Pages

Saturday, January 31, 2015

Pastoral Pings ~ Delighting in the God who Searches and Knows

Delighting in the God who Searches and Knows

Here is a phrase that has touched my heart deeply this morning, “O LORD, you have searched me and known me!” (Psalm 139:1). Many people can relate to the heartache of people they love not taking the time to get to know them, or thinking they know them well enough to reject them. On the other hand, God Most High searches his children to know them.

When David tries to take this expression of glorious light and break it down into the beautiful colors of its spectrum, he describes this wonderful gift of God with these words:

·         “you know…”
·         “you discern…”
·         “you search…”
·         “you are acquainted with…”
·         “you know it altogether…”
·         “you hem me in…”
·         “you lay your hand upon me.”

The picture is of God the Father actively knowing his children in every way we can imagine being known. We have someone who wants to be our Father in intimate, loving relationship, even though he knows us, discerns what we are like, searches into the deepest parts of our being, is acquainted with everything about us, knows what we are doing altogether completely, hems us in so that we cannot escape that we are the center of his attention, and lays his hand upon us as the children he wants to have for himself, the sheep he wants to be in his flock, the little lambs he wants to gather in his arms and carry close to his heart (Isaiah 40:11).

It is no wonder that David’s response to the way God knows his children is described like this, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.”[1]When this is placed in contrast to all our life experiences where people walk away from us with such little knowledge of who we are, and such little effort to get to know us, and yet the God of heaven searches us out so he can know us intimately and personally, we are left with these feelings David tries to describe.

The fact is, to be known as God knows his children is the most remarkable thought we could ever feel. Who but our Father in heaven could give us a feeling of wonderful that is “too” wonderful for us to contain. Only God could surround us with such thoughts of how wonderfully he loves us that they rise up so high that we cannot reach the top of the pile.

Now, while our earthly life gives us this exceptional joy of constantly knowing the Father whose knowing of us is beyond words or explanations, this is the hope that is set before us, just waiting for its appointed day: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (I Corinthians 13:12).

God has brought his children to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ so that we could have the eternal life that is knowing God (John 3:16; 17:3). He leads us into this growing awareness of how much he knows us, and how amazingly wonderful it is to think about how much he lovingly knows us. And he sets before us this reality that is waiting for us in heaven, that one day we will know what it feels like to “know fully.” And, this knowing fully is by a very distinctive measure, the measure of, “even as I have been fully known.”

This means that, in the way that we marvel at how much God knows us, and constantly searches our hearts as a Father who wants to personally know his children, he is leading us to know him now in the growing conformity to Christ that is “from one degree of glory to another” (II Corinthians 3:18), with that final experience of eternity where we will know fully, even as we have been fully known.

So, we get to enjoy the wonder of the way God knows us now, while looking forward to something far better waiting for us in heaven. No wonder such thoughts are too wonderful for us. But close enough to enjoy the little bits of wonder we can experience of God knowing us and loving us right in the here and now.

© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)





[1] Psalm 139:6

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Lessons With Children - A Smoothie On its Way

Last night we had some of our daycare friends stay for a sleepover. This meant that the kids saw parts of our morning routine that they would not normally see. As a 3 year old boy was passing through the kitchen, he saw how far along I was in making the daycare's morning smoothie, and he said, "I don't like green smoothies." I told him I wasn't finished yet, and that this is the same way I make their smoothie every day. When I was finished, adding the distinctive color of frozen blueberries, he could then see that it looked the way he expected.

This reminded me of the way that God is always at his work, working things in us that he wants us to will and to work for his good pleasure and our complete joy, but he may show us parts of his work that look quite different from the finished product. If we imagine that he is "done", we will treat such work as a mistake; or we will respond with a "I don't like green smoothies," kind of reaction.

On the other hand, if we sincerely believe that God is working towards that final end of fully restoring us to the image and likeness of his Son, understanding that there is a lot of not-like-Jesus stuff in us to get rid of, we can accept that the ongoing work of God will not always look even remotely close to the finished product his word speaks about.

There will be days in our lives that God's refining furnace has just started a work that leaves us extremely aware of the dross in our lives. Sometimes that is all we can see, the things that are wrong with us. But, if we understand the Beatitudinal journey from poverty of spirit, through mourning, and into a meekness that hungers and thirsts for righteousness, we can accept the green-smoothie days that we know are on their way to something better.

Well, the smoothies are done. As usual, the finished product tastes great, almost like I must be cheating on something it tastes so good. If anyone saw what I started with, and didn't realize that I had to do the work of removing the banana and orange peels before adding them to the mix, they might have worried that the final result would not be too a-peeling (or be too a-peeling, if you will).

However, knowing that the removing of parts of the fruit and vegetables is just as important as what is saved, and that it is the collection of fruits and vegetables into a final product that makes the addition of each individual item absolutely sensible, we can face today's inclusion of ingredients knowing that our Father in heaven will not fail to complete the finished product just as his word has described the recipe for a couple of millennia.

© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Pastoral Pings (Plus) ~ The Obedient Faith of God's Beloved


"Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure."[1]

          This morning I was drawn to the “always obeyed” in reference to working out our salvation with fear and trembling when the apostles are absent. This is particularly significant because what it means to “obey” in the new covenant is often confused with commands of the old covenant.
          This took me back to a phrase Paul used in both his introduction and conclusion to the book of Romans. It is hugely significant as his theme, and a thorough journey through Romans would see how he is arguing this as one of his main points.
          In his intro to Romans, Paul wrote, “…through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations”.[2] In his conclusion he said, “…but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith.[3]
          The question is, does “obedience of faith” mean to bring about faith as an act of obedience to something, or does it mean that Paul was teaching the kind of obedience that comes from faith rather than from the law? Is it possible it could even mean both?
          I looked at the phrase from both standpoints, and realized that neither possibility allows for the idea that our obedience includes keeping the law, as obedience would have been measured under the old covenant. If “obedience of faith” refers to the kind of faith that is the obedient response to the gospel, then it is just that, the faith that is ours by grace,[4] responding to the command of God, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household”.[5]
          This idea that our faith is the obedient response to the command to believe is what John says in one of the passages we have been considering in I John. There he writes, “we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us”.[6] John said that “his commandment” is to “believe” in Jesus, so Paul could be speaking of this, that faith is the obedient response to the gospel command to believe in Jesus. Of course, Paul was very clear that we are saved by grace through faith, not by the “work” of believing in Jesus.[7]
          On the other hand, the idea that the “obedience of faith,” refers to the kind of obedience that faith produces is also taught by Paul when he adds that “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them”.[8] There is a way that obedience comes from faith differently than the way obedience comes from law. Faith causes us to walk with God in the things he prepared for us, while law calls us to do a whole bunch of things so that we can be good enough to walk with God.
          I ended up focusing on a passage in Acts 15 where the church leaders in Jerusalem were confronted with an issue of the Jewish believers who were still in the Pharisee party. These “believers” thought that the church should respond to the Gentiles[9] coming to faith in Christ by telling them that, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses”.[10] The rest of the chapter answers this question: are Gentiles to be circumcised and taught to keep the law of Moses when they come to faith in Jesus Christ?
          What was presented so clearly was that such a demand was a burden that was not required (I will share my notes on that separately for anyone who would like to read it). The church did ask the Gentiles to be respectful of where the Jews were coming from by observing some things, “that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality”.[11] These seem to be things that were not “requirements” of the law on the church, but more a way of showing respect to the Jewish population in a way that they were neither keeping the law of Moses, not unduly disrespecting the Jews.
          What does this mean to me? The more I look at Scripture in light of the frequent new testament references to our obedience, the more I find the peace of God settling into my heart as to the clarity the gospel, that we are saved by grace through faith, not of works, so that none of us can boast.
          We can look at “the obedience of faith,” in its interpretation that Paul was sent to bring Gentiles to obey the call of the gospel by putting their faith in Jesus Christ, or its other possible meaning of Paul preaching a gospel in which the obedience that came out of faith was far different than the obedience that came out of law. Perhaps it is a truth-packed phrase covering the dual way that the grace of God brings us to the faith that obeys the gospel, and the obedience that arises from our faith.
          Either way, there is nothing to do with obedience in the church that is based on Gentile believers keeping the law of Moses. We obey the call of the gospel with an obedient response of faith that is only by grace, and we come to life in Jesus Christ with a faith that now does the good works God prepared for us to do. Everything to do with obedience is about faith.
          When we apply this to the picture of Philippians 2:12-13, everything begins with “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Our faith in God’s work is our first expression of response to this work of God already taking place within us. Once our faith begins responding to this inner work of God in our lives and churches, it then leads us to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Faith first responds to the work of God within us, and then expresses that work by fellowshipping with God in the things he is doing.
          And, of course, the people who relate to God like this are called his “beloved.” Faith must believe that we are beloved in order for us to feel like God’s children joining our Father in his work. When faith agrees with God’s revelation that we are his beloved, it then seeks out the relationship that brings us closest to him, which is joining the work that he is working in us.

© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)





[1] Philippians 2:12-13
[2] Romans 1:5
[3] Romans 16:26
[4] Ephesians 2:8-9
[5] Acts 16:31
[6] I John 3:22-23
[7] Ephesians 2:8-9
[8] Ephesians 2:10
[9] Gentiles refers to the non-Jewish people
[10] Acts 15:5
[11] Acts 15:29

Monday, January 26, 2015

Video ~ A Peacemaker's Workout For Church-Building Wisdom

Lately, our home church has been looking at ways we can better understand a central theme in the book of Philippians. It is stated as, 

"Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13). 

What we have been processing is how to walk in this relationship with God where he is always working things into us, and we are always working them out. To help us with that, we are looking at other statements of God's will in this letter to the churches. As we consider each exhortation, we are looking at how God will be working those things into us so we have the will to do them, and then put them into practice with our "work". The more we recognize the things he has already said about his will, the better we can work out these aspects of our salvation with fear and trembling, or reverence and awe.

Here is the Sunday morning message where we connected Philippians 2:3-4 with this theme. This passage states, "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." In this message we explore how to work these things out together, knowing that God is most certainly working to have us will and work these things into (or out of) the life of the church.


© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Pastoral Pings ~ The Wisdom of the Peacemakers


          As I have been considering how to work out our salvation with fear and trembling in relation to dealing with people who have hurt us, wronged us, even abused us, it has helped to go through James’ contrast between the wisdom of the world, and the wisdom that comes down from above.[1]
          Today the characteristic that suddenly stood out very strongly is James’ description of the “wisdom from above,” as “peaceable.”[2] As I began to consider this through the mindset of God’s work in us, it became clear in a very convicting, helpful, and timely way.
          Since working out our salvation with fear and trembling is in relation to God working in us to will and to work for his good pleasure,[3] and the wisdom he sends from above includes this quality of “peaceable,” God will be working in us to will things that express this quality, and to work things that express this fruit of the Spirit.[4]
          This means that we can look at the exact circumstances we are in, and the people God is bringing into our lives, and whatever difficulties that might be presented by the way other people are doing things, or the hurts that still linger from what people have done in the past, and we can recognize within us that God is working to give us a will for peace.
          To clarify, God is working in us, with everybody around us, to get us to have a will that is peaceable. We can bring anyone to mind, any situation we are facing, any circumstance, and know that there is a way that God is working in us to will the peaceable way of doing things.
          At the same time as God is working in us to have a will for the peaceable fruit of his wisdom, he is also working in us to work out things that will be the peaceable way of doing things in any relationship situation we are facing.
          Again, it is not the person or people in the relational circumstance that decides how we relate to them, but the God who sends us his distinctive wisdom, and gives us his Son as our Savior, the Prince of Peace.[5] Everything God is working for good in our lives[6] will include him moving us to be the peaceable ones in any encounter with anyone. This is not our wisdom, or the wisdom that comes from below, but it is what comes from above, so it is the way God is working in us to will and to work for his good pleasure.
          When we work out our salvation with fear and trembling, knowing what God is working in us for peaceableness towards everyone, we can take very seriously that this is the only way we want to act. We look at scary people, not with fear of them, but with fear and trembling of God and what he is working into us.
          At the end of any encounter with anyone, no matter what they have done to us in the past, and no matter what they are doing to us now, we want to walk away knowing we worked out what God was working into us. We want to be able to leave a planned visit, or a surprise encounter, with that peaceful feeling that we did towards everyone what was peaceable.
          To encourage us with the necessity of working with God in our peaceableness towards everyone, James concludes this section, “And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”[7] What this sounds like to me is that, those who live by the wisdom from above, who work out their salvation with fear and trembling, or those “who make peace,” or are “peaceable.”
          What these peaceable ones reap as their harvest is “righteousness.” What they do with this harvest of righteousness is that it is then “sown,” or replanted. As it is “sown in peace,” by those who “make peace,” the harvest of righteousness continues.
          In the same way as a farmer will plant his grain, and when he harvests his grain he uses some of that grain as seed for the next crop, James is showing us that the “harvest of righteousness” that comes to those who “make peace,” is once again “sown in peace,” continuing a cycle of blessing among the peacemakers of the kingdom of heaven.
          I know that when God speaks so clearly through his word it is in preparation for something he is doing. As prophet Amos told us, “For the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets,”[8] and Paul tells us that God is working in us to will and to work for his good pleasure,[9] if God is getting my attention so strongly on the wisdom of peaceableness, I can expect that he is stirring up my heart to be willing to walk in this wisdom, because something is about to happen that will require me to work that kind of peaceableness into a situation that may be anything but peaceful.
          If this quality of wisdom is so important to my heavenly Father, I can be sure that he wants me to receive it from him first, and then use it in every situation I face with anyone whatsoever. If you sense the way he is working in you to will and to work for the peaceableness that is an expression of his good pleasure, be sure you join me in the readiness to work out this peaceable quality of our salvation with fear and trembling, no matter who or what we face in the coming days.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”[10]

© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)






[1] James 3:13-18
[2] vs 17
[3] Philippians 2:12-13
[4] Galatians 5:22-23
[5] Isaiah 9:6
[6] Romans 8:28-30
[7] James 3:18
[8] Amos 3:7
[9] Philippians 2:12-13
[10] Matthew 5:9

Friday, January 23, 2015

Pastoral Ponderings ~ The Selfless Fear of the Wise and Understanding


          As God has been unfolding the theme of, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure,”[1]it has become clear that the only way we can do that is with the transforming experience of the new birth.[2]The only way we can “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit,”[3] is if we put off the old self, renew our minds, and put on the new self.[4]
          My consideration of how necessary it is that we rely on God for the working out of his will in or lives led me to this positive exhortation from James, “Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.”[5]
          It is obvious, throughout the whole of Scripture that God seeks out those who are “wise and understanding.” Proverbs speak of the fear of the LORD as the beginning of wisdom, knowledge and understanding,[6] just as Paul calls us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. There is something about us being wise and understanding that is such a reflection of God that this is his constant work in us.
          It is no wonder that God is so clear to describe what Worldlings are like so that we will stop trying to be like them. He describes them with things like:
·         Futile minds
·         Darkened understanding
·         Alienation from God
·         Ignorance
·         Hardness of heart
·         Callousness
·         Yielding to sensuality
·         Greedy for impurity. [7]
          In other words, one way that the believer in Jesus Christ holds the wisdom and understanding of God in such high regard is to see how ignorant the Worldlings are who are living in bondage to the flesh. By the time we hear God’s word telling us that there is no room in the church for selfish ambition, conceit, or looking out only for our own interests, things that express the ignorance and hardness of Worldlings, we have been so surrounded by the true teaching that the fear of the LORD brings us into the wisdom and understanding and knowledge that enables us to truly live for and with God.
          What we must appreciate is that there is nothing in this wisdom or understanding that comes from the sark, the flesh, the self that wants to dominate our lives with ignorance. In fact, as James shows that the people who are wise and understanding show “the meekness of wisdom,” by their “good conduct,” Paul has shown how the Worldlings show their ignorance and hardness of heart through their bad conduct. This is, in fact, what James is showing in the Scripture at hand, that the kind of wisdom we have will show in the kind of things we do. There is an earthly, unspiritual, demonic wisdom that produces all kinds of “disorder and every vile practice.”[8] There is a heavenly wisdom, “the wisdom from above,”[9]that is, “full of mercy and good fruits.”
          By the time James identifies, “who is wise and understanding among you,” there is no doubt that this is the will and work of God in our lives and churches. God is at work to give us the will for wisdom and understanding, and to give us the work of gaining wisdom and understanding through the fear of Yahweh. He is at work to lead us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, clearly identifying a life that expresses the fear of the LORD that is the beginning of our wisdom and understanding.
          However, we can never limit this fear of the LORD that is the beginning of wisdom and understanding to the picture of a teacher we meet with who teaches us, and then we go off to do the things we are taught. This is not an independent picture. In fact, it is the sark that interprets such Bible teachings as independent and autonomous, while the new heart God has given us seeks out the unity and harmony and togetherness of the body of Christ because that is what God is working into us to will and to work for his good pleasure.[10]        
          What James is telling the church is that, if we have “the meekness of wisdom” at all, and we are the “wise and understanding” of the church, we will show our “works” of wisdom by our “good conduct.” A tree is known by its fruit,[11]and the fruit of wisdom and understanding is “good conduct.”
          When we keep this picture of wisdom, understanding, and good conduct together, we see that the reality of wisdom within us, which has come to us through the fear of Yahweh, is the relational experience described all through Scripture, and very highly exalted in the New Testament. Eternal life is to know God.[12]Working out our salvation with fear and trembling is in this eternal-life relationship with God where we know him as the one who is working in us to will and to work for his good pleasure and our complete joy.
          When Paul was teaching us how to live in fellowship with God, he said that this would mean we must put off all selfish ambition, conceit, and self-interest. James adds to this teaching when he says, “But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.”[13]
          If we have the heart transformation that enables us to live for God, any “bitter jealousy and selfish ambition” is contrary to the work of God in our lives. Therefore, we are not to boast that we are handling things in our lives with
bitter jealousy and selfish ambition. To promote such expressions of the sark is to “be false to the truth.” The truth we received in Jesus teaches us to be like Jesus, so any characteristics that are contrary to him come from the sark, not the Spirit.
          James does not leave this with “jealousy” alone, but qualifies it as “bitter” jealousy, because he wants to emphasize the truth of what jealousy in the church is like, and what it does. He does not speak of “ambition” alone, but identifies this ambition as “selfish.” It is not the ambition of a good heart, but the ambition of a bad heart.
          When there is jealousy that others have something we do not have, it will divide us because we are nurturing negative feelings towards those people. When there is selfish ambition, the promoting of self divides the church by nurturing a focus on ourselves to the inclusion of the rest of the church. As each person focuses on themselves, and their own interests, there is such a divided focus that there is invariably a divided church.
          James continues, “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.”[14] The point is that, if we allow the kind of “wisdom” where everyone looks out for themselves, it creates a “disorder” that is contrary to the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,[15] and it makes a breeding ground for “every vile practice” that is contrary to the righteousness and purity of the nature of Christ within us.
          When I think of this in relation to abused people who are still thinking of what abusive people do to them, the issue here is not being a doormat to abusers, but whether we are operating out of bitter jealousy and selfish ambition. At least in part, we could say that, if we respond to the abusive, unjust things going on around us with the same sarky qualities that cause people to do the things we hate, we are going to destroy ourselves by drinking the same poison that has poisoned their souls.
          God is not calling abused and traumatized people to let other people abuse us with their bitter jealousy and selfish ambition. This is not a tradeoff between whether we are the ones who rule the church with bitter jealousy and selfish ambition, or whether we let other people rule the church with bitter jealousy and selfish ambition. If the church allows anyone to run the church with bitter jealousy and selfish ambition, it will fill the church with discord and vile practices.
          The apostles were working to keep the church from using the fruit of the flesh to run the church. Anything sarky would ruin the church. Even those who come to Christ out of abuse, and need help to get over the trauma they experienced, still have a choice whether they are going to handle these things in the flesh or in the Spirit. There is a way that traumatized people can get healing that leads to joyful fellowship, but it is by the Spirit, never by anything of the flesh.
          What God is clearly driving home to me, and applying to very personal issues of my life, is that there is no excuse whatsoever for the child of God to do anything in the sark. He has poured out his Spirit into the church. He has given us a new nature that is created to be holy and righteous. The sark will keep trying to tell us what we cannot do, or urging us to do things we shouldn’t. The church that bands together to work out our salvation with fear and trembling will always find that God is working in us to will and to work for his good pleasure and our complete joy, so let’s abide in Jesus Christ and join him in his work.

© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, Canada, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)




[1] Philippians 2:12-13
[2] I Peter 1:3-5
[3] Philippians 2:3-4
[5] James 3:13
[6] Psalm 111:10; Proverbs 1:7; 9:10; 15:33
[7] Ephesians 4:17-19
[8] James 3:16
[9] James 3:17
[10] Romans 12:16; 15:5; Ephesians 4:13; Colossians 3:14; I Peter 3:8
[11] Matthew 12:33; Luke 6:44
[12] John 17:3
[13] James 3:14
[14] James 3:16
[15] Ephesians 4:3

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Pastoral Panoramic Ponderings ~ The Changing of the Selfs


          How is it that the adopted children of God are able to “do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves”?[1] The answer is, by exchanging the old self for the new.
          What has become very clear for me this week is that we cannot use the old self, the sark, to get us out of the mess that the sark has created. This is why Jesus came into the world to save sinners;[2] it’s because no one in the world was able to change what they were doing, because no one could create a new self to do things differently than all the original selves were behaving.
          When God’s word calls his children to do impossible things like removing all selfish ambition from the church, eradicating all conceit, and having the freedom to look out for the interests of others above our own,[3]it is not presenting something hopeless. It’s presenting something that needs a new self, and it gives us the new self that will do what is needed.
          There is such a clear distinction between Worldlings and Christians that Paul declares as loudly and strongly as pen can speak off of paper, “But that is not the way you learned Christ!”[4]The believer in Jesus Christ did not learn Christ through the flesh. We were not taught Christ as Worldlings, but as those who were made alive in Christ.
          So, Paul explains, “assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus.”[5] Here is the decisive difference. There is falsehood in the world, and there is “truth in Jesus.” The way we live in the church is not in the falsehood that we used to handle our childhoods, but in the truth that is in Jesus Christ our Lord.
          Now, here are three significant, transforming steps that happened to us, that must guide us still. The things we were taught “as the truth is in Jesus,” are these:
“to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”[6]

1.       The Old Self

          The first thing Paul confronts is “your old self.” We were not taught to live in that “old self,” but to “put off” our old self. We put off that old self because it “belongs to your former manner of life.” The life where we relied on the old self to handle everything is the “former” life, not the present life. The reason we must treat that old self as former and not present is that it “is corrupt through deceitful desires.” We cannot live the new life we have in Jesus Christ by a self that is corrupt, that expresses desires that are deceitful.
          That does not mean that we are consciously deceitful towards others, although this may be the fruit of the old self’s deceitfulness. It means that the old self has desires that are deceitful towards us. The old self deceives us into thinking that its desires are good, and that it is taking care of us, and that it knows what is best, even while it is deceiving us into corrupt things, broken things, messed-up things, hopeless and meaningless things, without-God things.
          It is no wonder that Paul says that we were already taught to “put off” this old self. We were not told to fix it, or to bring it to Christ for regeneration. This is a part of our lives that cannot be fixed, cannot be saved, cannot be mended, cannot be helped. It is an enemy of our souls, and the only thing we can do with it is put it off.

2.       The Renewed Mind

          After putting off the filthy old self, we need a bath. Paul says that the thing we were already taught as the truth is in Jesus is, “to be renewed in the spirit of your minds.” The spirit of our minds was once deceived by the old self. It’s thoughts were corrupted by the deceitful desires the old self expressed. Our minds were consumed with selfishness, and selfish ambitions, and conceit, because that is the only way the old self can think.
          Once we take off this old self, we were taught in Jesus to submit to his work of renewing our minds. In Romans Paul described it as, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.[7] What we are given in Jesus Christ is mind-renewal. We cannot get it anywhere else. Any of the world’s offerings of transcendental meditation, celebrity-spirituality, new age thoughts and feelings, religions and atheism, are expressions of the “deceitful desires” of our old self.
          When we come to Jesus, coming to know him as, “the way, and the truth, and the life,”[8]we are given renewed minds. Our minds are made alive towards God so that we can know and understand the spiritually discerned things he is teaching us. He is now working in us to will things that we choose to work out with him through our renewed minds. He is working in us to work things that are according to his “good and acceptable and perfect” will,[9] and we must join this work by being “renewed in the spirit of our minds” every day.

3.       The New Self

          After taking off the filthy garments of the old self, and taking a bath in the mind-renewal of the Lord Jesus Christ (which is not the same as brain-washing), we have been taught as the truth is in Jesus “to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
          While the old self is corrupt and deceitful, there is a new self that is “created” completely different. This is why we do not bring the old self to God for fixing or mending. This is why we do not use our old self to work out the things God is working into our lives. This is why Paul must have us convinced that there is no room in our lives for selfish ambition and conceit. The new self simply doesn’t do those things.
          To encourage us with how different the new self is from the old, Paul says that this new self is “created” for something. We did not create it, we do not need to fabricate it, and we do not need to make it work. We only need to put it on, because it is already created to do what God has created it to do.
          When we consider what God is doing in his people now, it all has to do with being restored to the image and likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Since the old self is so corrupt and deceitful that it could never make us like Jesus (and has no interest in trying), God gave us the means of becoming born again,[10] of becoming new creations in our Lord Jesus Christ,[11] and he did this by giving us a new self that is created “after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
          What this means is that, no matter what we are facing, and no matter how much we have already given in to the old self in the past, every day can be a further transformation into the likeness of God because we have been given a new self to help us, to lead us, to direct us into these things. While God is working in us to will and to work according to his righteous and holy good pleasure, we have a new self that can work out those things with fear and trembling.
          What would this look like? It would look like the poor in spirit facing our utter failure to do this on our own, and facing the mess that our reliance on our old self has brought into our lives.[12]         
          We let our hearts mourn what we have done,[13] what our old self has done, and how we have failed to be the righteous and holy children of God by our own efforts because we were deceived by the old self.
          We stay on these things with fear and trembling as we feel that there is this meek resignation within us that we cannot fix what we have done. We cannot make up for anything. We cannot add enough good works to the scale to outweigh our bad works. That is just another deception of the old self. [14]
          And so, as this meekness overtakes our souls, humbles us, brings us to the end of ourselves (thankfully), we find within us this gracious gift of hunger and thirst for righteousness.[15] We hunger for this gift of God, that we could live by this new self already created after the likeness of God, already in the image of Jesus Christ, already given to us to put on, already ready to lead us to  be “transformed into the same image” as Jesus Christ, “from one degree of glory to another.”[16]
          And, as our impoverished, mourning, meek, and hungering souls cry out to God with the clarity of thought and mind that comes from putting off the old self, and being renewed in the spirit of our minds, God fulfills his promise to us that, “those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”[17]
          When we come to this idea that we work out our salvation with fear and trembling because it is God working in us to will and to work for his good pleasure,[18]we are talking about a church full of Christians who have put off the old self so that there is no room for selfish ambition, conceit, or putting our interests before others. They have and still are corporately being renewed in the spirit of their minds; and everyone together is helping each other every day to put on the new self that is created to be like Jesus in true righteousness and holiness.
          We can do this in the most messed up, heartbreaking, experiences of our lives. Absolutely everything can be brought into a church that will keep addressing selfish ambition, and helping each other put off the old self that keeps tricking us into conceited thoughts and feelings. The renewal of our minds, and the new self we put on, enable us to work out every issue of our salvation with fear and trembling, because God has given us the new self to do this, and he is constantly and personally working in us to will the things that are his good pleasure, and to work the things that are his good pleasure. The new self already wants to do that in the same intimate fellowship with the Father as Jesus experienced and emulated. So we can join as the one body of Christ, the one new man, to grow up in these things for the good of the whole body of Christ.
          What do I expect to happen next? That I will feel God working in me to “will” specific things to do with specific people in specific circumstances that I can only do by putting on the new Christlike self, and then he will hand me circumstances in which it will be clear what “work” he is working into me with the people who walk into some situation as a divine appointment just waiting to happen.
          I know that, as I also put on this new self, seeking fellowship with God’s people to help each other do this together, the Holy Spirit will lead me into the born again kind of experiences that are something like the wind that, “blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”[19]

© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)


[1] Philippians 2:3
[2] I Timothy 1:15
[3] Philippians 2:4
[4] Ephesians 4:20
[5] Ephesians 4:21
[6] Ephesians 4:22-24
[7] Romans 12:1-2
[8] John 14:6
[9] Romans 12:2
[10] John 3:1-8; John 3:1-36 for the broader context, and how Jesus taught us how to be born again by faith.
[11] II Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15
[12] Matthew 5:3
[13] Matthew 5:4
[14] Matthew 5:5
[15] Matthew 5:6
[16] II Corinthians 3:18
[17] Matthew 5:6
[18] Philippians 2:12-13
[19] John 3:8