Monday, July 1, 2013

Grow in Grace not in Guilt


My wife and I enjoy watching the show Everybody Loves Raymond. The families overall narcissistic actions show the extremes of human selfishness. First, there are the parents. Frank, the dad, is as selfish as they come. He makes his wife serve him while he is constantly putting her down. Marie, the mother, serves her husband but she does so with a nagging and complaining spirit while she treats her oldest son Robert with neglect and Raymond with favor. Robert is always craving his families’ approval and love. This leads him to constantly complain how “everybody loves Raymond.”  Then there is Raymond’s wife, Deborah, who is a stay at home mom, and at times blows up at her husband’s man faults. Finally we get to Raymond. He is a momma’s boy who always thinks of himself first in all of his relationships. He neglects his wife. He lives for the approval of others. He goes to the extreme to always get what he wants.

            Streams of narcissisms are seen throughout the show. But Raymond is arguable the most self-seeking person on the show. To top it all off, despite many confrontations, Raymond is unable to see the extent of his selfish nature.

 When I watch this show I cannot help it but catch glimpses of myself within each of the characters. But in one way I am very different than Raymond because I often see my sin. Sometimes it even gets to the point where I see sin where there might not even be sin. Guilt weighs heavy. Condemnation seems to sway my mind. At times if I listen hard enough I hear the words, “You are unworthy. You are going to fail again. How can you do anything but fall back into your old life.” Though these words do not always hit me, sometimes it is a simple blanket guilty feeling for no apparent reason.

            This I have come to realize is somewhat morbid introspection. Morbid introspection has two aspects: “idol hunting, the danger of being caught in the vortex of self-analysis, probing for the heart’s lusts, peeling an onion whose layers are infinite; and hurt hunting, the endless obsession with one’s sorrows, sufferings, and disappointments (Redemption, Mike Wilkerson, 152.)”

Here I am. Seeing my sin. Knowing it offends God. Thinking back on the actions of the day. Self-examining.

Some Christians might actually be cheering me on now because of my self-examination. They might say (as sometimes I think), “I have sinned. Shouldn’t I feel guilt about my sin? Don’t I need to let that guilt drive me to action?”

But truly God hates when we are stuck in guilt and condemnation. He hates guilt driven actions. I know that it might be weird to read that statement. But God is not some Cosmic Guilt-tripper wanting people to feel terrible because they sin (Yes, there is conviction of sin but that is totally different).

So what does God say about this? Let’s take a stroll through the Romans 8. As we read through it pray and let the words of the text seep into your heart.

Paul begins the book Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”(Read that again)

Did Paul really say we aren’t condemned? I mean, doesn’t our sin deserve condemnation?

The answer is Yes! We have been set free. And Yes our sin does deserve condemnation.

But, why? How? This Paul answers in the following verses.

Romans 8:2-3, “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,”

As R.C. Sproul points out in his little book What can I do with my guilt? True guilt lies where there is law. The breaking of rules or laws is what causes guilt. But he also recognizes that, “there are people who are plagued by all sorts of feelings of guilt for things they did not do. Objectively, they violated no laws, but because of one mental aberration or another, they feel guilty; they feel that they have violated a law or laws.”

So the key to guilt is in recognition that guilt lies where the law is present. The verses above help us deal with is quam. “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” Thus Jesus has defeated the law of sin and death that whispers condemnation upon us. If we are His then there is no more condemnation or guilt but only loving conviction of sin drawing us to life in Christ. To let the voice of condemnation fester in our minds is to let Satan call us back to bondage.

As Romans 8:31-39 goes on to say, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

            Those charges of guilt and condemnation are no longer valid because of Jesus. Jesus took the wrath of God for our sin. He took the condemnation upon himself. He took all of the punishment so that we might be set free. He paid it all. IT IS FINISHED!!

            I must address something that goes hand in hand with this freedom from the law of sin and death. It is a freedom to live obedient to God. See we are not freed to simply go back to our sin like a dog to its vomit. God has set us free to life. This new life is by the power of the Spirit of God.  

            Romans 8:4 says, “in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

Christ fulfilled the law. The proof of us being in Christ is our life of repentance (For more on repentance listen to my Pastor Ryan Keeney’s sermon on Psalm 51: http://theparadoxchurch.com/sermon/psalms/).  If we are convicted because we have sinned then we must repent daily that we might have true life in Jesus.

The power to obey God is only by the Spirit of God not you. You are not bound to failure.

Grow in grace.

 Let the realization of the freedom you have been given rest in your heart and mind and let it spur you on to a deeper love and obedience of Jesus.

I want to close with a few verses from Titus 2:11-14, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.