CHARRED

AND

SCARRED

By Joseph K. Kiser

Copyright © 2013 by Joseph K. Kiser

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

First Edition 2013

Designed by Joseph K. Kiser

For more information please contact:

info@charredandscarred.com

Printed in the United States of America

CONTENT

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

AUTHOR’S NOTE

CHARRED AND SCARRED

What are we?

FAITH, JUSTICE, LOVE

What is Love?

JESUS

Who is Jesus?

IT’S EASY TO HATE THE CHURCH

What does Leadership look like?

WEIRD AND BROKEN

The Parable of the Prodigal Son

What is Sin?

Is God sovereign?

THERE ARE NO BYSTANDERS

The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant

Who must respond?

WHY WOULD WE DO THIS?

The Sermon on the Mount

The Final Judgment

Gerasene Demoniac

The Great Commission

The Parable of the Sower

The Great Commandment

Chapter Synopsis

How can we know what is true?

THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING

AFTERWORD

APPENDIX

Predestination

Second Causes

The Trinity

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CONTACT

DEDICATION

To my wife Joy.

To my children, Sam and Mal.

To my mom.

And to Eric who has always been there for me.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

My wife Joy has labored (almost to the point of blood-letting) to edit this book so that it is not an embarrassment to our family. If there is an area that seems out of place or grammatically incorrect, freely attribute that to me, because I probably resisted her better judgment in order to preserve something that I really shouldn’t have. Most assuredly, this book would have been unreadable without her.

That being said, because my wife and I work so closely together, it is almost impossible for us to remain objective. Hence, there developed a desperate need for a third mind to review the clutter. That brave soul is Laura Campbell. Laura is brilliantly insightful and as resilient as iron.

Kevin Barton, Maggie Flinn and Megan Dahn took time from there busy schedules to read several drafts and offer some very encouraging feedback.

Finally, I enlisted the uniquely qualified Leanne Carter to do a final proof.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

I do not always provide examples because I want you to supply your own. In some places an example would amount to nothing more than voyeurism and in other places the example would let you off the hook. And I’m interested in doing neither. Sometimes we have to wriggle in our contemplation.

I do not believe in “deeper truths” or special information. I do believe that spiral learning is an intellectually honest approach because it removes the possibility of sleight-of-hand or well-crafted subterfuge. The message is always the same and time is given for contemplation. The only change is the addition of detail:

I walked down a road.

I walked down a road that was canopied by trees.

I walked down a road that was canopied by trees with deep green leaves.

I walked down a road that was canopied by trees with deep green leaves and the smell of summer was in the air.

CHARRED AND SCARRED

(The Question)

I am broken. A series of events in my life left me messed up. Then I did my best to wreck what remained. I ran from place to place trying to make sense of it all and what I found was ignorance, self-righteousness and hypocrisy. The dirty little secret is that all of us are messed up in ways that we each recognize but refuse to admit.

I have carried a brutal question with me since childhood. This question kept me in agony most of the days of my life. Finding the answer to this question has been the only thing I have ever been interested in. I discovered that the question is much simpler than I had ever imagined and any difficulty in answering it is a product of the trappings of life but not life itself.

The complications manifest in how easily we’re manipulated and distracted, our selective amnesia, and in our disgustingly self-centered outlook. Every aspect of the world around us is a fire that burns away our time, our minds and our bodies. Yet, each of us spends all that we have trying to find a way to redeem some piece of it.

To put it another way, we each squander approximately 80 years floating from one obsession to another searching for meaning and purpose in things that either are, or will be rendered, worthless.

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.

H.P. Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"

Lovecraft put into words the default condition of the human mind.  He culled out the primary difficulty in finding an answer to the question. I call it selective amnesia. It’s not merciful that we’re unable to correlate what is in our brain; it is tragic. Forget about correlating all of the contents of our minds, we encounter an enormous problem long before we get to that point. The pathetic thing is that we can’t even correlate some of the contents – we struggle to pull anything together and make use of what we find there.

We are so charred and scarred by life that we turn our lives into a mindless shuffle. We are too distracted by our own pain and obsession to ever see beyond that pain and obsession. Until we recognize this, admit it, and try to overcome it, we’ll spend the rest of our days pursuing things that mean nothing, while living a life that evaporates – never mind finding an answer to the question.

To make matters worse, all of us are malleable and easily manipulated. My wife and I were walking through one of the big-box stores talking and shopping. Booming over the intercom we hear, “You were thinking about shopping. Now you are thinking about French fries.” We looked at each other and burst out laughing at this Orwellian interference. Unfortunately, their design worked: we joked that we now wanted fries.

Forget the fries for a minute. There are nearly-naked breasts on the cover of magazines at every grocery store checkout counter. Would it be that way if it didn’t convince us to gawk and buy the magazines? TV commercials are now well developed comedy routines or mini-adventures – and most have nothing to do with the products they are selling. It’s not even that we identify ourselves by products anymore; we identify ourselves by the marketing of the products. Would it be that way if it didn’t compel us to buy everything put before us?

We’re so easily distracted from reality that we will redirect our attention for almost any reason.

Squirrel!

Dug from “Up”

What happens when we see an attractive person walking down the street or at the coffee shop? What happens when we have a fight with our spouse or friend? What if our team is in a bowl game against an archrival? What if we have an “epic raid” scheduled for this evening? What if we have a concert this weekend?

Yes, we have selective amnesia. We hide away pieces of our minds – pieces that would be central to changing our lives for the better. We each think of ourselves on our best day. We forget, until something reminds us, about that thing we did (or was done to us) when no one was watching. Then, we get a healthy dose of, “Oh my...not again?!” And we go back to trying to crush the thought through whatever series of distractions we normally use to induce our forgetfulness. This wall pushes us further from the question.

And you could have it all – my empire of dirt

I will let you down, I will make you hurt

I wear this crown of thorns, upon my liar's chair

Full of broken thoughts that I cannot repair

Beneath the stains of time the feelings disappear

Johnny Cash/Trent Reznor, "Hurt"

Regardless of this weird and broken context that surrounds us, we still try to ask (or answer) theological and philosophical questions while assuming the setting of the discussion is a sterile or utopian world – and we assume that we are the innocent bystanders. However, trying to frame a real answer in a surreal world is deliberate dishonesty at worst and foolishness at best.

Let us take a moment to recap: we are all nasty, messed-up, self-centered little creatures who become obsessed with our own desires. These desires become a sacred cow that we ride around and show off to justify our distractions: “Look at my sacred cow, it is special and I am special because it is mine.” Now, for clarity, substitute that “sacred cow” image for our favorite football team, or our character in an online RPG, or our job, or our band, or our bank account, or our religion or even our ministry. What do we want and what will we do to get it? We are granted freedom, but like a moth to the flame, we only ever seek the weird and broken things in life. That is all of us; there are no exceptions. We try to hide our messed up stuff in different ways and though some of us are better at hiding it, no one is excluded. All the while we avoid looking for an answer to the question.

You don’t need to hide, my friend, for I am just like you.

Skrillex (Sonny Moore), “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites”

In spite of the predictable repetition and similarity of how broken we all are, we turn around and use our distractions as a method to divide and conquer the world around us. We invent ways to hate each other, even when we receive no benefit. My team is better. My stuff is better. My hobby is better. My job is better. My mind is better. My drug is better. My skin color is better. Again, this becomes one more excuse for avoiding the question.

We all want to cling to our tiny successes, as if they have some virtue, but they mean nothing. Here is the test: think of the possession you are most proud of having or of your most significant achievement. Now imagine you are sitting on the floor with a five year old girl who was just rescued from a brothel. As she recoils from you in terror and you try to bandage her wounds, could you explain your pride to her with a straight face?

You have to start somewhere. What’s happening in your home? Or is it your neighbor’s home? Because, statistically speaking, we do not have to look any further than that to find darkness. All of life is framed against a nasty backdrop.

There are simple, yet catastrophic, problems that affect most of us on a daily basis. Less than one percent of the US population gets married each year and half of those marriages end in divorce (CDC). There are over one million bankruptcy cases filed each year (U.S. Bankruptcy Courts). And tens of millions of people are unemployed (U.S. Bureau of Labor). These things have the power to wreck our lives. Then, there are things that have the power to destroy our lives and almost all of us are affected by the outcome. Conservatively, 1 in 4 members of the US population gets molested before the age of 18 (CDC) – though some estimates say half of us are sexually abused! Of the over half a million confirmed cases of child abuse or neglect each year, between 3 and 5 children die every day due to their injuries(ACF/HHS). This is just the US data; there are even worse things happening around the world.

Those numbers are almost impossible to contemplate. We shut down when we see them. We try to relegate them to just statistics on a page and we refuse to recognize that behind each of these statistics is a real human. Unfortunately, that real human is not a stranger. That real human is you and me.

The question that dogged me has taken many forms, but Coldplay broke it in half, made it succinct and put it to music:

Am I a part of the cure? Or am I part of the disease?

Coldplay, "Clocks"

You carry some version of that question with you too. We all do. Some of us give up trying to find an answer. Or we forget the question as we are buried under the mound of insanity that surrounds us.

Please don’t be confused. This is not a book about saving the world or even changing it. For the record, I don’t believe that we have the power to make that remotely plausible. This is a book about changing our perspectives so that we aren’t the center of our own little fiefdoms. This is a book about reaching out to others and helping them find hope, peace and joy.

Or, you can continue the mindless shuffle. It really is up to you.

What are we?

Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?

Zechariah 3:2

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

Romans 7:18-19

FAITH, JUSTICE, LOVE

(The Vocabulary)

We must agree on a set of terms so that we don’t get lost in semantics.

Faith is not a series of transactions. We can memorize some sentences from a book, we can pretend to be pious, we can act condescending to people who disagree with us, but that would be narcissism, not faith.

I’ve known many people who said they were religious and I’ve watched them live atrocious lives. With no apparent remorse or compassion, these religious people left me searching for justice and a desire to never be mistaken for one of them.

You think you can save my soul? Well Ok...

Tell me, with all your conviction,

What happens now?

Porcupine Tree, "What Happens Now"

We all end up making the same assumptions – which only confuse the issue. First, we assume faith is a job description. Second, we assume faith and religion are the same thing. And third, we are all little creatures who deserve justice, but we assume justice is only for the other guy.

This isn’t sales and marketing. We can’t just say, “I have faith!” and get a free sample. It doesn’t work like that. Faith is placing yourself subordinate to the object of your faith.

It’s foolish to say, “I have faith in myself!” because your ordinate position doesn’t shift from center. Faith in yourself is simply redefining you as both the beginning and end of everything. That is not faith, that is narcissism – and that is where we all start as children. Needless to say, we foolishly try to maintain this perspective throughout our lives. Or put another way, we will die – faith in us is faith in corpses. What happens to our faith when we let ourselves down?

Fear is not a component of faith either. Fears of the future, failure, and the unknown are things that have nothing to do with faith. These fears are used to bind us into servitude or enslavement – many use these fears as driving factors to motivate people to do their bidding.

Faith winds its way through every bit of us. Faith affects everything we do and every decision we make. We can’t bolt on faith and remove it when we find it inconvenient – that wouldn’t be faith. Our faith is reflected in how we live. We can observe a person’s life and how they carry themselves to see where they place their faith.

I must be an acrobat

To talk like this

And act like that

U2, "Acrobat"

When a politician declares, “I won’t let my faith affect my decisions,” my first inclination is to shout, “Who are you lying to?!” Any person who would say they intend to discard their faith is either lying about their faith or lying about their intent to ignore it. We can’t let go of faith, though we can stop pretending to have faith in something that we don’t believe.

Rituals do not build or contribute to faith. Standing and sitting in the right order, at the right time, doesn’t do anything other than make our knees tired. Tasks do not build or contribute to faith. Repeating assigned mantras just makes our throats dry. Money can’t buy faith. Money has no value in eternity. Proximity doesn’t equate to faith. Our faith is neither increased nor decreased based on which building we are in. All of these things are the trappings of religion and can easily be misapplied. If a group of people come together to share an experience, some would call that a concert, some would call it a sporting event, and some would call it a religious ceremony – each of these gatherings has been abused to the point of death.

One of my struggles, when I started learning about faith, was the personal need to close the loop-holes. I wanted to know that the monsters I’d met would not earn eternity – I had even consigned myself to the abyss. I assumed I had authority to negotiate my life away in order to bring retribution against others. I was so bitter that I only wanted justice.

Faith means nothing without justice. How can we have real faith without knowing all things will be reconciled? It is absurd to place faith in something transitive and then have to reorient when it disappears. That isn’t faith, that is random romance to avoid boredom.

The standard by which we’ll all be judged is not arbitrary or capricious. God is good – He is perfectly good. And we are not. We must all resist the urge to assume that we get to set the price for each person we have hurt. We must also resist the urge to assume we accumulate anything of value for the acts that we suppose are righteous or good. And, unfortunately, suffering does not grant clemency.

I used to believe that it was obligatory that I receive mercy for all the things I had been through and for all my attempts to be a good guy (whatever that means). Unfortunately, this created a huge new problem: if we make mercy into an obligation, mercy replaces justice. And therefore, it must be handed equally to everyone: me, you, Hitler, Pol Pot, and every other person who has ever lived.

This is real justice: someone must be held to account for each and every crime that has been committed. Our problem is that we bring no currency into this world. We accrue no currency while we are here, and we leave with nothing of value. All that we have is given to us. When we are held to account for how we have treated those around us and how we have served ourselves, we will have nothing to offer as payment…except our soul.

Honest faith, earnest faith, changes us. Faith changes our desires and our actions. Unfortunately, this isn’t a perfect transaction because we’re all still broken humans in a broken world. We will struggle through our fascination with the weird and broken things around us. We will wrestle with rotten desires. Sometimes we will fall down. Sometimes the people around us will knock us down. Regardless, we have to figure out how to get back up.

Sometimes the people around us do insane things that draw us into their maelstrom. Love is forgiving them for it…again…and again. For the sake of continuity though, it would be unreasonable to discount the possibility that we might be the ones creating the insanity and that others need to love us enough to do the forgiving.

Love, it will not betray you, dismay or enslave you; it will set you free.

Mumford & Sons, “Sigh No More”

Unfortunately, love can feel more like slavery than freedom. All of us have been enslaved by something or someone with whom we have fallen in love. We then have our hearts broken by this something or someone, and we spend the rest of our lives chasing after a way to mend it or avenge it.

Each time we experience heartbreak we bury our hearts a little deeper and protect them a little more. Something has to happen to reverse this burial of the only part of us that is useful. Something must remove the fear of the pain and assure us that there is no risk. Unconditional love is the only answer, because it asks nothing of us. Unfortunately, we reject love when we see it coming. We don’t believe that real love is possible.

When I was younger, I hung out with a girl in Florida. We rode the bus or walked everywhere in the 100 degree heat. We watched concert videos and ate lunch together almost every day. She endured all of my eclectic (you might just say weird) music and my boring palate. Then summer was over, and I had to start college. I told her that it’d be cool to stay friends, but I was too busy to keep dropping time in the relationship. It wrecked her. I heard the door slam and saw her run past my window. I was a jerk and an idiot. I honestly didn’t believe that love was possible. Thankfully, I was wrong (in so many ways).

I saw a flash pass my window and heard the door slam, again. She rushed at me, grabbed my shirt and growled from her tear stained face, “It ain’t gonna happen like this.” That was many years ago and we married shortly thereafter. We struggle every day to keep it together. And it only works because we both know someone who has unconditional love for each of us. From that wellspring, we are able to find peace and happiness – even after so many years together, we are able to goof around like we did when we first met.

The ultimate expression of unconditional love is taking responsibility without asking who is to blame. Everyone goes through periods where they feel overwhelmed by their struggle. Would we want someone to ask us, “What did you do to get this way?” Wouldn’t it be pure joy if someone would pick us up, dust us off, give us what we were desperate for, walk with us wherever we are going and never ask how we got stuck in the first place? I’ve never met a person who would say, “Not interested!” But almost everyone sees it as a joke.

There truly is someone out there who will love you regardless of your craziness – and He has no limits. He doesn’t expect a check. He doesn’t run a multi-level marketing scheme. He doesn’t have a hierarchy of assistants who require submission. You don’t work your way through a maze of requirements to achieve secret levels with special rewards. He is exactly the same for everyone who knows Him and He never changes His requirements for anyone. You can know Him completely in a moment and then spend the rest of your life finding ways to spend time with Him. He will never ask you, “What did you do to get that way?” He will always forgive you. And, though you may find it unbelievable, He knows you by name and loves you already.

What is Love?

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

1 Corinthians 13:1-8

JESUS

(The Answer)

God is the creator of all things and He is perfectly good.

He isn’t neutral. Neutral, by definition, has no bias. A predilection toward balance is a bias, so that is not an option either. Neutral is indifferent. If God were neutral there’d be no good because there’d be no power to create it. If God were evil, there’d be no good – creating good would be a self-defeating act. Repetitive degenerating evil requires no respite or contrast to increase its effectiveness.

If we draw a stick-figure on a piece of paper, and illustrate a little world around it, are we then subject to that illustration on the page? Does that stick-figure have power or authority? How long will we have to wait for our drawing to ‘thank us’ for drawing it? And, isn’t it well within our right to destroy that page and its contents? This analogy eventually breaks down, because we didn’t create the pencil or the paper.

God created everything – that includes gravity, time and us.

It is obvious, but always overlooked, that the creator is outside of His creation, not part of it. He is not subordinate to anything He created. We also overlook that we’re not talking about the Builder, we are talking about the Creator. He created the rules, materials and methods by which He designed and constructed everything – He didn’t just assemble existing materials. So, whatever scientific principle we discover, it was created by the Creator – just because a human noticed it, doesn’t mean the human invented it.

Thankfully, at this time, we have far more in common with the stick-figure that we drew earlier than we have in common with God. If we had been left like God, we would not die. We would live forever as self-serving little grubs (hating and being hated) while searching for new ways to steal and kill.

God created the world because He wanted to honor and magnify Himself – it’s His world and His prerogative. God’s intent was to make Himself the super hero.

We reject God because we hate the idea that this world isn’t all about us. We want to do things our own way and we all hope that we have a chance to be the super hero. This takes many different forms:

We want the sex life that we want. Whether we’re hung up on porn, gender, infidelity or anything other than husband and wife consensual sex, it doesn’t matter, it is all broken behavior - this distraction alone catches most of us. We’ll sacrifice most anything to be the sexual super hero that we imagine.

We want to be a rock star/movie star/sports star. Whether it is practicing and playing a sport seven days a week or practicing and playing music seven days a week or preening for movie stardom during every waking moment, it doesn’t matter, it is all the same. Again, we’ll trade anything to get a piece of super hero stardom.

We’ll sacrifice our children and our spouse for our career and cover for it by saying something like, “I did it all for you!” All while our families would rather have us than the money. We’ll do anything to be the affluent super hero.

Etc…

Unfortunately, none of these things come together as we expect. We make every possible mistake and then we invent more craziness, for good measure. At the end, we die, but not before we add a bunch of pain, boredom and broken-heartedness to the equation.

My point is not to indict or condemn anyone – we do that ourselves. My only objective is to show that we are all equal in our desire to pursue only our own agenda and make ourselves into our own little gods. The whole time we pursue super hero status, we put faith in ourselves and our work as though we have some ability to defy death and create good. We even absurdly bargain the present evil in our lives as some sort of debit against future good.

God granted us freewill. We use freewill in the same way that we use equality: “Everyone is equal, but I am more equal.” We demand freewill, but only because we believe it ratifies our choice of weirdness. All choices are equal, right? We demand freewill because we insist that we are in control. The creatures are free to do the Creator’s bidding, but we always serve ourselves. We want to be in control of our sickness and our salvation. We refuse to admit we are small.

There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done."

C. S. Lewis, “The Great Divorce”

We choose to ignore God and we choose to be our own little gods. So, God allows us to have what we want – which is anything other than Him. If we choose to live without Him, He will not force Himself on us: we will be allowed to live forever without Him.

God saves us though we hate Him. God saves us though we reject Him. God seeks us relentlessly though we run away continuously. Reconciliation comes when we accept Him and His offer of salvation.

God entered creation, as the Son, and He took many names. These names help us understand His purpose:

God with Us

Lamb of God

God is Salvation

In taking the name God with Us, He declared that He was no longer going to send emissaries (angels as incarnations). In taking this name, God declared that He would come among us and complete His design.

In taking the name Lamb of God, He was expressing the way His salvation would come to us.

In taking the name God is Salvation, He is declaring His purpose in a way that cannot be confused or complicated by man.

The English form of the name God is Salvation is Jesus.

If you are like I was, you might hate the name Jesus. Trying to pronounce those two syllables would make my jaw clench and my lip curl. I had associated ideas and behaviors with that name that had nothing to do with the person. I had met far too many people who said they followed Jesus, but were contemptuous of my broken life and seemed not to notice their own glaring dysfunction. Jesus is compassionate, but the people I met never seemed to be.

Jesus entered this life as we all do: through birth. If you haven’t seen birth, take a few minutes to go watch a video. It is brutal, degrading, it makes a horrible mess, and the yield is a tiny little person who will die without excruciating attention.

This is where the humiliation started. Do you know what the miracle was? The miracle was that He didn’t leave. I would have (and so would you). Jesus set aside His divinity though He could not lay aside His authority – He is God, He can’t stop being God. Jesus lived and died without supernatural assistance. Jesus faced what we face, just as we do. It would be easy to move through this world if you were omniscient, but Jesus accepted ignorance of everything, except knowing who He was. And He exerted His authority only on behalf of others as the proof that He is who He claimed to be.

One of my favorite movies is Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland.” The main reason I like this movie is that the Red Queen is a perfect picture of how any of us would play god.

“I need a pig here! I love a warm pig-belly for my aching feet.”

“Off with their heads!”

The Red Queen from “Alice in Wonderland”

The Red Queen is utterly narcissistic and twisted by her perception of power. She doesn’t consider, or even conceive, that she is wrong until the end of the movie. When it’s over, even the man she thought loved her begs to be killed so that he doesn’t have to endure her any longer.

This is what we recognize. We understand power and the abuse of it. We understand opulence and the craving of it. We understand retribution and conquest. The idea of humility doesn’t make any sense to us.

When Jesus was hungry, he didn’t whoosh together a couple of beers and a pizza – we would have. When He was lonely, he didn’t whoosh together a date – you can bet we would have. Not to mention, I have a list of folks who’d see the wrong end of a lightning bolt with a side of brimstone. I’m not trying to be funny to diminish God. I pray He forgives me. My foolishness is to demonstrate how stupid we all are. We would choose the wrong things if we got to play god. We only ever choose the wrong things.

Jesus loves us. He doesn’t sit around asking, “Who’s responsible?” and He doesn’t abandon us. Every day that passes is one more opportunity for someone to find Him. Each person who finds Him glorifies Him.

In the ultimate moment, Jesus allowed Himself to be beaten and murdered by us – the very ones He intended to save! While we still hated Him, He consigned himself to being humiliated completely: He allowed His creation to destroy His incarnation by nailing Him to a cross.

For Jesus to be just, someone must pay for every crime. And for Jesus to be the justifier, He must provide the payment. Jesus made Himself the payment and freely imputes His payment and His eternal righteousness to us, if we accept Him as the creator and justifier. That’s it. We can’t earn it. We can’t buy it. We can’t trade for it. We must accept it.

No component of our salvation is managed or moderated by any man. No man has the authority or power to affect our salvation. We will never need to submit to any man for any part of our faith. However, we will answer to Jesus.

Do you believe that Jesus created you and that He became the payment for your sin? Do you believe God is Salvation?

We want to think that Jesus is not the literal answer to the question, but He is.  The difficulty of accepting Him as the answer is mired in (1) understanding the objection to this answer, (2) followed by understanding the context of the answer and (3) ultimately embracing the continuity of living with the answer.  The next three chapters take each of these ideas (objection, context and continuity) in turn and complete the answer to the question:

Am I part of the disease or part of the cure?

Who is Jesus?

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Colossians 1:15-23

IT’S EASY TO HATE THE CHURCH

(The Objection)

“Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”

Dietrich Bonheoffer, “The Cost of Discipleship”

Bonheoffer’s work is fantastic, but the presumptions are staggering. Not his presumptions, but the presumptions. Church discipline? This assumes that men are installed who are qualified by knowledge and understanding of scripture and that they possess a true and impartial desire to help all parties involved. Confession? Again, this is an assumption that the relationship is deep enough that the words don’t fall on the deaf ears of the indifferent or on the greedy ears of the voyeur. Repentance? …is between Jesus and the believer. Discipleship? My mind aches to learn of men who are truly willing to do the time-destroying and life-consuming work of discipleship for a reason other than their own glory and aggrandizement.

Bonheoffer is using very precise language with very precise meanings. Unfortunately, the faith that led him to pen these wonderful assertions has been co-opted by people willing to deal very imprecisely with the responsibility. Put another way, where Bonheoffer strives to provide clarity, others work to obscure their motives with imprecision and mysticism. No man can understand my repentance unless I have a clear view of his. No man has the authority to offer discipline to me unless I can discipline him. No man can request or require confession from me unless I can ask the same of him. Submission is absurd. But, humility in discipleship is sensible: “Cheap grace is grace without discipleship.”

Discipleship is a bilateral process where each person is accountable for upholding all of the requirements associated with their responsibility. Less than this is slavery. If you aren’t teaching me, you cannot possibly understand anything useful about me…and vice versa. If I don’t have an unobstructed view of your life, you cannot offer commentary or criticism on mine. If you won’t confess to me, there is absolutely no need for me to confess to you. Discipleship is born of friendship, caring and unconditional love. Jesus expects us to be accountable to one another but only if we simultaneously love one another.

“I ain't never been to jail!”

What do you want, a cookie?! You're not supposed to go to jail!

Chris Rock

People want special credit for things they’re just supposed to do. When a leader in the church parses his responsibilities, he is seeking special credit for something he should be doing regardless or simply avoiding responsibility for the obligations he doesn’t want to fulfill.

One leader will say, “I’m a prophet!” and mean he is convinced of his own prowess in reading and interpreting the Bible. If you cannot read, interpret and then teach the Bible, you are not a pastor – this is a minimum level skill. You may serve in a wonderful capacity without this ability, but you are not a pastor.

Another leader will say, “I’m a king!” meaning they are good at organizing and leading. Every guy on the planet imagines himself as a leader of some sort. All guys believe they’re a few push-ups away from being buff. The reality is, if you’re a king, you won’t need to tell anyone, they will know. Like it or not, a pastor must be able to administer his responsibilities. But this is nothing to be proud of or hold up as an accomplishment. Making much of this very human attribute brings pride into a place where it doesn't belong and portends self-righteousness.

The Apostle Paul wrote:

For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

1 Corinthians 2:2

This doesn't mean he forgot how to manage himself or his ministry. No, he was a brilliant manager and part of the reason we know this is that he kept excellent notes. But, he never said, "Oh, look at me!" "Look how special I am!" Quite the opposite. If his words were recorded as diary entries, they would read something like this: “I was beaten today…again. There was nobody there to help me, but I managed to get away. I think they’re going to try and stone me tomorrow.”

Oh look at that. A dumb idea just found a friend.

Emerson Cod from "Pushing Daisies"

Worse than the absurd swagger associated with naming one of the first two attributes (prophet or king) as your sole claim to distinction, is the pathetic perspective that is gripping the modern pulpit: most of these leaders won’t say, “I’m a priest!” For clarity, here the term priest is used to describe an attribute – not the word Priest as a title.

Unfortunately, the term priest is used in a pejorative sense among many. However, this attribute is the single distinction that protects the people from a leader’s ego. The role of priest describes being burdened with people's need for Jesus and the necessity of meeting and shepherding them where they are, without condescension or apathy. If a leader lacks this quality, then people become notches on his cross...or merely inconveniences. For the record, Jesus never acted this way.

If you ask anyone who worships under one of these aforementioned leaders, “Do you care if your pastor is priestly?” you’ll get one of three answers:

- The people who don’t want to admit that they are broken will say this doesn’t matter. In truth, this guarantees an impersonal relationship and a nightclub-like atmosphere at their church. They will be able to attend and enjoy a show while disregarding any content.

- The people who want to suck-up to the leader will gloss over this behavior and make excuses. These sycophants expect a job fulfilling one of the leader’s discarded responsibilities or at least an invitation to special events.

- Everyone else will say they wished the leader was more approachable and empathetic. Regardless, when leaders discard any of their obligations, this group of people will model this disconnected behavior as the status-quo: if the leader sets a precedence of indifference or inconvenience, then the people around him will act the same way.

All of these traits (prophet, priest and king) must be present in abundance or the pastor will not be able to function: If not a king, his ministry will fall apart. If not a prophet, he’ll teach insanity. If not a priest, he’ll abuse the people around him.

Who are you to wave your finger?

Ya' must have been out [of] your head.

…hypocrite!

TOOL, “The Pot”

It is embarrassing to see a leader in the church run from his congregation because he lacks the strength to lead people through their [sometimes self-inflicted] desperation. It is embarrassing to see a leader in the church get jealous of the congregation’s wealth or free time and then try to build something on their backs in retribution (i.e. misappropriate funds, fail to meet promised goals, etc.). It is embarrassing to hear a leader in the church misquote or misuse the Bible because he doesn’t understand what he is reading. And, don’t you love it when a gas bag stands in the pulpit and screams at you about how broken you are and how he wouldn’t do any of the stuff you do? That fool condemns himself by his own standard.

[Jesus] also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Luke 18:9-14

That is the undercurrent that we detect, sometimes subconsciously, when we find our way into a church and can’t reconcile reality with the noise being generated in the pulpit.

This is why “church” doesn’t look or feel like “Church.” Why is it easy to hate the church? Because poor leaders fail to teach their charges how to connect with others and compassionately demonstrate the hope we all have in knowing Jesus.

First rule of leadership: everything is your fault.

Hopper from "A Bug's Life"

You can’t model current business practices and take credit for your savvy on one hand and then blame God or the congregation when something goes wrong.

Absurd swagger and chest-thumping bravado may work well in board rooms and business meetings, but they have no place in the pulpit. This isn’t a suggestion that we turn the pulpit into a seething mushy mass of wailing and begging. This is about leaders using all of their strength to lift people up – even when the people refuse to help themselves. This is about leaders using their entire mind to learn and teach – even when no one is listening. This is about leaders helping people through the same recurring problem, ad nauseam. This is about leaders working to carry the enormous load that comes with the pulpit: meeting people where they are and teaching them to do the same.

There is nothing easy or simple when it comes to interacting with other people. It is time consuming, messy, sometimes unrewarding and excruciatingly easy to create misunderstanding. It requires grotesque amounts of humility and super-human patience. The ability to do this job is not within us. Jesus is the only one who could give us the strength to do this work.

Jesus washed the feet of His followers a short time before He was killed. Jesus did not have access to running water. He washed the Apostle’s feet with a tub of water and reused it for everyone. They didn’t travel by cart or animal, they walked. The streets would have contained human and animal excrement and discard. Everyone would have to walk through this stuff. Jesus stripped down to almost nothing and wrapped a towel around Him. He sat on the floor covering His hands in the detritus of the city as He scraped it from their feet. Nasty water splashed on Him. And, finally, He wiped each of their feet with the towel that was wrapped around Him. He was covered in their filth. This was a dirty business that was usually taken care of by the lowest person in the house. How could the person assigned to wash feet get clean afterward? They couldn’t, there was no facility to undo the mess.

Jesus spent three years with these men. He could have washed their feet at any time previously, yet He waited right up to the very end. He could have called for someone else to perform this task. He could have waited until Judas (the one He knew would betray Him) left on his mission. The continuity is as important as the event itself. It is not just what was done, but when it was done: Jesus knew He was about to die horribly. There were many other things He could have been doing or teaching. There were other people who could have done this work. There was even a person present who was not worthy of His effort. Yet, at the worst possible time, He did the worst possible job before enduring the worst possible degradation and the worst possible death.

It stands to reason that where there’s sacrifice, there’s someone collecting sacrificial offerings. Where there’s service, there’s someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice, speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be the master.

Ayn Rand

Bad leaders destroy or impede understanding. Jesus gave us His pattern of service to make it easy to cull out those who are looking to be masters. There is no complicated theology or secret handshake. You don’t need to convene a court and have a hearing. No human is ever entitled to claim a role that subordinates anyone. Ever. No hierarchy. No caste system. Jesus said:

“Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher (prophet) and Lord (king), and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet (priest), you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them…”

John 13:12-17

Most people will take more than their due. Most will kick us because we seem like an easy target. Most will laugh because we look pathetic covered in the stench of real life. Serving people is not about our convenience or our dignity. It is an ugly affair that must be repeated again and again. The same people will come back with the same dirty feet and the process begins anew. If we aren’t exhausted and bloody at the end of the day, we are doing something wrong.

They mocked Jesus saying, “Save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” If we accept that we must serve in humility, the trials will cease to matter and our lives will take on meaning. The only way people will believe the message we bring is if they see us serve with humility.

What does Leadership look like?

Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

2 Corinthians 11:24-30

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

1 Corinthians 9:19-23

For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their [garments impressive], and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the [churches] and greetings in the marketplaces and being called [teacher] by others. But you are not to be called [teacher], for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, [Jesus]. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Matthew 23:1-12

WEIRD AND BROKEN

(The Context)

We all desire admission to a team – whether it is a football team, the Starbucks team or the disenfranchised team it doesn’t matter, because it is all the same. Whichever illusory distraction we choose, it is irrelevant: we all use it the same way, we all abuse it the same way, and we all fall prey to it the same way. Each distraction becomes an inebriant that possesses us and is only interrupted by the staccato ostinato of tragedy.

We’re all drunk out of our minds (for clarity, this is a quantitative, not qualitative, analysis). For some of us it is power. For others it is alcohol or weed. For many it is sex. As easily, we could say the list includes music, food, dieting, TV, sports, exercise, shopping, cars, money, family, religion, etc…

Like nothing you've ever seen before

Watch closely as I open this door

Your jaws will be on the floor

After this you'll be begging for more

Saliva, “Ladies and Gentlemen”

I knew a guy who couldn’t get enough - I’ll call him John. John didn’t value anything but he craved everything. One year, the carnival came and plopped down in the middle of town. It had all you could ask for – crazy hawkers, stupid games, suicidal rides, bad food and all the rest. I hadn’t tasted the experience and didn’t know what I was missing.

John made me go with him to the carnival, though I wasn’t interested. If a person could exhibit “animal eye shine,” John did when he stepped onto the midway. We rode everything, and he’d even skip us ahead in line. People would let us go because John would explain that he couldn’t get enough. He talked to everyone and made people love him. He “lived” the experience and people saw him as an integral part of it. The carnival was a playground with no limits: we defied gravity, we ate junk until we puked, we hung out with the indigenous weirdoes and it was all OK because it was the carnival and eventually we’d go home and be normal again. Unfortunately, I have returned to a metaphorical carnival too many times.

Life is like a carnival: it has a house of horrors, a tent full of freaks, a team of partially naked people who will dance for us, and a group of clowns that we can laugh at. We don’t want to live around all this (well…most of us will say we don’t want to live there), but we love to visit. We want to go through the house of horrors to see if we can beat it or just to say we endured it. We want to peek inside the tent at all the weirdness and be exhilarated by how it is unlike everyday life. We want to pretend we are looking at the naked people in a disconnected and analytical way. And we want to throw stuff at the clowns because it makes us laugh.

Periodic dysfunction is no different than continuous dysfunction. Do we binge drink? Or do we put it off and only binge a few times each year? Put another way, do we live in a constant state of anticipation, placated by knowing that there will be a next occurrence?

Do we eat too much? Or do we hyper-control our food intake? Both of these are gluttonous behaviors and there is no difference between either – this is about being obsessive.

Do the people around us cease to exist when the game comes on? Do we daydream about the start of the next season? This is escapist and narcissistic. Feel free to suppress it during the rest of the week, but that doesn’t remove the stain.

Do we WOW/ Facebook / blog for hours at a time to the exclusion of reality? Or do we just pine about it until we are able to get the next opportunity? Just like people who pine over sporting events, this is escapist and narcissistic.

Do we have a sexual distraction that prevents us from having normal relationships? Does this distraction isolate us or limit our contact with others? Or does this distraction require that we maintain a separate life (i.e. internet after dark)? This behavior can be isolationist or dehumanizing.

Do we love to con people? Do we see people as food or as a source of entertainment? Do we reconcile it because we chose a job that rewards us for doing it? Power and control trumps the baser sins. Not that there is a hierarchy, it’s that this is the sin equivalent of a “suitcase nuke.” We can carry it anywhere. We can hide it anywhere. And, we can destroy absolutely anything with it.

The collective point is this: We are all nasty little creatures who focus only on ourselves and our own self-interest. We then use our interests to bifurcate the crowd and discard anyone who isn’t on our team. Where does your sin hide?

I am clearly broken and no one knows what to do

Pieces of the puzzle don't fit, so, I pound them into you

Korn, "Get Up!"

Everyone who wails or rails about sin falls into one of three categories: open glutton, bulimic or anorexic. Openly gluttonous behavior is what everyone likes to throw stones at: openly obvious sin which requires no intellect or discernment to see. The bulimic sinner should be recognizable to most of us: we gorge on our weird and broken stuff and then seek some sort of self-flagellation to force us to vomit out our guilt. The anorexic sinner is the station of the enlightened: the constant checking and obsessing about the nature, content and color of their weird and broken behavior, the constant weighing and measuring of their behavior until there is nothing left of them to extend in love to anyone.

Do we understand with absolute certainty that none of these options is good? At the very best, we are always at risk of making ourselves into deluded hypocrites, and at worst we become deluded hypocrites. This is the fine line that we are never able to steer away from.

This is not an attempt to be soft on sin or heretically accepting of sin. Sin is one of the central threads woven through the Bible, from first to last, that establishes our station: on our own, we are desperate and hopeless. There is only one person to have ever walked this planet who wasn’t disgusting beyond measure. His name is Jesus. So, the commission of sin can’t be the axis on which salvation turns or we are all condemned to separation from Jesus. By extension, any message that spins on this topic loses its voice. What if Jesus chooses to allow us to continue to struggle with our sin? When the Apostle Paul prayed for Jesus to remove his sin, Jesus responded:

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

2 Corinthians 12:9

Faith in Jesus is marked by a desire to discard the sin that traps us. However, faith does not guarantee success in any human endeavor. Jesus answers all prayers; sometimes, the answer is “No.”

Discussions of our weird and broken behavior, without at least ambiguous self-disclosure, are nothing more than an attempt to degrade and create a faux caste system. And any discussion of sin that requires compliance is voyeurism with a healthy dose of dominance and submission thrown in:

“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven"

Luke 6:37

It doesn’t make sense to judge others, though we do. And condemning others while we are condemned can be a bit comical. The Creator gave us a list of laws. Here are a couple of them:

Don’t lie.

Don’t murder.

We studied these laws day in and day out until we thought we figured out what they meant. Here is what we believed we discovered:

- If we answer with a question, ambiguity or at least plausible deniability, we’re not really lying.

- We’re so brilliant, we determined that if we pay someone to kill for us, then we didn’t murder.

Except it doesn’t really work like that. Does it?

People say, “Why doesn’t God show Himself? If He would show Himself, then I would believe.” First, He doesn’t care whether we believe or not. He cares whether we have faith. The Creator sent His agents among us. He appeared to us, yet we still parsed His directives down to absurdity (see the notes on murder and lying above). We didn’t start to act like fools in a vacuum, we started to act like fools while in His presence – from the beginning we have wanted our own way and we always think we have the answer. Seeing God and knowing that He is real has never stopped anyone from doing insane stuff and it has never guaranteed faith.

The Creator entered His creation and explained, in person, what the laws meant: anything other than saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ (and meaning it) is evil, and if you are even angry with your brother, you will be liable to judgment. The law is literal in word and intent: if you even consider evil, you are guilty. All of the laws are interpreted the same way…

…so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

Romans 3:19

He even provided a condensed and simple-to-understand version of all of His previous decrees. He summed it up like this:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Matthew 22:37-39

People say things like, “Repent or God will send you to hell!” The problem is, they don’t know what repent means and they have no authority to declare who will or won’t go to hell. What they’re really saying is, “Stop doing things I don’t like or I will force God to send you to hell!” Repentance can’t mean anything like that or they condemn themselves.

Repentance is recognizing the distance between who we are and the standard that Jesus set. Repentance is the yearning to stop being messed up – that is, the desire to stop sinning. Repentance is the process by which we remove obstacles from our life so that we may offer and experience love. Repentance is not a job description, it is a character trait. And, repentance is a lifelong process of continually seeking forgiveness from the One we have grieved.

The process of repentance will be met with almost insurmountable resistance and we will suffer for trying to escape from the clutches of our weird and broken desires. It will feel like we are getting hit from every direction: we will endure the pain of warring with our desires, the hunger for release or relief, the shame of acquiescence, the elation of resistance followed by the crushing guilt of failure. The temptations will feel like they are coming rapid-fire, and the distractions will be overwhelming. Jesus is the only hope and source of forgiveness, with no condemnation, for everyone who believes in Him.

Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them. Were you a slave when you were called? Don’t let it trouble you—although if you can gain your freedom, do so. For the one who was a slave when called to faith in [Jesus] is [Jesus’] freed person; similarly, the one who was free when called is [Jesus’] slave.

1 Corinthians 7:20-22

What are you enslaved to? And are you trying to gain your freedom? Regardless, don’t let it trouble you. If you can escape your bonds/addictions, do so! You will be happier and you will have time to help others. However, if you can’t escape, and no rescue is on the horizon, don’t be troubled – accept the peace that Jesus offers to you in knowing He will not condemn you. Jesus did not give us these words to bind us into traps and He did not give us these words so we can bind others into traps. These words are not permissive; they are the embodiment of forgiveness.

Jesus told us a bunch of short stories that weave together as the complete fabric of His message and purpose. The stories form a bulwark against poor interpretation and abuse of His message. In essence, if you intend to corrupt the Bible, you would have to rewrite all of these short stories to support the theme you are trying to inject or remove. Then, you would have to go back through all the ages and locate every time these stories were told (and retold) and somehow rewrite history to include your new thought. Even the people who hate Jesus know these stories and have known them for 2000 years.

Jesus told a story to demonstrate forgiveness so we wouldn’t confuse it with permissiveness – The Prodigal Son.

The Prodigal Son is about a father with two sons – one is self-righteous and the other is a wanton, wild man. The self-righteous son stays home and works for his father while the wild son takes his share of his father’s wealth and goes to a distant land to spend it on parties and prostitutes. The wild son wastes everything and goes back to the father to beg for a job so that he could have food and shelter. The father yearned for his missing son. He threw a party for the wild son and welcomed him back with loving arms. The self-righteous son resented that his wayward brother was not cast out and cast down. The father loved both sons and refused to treat them differently. Ultimately, the wild son accepted his father’s love and came to him. The self-righteous brother stayed out in the darkness.

This story is a window into all of humanity and an expression of the application of Jesus’ sacrifice for us. This story is for everyone who rejects the idea of sin. This story is for people who believe that the concept of sin is either a masochistic way of debriding our weird guilt or a sadistic method of manipulating people.

Why should he get to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants?

Jeannie from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"

The self-righteous brother is sinning by being only concerned with his position and displaying contempt for his brother’s abuses and father’s clemency. This is weird and broken with a poor attempt at plausible deniability thrown in for good measure. This might be you.

The question isn't "what are we going to do," the question is "what aren't we going to do?"

Ferris from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"

The other brother runs away to a city where no one knows him – expressly so he can sin like a fiend and not have to listen to anyone pass judgment. That is the definition of weird and broken. Maybe that is you.

Are you self-righteous? That is, do you condemn your brother? Or are you hedonistic? That is, do you love yourself? Maybe you’re hedonistically self-righteous and you disregard everything.

When speaking to the father, the self-righteous brother attempts to disconnect from the reckless brother by calling him, “that son of yours!” Yet the father refers to them both as brothers – he refuses to offer a separate distinction for either: he displays his equal love for both by throwing a party for one and assuring the other that all of the father’s property will be his. Unfortunately, one of the brothers chose to stay on the outside because he assumed he was above the other brother and would not let go of his pride to join with him.

The most beautiful part of The Prodigal Son is that it shows that we are all equal despite where we are in the process of repentance. This is almost always overlooked: By the only measure that matters, that is through the eyes of our Creator, we are all completely equal in every regard. In and of ourselves, none of us carries distinction. We all come from the same place. We are all made equal by our weird and broken behavior. And we all equally share in Jesus’ forgiveness. In this, we pass from equality to equality. There is never a caste system. There is never an individual who is more equal.

Weird isn’t really weird, it is common. And broken is normal. The default state for everyone we will ever meet is exactly the same:

For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Romans 3:22-26

To reject this passage is to reject all hope of equality and to regard everyone around us as less important than ourselves. To embrace this word is to see everyone around us as equally desperate for the knowledge that we now possess. Spreading this word then becomes a mission of highest purpose: not because we gain anything, but because we are giving people the only thing that matters.

We now hold hope in the palm of our hand. No one is too insignificant. No one is too scary. No one is too broken. No one is too silly. We can reach anyone and bring them everything.

The Parable of the Prodigal Son

And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.

“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.

“Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’”

Luke 15:11-32

What is Sin?

None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.

All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.

Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.

The venom of asps is under their lips.

Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.

Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.

There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

Romans 3:11-19

Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

Romans 2:2-4

Is God sovereign?

You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory.

Romans 9:19-23

THERE ARE NO BYSTANDERS

(The Continuity)

We love to throw stones at people. If we knock someone down we can stand on top of them to get a little higher. If we’re busy beating on people, we don’t have to look inside ourselves, and we think it will remove the obligation to acknowledge their viability. We have been charmed into thinking it’s funny – the success of most all entertainment is built on the idea that we’d rather laugh at people instead of with them. Something inside us must change.

If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”

Luke 17:3-4

There are three ways to read the passage. Typically, we go the obvious route and assume the condescending position of observer : some jerk annoyed me and I have to forgive him. Specifically, if someone sins against us, we are to tell them, they are to seek our forgiveness and we are to forgive them. However there is the slightly less obvious interpretation of the humble recipient: I have been a jerk and I need to seek forgiveness. The passage is no more about our brother than it is about us. We sin against people (a lot), we are to seek their forgiveness, and they are to forgive us. Finally, there is the true interpretation that, once noticed, leads to our (1) humiliation and our (2) desire to change.

The passage tells us that we sin against Jesus every day and He still forgives us. Jesus commands that we set nothing as more important than Him and that we treat others as we wish to be treated – we can commit no sin without first making the transgression more important than placing Jesus foremost in our life.

The humiliation comes from knowing Jesus and accepting the gift of His forgiveness, but still choosing to wallow in our weird and broken stuff. When we recognize and accept this (if we hope to maintain any intellectual integrity) we have to give up any idea that we are capable of managing ourselves. The desire to change is demonstrated by our compassion for those around us. We are to model the compassion that Jesus demonstrates (His continual forgiveness) by freely offering forgiveness to those around us.

This passage is an affirmation of ongoing sin. The passage doesn’t say, “After we sin and repent, we will never sin again.” In this impartial court, there is no presumption of innocence. The passage is clear: there is a constant burden of sin. We sin daily and this never changes. Jesus grants a glimpse of His acknowledgement of our constant broken state. And it doesn’t faze Him or cause Him to recoil in the slightest. Actually, quite the contrary: Jesus’ forgiveness is free and eternal to those who will accept it. There is no hope without it.

For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

Romans 7:15

What dwells in your heart? I’d like to be cool and give you some message that makes me look pious, intelligent and admirable, but I can’t. I know what dwells in my heart and I run from it. I struggle every day to remove the things from my life that I know cause harm to myself and others. And, every day I fall backwards.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Romans 7:21-24

If our sin is constant, do we give up and give in? Or do we resist? There are always two ways to resist before us: repentance and forgiveness. We can always forgive those who have wronged us and we can always repent to Jesus – ask for His forgiveness.

As I stated previously, Jesus told many stories as a way of preserving His message and His intent. These stories have been embedded in history as a way of preventing subversion of the Bible’s greater narrative (though many still try).

One of these stories is The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. There was a king who had a servant and that servant had a debtor. The servant owed the king an amount that would take 10,000 lifetimes to repay, yet the king forgave the debt. The debtor only owed the servant the equivalent of a day’s wage; regardless, the servant had the debtor thrown in prison. The king discovered the servant’s hardheartedness toward the debtor, so he reinstated the servant’s debt and had the servant thrown into prison. Jesus told the story to provide clarity to the question that He had just answered:

Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Matthew 18:21-22

Spin this around and take a look at it in reverse order. First, Jesus forgives us infinitely – there is no caveat and no exception. Second, we are to live perpetually seeking the forgiveness of those we wrong. And, finally, we are to always forgive those who wrong us. What weight or value does our sin, grievance, or pain have against the infinite capacity of Jesus’ forgiveness? If His design and desire is to let it all go, why can’t we?

Jesus came to demonstrate His compassion and kindness. He didn’t leave us as unattended playthings, though He could have. His life on earth serves as a demonstration of who He is and how we are to live.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

John 15:12-15

Compassion and kindness are inexorably connected to weakness and frailty. God is perfectly powerful. He created this world, everything in it and the rules by which it stays together. He can make for Himself absolutely anything, for any reason and with any outcome. Yet He chose to give up that power (for a time) to live with us. He took on a frail and weak body – a body that could get sick, a body subject to the elements in His creation, a body that would ultimately die. He gave up strength for weakness, took responsibility for us and provided our example. Jesus showed us the meaning and intent of our lives: Love Him with all that we have. And He showed us what this looks like: Love our neighbors as ourselves.

None of us is any good at loving Jesus or the people around us. Look at the way most of us drive. If ever there were an outward expression that closely modeled how we feel on the inside this one covers it. Most of us drive like small children claiming space in the sandbox. Where could we readily demonstrate compassion and kindness and yet fail to do so?

It is easy (and sterile) to think and moralize from the safety of our own little rooms. We love to look at God’s Law and come up with interesting ways in which we can satisfy it. Or, more likely, we weave a web of requirements for the people around us and then test them on whether they uphold our standard.

Unfortunately, we get caught in our own trap trying to endure the self-righteous path we create and then fail to walk. One minute we’re overly proud of our ability to resist temptation: “Look at me, I didn’t miss the mark today!” Then, in the not so remote future, we wake up on a park bench, hung-over and with the scent of someone else’s perfume – and fluids – on our clothes. After we sober up a little, we begin the process of self-loathing and pursuing the denial strategy that brings on the amnesia we desperately seek. Or maybe it looks different to you: two large cinnamon rolls and a mocha cappuccino, big-sized fast food for lunch and pizza with a pitcher of beer for dinner. The bathroom scale tortures you and the race to the diet pills and purging (or whatever) begins. In the end, this process starts all over again for each of us, regardless of the specifics. We all end up riding this gerbil wheel of confidence and shame – round and round never getting anywhere.

Our sin management usually keeps us busy most of the time – though it’s an empty sort of mental masturbation that keeps us focused on our own foolishness. And we say, “I’ll get around to loving people one day.” We might even mean it, but the net result is that no one benefits – not even us. On the other hand, there is an alternative: if we refuse to overvalue our piety and refuse to undervalue our love, we will live the life Jesus called us to. Jesus said:

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Matthew 9:12-13

When we stop trying to decipher what Jesus meant by “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice” in the quiet of our studies, and we go figure it out among our neighbors, everyone benefits and His purpose for us is fulfilled. Think about it: you go before Jesus and He says, “Tell me about your life.” And this is the testimony that you think you can offer:

“Jesus, I have sacrificed myself in every respect, just for your glory! I never succumb to temptation and I keep myself away from anything that might defile me. I go to church every Sunday and Wednesday. I bring food to every luncheon and I tithe without fail.”

Maybe some of that is true. More likely it is part of the perpetuated mythology that out there (somewhere) is a bunch of people who are good. These folks are supposed to have worked real hard and cleaned themselves up. It is said that they exhibit love to others and set an example we should all look up to, but here is the secret: nobody looks like this. No one lives up to this ideal. This myth only serves to make us all miserable because we examine the implications and realize we are far from this make-believe ideal.

However, here is what our testimony could look like:

“Every minute of my life has been a mess. I’m so broken that I feel like nothing can fix me. And every time I promised to be good, I turned around and jumped back in the mess. But, whenever I saw people just like me, I told them about You. Please forgive me!”

Which of those two testimonies looks remotely like something that would please Jesus? Which life is honest? Which life serves a purpose?

God could have remained distant from us. He could’ve continued to make His decrees from afar and He could’ve placed any number of burdens on us to achieve His design. Remember, everything that has ever existed is His and He is free to do anything with it, in any way that He desires. Instead, what He chose to do was to demonstrate compassion and kindness in human form, under human constraints.

Jesus did not come to condemn us (we are condemned already – we live selfish, self-serving lives). It was His compassion for us and His desire to demonstrate His kindness that brought Him here to serve and save us. God could have said, “Clean yourself up and I’ll decide if I want you.” What He said was quite different:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30

We all know what it means to be “weary and burdened.” We feel it every day. When Jesus says “take my yoke,” He means that we are to accept that He is God and place our faith in Him. “For I am gentle and humble in heart,” is to confirm that Jesus understands our trials and has no contempt for us. “Rest for your souls,” is the reward He offers: the release from fear, strife and the emotional wreckage of our struggles. Jesus dealt with the same temptations we deal with, yet He did not succumb. We aren’t like that; we fall apart continuously until our time here is done. So, what are we to do? What is the light burden that Jesus places upon us? It really is quite simple: Go tell people what Jesus has done for us. That’s it.

If hiding away from people were God’s design, He would have stayed removed. Instead, we saw that Jesus came and worked tirelessly to reach even the most wretched. He hung out with homeless people, hookers, thieves and a bunch of fishermen. He gave no latitude to the ivory tower and showed no deference to the people who were convinced of their own piety. He put up with every possible indignity and then poured Himself out completely.

Your life is not your own. Only a monster could find hope and assume they didn’t need to share it – hope kept in a vacuum is no hope at all. Some people convert their hope into a caste system. They assume that their hope belongs to them and that they are made special by it. This group takes their hope, wraps it in razor wire and attempts to bash people into submission with it (the ever-popular, contemptuous, “I’m sorry you hate Jesus and you’re goin’ to hell. When you stop being nasty, Jesus will welcome you!”). Hope as a weapon is no hope at all. Jesus said:

And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.

Luke 11:46

No one escapes the trouble of this world – that is, the flames. Some people seem only to smell like smoke, but it is because they know how to hide the burns. Most of us parade around with the burns visible to everyone. We’re so charred and scarred that we are never able to fully function again. Every day is a struggle just to wake up, which then leads us to use most anything as a means of escape.

People have mental disorders (treated and untreated); they are bounded by flames and feel like they have no way to escape. People have physical disorders that they are unable to overcome and they also feel like there is no escape from the flames. People relive past trauma (every day) and feel like they are in the flames with no way to escape. All of us feel burned by the cares and struggles of this world – and sometimes it feels like there is no way out.

If you’re just you, and you are remotely capable of avoiding the flames, then you’d be an idiot to jump back in – it wouldn’t matter. If you serve God, the purpose is clear: helping anyone will bring hope into a place where there may be no other source for hope. There is no backup crew and there is no rescue squad – you’re it. You were sent to that place, at that time, to do the work appointed to you.

You may or may not have been hurt before you started trying to reach people. Regardless, each time you run back in, you will hurt a little more: it will cost you time, money, unrequited love, pain…who knows...maybe everything.

These are a few of the things Jesus said and we have turned them into platitudes without any attention to what He is trying to tell us:

You are the light of the world.

Matthew 5:14

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Matthew 5:7

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Matthew 5:44

Can you now see how these things make sense?

We get wrapped around the idea that we need to travel to the other side of the globe and help people, or our help isn’t substantial. We also assume we need to overcome the sin that has plagued us for a lifetime, or we haven’t really done anything substantial. We look for big wins and ignore the validity of anything else. So, in general, we don’t even try to connect with anyone for any reason and we live a neutered existence. Changing our perspective on helping other people opens doors to reaching anyone with news about Jesus.

Compare and contrast our contemporary communities: Do we stop to help someone on the side of the road? Do we help people load their groceries while passing through the parking lot of our local store? Do we ever hold the door for the person behind us? Have we ever considered sharing our lunch with someone who is looking hungrily at our plate? We’re so focused on the big stuff that we have eliminated even basic concern for the people around us. These are simple things, but they may not fit with our personality, ability or community. It is up to us to imagine anything we could do to show respect or grace to anyone around us.

Many people in church will help other people in the church readily. One of the virtues of being inside a church is that there are (or should be!) people around to help when we are in trouble. Unfortunately, we also develop this tendency to see helping inside the church as a kind of penance, or a way to check off responsibility to other people – all neatly contained in an easily accessible and clear package. But proceed with caution:

For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others?

Matthew 5:46-47

Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

Matthew 6:1

Who, how and why do we serve? Yes, we can help those inside the church but we must serve those who don’t love us. We must serve people who we don’t readily call our brother. And we are commended for serving in any way possible:

Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

Matthew 25:34-40

We must change the way we interact with the world. We can stoically help. We can learn to love helping. We can resent others so much that we refuse to help.  Or we can even learn to help while we’re distressed. We won’t necessarily recognize anything special about the people we help. We won’t necessarily mark the occasion in our mind as memorable. But we are to contribute to anyone who needs it, without prejudice and for no other reason than bringing hope to them. For clarity, when we love helping people, because it makes us feel good, it is not shameful, dirty or self-centered – it is a blessing and a gift from Jesus to experience the joy of giving to others. Unfortunately, it is a hallmark that not all of us share. Some people enjoy hurting others so much that they hurt them even when it is costly to them to do so. I knew a man who made deals because he loved to manipulate and dominate people. The deal was not done, and certainly not successful, unless he was able to manipulate the other person. I watched him fail to profit on several occasions, because he was far more distracted by manipulating the other person.

Sometimes our situation will become dire, but this is where it gets most interesting. If we choose to reach out to people while in the face of adversity, we will find the peace to weather any storm.

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:11-15

What are the things the author (Apostle Paul) is talking about doing? Why is he being strengthened to do them? He is talking about reaching out to people to teach them about Jesus. And he is talking about having the confidence that no matter how tough it gets, we will not be alone when we strive to do this work.

Sometimes helping others really does hurt. But then we think, "Wow. I actually served Jesus. I didn't fake it. I sounded like an idiot and I tripped over all my words, but I did it!" That instant was fleeting, but it has an indelible effect upon us.

Do we score points for being a good little soldier? Nope.

Do we get some kind of reward? Nope.

Unfortunately, most days, all that stuff seems far too altruistic. Then I think to myself, “The luckiest man who ever lived was the thief who died on the cross next to Jesus.” Because, moments after he accepted that Jesus was his Creator and Justifier, he died and left the worries of this world behind. But, that is the answer to this conundrum:

For to me to live is [Jesus], and to die is gain.

Philippians 1:21

Even when it’s tough, our life is spent to bring Jesus to the people around us. When our time here is done, there will be nothing but gain.

Jesus summed everything into two commands: love God and love our neighbors. Why would this even need to be acknowledged if we actually did it? Why would these things ever be the topic of discussion, or noteworthy in any regard, if we were any good at them? It would be completely disingenuous to suggest that helping someone isn’t brutal. If it were easy to demonstrate honest caring for the people around us, everyone would do it and the world would be better. But just because helping others sounds simple doesn’t mean it is without purpose. Even when the task doesn’t culminate in a majestic end, it doesn’t mean its purpose is less than majestic. Even if our efforts seem to fail, the context of our effort leaves a lasting impression. And that may be the moment that makes the difference in someone’s life.

We are beset on all sides by evil and there is one enemy with many faces. Yes, we are all evil, but we are not the enemy – though many seem to think and act that way.

We are at war – except, we are not the soldiers. We are the medics on a losing field of battle. For every wounded and dying person we reach, there are thousands – or even millions – we will never get to. We are powerless to stop the fight. And, no matter what we do, we will see people die all around us. Fighting back won’t help. Our only option is to treat as many as we can, as fast as we can, and hope some of them live – we move from body to body, indifferent to their uniform or the flag they carry. There are no heroes or flag wavers, there are no commendations or rewards, there is no status to be gained and no one will sing our praises. We will get even more charred and scarred along the way. And the work will only be done when the battle consumes us too.

Are you part of the disease or part of the cure?

The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant

Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.

“Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

Matthew 18:21-35

Who must respond?

“What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.

Matthew 21:28-32

WHY WOULD WE DO THIS?

(The Authority)

The Bible is not a text book or an adventure novel. The Bible is a collection of historical documents that record how people felt and things that happened while they learned about and interacted with the Creator.

It is one thing to be told what to believe and to be told why we should believe it. It is something completely different to recreate how a conclusion was drawn and to be shown how to search for the answer ourselves. This chapter is not only a Biblical proof of the assertions in this book; it is also a primer for stepping through passages in the Bible. And hopefully the reader is inspired to seek this information on their own and with their own determination.

The question we must answer:

“If I am so broken and we are so forgiven, why would I ever consider helping anyone?”

There are other permutations – same question, just delivered from slightly different backgrounds:

“I am waiting for God to send me a sign.” Did He send you a sign to help choose what you’d eat for breakfast?

“I have planned a life-changing mission trip for later this summer.” So you don’t need to help right now?

“Only intense discipleship really counts. Everything else is trivial.” You’re just lazy.

“I’m not gonna help because people suck.” People say the same thing about you. Get up and help.

“Am I part of the disease or part of the cure?”

Why should we care? The answer to this question is found throughout the Bible:

If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

1 Corinthians 13:2

But to answer definitively, I have chosen six of the best known pericopes (that is, groups of sentences that form a coherent thought). Though you may not know the titles, chances are, you are familiar with the content:

Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7)

The Final Judgment (Matthew 25:31-46)

Gerasene Demoniac (Mark 5:1-20)

The Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20)

The Parable of the Sower (Luke 8:4-8 and 11-15)

The Great Commandment (Matthew 22:37-39)

To exhaustively work through each of these texts would demand that they each have a book of their own. However, in this limited space, it is possible to demonstrate that, above all things, we are commanded to teach everyone about Jesus for their good and His glory. The answer is clear, but it is not concise. So stay focused and we will see the answer by the end of this chapter.

The Sermon on the Mount

(Matthew 5-7)

Jesus saw the crowds and withdrew to a mountain to teach his disciples. He explained that the kings and queens of this world are not the ones He favors – His heart is open for the meek, merciful and humble.

Our responsibility is to go before everyone and be seen as His agents. Jesus declared that His time on Earth was to fulfill the Law – to pay the penalty for those who accept Him – not to abolish the Law. If He abolished the Law, we would not be guilty and we would not need to come to Him. From another perspective, He wouldn’t have paid a penalty for an inert Law.

Jesus explained that the Law is literal. We are either honestly good or we are not – He makes it clear that we are not. Jesus explains that we are to live with an honest heart, we are to help people in need, and love those who do not know Him.

He then tells us how to pray. And He gives us permission to call God our Father – we are to have an intimate, loving relationship and we should not hold God at a distance. Prior to His declaration, calling God Father would have been held as a sacrilege.

He explains the nature of our relationship with Him and with the world around us: We aren’t to value the things of this world above the value we place on Jesus. We are to live our lives to be seen by Jesus, not with concern for how man may see us. We are not to see others as more broken than ourselves, and discernment is used only to enable us to lead people to Jesus, not to condemn them.

Jesus explains that His love and forgiveness are free for everyone. He summarizes His sermon with the Golden Rule and follows by making an evangelistic call: “Will you continue to gather at the wide gate by following me out of convenience, tradition or self-interest? Or, will you seek Me through the narrow gate facing hard choices, derision and possible death?”

Jesus closes the sermon with a warning about men who will enter the pulpit to manipulate and steal from His people. He follows by clarifying that working in the church or for the church does not make you a Christian. Simply saying the name Jesus counts for nothing.

The whole sermon pivots around two sentences. These sentences lift the message out of the esoteric and theoretical to make it infinitely applicable and presently relevant. In them we see peace, joy and hope. These two sentences convert the sermon from being a musty old history lesson into an intimate conversation with our creator:

So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Jesus doesn’t say, “When you previously did this…”

He doesn’t say, “You will not do this in the future…”

He doesn’t say, “I will eliminate the possibility of a reoccurrence…”

He doesn’t say, “You will change and never allow this to reoccur…”

He doesn’t say, “Take your nasty self and nasty gift out of my sight…”

Jesus does say we are broken and we will cause the people around us to have legitimate grievances with us, repeatedly – and vice versa. Yet, Jesus still accepts us: infinitely, lovingly and completely.

He didn’t say, “When you realize you failed Me, take your gift, go and do not return!” That would have been condemning. Instead, Jesus’ message becomes bright, loving and comforting with those two sentences. Though the rest of the sermon shows that He is lovingly stern and asks a lot of us, He is forgiving and accepting when we blow it. Without those two sentences the message is dark and foreboding – filled with the terror of the next time we fail and have to face Him.

When we first read The Sermon on the Mount, we begin an intimate conversation with Jesus that lasts a lifetime. He says to us, “As often as we get together, you never need fear that I will send you away – and you shouldn’t run away. You are forgiven. I love you and I will always be here for you.”

The Final Judgment

(Matthew 25:31-46)

Yes, there will be an end to all things. It doesn’t matter whether it is natural causes, illness, foul play or the point in time where Jesus ends the world as we know it, it will all have the same result. So, getting wrapped up in the specifics is another trap to distract us.

When we die and come before Jesus, He will separate us into two groups: those who sought Him earnestly (the group on His right) and those who ignored Him or used His name out of convenience, tradition or self-interest (the group on His left).

Those who seek Jesus will be rewarded.

He declares how those who seek Him are to live – the list shows where our hearts should be.

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.

Are we focused on ourselves or are we focused on others?

Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

Matthew 6:1

As I described in the last chapter, helping people is not set apart as a momentous occasion involving special people in a special place at a special time. Helping people is a way of life and a thought process that removes us from the equation. If we live a life seeking accolades just for doing what we’re supposed to do, we have moved the focus from the one who is in need and placed it on ourselves – we’ve turned helping into merely an opportunity for self-aggrandizing.

What is the virtue in helping? What is the context of our help? Who are we helping – are we doing His work or our own? Jesus says that helping others is how we show our love for Him. Helping others is the manifestation of our life with Him.

Some will argue over the definition of my brothers asserting that the context is that we are to only help other Christians. But, that is foolishness:

Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

Romans 2:3-4

That is to say, we cannot claim to know when someone will turn to Jesus and therefore our contempt may be against one who, tomorrow, will be our brother. We are to model Jesus’ kindness, forbearance and patience towards us in the way we deal with others.

In the end, Jesus will say, “You saw so many people who needed you. Did you never desire to help them? Did their pain not touch you? Did you really believe they were worthless? I never suggested you had to fix everything. I only wanted your heart to hurt so you’d do something for someone else in need.”

Gerasene Demoniac

(Mark 5:1-20)

Satan is real – get over it. You have not avoided evil, you know what it is and you have lived with it your whole life.

Satan and demons are created beings – just as we are created beings. Though Satan opposes Jesus by intent, as a creation, he can’t stand against the One who created him. Neither Satan nor the ones who work for him have Hollywood forked tongues or cloven hooves. Satan and his minions are created beings who wished to usurp power from Jesus. As a reward they were cast out of a perfect eternity into this world, where Satan is now allowed to reign. Ultimately, the evil ones will be cast away from Jesus completely and sent to suffer – many humans will join them.

Jesus traveled across the sea to reach one man. This man had been possessed by demons and dealing with him was impossible. The demoniac was a man who acted like the people in the unbelievable news stories about unthinkable atrocities. Where do you think the motivation, let alone the idea, to do these things comes from?

The world has been given to Satan and his minions to manage. Jesus has no intention of destroying any of them until this age is at an end. The minions wanted to destroy something; when denied the man, they destroyed the nearby pigs.

Like us, when confronted with the sublime, the people asked Jesus to leave. The implication of confronting true majesty makes us feel diminished – and rightly so. We want our life back, without the burden of having to reconcile how we stack up against the gifted.

Jesus crossed the sea to bring salvation to a solitary, broken man. He did not labor over some great theological discussion or spend days affirming and confirming the man. Jesus did not give the man lists and documents. Jesus said, “Go tell everyone what I have done for you.” Having been in the presence of God and firmly understanding the contrast of his former condition and his present salvation, the man traveled to ten cities and told everyone about Jesus.

Discipleship is a reflection of the honest intent of our heart. We are to honestly reach out to people, out of the desperate desire to bring Jesus to them; there is no other motivation or perspective that is relevant.

Jesus didn’t say, “Stop drinking liquor, ’cause that will save you!”

Jesus didn’t say, “Be perfect, ’cause that will save you!”

Jesus didn’t say, “Go make people miserable by being self-righteous, ’cause that will save you!”

He said, “Go tell everyone: I saved you!”

By this point, it should be clear that just running around shouting, “Love Jesus or He’s gonna send you to hell!” has nothing to do with anything useful. That type of behavior is an abomination that is self-aggrandizing and condescending – it is not born of love or caring.

The Great Commission

(Matthew 28:16-20)

This is the clear and concise instruction from Jesus about our objective as His followers. Jesus’ whole message could be written on a single page, but He gave us the rest of the Bible to overcome our craving to find loopholes and exceptions. Our reduction of the message yields:

“Go make disciples of all nations!”

The Great Commission is presented with associated information to clarify:

- the authority of the message

- the target of our effort

- how to present the message

- the message itself

Like us, when faced with the implications of directly serving the immutable God, the Apostles doubted. These men went from believing that Jesus was a prophet sent by God to seeing Him murdered. They had to sit and question themselves: Did I imagine the whole thing? Was I duped? Jesus’ eleven disciples met with Him, after His resurrection, realized He was God, and worshipped Him.

Jesus declares who He is and His authority to deliver this message. We are to bring Jesus to everyone, everywhere and hold no prejudice against (or for) anyone. We are to bring everyone into relationship with Jesus and teach them to do as we are doing.

The subject of baptism will draw some people to fight over its definition – not me. When I placed my faith in Jesus, I called the only pastor our family knew and asked if he would baptize me. He lived in a different state and was reluctant, but said he would pray about it. I got a message a few days later. His voice sounded plaintive, a little frantic and even excited as his message assured me (and reassured me) he would baptize me. As ignorant as it will seem to some, knowing that he was troubled enough to pray for me (of all people), and that he took the time out of his day to call and leave a message saying, “Yes! You are welcome here!” was the baptism that I was desperate to have.

What is the message that we are to present to people? What did Jesus command us to teach people? Where do we find His message and can we be certain to present it correctly? It is thematically clear. Jesus repeated His instructions in many stories with complete clarity. He lived these instructions to provide our example.

Reiterated from the Sermon on the Mount, this is the message Jesus brought:

- Jesus welcomes everyone, particularly the merciful and humble.

- We are to go before the world and teach about Jesus.

- We all fall short of the Law and cannot save ourselves.

- Jesus is the one and only fulfillment of the Law.

- We are to rest in the security of our relationship with Him, having faith that He has fulfilled everything on our behalf.

Reiterated from The Final Judgment, Jesus gives us the methodology we are to use to spread His word:

- Feed and clothe those in need.

- Welcome strangers.

- Visit the sick.

- Have compassion on those whose lives have fallen and visit them in prison.

Reiterated from The Gerasene Demoniac:

- Jesus is the one who saves.

- Tell everyone about Him.

Within the confines of this space we are born, we will live and we will die. All of our thoughts and actions are bounded by this reality. Jesus assures us that He is always with us.

Jesus said:

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.

Mark 8:35

…and immediately reprised:

For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed…

Mark 8:38

The Great Commission is loving people enough to bring His words (The Gospel) to them.

The Parable of the Sower

(Luke 8:4-8 and 11-15)

How come people don’t immediately believe when they hear about Jesus? Think back to the time when you didn’t believe. You probably had a dozen reasons that all seemed quite viable. Each of those reasons originated somewhere, by someone. We live in a world that is opposed, in every respect, to Jesus. The net effect is our lives become shaped in a way that immediately dismisses any hint of the divine.

Jesus’ message sounds great. But, when we have to explain it to others and face derision or end up ostracized, we recoil from the difficulty, we cast aside His way of thinking and we seek the low-water mark of our old life.

Again, Jesus’ message sounds great, but the world is full of shiny objects and bright lights. We try to lead a dual existence where we seek our fulfillment from the things of this world and ignore what Jesus commanded. Sure, we continue to go to church on Sunday and maybe Wednesday, but we never earnestly seek others and try to teach them about Jesus.

Here He said: “bear fruit”

Which is like His command: “tell them how much the Lord has done”

And it is like His commission: “make disciples”

It is the same message over and over again. Jesus retold the message continuously and used different illustrations so that when you looked at them together there would be no loophole. There would only be one resounding voice: Tell everyone about Jesus.

The Great Commandment

(Matthew 22:37-39)

I am not very good at doing things just because someone told me to – that includes the things God commands of me. First, I do the opposite, out of spite. Then I start to explore because I can’t seem to function without asking the question, “Why?” And to make matters worse, every component of the answer to that question generates the same response: “Why?” It usually ends up being an exponential nightmare. Sometimes, I get lost following the logic tree as it branches up and up. Other times, I climb down a few levels and then up again on a separate branching structure. Many times, I never quite get back to the original question because I’m unsatisfied with the result.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.

When faced with this requirement, I asked, “Why?” I’ve listened and studied and thought about this subject…for years…and this was my (imagined) internal dialog:

“Jesus, why am I supposed to love you with all my heart, soul and mind?” Because I made you.

“Why?” Because I wanted to save you.

“Why?” Because it glorifies Me.

“Why?” Because I willingly went through the life you are going through. I knew you would need me. And I am the only one capable of saving you.

“Why?” Because I love you.

“WHY?!?!” You’re being pedantic and stalling.

“I know. Please forgive me.” I already did. I love you and I want to be with you. I want you to be with Me. I have done everything for you. I have lived for you and I have died for you. All that I AM is for you.

“My heart is so small that I feel hateful. My mind is so small that I feel stupid. My soul is so small that I feel insignificant. This is the pathetic offering that I make. Will you have all of it? I am embarrassed by the sum of my parts and offering it feels like an insult. I fall on my face and beg You, will You please accept all of it? I know it could never be enough…”

It is enough. You are beautiful in My sight. I give to you everything that I AM. Where you lack, I overcome – I have no reluctance. I impute to you My holiness. You need never fear, for I truly love you.

The second part of the command then becomes easy to understand. And it shows why the two pieces fit together without contradiction or incongruence. Unfortunately, my broken mind fights to put me first and that makes this command feel impossible:

And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Asking “why?” to this one seemed silly, but I asked anyway. But not out of contempt! I asked because I wanted to live for Jesus instead of trying to live for myself. When I lived for myself, I had to carry the burden of all of my suffering, all of my failures. And I couldn’t.

The funny thing is that the answer to this requirement brings everything else into focus. The answer to this question makes loving Jesus even more humbling (if that’s possible). Jesus didn’t create a weird series of requirements that we have to satisfy. Jesus doesn’t demand ritualistic worship. There are no funny uniforms. There is no hierarchy. No one benefits from your relationship with Jesus…except you.

Jesus could have said, “Bow and scrape before me! Tremble at my mightiness!” – that’s what we’d do. But, that is not what He did. He said, “Go help people! That is how you will serve me.” In the same way that He came here and served us without concern for Himself, His command is that we serve the people around us. Do we see it? Do we see the lack of hypocrisy? Do we see the continuity? He loved us as He loves Himself to show that we are to love one another as we love ourselves.

Chapter Synopsis

The Sermon on the Mount explains that sin is a constant horrible element around us. It explains that we will need to repent and seek forgiveness throughout our lives. And it explains that we are commanded to bring Jesus to the people around us, in spite of our sin, as a first priority.

The Final Judgment gives us a clear definition of how we are to achieve Jesus’ design: with a willing heart and without concern for our own position or benefit, we are to reach out to everyone in need.

The Gerasene Demoniac demonstrates that bringing good news to someone doesn’t take a lifetime. It demonstrates that discipling someone is a deliberate act, born of concern for the person we are reaching and need only take moments to achieve.

The Great Commission not only spells out that we are to teach people about Jesus, it also explains what we are to teach them.

The Parable of the Sower shows that Jesus continually presents the necessity of telling people about Him.

The Great Commandment abridges everything: love Jesus and love our neighbors. There is no way we could show greater love to another than to do the hard work of teaching them about Jesus.

The Bible contains the same message repeated many times over: Tell everyone about Jesus. This message is delivered from every possible direction to make certain it is clear. However, like everything else, we try to insert out own agenda and elevate our own significance – that is what causes the confusion.

How can we know what is true?

It is a remarkable fact that all the heresies which have arisen in the Christian Church have had a decided tendency to dishonor God, and to flatter man. They have always had for their covert, if not for their open aim, the exaltation of human nature, and the casting down of the Sovereignty of Divine Grace. Robbing God of the Glory which is due unto His name, these false prophets would shed a counterfeit luster upon the head of the rebellious and depraved creature! On the other hand, the Doctrines of the Gospel, commonly known as the Doctrines of Grace, are distinguished for this peculiarity above every other, namely, that they sink the creature very low, and present the Lord Jehovah before us as sitting upon a Throne, high and lifted up! So true is this, that the most uneducated Christian may, even if he is incapable of refuting an erroneous discourse, always be able to discover its untruthfulness, if it glorifies man at the expense of God. The merest babe in Grace may carry this test with him—in the midst of the diversities of opinion with which he is surrounded, he may always judge, and judge infallibly, too, of the truth or falsehood of a doctrine by testing it thus—“Does it glorify God?” If it is so, it is true! “Does it exalt man?” Then it must be false! On the other hand, does it lay man very low and speak of him in terms which tend to make him feel his degradation? Then doubtless it is full of the Truth of God! And does it put the crown upon the head of God, and not upon the head of man’s free will, or free agency, or good works? Then assuredly it is a doctrine according to godliness, for it is the very Truth of the Lord our God!

C. H. Spurgeon, “Self-Sufficiency Slain”

THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING

(The Conclusion)

This book was designed to follow several arcs:

Jesus is God. And He created a plan that reconciles everything. He is in complete control and He condescends to tell us this, not to grant some weird advantage to be used against one another, but only for the purpose of giving us hope and confidence in Him.

Psychopathic people who refuse to see people as people and serve people as people have no place in leadership over the church. If your narcissism is bigger than your compassion, choose a different profession.

We are all equal. Not in a superficial politically correct way. Not in a feel good smile while they're watching way. We are all equally desperate. We are all equally in need. No one can claim a station above someone else. It is wonderfully self-limiting: If you think being a Christian makes you more special than someone else, then you aren't a Christian.

Every life has value. Every life has a purpose. The purpose is designed by God and only He sees how we fulfill it. This purpose is simple: Make much of Jesus by telling everyone what He has done for us.

Are you part of the cure or part of the disease?  You choose.

There are people (a great many of them) who are slowly ceasing to be Christians but who still call themselves by that name: some of them are clergymen. There are other people who are slowly becoming Christians though they do not yet call themselves so.

C.S. Lewis, “Mere Christianity”

AFTERWORD

My objective is to make Jesus accessible to hurting and broken people. I believe this can be done without destroying dignity, without preying on people in moments of weakness, and without making a spectacle of anyone. My second objective is to make Jesus accessible to thinking people who reject the absurdity of pseudo-cult leaders who have infiltrated the church.

I claim no authority above the Bible and I sit in complete submission to its perfect supremacy. And, to adapt the words of Martin Luther:

"Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason – I do not accept the authority of [any man], for they have contradicted each other – my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen."

I will judge this book a success if it inspires you to continue to search. If I’m allowed to dream for a moment, I would be blessed if you are inspired to read the Bible after you read through my work…or if you read the Bible in spite of my work. Finally, if you conclude that I am in contempt, but you fall in love with Jesus, then my life is fulfilled.

I must recognize those whom I have studied, though I am not certain they would recognize me. If you are familiar with these men, and you find congruence in what I have written, be assured that I am making no attempt to plagiarize – any similarity is a testament to how thankful I am for their years of hard work.

The first teacher I found was R.C. Sproul. His genius work has been a light to me. Then I found Ravi Zacharias – whose ability to think, and his lucidity in the face of opposition, is to be admired by Christians and non-Christians alike. In the middle of my journey, I clawed my way through many bright minds including the undeniable genius of John MacArthur and the venerable Charles Spurgeon. A turning point in my study was Martin Luther’s Bondage of the Will (edited by J. I. Packer) – a literary masterpiece. Although this book is packed more densely with theological treasure than anything else I have read, it reads like a swashbuckling adventure novel.

Most recently, I found Tim Keller, a gentleman and a scholar. If you are familiar with Keller, you’ll appreciate that he is responsible for my new found courage in admitting to friends that J. R. R. Tolkien was a brilliant author who built my faith in Jesus, one syllable at a time. Keller’s works then led me to Peter Jones and Dick Lucas. Peter Jones expounded the unified theory for all religion: One or Two, which provides the best possible grid for easily understanding all aspects of religion. Having shepherded people for over 60 years, Dick Lucas is able to teach with amazing humility and authority. He is the definition of zeal and poise. Lucas speaks from a real world perspective to real people – not cagey ivory tower blustering.

In deference to these men, I have allowed my mind to be a battleground for their thoughts and this book represents my attempt to reconcile what I have learned and focus it with a singular intent: to bring Jesus to the desperate and broken humanity around me.

For the audience I am reaching towards, I understand them and their objections having lived there myself. This book is framed to charge straight at people’s excuses and remove those excuses from the field of contention. Then the reader will face Jesus and not some apparition built out of Hollywood movies or built from the fear mongering and ramblings of the self-righteous. From that place, the reader won’t find the fear and condescension that is expected, but only love and perfect compassion.

If you believe I have been too harsh, look closely and see that the effort is only to drive people to their knees in front of the cross. Only at that point will we find perfect equality with everyone who has lived. Only in recognizing and living that equality do we begin to live the mission that Jesus has placed us on.

I know that some will say I am teaching works-based religion or that I am suggesting Jesus plus something. I’m doing neither!

I am reading and repeating exactly what is written in the Bible over and over again.

Nowhere have I suggested that doing anything will get you anywhere. There are many semantical ways to reorient the way I presented the message: “We don’t work to salvation, we work from salvation.” I hate sayings like that because they clutter the mind with needless complexity. If at any point I have asked you to make a leap of faith in understanding Jesus’ message, it is my failure, not His. So I’ll make one more effort to provide clarity. Jesus said:

Repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in [my] name to all nations.

Luke 24:47

Too many people rewrite Luke 24:47 to say, “Repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in Jesus’ name to all the people who show up for church.” Fortunately, this theology runs out of steam and collapses under its own weight – but then we get programs and crazy doctrines that bind us to the institution. Others will play this line, “That repentance of sins should be talked at all the people who show up for church.” Again, this collapses under its own weight then devolves into weirdo stuff designed to keep people burdened, guilty and emptying their wallet to assuage their conscience.

What it says is, “Repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in Jesus name to all nations.” My book breaks this verse into two pieces. First, we’re broken and Jesus forgives us. Second, we must reach and teach everyone. The message is the first piece and the objective is the second piece. Learning the message without striving for the objective makes as much sense as learning about love, but never seeking it.

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

1 Corinthians 9:19-23

Do you know someone who needs to know about Jesus? And what are you willing to lovingly do in order to make Him real to them?

May this book serve only as a voice that brings people closer to Jesus. May He have mercy on me where I fail to represent Him as I ought. Amen.

APPENDIX

There are theological subtleties that help provide a clear view and better understanding of the Bible and Jesus. These subtleties are easy to teach if you have a willing audience and many hours to cover the material. Unfortunately, no one is willing or interested until they know who Jesus is.

I included this Appendix in hope that people will read through to the end of this book and use these ideas as a springboard into their own research.

Also, there are overused arguments that some will trot out in an attempt to create plausible deniability. This section anticipates those arguments.

Predestination

And we know that for those who love [Jesus] all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to [His image], in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Romans 8:28-30

There are two problems with predestination as it is currently taught and observed. For simplicity, we’ll call the two factions the sin-obsessed and the self-righteous.

The first group is the sin-obsessed. Unfortunately, we lack the imagination to understand an outside perspective. When faced with the imperative of predestination, we reject it because we can’t conceive of someone else being in complete control. This is juxtaposed against our perception that we are in control. Therefore, it must be impossible. This perspective is bolstered by our natural desire to elevate our own sense of self and ascribe importance to our lives. Example: “I chose Jesus. He extended His hand and I was the one who accepted it. Now I have to kill my sin before my sin kills me!” The central theme of this life is self and the measuring and monitoring of sin. These individuals focus on sin (theirs and other’s) until there is no time for them to focus on anything else.

The second group is the self-righteous. This group is identical to the first. We lack the imagination to understand an outside perspective and this exposes our wicked side. When convinced of the imperative of predestination we turn it into hyper-predestination and we assume it is license for licentiousness. This perspective is bolstered by our natural desire to elevate ourselves and ascribe importance to our lives. Example: “I don’t need to tell people about Jesus – because He’ll get who He wants and bring them into my church. I don’t need to help people because if Jesus didn’t want them to suffer, He’d give them money. Of course I drink, I’m free in Jesus!” This life makes much of personal freedom and makes little room for loving others.

“Woe to you, [self-righteous religious people], hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Matthew 23:27-28

Both perspectives require that the Bible be ignored in order to make their point. This topic is clear, but it is not concise.

Jesus created everything. That should be the proof text but, again, there is a desire to elevate our sense of self coupled with a lack of understanding. We act like children resisting our parents, as though we are seeing things that haven’t been seen before, or we act like we control the world just because we want to.

Again, Jesus created everything. If life were a movie, it would mean He has created every single frame of the movie. In the same way that a character in a movie has no perception of the next frame of the movie, we have no perception of the specific nature of what Jesus has in store for us.

And again, Jesus created everything. If life were a book, it would mean that He has written every single page. In the same way that a character in a novel has no understanding of the things that will follow in the coming pages, we have no perception of what Jesus has in store for us.

Though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

Romans 9:11-18

Predestination is Jesus’ prerogative, not ours – Jesus knows what He has created. The knowledge of predestination is a gift for our peace and security. That is to say, we can find peace in knowing that nothing is beyond Jesus’ control and that He has worked everything out for our good and His glory. Using predestination as a weapon to disembowel the Bible (by removing each individual’s responsibility to reach other people) is self-centered, ignores Jesus’s command, and trivializes His existence. Jesus’ command was that we go tell the world about Him (there is no moratorium or reprieve!). His existence stands as the example, He set aside His authority and comfort to bring His message to others – even those who hated Him. Each of the two groups (sin-obsessed and self-righteous) manifest the same problem – the source of the confusion is the same, though few will admit it.

As the sin-obsessed, when we reject predestination we are rejecting that Jesus has a different perspective than ours. We miss any peace we might otherwise have experienced by refusing to rest in the surety of our faith in Jesus. Without accepting Jesus’ omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence (expressed in the shorthand predestination) we place ourselves on a gerbil wheel – constantly striving for something we will not attain and have never experienced: There will be no peace, no rest and no joy as we continually work to attain our salvation. We run in place feeling sad about our sin only to promise to stop sinning then we sin again and promise to stop…over and over again. Old sins are replaced with new sins and then old sins creep in again…a constant circle.

As the self-righteous, when we treat predestination as an excuse to live as a fiend, we disregard the reason we were saved and render our lives worthless. This problem is two-fold: We provide an excuse to ignore the sole requirement Jesus gave us (make disciples of every nation), and we continue to seek rest, peace and joy in earthly things. True rest, peace and joy are only found in the work Jesus gave us. Everything else fails: cars rust, money can be lost, body parts sag or expand, et cetera....

For the sin-obsessed, regardless of theology, none will ever live up to any standard. The result of this way of thinking is that nothing will be done with the right motivation. Put another way, if you never accept that Jesus is in control and has predestined all things, then you will eternally be striving to save yourself. Even when you help others, it will only be because you desire to score points for yourself.

For the self-righteous, regardless of theology, we still have to figure out what to do with ourselves. If we live without any desire to follow Jesus’ commands, we must doubt our salvation.

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 7:21

Does the desire to follow Jesus mean we’ll be successful at doing as He has commanded? Unfortunately, solemnly, no. Regardless, Jesus told us to teach our neighbors about Him and to love them as we love ourselves.

The result is that both groups spin on their own agenda and miss Jesus’ commission to reach out to other people. The sin-obsessed have been twisted by ignorance and think helping broken people will get sin on them. They would rather let people burn than risk getting dirty themselves. So, they kick responsibility for compassion back on to Jesus. The self-righteous have twisted doctrine to protect their laziness and self-centered behavior in order to avoid helping broken people. They are afraid of what their friends might say if they were to be seen in the company of someone who was lost. This group also kicks responsibility for compassion back on to Jesus.

Any perception of doctrine that prevents reaching out to broken people fails to stand, in the face of everything that Jesus taught. If you can’t resist temptation, then seeking lost people in a strip club is probably not the job for you – but that doesn’t allow you to neglect or mistreat them and it certainly doesn’t support condescension.

This is where the interpretation of predestination breaks down. In rejecting predestination, we bolster our contempt for broken people. Or we embrace predestination as an excuse to avoid the hard work and costly nature of reaching broken people. The net effect is exactly the same, and the nuance only serves as camouflage.

Jesus is the sovereign God of all things – He is in complete control. He tells us this so we can rest in the certainty of His authority. We don’t dispense authority and we can’t live as though we do. The proof is that if we could see the end of all things (not just the shadow that Jesus allows us to perceive), we would choose not to sin. Instead, we claim just enough uncertainty to seemingly grant plausible deniability to seeking our own desires and designs – from our perspective.

Yes, it is an oxymoron – from our perspective. It seems that way because the creator of the story condescended to step inside His creation and unveil His existence. When He entered His story, He set aside His omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence – but only for the time He was here. Thankfully, He will not do that again.

For clarity, we must look at the topic from two completely different points of view. Think of it as a first-person camera angle and an overhead view:

The first-person view seems to be transitive and dynamic. We believe that things are occurring in real time and not that we are living through a completed story. We cannot foresee outcomes regardless of our ability to guess. From our perspective (even the most hardline double-predestinarian is included), we have no clue about the shape of tomorrow and we know even less about eternity. We have been granted life without future cognizance. We see what is happening now, we remember yesterday and we only guess at tomorrow.

The overhead view has complete control. Everything is known to Jesus, everything is controlled by Him, and He never needs to change His mind because He didn’t make a mistake in the first place. Jesus crafted everything from the beginning to the end. Everything has been done, everything is completed from His perspective.

The pages of His book are spread before Him and He can see everything from any vantage point in time. These are His pages; this is His story – lovingly crafted by Him for His glory and our good.

Second Causes

The concept of Second Causes is a theological tool used to give a name to the abstraction layer that separates Jesus’ complete control of everything and our life without future cognizance. That is to say, Jesus is the first cause for everything and He achieves His desired end through second causes (the working of His will through our lives).

One day it struck me that games, movies and books have similar recurring non-entities that bubble up within the story. Sure, there is some variation between these fictitious characters, but not much. Their personality and appearance are almost always the same from occurrence to occurrence. Example: the bartenders in old westerns pop up from behind the bar with a double-barrel shotgun to make the bad guys go away. And bartenders in cop shows seem to remember one piece of information that proves vital to making a bust. Etc.... But, outside of these plot points, they have no life and there is no depth to their existence.

Then I realized I was standing around waiting for a sign. I was acting the role of the bartender. I was studying and reading and listening to information about Jesus, but I wasn’t doing anything with it. And for the life of me, I could find nothing that said it was OK to not tell everybody about Jesus. So I decided if everything is predestined, then I was predestined to tell people about Jesus and He would have to stop me if He didn’t want me to help.

I then asked why everyone wasn’t trying to tell each other about Jesus. Again, I realized I wasn’t contributing; I had simply traded one excuse for not teaching people for another excuse. Intellectually, I knew that Jesus created everything and everything is predestined. And, though I didn’t feel an otherworldly pull to be successful at teaching people about Jesus, I knew nothing else made sense. Put another way, once I had found the free and infinite source of joy and peace, how could I assume I shouldn’t share it? It just wouldn’t make sense to remain inactive. Yet, we all invent excuses and subvert doctrine to support (or even approve) our inactivity.

If no other appeal works, this one must: Jesus commands that we go and tell everyone about Him. There is no way to explain this away, unless we discard Jesus entirely. Every book in the New Testament demands that we should teach about Jesus to everyone, everywhere.

So if you have been waiting for a sign, a wakeup call, or whatever, this book is it – you are now on notice. You are the second cause that will achieve Jesus’ design. Do you want to be a character who has no real part in the story? Or will you reach out to people who need you?

The Trinity

I am fully Trinitarian in my theological position. Yes, I believe in God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each person of the Trinity is distinct and of the same essence at the same time.

Christianity is monotheistic (not polytheistic) because the distinctions of the divine person are from the divine perspective, not our perspective. Put another way, complete knowledge of God will not atone for anything. Complete respect for the Holy Spirit won’t help you in the slightest. Only submission to Jesus (the knowledge that He is God and that He was crucified for our sins) will impute salvation to us.

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Hosea 6:6

Faith in Jesus is personal. Faith in a burning bush could never be personal. The Christian life is meant to be lived out through intimate relationship, not through sterile isolation. Jesus came to overcome the transactional-based relationship that many develop: I’ll sin this much and then I’ll pay this much. I’ll worship in the right way at the right time in the right place. In essence, observing the letter of the law, but not the spirit of the law.

Here is another analogy meant to create the beginning of understanding: The Trinity could be likened to a webpage. When we visit a webpage in a browser, we see distinctly what we are supposed to see and are allowed a personal interaction with the page. But behind that webpage there is a webserver that provides the power and logic for our experience. And behind the webserver is a database server that contains all of the information for our experience. The webpage is the sum of all these parts, yet each part is distinct. The visitor has no authority to render the parts individually. The visitor only knows about the parts if the information is provided. Regardless, no authority is given for the visitor to separate the parts. The visitor may only view the personal experience that is provided.

Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush. When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the Lord.

Acts 7:30-31

When God chose to interact with this world, prior to Jesus living among us, He sent angels as instruments of His will. There was no way to build a relationship with a burning bush. God’s desire was not only to tell us how to live, but to redeem us when we fail to follow His design.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Colossians 1:15-20

If we take time to understand the three persons of the Trinity, intellectually we will be enriched. Our ability to understand the Bible will be increased, but our salvation will not change – the message will not change. Understanding the Trinity is precious, but for the purpose of teaching, I must teach Christ and Him crucified:

For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

1 Corinthians 2:2

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Luther, Martin. 1525. The Bondage of the Will. [trans.] J. I. Packer and O. R. Johnston. Revell, 1957. ISBN 0800753429.

"'What is the good of giving...a stiff and strict rendering, when the reader can make nothing of it?' asked Luther. He was speaking specifically of translating the Bible, but the principle applies equally to all translation work."

This rendering by Packer and Johnston is readable, engaging and compelling. Outside of the Bible, this is the authoritative work on the sovereignty of God. It was translated to bring us peaceful understanding, not maniacal oppression.

Keller, Tim. 2011. The Prodigal God. Riverhead Trade, 2011. ISBN 1594484023.

This work delves into understanding how the religious insider and the irreligious outsider are inseparable and equally wretched.

Sproul, R. C. 1994. Chosen By God. Tyndale House, 1994. ISBN 0842313354.

“If there is one single molecule in this universe running around loose, totally free of God’s sovereignty, then we have no guarantee that a single promise of God will ever be fulfilled.”

Jones, Peter. 2010. One or Two: Seeing a World of Difference. Main Entry Editions, 2010. ISBN 0974689521.

The Creator is wholly separate from His creation. We get lost when (apart from sovereignty) we try to reconcile why the Creator condescends to enter His creation.

Paul Confronts Paganism in the Church: A Case Study of First Corinthians 15:45. Jones, Peter. 2006. Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 2006, Vol. JETS 49:4 (Dec 2006), pp. 713-737.

"Though we automatically think of “moral weakness,” the eleven times when Paul uses a ̊sqevneia it has to do with human helplessness and frailty rather than moral failing. In 1 Corinthians, Paul can speak three chapters earlier of “parts of the body that seem to be weaker” [a ̊sqenevstera] but “are indispensable,” without the slightest hint of moral failing. If Paul can already declare this body as “dust,” without implying sin, then it is certainly appropriate to see weakness in a non-ethical sense. In the OT a ̊sqeneÇa is a frequent designation for man in his natural, finite state; that is, man in his creatureliness and vulnerability as compared to God who is associated with dunavmiÍ, by which power God raises Jesus from the dead (Rom 1:4). If power as such is not a moral category but an expression of divine superiority, then the comparative term “weakness” is ontological, not moral."

Dr. Jones’ reasoning is very clear. Our moral fallibility is undeniable, but it is the change from our frail state to our glorified state that is contrasted - not some moral imperative that we are incapable of in the first place. There is a created order and submission to that truth will subvert heresy.

Lewis, C. S. 1942. The Screwtape Letters. HarperCollins, 2001. ISBN 9780060652890.

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Table of Contents

Copyright

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

AUTHOR’S NOTE

CHARRED AND SCARRED (The Question)

FAITH, JUSTICE, LOVE (The Vocabulary)

JESUS (The Answer)

IT’S EASY TO HATE THE CHURCH (The Objection)

WEIRD AND BROKEN (The Context)

THERE ARE NO BYSTANDERS (The Continuity)

WHY WOULD WE DO THIS? (The Authority)

THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING (The Conclusion)

AFTERWORD

APPENDIX

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Table of Contents

Copyright

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

AUTHOR’S NOTE

CHARRED AND SCARRED (The Question)

FAITH, JUSTICE, LOVE (The Vocabulary)

JESUS (The Answer)

IT’S EASY TO HATE THE CHURCH (The Objection)

WEIRD AND BROKEN (The Context)

THERE ARE NO BYSTANDERS (The Continuity)

WHY WOULD WE DO THIS? (The Authority)

THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING (The Conclusion)

AFTERWORD

APPENDIX

BIBLIOGRAPHY