Are you a good person?

Religious rulers often refer to one another with titles such as “reverend,”  “most reverend,” or “The right revered doctor!”   

Jesus was once addressed as “good teacher, or good master.” 

"A ruler questioned Him, saying, 'Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?'  Jesus began his answer by asking the ruler, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone." (Luke 18:18-19)

This initial response went beyond the ruler's concern and straight to the heart of his confusion about himself.  It is obvious that the religious ruler did not understand that goodness and its resulting positive character qualities are derived from God instead of being independently produced by so-called "good" behavior. 

In asking the question of the ruler, Jesus was making a very important point about Himself. Yes, He was good because He was God. But, He had laid aside his divine prerogative to function as God in order to live as a man and walk among us. Consequently, He had no goodness that was not derived from God, with whom He was in union.  His own goodness, as a man, was not of His own doing but rather a result of His union with the Father.  In highlighting this truth, Jesus was pointing the ruler to the only Source of true goodness.   

People are still confused regarding the topic of goodness today.  We can trace this confusion all the way back to the forbidden choice of “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” in the Garden of Eden. Satan suggested that man could “be like God knowing good and evil,” (Gen. 3:5), insinuating that man, independent of God, could be good.  Ever since the fall, in man’s natural condition (in Adam), “no good thing” (Rom. 7:18) dwells in man and there is “none good” (Rom. 3:12). 

That is because goodness is an attribute of God alone. The ruler, like many religious minded people today, did not understand the true source of goodness.  

Man is incapable of demonstrating any Godly character by what he does and always derives Godly character by God’s grace.  Religion, like the ruler, continues to engage in the hypocrisy of trying to do good “for God,” failing to recognize that man is unable to do so apart from God.  

Often, when people define what it means to be “good” (which encompasses morality and ethics), they do so in references to behavior: “good and evil,” “right and wrong.” In doing so, they begin with the wrong point of reference or source.  If we do not define “good” based on behavior, though, where do we begin?  What, or who determines what is "good" or "right?” Do goodness and righteousness exist in and of themselves? Does evil exist in and of itself? Is the goal of the Christian life to try to be good?  Is there such a thing as independent or autonomous goodness?

Christian thought asserts that God alone is autonomous and self-existent. Everything and everyone else is dependent and derivative.  These are two of the most important words of Christian thought in understanding man as God intended.

Goodness is not an independent standard or goal to be achieved. There is not a separate law of "right" behavior in contrast to "evil behavior" as so many have falsely believed.  It is this kind of erroneous thinking which has become a subtle replacement for God, what I call an "idolatrous goodness" of self-centeredness.  It is this kind of thinking that has caused society and religion to look to the morality of goodness as their god.  This idolatrous goodness takes comfort in good as defined by a moral majority.

Whenever "goodness" is falsely determined by what one does apart from God, it begins with the false premise of independence.  This is the lie of the sinful, self-centered thinking that forms the basis of secular humanism. Humanism can be either secular, known as “secular humanism” or religious, which has been referred to as “evangelical humanism” by Jim Fowler.  Regardless of whether it is secular or religious, it is built upon the lie of independence.

Independent thinking was first suggested by Satan to Adam and Eve,
Initially, Satan suggested that “good exists in itself.” In Gen. 3:4, when Satan said to Eve, “...has God said, You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?”

Next, Satan suggested that "good" was knowable, independent or apart from God.  Satan said in verse 4, “God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened."
Lastly, Satan suggested that "good" is do-able by oneself, v. 5 “...you will be like God knowing good and evil."

These three false premises are not only anti-Christian but stand opposite the gospel of grace.

Christianity denies all three lies that Satan spoke.
1) Man is never an independent self with some “self-inherent goodness.”
2) Man does not “self-determine” anything because he derives all that he does.
3) Man has no ability to “produce or generate” any character or behavior, good or evil.

As stated and contrary to popular opinion, there is no "natural goodness" inherent in man or anything else apart from God, who is good. "There is none good, no not one" (Rom. 3:12). "No one is good, except God alone" (Luke 18:19). When mankind thinks that he can know good and define good from his own perspective alone, he ends up calling evil "good", and good "evil" (Isa. 5:20).  Isaiah pronounces a woe upon those who are thus "wise in their own eyes, and clever in their own sight." (Isa. 5:21).

The man who uses so-called good intentions of morality and ethics, does so based on the fallen, sinful, and self-serving motivations of the devil. It is never man just on his own, doing his own thing. These falsely labeled good intentions are bound by social or religious standards of performance. Whether the goal is to be “socially acceptable” or to “be like God," they involve striving and struggling to be good by “good behavior,” believing the lie that if man can “do good,” then he is good.

The good news tells a much different story of what it means to “be good.”

First of all God says that He alone is Good.” The scripture declares that "God is good." "No one is good except God alone" (Mark 10:18). "There is One who is good" (Matt. 19:17). "Good" exists exclusively in the essence of who God is, as the only true independent self.  It is the character of God which defines what goodness is, for God is good.

Secondly, Goodness is only known as God reveals Himself to man.  Christians often find themselves trying to understand God, by what “they believe.” And where do they look for God’s exclusive revelation of God’s goodness...the good book, the Bible. As much as we thank God for the Bible it is not God’s greatest gift to man, Jesus Christ is God’s greatest gift to mankind. Therefore, God’s ultimate revelation of Himself is not found in a book but in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. 

God’s goodness will never be understood or experienced by merely studying the historical or theological application of Jesus Christ. It is not a static historical event (incarnation) or simply an experience (conversion). We can only know what good is by knowing God through the indwelling presence of Jesus Christ as our life.  Knowing God is to experience a personal and intimate spiritual union, whereby, Christ reveals His goodness and expresses His goodness through the believer, as the Christian chooses to participate in loving relationship with Him.  This brings us to the third point of “goodness.”

Thirdly, Scriptures declare that, "The one who does good is of God" (III John 1:11). In the Greek it is “ek theous” which means “to derive out of” God. We only “do good” as the character of God is activated and expressed in human behavior by the grace of God. We do not produce goodness but participate with (goodness) which is the character of God. Only God can express His goodness because only God is good. As we are receptive to God’s activity, which is grace, we are energized by His goodness which is expressed through our behavior. God is always the source of goodness because, once again, only God is good. Human behavior is always dependent upon the god who has dominion. The believer derives from God, the character or activity of God (grace) and his receptivity to God’s activity is faith.

It is important to know that God is not good because He does good but rather that God does what He does because He is who He is! His doing originates from His being. His conduct flows out of His character, and He always acts consistently with who He is.  

Are you a good person? Why or why not? 

If you are a Christian, then you have been made good.  You have been made good “objectively.”  The only question that remains is, have you believed, “subjectively?” Have you “agreed with God,” saying the same thing that He has said about you?

Romans 5:19

For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made (good) righteous.  (emphasis added).

It’s not “what” you know but “WHO” you KNOW

“A Christian disciple is a follower who is learning from Another”

(This blog is being written to clarify my earlier blog entitled Disciples of Christ Are Made Not Educated.  A respected brother in Christ commented that he was concerned that what I had written might cause, an “imbalance to correct an imbalance.”  My response/clarification follows.)

Forgive me if it sounded like “learning was unnecessary or optional.” Quite the contrary, but I was attempting to emphasize that spiritual learning is always dependent on and reliant upon the personal interpretation of and indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.  “And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven (Matthew 16:17).”

My purpose in writing “Disciples of Christ Are Made Not “Educated” was that true learning is relationally dependent and derived from the presence of and participation with the person of Jesus Christ (John 15:5).  The Greek word for disciple, “mathetes,” implies both a "learner" and a "follower." The point that I was making is a "learner" can be both one who assimilates data, and/or a relational learner who is learning from Another in a personal context of relationship not just academic information. The New Testament concept of "follower" tends to have more of a personal emphasis that is more relational than informational.

I referenced the Apostle Paul statement in 2 Timothy 3:7, “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”  Academic learning alone was never intended by God to be the sole of foremost means of knowing Him. 

My critics commented; “Recipients of the Letter to the Hebrews had neglected learning (education) in the fundamentals of the faith. This retarded their spiritual maturity and hindered their potential for disciple-making (Heb. 5:12-14).” I disagree. Let me explain why.  

Paul was admonishing believers in this passage of scripture that they had lost sight of personal participation with Christ, which was the focus of my blog, Disciples of Christ Are Made Not “Educated,   “Christianity is real and genuine Christian disciples share what they know through participation with Christ, not just what they know intellectually about Christ. We do not know simply through educational learning (2 Timothy 3:7), but through His abiding presence in us (cf. John 14:7), and this goes beyond ”the fundamentals of education.”

Paul’s admonishment in Heb. 5:12, is that a teacher is not just an informational professor who instructs others.  A true teacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ is one who is responsible and leads through example, sharing out of experiential knowing of Christ relationally, not just learned theological head knowledge.  A responsible Christian teacher has learned to “respond” to “Christ’s ability” which is what it means to be responsible.  A disciple is a relational learner who is learning from “Another,” referred to as a follower of Christ.  A Christian teacher is one who has been taught by God, “listening under” the Holy Spirit, which is the New Testament understanding of Obedience. 

Many Christian teachers today are teaching from a flawed theological premise due to the fact they have not understood New Testament grace and are endeavoring to present the Gospel through the “eyes” of an Old Covenant understanding.  Jesus reminds us in John 14:26, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”

Neither Paul writing to the Hebrews, nor Jesus quoted in John’s gospel are referring to a “book learning” or “educational learning” but rather a relational learning that can only be realized as we encounter God for ourselves and choose to rely on Him. Paul seems to chide the Jewish believers of Jerusalem saying, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God” Heb. 5:12.

Christians now and then had apparently gone backward into a novice spiritual mind-set which was hindering their spiritual maturity.  They were acting like immature students who were dependent on an instructor to tell them “what to believe” and “how to do it;” relying on hand-me-down information, or a secondary sense of “living by the book.”  Paul challenged them to press on into the obedience of faith (Rom. 16:26) rather than the hopeless reliance of legalistic, law-dependent instruction for which religion is famous.  Faith is always relationship-oriented, being dependent and receptive to what the Spirit of Christ is doing in us and acting in response to the direction of His Spirit, not just being psychologically focused on a written script or approved ecclesiastical belief system.

 The “first principles of the oracles of” (Heb.5:12) are not just elementary biblical information that we are taught from studying our bibles or listening to sermons, but are better understood as the foundational understanding of Christ as our life choosing to be relationally dependent on Him and Him only! 

Paul continues with a new analogy, but continues to chide their spiritually juvenile behavior,  “and you have come to need milk and not solid food” Heb. 5:12.  Mature Christians should be able to “digest” both “the pure milk of the word” as well as the “solid food” of spiritual “taste” which is based on the finished work of the cross.  Spiritual immaturity is largely due to the fact that believers have been malnourished relying on second-hand “spoon feeding” rather than “growing up and taking their place at the table” in Christ. This is largely due to the fact that believers then and now have been taught to rely on “book religion” or on what “clergy” has taught them and have not learned to be “followers of Christ” in an intimate relationship that is personal.  You have heard it said, “It’s not “what” you know but “who” you know.”  “A Christian disciple is a follower who is learning from Another.”

To Experience Grace Is To Experience God!

Reformation or Restoration – what say you? 
 

Often we hear of the need for a “new reformation of grace.”  If what is being referred to is the spiritual state of deadness of institutionalized religion, maybe so.  However, Christianity is not religion and grace is not dead.  Grace is not going to lead to a reformation because nothing is dead. When we talk about grace and, therefore, reformation is not necessary.   “Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace” Hebrews 13:9.

Grace is what distinguishes Christianity from all man-made religions. 

Grace is not a thing or goal to be achieved, but a person who is living and active, The Person - Jesus Christ - who is LIFE.  When we talk about God's grace, it is like trying to understand God, Himself.  Grace is as comprehensive as God Himself, His every expression. The good news of grace is that it is always consistent because it is the expression of God’s character, the manifestation of His being or essence. 

To experience Grace is to experience God! 

Grace is God at work or God’s activity and as we choose to experience grace, to obey, which is faith, (our receptivity to God’s activity). Our lives are then restored, sanctified or conformed to the image of Christ.  As we agree with the Spirit of Christ, we experience the expression of His life and character and the world sees the invisible living Lord Jesus in a visible, tangible way through us.  “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” 2 Corinthians 3:18.

Religions talk about reformation. But, God is at work in restoration the activity of God in Christ allowed to function in us (spirit), as us (soul), and through us (body).

“With this the words of the Prophets agree, just as it is written, ‘AFTER THESE THINGS I will return, AND I WILL REBUILD THE TABERNACLE OF DAVID WHICH HAS FALLEN, AND I WILL REBUILD ITS RUINS, AND I WILL RESTORE IT, SO THAT THE REST OF MANKIND MAY SEEK THE LORD, AND ALL THE GENTILES WHO ARE CALLED BY MY NAME” Acts 15:15-17.

Did God do away with the Laws to Moses?

 

Yes He did!

The Law was given to only one group of people, that is Israel, and given only as a temporary foreshadowing during the old covenant time.

Hebrews 8:13 “When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.”

This brings us to an important question; “Why do people today, like the Jewish Christians of old still believe in and follow religious procedures?”  Religious Judaism, (which is similar to any religious system of our day) was falsely depending on what they could do rather than discovering what God had already done.  Religion like the old covenant was dying of old age. That is why Paul says the law was “growing old (and) is ready to disappear.”

God speaks of a new (covenant), and by so doing made the first (covenant) obsolete. God declares the old covenant, the Mosaic covenant of Law, displaced and replaced by the inauguration of the New Covenant. The New Covenant supersedes the old preliminary agreement of the old covenant.

God, through Paul, was counseling the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem that the old covenant was a thing of the past, out-of-date and obsolete!  There is no reason for Christians to seek to follow the old covenant laws which have been cancelled by the finished work of Jesus Christ at the cross.  The laws of Moses have been done away with! 

Colossians 2:14 “...having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”

The point of reference of the New Covenant is Jesus Christ, not religious performance.  The New Covenant has been determined by God and, yet is relational. The New Covenant takes the focus off of physical observes of man and such as the Jewish priests in the temple and focuses on Christ in you a “tabernacle, not made with hands” (9:11).

The priestly ministry of Jesus in us allows the Christian to function as God intended. We participate and become the expressers of His glorious character and this becomes apparent as Christ is living out His life in us.  We experience, as we choose to obey, the “out lived life!”  In the new covenant the concept of “law” has been radically changed.  The law is no longer an outward set of regulations to be kept or performed.  When the New Covenant in Christ came "in the fullness of time" (Gal.4:4), the law was written on our hearts.

 “FOR THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE...I WILL PUT MY LAWS INTO THEIR MINDS, AND I WILL WRITE THEM ON THEIR HEARTS” (Heb. 8:10).

The concept of “law” and “covenant” are opposed to one another.  Under law there is conditional blessing; “if” you do this you will be blessed.

 Exodus 15: 26 “And He said, “If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the LORD, am your healer.”

This kind of arrangement often leads to misunderstanding on our part and provides the basis for “legalism.” Under a law system, commands are dependent on performance and obedience. Legalism is based on keeping the rules, the principles or the precepts of Law for acceptance.

The New Covenant is based on grace not performance.  Grace is God’s activity or action, what He is doing.  New Covenant grace is relational.  This relationship has been initiated in the heart of the Trinity.  The New Covenant was birthed out of God’s presence and is experienced by His presence, while still allowing for us to choose to be responsible to God’s activity.  A faith response to grace is what responsibility “is made.  “Response-ability” is the basis of intimacy with God which is dependent and derived from the very heart of God.   

In the New Covenant the conditional “if” is replaced by the magnificent “I AM.”  I AM who I AM and I do what I do because I AM who I AM.  The mystery of the New Covenant is that, although it began in the heart of God it allows for man to be receptive in his “heart/spirit” toward God.  This is possible because God has designed us as choosing “faith creatures.”  Faith is “our part,” whereby we believe and receive what God is doing in us.  As we believe, we experience the relational oneness of the New Covenant and the Triune activity of God. 

The intent of the Law was to reveal the character of God and has now been revealed in the New Covenant in the Son, Jesus Christ.

“And He (Jesus) is the radiance of His (Father’s) glory and the exact representation of His (Father) nature...” Hebrews 1:3.

Because God’s activity is grace and His activity is always consistent with His character, God can and does, do whatever He wants.  Because of Pentecost, every believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit.  The outcome is, God can and does initiate His commands in us and He is the means of man carrying out His activity.    

He is the source of His own doing.  

2 Corinthians 12:9 “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”

His grace is our ability!  New Covenant obedience is our willingness to “listen under” His directives.   Obedience is no longer performance oriented but the

“obedience of faith” (Rom. 1:5). 

We are free to admit and declare, “I can’t do it but God can.”

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

The need of our day, as in the day of the early church, is for believers to discover the dynamic life Jesus Christ, as our life.  Christ “in you” (your human spirit), “as you” (as you choose in your soul), and Christ “through you” (His activity expressed through your body). 

God did away with the Laws of Moses!  Christians have had a wrong “point of reference” for far too long. God gave Jesus who is the personification of the New Covenant.  

The Message bible states in John 3:16-18 

“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.”

The gospel is God’s gift to man, not man trying to obey the rules or keep commandments.

Col. 3:1-4 “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”

That is why I have been telling people to stop trying to live the Christian life!  You can't!  Only Jesus Christ can live His life! He is the Life! The good news of the gospel is to receive the indwelling presence of the son of God, Jesus Christ as our very Life!

Gal. 2:20-21 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”

News flash! Did you read that? “...if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”

Disciples of Christ Are Made Not “Educated”

(Recently someone who attended a Christ Life Seminar at CrossLife wrote me asking if it was necessary to work through the woundedness of their past before they would be ready to counsel and help others. I am posting my response, hoping it will be helpful to others, as it was to this person.)

Their Question:

“I am getting ready to "unpack the boxes of wounded memories... Do we need to be completely at peace with everything to help others?”

My response:

“It is true we are a “work in progress” and Christ is sanctifying us (1 Peter 1:2).

It is also a fact that many counselors enter the counseling “profession" due to their own codependent issues that are yet unresolved, not realizing it. 

Although we are always being renewed in our minds (Romans 12:2), it is most helpful to have worked through the deeper woundedness of our hearts.  Our greatest effectiveness is having personally encountered God working through our lives, more than, “the knowledge we have of Him."  Christ is the means of helping people not our training.  Our spiritual journey is preparation for ministry that is most valuable.

See “unpacking the boxes” as “counseling” God is doing in you which will be your "on the job training."

Our motto at CrossLife is that “...that others may live!" God has made it clear to me that although He is always about others; the first "other" is me!  I cannot touch someone else's life in a “Christian way” unless I have first encountered Christ for myself and allowed for His expression through me. Otherwise, it is just religious performance and we have far too much of that in “behavioral counseling” today.

 

Christianity is real and real Christian disciples share what they know through participation with Christ not just what they know intellectually about Christ.  We do not know through learning (2 Timothy 3:7) “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth,” but through His abiding presence in us.  “that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you” (John 14:7). 

This is why our identity in Christ is central to understanding not only who we are but how we were designed to function as human beings.  An effective disciple of Christ cannot be “stuck” on him/her self but must be working from Christ as his point of reference!  Self-orientation and self-focus is antithetical to the "love by which we are to serve one another."  Instead of being self-oriented, divine love is unselfish and other-oriented.

True discipleship is a call into an intimate spiritual transformation by relationship with Christ.  As we choose to participate in Him intentionally, relationally, and spiritually through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit (Roman 8:9) we are not only transformed but equipped for ministry but transformed by His love.  The apostle Paul testified of this in 2 Corinthians 3:18; 4:1a,  “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. Therefore, since we have this ministry…”

This is the divine order of true Christian ministry, personal convent relationship in Christ.  The most powerful ministry is not taught but caught.  As we almost "unconsciously," spontaneously live our lives, people see Jesus (John 12:21). They see Jesus not because we are trying to minister to them but because, that is who we are, Christ-ones.  True Disciples of Christ are made!  Paul writes in Ephesians 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

It is not what we know or do but what He is doing in us, as us and through us.  Paul writes in Philippians 2:13 “for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

 

Whenever we are experiencing a lack of peace in our hearts, God is greater.  We are admonished in Colossians 3:15 “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called...” 

I would encourage you, that whatever God is surfacing in your heart is a loving invitation from Him that you might experience a greater level of freedom in Christ, and as a result you would be able to share with others more effectively.  Jesus invited us to Himself in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

“Why would a Christian choose to sin?”

A Christian is an individual who has received the presence and life of the risen and living Lord Jesus by faith. “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, that person is none of His” (Rom. 8:9), i.e. not a Christian. When the Spirit of Christ dwells within a Christian, He is the total provision for the expression of His righteous character in that Christian’s behavior.  In relationship with Christ the Christian has the privilege and responsibility to allow Christ’s righteous character to be expressed through his behavior by faith.  Faith is the receptivity of God’s activity of grace. 

A Christian is not obligated to sin (Romans 8:12). But the Christian still has the “freedom of choice” to misrepresent his/her new identity in Christ by expressing selfish and sinful character in his or her behavior.  Sin is defined as any character that is contrary to, and “misses the mark” of, the righteous and holy character of God in Christ by the Spirit.  Sin is not simply engaging in a particularly prescribed action, but is the character of the Evil One expressed in any action we have chosen to participate in.  Sin is anything derived from other than God.

So, why would a Christian choose to sin?  This is the question of the ages.  Realistically, all Christians do sin, 1 John 1:8 “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.” We are tempted by the tempter, Satan, who wants to express his evil character in our behavior to negate the character of Christ that brings glory to God. 

You are not the problem, nor are your desires evil.  You are not tempted by your own sinful desires because you do not have sinful desires, just God-given desires that are patterned and warped by sinful propensities.  The straw-man labeled “Self” does not tempt us.  Our “flesh” does not tempt us.  Temptation is always, and only, from the tempter, the devil. 

God never saw you as the problem, but the Adversary, the devil.  When you were “spiritually exchanged” by the receipt of the Spirit of Christ, you were united with Him. “For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection” (Rom. 6:5).

The Christian has received Christ within his/her spirit, but within the soul, the behavioral mechanism, the Christian individual still has residual patterns of selfish and sinfulness formed in his/her God-given desires.  These patterned desires of selfishness and sinfulness are what the apostle Paul called the “flesh.”  Flesh is not to be personified as some hunk of evil in us, but is a sinful patterning from our unregenerate past, but can still be developed during our regenerated spiritual condition by choosing to participate with Satan’s character of sin.  A working definition of the “flesh” might be: how I learned to manage and operate my life apart from God under the deception of Satan and his character of sin.

Under the selfishly patterned desires of the “flesh” is where the tempter goes fishing in an attempt to snag us, deceive us, and prompt us to make a decision that corresponds with our old patterns of action and reaction.  The choice is always ours, but when we succumb to temptation we manifest the character of the Evil One, and misrepresent who we are as Christ-ones (Christians).  “The one who engages in sin, derives what he does from the devil” (I John 3:8).

Too often our focus is on our behavior. One of the chief aims of the enemy is to get our attention and focus off of Christ as our point of reference.  Behavior, as important as it is, is always the expression of the character of the spirit-source we are trusting in or depending on.  We do not generate any character within our behavior.  Character is always derived regardless of whether it is good or evil.  When we understand who we are in Christ, and that our identity of being is in union with Christ, we can live free, gladly choosing to be dependent on what He is doing in us.  This allows everything in our lives to be an expression of worship as we live in the fullness of His presence as our life. Worship is the expression of the “worth-ship” of His character.  As we embrace the reality of our union in Christ and enjoy living in the freedom that He has provided for us, “why would a Christian choose to sin?”

When you pray, who’s praying?

The Christian life is not what we do, but what He does in us, as us, and through us.  Everything in the Christian life is Jesus Christ in action, which is what Grace is ... “God at work.”  We derive all that we are, and all that we do, from our union in Christ.  Jesus said in John 15:5, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.”

What about our prayer life? Who’s doing the praying?

C.S. Lewis writes, "Our act, when we pray, must not, any more than all our other acts, be separated from the continuous act of God Himself, in which alone all finite causes operate." Lewis, C.S., "The Efficacy of Prayer"

Some would say that pray is “our part” and the answer to pray is “God’s part.”  Not so. Pray is depending on the Spirit of God and expressing the life of Christ.  He is our ability regardless of the activity.  "The Spirit helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God" (Rom. 8:26,27).

So when you pray, listen to what He is doing in you and agree, which is to confess or “say the same as.”  When you open your mouth your prayers or confessions are then verbalized and prayer is made.  The indwelling presence of Jesus Christ who is our life is the Pray-er (the prayer-prompter).  You cannot pray apart from Him praying through you nor can Jesus pray though you apart from you agreeing with Him.  Jesus is both the beginning and the end of Christian prayer.  Christian prayer is not activated by human effort, but is prompted by the One who is our Life.  We pray in response to what He is doing in us.  As we abide, confessing what He is initiating us to participate with Him in, we experience His grace and our lives become His prayer!

In all of your praying, simply remember who you are in Christ.  When you pray for wisdom; when you pray for discernment; when you pray for patience, gentleness, kindness or love, you are praying for what you already have in Christ.  Whatever you are led by the Spirit of God to pray for, has already been provided and promised in Jesus Christ (Phil. 4:19).

So, why don’t you gladly express in prayer today what He is initiating in you?