Me, me, me

And he (Jesus) said to all, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." -Luke 9:23

In the middle of January, I began studying an ethic called Egoism. Egoism basically states that we as humans will ALWAYS do what is best for us. There is no such thing as doing good to, or for, others because, in theory, we want something back from them. Wanting something back can be anything from material goods, friendship, or even a hope that they might see the person doing good as a "good person." As I studied this a bit, I sat and observed those around me...and watched myself even closer.

Ever since I started observing, I noticed that the scariest thing about this theory is that I noticed myself and many other Christians thinking they can manipulate God. I started to realize that sometimes I would pray, alone or by myself, hoping that God would give me the comfort I need, make my engagement stay so amazing, etc. Now, I must say, God does do those things but I believe when we have the lenses on to look at ourselves and benefit ourselves instead of our eyes to God, then we are egoists manipulating God.

In a recent sermon, JR Vassar explains how we lie to ourselves and to God so often to try to look good for others. He explains a lot of this comes from our high view of self-importance. He gives an illustration about this. He said, "Everytime any of us bought a yearbook, what was the first thing we did? We flipped back to the index, found our name, and turned straight to our own picture." So true!!!

I believe our lives are still like this, I know mine is. This egoism theory really jacked me up because, as I watched myself closely, a lot of what I do is secretly for approval. I noticed we seek God's approval buy manipulating Him, we seek others approval by veiling our sin by pretending we have it all together while easily noticing others sin. A friend once told me, "if you can pinpoint a person's sin that they are trying to hide, you can be sure that you have done the same and that is why it upsets you so much at what they are doing.

I believe there is another type of egoism that I have noticed. People who deny serving others because they have an "excuse." As Christ followers, we are to love God and love others, not ourselves. This type of egoist, who serves himself/herself will work 8-12 hour days and believe serving others is not necessary because they worked a long day or something, that they have earned the right to be selfish as if their work earned them that. Christ has called us to deny ourselves DAILY. However, some believe that because they are doing so much of one thing, maybe comparing their life to another person, that they can leave the serving (whether it be praying with others, cleaning up after themselves and others, etc.) to the person who has "less going on." This is sad to see and I see it all the time in Christianity. We should consider ourselves less than the next person, no matter what the situation, social class, position, etc.

Here is the application I have got from all of my observing. If we have trusted in Christ, than it is no longer us who live but Christ who lives in us (Gal. 2:20). 1 Cor. 6:19-20 talks about our bodies being the temple of the Holy Spirit, we are not our own anymore, SO GLORIFY GOD with your body. This is not something, if you come to the realization that you ARE an egoist, that you will fix the second you are done reading this. However, we must observe ourselves and yield to glorify God. I have been praying Psalm 139:23-24 for a while now, and it is amazing how wicked the Spirit reveals me to be, but that forces me to depend on God and not myself.

I hope this does not come off as harsh, but a motivator to glorify God and serve others. This theory rattled me pretty hard, but might just be the best rattling I could have gotten.

RECONCILIATION

blessed be the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.

Romans 4:8

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Romans 5:9-10

Concerning reconciliation, John Stott writes:

“Justification is our legal standing before our judge in the court, reconciliation is our personal relationship with our Father.”

To me, reconciliation is one of the most beautiful themes, if not the most, in the entire Bible. You see, for us to be reconciled it must have once been that we were already in relationship and things were good. However, we must also recognize that for reconciliation to take place that our relationship with God was fractured, and we see this as we read Genesis 3 and from then on watch the disobedience of man against God.

The beauty of it is that “while we were enemies (Rom. 5:9),” God came and rescued us. Once again, like in propitiation and justification, we have no part in reconciliation. The Father is loving enough to not just restore us into right relationship through the death and resurrection of the Son, but we now are adopted sons and daughters with all the love possible from the Father (Rom. 8:12-17).

So what are the effects of reconciliation, other than being adopted by the Father?

The first result of reconciliation is simple, complete humility! When we rightly deserved eternal punishment (Rom. 3:23), God the Father initiated reconciliation, God the Son made it possible, and God the Holy Spirit made us new.

The second result is seen in 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 and Ephesians 4:17-24. We are to put off the old self (our sinful wicked ways) and live in obedience to God and be ambassadors of Christ. To hear more on the 2 Corinthians passage you can hear a sermon I just preached on it at www.sevensdchurch.com or go on iTunes and type in Seven San Diego Church.

So, as we ask ourselves the question I asked you two days ago to keep at the forefront of your minds, did Christ have to die for us, the answer so far is a definite yes. The Father needed a perfect sacrifice to satisfy His wrath, the Father needed a perfect man to take our punishment if we were to be seen innocent, and the Father needed Christ’s death and resurrection to restore us into right relationship with Him.

Of all these, reconciliation is by far the most personal, for we have now been restored to a VERY personal relationship with God.

JUSTIFICATION

…who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

Romans 4:25

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

Galatians 2:15-16

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.

Romans 5:18

When remembering this theological term, justification, my girlfriend remembers it’s meaning by saying it this way: “Just- as- if- I- never sinned at all.” That is very true and a good way to remember it.

Justification is actually a legal courtroom term that means to have right legal standing before God. You see, when someone puts their trust in the person and works of Jesus Christ, their guilty verdict of sin is put upon Jesus Christ (propitiation), and his innocence is imputed to them and they are completely forgiven and no longer liable to punishment (justification).

The Galatians verse I posted above (2:15-16) makes it completely clear that we are not justified by our feeble attempts to please God, but through faith in Jesus Christ alone. The term justification is just dripping with grace because it is all from God.

Picture this: There are 2 men living completely different lives. The first is a “man” who lives the perfect life. He never lies, never steals, in fact he never sins at all. He ends up becoming a well-known judge and is responsible for sentencing criminals to prison for their wrong doings. Now, the second man is a filthy criminal. He has good intentions, but overall is guilty of lying, cheating, stealing, etc. No matter how hard he tries to be “good” he ends up failing.

Imagine this: The criminal stands before the judge for all his crimes. The judge knows he is guilty but decides to take the man’s due punishment upon himself and let the guilty criminal go free. In the same way, Jesus Christ, the sinless perfect Judge has taken the punishment of all who are guilty that put their trust in Him. Those who do trust in Christ are gracefully given a completely innocent title.

We must realize that Paul did not invent the concept of justification. In the Parable of the Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14), Jesus justifies a tax collector for his humility and trust in Jesus Christ. Justification is also a concept we see laced through the Old Testament, especially in the Passover. Isaiah 53:11 says:

Out of the anguish of his (Jesus) soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

Isaiah 53:11

There is a lot more to justification than this, but I believe these basics are understandable and will give you a general understanding. If you remember these 2 parts, you will have a basic understanding: 1) Forgiveness of past sins takes place through faith in Jesus Christ 2)Christ’s righteousness (perfect life) is imputed to us through justification.

Praise God for justifying me, for I was guilty in my sin. Think through this concept today and what it means to you. Explain this to your non-believing friends.

THE CROSS

Over the next week to two weeks I will be studying and writing on the atonement. My main focus and purpose in this is to grow closer to Jesus and look a bit deeper into the cross. There is a secondary purpose to this study, which will be shown through the writing. I want my study to be a tool for the church, specifically Seven San Diego Church. A lot of times we throw around words like justification, propitiation, and reconciliation and some Christians might not understand these. However, they are highly important concepts and help make clear why Christ died on the cross, for who Christ died for on the cross, etc.

My friends, there is nothing more important than studying what Christ did on the cross. Please feel free to ask questions, write comments, or call me so we can discuss anything I do not write clearly enough for you to understand. My heart loves studying this stuff and I will do my best to make it simple and understandable. One thing I ask is that you pass on what I write to non-Christian friends and please be purposeful and missional and discuss these things with them. I hope this will bring you as much joy as it will for me.