Monday, March 25, 2013

The yoke of bondage



Palm Sunday
The soul of Jesus is troubled.  And yet, for this purpose He had come: 
Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself...And whoever sees Me sees Him who sent Me. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in Me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears My words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. John 12:31-32, 47

Monday
And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple (Sunday night). And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

On the following day, when they came from Bethany, He was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if He could find anything on it. When He came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And His disciples heard it.

And they came to Jerusalem. And He entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And He would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And He was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”

As Jesus’s face is set toward Jerusalem, and the task laid before Him, He tackles one more time those who talk one thing, and yet live another.  Once again, the religious leaders who laid fancy, complicated rules and customs on those who seek God receive the full brunt of his righteous indignation.  

To me it is the root of all sin, this ugly pride that refuses to believe that I cannot do anything to make myself more holy, through my self-control, my orderly disciplines, my basically kindly spirit.  

And that fig tree is a perfect metaphor.  Fresh and green, promising fruit to all who walk by seeking and hungry.  But nothing.  No fruit.  Just useless leaves which look pretty, but really are our righteous deeds: filthy rags.  

To quote Phil Dryscale:
I don’t know about you, but I personally have spent the majority of my Christian life working on my sin. Trying to beat out those unholy addictions, annoying habits or that tendency to mess up. Not only that but I was taught to! I was taught that spiritual maturity was to become “more holy” by sinning less and less as I worked on my sins so I might become “more righteous.”

The problem with this is that I’ve found it to be completely impossible. The definition of holy means that you cannot grow in holiness, you are either holy or you aren’t! Not only that but it’s completely unbiblical too. As Christians we are not called to work on our sins – that was Jesus’ end of the bargain last time I checked! He completely eradicated our sins so we would not have to live under the burden and shame of them as we guiltily tried to clean up our act.

Rather what we have been called to do is to renew our minds to who we are in Christ. According to Romans 12:2 transformation does not come by working on our sins but rather by renewing our minds.

You see before you were saved you had a “sinful nature,” you lived in unbelief of who Christ was and all He had done and found it impossible to walk in righteousness. But Christ has completely changed that and set you free from that sinful self. How? He crucified you and raised you up a new creation!

We are no longer trying to work on our sinful selves because our sinful selves no longer exist! We have been made a new righteous creation!

So instead of trying to clean up an old dead body we are better served by discovering this new righteous self we have been made to be. As we focus on discovering who we are we will start to manifest it in our day-to-day actions. This is what brings transformation!

Spiritual maturity is not working on our sin, it’s discovering our righteousness.

Father, help me grasp who you have made me to be, help me understand that my old sinful self died on that cross with Christ and help me identify with the risen Christ, that I have been given a new identity. Help me embrace the truth that it is no longer I who live but Christ in me.

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