Grace is our Teacher

 

Urge bondslaves to be subject to their own masters in everything, to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect. For the grace of God has appeared [epiphaino – brought to light], bringing salvation to all men, instructing [paideuo - activity directed toward the moral and spiritual nurture and training of the child, to influence conscious will and action] us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly [sophronos – of sound, sober mind], righteously [dikaios – honestly, without injuring anyone], and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.                  Titus 2:9-14

Paul had been exploring the affirmation that godly living is the end result of living in God's truth. The central aspect of God's truth that produces godly living is grace. When fully understood, it is the gospel of the grace of God, not the Law of Moses and all of its regulations, that teaches Christians how to live. The grace of God, His free gift of salvation and the gospel were given freely and without an expected return. When grace is fully understood, it creates in each believer a desire to deny anything that contradicts the spiritual life he enjoys. When those things to be denied are evident, the pathway into living sensibly, righteously, and godly is clear. It also creates an anticipation of Christ’s return and an even higher quality of life. Paul said, for to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21).

For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized [ginomai – became available] through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him [exegeomai – made Him known].                      John 1:17-18

The appearance of Jesus represents a sea change in God's plan for mankind. The Law of Moses has been the central focus of the believer’s relationship with God, defining how he lives and how he worships God for more than 1,400 years. Now the rules have changed. The appearance of Christ as grace and truth redefines the believer’s life since it is now based on God’s free gift to all of mankind, not just His people, the good news that a quality relationship with God is not dependent on human performance, but faith in the free gift and the Giver. Getting to know this grace means getting to know this person, who is the exact representation of the Father. He would become a stumbling block to many.

She is our Mother

Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free [eleutheros – freeborn]; she is our mother. For it is written, "REJOICE, BARREN WOMAN WHO DOES NOT BEAR; BREAK FORTH AND SHOUT, YOU WHO ARE NOT IN LABOR; FOR MORE NUMEROUS ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE DESOLATE THAN OF THE ONE WHO HAS A HUSBAND."                            Galatians 4:25-27 

The Apostle uses Hagar and Sarah as representatives of two covenants, one in slavery, and the other is free. He uses the physical Jerusalem to speak of the Jew of his day, whose life is tied directly to life in Jerusalem and all of its religious connotations. On the other hand, the New Jerusalem, the new covenant believer's future, can also be his present reality. The new covenant is founded on grace, not on works. The new covenant, the covenant of God's grace to man, is mother to every believer and his source of care and nourishment. The grace of God changes everything.

The Cornerstone

What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, just as it is written, "BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED."                  Romans 9:30-33

Jesus was born a Jew and came to His own, but most did not accept Him as Messiah. The quote in the above passage is from Isaiah 8:16 in reference to the cornerstone, the stone that is laid first to establish the foundation of the temple or other such structure. Although a quality relationship with God was always based on faith and not works, the Jewish leadership of Jesus's day demanded complete conformity not only to the 613 laws associated with the Law of Moses but also to thousands more to keep the people in line. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger. But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments (Matthew 23:4-5). Jesus came to seek and save those who were lost (Luke 19:10). He came to serve, not to be served (Mark 10:45), which contradicted the leadership's program. The cornerstone of the believer’s life is God’s grace!

Therefore, thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, A costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed. “I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the level; then hail will sweep away the refuge of lies and the waters will overflow the secret place. “Your covenant with death will be canceled, and your pact with Sheol will not stand; when the overwhelming scourge passes through, then you become its trampling place. “As often as it passes through, it will seize you; for morning after morning it will pass through, anytime during the day or night, and it will be sheer terror to understand what it means.”                   Isaiah 28:16-19

The people of Judah should not think they were guiltless before God. The leaders of Jerusalem, like their counterparts in the North, were responsible for guiding and leading the people toward godliness. But they scoffed, boasting of several things. They said since they had made a covenant with death, the scourge could not touch them, and a lie and a falsehood were their hiding place. It seems that Isaiah was using imagery rich in the symbolism of Semitic mythology. The Jerusalem leaders were trusting in other gods to save them from the coming scourge, the Assyrian invasion. The LORD sets the stone and the sure foundation. Only He is the basis for physical and spiritual salvation. In the new covenant, Jesus is the cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20). Although it is unclear whether Isaiah was referring to the Messiah, New Testament passages that quote this verse identify Jesus as the stumbling stone.

Living Stones

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.                        Ephesians 2:19-22

You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is also contained in the Scripture, "Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame." Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone," and "A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense." They stumble, being disobedient [apeithio – not allowing oneself to be persuaded] to the word, to which they also were appointed.                        1 Peter 2:5-8

The above passages address the subject from Paul's and Peter's perspectives. Believers are identified with Christ, for He is the living Stone and they are like living stones. And as they become more like Him, further conformed to His image, they are being built into a spiritual house. Jesus told Peter, "On this rock I will build My church". Now Peter clearly identified Christ as the Rock on which His church is built. Paul called the church a "temple" and "a dwelling". Believers not only make up the church but serve in it, ministering as a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices.

Screwtape

CS Lewis wrote an eye-opening apologetic novel, first published in 1942, called "The Screwtape Letters." It consists of 31 letters written by a senior devil named Screwtape to his nephew, Wormwood. It is the senior's counsel for dealing with predominately Christians and how Wormwood should address the believer's life in light of various life challenges. The letter below is #15 and covers the issues of time versus eternity:

My Dear Wormwood,

I had noticed, of course, that the humans were having a lull in their European war — what they naively call “The War”! — and am not surprised that there is a corresponding lull in the patient's anxieties. Do we want to encourage this, or to keep him worried? Tortured fear and stupid confidence are both desirable states of mind. Our choice between them raises important questions.

The humans live in time but our Enemy [the Father] destines them to eternity. He therefore, I believe, wants them to attend chiefly to two things, to eternity itself, and to that point of time which they call the Present. For the Present is the point at which time touches eternity. Of the present moment, and of it only, humans have an experience analogous to the experience which our Enemy [the Father] has of reality as a whole; in it alone freedom and actuality are offered them. He would therefore have them continually concerned either with eternity (which means being concerned with Him) or with the Present — either meditating on their eternal union with, or separation from, Himself, or else obeying the present voice of conscience, bearing the present cross, receiving the present grace, giving thanks for the present pleasure.

Our business is to get them away from the eternal, and from the Present. With this in view, we sometimes tempt a human (say a widow or a scholar) to live in the Past. But this is of limited value, for they have some real knowledge of the past and it has a determinate nature and, to that extent, resembles eternity. . .It is far better to make them live in the Future. Biological necessity makes all their passions point in that direction already, so that thought about the Future inflames hope and fear. Also, it is unknown to them, so that in making them think about it we make them think of unrealities. In a word, the Future is, of all things, the thing least like eternity. It is the most completely temporal part of time — for the Past is frozen and no longer flows, and the Present is all lit up with eternal rays. Hence the encouragement we have given to all those schemes of thought such as Creative Evolution, Scientific Humanism, or Communism, which fix men's affections on the Future, on the very core of temporality. Hence nearly all vices are rooted in the future. Gratitude looks to the past and love to the present; fear, avarice, lust, and ambition look ahead. Do not think lust an exception. When the present pleasure arrives, the sin (which alone interests us) is already over. The pleasure is just the part of the process which we regret and would exclude if we could do so without losing the sin; it is the part contributed by the Enemy [the Father], and therefore experienced in a Present. The sin, which is our contribution, looked forward.

To be sure, the Enemy [the Father] wants men to think of the Future too — just so much as is necessary for now planning the acts of justice or charity which will probably be their duty tomorrow. The duty of planning the morrow's work is today's duty; though its material is borrowed from the future, the duty, like all duties, is in the Present. This is not straw splitting. He does not want men to give the Future their hearts, to place their treasure in it. We do. His ideal is a man who, having worked all day for the good of posterity (if that is his vocation), washes his mind of the whole subject, commits the issue to Heaven, and returns at once to the patience or gratitude demanded by the moment that is passing over him. But we want a man hag-ridden by the Future — haunted by visions of an imminent heaven or hell upon earth — ready to break the Enemy's [the Lord’s] commands in the present if by so doing we make him think he can attain the one or avert the other — dependent for his faith on the success or failure of schemes whose end he will not live to see. We want a whole race perpetually in pursuit of the rainbow's end, never honest, nor kind, nor happy now, but always using as mere fuel wherewith to heap the altar of the future every real gift which is offered them in the Present.

It follows then, in general, and other things being equal, that it is better for your patient to be filled with anxiety or hope (it doesn't much matter which) about this war than for him to be living in the present. But the phrase “living in the present” is ambiguous. It may describe a process which is really just as much concerned with the Future as anxiety itself. Your man may be untroubled about the Future, not because he is concerned with the Present, but because he has persuaded himself that the Future is going to be agreeable. As long as that is the real course of his tranquility, his tranquility will do us good, because it is only piling up more disappointment, and therefore, more impatience, for him when his false hopes are dashed. If, on the other hand, he is aware that horrors may be in store for him and is praying for the virtues, wherewith to meet them, and meanwhile concerning himself with the Present because there, and there alone, all duty, all grace, all knowledge, and all pleasure dwell, his state is very undesirable and should be attacked at once. Here again, our Philological Arm has done good work; try the word “complacency” on him. But, of course, it is most likely that he is “living in the Present” for none of these reasons but simply because his health is good and he is enjoying his work. The phenomenon would then be merely natural. All the same, I should break it up if I were you. No natural phenomenon is really in our favor. And anyway, why should the creature be happy?

Your affectionate uncle

SCREWTAPE

Jesus was crucified on a cross between two thieves. These thieves represent the Past, trying to steal the believer’s joy due to past failures, and the Future, troubling the believer with the unknown. In between these two is Jesus, representing the Present, the eternal One who has entered time and space in the present and is the Lord of the Present moment. In Revelation 1:8, Jesus says, I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty." Before He was, Jesus is! The victory the believer experiences is directly related to his allowing God's grace to become his present reality with God, without being preoccupied with the Past or the Future. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus challenged each follower to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and many things will be provided to him (Matthew 6:33). When Jesus is Lord of the Present moment, the Past and Future are completed in Him, according to His grace.

The Anointing of the Spirit

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to [kata – after] the Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to [kata – after] the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.                      Romans 8:1-5

And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, "THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD."                   Luke 4:16-19

They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.                         1 John 2:19-20

As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.                          1 John 2:27

The spiritual man is the one who has realized that he cannot be a fulfilled Christian while relying on his own ability to please God. For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God (Romans 2:28-29). I recently saw a church billboard with the statement: “Love Your Neighbors, No Exceptions!” How is this possible? God never asks His people to accomplish anything without giving them the ability to fulfill it. The Holy Spirit and His ability, His anointing is the provision of God to walk with God in this fallen world. Even Jesus needed the Holy Spirit to fulfill His work on this earth, as the Spirit was upon Him and anointed Him. The abiding Son of God is the believer's example of how each believer accesses the Spirit and His ability.