Standing in a New Place

The Bible says, “The law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression (Romans 4:15).” Is there such a place without law or transgression? Yes, little babies live there. Those not of sound mind, who are not responsible for their actions because they lack the faculties to discern good and evil, they also live free of the law and transgression. But we live in a world under God’s wrath because it is filled with all kinds of law. God writes the work of the law on our heart, which is our conscience. The Bible says, “To him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin (James 4:17).” There are the many laws of state and society — some just and some unjust — with the just ones sometimes enforced and sometimes not. In addition, over all, there is God’s law, which He gave us to teach us we are unable to live the good life, that we harm others, abuse ourselves and fall short in worshipping and serving God as He alone deserves. Laws surround us and everywhere we see lawlessness! The violation of good, the stifling of what promotes life, the neglecting of what helps the weak and the holding back of what could heal the hurting. Large or small we see this all around us. We see the corruption. We see the double standards. We see the dirty deals. We see the constant taking of more for nothing more than already having a lot and wanting more. We’re all tied into this lawless mess. We tire of the evil that bears down on us, and even more so when it swells up from inside of us to make us join in.  Jesus said it is these very things from within, coming out of our heart, that defile us:  our evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. Jesus said all these evil things come from within and defile us (Mark 7:15-23).  Who is not tired of seeing these things going on around us, or from feeling such things at work within us?

I heard a poet once talk about life as if it were a playground seesaw. He said, “Grief wears down the seesaw, joy cannot budge it.” I don’t believe it!  Yes, we live like prisoners to laws selectively enforced and to a lawlessness, in which we all have taken part. Nevertheless, as the Reverend Martin Luther King once said, “The story our heart wants to hear again and again, like a child loves to hear again and again her favorite storybook, is the story that with each telling weighs down despair and with each hearing wears despair out.” This is the story the Bible tells. That story is the good news of Jesus Christ.   It is only this story that lifts us up in spite of what pushes us down.  It is this wonderful story about our Father’s love and the Son’s love for His Father that moves the seesaw of life with unimaginable joy.  It is a story that makes the angels sing and grown men cry.  The Great Teller of the tale, God Himself, invites us to step into the story that He tells. It’s the story about Jesus dying on the cross, the story about what the Son did for His Father and what the Son has done for us because of how much His Father loves us.   

Although He fulfilled the whole law His whole life for His Father’s good pleasure, Jesus nonetheless suffered being forsaken by the Father on the cross, enduring the Father’s wrath against sin, becoming in His Father’s eyes a curse in our behalf (Galatians 3:10-14).  By every measure by which we take stock of his death to size it up, by way of our scales to weigh it and by our way of thinking to figure it out, this was a terrible act of injustice.  But God declares, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8).  The secret of God’s love is God Himself, because God is love (1 John 4: 8).  We come to know and to believe the love that God has for us by looking to Jesus lifted up on the cross.  Here God set the fulness of His wrath upon Him who fully knew and understood His law and fully obeyed His law in both spirit and in truth.  Here is where the little children and those of unsound mind, guilty sinners and the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world stand together, in solidarity, standing as one.  God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). Why?  Because this is how much God loves us.  He gave up His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).   The Bible teaches that while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.  God showed His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:6-8).   We were dead in trespasses and sins, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit at work in us, when living as sons of disobedience like the rest of humankind.  But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, by His grace saves us through faith to make us alive with Christ (Ephesians 2:4-10).  Through Christ’s death on the cross God reconciled us to Himself, not counting our trespasses against us, but rather, against His Son (2 Corinthians 5:18-19).  Oh listener, praise the Lord with all the nations!  Extol Him with all peoples!  For great is His steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever (Psalm 17)!  For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him; so far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us (Psalm 103).

Here is a new place for us who know the law and yet have broken it. None of us on our own is righteous, none of us understand, none of us on our own seeks God, together we have turned away from Him. Nevertheless, here is a new standing in the world. Here is a new place we can step into where even for us, violators of the law; there is nevertheless no law and therefore, no transgression. The cross was where the Lawgiver did something the Law couldn’t do. God’s only Son, who is the radiance of the glory of God, who laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, who upholds the universe by the word of His power, who is worshipped by angels and whose throne is forever and ever — this Lawgiver and giver of life – became flesh and dwelt among us (Hebrews 1:1-12; John 1:14).  This Jesus took upon Himself the punishment His Father decreed every violator of the Law deserved, even though He Himself loved righteousness, hated lawlessness, and never broke the Law. Jesus willingly accepted His Father’s wrath by taking upon Himself the punishment for our transgressions. Christ suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit (1 Peter 3:18). God’s word assures us that He will declare us righteous if we believe in Him, the one true God who brought Jesus back from the dead. He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised from the dead to make us right with God (Romans 4:25).  Therefore, God commands all people everywhere to turn away from lawlessness to believe in Jesus for forgiveness of sin.  God has circled a day on His calendar; it is a marked day coming when He will judge us.  God has appointed Jesus to be the man by whom He will judge the world in righteousness.  By raising Jesus from the dead He guarantees He will do this (Acts 17:31).  Jesus bore witness to this saying, “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.  Whoever believes in God’s Son is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because He has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.  And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and the people loved the darkness rather than the light.  For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.  But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God (John 3:17-21).” 

Oh listener, what does the Scripture say? If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame (Romans 10:8-13).”  This is the testimony of God that He has borne concerning His Son, that He gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.  Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life (1 John 5:10-12).  Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him (John 3:36).  God does not wish any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.  Will you repent? Will you turn away from to leave the way you lived as a sinner and how you managed the guilt of your sins?  God desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth about His Son.  Will you come to Jesus?  Will you entrust yourself, your life, your soul, your eternal destiny to His care?

With your hearing this right now, before asking yourself if you are ready to do this, even before asking yourself if you believe these things, I want to ask you something else.  Do you believe Jesus believed this? When kissed on the cheek and seized in the place called Gethsemane. When stripped and whipped. When struck and spat upon. When forced up Golgotha’s hill, when nailed to that cross, when hanging there bloodied and bruised with no way out but to die a criminal’s death, forsaken and declared cursed before His Father, do you believe, in hope against hope He believed He died for your sins? Do you believe, in hope against hope, He believed in His Father, believing He gives life to the dead? Do you believe He was convinced, in hope against hope, that what His Father had promised He was also able to perform? Do you believe, in hope against hope, He believed that after being killed he would be raised from the dead the third day? Oh listener, in hoping for what He then did not see, in hope against hope, He believed all of these things. His love for the Father rejoices with the sanctifying truth of His Father’s word.  His love for the Father overflowing with the Father’s love for us bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.  God loves each of us that much.  Jesus’ faith in His Father did not weaken, no distrust made Him waver concerning the promise of His Father. Jesus grew strong in His faith as He gave glory to His Father, praying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”  Jesus died for us to fulfill His Father’s will. He died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.  He trusted His Father for the hope of the promise He made to raise Him from the dead in accordance with the Scriptures. Jesus did this willingly for you and me. He endured the hostility, despising the shame. He did it for the joy that was set before Him, confident in His Father’s promise that He would raise Him from the dead and give Him glory. Compelled by God’s love the Holy Spirit poured into His heart, Jesus knew this hope could not disappoint.  Moreover, He was not disappointed, because everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Compelled out of love for His Father and in willing obedience to His Father, Jesus died on the cross as the public display of His Father’s love for us.   Jesus proved the Father’s love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the sacrificial offering for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world (1 John 4:10; 2:2). The blood of Jesus, the Son of God, cleanses us from all sin.  Jesus sacrificed Himself for us because He is filled with the Father’s love that surpasses all knowledge. He took our place.  He paid the debt we owe God because of our lawlessness.  Jesus did this for us because His Father’s justice demanded of us what we could not do for ourselves.  Jesus could do this because He was not brought forth in iniquity, He never was estranged from God, nor from birth did He ever go astray.   He was tempted in all things as we are, yet He did not sin (Hebrews 4:15).  Jesus alone is the Holy and Righteous One before God.  To whom else should we look, where else need we search?  The secret of God’s holiness is God Himself.  Jesus is the image of this invisible God (Colossians 1:15).  The Bible says no man has seen God at any time, however, the only One who is God, the Son of God who is at the Father’s side, the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us, He has made Him known to us (John 1:18).  Jesus said, “Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father.”  Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6).  He alone makes us holy by including us in His holiness, so that we may be holy before God as God is holy.

However, Jesus not only went to the cross to take away all our sins and to make us holy.  He put His trust in God to be the author and finisher of our faith, to be the originator, the generator, the kick-starter of our faith and to perfect, complete and fulfill our faith (Hebrews 12:1-2). Do you believe this about Him? His Father made good on His word. By His resurrection from the dead, the Father declared Jesus the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness. This Jesus lives for us. He is for us. He gives us the chance to be delivered from the law, saved from our sin, freed from the law of sin and death so that we should serve God in the newness of the Spirit. Will you believe in Him to give you the faith He has prepared for you?  Will you believe the story of Jesus Christ by which the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, beginning and ending with His faith?  Will you believe in Him for the removing of God’s wrath, for the receiving of God’s grace, and for standing before God bathed in God’s love forever? 

Jesus said He loves us just as the Father loves Him, and that the Father loves us even as He loves His Son (John 15:9; 17:20-23).  Do you believe Jesus is trustworthy, that He is reliable, and that He tells the truth without embellishing it or holding back anything?  Do you take Him at His word when He says, “I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”  Wherever you might be dear listener, regardless of what has happened to you and no matter what you have done, He’s asking you right now, “Do you believe this?  (John 11:25)”  He’s listening for you.  He’s inviting you to come to Him.  Do you desire forgiveness of sin, the power that overcomes evil and the gift of eternal life?   Receive Him of whom the Father speaks.  He will give you these things:

Behold My servant, whom I uphold, My chosen, in whom My soul delights; I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.  He will not cry aloud or lift up His voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed He will not break, and a faintly burning wick He will not quench; He will faithfully bring forth justice.  He will not grow faint or be discouraged till He has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for His law (Isaiah 42:1-4)    

What then shall we say to these things?  If God is for us, who is against us?  He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?  Who is to condemn?  Christ Jesus is the one who died — more than that, who was raised — who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (Romans 8:31-37). 

It is not for us to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority for the restoration of all things.  Nor do we have the power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death.  We do know however, that in these last days God has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things.  The Scriptures teach us that we should establish our hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.  Might the words of an old blues song written by the Reverend Blind Gary Davis (1896-1972), woven together with the word of God (Romans 8:38-39), help us to do this, so we may be patient, self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of our prayers.  With our Lord’s faith that He’s given us, let us confess together as we believe:

Death don’t have no mercy in this land,

nevertheless,

in hope against hope we are persuaded

that neither death nor life shall be able

to separate us from the love of God,

which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Death will leave us standing,

crying in this land,

nevertheless,

in hope against hope we are persuaded

that neither angels nor principalities,

nor powers shall be able

to separate us from the love of God,

which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Death won’t stay away from nobody in this land,

nevertheless,

in hope against hope we are persuaded

that neither things present nor things to come shall be able

to separate us from the love of God,

which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Death never takes a vacation in this land,

nevertheless,

in hope against hope we are persuaded

that neither height nor depth shall be able

to separate us from the love of God,

which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Death is always in a hurry in this land,

death is a robber in this land,

death don’t pity nobody in this land,

nevertheless,

in hope against hope we are persuaded

that no created thing shall be able

to separate us from the love of God,

which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Do you believe this?  Blessed are those who have ears to hear, who walk by faith, and not by sight.  If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed.  Our Lord, come!  Come, Lord Jesus!  The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all.  Amen.

The Ten Commandments, a Prayer, a Meditation

Oh Lord, I would fall silent. Remove from me the sorrows of the wicked. Give me godly grief producing a repentance that leads to salvation never regretted or looked back upon with a change of mind. Against you alone I have sinned. You alone are trustworthy. You alone can restore me. Teach me to cleanse my hands as a sinner, to purify my heart as one who is double-minded.  I have made of you in my life my second choice.  Lord,  how many times? 

The times I made place for other gods before you, by pushing you away.  The times I provoked you to jealousy, by shaping for my soul a pantheon for her lovers.  The times I blasphemed your name, to cast it down before me in vain.  The times I refused your peace, refusing to cease from toil or receive rest for my weary soul.  The times I hardened my heart against father and mother, forsaking your promise for not wanting a blessing.  The times I killed from anger, relishing the efficient elegance of hatred.  The times I fell into sudden adultery, swept up in a flash flood of my engulfing lust.  The times I stole to console my pleasures.  The times I lied to hide the man I had become.  The times I coveted what was not mine, unsatisfied, not looking to the need of another, or to you to meet my need. 

False contentment and carnal restlessness keep me from being wretched. I neither mourn nor weep. Take my laughter Lord, how can I turn it to mourning? Take what delight I find in the shiny lures of pleasure, which I search out among the thorns in stony places, and make it gloom.  Wash me in your word Lord so that I may cleanse myself of wickedness.  Lord, as a vessel of mercy make of me a vessel of honor, sanctified, useful to you in your household, the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.  I want to serve you Lord, temper  my heart, discipline my will, and sharpen my listening ear to do whatever you say.  I draw near to you Lord, confident you will draw near to me. Fill me with your Holy Spirit, teach me the secret of contenment, that I might know how to be abased, and how to abound, that I may be instructed everywhere and in all things both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. In the faith you have given me, I humble myself before you Lord, may it be to me according to your word. O Lord, give me salve to anoint my eyes. I am wretched, miserable, poor, and blind, covered in the shame of my nakedness. Clothe me in the white garments of your purity. Give me eyes to see Lord. I want to see you seeing me so that in your eyes I see, bathed in the light the Lord God gives, the holy Father’s name written on my forehead, the very name He gave you, the name which is above every name, in whose name the only true God, the Father of lights, the only begotten Son of God , and the Spirit of the Lord has kept me from the evil one’s power through Christ Jesus our Lord to reign with all the saints forever and ever

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!  You alone will be who you choose to be.  You alone are free.  You are worthy, O Lord, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power; for you created all things, and by your will they exist and were created.  Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!  Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever, to Him who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords; who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light; whom no man has seen or can see.  To Him be honor and eternal dominion!  Amen.

A Collage on Faith

“I still do not know what others or we mean by faith.  In fact, the more we might say or write about it, the less able we would be to grasp hold of this quicksilver. sat prata biberunt, the wise have drunk enough. Faith is not every man’s thing, nor is it communicable. We cannot offer or exchange faith as if it were a piece of merchandise. Faith is the Kingdom of Heaven and hell in us. To believe God exists and to believe no God exists is an identical contradiction. If I have cut the ribbon of nature in two, then there is as little connection between being and faith as there is between cause and effect. incredibile sed verum – incredible but true.”[1]

A man cannot catch faith like a cold or a thief. We cannot produce faith. We cannot give faith away. Only God understands man. “Do you believe this?” Man alone trusts God. “Do you believe this?” No matter how accurate factually, any claim to know risk-free truth is subjectively false. The soul possessed of certainty of its own making by having met its own required specifications self-mandated as grounds for being persuaded is in greater danger than the soul suffering the agonies of doubt.  Whatever is not of faith is sin.  Faith alone awakens the soul from its dogmatic slumber, offers the soul refuge from the corrosive ravages of skepticism and cheers up the soul enough to shake off the boredom of indifference.

Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth (Psalm 46:10). “Do you believe this?”

Jesus said unto the twelve, “Will ye also go away?” Then Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God (John 6:67-69).”

Jesus said unto her, “I am the resurrection, and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” She saith unto him, “Yea, Lord; I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, who should come into the world (John 11:25-27).”

Since anything settled must be paid in full, from whence our assurance of those things for which we hope? What convincing argument? What demonstration of sufficient evidence for proof? What source for the proving, what benchmark put to the test? The promises and instructions of God, the Scriptures, given by inspiration of God, spoken in the shifting, ever sifted inflections of life: fact, wish and command.

Those who have an ear, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Matthew 13:44.

—————————————————————-

[1] Johann Georg Hamann, “An Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, 4/27/1787,” in Johann Georg Hamann, Eine Auswahl aus seinen Schriften, Entkleidung und Verklärung, ed. by Martin Seils (Wuppertal: R. Brockhaus Verlag, 1987), p. 492. Translated by the montage listener.

What Hope for me?

And if, after,

having seen our Lord transfigured,

and watching the resurrected Lord

ascend to heaven

until a cloud took Him out of his sight,

and then later,

falling as though dead at the feet of our Lord

glorified –

whose eyes burn like a flame of fire,

and whose voice speaks like the roar of many waters,

and from whose mouth is drawn a sharp two-edged sword,

and whose face glows incandescent like the sun shining,

its full strength expending –

if after seeing all these things,

the beloved Apostle, nonetheless,

lacks powers of discernment sufficient

for distinguishing creation from Creator,

so worshiping an angel as if serving

the creature rather than the Creator,

twice (Revelation 19:10, 22:8);

if he who heard,

beheld with his own eyes and

handled with his own hands the Word of Life,

if he behaved like a man disqualified, then,

what hope is there for me?

Who shields me from being deceived, or behaving as one self-deceived? Who delivers me from the worst kind of lie? Who frees me from my own futility? Who snatches me out of the fire? Who keeps me from becoming a fool, exchanging the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and summer tanagers, opossums and northern black racers, the shifting pastiches of my likings and wishes, exchanging the truth about God for a lie and worshipping and serving the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever and ever? Who forgives me for my bending the knee to the idol greed? Who breaks me from my consuming, dishonorable passions contrary to nature and the work of the law written in me?  Who leads me away from all that comes easy to me that is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic? Who transforms this debased mind, this hidden, unbidden me, who drives me to do the very thing I do not wish? Who will empty me of all manner of unrighteousness, envy, murder, strife, and maliciousness? Who will prevent me, the evildoer, from doing evil? Who cleanses me of being filthy, a gossip, slanderer, hater of God and lover of self, ungrateful, unholy, and boastful, an inventor of evil, repeatedly disobeying my parents although they are dead? Who gives me rest, the coveter, who wants all things or nothing at all as rivals of God or just in jest? Who saves me; the foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless approver of whoever practices these things…as long as they do not cross me?

Oh Father in heaven, who has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, be merciful to us.  We are weak of flesh and conscience.  We easily slip away from your liberty to be entangled again to a yoke of burden and bondage.  Our one hope is looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.  Our hope is fixed on Him, your Son, to be like Him when He appears, because we shall see Him as He is, the whole fullness of Deity in bodily form, born of a virgin, full of grace and truth, the descendent of David who was pierced for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures to be received up in glory, and will judge the living and the dead at His appearing.

We believe this hope in Him purifies us just as He is pure and cannot disappoint, because your love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us. Your Holy Spirit speaks to the inner most depth of our hearts, He comforts us, assuring us we are your children with whom you share beatific treasures — for everything you give your Son is ours too. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs — heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Christ in order that we may also be glorified with Him.  Oh Father of spirits of all flesh of men, who yearns jealously over the spirit you have made to dwell in us, your eternal word is spirit and life.  Grant we might be led by the Spirit of your Son, whom you sent into our hearts crying, “Abba!  Father!”  Hear the voice of your Son whenever you hear us so cry, for we believe the Spirit that testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.  We believe your testimony that you have borne concerning your Son.  We believe you gave us eternal life, and this life is in your Son.  We want to know Him who is true with the understanding He has given us, for we are in Him who is true, in your Son Jesus Christ.  He is the true God and eternal life.  Father, deliver us from evil that we might keep ourselves from idols.      

Let me so live Lord,

the sinner justified by faith in Christ,

a saint standing in your grace,

dying for the unfading wreath of glory and

the suffering and

the patient endurance you choose to share

by uniting all things in Christ,

things in heaven and things on earth,

that the Head of Christ may be all in all.

If we fail to see ourselves before God in Christ, then we cannot see one another as God sees us.  If we fail to believe the Spirit of Christ cries, “Abba, Father” with us, then we cannot hear one another as God hears us.  Oh Lord, please open our eyes that we may so see!  Those whom you have given ears to hear fill with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit we may abound in hope for the redemption of our bodies.  In this hope we were saved.  We do not see this hope, nevertheless, we eagerly wait for it with patience even while groaning inwardly, confident the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  We do not know what to pray for as we ought, nevertheless, in prayer we trust in and rely upon what we cannot hear — the Spirit Himself interceding for us with groanings too deep for words.

A New Year’s Resolution

After the shame of earned defeat,
after losing the one thing held dear,
the honest person asks,
the desperate person asks,
“How do I become credible, again?”

This question requires answering with every new beginning in our lives, in the life of a nation and in the life of all humankind in those moments when at wits’ end we step out from the mental death of shame and defeat back into the life God has given us so we may feel our way toward Him, seek after Him and find Him, again. 

Who believes we can do this?  Who makes us believable again? Upon whose resources do we rely to live beyond ourselves to be ourselves again? Who do we want to be? Who among us tires of being the freedom fighter fighting for a noble cause, or being the systematic inquisitor and finder of all causes? Who wants to see and act like the compassionate Samaritan, even if it means being branded a traitor or being dismissed a silly dreamer? Who speaks out of the hour’s opportunity and need, even if it means being made a martyr? Who will be the weak man or unnoticed woman who can be the strength of God when the need of another is great?[i]

The One among us who believes in us, who believes, “Every soul is the next sentence of God”[ii] — He is for us. He speaks for us. He is holy and blameless, and unstained by sin. He lives forever to plead with God on our behalf. He is Lord over all. He alone was born that night in Bethlehem, to be found by shepherds, a baby lying in a manger, wrapped snugly in strips of common cloth. He alone glorifies God in the highest heaven. He alone will bring peace on earth and goodwill among the Jews and the nations. 

Who is this Savior? Even apart from the Spirit that reveals everything, the living Jesus, the Jesus of the four Gospels and Giver of history remains most plausibly, the most single-mindedly sincere and spontaneously, the most authentic man ever to have embraced life through death. In Him alone is the Father well pleased. We should listen to Him. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame.”

Make it a resolution this year to pray that your shame be made full without fear or hardness of heart. Pray for your unconditional defeat, that the deceit of self-sufficiency be exposed and its desire for you be completely undone. Pray the miracle of His sorrow living and working within you changes your mind about Him.  Pray He removes the one thing in your life that keeps you from turning to Him. Pray you never turn away from daily reliance on Him.  Then, like Job did for his friends, pray for us, that He lets us come to our senses; who still feed at the trough of petty victories. Pray He frees us of our vanity, breaks us of our idolatry, and runs with arms open to receive us as His own, as we approach Him broken, heads bowed, ashamed and coming home to Him in utter defeat, having heard Him cry out to us by name, with a loud voice saying, “Come out!”

Lord, grant we might in behalf of one another offer up prayers of GOLD:

Glory, Obedience, Loyalty, Deliverance!

May our lives radiate Your glory in the power of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Grant us obedience from the heart to that standard of teaching to which You have commended us, so that as Your messengers we may be competent, equipped with sound doctrine for every good work and for the healthy growth and godly governance of the church.
Grant us loyalty to our first love, Jesus Christ, and to the name He has given us.
And finally Father, allow deliverance from whatever keeps us from living the gift of eternal life, which You have given us through faith in our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

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notes
[1] Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, Ja und Nein, Auto-Biographische Fragmente, ed. by Georg Müller (Heidelberg: Verlag Lambert Schneider, 1968), p.81, paraphrases emmeshed in first two paragraphs, pp. 82-83.
[ii] Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, “Der Endgültige Mensch,” in Die Sprache des Menschengeschlechts, vol. 1 (Heidelberg: Verlag Lambert Schneider, 1963), p. 144.
Every academic or public library should have the collected works of Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy now available on DVD. Go to http://www.argobooks.org/collected/index.html for aquisition information. The collection is reasonably priced, thus easily obtainable for individual purchase.