, purposes, aim, direction, etc. In a strong kingdom, the king give the orders, the orders filter through the ranks, and finally somebody (maybe hundreds of miles away) obeys the order; exercises the will of the king.

Through communication the king makes his will known. The king reveals his will through words. A major theme throughout scripture is the Word of God. The Word of God is the revealed will of God. The Word of God is the Active Voice of God. The Active Voice of God isn't the bible, although God does speak through the bible. Many Christians today are much more comfortable trusting scripture then they are the Active Voice of God. This is very ironic since scripture is a history of people encountering and learning to trust the Active Voice of God. God has given us scripture to help us learn how to tune into and trust His Voice, not to replace our need His Active Voice.

In Genesis, the first book of the bible, we find God speaking creation into being with His Word. He says, "let there be light" and there is light. Creation obeys His Word. Then something very curious happens. God creates humanity in His own image by sharing two gifts: His Life (Breathe, Spirit) and His Word (Active Voice, Revealed Will). God creates humanity with a unique capacity for language, not shared by the rest of creation, out of His desire to relate with us in a special way. God then gave us the option of choosing whether to obey His Voice or not. He explains to the first humans that for them to share His Life, they must obey His Word. They are warned that if they do not obey His Word they will no longer share His Life. In other words, He doesn't force them to remain in Heaven, if gives them the option of creating Hell.

By rejecting God's Voice, humanity rejected sharing God's Life. This created quite a problem: humanity couldn't share in the Life of God again with perfectly obeying the will of God, and we couldn't perfectly obey the will of God without sharing in the Life of God. For thousands of years God pursued us, preparing a people who would once again experience the goodness of His Word and His Life (eternal life).

"The Word of God became flesh, and made His dwelling among us..." (Gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 14)

Jesus entered the world as a seed of the Kingdom of God. Jesus came as a Kingdom of One, perfectly surrendered to the Will of God (He is the will of God) and totally filled with the Power of God. Israel had hoped for salvation from the will of Caesar; God offered them a chance from to be saved from the every will that would oppress them. Scripture promises us that one day Jesus will dethrone every Caesar that enslaves others with their evil wills. However, the first oppressive king He had to dethrone in my life was me. The good news of the kingdom of God is that God's not only willing and able to save us from every single oppressive external king, but that He'll set us free from that internal tyrant too!

The essential Christian creed is, "Jesus is Lord." When we hear "Jesus is Lord" and it finally sounds like good news then we have finally discovered the gospel of Jesus.

Anonymous said...

In the past few years a lot has happened. I went from not really knowing if I believed in God to hating God (if he was real) because of something bad happening, to wanting to believe in him. There are days that I want to believe in God and be close to him more than anything in the world, but I can't believe in him. Just like if someone you love tells you something that you don't believe. You want to believe them but you just can't get yourself to. How can I believe in something that I can't believe is there?

When we talk about believing in something or someone there are at least two different things we mean. There is cognitive belief, that is mentally agreeing or trusting the idea of something. There is also experiential belief a deeper level of belief, which requires the experience of trust we place in people or things. In 2004 the Millau Viaduct opened to traffic in Southern France. Slightly taller than the Eiffel Tower the Millau Viaduct is the tallest vehicular bridge in the world. Now while I firmly cognitively believe in this amazing bridge, I have not had the opportunity yet to experiential believe in it. I do not deny the idea of it's existence. There seem to be less people that doubt it exists then doubt the moon landing. Mental belief for this structure seems to be strong on all fronts. If this bridge didn't exist, I'm sure a reporter would have broken the story in 2006 when it won an Outstanding Structure Award.

Yet in spite of overwhelming evidence and extraordinary cognitive belief that people world wide have for this bridge, there are those who will not or can not experientially believe in this bridge. Those suffering from Gephyrophobia (fear of bridges) have such extreme anxiety that they are often unable to actively believe in bridges. For these people, having to cross the Millau Viaduct would be their worst nightmare. Gephyrophobia is common enough that the New York Thruway Authority offers a service where people can call and have someone drive their car over bridges; an average of 6 people take advantage of the service each year.

With the coming of Christ, God walked the earth. People had the opportunity to cognitively believe in the person, while not actively trusting the things He said and did. With the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Life of God lives within those who are placing their active trust in Him. To actively trust in the Millau Viaduct I have to surrender myself to it. I can read all about it, I can even watch others cross, but until I place my weight on it I am not actively trusting it. I am not believing in it.

It sounds like you think you need cognitive belief in God, before you experience active trust in Him. Since God primarily reveals Himself through those He now inhabits, He's inviting you to experientially believe in Him. He's inviting you to take a step of faith and let go of what you are actively trusting in instead of Him. If you have witnessed the transformation His life has brought to others who are learning to place their trust in Him, then He's allowed you the second-hand experience of the love, joy, peace, and, power which He life can bring. However, until you actively trust Him for yourself, until you let go of anything else or anything else you are placing your trust in, you won't directly know the peace, love, grace, and power that His Life brings.

A huge frustration of mine is when people act like trusting Him is a one time event. There is often a moment of time when we begin to trust Him, often at extremely humbling moments when we're desperate enough to let go of our self-trust. However, after this initial moment of trust, we have to learn how to remain in Him. To experience His Life within us consistently, we have to learn how to remain in active trust. It's kind of like what I've heard learning how to downhill ski is like; it's all about learning to let go. The good news is that Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as our Teacher, and if we learn to listen to Him, He can teach us how to rest in the power and Life of God.

Allowing God to Love Us and Love Through Us

Karen Said:
There's this girl on facebook who I talk to occasionally. Anyways, something bad in her life happened, tragic really, and as a response she wrote "hates god" as her status. I understand that she is in pain, and angry, but how do I convey God's love to her? I already told her it was okay to be mad at God, and that her grieving was normal. I also told her that what happened wasn't God's plan. But what now?


It sounds like you are doing a great job showing her God's love. When Jesus came to earth He came in a humble and vulnerable way. So many people's impression of God is a Zeus-like figure throwing lighting bolts down on humanity. Jesus revealed a face of God that cries with us when we are mad at Him (Gospel of John, Chapter 11). Jesus certainly didn't reveal a God that needed to be protected from our emotions. Jesus talked a lot about His Kingdom coming as something small and humble and expanding from within people who receive it. When He first made these comments they would have contrasted with the way the Kingdom of Rome (which was the first power to claim the title "Kingdom of God") exercised it's power. Christ showed us that God conquers through love, while Rome brutally conquered it's enemies with force. Jesus is annoyingly persistent when we are rejecting Him. He continues to offer us love and grace in spite of our pride. Ussually He shares His love and grace through people who are actively experiencing His love themselves. People who regularly humble themselves, admit thier need, and recieve His love.

Karen, keep surrendering to His love and grace in your own life, and keep allowing Him to overflow onto those around you. When you are experiencing emotional highs and lows yourself use the Psalms to model that God accepts all of our emotions as worship when we are directing them to Him. Pray that God continues to reveal His love to your friend through you and those around her. Don't be afraid to share the times you've felt the same way, and that you are getting to know a God who is very different then what you thought He was like. Tell her just enough to keep her curious, and allow God the space and the time He needs to work.

Scandalous Grace

Karen said...

My biggest struggle with getting to know God is getting over the people who hurt me in God's name. It took me a long time to realize that those people were just doing what they thought was right, in persecuting me and turning me away.

But I have learned that God doesn't want that. He loves people who wear shorts, people who cut their hair, and people who hold hands before marriage. These are his children. He is willing to meet us half way, or three quarters if we need it. That is his grace.

The only thing I'm going to disagree with you on is God meeting us half way (or even three quarters of the way). God meets us where we are!!! (Please read exclamations in an excited way - not an angry way) In our ugliest moment He is right there. The reason this is so hard for us, is often because we refuse to be where we are. God doesn't meet us where we pretend to be, where we want to be, or where we think we ought to be. God meets us where we are. Those who have truly experienced His grace, meet them in the climax of their rebellion, can't help but offer that scandalous grace to others. There are those who are tuned into His unconditional love, and they can't help but love others unconditionally.

Sadly, there are MANY in the church who believe they have to earn His love by doing this, this, and this. (their earn-God's-love checklists are actually more focused on NOT doing this, this, and this.) When people are focused on their performance and constantly trying to earn God's love, they either people they are doing a good job and become blinded by pride, or they feel they aren't measuring up and become blinded by self-rejection (due to feeling rejected by God). Then when a list-focuser sees someone else (who isn't as focused on list keeping) they do the only "loving" thing they know how to do, and try and get them to list-focus too. You are so right Karen, the more you stay focused on God, and actively trust His unconditional love and grace for everyone, the more you will be able to share that unconditional love and grace with others.

This is one of the reasons I am so drawn to Jesus. He was born into a world totally focused on their religious lists, and Jesus came along and loved wild people wildly. Jesus loves outside the lines. Consider this, throughout His life, notorious sinners were drawn to Jesus; while religious people were infuriated by Him. Scandalous grace is the reason why the holiest man who ever lived was put to death as a blasphemer.

This World is Unfair!

Zhai said...

I think, for me, one of the greatest issues causing me doubt/frustration is what seems like unequal-opportunity love from God. I teach at an inner city school, and my students have faced things that would incapacitate most people I know. Their bravery is inspirational, but I still find it hard to not shout "UNFAIR!" on a daily basis.

Zhai, I believe God whole-heartedly agrees with you! This world is UNFAIR!

God is not willing, however, to leave it in this condition. Scripture reveals that the world God created was much different than our current experience. However, God created humans with free will so we could choose to love and trust Him or rebel against His plan for us. When humanity choose to rebel, we cut ourselves of from the Life (capital-L life) that God desired to share with us.

Sending Jesus was the climax of God's plan to bring total restoration and reconciliation for anyone willing to place their trust in God again. Through active trust in Christ humanity can have the Life (again capital-L life) that God desired for us to have. However, the depth of Life that actively trusting Jesus makes possible is just the beginning of God's restoration plan. Empowered with His Life, Jesus' followers are called to labor for justice and peace for all. Followers of Jesus were never meant to simply sit around and wait for heaven, the invitation of Jesus is to actively bring heaven to earth!

So we really have a few options when we see the unfairness of the world:
- We can fight for what we need, and ignore everyone else.
- We can work against the unfairness of the world with our own limited power
- Or we can place our active trust in Jesus, and by surrendering to His loving rule over our lives, we can let Him empower us as we partner with Him to bring heaven to earth!

Chasing Ugly?

Think of the meanest person you have ever met. Imagine right now how they look. Look past the smirk on their face to the ugliness of their soul. How do you feel about them? What emotions emerge as you focus on this person? What do you wish would happen to them?

The scandal of the message of Jesus is that God loves that person at their worst. He doesn't just tolerate this person, He's actively pursuing them. The love of God, that Jesus revealed, is a love that chases ugly.

Think right now of the worst thing you have ever done. Were you surprised you were capable of that? How easy is it to sleep with that memory? Do you keep it a secret? What if other people knew how ugly you could be?

The scandal of the message of Jesus is that God loves you at your worst. He doesn't just tolerate you, He's actively pursuing you. The love of God, that Jesus revealed, is a love that chases ugly.

In your darkest moment have you felt that persistent tug on your heart? That is the One who chases ugly. That is One this blog is about. I'm inviting you to journey with me as we together we ask questions and look for answers. I'm inviting you to journey with me as together we learn to surrender to the love of the One who is always found Chasing Ugly.

To accept this invitation, please post questions, doubts, and frustrations you have with knowing God. Where we go is up to you, as future posts will be based on your questions and comments.