Getting a Hold on Life

[HKHaugan]

Getting a Hold on Life

Problem: Looking without to see within
Solution: Looking within to see without

The introduction to Romans 5 is 4:23-25: “The words "it was credited to him" (Abraham) were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”

If you have ever been on the top of a mountain in the middle of the night and peered up into the star-filled sky and wondered how far the edge of the universe is it will be even farther than presently measured and imagined. Spiritually, that is how far the human heart has gone away from God, a universe away.

Lk.17:20-21, “Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you." Here Jesus deals with three human limitations involving spiritual distance and the Pharisees are the primary examples. What were they (and what are we) looking for?

First, “Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come,”….the Pharisees are asking a spiritual question hoping for an intellectual, emotional or a physical answer (or their combination). The Pharisees’ problem is everyone’s problem. We look with physical eyes not spiritual eyes.

Second, “…nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,…’ We look for some ’thing’ instead of some ’one.’

Third, “…because the kingdom of God is within you." We look without not within.

The Good News is that in Jesus we have found that God is closer to us than we are to ourselves. The old country song comes close to describing it, “Heaven’s Just a Sin Away.” It is sin that drives the heart from within thus making us the center of the universe without. “Is.29:13---The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.” Jesus tells us that in Mark 7:21-23.

He tells us the correct course we need to take, faith. Put God in the center of your heart, mind and spirit. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and all your strength” and “Love your neighbor as yourself (Mk.12:30-31).” Now the distances in the physical universe are irrelevant.

Paul says it like this, “But the righteousness that is by faith says: "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down) "or 'Who will descend into the deep?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved (Rom.10:6-10).”

“He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”

If I may be so bold as to say what that means to me---
He died because of sin, my fear driven self centered aloneness, but was raised to free me from sin in order that I could be recovered, made right with God and others and no longer feel alone, in fear and just surviving.
He rose to restore me because I am an image of Him. That image---my mind, my heart and my spirit---was out of balance and dying because of sin and now He is bringing balance and life back to me. It's His balance and His life, eternal life. Being right with Him is my balance and that is what He wants me to share in my every next moment.

Therefore,

since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God (Rom.5:1-2).”

Four tremendous promises are guaranteed in this statement: faith makes us right, it justifies us, we have inner peace, we are covered by grace and we have hope in God's glory.

First, being right with God and others. In order to do that we have to deal with sin, what it is, its influence and its removal. Sin is our inner conflict from trying, struggling, to be right within and without. It's our aloneness; each of us in a body separated from everyone else. It's insecurity about who we are and why we are here. It's the mind trying to find perfect reason, the heart looking for something or someone to trust and the spirit afraid to be open and honest. It's trying to be in control without being controlling. It's unresolved anger without an object. It's guilt and not knowing why. Sin denies the mind believing, the heart trusting and the spirit acting. Sin is the denial we have a problem we can't solve by ourselves. Sin avoids being relationally honest. Sin seeks to rationalize and justify the self. Sin keeps us constantly on the alert to protect how we are seen by others. Sin is internal and external suffering which is spiritual, personal and lonely. Only the One who created us can solve the internal and external separation we feel. Sin has thrown the world into imbalance. Sin is what throws us out of balance, the spiritual imbalance in every human heart. Bottom line? Sin is hostilely or passively rejecting Jesus. Sin is what delivered Jesus, the perfect human, to die on a Cross. There, though suffering, He was at peace because of His faith in His Father. His peace was relational. He was at one in Himself and at one with His Father and His Spirit. He was self assured because He was at one with His Father and the Spirit. That assurance is His peace. It's the assurance He gives us of being right within and right wherever we are because He is with us.

Second, that inner peace is our heart experiencing being right with God. Nothing in this world is stable, functioning together like it should. He is balancing us in the midst of instability. We are OK with God which is what grace is all about. Think of grace this way: It's like we're standing next to Jesus. He's smiling, His arms around our shoulders. We ask Him and He lets us have our picture taken with Him. That's the moment we know He really has accepted us.

Third, hope is a future word that His Resurrected presence brings His balance into our every next moment. Hope is God looking forward through us. His grace is what holds the universe and each of us in balance as we hope for His presence in every next moment. That's what His glory is---His perfect balance of mind, heart and spirit hoping as we give Him our belief, trust and faith.

Fourth, faith is the gateway to the first three. Faith in Jesus reveals grace as the source of our peace, rightness and hope. He is the evidence of grace, our acceptance by God. He then becomes our peace as we stand right and bring His hope into every next moment.

These four; justification, peace, hope and faith, are the great promises of God, the qualities of God and the gifts of God to live a full life on this earth and prepare for the eternal life to come.