Not As It Seems

I had the honor of preaching at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Rochester, MN a couple weeks ago. Below is my manuscript. Check out the sermons page to listen to the audio.

The book of Revelation has always intimidated me. There are so many different interpretations and people get quite fired up over it. Molly has asked me many times to lead a bible study on the book of Revelation and I would quickly find something else that I felt would be more beneficial to study. Which is unfortunate because the book begins with a blessing for any who read its words. Chapter 1 verse 3 says, “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.”
But sometimes out of fear and sinfulness we see our own way as a better blessing than God’s way. And he loves his children so much that sometimes he needs to force his blessings on us. So what did he do for me? Last year in seminary I was required to take a Greek exegesis class through the book of Revelation. HA! In order to pass the class and eventually graduate from seminary I was going to have to be blessed.
So here I am today preaching from the book of Revelation telling you that I was blessed far more abundantly than I ever expected. I am now excited to share with you just a bit of the joy of understanding this book.
It’s unfortunate that it is a book that incites such debate and confusion. The book was intended to be an encouragement to believers. Anyone should be able to pick it up and read enough to overcome any difficult circumstance, any discouragement, and find glorious hope to persevere.
I don’t intend today to survey the entire book of revelation, but I do want to jump right into the turning point of the book which is the source of our hope. Chapters 4 and 5 are meant to be taken together as one scene, with chapter 5 being the scene which should change our lives. But as you listen to the words written in chapter 5, note that the power that we need to overcome our own circumstances comes in a completely unexpected package.

Follow along with me in Revelation 5 starting in verse 1.

Clearly the book of Revelation is full of symbolic imagery. The symbols are there to invoke a reaction out of the reader. It heightens our emotion over the story. Instead of telling us, “Jesus stood up and took his position of authority.” It makes a dynamic, powerful statement about the desperate nature of the situation, about the character of the Savior, and of the results of seeing such authority on display.
Much of the imagery is taken from a strong Hebrew background of Old Testament texts. Important in Revelation are numbers. The number 7 most specifically in this chapter represents perfection. The image of seven horns and seven eyes isn’t meant to make you picture a creepy looking bloody sheep, but to signify that this Lamb holds all power and sees everything. The seven spirits doesn’t necessarily mean that there are seven spirits but the perfect Spirit which brings to life all dead hearts. It goes throughout the entire earth gathering people from every tribe, language, people, and nation.
Most importantly, John is trying to connect the hope for victory to the hope that OT saints had from Genesis on forward. God gave Adam dominion over all the earth. Adam was to be king and rule in righteousness over creation. But he failed. All of biblical history points to the promised king who would one day come and rule the way Adam was supposed to. All of the bible leads us to long for a particular man who would be worthy to assume this lofty position. “The Lion from the tribe of Judah” is taken from Genesis 49:9. The root of David is taken from Isaiah 11. The Lamb imagery comes from the Passover Lamb that the Jews sacrifice to celebrate God covering their sins and death passing over them in Egypt. Also, Isaiah anticipated a Messiah who would be like a sheep led to the slaughter in Isaiah 53. All of these pictures to lead the Hebrew to hope in a coming king who would gain victory over sin and the curse.
Other symbols include the scroll itself spoken of in Ezekiel 2, as well as in Daniel where God says the scroll will be sealed until the end of time, and the one who would open it would be “like a son of man” who would take it from God himself and when he opened it would unleash judgment on the unbelieving nations.
Most people think this symbolism is confusing making it difficult for anyone to really want to study the book. We wonder, if I need to have the Old Testament memorized in order to understand Revelation, then it will be a long time into eternity before it makes any sense.
But I think you can get the point even without understanding the details of the symbolism. So let’s take a look now at the message of Revelation to see if we can be blessed and encouraged.
The stage of this scene is actually set in the previous chapters. Usually if you hear a sermon from the book of Revelation it will be from chapters 2 or 3, from one of the letters to the seven churches. This was where I was at until recently. It seems to easy to teach from these chapters because they are much more straightforward. They are physical churches with identifiable problems. It is easy to match the problems of those churches to a contemporary issue and then call for repentance. Again the number seven is used to suggest that the seven churches aren’t the only churches this book is addressed to but to the entire church in all places and throughout time.
The letters to the churches describe multiple issues that the church faces and warns us to not fall into the same traps. Most of the issues surround three things: temptation to fall into sin, pressure to cave into cultural oppression, and failure to guard against bad teaching. All of these things are actually intertwined and one will usually be accompanied with the other. In the first century, these churches dealt with heavy persecution from both the Jewish religious establishment as well as the Roman government. In order to soften the pain of such oppression, false teachers encouraged all sorts of theological compromises. Often times behind the scenes in these compromises there is some scandalous sin that a false teacher is trying to cover up. Each of the letters ends with a call to repent and persevere with a promise of a reward to the one who overcomes these trials.
But if you don’t continue past chapter 3 then you will miss the hope for victory. A sermon stuck in chapters 2 or 3 can become legalistic as it only provides a picture of the problem, not the source of the solution. Chapter 5 is the key to helping navigate the book of Revelation. It can be broken down into three phases which provide for us a transition from the earthly battles of the churches to the confusing, symbolic spiritual battles that follow in later chapters.
So let’s take a look a little closer at chapter 5 and see what these phases look like.
In verses 1–4 we see John introducing a bit of a problem. We have moved from the dire situations the church is struggling with on earth into a glorious throne room scene. In chapter 4 we see a spectacular description of God sitting on his throne. All of the spiritual world recognizes his authority. He commands respect. He holds all power. The sight of him strikes fear into the hearts of people. The picture of God on his throne is meant to shock us into realizing that no matter who sits on the throne of Caesar, who dwells in the White House, or whoever leads any group of people, their authority is nothing compared to God’s awesome authority. But you should finish chapter 4 wondering, “Great. The church is on earth really struggling with temptation, oppression, and false teaching, and God is sitting on his throne. How does that help us overcome these things?”
That’s what John felt in verses 1–5. He saw God sitting on the throne holding a scroll. Remember that the scroll represents the authority to bring about the judgment that Daniel and Ezekiel anticipated. The church is in trouble and desperately needs someone to rescue it, to bring justice to its oppressors. Someone must come and open the scroll in order to end this trouble for God’s people. But the drama heightens, because “no one in heaven, or on earth, or under the earth was found worthy to open the scroll.”
And it leaves John weeping. This is where we are left in the letters to the churches if there is no one able to bring victory on behalf of the church. Each of the churches is given a command to repent and persevere, but they cannot do it on their own. They need someone to do it for them.
You may ask, “Why doesn’t the one sitting on the throne, God the Father, just bring about justice?” This is the dilemma of the ages. How can a good God be merciful and just at the same time? If the Father is going to bring justice on the earth, he is going to have to punish every sin. This doesn’t give us hope. We are trapped in a recurring cycle of sin. If God were to just forgive us, he would not be just, he would be a wicked God who doesn’t know the difference between right and wrong. If he were to punish everybody, he wouldn’t get to put his loving mercy on display.
The answer is in verses 5–8. The angel says there is no reason to despair anymore. There is no need to weep over this dilemma. God has provided a Way for justice and mercy. He is called “the Lion of the Tribe of Judah,” “the root of David.” He is the one that all of the Old Testament anticipated, but the solution to our dilemma is not what we would have thought. It isn’t God simply wiping everyone out. It isn’t God taking his church out of the world. The solution to our sin problem is a bloody Lamb.
Verse 6 is one of the most remarkable statements in the book. John saw a Lamb standing as slain with seven horns and with seven eyes. He is holding up what appears to be contradictory pictures. A bloody, broken, innocent little creature but pictured with the symbolism of all of the power and understanding that only God himself holds. It is a picture of what our Savior accomplished on the cross.
Our victory is not gained in political maneuvering or displays of military might. Our victory is not obtained in self-determination and simple mutual accountability. Jesus already obtained the victory on the cross. That shameful death that only the lowest criminals experience. The death that represents the ultimate curse for the Jew. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1 the cross is foolishness and a stumblingblock to those who don’t believe, but it is the power and wisdom of God for our salvation. Our hope is in the bloody Lamb, but he doesn’t stand there weak and trembling as though he is going to pass out from a lack of blood. He is powerful and victorious. By his death he has proven himself worthy to take the scroll and impart its judgments. His victory over all that the church faces is founded in sacrificing himself. The greatest power in the world comes through the greatest display of humility.
Then, after seeing this amazing sight, the song in heaven changes. In verse 9 we see that the heavenly beings started singing a new song after witnessing this amazing Lamb standing in authority. The mood has changed. We went from what appeared to be a hopeless situation on earth where God’s people continue to fall into sin, fall under the hand of oppression, or fall into false doctrines, and now we see the path to victory, beholding the Lamb of God. There is no longer reason to weep. No reason to despair. The victory that we desire has already been obtained for us. With this imagery of victory obtained we can move into the rest of the book to see with new eyes what is going on in the world.
While there are a few different major ways to understand the book of Revelation, I believe that the spectacular visions of judgment that follow are symbolic pictures of what is actually happening behind the scenes of our lives right now. Chapters 4 and 5 of Revelation are glasses we put on to correct our vision. In the first few chapters we simply see earthly circumstances of sin, persecution, and false teaching and there is no hope to overcome them. But when we put the blood stained glasses of the Lamb on we can see that there is a spiritual battle going on and the Lamb has already defeated the enemy for us.
So where do we go from here? How do we look through these new lenses in our own lives?
I want to think about it through four perspectives: one who does not yet trust in Christ, from the perspective of our nation as a whole, to the individual believer, and finally to the local gathering of believers.
First, if you have not put your trust in Christ, this book is not good news for you. This scene only provides hope for the saints, those who put their trust in Christ. If you put your hope, your confidence in anything else, the following chapters of disaster are not pretty. Some seek their happiness in wealth or political influence. Others seek it in a nice conservative family life. All of it leads to the same place, more sin and despair. The remaining chapters of Revelation describe the continued hopelessness of those who aren’t covered by the blood of the Lamb. The slain Lamb releases his wrath on all sin-cursed creation. It is so terrible that the non-Christians are calling for mountains to fall on them because they believe that will feel better. God’s anger toward sin is hot! It will burn like a raging fire. There is a story that my pastor told of a family whose home was surrounded by a raging wildfire. There was no escaping its flame. But before it was too late, the father remembered the burn pile out in the field in the back. Earlier that week he had just cleaned up the yard and home and burned all of the trash. Surrounding the pile was nothing but charred remains of trash and singed grass. There was nothing left there to burn. So he picked up his family and buried them in the pile laying on top of them trusting that this place could not be burned since it had already once been burned through. The wrath of the wild flames quickly passed by them destroying everything but what had already been burned.
In the same way, the wildfire of God’s wrath is soon coming, but he provided a place of refuge where his wrath already poured out, at the cross of Christ. Your only hope is to put your trust in Christ who took that raging flame upon himself on the cross for all who trust in him.
Secondly, and just briefly, as we wrestle with the direction of our country based on recent decisions of our government leaders and as we are heading into campaign season to elect new leaders, let us remember that our hope is not in the government. To despair or become discouraged over what happens in the newspaper is to lose sight of the spiritual realities which guide our lives. We are thankful that we get to participate in relatively free public discourse in this country, but we must not put our hope in these things for peace and eternal joy. This country was founded to curb the lasting influence of sinful people, but as we can see today, nothing can keep us from the effects of sin except for the slain Lamb. No matter how the elections turn out or what the Supreme Court says, our hope is in the slain Lamb who stands victorious and will soon set all things right.
God is on the throne. The slain Lamb is standing in power and authority. His Spirit is wandering throughout the earth gathering people from every tribe, language, people, and nation. His plans will not be thwarted. Our work is to simply proclaim this truth. Lift high the cross of Christ for people to see so that they will see him as their hope for a peaceful life. Join in the song of the angels glorifying the Lamb and trust that He will bring about his redemptive work in the world.
Thirdly, how can this vision of the victorious Lamb change your own life? So much happens in our lives to shake us up. We wonder how we will ever get through this season. Sometimes we just want to curl up and pretend that what is happening around us doesn’t exist. Currently there are some really discouraging things happening in my extended family that makes me want to pack up and move my family to Africa just to get away from it all. This world of sin brings so much pain into our lives. There are many times where I pray that it will just all be over soon, that Jesus would come back quickly and we could get on with the no more pain and no more tears part of the story.
The good news is that the Lamb hears every one of these pleas! Look at the end of verse 8. After the Lamb steps onto the scene in all his glory, the creatures fall down in worship and they present to the Lamb “golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” This scene doesn’t just present Jesus as glorious and mighty, it shows him as accessible. In the throne room of God where nobody can stand before the eternal Father, Jesus stands in victory with the concerns of his saints right along with him. This reminds me of Hebrews 4:16, we can confidently approach the throne because the Lamb stands there victorious on our behalf. We don’t need to despair or weep without hope because we know that our concerns go right to the throne room of God and when we look to him we are reminded that victory has been obtained for us and one day it will become a physical reality.
This truth changes my response to difficulty. I am less quick to get annoyed or frustrated over difficulty when I remember there is a spiritual battle that is raging behind the scenes of this world. And knowing that I am ill equipped to fight in this battle, it leads me more quickly to prayer and the word the only effective weapons in this fight.
So whatever your struggle today, don’t despair. Christ stands victorious over it. One day he will wipe away every tear from your eye. Cast your cares upon him. He hears your prayers. They rise from the golden bowls as sweet smelling incense in the throne room of God and he acts on behalf of his saints by sending His powerful Spirit to work for their good.
Finally, consider the purpose of gathering here on Sunday mornings. Why do you come here with these people? Why do you come to sing songs and listen to sermons? Do you come to get a spiritual pick-me-up? Do you come to get some helpful hints for healthy living? To meet with good friends? Or maybe you come because it just seems like the right thing to do on Sunday mornings?
There are seven churches addressed in at the beginning of the book of Revelation who lost sight of the purpose for their corporate existence. They have particular struggles with faithfulness in the face of temptation, in the face of cultural oppression, and in the face of internal carelessness over false doctrine. Over the life of this church Emmanuel has likely faced all of them while succeeding and failing in various measures. If you look at each of the letters to the churches in chapters 2 and 3, each one ends with a promised reward for “the one who conquers.” The reality is that without Christ, every church is destined to failure. But the glorious truth is that Jesus conquered on our behalf and all the rewards which he earned he freely offers to us in salvation! Come to worship on Sundays to see the slain Lamb standing victorious over all your sins, all your oppression, all your temptations, and to pray to God that his Spirit would renew affection for his glory for the incredible work Christ did for us. Come to see the Lamb, and after seeing the Lamb standing victorious in glory pray that you would leave here today singing a new song of hope-filled joy!

We've Been Set Free!

I had the honor of preaching at Hope Baptist Church in Mankato, MN a few weeks ago. Below is my manuscript.

All of us struggle with being good enough. We wonder if we are smart enough to please our parents or teachers. We wonder if we are being productive enough at work to please our boss. Are we pretty enough to attract a mate? Have I done enough to make my spouse love me? Is our parenting enough to help our children grow up to be good citizens?
Or, to put more of a spiritual framework to it: have I spoken enough about Jesus to qualify as evangelism? Have I read the Bible enough or prayed enough to be connected to God today? Do I sing loud enough or in tune enough for true worship? Do I serve enough at church?
Mostly, we are asking: Am I good enough to please God?
Today I want to tell you that the answer to all of these questions is a resounding NO! You are not enough. And that should be extremely liberating to you.

In fact, even asking these questions reveals that we are all naturally legalists; it is so easy for us to become Pharisees who set up extrabiblical expectations that only end up upsetting us when we or someone else is unable to live up to them. This is the problem Paul was dealing with in Galatia. How does Paul define what is enough to please God?

Open your Bibles, if you have not already, to Galatians 5:1-6 and hear the plea Paul makes for you to free your mind from such impossible expectations.

This has actually been a very difficult sermon to prepare personally. Sometimes when I am studying I am just blown away at how big God is, how beautiful he is, how kind he was to us in Christ. These things get me so excited to simply brag on how amazing God is. But this week was difficult because in studying what Christian freedom looks like, I realized how enslaved I still am, how far I have yet to go. I desperately want that freedom Paul talks about in verse one, but in so many ways I am still a Pharisee at heart.
Let’s pause there for a second. I think that we sometimes feel like the Pharisees are the one group of people in the Bible that it is alright for us to sneer at. They kept people from knowing God. But when we are quick go there we miss that we all share something in common with them that we need help with.
What is a Pharisee? The Pharisees were a division of Jews who were in some ways the really conservative religious people. We know from reading our New Testament that they were strict rule followers. People respected them for how devout they were. But because of this, Jesus saved some of his most severe rebukes for them, which we will see carries over into Paul’s letters. Where did they come from? We can’t trace Pharisaism’s development exactly, but if we follow the Old Testament closely we can see what created the environment for their sect to emerge. And seeing the pattern will reveal that we all have a little Pharisee in us.
Way back near the beginning of our Bibles, in the book of Exodus, God gave the Israelites a bunch of laws that he intended to help them keep so that they would look like a special people and more people would be drawn to God through them. Yet, instead of saying to God, “Please help us, we can’t do it without you,” they said, “We’ve got this. Whatever you command we can do.” The entire Old Testament is the story of them thinking they can do it without God and only when things get really bad do they finally beg God for help. Finally, one day they reject God so thoroughly that God sends another country in to completely destroy their land and take them away as slaves. This is the period known as the exile. For many years Israelites lived in Babylon away from their homes as punishment for their rebellion against God. When they called out to God to rescue them, God did dramatically and returned them to their land. They never wanted that to happen again, so they determined they would never dishonor God in such a way again. Yet, instead of falling on their faces begging God to lead them, they buried their faces in the law and memorized every detail of what God commanded them to do. And from there they made a few extra rules so that they wouldn’t even get close to breaking a law. It would be similar to God saying to us, “Don’t touch that chair” and instead of asking God to give us a heart of joy to obey we build a giant wall around the entire city of Mankato so we never get close to that chair and anyone who gets close to the wall we shame for trying to get to the chair.
This is the mindset that Paul is confronting in Galatians. For four chapters Paul has been telling people that the law wasn’t intended to be a guideline for gaining access to God, it was a mirror in which we were to look and see our need for him. If you seek to impress God or others by the things which you do, you are falling into the same trap that the Pharisees did, not seeing God as worthy to be honored and enjoyed, but simply seeing his law as a tool to protect the one you really love, yourself. The gospel sets us free from trying to hold others to or live up to any standard and sets us free to give ourselves joyfully for the good of others.
Now let’s take a look at what Paul’s answer to this mindset is in chapter 5. Because I want to end on what I think is Paul’s main emphasis, freedom, let’s start at the end of this section. Here we see Paul’s foundation for this freedom. The Christian life is built on faith in Christ. Verse 5 says we await the hope of righteousness by faith. This means that a Christian does not point to what he has done or is doing to prove his goodness. A Christian knows he has no goodness. The way we receive a right standing before God is by faith, meaning that we trust that what Christ did on the cross is perfectly sufficient to satisfy God’s demands on my life. We can put our trust to please God in nothing else. Only faith in Christ counts for pleasing God.
Then , by faith, we can live in a way that accomplishes God’s work. Verse 6 says the only thing that counts is “faith working through love.” When we put all of our hope in Christ to bring us to God, we are able to change our behavior. We become less concerned about how we look to others and more concerned about using what God has given us to give to others. Both our salvation and our daily living is done by faith in Christ.
So Paul, here gives an example of what he is trying to get across to the Galatians. The church is arguing about the topic of circumcision. According to the law of Moses, in order to be a faithful Israelite a man had to be circumcised. After Jesus the Messiah came and opened the doors of the kingdom to non-Jews, many Jews taught that in order to join the church a man still had to be circumcised according to the law of Moses. Paul rejected that saying that only faith in Christ gains us access to God’s assembly, not anything we do. In these verses Paul is saying we have two choices, live freely in the knowledge that Christ accomplished on your behalf everything the law requires, or be enslaved to the law. He is contrasting freedom and slavery.
We will get to the freedom part, I promise, but now I want to find out what it means to be enslaved to the law. We see three errors regarding the law that it is so easy for us to make. First we fall into legalism when we hold others to a standard that God does not expect us to keep. The Jews in Galatia expected the non-Jews to be circumcised before they could join the church. Instead of accepting them by their profession of faith, they made them perform something additional to really prove they were good enough. Paul ran into this problem with the Corinthians too who didn’t want to trust him because he refused to jump through their hoops. He said to them in 1 Cor 10:29 “Why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience?” How many ways do we hold up a bar over people’s heads and frown upon them when they can’t jump over it? We do this with non-Christians all the time. Instead of freely offering them forgiveness in Christ, we look at them with disgust that they are unable to jump over the high bar we are holding.
The second error is similar to the first but from a different perspective. The first was from the Jews holding up the standard, the second error is the Gentiles who submit themselves to the standard. In order to be accepted we sometimes feel like we need to try and earn our way into acceptance. Oftentimes there isn’t even an explicit expectation but we create in our minds the illusion that we need to perform in order to impress others so they will love us in return. We convince ourselves that if we don’t prove ourselves to be lovely enough then we won’t be loved in return. We voluntarily submit ourselves to this bondage of performance instead of living freely in the knowledge that Christ performed perfectly on my behalf. We don’t need to prove that we are lovely enough, we need to live knowing that it is already enough to be loved by Christ.
The third error is the defense of those who already got circumcised. We see this same attitude when somebody is confronted in the error of their ways and they immediately have a list of reasons why they had to do it. This person is quick to explain why it was necessary for him to make this decision or why he deserves praise and acceptance for his decision. This legalistic attitude defeats the purpose of Christ’s work on the cross who purchased acceptance for us. Paul, here in Galatians 5, has strong words of warning for those who are about to submit to this law. He warns them that if they do it they aren’t trusting Christ, they are cutting themselves off from him, falling away from the grace he offers.
Christ is all or nothing. If you feel like you need to do something in addition to the work of Christ, you are saying that his work was not sufficient. “Sure God himself offered himself to pay for all my sins, but he left a few gaps in his plan of salvation that I need to finish off for him.” When you justify yourself based on what you do, you claim more power and authority than God himself.
So what is our alternative. Freedom! Paul tells us in verse 1 that Christ has set us free. He is emphatic about it saying we’ve been set free in order to be free. The question we must ask ourselves now is, “What is freedom?”
I think moving our way back to verse 6 again gives us our answer. We have the negative example of expecting circumcision to prove our worthiness, but Paul ends this section saying that gospel freedom will result in faith working through love. Paul repeats this same point a few verses later. He says in chapter 5 verse 13 “you were called to freedom…Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh” meaning, freedom does not mean you get to do whatever you want to do. He says instead, “through love serve one another.” And he reminds us in verse 14, “the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
So I think that Paul is making a radical point for us:

1. You are not good enough
2. Christ performed perfectly and paid the penalty for sin entirely on behalf of any who put complete trust in him.
3. This frees you to work not for your own acceptance but for others’ benefit.

Gospel freedom is the ability to give yourself completely to another person without any expectation of something in return, without any expectation that they first meet your standards, without any fear of rejection or shame, BECAUSE Christ gave himself as the sufficient payment for everything we failed to do right.
Gospel freedom also means freedom to fail without judgment. If we aren’t judged by your works in the first place, we can make mistakes and not feel like we have lost our hope, lost respect, lost someone’s love. It motivates us to get up and try again or try it differently.

Now let’s take a moment to consider how this law-making, law-keeping mindset still seeks to enslave us. No doubt this is a difficult truth to embrace. We are people who want control. We want to feel loved and appreciated so we create expectations for how other people can make us feel loved. If they don’t follow our expectation we feel loved and we feel like they are to blame. Then we manipulate others by creating a law in our minds that we are able to keep and we expect others to keep the law we made for them in return for us keeping the law we made for ourselves. I’m sure this isn’t making much sense yet, so let me give you a more personal example and then offer a few others to consider for yourselves.
I lived this law-keeping mindset far too much in my own marriage. Because I am so naturally focused on my own well-being it is so easy to try and manipulate my wife for my own benefit. For so many years in my marriage I fell into every Pharisaical trap in my marriage. I held my wife to unrealistic standards and when she wasn’t able to meet them I was sure to look down upon her for being such a failure. I also created my own set of standards which were fairly easy to keep, so that when I did keep them I expected her to reward me for them. This is the bargaining scenario in a relationship: I will help with dinner and the dishes with the expectation that I will receive something in return. Then, when she doesn’t give in return, I condemn her for failing to reward me for my “generosity.” Then I pull away from her and refuse to help any further, justifying that I deserve more respect because I am a hard working provider for the family, and I’m a committed church member, and I give my time and money to charitable causes.
What are some others ways in which we lean towards a law mindset instead of a freedom to love mindset?
Our education system is based completely on achievement. We receive grades to compare one another and to know what extra efforts or incentives should apply to each student. But we quickly transform this assessment tool into an identity marker. We brag about our children being honor roll students. I can easily begin to think I need to be the smartest guy in the class. And as soon as something happens in life to prevent us from getting the grade we think we have, we get angry, we start to blame others for our feelings of disappointment, we convince ourselves that we will lose all future career opportunities because we failed to meet some real or imaginary academic standard. All this anxiety results from a mindset of performance, of trying to be good enough. The gospel frees the student to enjoy learning without any fear that his failure to perform will throw off God’s plans in the world. The gospel frees the student to trust God’s sovereign plan to use whatever good or bad grades he receives to accomplish his purposes in the student’s life.
Another area in life in which many people struggle is their self-image. The culture has a standard of external beauty which it plasters all over for our eyes to consume. This standard of beauty drives deep into our hearts where our legalism awakens and we feel we need to measure up to it. And when our legalist heart meets the cultural standard of beauty it paralyzes us, keeps us from enjoying how God has uniquely made us. It keeps us from being able to give ourselves in love to others because we are so concerned about how we look. But gospel freedom reminds us that we don’t need to meet anyone’s standards. The gospel frees us to enjoy the body we have and to use it to serve others without fearing that we must first conform to someone else’s expectations. Then we have freedom to maintain the best body we can, not so people can approve of our image, but so we are better able to give ourselves more generously to others.
Another place in which I think it is most difficult to stand against this legalism is in our parenting. We know that our kids are far from perfect, but there is so much pressure in my heart to make sure my kids look as close to perfect as possible. The must always be on their best behavior, always be eating enough fruits and veggies, reading enough, avoiding TV, getting outside and playing (bathed first in sunscreen, of course), having enough socializing time with other kids (but not with the wrong kind of kids. They need to get their sports in, their swimming lessons and piano lessons done, raised with a classical education and finish college free of debt. We parents just are not able to handle all of these expectations; and when our kids don’t live up to our expectations each day we get upset with them . Gospel freedom allows us to simply do the best we can with the time and money we have been given and not feel like a failure when we compare ourselves to others. We trust that God has more of an influence over our children’s future than our efforts to micromanage their lives. And think about the pressure this mindset puts on our kids; they begin to believe that Christianity is about performing to a standard than about freedom in forgiveness.
One more, a general way in which we become slaves to expectations is when we fear criticism. We just hate it when we don’t measure up to someone else’s standards. When we are criticized we feel like someone looked us up and down and in their assessment we don’t measure up. If it is true that we aren’t good enough, then why should we be surprised if someone else realizes it too? We have room to grow, to improve, to be more loving so why are we so quick to get defensive and try to justify ourselves? Charles Spurgeon said, “if any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him; for you are worse than he thinks you to be. If he charges you falsely on some point, yet be satisfied, for if he knew you better he might change the accusation, and you would be no gainer by the correction. If you have your moral portrait painted, and it is ugly, be satisfied; for it only needs a few blacker touches, and it would be still nearer the truth.” The gospel frees us from the anxiety of someone finding out we are broken people. We already know we are broken and we don’t need to fear that someone else figure that out. Gospel freedom allows us to joyfully serve others even in the face of criticism because no matter what anyone says about us, we know that we are still accepted by God in Christ.
These are not examples of a gospel freedom mindset, but toxic relationships of legalism. There are so many ways in which we fall into this mindset, but the gospel frees us from it. I don’t know what it is in your life that triggers your legalistic nature, but if you are human, then there are still ways in which you are plagued by this tendency. Interestingly, Paul says in verse 1 that we need to fight for this freedom. It seems a bit paradoxical to say that we are free but we need to work for it. He is simply saying that our tendency is to fall back into justifying ourselves by measuring ourselves and others by a standard other than the love of Christ. We fight this tendency by standing firm on the truth of the cross and turning from any hint of law-making.
So take the time today to think how the Pharisee in you manifests itself. Ask God to bring you to the end of yourself so that you can be done with the law , so that you can know God’s pleasure with you in Christ, and you can experience the freedom of giving yourself to extraordinary generosity in love toward others.