Unbroken Fellowship With God

Now the question might arise: “Why would God not want us to confess our sins to Him? After all, we do make mistakes!” The answer is simple: Because walking around the whole day remembering all the bad things we have done will not bring us closer to God! Jesus already paid the full price so that we could have unbroken fellowship with the Father. This means that when we make a mistake, it does not break our fellowship or right standing with God. Jesus was forsaken by his Father on the cross so that we would never have to experience that!

Some may argue: “But I want to be genuine with God and talk to Him about all my mistakes.” Well if people believe they need to be “genuine” with God about their mistakes, then to be really genuine they should rather act in faith, because without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). How much faith does it take to look at our mistakes and feel miserable about them? None. On the other hand, it takes faith to believe we are forgiven, loved, holy, perfect and righteous, even after we have just messed up…

There is however nothing wrong with confiding in our loving Father about our struggles. He understands us better than anybody else. But it’s all about our motives. When we mess up, do we run to Him feeling guilty and condemned like a murderer about to be condemned to retribution? Or do we ask Him for wisdom in overcoming the habits of our unrenewed minds, knowing we stand completely forgiven and holy in His sight? Begin to see yourself as God see you perfect, blameless, holy, righteous. When God looks at you He see you IN CHRIST, and nothing more nothing less. When you change the way to see yourselves you will begin to start to enjoy the abundant life God has for you all along.

What is the Balance Between Law & Grace?

Well, how do you balance death and life? You don’t. What men call balance, God calls mixture! The scripture is clear that we are no longer under law but under grace,

“For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:14) that the law is the “strength of sin”, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law” (1 Corinthians 15:56) that the law is the” letters of death engraved on stone”

“But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was” (2 Corinthians 3:7) (yep, that’s the Ten Commandments), that the law is not of faith, that the law made nothing perfect, that the law was weak, that the law made sin increase, etc.

How do you balance that with “grace” which makes you righteous, that gives Life, that brings you into union with God, that reveals the heart of God , that is of faith? God did away with the covenant of law to bring us a new and better covenant of grace. The law is not the rule of life for the believer, rather the Life of Christ is simply the life of the believer. The writer to the Hebrews says that as long as you try to live under law and grace you will never be established in grace.

“But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed” (Galatians 3:23)

“To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law” (1 Corinthians 9:20) “For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:14)

You will always live a life of condemnation accompanied by a sense that you are never measuring up to God’s standards. What does the scripture say? Cast out the bondwoman (the law) and her son (the flesh) and receive the freewoman (the new covenant of grace) and her son (the gift of righteousness and life) and be not entangled again in the bondage of the law. (read Galatians 4:22-f)

The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31)

In Luke 15 and 16, Jesus tells five parables in a row. The first three are about lost things; a sheep, a coin, and a son. The last two are about lost lives; a shrewd manager loses his livelihood and a rich man loses his life.

1. Story of the lost sheep (Luke 15:4-7)

2. Story of the lost son (Luke 15:8-10)

3. Story of the lost coin (Luke 15:11-32)

4. Story of the lost job (Luke 16:1-13)

5. Story of the lost life (Luke 16:19-31)

I hope you know these parables are stories, not documentaries. They’re illustrative, not descriptive. Yet many people, including respected Bible teachers, consider the last story as some sort of Discovery Channel special. They treat the parable of the rich man and Lazarus as the Wikipedia entry for Hell. It isn’t. It’s a story and like all of Jesus’ stories it contains a powerful message.

If you’ve forgotten, the story is about a rich guy who dies and ends up in torment in Hades where he has a conversation with Abraham about sending warnings to his five living brothers. It’s gripping stuff! It would make a great movie. But as I say, it is not the Wikipedia entry for Hell.

There are three takeaways from this story, two of which are probably wrong.

Takeaway #1: Hell is a place of eternal conscious torment

“The rich man is in agony. Jesus is telling us that Hell is a place where sinners will suffer eternal conscious torment.” Except this story isn’t about Hell at all, but Hades. Different place.

In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. (Luke 16:23)

Jesus did speak about Hell from time to time (and we would do well to heed what he says about it), but not in Luke 16. This is a story about Hades, the abode of the dead. Hades is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Sheol, which is sometimes translated as “the grave” or “the depths.” Don’t ask me if Hades/Sheol is a real place – I’ve never been there – but the Jews certainly thought it was.

Sidebar: The KJV (along with older versions of the NIV) translates Hades as Hell but as I explain elsewhere, the meaning of the English word Hell has changed since the KJV was translated. Hades is not Hell. In Jewish culture, it’s the place people go when they die. This leads to the second takeaway that is probably wrong.

Takeaway #2: Hades has two compartments – smoking and non-smoking

In the story, the rich man is in the bad part of Hades, but Abraham is in the good part and so is Lazarus. From this some have concluded that Hades has two compartments, and the good part is called “Abraham’s Bosom.” This is a little weird because the Bible says a lot about Hades/Sheol and nowhere else is there any mention of different neighborhoods.

But that’s not the only weird thing Jesus says about Hades in this story:

The Jews understood Hades to be a place of silence (Ps 31:17, 115:17), yet in Jesus’ story the rich man chats with Abraham like it’s the most natural thing in the world.The Jews knew Hades as a place where the dead make no plans (Ecc 9:10), yet in the story the rich man is scheming like there’s no tomorrow.

In the Bible, Hades/Sheol is described as a dark, quiet place. There’s no talking, no scheming, and certainly no torment. In the hundred or so scriptures that describe Hades/Sheol, fire is never mentioned. Yet in Jesus’ story the rich man is in fiery torment. It’s odd. It doesn’t fit. It’s like hearing about an Eskimo getting heat stroke.

These deliberately messed-up details reinforce that Jesus is telling a story. The details are merely the scenery for the play. They’re not that important. What isimportant is the conversation that takes place between the rich man and Abraham.

Why am I saying this? Because there is a treasure in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, but if you think Jesus is giving us a Wikipedia entry for Hades or Hell, you’ll miss it. This leads me to the third takeaway, which is the one that actually matters.

Takeaway #3: God’s grace is greater than death

This story makes a lot more sense if you’re Jewish, for Jesus is alluding to a Psalm that would’ve been familiar to his listeners. It’s Psalm 49 and as we look at bits of it below, think of the rich, dead man in Jesus’ story.

Hear this, all ye peoples; Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world, both low and high, Rich and poor together. My mouth shall speak wisdom, and… I will incline mine ear to a parable. (v.1-4, ASV)

Like Jesus, the Psalm-writer has a story to tell. Here it is:

They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him… The fool and the brutish alike perish, and leave their wealth to others. (v.6-10, ASV)

Despite all his money, the rich man couldn’t save himself or his brothers from death.

Really! There’s no such thing as self-rescue, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. The cost of rescue is beyond our means… (Psa 49:7-8, MSG)

The one who trusts in himself and his money is a fool. Money can’t save you, for everybody dies in the end.

People, despite their wealth, do not endure; they are like the beasts that perish. This is the fate of those who trust in themselves… (Psa 49:12-13, NIV)

The rich build edifices and fund charities in the hope that their name will live on, but what good is that when you’re dead?

They are appointed as a flock for Sheol; Death shall be their shepherd… And their beauty shall be for Sheol to consume… (v.14 ASV)

The rich, along with everyone else, are herded like sheep to Sheol. Their fine houses, luxury cars and Botox treatments don’t last. Nothing remains.

But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol; For he will receive me. Selah. (v.15 ASV)

“Now, let me tell you some good news,” says the Psalm-writer. “God’s grace is greater than the grave. God will redeem me from the realm of the dead; he will surely take me to himself.”

Grace greater than the grave

This is wonderful news for those who trust in the Lord and it’s a heady warning for those who trust in themselves. The final verses of Psalm 49 help us interpret Jesus’ parable:

Do not be overawed when a man grows rich, when the splendor of his house increases; for he will take nothing with him when he dies, his splendor will not descend with him… A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish. (v.16-17, 20 NIV)

In this life it’s easy to be distracted by wealth and comfort, but those things are deadweights if they distract you from God. Whatever you have, you can’t take it with you. If you think your money can save you, says the Psalm-writer, you’re as dumb as a beast.

Heed the Psalm and the parable and you won’t be seduced by the transient comforts of life. You’ll understand that only God can redeem us from the grave.

That’s a life-saving takeaway, right there, yet there’s even more to this parable than that.

Conditional Acceptance? (2 Corinthians 6:17-18)

“God loves you just as you are and not as you should be.” That’s the gospel of grace in one sentence!

Manmade religion says you have to clean yourself up before you approach the Lord, but grace shouts, “Come as you are!” So how do we explain this passage which seems to say something different:

Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. (2 Cor 6:17-18)

This sounds like conditional acceptance, as though we have to purify ourselves before we can come to God. At least that’s how DIY religion interprets it. “You have to separate yourself from the pollution of the world before God will accept you. You have to watch how you live or your Father may reject you.”

What a horrible thing to say! Can you imagine saying that to your children? “Sin and you’re out of the family!” Yech!

Is Paul preaching conditional acceptance?

If Paul is preaching conditional acceptance in 2 Corinthians 6, then he is contradicting himself when he declares “accept one another as Christ accepted you” (Rom 15:7). The good news is not “work hard and you might get accepted. (That’s not news and it’s certainly not good.) The good news is that Christ has accepted you! God has made us accepted in the Beloved (Eph 1:6).

In the covenant of grace, God takes all the initiative:

He loves us first (1 John 4:19)He forgives us first (Col 2:13)He accepts us first (Rom 15:7)

…and all we can do is respond to what he has done.

You need to settle this in your heart. You are not a son or daughter because you avoid unclean things. You are a child of God because you have been adopted:

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. (Rom 8:15-16)

So what is Paul saying when he says “touch no unclean thing and you will be my sons and daughters”? He is not saying we purify ourselves to become his children. Rather, we purify ourselves because we are his children. He is saying the same thing that John says here:

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. (1 John 3:2-3)

Do you see? Paul and John are painting pictures of the holy lifestyle that holy people live.

It’s be holy, not do holy

Some people read these scriptures on purification and conclude, “I have to separate myself and withdraw from the world and make myself holy.” Yet Jesus never told his disciples to withdraw from the world. In fact, he sent them into the world while praying that God would “sanctify them in it” (see John 17:15–18). Paul said something similar:

I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people—not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. (1 Cor 5:9-10)

Jesus didn’t avoid sinners – he loved sinners. He ate with them and revealed God’s grace to them. Same with Paul. He travelled to some of the most pagan places on earth and he brought the aroma of Christ with him. Same with us. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are God’s mobile home. Everywhere we go, there Jesus is.

Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. (2 Cor 7:1)

This is a favorite scripture of holiness preachersbecause it’s a new covenant exhortation that can be made to sound like an old covenant command. But it must not be read through a graceless lens as though you could somehow perfect yourself through dead works.

Christ is our holiness and he is already perfect. How can you improve upon perfection? By his one offering he has perfected those that are sanctified (Heb 10:14). One with the Lord, you are just as holy and perfect as he is. That’s the gospel truth.

We cannot improve upon or perfect what Christ has done. This is not about withdrawing from society or locking yourself away in the hope of perfecting yourself. That’s how cults form!

In this passage Paul is saying, “Don’t get distracted by worldly concerns. Don’t follow or join yourself to those who reject Jesus. Don’t tear yourself in half by saying yes to the Lord and yes to those who oppose him. Don’t let the world manipulate and label you and diminish you, but stand secure as a dearly-loved child of God.”

Live as a beloved and accepted child of God and you will never be seduced by the hollow promises of this world. You will be free!

ARE THERE DEGREES OF JUDGEMENT ?

Jesus once told a parable about servants

getting beaten up and cut to pieces by their master. It sounds like a sadistic version of Downtown Abbey. And it’s a story that fills many Christians with terror:

That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. (Luke 12:47-48)

What are we to make of Jesus’ words? They seem so inconsistent with the grace and unconditional forgiveness that he demonstrated on the cross. I guess what we need is balance. We need to remember that Jesus frequently beat his lazy disciples, sometimes with many blows, and sometimes with a few. We also need to remember that God scourges his children and his whippings are a sign that he loves us.

Of course this is not true! Jesus did no such thing and your Father doesn’t scourge you!

But according to the nose-punching preacher, he might, so you’d better get busy. You’d better change, you lazy Christian, and starting producing his fruit. Because one day the master will return, line up his servants, and beat them according to their faithfulness.

I’m being facetious so that you might see how thoroughly ridiculous this picture of Jesus is. Yet it is a picture that is regularly preached. We are told that God judges us and there are degrees to his judgment. Those who sin ignorantly get lesser punishment while those who sin willfully get a greater punishment:

If you lose your job it’s because you sinned. And if you lose your child then you must’ve sinned big. You need to repent!

This is a most wicked message yet I hear these sorts of stories all the time. When a natural disaster strikes or there is a shoot-up at the local school, and you can bet your house that some self-appointed prophet will say God is judging the nation for its sin.

Law = degrees of judgment

“But doesn’t the Bible indicate degrees of punishment?” Indeed, it does – in the law. Under the law-keeping covenant, different sacrifices were required for different sins (see Lev. 4). Unintentional sins required one kind of sacrifice while intentional sins required another kind of sacrifice. This seems fair, doesn’t it? Small sin = small punishment; big sin = big punishment.

But there’s a problem. In God’s eyes, sin is sin. Since the smallest sin is enough to mar the sublime perfection of his holiness, the smallest sin is enough to disqualify you from his holy presence. As a friend of mine describes it, the law is like a plate-glass window that you can just as easily break with a piano as with a BB-gun pellet. Sin big or sin small and you’re a law-breaker either way.

Read the old covenant and you will find chapter after chapter prescribing different remedies for sin. But read the new and you will only find this:

He sacrificed himself once and for all, summing up all the other sacrifices in this sacrifice of himself, the final solution of sin. (Heb 9:26b, MSG)

Under law, there are many sacrifices for sin, but under grace there is only one – Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Christ’s sacrificial death is the once and final solution for all your sin – past, present, and future.

Grace = no degrees of judgment

I am not saying there are no consequences to sin. Sin is destructive. Sin hurts people. I am saying that under grace it is meaningless to talk about degrees of judgment. Either Jesus paid the penalty in full or he didn’t – there’s no in-between.

It’s important that you see the difference between law and grace. Under law, you have to work down your sin debt and the bigger the debt the more you must work. But under grace, Jesus has cancelled the debt and you don’t have to work because he already did!

So all this talk about degrees of judgment and greater condemnation for certain types of sin seems rather pointless.

No zombies in the House of Grace

“John,  you have referred to the old covenant law. But what about that New Testament verse where James says teachers will be judged more strictly (Jas 3:1)?” Do you really think Jesus is going to line up all the teachers on Judgment Day and beat some of them? As I have explained elsewhere, that’s not what James was saying at all.

In the final analysis, there are no degrees of judgment. You’re either in or out, dead or alive, a sheep or a goat. There are no half-goats or half-sheep or zombies in the kingdom of God.

So what does Jesus mean when he says, “the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows”? Does he mean that some of the sheep are going to be taken aside and given a quick beating before being admitted into heaven? Does he mean some of the goats will be given fire extinguishers for their trip to hell?

Okay, I’m being facetious again. But I can’t help it because I have heard all sorts of silly sermons about proportional punishments and greater judgments based on this one scripture. I’ve heard smart people say dumb things like, “God judges us according to our knowledge of sin.” No he doesn’t. That’s the old covenant. In the new God does not judge us according to sin at all, but according to Jesus.

The fact that we are even having this conversation shows us how sin-focused we have become. We need to renew our minds, stop dwelling on our badness and our remedial works, and focus instead on Christ’s goodness and his finished work.

Brennan Manning used to say:

I am now utterly convinced that on Judgment Day the Lord Jesus is going to ask each of us one question and only one question: “Did you believe that I loved you?”

The ultimate question we must ask ourselves is notHave I done good or bad? or Have I balanced my bad deeds with good deeds? The ultimate question we must ask is, What have I done with Jesus? It’s how we answerthis question that leads to the different responses Jesus describes in the story.

Open Access to God

We were created by God to be His children and enjoy unbroken fellowship and intimacy with Him.

“All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.”Ephesians 1: 4-8 (NLT)

Mankind lost relationship with the Heavenly Father through first Adam, but is restored back to fellowship through last Adam –Jesus Christ “ And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins.”Romans 5: 16 (NLT)

“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.”Romans 3: 23-24 
Before the fall, Adam and Eve walked with God in the cool of the evening in fellowship. Then, when Adam sinned against God by eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, it brought death to mankind’s relationship with God. 

Man was cut off from intimacy with God and unable to be in God’s presence because of sinfulness. No matter how hard man tries in himself he can never make himself worthy to be in God’s presence, or restore himself back into right relationship with God. The role of the law covenant was to reveal to mankind how futile it is to try and relate to God through our own self-righteousness.
It’s only by receiving the gift of righteousness that we are restored back to that high place of close relationship with God. 

We can now enjoy intimate fellowship with him! Now our relationship with God is not based on our imperfect performance or our self-righteousness, but on the perfect righteousness that we have in Christ. We have peace with God and open access to Him “Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.”Romans 5: 1-2 

 We have peace with God. There are no obstacles in the way to us drawing near to him. “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”Hebrews 4: 16 (NLT) 

You couldn’t be any closer to God! “For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.”Ephesians 2: 6 (NLT)

 You are always close to God! You are united with Christ and sit with him in heavenly places, and can enjoy unbroken access to perfect intimacy with him 24 hours a day. Sin cannot break your fellowship with God anymore! In the New Covenant now, even if you mess up and sin, it doesn’t cut you off from God or break your access to him, in any way! In the Old Covenant it did. That’s because the Old Covenant was a covenant cut between God and man. It was a covenant, where your relationship with God and the blessings or punishment you’d receive from him, were all based on your keeping of the law of God.
If you kept the law you would be blessed, and if you broke it you would be cursed. The problem is, because of man’s fallen state, it is impossible for anyone to perfectly keep the high standards of God’s law. 

Man is always going to fall short, and therefore, suffer the consequences. One of the consequences is broken fellowship with God. But the New Covenant is a covenant that God didn’t make with man, but between the Father and the Son, Jesus. That’s why it’s not reliant on our performance but on Christ’s perfect performance. God brought us into Christ and that’s how we come into this New Covenant. This is a much better arrangement! 

The good news is that now God relates to you through Christ’s perfect righteousness in you, and not your performance, whether good or bad! Therefore, you can have perfect and unbroken fellowship with God 24/ 7.

The proof of this is that the Holy Spirit does not leave you when you sin. If your sin made you unholy, the Holy Spirit would have to leave until you were made holy again. Then you’d have to be re-baptized in the Holy Spirit. This would have to happen every time you sinned! No, Jesus said in John 14: 16 that the Holy Spirit will never leave you. This demonstrates that we don’t have to be fearful ever again of being separated from the love of God but can walk in boldness in our relationship with him no matter what! 

“So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, ‘Abba, Father.’ For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory.”Romans 8: 15–17 (NLT)

“What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us... 38And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:31-34,38,39 (NLT)