In his letter to the Roman church Paul lays out a fairly simple but comprehensive explanation of God’s relationship to humankind. It goes like this:
- We don’t want to acknowledge God’s authority over us so we reject Him.
- God allows us to choose to be without Him and to reap the consequences of doing so.
- Nevertheless, God continues to love us, reveals His love to us, and provides a way for us to return to Him.
- If we return to Him, our relationship with Him is restored.
This is the point at which I want to begin these discussions.
We call God “God” because we have to use a name that signifies a person whose characteristics are without limit and are indefinable. Another way of attempting to describe God would be to say that He is “perfect” in every way. He doesn’t have any flaws and He is incapable of anything less than total and complete “goodness.” (“A god” could also be capable of total and complete “badness,” but that’s not the God I’m talking about.)
Now “hold on to your hat” because I’m going to try to explain the startling consequence of being restored to a relationship with a perfect God.
The most important thing to know is that a perfect God can’t have a relationship with an imperfect person. I am aware that this kind of language is uncommon in modern society. It is uncommon in the Christian church for that matter.
I am willing to start this discussion about sanctification by defending my statement that a perfect God can’t have a relationship with a perfect person, and I will divert to that discussion if there is a genuine demand for it. However, I would rather get to the more important fact that God has solved this problem already!
In fact, God not only restored our spiritual relationship with him, he restored our moral and legal relationships, as well. In short, we can have a relationship with a perfect God because we ourselves are perfect!
At this point I’m aware that, despite my warning, a lot of hats have just been blown off. In preparation for writing this journal entry I read dozens of comments by Christians about their standing with God. The vast majority of them said something like, “God is perfect but I am imperfect.” We can argue at length about the semantics of statements like this in an attempt to get Christians off the theological hook. We can speculate that they are just talking about “the flesh” as opposed to the spirit. We can recognize that common humility requires us to allow that we are still just “sinners saved by grace.” We can note that this kind of statement is so common in Christian circles today that people don’t really think about it.
Nevertheless, these sorts of statements can indicate several possible things about the Christians who make them:
- They are more preoccupied with their imperfections than they are their incredible eternal standing with God.
- They are being deliberately deceived about what God expects and empowers them to do.
- They don’t want to be accountable for the implications of being perfect.
- They are so beat up or faithless that they don’t believe that God can deal with their flesh.
- They are so self-centered that they think their imperfections are more important than God’s call on them.
- They are just clueless and don’t think about the Christian life at all.
These possibilities all have one thing in common. They are all bad.
So, here’s what Paul said to the new Roman believers as they embarked on the Christian life:
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (12:2, New International Version)
Note that the first part of the order, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world,” requires the Christian to do something or, more accurately, to stop doing something. The second part requires the Christian to allow God to do something to him/her, “…be transformed.” This is good news! This is the best kind of willpower; you bring the will and God brings the power!
If we are going to take this trip down the rocky road together it seems to me that we will have to accept some things
- That we have something called a mind.
- That, as a result of our separation from God, something is wrong with it; it needs to be “renewed.”
- That as our minds are renewed, our lives will be transformed.
- That as our lives are transformed, we will be able to figure out and do God’s will.
If you want to come along with me, let’s go! If you want to participate in the discussion, comments and questions are welcome! I plan to write several times a week, and I’ll try to answer any responses asap!
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