Romans 10:4

Anyone who went to high school knows about letter jackets. It was the thing all the jocks had and the thing they wore at every opportunity. I remember the practice of girls wearing their boyfriend's letter jackets. It was the easiest way to tell who was dating whom.

The most interesting thing about letter jackets, though, is what happens to them after graduation. In other words, where do letter jackets go to die? If there's one ironclad rule about letter jackets, it's that you can't wear them after you're out of high school. There's nothing lamer than holding on to past coolness.

In the sitcom Community, the jock character, Troy, is getting made fun of at community college for wearing his high school letter jacket. As he puts it to his friend Jeff: "People have been clowning me about this jacket since I got here, but if I take it off to make them happy, that just makes me weak, right?" Jeff's answer is wise: "Listen, it doesn't matter. You lose the jacket to please them; you keep it to tick them off. Either way, it's for them. That's what's weak."

This is a great illustration of the inescapability of the law. Whether we struggle to obey the law or we reject it, we are under its power. Think of your parents: whether you are just like them or are committed to being nothing like them, they are still the ones influencing you. Paul wrote, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked" (Galatians 6:7). In other words, don't think you can avoid the reach of the law. You can run toward it or away from it, but it still controls you. There is no escape.

Well, there is one escape. When Paul wondered who would rescue him from "this body of death" - the inescapable reality of the law - he immediately turned to his Savior. "Thanks be to God," he said, "for Jesus Christ my Lord" (Romans 7:24-25).

Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,
 

1 John 5:9 - We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son.

There are two kinds of stories that we hear in our lives, and one of them is much more prevalent than the other. We could call them the human story and the God story. John calls them "the testimony of men" and "the testimony of God." Perhaps most simply, they could be called the law story and the grace story.

The law story, unfortunately, is the prevalent one. You know this story well. It'll probably be the dominant story you deal with today. This-for-that, tit-for-tat, you-scratch-my-back, I'll- scratch-yours - all of these things typify the law story. The law story is the one you must familiarize yourself with and participate in if you want to get ahead in life.

If you want to be the one to get the promotion at work, you tailor your output to what will catch your supervisor's eye. You might do a favor for someone with the expectation that, should the need arise, they'll do a favor for you in the future. You might be willing to say something that you don't really believe in order to be seen in a certain light.

The God story, however - the grace story - isn't like this at all. Since God has already given us everything we need in Christ - all the affirmation, all the value, all the significance - we don't have to get any of those things from other people. That means we don't have to worry about scratching their backs in order to have ours scratched; our backs have been scratched in Christ, so we can find ourselves free to serve our neighbors without regard for what we might get in return.

Here;s the good news: the God story always trumps the human story. The law is the way of the world - the people in your office will never let you forget it - but grace is not of this world. That's the truest testimony according to John: "God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son".

Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,
 

Acts 13:39 - Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses.

In the Bible "law" does not always mean the same thing.

For example, in Psalm 40:8 we read: "I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart". Here the law is synonymous with God's revealed will. A Christian seeking to express their love for God and neighbor delights in those passages that declare what God's will is. When, however, Paul told Christians that they are no longer under the law (Romans 6:14), he obviously meant more by law than the revealed will of God. He was talking there about Christians being free from the curse of the law, not needing to depend on adherence to the law to establish our relationship to God: "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes" (Romans 10:4).

The reason Paul said that Christ is the end of the law in this sense is because, in the gospel, God unconditionally gives the righteousness that the law demands conditionally. So Christ kicks the law out of the conscience by overcoming the voice of condemnation produced by the condition of the law. In other words, the conditional voice that says, "Do this and live" gets outvolumed by the unconditional voice that says, "It is finished."

When this happens, we are freed from the condemnation of the law's conditionally (the law loses its "teeth") and are therefore free to hear the law's content as a description of what it looks like to love God and neighbor. But every day in various ways we disobey and stubbornly serve ourselves rather than others, thereby "submitting ourselves once again to a yoke of slavery." And when we do, it is the gospel that brings comfort by reminding us that God's love for us doesn't depend on what we do (or fail to do) but on what Christ has done for us. Jesus fulfilled all of God's holy conditions so that our relationship to God could be wholly unconditional. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1).

-- Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

John 10:28 - I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.

There is an all-important distinction Christians must make between horizontal consequences of sin and vertical condemnation for sin.

When a Christian friend falls into sin, lots of people confuse these two categories, which results in two basic responses. Some people question their friend's salvation: "How could anybody really be a Christian and do something like that?" Others say, "Just let it go. After all, nobody is perfect. Don't we believe in grace and forgiveness?"

The first group needs to be reminded that God's love for us and acceptance of us does not in any way depend on what we do or don't do but rather on what Jesus has done. Who we are before God is firmly anchored in Jesus' accomplishment, not ours.

The second group needs to be reminded that consequences on the ground of life are real. Real people make real mistakes that require real action to be taken. So for instance, we can talk bad about our boss without sacrificing one ounce of God's acceptance, because before God, our sin has been atoned for, our guilt has been removed (Isaiah 6:7). But we might still lose our job. We can make the mistake of driving one hundred miles per hour without losing a bit of God's love for us, because nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. But we might still lose our license.

When we confuse consequences with condemnation and vice versa, we don't know how to make sense of things when our brother or sister makes a big mistake.

The truth is that when we are in the throes of consequences for foolish things we do, our only hope is to remember that "there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). In fact, the kind of suffering that comes from the consequences of sin is like a brushfire that burns away every thread of hope we have in ourselves and leaves only the thread of divine grace - a thread that will never break no matter how foolish we may be.

Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

Psalm 51:14 - Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

David Gelb's 2011 documentary,Jiro Dreams of Sushi, is an interesting illustration of law and grace. Jiro Ono, the film's subject, is a master sushi chef whose restaurant is, according to a food critic interviewed in the film, the most expensive restaurant in the world.

Jiro relentlessly pursues the perfect piece of sushi. He has a routine and follows it religiously every day, even so far as to board the commuter train from the same point on the platform. However, this pursuit is offset by his knowledge that actual perfection will remain out of his reach. He acknowledges that just when you think you know everything, something happens to remind you how much more there is to know and how much more work needs to be done.

This is quite reminiscent of God's law and its demand for perfection, which is always beyond our reach. Ironically, and graciously, it is in our acknowledgment of our failure to live up to the law, whether it be the law of perfect sushi or perfect righteousness, that we can actually find true freedom.

Jiro's son Yoshikazu remains at Jiro's restaurant as a sous chef despite being fifty years old, because in Japan it is expected that the elder son will stay with the father and take over his position. Yoshikazu, of course, is in the unenviable position of following in a master's footsteps. One of Jiro's former apprentices notes that when Jiro does retire, even if Yoshikazu's sushi is the equal of his father's, it will be seen as inferior and that it will only be seen as equal if it is, in fact, twice as good. Again we come up against the face of the unyielding law. There is literally nothing Yoshikazu can do to fulfill the expectation that is placed on him.

In a happy postscript, it seems as though Yoshikazu may have gotten his miracle: it turns out that every time the Michelin inspectors ate at Jiro's restaurant in the first year, it was Yoshikazu who made their sushi. There is a gospel note in this "mistaken identity," if we have the eyes to see it, because when our heavenly Father makes His judgment on the quality of our righteousness, He judges us by the work of His Son. By grace, Christ's righteousness becomes our justification, and I'm now regarded not simply "just-as-if-I'd" never sinned, but "just-as-if-I'd" always obeyed!

Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

Colossians 2:12 - having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

Paul spoke of our "having been buried with Christ in baptism," in which we "were also raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead". Our old identity - the things that previously "made us" - has been put to death. Our new identity is "in Christ." We've been raised with Christ to walk "in newness of life" - no longer needing to depend on the "old things" to make us who we are.

Out of some very real incidents in mid-twentieth-century history comes the story that is now modern lore. Many years after the end of World War II, it was discovered that a lone Japanese soldier still occupied a Pacific island, harassing and attacking anyone who ever approached. He was considered a wild man, a crazy hermit of sorts but very dangerous. This fellow had never heard that the war was over, that his side had surrendered. Thus, he lived according to the old reality. He wasn't enjoying the peace coming from his side's defeat. He kept soldiering on, still warring according to his old identity.

Similarly, too many Christians continue living as if the death of sin is ultimately up to them. Or just as sadly, they continue on in sinful patterns of living, not realizing that they are living according to their old nature, not their new. This is why when Paul confronted Peter about his hypocrisy, he said that Peter was "not in step with the truth of the gospel" (Galatians 2:14).  Peter was living as if the "old things" were still in effect and the new things had not come.

If you're a Christian, here's the good news: you're free! Now you can spend your life giving up your place for others instead of guarding it from others, because your identity is in Christ, not your place.

Now you can spend your life going to the back instead of getting to the front, because your identity is in Christ, not your position.

Now you can spend your life giving, not taking, because your identity is in Christ, not your possessions.

All this is our new identity - all because of Christ's finished work declared to us in the gospel.

Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

1 Peter 4:12-13 - Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.

The apostle Peter probably would not have made a good pastor. One could just imagine him sitting in his office, feet up on his desk, when distraught parishioners keep coming in. "Peter! My husband is leaving me!" "My kid won't return my phone calls!" "My mother is in the hospital!" "I got laid off!" Peter probably wouldn't even take his feet off the desk. "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place. Nothing strange is happening to you. Rejoice! You are sharing Christ's sufferings!"

Now this seems to be the worst kind of response to someone in pain. "Suffering? Relax! It's no surprise ... actually, you should be happy!" As insensitive as this sounds, don't let yourself think that Peter isn't following the example of God Himself.

Consider the crucifixion. When Jesus told the disciples that He was going to be arrested, tried, convicted, and executed. Peter said, "Never!" And Jesus' response was, "Get behind me, Satan." Remember, God works sub contrario - "under the opposite" - of where we think He will be. He worked in the crucifixion to save us. He worked in Peter's abandonment and deniel to restore him, and He works in our struggles and in our hurt to give us joy.

Jesus told His followers that in this life they will have struggles. "But," He said "take heart! I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). He didn't say that things would get better, although we wish He would (and sometimes things do). He simply said that He has overcome the world.

We suffer, but we never suffer alone. Jesus said that He came for the sick. The healthy have no need of Him. We never suffer alone. And our suffering, stinging though it may be, not only has an end, its end has already been assured. "The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ assured. "The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ ... will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast" (1 Peter 5:10).

You never suffer alone!

--Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,