Losing Who I Am, Gaining Who He Is

One of the questions I have not heard but I’m waiting for is this, “Why, if Jesus died for the whole world, do some still go to hell?”  This question is one that has rattled around in my head and I have answers for it, but I still realize I’m not likely to hear it. 

 

I ask it from time to time because I have accepted two other things.  First off, Jesus didn’t die in my place or for me per se.  Jesus died as atonement for the sins of the world.  That is different.  In 2 Corinthians 5:21 Paul says that God made Jesus sin (the noun sin, not the verb).  Literally that is what Paul said.  It is as if the Father transforms the Son into the sins of the world, and then sacrifices Him on Mount Moriah.  That is how Paul describes the Atonement of Jesus.

 

Since Jesus didn’t “die for me” or as is popular, “take my place” my response is just, “Wow! Thanks!” and then carry on my merry way.  I see that and have done that, but that does not match what Scripture presents.  The other half of 2 Corinthians 5:21 says that the Father made Jesus into sin “so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  In other words, the Father made Jesus into sin so He could then make me into His righteousness in Jesus.  I’m going to be made into something I am not now.  I will be different.  So, how do I get a chance to participate in this transaction?

 

What I see in Scripture is that my Master initiated my relationship.  As Chambers put it yesterday and refers to today, He reveals to me what He has already done on my behalf, and I believe that.  I don’t bring anything of my own making or accomplishment to the party, it’s all the Master of the universe.  I respond to what is revealed, and I suppose in that sense I have a choice to believe or not.  What I am believing in is my Master’s identification with my sin and atonement for it, and then that I will be remade into His righteousness.  I accept His solution to my problem (which requires me to accept His definition of my problem), and I accept that He will change who I am into something else; I choose to loose my identity that I have worked so hard to establish.

 

I want to bargain, negotiate, and offer alternatives for both the atonement and my transformation.  I want partial credit for the work of Jesus, and I want to retain part of my personality.  That is not how the exchange works, and it is therefore difficult to accept in this culture.  Thankfully, my Master does not require me to understand it all up front.  It is in some ways like making an uninformed decision, but really, once I accept His definition of my problem, accepting His solution is obvious, at least on the surface.  The transformation He works in me requires me to love Him and be devoted to Him only.  That is really pretty simple.  I make it hard by focusing on what I’m loosing, rather than on my Master who I am gaining.

 

The reward is that my Master forms His righteousness in me… actually no, what happens is that I become His righteousness.  That is a personal transformation into righteousness, not just a relocation of righteousness.  I don’t “contain” the righteousness of my Master, I become the righteousness of my Master.  Something contained within me can be relocated elsewhere and I can misplace it and so on.  When I am transformed into something else, that is not so easy to “lose”.  That would require another transformation to negate.  The work of my Master is not so temporary as my own.  My work is fairly shoddy, His work is masterful workmanship that lasts for eternity.

 

How is such an amazing result not worth giving up my identity?  How is it that I can require more of the One having Atoned for my sin along with the sin of all human existence?  What is my identity worth compared to being the righteousness of my Master?  He forms stars, traces quarks, and forms me into His righteousness.  Is that not enough?  Do I want more?  Is there something about my identity among my fallen fellows that is so precious that is becomes more valuable to me than the righteousness of the Master of all creation?  I can’t think of anything.  So, why is it so hard for me to let go of it?  It’s not like my Master is asking me to accomplish some great task, He asks that I believe and accept His transformation of me.  As much as I don’t really like hard work, you’d think I’d be all over such an offer.

 

The solution for me is become a fool among my fallen fellows, and not before my Master.  Okay, it’s really not so far to go to become a fool before my fellows.  It is much longer to stop being the fool before my Master.  The choice before me is life or death, blessings or curses.  Relating to my Master is life and blessings, not relating to Him is death and curses.  Today, I will practice choosing life.

 

Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, October 29

The Creator of My Soul... Again

One aspect or term of life with my Master is the use of the preposition "in" to refer to it. It's a great way to refer to it, but is uncomfortably general. What I mean by that is that the use of "in" has a lot of range in English, and a lot of that is metaphorical. So while the Christian Scriptures can, and probably do, use "in" this way, the question is to what degree is it actually a real positional reference and not metaphorical.

That may sound weird, but when speaking of the Spirit living IN me, is that metaphorical or positional? Most likely it is positional, rather than metaphorical. So when Paul refers to believers being IN Christ, how much of that is positional and how much is metaphorical? I don't see it as all or nothing but with the ability to be taken both ways at once. So, I can be positionally in Christ in a situation or decision, but also metaphorically in Christ as I go through the process or event.

So when do I become a new creation? When do old things pass? When do I or my things become new? 2 Corinthians 5:17 skips a lot of detail about that. The chapter is about reconciliation and my part in my Master's work of reconciliation. The idea is that I see people from a different perspective once reconciled to my Master. So perhaps this verse should be limited to those things in reference to relationships, so being IN my Master changes my relationships, not necessarily all things. In that case as I sink positionally into my Master, I metaphorically relate from being in my Master, like being metaphorically in trouble. Yet the spiritual relationship I have with my Master also puts me positionally in Him at the same time.

So, today, from within my Master, I will relate to my family, other drivers, and anyone met along the way as if I'm in my Master. Well, that will be the goal reached only to the degree that the metaphor become more positional.

Oswald Chambers - Readings

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Living Life: That’s the Hard Part

Seeing death as relational rather than physical I thought was pretty radical.  But it makes even more sense when I put sin in the same relational basket.  Now the reason death is relational is explained.  If sin is choosing independence from the Master of the universe, then sin would be death; being out of relationship with the Master of the universe.  On the other hand, since I can’t bridge the gulf in that relationship, I would have to be dependent upon what the Universal Master would do on my behalf.  So, Jesus is the solution placed before me.  The terms, “redemption” and “rebellion” now fit better into my understanding of the solution and problem with the world.

I don’t like dependence.  I don’t like going to the doctor or dentist for that reason and more.  I don’t like not being able to direct my destiny.  But, on the other hand, by giving up my independence and my destiny to the Universal Master, I gain access to Him.  So which is better, directing my destiny on this lump of space rock, or sitting down with the One having created space and everything in it and learning about Him?  Sure, as an American, I want independence, I was born to it, I have a sense of entitlement to it.  But I have another human condition which places me independent where I was never intended to be.  I belong in a garden.

So, when I consider the solution of the Universal Master to this human condition, I see a burden as massive as the shear crush of history and future of the human creatures crawling over this terrestrial ball.  All that hereditary isolation from the Creator, couched in the terms of independence, was summed up and consumed in the penalty paid by my Master.  For me, the event of Jesus’ death is more than an event of physical suffering; the physical suffering was almost a parable compared to the unthinkable amount of suffering at its climatic end.  When my Master, having revealed Himself as Three, suffers a separation within Himself, then suffering is redefined, and I cannot wrap my mind around the enormity of it.  That separation is the undeserved, substitutionary death which bought my access back into the garden.

But I’m not there yet.  This redemption I have gained the benefit of which was so expensive is not yet complete.  So, here in this place, I am directed to model my life after this indescribable gift.  I have been redeemed, and I am to live in this universe as such.  What does that look like as I relate to my wife, my daughter, my friends here in this community, and my church?  Claiming to understand life and death, dependence and sin, blessings and curses is all well and good.  But understanding is borne out in living.  If I really understand, then I will live in this world.  If I behave as if I’m dead, then what do I really understand?  And why do would I live as if I were dead?  For me, it is usually out of fear.  How ridiculous is that?  I have life but am afraid to live because of what the dead people might think.  Really? Seriously?

I am a fool, that much is clear.  I just need to become fine with being a fool for my Master, considered such by the dead around me.  I have spent too much time being a fool before my Master, acting foolish in His eyes.  How much that has cost me I will not know until I give an account of myself before His throne, but one day I will know.  The irony that strikes me to the heart is that, even as I played the fool, His love and grace never waivered.  He hated the sight of what I did, yet His love and desire for me never dimmed.  Even in those times, He had my back, keeping me from the deadly deep waters around which I played.  He kept me from things I can’t imagine, and the enemy was never able to snatch me from His hand.  Unbelievable, yet I am a testimony to its truth.

Today, my wife and daughter head to the Sierra Nevada’s for a weekend retreat.  I will be here holding the home for their return.  I will be alone in one sense, but I will be communing with the Universal Master in another.  The question is will I give into my compulsion for independence or will I surrender my right to myself to my Master.  It’s easy to choose life on the front end of the day, in the beauty and cool of the dawn.  It is another to hold that choice in the heat of the afternoon when reality bears down hard.  I hope to be able to post tomorrow that I enjoyed victory in my Master today, and then to post that again on Sunday.  That’s what I hope, I pray for that hope to be a fertile seedbed for faith, and that faith to lead me to love as I am loved.  Life is relational, and so my Master leads me to live.  I may be visiting you later, just humor me, I’m following the lead of my Master; I’m just not as graceful at it as He is.

Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, October 7