2 Corinthians 4:11

In the 1997 Luc Besson film, The Fifth Element, there is a confrontation between the villain, Mr. Zorg, and a priest that perfectly illustrates the contrasting and complementary roles that the law and the gospel play in relation to one another.

Mr. Zorg claims that he and the priest are really in the same business: that of life. The priest accuses Zorg of only wanting to destroy life by being an agent of destruction and chaos, while Zorg insists that life cannot exist without destruction and chaos. They both have a point.

Zorg embodies the law. He causes death. As Paul so eloquently says in Romans 7, when the law came, "sin sprang to life and I died" (v. 9). Elsewhere, he famously said that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). So the priest's argument is true: Zorg, by his very existence, destroys life. But Zorg is right too.

At the beginning of Romans 7, Paul discusses his covetousness. He says, in essence, that he had no idea how much he was coveting, until the law came and told him, "Thou shalt not covet." All of a sudden, he realized the extent to which he wanted things that weren't his! That's when he says that he dies. There's a point for the priest. But then, most profoundly, Paul recognizes his need for a Savior: "Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?" (Romans 7:24) and finds his need met: "Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7:25). It was the law, and the resultant death (by "destruction, disorder, and chaos"), that led Paul to real life, that is, in Jesus Christ. There's a point for Zorg.

These two forces belong in the same room. Zorg and the priest. Law and gospel. The disorder and chaos of our lives drives us to an epiphany: We're dying! We need a Savior. Thankfully, the gospel always trumps the law, bringing us from death to life.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,


 

1 Corinthians 12:11

I'll bet you twenty dollars that as you think about the gifts of the Holy Spirit, you go through a mental checklist, hoping to find one of the gifts that you might actually have. I've done this a hundred times. Wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, tongues, the interpretation of tongues. My bet is you get through the list and come out the other side worrying that you might not have any spiritual gifts at all. You're not alone.

The problem is simple: we are human. It is our nature to take control. We do it every day. We do it every hour. We do it in the morning. We look at ourselves as the main actor in our little dramas, and so when we think about the spiritual gifts, we think only of ourselves, and what gifts we might possess. We don't think about the Holy Spirit for a second, even though they are His gifts. Because of that moment on the cross a couple thousand years ago, when Jesus took our works of the flesh upon Himself and gave us His fruit of the Spirit, we are still regarded, whatever our fleshly works look like, as bearing the fruit of the Spirit and as possessors of all kinds of spiritual gifts.

When Jesus went to be with His Father, He sent the Holy Spirit to be with us, and to give us all the good gifts we could never earn on our own. When God looks at us, His gaze finds what His voice has declared! We have been given gifts by the Holy Spirit. And the real miracle is, it actually happens! We have faith where none existed before. We are given wisdom in a difficult situation. We understand God's will in a situation without even knowing how we do so. Each one of these things is a miracle, because they come directly from God. They are His gifts, freely given to us.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

1 Peter 5:8

In 2013, you couldn't search the name "Chris Tang" anywhere on the Internet without finding an attendant mention of Jeremy Lin. At the time, Tang was a Chinese American player at Virginia's Oak Hill Academy, a school famous for producing NBA talent such as Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, and Rajon Rondo. He toiled in total obscurity until those magical nights in the winter of 2011-2012 when "Linsanity" struck New York. Tang was then labeled, for better or worse, "the next Jeremy Lin."

For the rest of his basketball life, Tang will likely be required to labor under the "next" banner. He can never just be Chris Tang, as long as there's a Jeremy Lin.

This reminds me of Peter's description of the Devil: "like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour" (v. 8). The law of "be the next Jeremy Lin" has devoured Chris Tang, and it will continue to devour Chris Tang until he eventually surpasses Lin. But the law will not then be satisfied. It never is. It will merely morph into "be the next Christ Tang." The law is a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

But whence this lion? This can't be an infinite regression. It must have begun somewhere. Long ago, someone was the first "one you've got to be like." In basketball, it was perhaps George Mikan, the first "unstoppable force." In the world? It was God.

The reason that we all experience an irresistible desire for perfection is that God is actually perfect. His law is a reflection of that. Then the Devil comes like a lion to accuse us and to proclaim - rightly - that we deserve condemnation.

There is, unfortunately, no cure for the law. As Martin Luther famously said, the quest for glory can never be satisfied; it can only be exterminated. And this is precisely what Jesus does with that roaring lion, Satan. he shuts his mouth, crushes him to death, and throws him into his own fire.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,


 

Ezekiel 36:26

This is how we imagine the relationship between our hearts, our wills, and our minds work: your mind makes a decision - for instance, "I want to be in better shape." Then your will has to get involved: "I will wake up early every morning, go to the gym, and work out." It's not pleasant, so you've got to invoke the old willpower, right? And then if everything goes as planned, your heart comes around eventually: "I love working out!" So in a nutshell, we act as if the way things work is: what the mind chooses, the will works for, and the heart...well, the heart will catch up. Sound about right? That's how we live. The only problem is, about 95 percent of the time, our hearts never come around.

The things we have to do to improve ourselves usually remain intolerable burdens. This is why so many people have bought and cancelled dozens of gym memberships over the years: they don't actually fall in love with the gym the way they thought they would. The reason is the above order of things isn't at all accurate. Here's how it really works: what the heart desires, the will chooses, and the mind justifies. We all follow our hearts and then make excuses later. Paul gave this truth words when he said he did things he didn't want to do and didn't do things he wanted to do. It was his mind losing to his sinful heart.

English theologian Thomas Cramner wrote a prayer that is perfect for today:

Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Today, remember that God has given you a new heart, permanently aligned with His.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,


 

John 11:25-26

Jesus got word that a good friend was dying. Though He was a good ways away, Jesus told His disciples that the illness "is not to death" and that it was actually for God's glory. He waited with His disciples for two days before he even began the journey to see His friend. When He got there, not only was Lazarus dead, but he'd been dead for four days. In Jesus' time, people who weren't dead were declared dead all the time. After a while, they learned to wait a little bit before burying someone. Even as recently as the Victorian Age in England, being buried alive was so common that people were often buried with shovels, so it's not for nothing that John noted that Lazarus had been dead for four days.

Lazarus' resurrection was not just another healing. John's gospel systematically escalates Jesus' interaction with mankind. First, he preached, then He healed the sick, then He raised the dead. But we don't understand. We're like Martha, who could be paraphrased as having said, "Lord, if you'd gotten here sooner, my brother wouldn't have died." We want a Jesus who heals the sick because we don't trust Him to raise the dead. Mary and Martha thought that as long as they could get Jesus involved before things got too out of hand, everything would be okay.

Jesus is out to prove one thing: even death is "not to death." Not to Jesus. Jesus has something serious in mind. When Martha came to Jesus, He said, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die" (v. 25). If we're honest with ourselves, Paul's description of us in Romans 3 is dead on: ruin and misery mark our ways. We're more than sick - we're falling apart. Actually, it's even more than that. We're dead. Jesus Christ is a God who does something so much better than heal the sick. He raises the dead to new life.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

Philippians 2:12

There is no question that Christians are to "work out our salvation with fear and trembling" (v. 12) and that the sanctification process will be both bloody and sweaty. Daily Christian living is daily Christian dying. Jesus likened the pain of Christian growth to "gouging out an eye" and cutting off a hand" - indicating that growth in godliness requires parting with things we initially think we can't do without.

There does seem to be some question, though, about the nature and direction of our efforts. And at the heart of this question is the relationship between justification and sanctification.

Some think that justification is just the first rung on the sanctification ladder, and that as you climb up and up, you never need to think about that "first step" again. Sanctification, in other words, is commonly understood as progress beyond the initial step of justification. But while justification and sanctification are to be clearly separated theologically, the Bible won't allow us to separate them functionally.

In her book Because He Love Me, Elyse Fitzpatrisk rightly says: One reason we don't grow in ordinary, grateful obedience as we should is that we've got amnesia; we've forgotten that we were cleansed from our sins. In other words...ongoing failure in sanctification...is the direct result of failing to remember God's love for us in the gospel.... If we fail to remember our justification, redemption, and reconciliation, we'll struggle in our sanctification.

In other words, remembering, revisiting, and rediscovering the reality of our justification every day is the hard work we're called to do if we're going to grow. When Paul says to "work out your salvation with fear and trembling," he's making it clear that we've got work to do - but what exactly is the work? He goes on to explain: "For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good purpose" (v.13).

Sanctification, as someone once put it, is not something added to justification. It is, rather, the justified life.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

1 Corinthians 15:36

John Brzenk became the world arm wrestling champion in 1983 and didn't lose an arm wrestling match for the next twenty-five years. In the Documentary Pulling John follows his decision about whether or not to retire as he approaches age forty. The main story line of the film, though, is the collision course of Alexey Voyevoda (a Russian giant) and Travis Bagant (an American braggart), two young challengers to Brzenk's throne. Both men revere Brzenk and understand that they must each go through the other to get to Brzenk's level.

At the world championship in 2003, Voyevoda and Bagant met in the super heavyweight final. In a huge upset, Bagent soundly defeated the heavily favored Voyevoda. If  you're familiar with stories like this, you know what happened next. Bagent got even cockier, while Voyevoda went back to Russia to work out. It's during these Russian post-loss scenes that Voyevoda discusses sling, what it means to him, and how acceptance of the loss can bring greater strength. At a critical point, one of his coaches says, "If you're strong, losing can make you stronger."

It is only from deaths that new lives are born. Voyevoda begins to know himself as someone who can lose, and, through that knowledge, gains strength. When he meets Bagent again, with the winner to face Brzenk, it's not close.

Martin Luther said that the cross was the end of us. Losing to Bagent was the end of the invincible Alexey Voyevoda. A new life was created. It was this new creation that dominated Bagent and moved on to face Brzenk.

It is when we are shown our need, which happens exclusively against our will, that we reach out for a Savior. Let us recognize that need today.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,