He Is Good

So I had this on my heart all day today, and maybe I'm preaching to the tinge (okay, maybe more than a tinge, but I digress) of legalism that remains in me. And I'm sure it's nothing too new. But it's such an important thing for all of us to be reminded of and it's so crucial that we grasp it as believers and followers of Jesus.

It is God's kindness that leads us to repentance (Rom. 2:4). His grace teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions (Titus 2:11-12). Because He first loved and served us, we love and serve Him (1 Jn. 4:19). Repentance, godliness, obedience, willingness...these are not things we have to force or work for in our walk with Him but rather they are the fruits of a life lived in revelation of and ongoing response to His incredible, unchanging and never-ending kindness, grace, goodness, and love.

In all that we do...in our prayer lives, our service for Him, our love for others...if it's not fueled by and rooted in this experience of God's love and grace for us, we will eventually become frustrated, grow weary and lose heart. We are not meant to strive or be driven by guilt, fear (and by fear I'm not referring to the reverential fear of God, but things like fear of punishment, fear of disappointing God, etc.), attempts to earn His love and favor, or anything else. Those are not of God and when we embrace them we are embracing an entirely false perception and understanding of who He is, who we are in and to Him and His love for us. It's not the gospel!

This is the gospel: Jesus came to lift the heavy and ill-fitting weights of guilt, fear, shame, and striving under a law whose righteous requirements we could never meet, to set us free from slavery to sin and everything tied to it, free from any false motive or compulsion in living for Him.

This is the gospel: "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:1-2).

This is the gospel: God has given us His Holy Spirit to empower us, to bring us into alignment with Him, causing all of His attributes to overflow from within us. We no longer have to work and strive to the ends of obedience, godliness, etc...we do not have to work at being perfect but instead we surrender to the perfect Spirit who lives in us. Our work is belief (Jn. 6:29)...faith and trust in HIM...surrender. Our focus is on loving Him with all that we are and have (Matt. 22:37), on seeking first His Kingdom and His righteousness (Matt. 6:33). And as we do this we just watch Him pour out on us and fill us with all that He is! He will work in us what is pleasing to Him, it is Him who works in us to will and to act according to His good purpose (Phil. 2:13), it is Him who is conforming us ever more into His likeness, with ever-increasing glory (2 Cor. 3:18). He showers us with His perfect love and we, overwhelmed with gratitude, cannot help but react by living passionately devoted and in love with Him!!! It's all we can do!

So why do we continue to strive when He says that He has set us free from it? Why do we strive when His Word says: "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness" (2 Peter 1:3). What are we still trying to attain? God in His infinite power has GIVEN us godliness, HIS righteousness, HIS holiness, HIS perfection...in CHRIST. So when we are in Christ, we have everything we need. And all that remains within us...the fruits of the Spirit! Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Everything that is of Him. Fear, guilt, approval-seeking from the God who already and unconditionally approves of us in Christ...is completely out of place, a foreign yoke. So what causes it? Why does it still hinder us so much if the chains have been broken and we have been set free to live compelled only by His love and grace and goodness?

I want to say it's because we don't have that life-changing, world-rocking revelation and understanding of who God really is. We don't truly know His goodness. We so desperately need this revelation, the church today desperately needs it - to see Him as He is! For THEN - in seeing Him, in knowing Him - we shall be like Him!! (1 Jn. 3:2) Because the more we know and understand who God is and experience it as the reality that it is (and not just in theory)...as we are in total wonder and awe of Him we will be living radically for Him in perfect freedom and in total and complete joy as He intends. His commands, His truth and all His ways that are to bring Him glory are NOT burdensome (1 Jn. 5:4) but they lead us into joy. His glory, His praise, His exaltation = our joy and our life. And God's grace is what empowers us to follow...it is His love...it empowers repentance, godliness and obedience in our lives. In our sin and rebellion we could not do it ourselves, but now in Jesus He has made the way. And when we know God - who He is, what He's done, and His love and grace and mercy for us, we are not compelled by anything else. Sin will have absolutely NO hold on us, no draw for us, no appeal whatsoever when we want God so much more and experience Him as INFINITELY better. We will want NOTHING to stand between us, which is what sin does and why God hates it so much - sin separates us from God. It will be pure torture to experience that separation that sin brings. So we actively pursue HOLINESS because we love Him beyond all else, want to be like Him and are eternally grateful to Him and from that flows our obedience! How else could we respond to Him? As His Word says...our work is produced by faith, our labor prompted by love, and our endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess 1:3).

What is fear, guilt, and shame anyway? It's oppressive. Of the enemy. What does God say? What are we to do?

Believe. Trust. Hope. Do not fear. Love Me, love others. Delight yourself in Me. Be still. Know that I am God. Come to Me. Rest in Me. Look to Me. Call to Me. Rely and depend upon Me. Acknowledge Me. Lean not on your own understanding but lean on Me. Surrender all to Me. Obey. Walk with Me. Give Me everything. Devote yourself to Me. Stand firm in faith. Seek My face. Listen to My voice. Rejoice in Me. Sing praise to Me. Worship Me in Spirit and truth. Be joyful. Pray. Be thankful. This is MY will for you in Christ Jesus!!!

And what does all of this in our lives? How do we get to this place? Not by striving. Not through fear or guilt or approval-seeking. No, it's God's completely unspeakable LOVE in CHRIST, which is now living and at work in us. It's vital that we truly understand His grace, His salvation...to receive it in fullness of truth...as a heart revelation...and that we fully embrace our identity in Him. We need to know (have the sobering realization of without allowing it to slip over into condemnation) the depths of our own sinfulness and rebellion and that we were once deservedly objects of wrath, but now because of God's great love and because of His mercy ALONE, we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus and are seated with Him in the heavenly realms!! (Eph. 2). How does this not inspire the most crazy joyful and intensely passionate life of worship??!! This is what does everything, NOT religion. A living God who is personal and intimate, NOT rules or regulations. He's after a deep, loving, dynamic relationship with us and in that our sincere willingness, NOT our begrudging submission. He is not interested in by our obedience motivated by guilt or approval-seeking, He's after our hearts. Come on, church! We are wholly redeemed, dearly loved by our Creator and Father and Savior! We are alive in Him! We no longer rely on ourselves but on God who raises the dead, who raised US from the dead (2 Cor. 1:9) and to full and abundant LIFE! (Jn. 10:10)

So then we have a choice to make: will we choose to walk in grace and not fear? To believe that God is all He says He is and so much more? To get to know Him more and more so that this revelation becomes more and more clear and all the more glorious? This is our joy. HE is our joy. This is why we must keep our eyes fixed on Him and not ourselves...Christ's righteousness that is now our identity and not self-righteousness, which was nailed to the cross. His Word says that we are the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21). And as such, remaining in Him, our fruit is a tree of life (Prov. 11:30).

God does it all. And when we stay fixed on Him, acknowledging all He is, exalting all He is, the life He intends for us to live, the life He died to give us is going to flow naturally, ceaselessly, effortlessly - by the power of His Spirit, not in our own strength (Zech. 4:6). We couldn't do it on our own before and we can't now. But now in Christ we can do all things (Phil. 4:13).

Sorry if I rambled on a bit. I'm just incredibly passionate about this as a recovering legalist!! And mostly I just want the whole world to know this completely amazing God whose love and grace are just unfathomable. Praying for the revelation of who He is to spread all over the earth. He is good. Inherently, above all else. He alone is good. He is ALWAYS good. He NEVER changes. What's more, because we belong to Him because He favors us He causes all of His goodness to pass in front of us and He proclaims His name in our presence (Ex. 33:19). Think about that! How AMAZING! And our lives lived in response to and in experience of this is only joy, freedom, peace, and love all-consuming. Let's rejoice in Him always just because of who He IS!!!

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. Cry out, "Save us, O God our Savior; gather us and deliver us from the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name, that we may glory in your praise." - 1 Chronicles 16:34-35