Redemption

11For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14(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.
C.S. Lewis in his book The Great Divorce says those who end up in hell look back on their lives and see that all was hell, and those in heaven look back on their lives and see that all was heaven. What he was saying is that for those of us in Christ at the end when we look back at our whole lives, at everything that happened and know that it was for bringing us into the Kingdom of God, into adoption as sons, into the very presence of God. And those who at the last find themselves outside the gates, condemned by a just God, all of their lives, even the good that they did and that happened to them was actually condemnation and hell on earth. Some pretty bold, but I think accurate words from one of the 20th century’s greatest minds.
I was the type of kid in school who always had a girlfriend. And every one I had was THE ONE. I don’t think I dated a girl that I wasn’t going to marry. And every time the relationship ended I was devastated. I looked at that as my hell on earth. Until one day the girl I was dating actually was THE ONE. And suddenly those other times of devastation and hurt and loss were actually gain. The hurt and loss could have, and probably would have, been far greater if I had actually married one of the other girls. I can tell you I would not be here where I am today with a life in pursuit of our great God and King, the Lord Jesus. So as I look back all of the hurt and regret and sense of loss, was actually God’s grace toward me. Looking back it was all “Heaven”.
In his letter to Titus Paul describes how Jesus brought the grace of God to give us a hope, (“waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ…”) and also has given us a present purpose (“training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and live self controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age…”). Redemption assures us of hope now and in the future. We don’t have to wait until we die to see how the grace of God changes everything in our lives for good, it happens as we live, even the very moment we are born again. God redeems us from sin and death, from lawless hearts and He gives us grace to train us to die to this world and live as a present citizen in his Kingdom, as his people (v. 14). He cleanses and purifies us from the defilement of sin and suffering. Step by step these are the facts of redemption.
Sadly sometimes because of sin, or even through no fault of our own, we lose sight of this present reality of redemption. We do not see what God is up to or how far he has brought us, how far we are in the training from verse 12. And we tend toward despair or worse apathy. This is where the hope of the return of Jesus sustains us because for you Christian that hope is sure, like an anchor for your soul (Hebrews 6:19). When we cannot see present redemption at work in our lives, we should cling to our final redemption and place our faith in the sure promise of verse 13, Jesus will come back.
Now lest we think that this is all about us, at the end of this great paragraph Paul brings the ultimate end into clear focus for us. Verse 14 tells us why Jesus“…who gave himself for us “came; “to redeem us from all lawlessness” (that’s about us) “and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (that’s about Him).It is amazing that God redeems us when we are in rebellion against him (Rom. 5:6) and by his grace trains us, “to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions,” (because we don’t just renounce them automatically) and this brings him glory and pleasure (Ps 147:11, Luke 12:32). What?!? That is beyond my understanding! And this means, to go back to Lewis’ quote, that all of the junk in our past that seemed to be “Hell”, wasn’t just over looked for our happiness, but has now been repurposed to bring God great glory. In Christ your pain and hurt and suffering and the sin that results from all of that is not pointless or trivial but serves the highest purpose that exists, to bring praise of the glory of His grace. This is the God we serve, and what a Great God he is.
Amen and Amen.

The Crawl

I have a person that I know, they aren’t really in my life on a regular basis, but enough to bug me to no end. They are the person in my life that I find it difficult to extend grace to them. The general attitude is one of selfishness, being the center of every decision, and if others don’t like that then tough for them. This person is very direct and blunt. They come across as rude, inconsiderate and self absorbed. This person is a believer in the Lord Jesus and so there are attempts to encourage or reprove them unto holiness. Yet these are almost always met with strong resistance and in most cases a cavalier attitude toward sin. That is most frustrating because they are in leadership roles over people young in their faith, and they claim to love community and being open and honest about what they struggle with. Being authentic about our sin is good and fine if it leads us to our knees to plead with the Lord for grace and growth.

Now my beautiful gracious wife points out to me every time I file these complaints (which seems to be any time I have spent an extended period with this other person) that I am being “too harsh”. She acknowledges that my frustrations with the general attitudes of this person are well founded and good, but that I personalize them is not fair. And after I am done trying to justify myself I come to see she is right. And I don’t intend here to try and justify myself either, but to confess my own pride and self-righteousness.

This week in my home group we are going through Matthew 18. At the end of the chapter Jesus tells this parable about a servant who owes ten thousand talents to his master. But the servant begs and pleads with his master and the master completely forgives the debt. The servant then turns around and throws a man in jail for one hundred denarii. I am that servant. I , every time I grow so frustrated with this person, am trampling and presuming upon the grace and forgiveness I have been shown. At the beginning of Matthew 18 Jesus says that the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven are the little ones, the children, who were the least in the society of the 1st century.

In CJ Mahaney’s little book called Humility he says that one of the primary ways to cultivate humility in your life is to intentionally notice the grace of God in other people’s life. We are to call out sin to be sure (Matthew 18:15-20) but we are to do if from a place of humility. We are to know and treasure the grace we have received and extend it to those who are in desperate need, knowing that one day the roles may well be reversed. I stink at noticing the grace in other people’s lives. I expect change immediately. Someone says you did this wrong and you should change it, end of story. But I forget or deliberately overlook the facts. Sanctification is a crawl.