The most countercultural thing we do is obey the command,
“Cry aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my
people their transgression…” Such a
thing is not popular in a culture of self-esteem and it is not popular in a
church culture that preaches only grace.
The reality is that grace is only amazing when we realize it is necessary
for our relationship with God to be truly intimate. Here, the Lord says that this people “seek me
daily
and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that
did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me
righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God.” We could compare that statement with today’s
worship culture that fails to take seriously the holiness of the God we are
attempting to draw near to. So long as
we fail to deal with sin in our lives there is a distance and a boundary to our
relationship with Him. If we think we
are approaching intimacy with Him in worship, it is only because we are
otherwise distant from Him and any attempt we make to think about Him feels
like intimacy. True repentance, amendment
of life and a determination to walk henceforth in His holy ways are the paths
to true intimacy, intimacy not only in corporate worship but the intimacy born
of seeking the kingdom each moment, leaning on the Holy Spirit to keep us in
His ways. A true fast is one that
recognizes that distance, admits it, and seeks true righteousness. It is intimate because it is private.
We think too highly of ourselves. That runs counter to the self-esteem culture
but it is true. Self-esteem is important
but how we get there matters too. Years
ago now I was part of a wonderful group of people who studied the book, Search
for Significance, together. It was
transformational for me. I had been a
successful person in business and I found my significance there. My partner in the business committed fraud
and we lost the business and with it I lost my significance. I went to seminary and found significance as
a seminarian who had left all behind and followed the call of Jesus. This book re-established my significance in
the right place, not in what I had done and accomplished or what I had, or what
I had done for Jesus, but in what He had done for me in love. Here, the disciples have to learn the same
lesson and ultimately Jesus says your significance is found in being the least
in the kingdom because then it is grounded in simply being not in being
something.
One of the ways we find significance is getting other people
to come round to our way of things. In
Galatia it was in getting the church there to agree to be circumcised and to
accept the Law. We don’t like to be
different, we want to be comfortable in our place in the world and that isn’t
possible if we are too different from others.
The Jews in Galatia were still pursuing significance outside of Jesus,
they found it in performance and others’ opinions of them. When we find our significance outside of
those two things we become a challenge to those outside the church because they
don’t control us but we sometimes become a challenge to those inside as well,
those who are still not fully converted to the truths of the Gospel, that
salvation is by grace alone, in faith alone, in Christ alone who is revealed in
Scripture alone and all to the glory of God alone. The transaction that established this is
private but our lives and proclamation are meant to be anything but private.
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