Month: October 2015

Free to Serve

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
I am not into arm-twisting when it comes to recruiting volunteers for service in the church.  And whenever someone thinks I am being “soft” on people by not making them feel guilty, I respond with conviction:  “That kind of approach is not consistent with the gospel of grace.”
 
Yet, that does not mean we ignore guilt because only true guilt can lead us to grace.  We all have times when we feel guilty.  Guilt in and of itself is not a bad thing.  Guilt is the response of the conscience to things we have done or left undone.  Guilt is the conscience telling us that we have done something wrong or have not done the good we know we ought to have done.  It is what we do with the guilt that determines the trajectory of our Christian lives. 
 
There are several ways we can respond to guilt.  We can rationalize our guilt and not accept the truth about what we have done.  When we use phrases like “it’s not my fault,” “it’s only wrong if I get caught,” “I didn’t hurt anybody,” “they deserved it,” and “it’s not that bad,” then our conscience can be seared like a hot iron so that we eventually do not feel guilty.  The result is of this is always hardness of heart.
 
            Another inappropriate way of dealing with guilt is the opposite of denying guilt; it is to hyper-focus on the guilt by feeling ashamed.  There is a difference between guilt and shame.  Guilt feels bad for actions done or not done.  Shame feels bad for who I am, as if I am incapable of being good.  Shame believes I do bad things because I am bad and deserve the consequences.  In other words, shame is really false guilt.
 
            The result of shame and false guilt is always one of two responses:  either we become inactive through feelings of discouragement and defeat; or, we become hyperactive by working like crazy to feel better and hope that the guilt and shame go away.  It is to impose a certain penance upon yourself in order to cope with the dirty feelings of guilt.
 
            But the good news is that every one of us can have freedom from guilt and a clear conscience because of Jesus Christ.  If we have been victimized in the past, we no longer have to feel ashamed as though we caused or deserved the violence done to us.  If we have said or done some truly egregious things that displease God and damage others, we no longer have to live with the regret and guilt on our consciences.  If we have failed others and God by not living up to who we ought to be, we no longer have to live day after day with our consciences bound with guilt.
 
            Here’s why we experience freedom and a clear conscience:  Christ has obtained eternal redemption for us by his blood (Hebrews 9:11-14).  Back in the Old Testament sacrificial system, the high priest would enter the temple/tabernacle to offer animal sacrifice.  Once a year, on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) he would enter the Most Holy Place.  The Ark of the Covenant was there.  The priest would slaughter the heifer and take some blood and sprinkle it on the altar. 
 
There were all kinds of rituals to perform in order to access God, and even then the sprinkling of blood only outwardly took care of cleansing the people.  But when Jesus offered himself once for all, the curtain that separated the Most Holy Place from the people was torn from top to bottom.  The way has been opened for not only an outward purification, but an inward cleansing of a guilty conscience so that we might now serve the living God with freedom and confidence.
 
All are now welcome at Christ’s Table.  There are no hoops to jump through.  There is only a radical hospitality that accepts everyone who comes to God by faith in Jesus.  We are holy because of the blood of Jesus Christ.  We can now serve God with joy and not serve him in order to gain spiritual brownie points and assuage our guilt. 
 

 

Service in the church needs to be motivated not by feelings of guilt but by a deep awareness of grace.  When we are overwhelmed with grace, to serve is to love God, which is the very thing we become eager to do.  So, when recruiting volunteers, take the route of inspiring grace in others, not guilt, for we are gloriously free in order to serve.

Luke 10:25-37

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment


            In Christianity there is no justifying self.  The kingdom of God turns on grace, not more or harder work.  On this day, Reformation Day, Christians remember the famous posting of the 95 Theses by Martin Luther on the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany.  Justification by grace through faith, apart from human effort, is the great theological emphasis and legacy of the Reformers.  I suppose one would expect to look at the books of Romans and Galatians on such a day.  But to the gospels we go….
             The parable of the Good Samaritan is just as famous, but perhaps not so much when one is thinking of the Reformation.  Yet, Luke gives us insight into the thought process of the person for whom Jesus told the parable.  The man sought to “justify himself.”  When we look at the parable from the view of justification, we see the perspective of the wounded and hapless man, the victim of robbers.  He was left for dead, and, indeed, in the story we know that he would die apart from help – the kind of help the man could not do for himself.  He was completely dependent on someone to rescue him from his plight.
             The Samaritan, the Christ figure in the story, comes and shows the man mercy.  This grace was free, lacked any sort of favoritism, and full of sheer kindness.  Without the Samaritan’s actions of binding up the man’s wounds and getting him to a safe place, the victim would have died.  
             Today is a special day to celebrate the wonderful and glorious reality that Jesus Christ saves people from their terrible plight.  His mercy is not dependent on what kind of people we are, but simply based on need.  God graciously gives us the gift of faith and the mercy of deliverance.  By Christ’s wounds we are healed.  Take some time this day to reflect on this most gracious of truths that we do not need to justify ourselves, but as Christians already possess justification by grace alone apart from human effort.  Read the parable of the Good Samaritan carefully and slowly, absorbing it from this angle of the inability to justify ourselves and the incredible mercy of Christ.  Let this sink deep in your soul to bring wholeness and healing.
             Merciful God, you sent your Son to rescue me from my sinful condition.  Thank you for the great grace you have shown through Jesus to save me and justify me so that I need no longer try and justify myself before others.  Amen.

Romans 3:21-31

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment


            Every letter which Paul wrote had its purpose to address some particular problem(s) in the church.  A common situation that Paul continually went after was the disunity between the Jewish Christians and the Gentile believers.  The Roman church had within it both groups of people.  Paul’s great concern was to not establish and maintain two distinct churches based in ethnicity, but one church completely centered in the person and work of Jesus.
             The problem was that many of the Jewish Christians thought they had a leg-up by simply being Jews.  They tended toward a certain arrogance in which they took for granted that new Gentile believers must also adopt Jewish ways.  But the Gentiles fared no better.  They believed the Jews to be hopelessly stuck in their traditions and tended to look down on their brothers and sisters.
             Into this situation Paul makes it clear that no group of people is better than the other because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift.”  This kind of teaching was like a sonic boom to the church.  Although both Jew and Gentile were to appreciate one another’s differences, those differences were secondary to the grand design of the church to show no favoritism.  All are sinners.  All come to Christ by grace through faith.  There is no ground for human boasting of pedigree or practice.
             The Western church today finds itself increasingly within a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural milieu not too unlike the early Roman church.  Taking a good close look at the book of Romans would be a wise approach to fostering corporate unity and personal spiritual formation.  For then we will see ourselves through biblical lenses.
             Just God, you are the one who justifies based upon your own good pleasure.  Thank you for delivering me from my wayward beliefs.  Help me to appreciate your gracious justifying work more and more, to the glory of Jesus.  Amen.

Hebrews 9:1-12

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
            A healthy approach to looking at the whole of the Bible is to see it as an unfolding drama of redemption in five acts:  creation; fall; Israel (and the law); Jesus; and, the church.  We are, obviously, in act five, the church age.  The previous four acts were all important in leading up to this final act, just as the scenes in a play all build upon one another.  So, then, Israel and the law had their place in this drama of redemption.  But we are no longer in that act.  This is one reason why we do not hold to all the ceremonial and sacrificial stipulations of the old covenant because it has been superseded by the new covenant.
 
            The previous act of the law had its limitations.  It was never designed to completely clear the conscience of the worshiper.  Its purpose was to be a reminder of sins that points forward to a better time when the sin issue would be settled once and for all.  That time has come.  The person and work of Jesus has completely cleared the conscience of the worshiper because his sacrifice has ended all sacrifices.  Yes, it was that good and total.
 
            Therefore, there is no longer any need to languish in guilt as though we were stuck in act three of God’s redemption drama.  We do not need to be reminded of our sins any more.  Instead, we are to be reminded of Christ’s finished work on the cross, and his blood that has washed away our sins.  So, we are to remember rightly, and have Jesus before us continually.  The redemption we have is not temporal, but permanent.  Taking some time each day to remind ourselves of this new reality and enjoy act five of the drama is both sage and necessary in order to live a successful Christian life.
 

 

            Saving God, you sent your Son, the Lord Jesus, to take care of the sin issue once for all through his blood.  I give you unending thanks for your grace.  May your Holy Spirit press this new reality of forgiveness and clarity of conscience firmly into my mind and heart so that I will always live for you in all things.  Amen.