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The last two days we have taken time to go off on a tangent that started when a friend called me puzzled over a couple of verses from Romans chapter 14. Here's the verses my friend brought up for discussion.
So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin. Romans 14:22-23 (NIV)
If you are joining this presentation without first listening to the past two days, I strongly recommend that you take a few minutes and listen to those podcasts before taking on what I want to say today. These two verses speak so clearly to the issue of victor living that I would hate you to miss something God has for you.
The last thing I wanted to address from the Romans reading today is the issue of faith vs sin. Paul says in the last part of verse 23, "everything that does not come from faith is sin." That's a pretty condemning statement, if you ask me. I'm kind of worried that so much of what I do is not out of faith. That means so much of what I do is filled with sin. Ouch - that's not a very pleasant thought.
This line of thinking comes from the previous verse. In that verse, Paul points out that if we have doubts about what we think when it comes to drawing closer to God, condemnation will be the result. That condemnation comes as we step beyond the confines of faith and that is what moves us into this murky area called sin.
What sometimes gets us all messed up is the notion of sin. Sin has been taught in the context of good and bad for so long that condemnation can't help but to be the result when we think that sin is in our lives. I'm not trying to minimize the issue of sin, but I think for this context we need to use my pastor friend's acronym for sin - Selfish Independent Nature. I think that every one, believer and non-believer alike can relate to this definition of sin. All of us are afflicted with this characteristic from time to time. It is when we think more fully of self as defined by our self-centered and independent nature that the ravages of S I N can make the effects of victim thinking a reality in our lives.
Let's go back to my Bible reading example I used yesterday to illustrate what I think Paul is saying. I mentioned yesterday that there was a time when I thought that reading and studying significant portions of my Bible on a daily basis would help draw me closer to God. That strategy actually worked for a good while. It was when my Bible reading wasn't giving me that feeling of being drawn closer to God that doubts and ultimately condemnation entered my life. Now we need to consider the issue of faith vs Selfish Independent Nature, aka sin as it relates to this example.
What today's reading is saying to me is that at first my Bible reading was something that was being driven by faith. I had a faith, based on teaching, that made me believe my study of God's Word would make me feel closer to Him. That faith was rewarded with a closeness that I wanted more and more of. It was when I leaned on my Bible reading more and more to help make that closeness happen that faith was being compromised.
You see, there is nothing I can do to make this God of mine come closer to me. He is with me all the time. In fact He lives inside you and inside me. It doesn't get much closer to that. It wasn't wrong of me to read my Bible to try and get close to God. That was the extent of my faith at that time. As I grew, God wanted me to experience something better than a strategy of doing in order to be what He says I am.
Slowly, He made it harder and harder for my strategy of doing (reading my Bible) to give me the result I wanted (feeling closer to Him). It was my Selfish Independent Nature that made me keep on trying to apply a failed strategy to get what He freely gives. I stepped from faith to sin when I made my reading more about God's love than the love God wanted me to experience from Him directly. That sin wasn't something God condemned me for. The condemnation I felt was coming from me. That's what doing to try and be does to us. It sets us up for failure in ways that make victim thinking a reality in our lives.
I wish I could say I'm done with doing to try and be. That just isn't the case. What I am finding is that the period of time from which the things I think I need to do to draw closer to God goes from faith to sin is getting shorter and shorter. Eventually, I will be to the point where I will just stop doing and simply be who God sees me to be. Until that time, God loves me in ways that humor my silly attempts at trying to get from Him what He lavishly gives all the time.
That's what God wanted my friend to hear from these verses. That's what God wanted me to take to heart. It isn't about what you will do today that makes you a victor. It is about what God has said about you that gives you the right to live in the fullness of this status. Let today be all about faith. Believe what God says about you and let that identity be all the power you need to make change happen in our world today.
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