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Charlton Heston, conscience, flesh, following Jesus, freedom, Jesus Christ, justification, light, Martin Luther, sin
Let’s say someone were hell-bent on being a good person, which is not a bad thing in itself, that’s for sure. However, imagine whenever that person observes something evil or uncomfortable emerging from his heart, such as pride, hatred, wrath, jealousy, covetousness, aggressiveness, enmity against God, or grief over a great loss, such a one would either follow a ritual of sorts by confessing his sins to God in the hope of getting rid of them or he would try to take his mind off these things by devoting himself fully to something which does not cause these bad feelings.
Do we believe that this procedure will be successful?
Alas, these attempts to deal with God’s doing inside our hearts always only scratch the surface of those things God actually wants to reveal to us, a.k.a. self-knowledge.
I admit that getting to know ourselves is a PAINFUL process. Whenever His light reaches out for another (more or less) hidden depth in that unfathomable abyss which is my heart, IT ACHES – a lot. And the first impulse is ALWAYS to run. But from experience I know that His light will touch that spot again and again until I willingly give in and say, “Yes, my Lord. I accept that pain because I want to be healed by You.”
Apropos self-knowledge…
Just think of those cases when a “good” father and husband (or mother and wife) kills his (or her) whole family. Why do you think that such things happen? A perfect law-keeper who suddenly turns into a beast or monster? Why is that?
Or let us ponder on the fact that most people are both shocked and intrigued as soon as there has been a horrible event – a mass murder or a satanic ritual murder, for example. How many people feel irresistibly attracted and repelled at the same time?
And how many “religious” people believe the lie that the evil is only to be found outside of us and therefore turn into self-righteous moralists who attack those who do not “fulfill the Law”?
The apostle Paul said,
“I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.” (Gal 4:1-3 ESV)
Martin Luther’s thoughts, particularly on verse 3, were – excerpted – the following.
“In calling the Law “the elements of the world” Paul means to say that the Law is something material, mundane, earthly. It may restrain evil, but it does not deliver from sin. The Law does not justify; it does not bring a person to heaven. I do not obtain eternal life because I do not kill, commit adultery, steal, etc. Such mere outward decency does not constitute Christianity. The heathen observe the same restraints to avoid punishment or to secure the advantages of a good reputation. In the last analysis such restraint is simple hypocrisy. When the Law exercises its higher function, it accuses and condemns the conscience. All these effects of the Law cannot be called divine or heavenly. These effects are elements of the world.
I do not mean to give the impression that the Law should be despised. Neither does Paul intend to leave that impression. The Law ought to be honored. But when it is a matter of justification before God, Paul had to speak disparagingly of the Law, because the Law has nothing to do with justification. If it thrusts its nose into the business of justification we must talk harshly to the Law to keep it in its place. The conscience ought not to be on speaking terms with the Law. The conscience ought to know only Christ. To say this is easy, but in times of trial, when the conscience writhes in the presence of God, it is not so easy to do. As such times we are to believe in Christ as if there were no Law or sin anywhere, but only Christ. We ought to say to the Law: “Mister Law, I do not get you. You stutter so much. I don’t think that you have anything to say to me.”
When it is not a question of salvation or justification with us, we are to think highly of the Law and call it “holy, just, and good.” (Romans 7:12) The Law is of no comfort to a stricken conscience. Therefore it should not be allowed to rule in our conscience, particularly in view of the fact that Christ paid so great a price to deliver the conscience from the tyranny of the Law. Let us understand that the Law and Christ are impossible bedfellows. The Law must leave the bed of the conscience, which is so narrow that it cannot hold two.”
(Martin Luther’s Bible Commentary on Galatians chapter 4, verse 3)
Self-knowledge, eventually, frees us from any accusations of the law. Knowing ourselves, we realize that we might be the worst sinners on earth regarding our flesh (Rom 7:18-24; 1 Tim 1:15), but we also know that if we trust in Christ as our only help in all things, we won’t ever do those things our minds might suggest because God is the ONE who protects us, and thus, the evil one cannot do ANYTHING, for it is written,
“We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.” (1 Jn 5:18 ESV)
I’ll leave the closing remarks to our brother Paul ( 😉 ) again.
“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” (Rom 7:25, 8:1-2 ESV)
Whoa that comment by Martin Luther was so good..it is for sure that once we are united into Christs life we got to stop trying to live by the letter and let the being of Gods spirit be our counselor. Thanks Susanne.
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Thank you for your encouraging comment, Kenneth. 🙂 I’m so glad you liked Luther’s exegesis as well. May God’s Spirit be our first counselor in all things.
Love,
Susanne
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““What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Cor 2:9-14 ESV)
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Very insightful. Thank you, thank you. In high school I read in an English literature book that an author had said, “Man has thoughts that would shame hell”. Somehow I found his statement comforting – I realized that I was not the only one who had shameful thoughts that I would never want anyone to know. The truth that Christ can give us a clean conscience is worth pursuing everyday. Lord Jesus, dwell in my conscience.
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You are so welcome, my sister. You quoted, “Man has thoughts that would shame hell.” Ha! So true, Pat. 😉
And you wrote, “I realized that I was not the only one who had shameful thoughts that I would never want anyone to know.” Yes, when I was young I believed that even my perverse thoughts were somehow unique.
Also, I had some very bizarre dreams in the night of which I thought I would never tell anyone about them. However, as I came to know the Lord better and better, He made me laugh very often since He revealed and explained exactly those things (of which I thought I should have been ashamed) in a very funny way. We have a wonderfully humorous God, indeed! 🙂
When I realized that each of my thoughts had its origin in God (THE WORD, cf. Jn 1:1-5) since He created all things, I began to wonder how I could believe sooo long that I had to be ashamed before God. Ha – again! As Jesus gave me more and more of His light, the same thought of which I had been ashamed before began to make more and more sense.
Actually, there is nothing in Heaven which Satan did not try to imitate and to pull down to earth where many of these “things” are sinful. In Heaven, instead, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom in all “things” which are sanctified through His Spirit.
By the way, if you didn’t read it already, I also wrote a longer exposition on our (twisted and other) thoughts
here
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Susanne, thanks for sharing this. That quote from Luther on Galatians four is excellent! He nailed it dead on. Blessings on you, Michael
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Thank you, too, Michael. Every blessing!
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Yes, the law points to our utmost need for grace. Satan uses it to shame us. Christ uses it to make us hunger for His salvation. Thanks for sharing!
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Amen, Joanna, dead-on!
You said, “Yes, the law points to our utmost need for grace. Satan uses it to shame us.”
I wish we all could see the truth of what you shared here so that we could always resists the devil and flee into the arms Jesus instead of listening to Satan’s mean accusations we might perceive in our mind.
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AMEN!
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Many thanks Susanne. Right now I need to hear this. I’m inclined to hear accusations and see my failure. My nervous system is a little wobbly.
Commands come to the believer not to accuse but to describe that life into which the Spirit as we walk by him produces.
But I must keep my thoughts simple at the moment. Praise God for justification.
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You’re most welcome, John.
I am glad to hear you found the post helpful. Yes, I know how it feels to have a wobbly nervous system, too. Anything but funny, indeed. 😦
If we find ourselves accused, it is always Satan who wants us to run away from God and His grace. Also, I think we are not inclined by nature to obey any command which is written unless God has poured His love into our very hearts before so that we are empowered to fulfill the law of Christ which is Love. For it is written,
“Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” (Rom 13:10 ESV)
Basically, it would be that simple, but Satan complicates the whole thing and tries to discourage us, again and again…
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Whoah, I didn’t think I could read through something of this nature so early in the morning before I had coffee! 🙂 Thanks Susanne… I might even be a little sharper today because of you. 🙂
Anyway, I concur – that is a great quote by Luther. It sparked a question for me. Not a question about the reality or truth of something he said (shucks, Paul too) , but how to ‘animate’ that truth more so I can more fully grasp it from every angle, and never forget.
That is, Luther talked about not allowing the Law to share the same space with our consience (I liked that last part about the bed being too narrow for both!) 🙂 But on the flip side, he claified that the Law should be ‘honored.’ My question is how do we understand that better? How do we not allow someone in our home (for example) including setting a table for them, and yet say we ‘honor’ someone. (talking as if the Law is a person that comes knocking of course, which might be a faulty illustration to begin with).
Just some thoughts as I work through this better. On to my coffee … AND to the appreciation today that Christ has set me free from all my shame and any need to earn His love!
Thank you again, Susanne. Love you!
Pamela
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You’re most welcome, dear Pamela! 🙂 And I love you, too! ❤
I do hope you enjoyed your coffee despite my thought-provoking post which I honestly published on Facebook yesterday only by accident. My WordPress blog settings show “Publish immediately” and that publishing sometimes also happens – via FB – when I simply do some editing of an older blog post as I did yesterday. Indeed, I was almost inclined to remove that post from FB again until I saw in my site stats that some people had already read it.
Well … Actually, I am sitting here, eager to reply to your question, however, I have no idea how to do it. 😛 Just waiting on the Lord and His wisdom……
I was just reminded of a blog post I wrote on here (cf. https://enteringthepromisedland.wordpress.com/2014/10/15/what-is-the-baptism-in-the-holy-spirit/) which included a longer excerpt about Charles G. Finney’s experience of having been justified by faith. I am going to copy and paste it below.
In this state I was taught the doctrine of justification by faith, as a present experience. That doctrine had never taken any such possession of my mind, that I had ever viewed it distinctly as a fundamental doctrine of the Gospel. Indeed, I did not know at all what it meant in the proper sense. But I could now see and understand what was meant by the passage, “ Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” I could see that the moment I believed, while up in the woods all sense of condemnation had entirely dropped out of my mind; and that from that moment I could not feel a sense of guilt or condemnation by any effort that I could make. My sense of guilt was gone; my sins were gone; and I do not think I felt any more sense of guilt than if I never had sinned.
This was just the revelation that I needed. I felt myself justified by faith; and, so far as I could see, I was in a state in which I did not sin. Instead of feeling that I was sinning all the time, my heart was so full of love that it overflowed. My cup ran over with blessing and with love; and I could not feel that I was sinning against God. Nor could I recover the least sense of guilt for my past sins. Of this experience I said nothing that I recollect, at the time, to anybody; that is, of this experience of justification.
Finney was absolutely right. We struggle with our conscience that condems us again and again until Christ sets us free to look away from “the Law” unto Himself who is LOVE and who looks at us with the eyes of unconditional love. He sees us as perfect and He also changes our view of ourselves. Although we see, then, that nothing good will ever spring from the flesh (Old Adam/Eve – cf. Romans 7), being enwrapped in His love changes everything. I just empasized two parts of the Scripture below with CAPS of which I think they make THE difference.
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are IN Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free IN Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” (Rom 8:1-2 ESV)
Indeed, I believe that we need God’s help for everything. Apart from Him and His doing in our hearts, we cannot get free from recurring thoughts of being accused or condemned. We need God to put us IN(TO) Christ and to write His Law of LOVE unto our very hearts. Whenever I find myself today unable to love someone because I have been hurt by them, I do not feel condemned, but I run to God and say, “Look, there is something only YOU can do. I cannot love unless You help me doing so. Please, change me!” And God who is faithful listens to such prayers. In fact, I am a rather weak and helpless woman – without God. Yet with Him, Pamela, we will leap over EVERY wall. Promise! 🙂
Much love to you and Vinny,
Susanne
PS
The last part of the Luther quote made me grin too! 😀
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Thank you for this link Susanne ….. so many thought provoking comments from Luther I shall have to read his commentaries ….. I am too a bit wobbly at this time but my heart is open to new revelations so that I might understand Christ fully…. God Bless Susanne …. jacqui xx
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You’re very welcome, dear Jacqui, as for the link and all. 🙂
Yes, Luther’s comments are quite thought provoking and we both know how it feels to be wobbly, don’t we…
I was glad to read that your heart is open to new revelations. In fact, I believe that God never gives us bad things when he reveals a new thing to us. But alas, Satan always comes in shortly afterwards and confuses everything of which we were so sure before. Today I can say that I really hate Satan because he is so good at making us feel discouraged and he also causes distrust toward God and toward one another too. He truly is a liar! 👿
May God bless you immensely, dear Jacqui!!! ❤
Love,
Susanne xoxo
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