The Greatest Act of In[justice]

On my best day, I can understand that there has to be a balance of confidence in the Gospel and humiliation of the flesh and body through the power of the Holy Spirit. But, even on my best day, I am still a sinner. I am still imperfect and self-seeking. And when I realize this, I am one of two things: I, through the Spirit, am completely humbled before the throne of grace and can try my best to look to Jesus for truth and grace, or I'm full of shame to the point of not being able to "face" God nor wanting to. And while I think it's necessary to feel a sense of shame and guilt because of our sin, it becomes spiritual warfare when we dwell on the guilt and shame. We are called to confess and ask for forgiveness for our sins, but we are not called to poison our minds with the Enemy's lies (I know you're thinking "well duh!"). In John 15:9-11, Jesus says:

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.
Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands,
you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands
and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you
and that your joy may be complete."

So let me ask you this: When we are burdened by bondage, guilt and shame and CHOOSE to abide in THOSE things...what will happen to you do in keeping God's commands? When I say "you," I mean you individually. We all have different areas of habitual sin (whether it's legalism, pride, pornography, judging others, apathy towards evangelism, etc) so we are attacked in very different ways, hear different lies and will feel shame in very different ways. Pastor Andy Stanley believes that we must "saturate our hearts, minds, and souls with God's truth from His word and look for specific truths that counter our lies." So BE in the word. Because the word is truth, and truth sets you free. Jesus sets you free. We were NOT called to sit in our prison cells and dwell on our sin. Almost four years ago, I choose to follow Jesus. When I made that decision, the chains that kept me in my prison were broken off, the prison cell door opened and the prison itself unlocked, allowing me to simply walk out. But up until recently, I didn't know that in certain ways, I was keeping myself in that cell. But all I have to do now is WALK OUT. Because of Jesus, I can confidently say "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" (1 Corinthians 15:55).

As Christ followers, when we feel an overwhelming sense of shame or guilt and throw ourselves a pity party, we are limiting God's ability to freely give grace. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that when we are full of shame, God isn't able to give grace. I simply mean that in our own minds, we are keeping ourselves from being able to grasp how abundant grace is. By limiting God's grace, we give it an artificial scarcity in a world that so desperately needs it. More importantly, and most unfortunately, we cloud the vision of those who are already blind to the most ridiculously beautiful story in the history of this world.

This is the power of the Gospel: that God knew our disgusting and repulsive nature and rebellion but so desperately wanted to reconcile us to Himself so we could know Him. In order to do so, God the Father had to allow what was the greatest act of injustice to occur: sending His perfect son, Jesus Christ to die on a tree and endure the pain of our sin. It is because of this that we could in turn search for Him and sacrifice ourselves before Him in order to truly live and proclaim the good news to a group of people...MANKIND.

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
for the law of the Spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death.
For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature,
God did by sending His own son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.
And so God condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law
might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature,
but according to the Spirit." --Romans 8:1-4

There's a song by Matt Maher called "Christ is risen" with some of the most powerful lyrics I've ever come across (I could write a whole other blog about this song!):

"In strength You reign, forever let your church proclaim:
'Christ is risen from the dead, trampling over death by death.
Come awake, come awake, come and rise up from the grave.
Christ is risen from the dead, we are one with Him again.
Come awake, come awake, come and rise up from the grave' "

In his letter to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul (our brother in Christ!) proclaims the Gospel with confidence:

"But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" --Ephesians 2:5-10

AMEN. We are RISEN with Christ. The lyrics of Matt Maher's song tug at my heartstrings and remind me that those are the words that God want me to hear. He is asking me to get up out of my apathy, shame and guilt and to keep fighting the good fight and run this race for Him. in all honestly, I feel like this is God's way of telling me "Jenny...why are you still in that grave? Just get up." Imagine yourself physically rising with Christ after being dead in your transgressions. When Jesus rose on the 3rd day, our prison cells opened and we were given the ability to walk out into glorious freedom. All at once...I am both captured and set free by the love of Christ. Jesus dying a bloody and painful death on a cross is what makes me clean and white as snow. Only God can make things so contradictory to this world the most beautiful thing in the entire existence of mankind. This is who our God is. Beautiful. Real.

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