Into your hands I commit my spirit; redeem me, O Lord, the God of truth. - Psalm 31:5

March 20, 1999 There's been quite a lot on my plate since the last time I sent one of these Reflections out, which is part of the reason it's been so long. In the intervening time I've moved twice, changed jobs twice, been in severe financial straits, and come under physical attack (I was attacked by two men on the street but God protected me and I wasn't hurt). I've also been carrying a heavy burden in prayer over a church I know that continues to support activities which dishonor God. But in all these places God has continued to sustain me through his grace, given to me in Christ Jesus. He reminds me again and again that his strength is all that I need. This selection of excerpts from my journal all came out of reflecting on the holiness of God, and the fact that his grace calls me to be holy too. Joe

JOURNAL 6/2/97 1 John 1:5-7. This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. To walk in the light is to walk in Christ. To live in obedience to him, according to his strength and ability, allowing his character to be made manifest in me. When I do this I have fellowship both with God and with my brothers and sisters. When I do not walk in the light, not only do I lose that fellowship with God, I also no longer have fellowship with other Christians. This is a difficult concept for me to really grasp. It flies in the face of traditional American independence and self-sufficiency. My walk does not affect me alone; others benefit when I walk in the light, and suffer if I choose darkness. Equally, I am affected by the choice of those around me as to how they will walk. My brothers and sisters have every right (even, dare I say it, the responsibility) to hold me accountable, in love, for how I choose to walk. It affects them. Lord, please let this truth soak into me deeply, and teach me how to live this out. Keep me aware that my choice to walk in light or darkness impacts others as well as myself. And teach me how to hold on to my brothers and sisters in love, and help them to walk in the light as well.

JOURNAL 12/25/97 Colossians 1:9-10. For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way. Holiness is not an option! It is the fundamental basis of the Christian life. We are called to live holy lives, and anything less is completely unacceptable. I'm not talking about a works theology here. Salvation is absolutely God's work and not mine. I am saved by grace alone. What I am saying is that we have not just been saved from something, but also to something. As Paul puts it: 2 Corinthians 5:21. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. There are two parts here. Christ became sin for us, and we become righteous through him. It is not possible for one to take place without the other! Both are God's work and not mine, that is true. But for both I must be willing. He does not force sanctification on me any more than he does justification. Yet salvation requires both! Receiving Christ's holiness in sanctification is every bit as much a part of being saved as receiving his forgiveness in justification. There is no separating them.

JOURNAL 7/26/98 Luke 3:7-9. John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire." Luke 3:16-18. John answered them all, "I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them. Is John preaching a different Jesus than the one most commonly spoken of in churches and Sunday schools today? It sure sounds like it. This is a Jesus who wields fire and comes in judgment. A Jesus whom people need to be warned about. A Jesus who's coming is to be feared. Where is the fire in our message today? Jesus calls us in love -- we've still got that part of the Gospel right. He has a purpose and a plan, and he longs for us to be a part of it. But God is also the judge, who burns up those who do not know him with "unquenchable fire." The prophets of Scripture spoke of judgment as well as of mercy. They warned people to repent before it was too late. The call to repent has always been a part of the ministry of a prophet. Regardless of what might seem to be loving and merciful, God has never had the slightest hesitation to warn people to turn from their sins while their is still time to escape his vengeance. Lord, this is scary. Speaking boldly got John thrown in jail, and eventually executed. But Father, you gave me the gifts you did because you expected me to use them. So I will deliver your message, be it an announcement of mercy or a call to repent. Only, please show me how I should do it. I believe that you did not give me the gifts you did in vain Lord. I am willing to use them in whatever way you intended them to be used. Please show me what I need to do next, and give me the strength, and the grace, to do it.

JOURNAL 3/15/99 Matthew 18:15-20. If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that "every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses." If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector. I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them. I have many times claimed the second paragraph of this passage in spiritual warfare as my authority to bind Satan, and used the third paragraph in intercessory prayer. Both of these are, I believe, valid applications. But I was struck today by the realization that both the authority of the second paragraph and the promise in the third were given first in the context of church discipline. That's not a comfortable thought. I don't need to give my brothers and sisters permission to hold me accountable, nor do they need to give me permission; that authority has already been given to us by Jesus himself. And if that's not bad enough, it's not even certain that Jesus limited it to someone who sins against me; that phrase isn't included in some manuscripts. Nor is that limitation given in Luke 17:3, where Jesus gives a similar command. So how have I used this authority? The sad truth is that for the most part I haven't used it at all. Instead I have let things pass, looked the other way, and in the process wronged many of my brothers and sisters by denying them even the most basic grace offered to those outside the church; a call to repent and receive forgiveness. I can come up with so many excuses; maybe I'm not the best one to talk to them, I don't want to sound harsh or rejecting; there's too much legalism in the church already, I'll let the pastor do it, this isn't the right time, they're too set in their ways to listen to me, I'll just pray for them instead. But at their heart excuses is all those are. The truth is that I don't want to confront anybody because I'm afraid of what they'll think of me if I do.

JOURNAL 3/18/99 Luke 7:29-30. All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus' words, acknowledged that God's way was right, because they had been baptized by John. But the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God's purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John. This seems a little hard to understand. John's message was, to my ears, a very harsh one. His preaching was strictly of the 'turn or burn' type, so strong that in places it is difficult to reconcile with a God of grace. And yet according to this passage it was John's preaching that brought people to Christ. Those who did not listen to John's warning about sin and judgment did not listen to Jesus either. The gospel, properly understood, does not do away with God's law, much less eliminate the need to turn away from sin. Just the opposite! When God's laws are neglected by the church the gospel loses its impact as well. The message of the gospel is forgiveness: In Christ I am forgiven and reconciled to God. But receiving God's forgiveness is impossible unless I first acknowledge that I need it. Forgiveness is only possible when there has been a transgression, and that can not occur without law. Romans 7:7-13. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what it was to covet if the law had not said, "Do not covet." But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin in dead. Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me and through the commandment put me to death. So then, the law is holy and the commandment is holy, righteous and good. Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.

JOURNAL 3/20/99 Galatians 3:21-24. Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For is a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe. Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. So the law is not opposed to the gospel at all! Instead, both are manifestations of God's grace. The law is the foundation for the gospel, and the gospel is the fulfillment of the law. Neither is complete alone but together they are the means by which a holy God, without in any way compromising his righteous nature, is able to save sinful men who are unable, in their own power, to turn away from unrighteousness. There are two main ways in which we as Christians tend to fall away from grace -- legalism and license. It's interesting and somewhat ironic to note that both result largely from not taking the law seriously enough. License ignores it completely, while legalism waters it down in order to make it seem as though it can be obeyed. Both errors make a mockery of God's holiness, and thereby insult his grace: The grace that gives to me freely the holiness which God requires of me. © 1999, Joe Jefferson. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to make copies for ministry purposes, provided no fee is charged and this copyright notice is included.