For This Reason 4

[HKHaugan]

In the 1940’s West Point had two phenomenal football players. One was a half back named Glenn Davis known as Mr.Outside and a fullback named Doc Blanchard known as Mr. Inside. Mr.Outside could elude and outrun tacklers when he ran around end. Mr.Inside simply bowled over tacklers as he ran through the middle of the line. Together they helped the Army team run up remarkable scores as they won game after game. Of course it takes eleven to play but that combination was what gave their team the winning edge.

Every day we are faced with situations in which we may have to be both a Mr.Inside and a Mr. Outside. Given the people we may run into we could be tackled, derailed, compromised and stopped in our tracks. They demand we have the ability to sense the tackler’s strategy, let them make their move and sidestep them and other times outrun them. Other times we simply have to barge through, be honest and up front regardless of the tacklers in front of us. The mystery is the how, how do we do that?

If you follow football or any team sport for that matter, there is always a two dimensional need, offense and defense. In order to reach a goal you need a strategic way to do that and the defense to prevent the other team from scoring. Offense and defense are part of our bucket of needs. Again the how is before us. How do you prevent the world from influencing you and at the same time being an influence in the world?

If our inside is in tune with our outside and vice versa we are balanced. If our offense and our defense is in balance we are prepared. In sports there are three needs to achieve balance, a coach, a play book and team spirit. This is the illustration of a dynamic that is involved in every next moment we are alive in this world. That moment is an unknown and in order to respond in the unknown, the unseen, the spiritual dimension, you need a coach, a playbook and team spirit.

We have a coach who right there at the moment of need which is every moment, Jesus Savior and Lord. He is the Savior when the perfect inside and outside with the right offense and defense is needed to face the impressive offense the world sends against us. He is the Lord when the need for the right offense is necessary. What you see on the outside is what He is on the inside. With Him there is never a difference. Wherever He goes and with whomever He associates He is always the same person. He is consistent. He is always faithful. He is always loving. He is always obedient to His Father. He is always moving in the Holy Spirit. He is always Scripture centered. Jesus is the Scripture in action. He is Mr.Inside on the outside and Mr.Outside on the inside. He is a coach our mind can believe in. He is a coach we can trust in our hearts. He is a coach whose Spirit becomes our Spirit and gives us the faith to play for Him.

He has given us a playbook called Scripture. Here we find the words, the principles, the concepts through which the Holy Spirit gives us the secure balance to act in every next moment. We have the coach, the playbook and we have the Holy Spirit that brings us into a team of believers each with a special position and gift to play that position. Now there is one more hurdle and that is being spontaneous. Most of the time there’s the surprise moment when the runner has to shift to avoid an unexpected move by the defense or a runner makes a move that a tackle hadn’t prepared for. This is the moment when everything the coach, the book and the team depend on your uniqueness to get the job done. For a disciple of Jesus this is every next moment whether we are at home or out there in the world.

Every next moment’s response is the mystery Jesus revealed to Paul and to which we have access. Our hidden reality and our external behavior can be made into one by faith. This is what He revealed to Paul. As a Pharisee the Law was an obsessive practice for him until the Lord had him face his personal reality. His real problem was internal. He was really a conflicted person and anger was his only outlet. Outside he worked hard at being good. Inside he was a wreck. The mystery for Paul was how do you live with yourself when you know what your mind believes is different from what your heart feels and you spend all your time trying to balance them to look good? He was actually a Jew in mind and body but no different than a Gentile in heart. The harder you try to be something you are not the more volatile and judgmental you become, thus his self-justifiable persecution of the followers of Jesus. Sin had him locked into legalism so deeply he was willing to support the murder of Stephen.

Now in Jesus what was impossible was made possible. In Jesus he found sin was the problem, the block, the self in conflict. In Jesus he found the release from sin through faith. In Jesus he found spontaneity in the Holy Spirit. The Spirit took Him there. Faith in Jesus enabled him to be spontaneous. He no longer faced the world in anger at disagreement, or hostility toward Gentiles or always fearing not being perfect, having to be right, to be constantly judgmental about others. He was free. Is it any wonder he joyfully declared there was neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female but one in Christ? For each there was a world definition with its rules and fear of disobeying them but in Christ all are free to be spontaneously led by the Spirit.

So what was joy disciples found in the mystery? Human beings were made to be spiritually spontaneous and in Jesus they could be. To be like Him in every next moment freed them to experience the abundant life, the free life, freedom from anxiety and the fear of rejection and death.

One of our deepest needs is the ability to be spontaneously right not according to the Law but according to the Spirit, to be able to act like Christ when the moment calls for it. With the gift of the Holy Spirit this is possible. That’s what wisdom is all about. It’s the ability to be spontaneously right as opposed to legally right. It’s the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of wisdom. This is the aim of Scripture, to make us spontaneously righteous.

What blocks spontaneity is the spirit of fear which is the opposite of faith. No wonder Paul says, “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. (Rom.8:15).” And again, “It is by grace you have been saved and that through faith…(Eph.2:8).” There are no generic ‘good works’ except those that proceed from faith. “For we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do (Eph.2:10).” So the key to God’s good works are those that proceed from faith (Rom.14:23) we rely on in every next moment in the spiritual spontaneity the Spirit enables.