Holy Like God is Holy, or Holy as I Consider God to be Holy?

Jesus used illustrations from the mundane to explain the profound.  So truth about very important aspects of my life with my Master can be found in the mundane areas of life.  In 1 Corinthians 10:31 when Paul is wrapping up his argument about food sacrificed to idols, he uses this statement as a general admonition to bring the focus of the glory of God into common aspects of my life.  Since Jesus used common aspects as illustrations, it seems He finds wisdom in these elements of life.

So, I have very common things I do each day where I can focus on the glory of my Master.  In these I can find wisdom when I look; lessons about the deeper things of my relationship with my Master.  For instance, washing dishes brings to mind Jesus’ statement about washing the inside being more important than the outside.  Even building something is used by Jesus to illustrate how it is necessary to plan for the end before I even begin my relationship with my Master; I am to finish well.  There are dozens more, and probably more that didn’t even make it into the gospels.

If those places of my daily life are made holy, not just the “holy” ones, I become more holy.  I don’t become holy in the sense that God is holy, but I become holy in the same way I consider Him holy.  I see my Master as completely “other”; distinct from any other person.  He is capable of creation at vast levels of complexity and in miniscule levels of intricacy.  I am not, nor will I ever be.  I’m not holy in that way; rather I’m holy in the sort of way I set Him aside as distinct from this common world.  I need to be distinct as well.  I need to be obviously different from others in my character and my behavior.

I am to be holy as implements are holy, not in the way that standing in His presence as a profane man would destroy me.  Although, I do need to abstain from unholy things as He does.  Jesus has the ability to transform common things to holy things.  Some things defy this transformation.  I want to follow this pattern of transforming common things I do into holy activities, and stay far away from behaviors and thoughts which defy such transformation.  Washing dishes, answering the phone (i.e. my job), and listening to my daughter talk and talk and talk and talk (oh my gracious…) are all things that can be and should be transformed into holy activities.

My interior thought life often runs headlong into the profane patterns that cannot be transformed into holy things.  Those I need to put under the ban.  These are the thoughts I bring captive to my Master.  The thoughts of sinful pleasures of my selfish nature are those things that will pass away in the process of my Master transforming this common man into a holy man.  I wish they were gone already, but they aren’t.  I still wrestle with them, and they still have a power over me; power I gave them long ago and still leave with them.  These things refuse transformation, so they must be destroyed.  I’m not there yet.

I am a man in transition.  I am a person in between the common profane life of this world and the holy glorious life of my Master.  My standard needs to be higher.  On that scale of holiness, I want to be further along.  I can be.  It’s not like I’m just getting by with my sinful thoughts until my Master comes for me.  I don’t want Him coming to find me consumed by sinful thought patterns!  How embarrassing, for us both!  I believe that when my Master calls me to be holy as my Father in Heaven is holy, this is a call that can be answered in this life.  Leviticus is full of explanations that the people were to be holy as God is holy.  It’s not a new idea.

So, today I dedicate my work, my family, and my mind to my Master.  I do so now, and I will need to do so again in about an hour.  And then I will need to do so around lunch, and then again as I get off work.  I will probably need to do so again at various times through my work day as well.  And there will be family time after work when I will need to rededicate my mind, words, and attitudes back to my Master.  I will have a lot of this going on I suspect.  But if I don’t I will miss the Person more amazing than anything I’ve seen through either my telescope or microscope; the One making all of it and holding it all together.  I can’t have that.

Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, November 22

What? Am I already perfect?

So, does Chambers really think that I'm not saved unless I stop sinning? I doubt it. The main part of the entry sounds like it. But then he refers to 1 John 1:7, where the point is not perfection but fellowship. That makes more sense, but even John seems to go back and forth over this idea.

I am not perfect, nor have I had much perfection in my life with my Master. Has it only been in the past year that I have been saved? Has it been shorter since I have slipped since then? Or has my addiction been a struggle to repent within my life with my Master?

But regardless, when I think of what 2 Corinthians 5:17 means; the amazing thing that must have have happened for it to be true; then I am floored! How can I be a recipient of such blessing? A new creation? So what was once dear to me or major parts of my previous life are gone. My old errors are gone. That's amazing grace. And it isn't about timing, in the sense that I can get too bad for my Master's grace to reach.

The point Paul makes in 1 Corinthians 5:17 is that my Master has involved me in His ministry to reconcile the world to Himself. He has, in Christ, made atonement for my rebellious nature toward Him. And then He began to work on that nature to transform me into the image of His Son, Christ Jesus.

So, because I'm in Christ Jesus, I am a new thing, the old things passed, stuff has become new things. Just because I'm in my Master, not because I'm good enough, or attained some sort of spiritual maturity. Thank you, my Master.

Oswald Chambers - Readings - November 12

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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