Christianity – Page 3

Flip a coin

April 24, 2009 rwrenLeave a comment

As a fan of the Batman movie franchise, I'm reminded of one of my favorite villains, Two-Face. Originally a moral hero and combatant of crime, Harvey Dent suffered a horrible fate when half of his face was burned off. As a result, he was not only left with a badly scarred face, but a loss of sanity as his mental instability caused him to waver between good and evil. In an effort to settle his indecision, he carried a coin in his pocket that was scratched on one side, and pristine on the other from which all of his decisions, good and bad, derived. Whenever a situation presented itself, he would flip the coin. If it landed on the marred side, he would commit the crime, and if it landed on the shiny side, he would refrain from the offense. Interestingly, the fate of the coin flip did not have any affect on the very character of Two-face. No matter which side came up, he was still a demented threat to society because it takes only one crime to make a man a criminal regardless of all the right decisions he makes along the way.

The natural man faces a similar dilemma in the pursuit of goodness. Likewise, he carries a coin defined by the two sides of legalism and moralism. The legalistic side is scarred perhaps because his soul has been crushed not only by its excess of human requirement, but also an accompanying attitude that enjoys it! Although he is already naturally blinded to the glory of Christ, he is tragically driven deeper into darkness by the venomous spirit of legalism. Superstition seems to be his disposition as the "things he wears" and the "places he goes" equate to the broken mirrors and black cats of divine acceptance.

By grace alone, he will wake up and escape from this satanic philosophy, but in an unwitting attempt to run and never look back, the moralistic side of the coin inevitably appears which is usually preceded by a season of liberation. Indeed, in his desire to be freed from legalism, he goes to great lengths to decontaminate himself as he engages in the activities once considered iillegal. One thing is for sure, he has no intention of going back to the dark side of the coin again! Eventually at the end of short-lived freedom he will be entranced by the allure of the shiny side of the coin. It's moralistic identity assures a kinder and gentler human striving. It doesn't focus as much on impermissible action but rather on pragmatic action. It preaches the need to reach his human potential as opposed to a lingering of human failures. This philosophy often proceeds (behind the guise of Christianity) with a technique for goodness, but ultimately it is proved to be mere human endeavor and the result is not unlike that of legalism! Why? Because moralism and legalism are just different sides of the same coin! Legalism promises acceptance through rule-keeping while moralism promises self-improvement through pragmatism. Both in stark contrast to biblical Christianity, legalism views the Bible as a rule book while moralism uses the Bible as a handbook. However, the damning effect is not attributed to either side of the coin, but to the coin itself! For no matter where the coin lands after it is cast, the exertion is innately human, and until then it remains deep-seated in the pocket of human raiment.

Conversely, the Gospel is a completely different coin where divine revelation is rendered from both sides. First there is the revelation of our spiritual non-existence that is the sheer human inability to achieve divine goodness. By it, we are informed of our corrupted nature with which we have no chance apart from grace to cause our own existence. Just as an infant cannot bring about the cause of his own conception, we are not the cause of our own spiritual birth! The other side of the coin affords us a glimpse of the Glory of Christ displayed predominately on the Cross. Together, the two sides illumined by the Holy Spirit give us true spiritual sight! When you begin to really "see" the glory of Christ against the backdrop of the ruined human soul the Gospel increases in focus, igniting faith, and leads to genuine goodness!

Sincerely, God

March 11, 2009 rwrenLeave a comment

The picture shown here is believed to be the last photograph of Abraham Lincoln. The photo was recently discovered in a family photo album of Ulysses S. Grant. His great-great grandson suspected that the tall human figure in the center of the picture could be Lincoln and that the structure in the background was the White House. Keya Morgan, a Lincoln Historian, was brought in to determine the truth of the matter. He deduced that several things in the picture pointed to the fact that Abraham Lincoln was indeed the central figure in the photograph including the height, the hairline and facial hair, and of course the general surroundings. Finally, he asked a very important question of the Grant descendant. He encouraged him to take the photo out of the album and look at the back of it to see if the original photographer had signed his name. Morgan explains, "If you don't know who the photographer is, it's like not knowing who your father and mother are," When he did, he turned it over he saw the seal of photographer Henry F. Warren with the following inscription, "Lincoln in front of the White House". Astounding!

Indeed, it is astounding to think that something as obvious as reading the back of a photograph was overlooked in the identification of the central figure in the image. I wonder how many times General Grant's family members gazed at the picture in curiosity. As they examined the photograph over the years, did they engage in fervent discussion and debate over the identity of the tall figure? If so, how amazing is it that no one ever thought to remove the picture from the album and read the back of the photo? Surely, the questions would have been settled in their minds long before the historian came along.

This historical discovery reminds me of our search for God. In our curiosity and wonder, we observe the innumerable evidences that surround us. We marvel at the natural creation, and engage in the beauty and artistry of this world. In doing so, there is a natural yearning within us to worship! So, we do. We worship everything in the created order with only a tip of our hat to the creator.

Yes, we acknowledge the existence of God. We even find great comfort in discussing and analyzing Him. We read our Bibles and use it like a handbook for good living. We even acknowledge the Bible as the very Word of God. We wear t-shirts promoting His causes, and bracelets espousing His moral value. We know the story of the cross and can recite it with ease. Still, despite our saturation in Christianity, we ask deep questions regarding His identity. We might not ask them out loud, but they ring incessantly in our ruined souls. Who is this Christ?

Just as the curious soul fails to flip the photo and have His questions answered once and for all, the ruined soul ignores the very documentation that he holds in his possession. It is in the sciptures, that we find God's signature. He has authenticated His identity from Genesis to Revelation. From the moment He reveals the plan of redemption to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, to His future expectation of the great Revelation, we are overwhelmed with God's Gospel.

If we have eyes to see, we realize that Jesus Christ is the central figure in Genesis, Isaiah, Revelation, and every book in between! Though not as obvious as the 4 gospels, when we look for Christ in any part of the Bible we will find Him. We see Him as Lion, Lamb, Judge, Saviour, Creator, Redeemer, and King! He is the leading actor in this unfolding drama, and we're bit players.

If we have eyes to see, we will be broken and humiliated when we discover that nothing in the Word is about us. It is about Christ.

If we have eyes to see, we will rejoice in the truth that is not about us. If the Bible was about our forgiveness, our fulfillment, our hopes and dreams, our righteousness, ironically none of those things would be possible!

If only our eyes would be opened to the truth of God's glory! We would see that His glory is everything we could ever hope for. His glory is our hope for redemption! His glory is our hope for eternal fulfillment! His glory is our only shot at righteousness!

We should rejoice that God revealed Himself and His desire for glory. I don't know why He chose to do so in an ancient document. Maybe that's all we can endure. I do know that when it comes to the Word of God, if you don't know who the author is, it's like not knowing who your Father is.

The Spirit of Legalism

I’m not going to worry about writing a grammatically perfect blog post. I’m not going to sweat out the form too much. I’m just going to blurt out what I have on my mind. I am a legalist.

March 3, 2009 rwren1 Comment

I'm not going to worry about writing a grammatically perfect blog post. I'm not going to sweat out the form too much. I'm just going to blurt out what I have on my mind. I am a legalist. And here's the part you're not going to like too much. You also are a legalist. Obviously, this is going to be a post for Christians because the unbelieving world will have no idea what I am referring to, albeit they're legalists too. They just don't know it yet. They will read this and think I'm talking about courtrooms and lawyers. For that matter, there is probably a great segment of Christianity that will not know what I'm talking about either.

Legalism is a term I came to know late in my teenage years although I can't pinpoint the event or place I first heard it. What I did learn quickly was that I was surrounded by legalism. I was, in fact, immersed in it. My mind was legalistically saturated like a chicken leg in Crisco! I came to understand that to be legalistic meant to be "rules driven". Even though salvation was preached as a free gift of God, you found out after you "get saved" that apparently it wasn't free after all. Now after you make a decision and get baptized, you are required to jump through hoops of fiery legalism one after the other until the end of time or eternity, whichever lasts longer. When I tell friends of mine who didn't experience this growing up that these hoops were things like hair cut above the ears, prohibition of movie theaters, no drinking (don't even let it touch yer lips!!) no slacks for women, no mixed "bathing" (they meant swimming, but somehow it turned into a bath…yucch!) and certainly no dancing of any kind and Oh, no card playing either, not even gin rummy, they stare at me like a statue.

Thank God for the truth of His Word that teaches that I am not morally capable to meet God's standard of holiness! Thank God that He made so clear that there is nothing I can do to earn His love! It is by Grace that I am being saved through faith! It's not due to my self-righteousness, but his righteousness transferred to my account that I am considered in right standing with my Creator!

In my zeal to run as fast I could from legalism the past 20 plus years, I really thought I was making headway. What I failed to realize was that I was becoming a legalism legalist! In other words, escape from legalism became my religion! Distancing myself from the self-righteousness of my past resulted in another form of self-righteousness!

What I've come to realize in my journey, is that legalism comes in many forms. There's legalism in every religion and denomination. Case in point, there are churches who are anti-religion so they become non-denominational, but in reality have become their own denomination. "Non-denom" has become their "denomination". How silly!

There are many forms of legalism, yet one spirit that drives them. It is the human spirit. When you get down to it, legalism is really superstition. Superstition is the idea that good things or bad things happen to you because of external circumstances like a broken mirror, a black cat and/or human actions like crossing your fingers or carrying a rabbit's foot.

By nature, we think that external circumstances like illness, tragedy, natural disasters are indicators of our own personal lack of Godliness. We also naturally think that there is somethng we can do in our own power to earn God's pleasure such as church activity, moral behavior, or good citizenship. As Christians we are quick to dismiss this because we all believe the Bible about these things. Yet, our actions indicate otherwise. This is how the Pharisees lived. They viewed lepers, tax collectors, prostitutes, women, and children as spiritually destitute. Their cup was clean on the outside and a toilet inside according to Jesus. That is true of all of us. Our natural selves are unflushed toilets that need a good scrubbing! (there are legalists who don't like that I said toilet)

As I search the scriptures, I have found only one solution to the human dilemma of legalism. It is painfully simple. Receive. Receive Grace from God. Receive the gift of His righteousness! Receive the preached Word of God! Receive receive receive! Don't do anything. Just sit down and trust Christ to serve You! Christianity is not driven by Christians serving God. It is driven by God serving us! Sounds selfish doesn't it? Don't hear me wrong, God is not our butler. In reality, it is more self-serving and dishonoring to God when we reject His gift. Since Eden, mankind has been rejecting infinite joy and choosing self serving emptiness! This is the highest offense to God imaginable. Imagine, choosing an apple over the creator!

Be careful when you become a fugitive of legalism. It might be the very spirit of legalism that sustains your fleeting steps.