A big part of
our home church ministry revolves around helping people find freedom from the
performance-oriented mindset of their previous church experience. Between
churches focusing on a congregational life that revolves around helping to run
programs, and painful experiences of rejection when we don’t live up to the
standards of performance of any particular group, there is a real need to help
people find freedom in “the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.”[1]
When we add to
this the number of people who have been trained through abuse to focus on
performance and good behavior, there is a great need to help people discover
all that Jesus meant when he promised soul-rest to those who came to him.[2]
This morning,
I was rereading a Scripture that has been part of my meditation the last while,
and noticed something that hadn’t stood out until now. I have been considering
what Paul meant when he told the church, “Brothers,
join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the
example you have in us.”[3]Between
the examples of Paul himself, the other apostles and Timothy, and others who
were already walking “according to the
example,” the church has plenty of help in how to work out our salvation
with fear and trembling in response to whatever God is working into us to will
and to work for his good pleasure.[4]
In fellowship
with this is what Paul told Timothy, “You
then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what
you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful
men who will be able to teach others also.”[5] Scripture
pictures our following the example of Paul and others as this four-generation
relationship of reproduction:
1.
Paul exemplifies and teaches the life in Christ
to the Church,
2.
Timothy lives according to the teaching and
example he has seen in Paul,
3.
Timothy then entrusts Paul’s example and
teaching to “faithful men,"
4.
These faithful men are “able to teach others also” to live according to both this teaching
and example.
As the church continues to be led by Timothies who can take
what was modeled by the apostles, and entrust these things to faithful men who
are able to teach these things to others, the church can grow indefinitely
until Jesus comes.
In the midst
of this, the thing that stood out today was, “be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” With things
I have been going through as of late, it was no surprise that God would call me
to this focus on his grace. However, the thing that seemed to be his particular
emphasis was the connection between “be
strengthened” and “grace."
This stood out
to me because of the completeness of the nature of grace, and yet the
requirement for us to do something. Grace is the undeserved favor of God
working in our lives to bring about something that is for our good,[6]
and God’s good pleasure.[7] If
Paul had said, “be strengthened… in
Christ Jesus,” there could have been a sense of performance-orientation;
the sense of, while we are in Christ, we need to work to strengthen ourselves.
However, when
the focus is on “the grace that is in
Christ Jesus,” there has to be a way that we are strengthened by that which
is freely given by God. It is like sitting down to a meal that is graciously
provided to undeserving people, and yet each person must somehow participate in
the meal in order for the free food to strengthen and nourish their bodies.
What settled
into my heart is that this “be
strengthened,” that puts some kind of responsibility on us who are the recipients
of God’s grace, is a Beatitudinal thing. It is not something we fabricate in
ourselves, since it is grace that strengthens us. Rather, it is a response to
grace that makes us the beneficiaries of all that the grace of Jesus Christ is
doing, without any reason for pride.
When I speak of
the Beatitudinal response to the grace of God, I refer to what Jesus said at
the beginning of his Sermon on the Mount.[8] He
made it very clear that the blessing of God was not upon those who were perceived
to be the best performers of the law, but upon those who realized their need
for a Savior. The Beatitudes are an extremely rich dose of good news for any
Christians who are stuck in the performance trap.
When I
consider a Beatitudinal response to “be
strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus,” it is a picture of the
poor in spirit who feel their need for this grace and the strength it provides.
They mourn their weakness and failure and fear. They look at the requirements
of God for holiness and righteousness, and they meekly acknowledge that there
is no possible way they can ever attain holiness and righteousness on their
own, and no way they can fix the ungodliness unrighteousness that is in them.
They then feel a hunger and a thirst for the righteousness they see in Jesus Christ,
the gift of grace through faith, and they do not stop expressing their hunger
to God until they feel the satisfaction of his promise to quench their thirst
and fill their hunger.
In other
words, what God provides for us by his grace is not received by the proud who
will not sit down at a table unless they can pay their own way, but by the poor
in spirit who know there is no good reason for them to benefit from such a
glorious meal. Such strength from God does not come to those who are proud of
their achievements, but those who mourn everything that is wrong with them in
their lives paralyzed by sin and fear. God does not grant strength to those who
find religious activities meant to make up for what they have done wrong, but
to those who humbly resign themselves to the fact that there is no good thing
they can do to fix what they have broken between them and God. And, God does
not grant strength to those who become so satisfied in their church activities
that they are sure God must be happy with them, but to those who have nothing
whatsoever in which to boast and so feel hunger and longing to have what is
freely offered.
All this ties
in with the theme passage 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.”[9] As
we see that our strengthening is something God is working into us to will and
work for his good pleasure, and we experience his strength by working out our
own salvation in fellowship with this inner working of the Holy Spirit, we can
then “be strong in the Lord and in the
strength of his might,”[10]by
putting on “the whole armor of God, that
you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.”[11]
The whole
armor of God is an expression of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (the
undeserved favor of God giving us something that will work powerfully on our
behalf if only the church puts it on), and
we “be strong in the Lord and in the
strength of his might,” by putting on the armor that is one hundred percent
given to us by God’s grace.
When we
understand that being strong in Jesus and his strength means, “be strengthened by the grace that is in
Christ Jesus,” we will not confuse our side of the relationship with
anything to do with earning God’s favor through performance. Our
love-relationship with God is not based on how well we strengthen ourselves,
but on the unlimited flow of God’s grace into the lives of all his children.
What we do
affect is the amount of the strength we experience from that grace. The more we
try to do things in our own strength, the less strength we gain from the grace
of our Savior. The more we surrender our weakness to his strength, the greater
our experience of the power of his might. As God once said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my
power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul’s response to this was, “Therefore
I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ
may rest upon me.”[12]By
the time Paul wrote Timothy to find his strength in the grace of Christ Jesus,
he had set an example of boasting in his weakness in order to experience the
power of Christ. He wanted Timothy not only to follow in his steps, but teach
us to do so as well.
©
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]
II Corinthians 13:14
[2]
Matthew 11:28-30
[3]
Philippians 3:17
[4]
Philippians 2:12-13 (our theme passage in a brief journey through Philippians)
[5]
II Timothy 2:1-2
[6]
Romans 8:28
[7]
Philippians 2:13
[8]
Matthew chapters 5-7 give this sermon. Matthew 5:1-12 presents what is known as
the Beatitudes.
[9]
Philippians 2:12-13
[10]
Ephesians 6:10
[11]
Ephesians 6:11
[12]
II Corinthians 12:9
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