A Battle of Wills (September 2012)

Last month we looked at how we can show God as a heartless judge, not because He is but because we sometimes overstep our bounds by putting words in His mouth, or very weakly understanding His purposes in this life. Now we'll turn the magnifying glass on ourselves and think about how our desire to be judges ourselves leads to less-than-impartial behavior.

Christening Culture

The will of God for humankind is not like the will we possess. Because of this, we also find that our human wills within the body of Christ are at war with the wills of others and God, and we strive to come out on top. This battle of wills can cause much damage within the world in general and within the body of Christ specifically.

Many times we push for our opinions or agendas -- our wills -- to be accepted and slap a proverbial "Jesus Sticker" on it. We christen our thoughts as "godly" which leaves those that disagree left with the rather unflattering alternative. We tell others that we're on the side of God, which (if even subconsciously) means that anyone else is, well... not. A popular Christian worship song could mistakenly give rise to this kind of attitude:

"And if our God is for us, then who could ever stop us. And if our God is with is, then what could stand against?"

Now, I enjoy Chris Tomlin's music and believe God has used him to draw people to worship God. I also know that his lyrics come from scripture (this particular verse from Romans 8:31) and am thankful for that. But I also know how trickily false beliefs and destructive heresies can creep in when the people of God are away from the altar of God.

In context, Tomlin's song references the truth that our nature once in Christ is that of a conqueror in Christ, one that no power in heaven or on earth can pull us away from the Christ we choose to cling to. The victory is in Christ, the greatness is in almighty God, not in us! God is greater, God is stronger and higher, God is the healer, God is awesome in power -- the focus is there, and we cannot misplace this truth in our minds or hearts.

It is our relationship with Christ that allows us to say "God is for us," not something in and of ourselves. This passage in Romans, and Tomlin's song, is not a catch-all for anything that a follower of Jesus happens to claim, believe, or teach from the pulpit. We are not permitted to say what we will, claim our relationship with Christ gives us that authority, and ignore the scriptures' authority. Nothing can stand against the authority of the Word made flesh. Especially not us.

Sometimes the world rightly stands against the thinly-veiled hatred that we "sanctify" with Jesus' name. It's those times when God's voice sometimes speaks through unbelievers and tells us -- the ones who have endeavored to follow Jesus -- that maybe we're confusing God's will with our own. I'm not talking about the times when followers of Jesus and those who don't follow Him try to excuse sinful behavior and get away with it (though even there, it's not our job to convict until the end of that behavior or remove fellowship). We are to stand for the truth and faithfully proclaim what following Jesus looks like, but not to the extent that we no longer look like Jesus when we do it. Remember, Jesus hung out with the sinners and lambasted the religious elite.

A Will Submitted

What does your will look like? Is it a will submitted to the lordship of Jesus, or something you use to bully scripture and others into a useful form? Sometimes we appear to the watching world like rams angrily butting heads, locking horns and fighting for the preeminent position in the "herd." There is a survival of the fittest mentality that pushes many of us to find our worth and value in being right or stronger or better than someone else.

When the world sees us playing this "game," is it any wonder that they question why God is so confrontational, hateful, and the like? We're nearing the end of the year and I'm hoping that the main theme is starting to latch on now -- people will view God in the same way they view us. And truthfully, this is how it should be since we are called to be Christ's ambassadors! Read what Paul says when instructing us to wake from our sleep and act wisely in these evil times:

Ephesians 5:17-21

 ¹⁷ Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. ¹⁸ Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, ²⁰ always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²¹ Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

But the only way this will be good for us or for God is if we continue to practice wills that are submitted to Christ. When we are faithful to submit our personal wills to Christ, we will avoid these struggles for superiority that can be so destructive. We will then be able to submit to each other in love, be known for our love as Jesus instructed, and live lives of humility and reverence for Christ.

Judging God (August 2012)

Painting by William Blake: God judging Adam.

The Judge

We are a judgmental people. Not just some of us, but all of us. We are judgmental.

In today's culture, this phrase is often aimed at the "other" among us, those we consider to be different from us (read: wrong). We are right, another is wrong; we are justified, others are condemned; we are forgiven, others damned. This is so intrinsic to our natures that we often do not see the problem as coming from ourselves. We consider ourselves to be the objective ones, the unbiased ones, the fair ones.

And so we consider ourselves to be the judge. We can look at others and make judgement without fear of reprisal because we're doing so from our high ground (moral or otherwise).

The problem is, we can all spot the fakes. We know when someone's trying to hoodwink us, and we developed a high ground of our own. A quaint little patch of earth that leaves us untouched and unsullied by the hypocrites and hateful among us. We are not like them, we are above that behavior, and so we speak authoritatively the trump card of reactive judges: "Don't judge me."

We are all judges of our fellows, every one. We judge which foods we should eat, what friends our children should have, which home and neighborhood it's best to live in, what information is true or false, who builds up and adds something to our life, and what course our life will take. We judge where we think we're headed in life, and (even subconsciously) where others are too. But what does the authoritative word of God say to this?

No one from the east or the west

or from the desert can exalt a man.

But it is God who judges:

He brings one down, he exalts another. (Psalm 75:6-7)

There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you--who are you to judge your neighbor? (James 4:12)

Why not also judge the One who says in His word that He alone is judge?

The Jury

Unfortunately, we already do judge God. Our history is ripe with it.

What kind of God would let this kind of thing happen?

If God could stop this, why doesn't He? Doesn't this make Him evil or uncaring?

If God is aware of, but can't stop this evil, then He's not worthy of my worship, right?

Why should I worship God if I'm more compassionate than Him? I wouldn't let these things happen!

We sit as the jury, looking at the work of God, and pass judgment on the righteousness or love or justice of God. We ask questions that assume a greater knowledge of actions and outcomes than the Creator who claims to know more than we do (Isaiah 55:9). 

But only one of us can be right. Our statements are mutually exclusive understandings, so we need to admit to ourselves that we have placed ourselves on the jury to judge the sovereign will of Almighty God.

The book of Job in the Hebrew Bible recounts an amazing dialog between Job and his "friends," Job and God, and even the celestial scene of heaven that we are given a glimpse of through the power of the Holy Spirit. There are not many answers that comfort us in this book, but there are more than enough questions that should make us all uneasy about going to God with a view to what He's doing in this life. Listen to these words from God to Job after he has lamented his sufferings and desires to know why:

Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm. He said:

“Who is this that darkens my counsel

with words without knowledge?

Brace yourself like a man;

I will question you,

and you shall answer me.

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?

Tell me, if you understand...

Have the gates of death been shown to you?

Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?

Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?

Tell me, if you know all this. (Job 38:1-4, 17-18)

The Verdict

Before moving on, take a moment to read those words of God again, and ponder them. Who are we as men and women to question this great God when we are surprised by the actions of others, the "Murphy's Law" moments that throw us for a loop, and even how our own words and behaviors seem to bring consequences we were unaware of before?

Who are we to shake our fists at God and say, "How dare you?!"

Just like Job, the understanding we have of evil and pain in the world isn’t so much objective and all-seeing as it is circumstantial and limited. We call God uncaring for the things we see as wrong, and judge Him because they happen.

We cast a verdict in favor of what little we know without much concern for the much larger field of things we do not know. When we see God in this way, we claim the superior high ground, as God Himself says, "without knowledge."

So here's my assertion, my theory, for this article: if others view God the way we, as Christians, portray Him to others, we cannot overstep our bounds when answering questions about God's justice in this world. When we are asked difficult questions by hurting, angry, apathetic, or curious people, we do more harm than good by speaking for God when God has not spoken. When we claim the ideological high ground that stifles conversation, we do not draw people to Jesus so much as delineate (at least in our own minds) who is "in" or "out," a service we are supremely unqualified to provide in the first place.

Do not compromise the authority of God's word. Do not compromise the truth of Jesus Christ. Do not deny the power of the Holy Spirit. And do not mistakenly believe that we must feign the right answers to all of life's questions before we have them.