Idolatry by Any Other Name is Still Idolatry

Dan 4:34  At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; Dan 4:35  all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, "What have you done?"

We all know that we were created to honor God and to love him supremely and find all that he is to be our fulfillment in life.  Idolatry is putting anything before our worship and love for the Lord.  Idolatry was rampant in the OT and God deals with it as much as anything and that was this that led to Israel’s downfall as much as any other sin.  Often the commentators speak of how the Babylonian captivity cured Israel of idolatry once and for all. 

If we think of idolatry in general terms that might be so as they no longer overtly worshipped gods other than Yahweh.  But if we think of idolatry as putting your own desires above the Lord then we find idolatry to be a sin that all struggle with as did the Jews of Jesus’s day.  I think of the Pharisee who prayed in a self-righteous way, boasting that he wasn’t as bad as the poor tax collector next to him and went home as sinful and unjustified as he came.

His main problem was that he had a view of God that was skewed.  He thought that the God he worshipped was the kind of God that would gladly accept his miserable works as good enough to get on God’s good side.  Because he had in a sense redefined God he committed idolatry and he did so to his own damnation.

Thus defined, we see that idolatry is rampant today and this is true even in many churches and hearts of saints.  We can illustrate this by the example of the young man who writes a love letter to a young woman he loves.  In it he describes her beautiful blond hair and lovely blue eyes and all the things about her that he loves.  But the problem is that she is a brunette with brown eyes and he is describing someone who isn’t anything like the woman he supposedly loves.  We all know that this woman would not find this to be acceptable.  It is like him saying I love you but I wish you looked like your sister! 

It is very easy to fall into this trap when it comes to God and this is why theology is of the utmost importance.  Many people read the Bible not so they can get to know God and find out all the reasons he is to be loved and worshipped but to find something helpful for some problem they are going through or how to succeed in life or some such self-centered thing.  Very often we come to the Scriptures with preconceived notions that we hold to and have no plans of letting go of regardless of what we find in the Bible.

This is especially problematic when it comes to how we understand God.  How many people do you know who refuse to acknowledge that God is sovereign over all things or that he is a holy God who will punish sin eternally in Hell?  Instead they want to think of God as a loving softy who only wants us to be happy, wealthy, healthy and successful.  So they ignore those attributes of God that they don’t like and concentrate on the ones they like and necessarily make up ones that don’t exist.  Like the man in our example, they extol things about God that are not true or are so one sided that they end up describing some other god; the one that exists in their minds.  This is idolatry. 

These thoughts came to me as I am preaching through 2 Cor. 1 and in particular where it describes God as the God of all comfort.  The Lord comforts us by the truth of the gospel and by explaining to us why afflictions come and our duty in them and that being in Christ will one day bring them to an end; in others words primarily through thinking through truth. 

If we refuse to acknowledge that God sends trials for our good and that they are part of the Christian’s duty in life to endure hardships as a good soldier of Jesus Christ and instead we spend all our time praying for him to take them away and are discontent and bitter when he doesn’t then we have reformulated God into something he is not.  We have made him there for us and not us there for him; we have rejected his sovereign rule over all things and have rejected his explanation and commit idolatry.  We say we love him but when he tells us what pleases him we have no desire to prove our love by obeying.

Properly responding to affliction by being faithful and patient in a God honoring way is worshipping God as he is.  And therefore, responding to affliction in an unbiblical way is to worship the God of our imagination.  We have looked at God’s picture as seen in the Bible and we don’t like what we see and so we “tweak” God to make him a little more to our liking.  And then we go to church and sing praises to him while all along thinking about his “sister” so to speak.  

I know that we will spend our entire lives studying God’s attributes and trying to better understand what he “looks” like and we will always have a somewhat defective understanding until we stand before him some day.  But to deliberately reject what is plainly taught in the Bible is a dangerous game because God doesn’t change; he is what he is and we had better get used to it because he is righteous and we are not.  If there is something about God that is uncomfortable to us then we have a problem and we need to ask God to give us a love for who he is not for who we wish he was.  

Living For Others

Est 5:1 On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the king's palace, in front of the king's quarters, while the king was sitting on his royal throne inside the throne room opposite the entrance to the palace. Est 5:2 And when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, she won favor in his sight…

Rom 14:7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.

As I am going through Esther right now, I actually made a connection between these two passages.  Let me try to explain.  Esther needed something very important from her husband the king.  In this case it was the deliverance of the Jewish people throughout his kingdom who were about to be slaughtered.  So she dresses up in such a way that would hopefully gain his favor so he would let her approach him.  We might say she knew how to work him to get what she wants which can have a bad connotation.

We call this manipulation and as a husband I am all too familiar with it.  Not because my wife does it but because of my own sinful tendency to be especially nice to her when I want something from her.  We are all born quite adept at doing this and children exhibit it at an extremely early age.  When our interactions with others are mostly defined by what we can get from them and not what we can do for them, this is manipulation and it is sin.

I think we can say that what Esther is doing is a form of manipulation but the circumstances are dire and so she does whatever she can to gain access to the king and I certainly wouldn’t see this as sinful.  But what it did make me think of was that there is a sense in which we are to do what we can to please each other and it isn’t manipulation.  If I dress in such a way that pleases my wife, or go shopping with her when I would rather do something else, it doesn’t have to be because she is manipulating me or that I am manipulating her.  It could be and should be that I love her and so I do what I can to please her with no thoughts of getting something in return.  In fact, that is the very definition of love. 

As Americans we sometimes buy into the idea that I do what I want, when I want; I dress how I want, eat what I want because no one can tell me what to do.  It is my right to not be controlled by someone else’s desires for me; no one can tell me what to do and on and on it goes.  The times when we stop and consider what someone might want us to do are rare and usually we consider it only if we want something from them.

But if you think about it, this is starting to get us to the point of Romans 14:7.  As Christians we are given life not to just use others for our ends but we are here to live for others and this begins with Christ.  So not only is there nothing wrong with me doing things to please my wife just because it pleases her or helps her out; this is actually what I have been called to do.  It is good for us to consider how others think about us; what are the things they think I should do because I have been put here on the same earth or in the same church or family and so I have to get along with them and work with them.  I cannot go around seeking only those things I want.  And letting others sometimes influence the things I do is not being manipulated; it is working together to build relationships and be profitable in the Kingdom of God.

When Esther got up that morning she had a plan and she dressed in such a way that would aid her in carrying out that plan.  She could have thought like we tend to and say, “I am going to dress how I want to because it shouldn’t matter how I dress. He should listen to what I have to say because it is important.”  She could have rushed into the throne room rashly but instead she thought things through and used her God given wisdom to figure out how best to work with her husband.

It was an important plan that would affect the people of God and her own future.  And this is my point.  As Christians we cannot afford to waltz through life without a plan.  There should be a reason for everything we do.  We have a purpose for life and so we are to figure out the best way to fulfill that purpose according to the Word of God. 

Countless lives have been ruined because they refused to take the time to consider the consequences of what they were about to do.  They were living in the moment -- what feels good now -- and didn’t think ahead.  They had no sense of purposeful living and they just did whatever they wanted to do that day with no thought of what Jesus wanted and no thought of how it might affect those around them.  This is pretty much living like an animal.

Oh, we have cleaned such living up by calling it, “being spontaneous”, “living in the moment”, “not getting tied down to routines”, etc.  But very often it is just masking the fact that we want to be free to live for ourselves and not be tied down to the responsibility that no one lives only to himself or dies only to himself.

I am all for spontaneity by the way.  But as Christians, life is too serious for us to be consumed with just living in the moment.  If you are saved you have a carefully laid out plan for your life and it is our duty to be students of the Word and figure out how to be wise as serpents in this present evil age.  Part of that is living to please and help each other.  It doesn’t mean we are to be controlled by others but that we are in the Lord’s army, we have common goals and no soldier can just decide he will fight the enemy on his own or in his own way.  We must live with others in mind.

We are to live with purpose, with planning and every decision we make must be made with more thought than just what happens to be in front of our noses at the time.  This is how a two year old lives, not mature adults.  This is why Paul could say, 1Co 9:26  So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 1Co 9:27  But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. 

While some might want to think of this as hindering their lives, yet for the saint it is wonderful to know that we have purpose and meaning in everything we do.  And the little freedom we might give up in this life will give rise to unimaginable glory in the life to come.

Life's Lessons

Mar 6:48  And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them, Mar 6:49  but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, Mar 6:50  for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, "Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid." Mar 6:51  And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased. And they were utterly astounded.

The pericope of Jesus walking on the water is one of the most famous portions of Scripture there is.  Yet as in all accounts in the Bible it is related to us not that we can marvel at a really neat thing Jesus did but to teach us some extremely important life lessons; not the least of which is that we need to be astounded at God, not the creatures and forces he has made.

At the heart of this situation is that the disciples are in a trial, not because they were out of the Lord’s will, but precisely because they were being obedient.  This should stop us from assuming that when bad things happen to us either we are out of God’s will or it is his will that we not have difficulty; but for many these are the only two options they consider.  Neither was true in this case.

Paul Tripp makes a good point here when he says that as soon as Jesus stepped onto the water it was obvious that merely delivering the disciples from hardship was not important to him (my words).  If all Jesus was concerned about was helping the disciples escape tribulation he could have commanded the storm to stop from shore.  The above account helps us see what Jesus was really after. 

Their problem was not the storm; Jesus sent them straight into it.  Their problem was a heart problem; they feared the storm more than they feared and trusted in God.  What they needed and what we need is not to ignore the storms of life and act like they don’t exist but to be more astounded at Christ than the storms.  This is one reason why the Lord sends trials to begin with; to magnify himself in our eyes so that we stand in awe of him more than temporal things as he delivers us through them. 

While trials and hardships and sickness and such things are a result of the fall and shall one day be eradicated, we must be careful of seeing them as our enemies.  If Jesus can say to count it all joy when we meet various trials, then the effect they should have on our prayer life and on our emotional life and our spiritual life should be far different than they often are. 

David said it well, Psa 119:67  Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word. Psa 119:71  It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.  I heard John Piper say that more lose their faith during good times than in difficult times.  The more we make life about Christ, the better we will be able to endure affliction because we understand that our comfort or lack thereof is not what we are to pursue.  In this we will find comfort and peace because to have Christ is enough no matter what we might not have in this life.  Having Christ is far more important than having comfort and outward peace. 

This use of difficulty is furthered illustrated in the text from Mark when we read that Jesus intended to pass their boat by and not even help them.  Again, the storm was the least of their real problems.  When the crowd needed to be fed earlier that day they wanted to send them away to fend for themselves when Christ was right there to help them.  So Christ gives them a taste of their own medicine and puts them in the people’s shoes.  How did they like the Lord of Glory strolling by them while they feared for their lives?  What a marvelous lesson of humility and compassion.  Without a storm such lessons would be lost.

The God of All Comfort

1Th 4:18  Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Joh 14:16  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, Joh 14:17  even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

Joh 14:26  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

In a couple of my recent articles I spoke of what it is to be led by the Spirit and how we need to avoid the tendency to think being led by the Spirit is primarily direct revelation or feelings.  Instead, it is primarily by following the Word with a heart that loves God above all else.  As I have just started preaching through the book of 2 Corinthians and the first main topic is comfort, I found myself making the same application when it comes to finding comfort in afflictions.

Just as we are often tempted to ask the Lord to just tell us what job to take or who to marry, etc. so when it comes to afflictions we can be tempted to pray that the Lord would comfort us and then sit back and wait to be comforted.  We need peace and so wait for feelings of peace; we need patience and so wait for a more patient frame of mind; we need our nerves to calm down and so wait for a “peaceful, easy feeling”.  But I think if we stop and think about this we see that it is not the general way the Bible teaches that we will be comforted. 

The error is that it is praying for something but not willing to exercise the means God has ordained to get what we need.  Yes, we are to pray for such things but we are not to presume that that is all we need to do; not when there are duties we have been given to find God’s comfort.  Yes, God is the God of all comfort but he primarily does this through the Holy Spirit applying truth to our thinking as we grow in our knowledge and understanding of the Word of God.  He comforts us because of what he has done for us and that being applied to our thinking.

Praying alone can be a lazy and presumptive approach to the Lord working in our minds in that it doesn’t do the work of listening to God and acting accordingly.  It doesn’t honor the Lord because it isn’t believing by faith that what the Lord says is true and find peace and calmness and patience in truth; it just wants the Spirit to bring calmness upon us much like a drug. 

If all we want is to not be anxious and to have a peaceful, easy feeling, then take a tranquilizer or smoke a joint or drink until it all goes away.  But if we want to honor the Lord, then take what he has done for you and the promises and meditate on them until it sinks in and be at peace and be patient because the Holy Spirit has caused you to believe and understand the Word and you are using it to live by. 

The world makes fun of us because they think we are using God as a crutch to get through life’s difficulties.  Of course, it is okay for them to use drugs, sex, and alcohol as a crutch.  But let us not be tricked into thinking we can use God like some use a joint; that we can just pray and he will magically bring peace and comfort upon us.  It comes through understanding what is going on in every situation.  God is working all things for an eternal weight of glory and he can do this because Christ has made peace between God and sinners.

It is as I come to more fully understand truths such as this one that I am able to find comfort.  Surely the Holy Spirit can bring about any emotion he wants to in our life, but we start to walk all around hyper-Calvinism when we assume he creates emotions and feelings apart from our pursuit of his Word.  We are not robots; we are people who have had their eyes opened to the glories of Christ and our own exceeding sinfulness.  Let us pursue holiness by loving Christ with all our hearts; not by praying the God will do everything for us.

Does not 2 Peter seem to suggest the same idea when he speaks of the attributes that come through the knowledge of Christ?  2Pe 1:2  May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 2Pe 1:3  His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 2Pe 1:4  by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 2Pe 1:5  For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 2Pe 1:6  and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 2Pe 1:7  and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 2Pe 1:8  For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  

And then he ends the book with this: 2Pe 3:18  But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.  There just isn’t anything more important for a Christian.

A Comparison Between Kings

Est 4:1  When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and he cried out with a loud and bitter cry. Est 4:2  He went up to the entrance of the king's gate, for no one was allowed to enter the king's gate clothed in sackcloth.

One of the things we see as we go through the book of Esther is a contrast between the King who is mentioned a lot in the book and God who isn’t mentioned at all.  We find out that the King who has about as much earthly power and as is possible fails to do anything other than what the non-mentioned God wants to happen.  This, then, becomes a realistic view of life from our viewpoint.  We don’t see God’s outward glory nor do we detect him as he moves providence along but nothing is happening apart from his eternal decrees.  As with Esther, he is taking care of his people using the lost even as they are going about doing whatever they want to do.  So while things look out of control often, they are very much in the Lord’s control.

As I studied through the text above there is another contrast that struck me.  It was not unusual in these days for a Monarch to command that no one to dare come before him without being specifically invited and they were not to come before him with a sad countenance on their face.  They were to convey to the king how wise his rule was because they were happy being under his rule and all their needs were being met whether they were or not.

Praise the Lord that he has opened up permanent access to him through Jesus Christ.  Not only can we come anytime we want but we are encouraged to come to him in the very worst of times.  With Esther’s king, Mordecai had to wallow in the ashes hoping that somehow word would get to the king that he was in great need.  Our Lord knows what we need before we ask and says come anytime, for any reason and he even tells us to come all the time.  We might say he says there is profit in nagging him until the answer comes.  We read of this in Luke.

Luk 18:1  And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. Luk 18:2  He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. Luk 18:3  And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, 'Give me justice against my adversary.' Luk 18:4  For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, 'Though I neither fear God nor respect man, Luk 18:5  yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.'" Luk 18:6  And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge says. Luk 18:7  And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? Luk 18:8  I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" 

How unlike man our God is that he cares for us as a father cares for his child.  Truly we are blessed to be in his kingdom because all our needs are met.  But while we have cause to rejoice always, yet when we are afflicted and our “countenance is sad” we have a King who will give us whatever we need. 

Waiting for the Spirit's Prompting, Part 2

Exo 25:2  "Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me.  Exo 35:5  Take from among you a contribution to the LORD. Whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the LORD's contribution: gold, silver, and bronze;  Exo 35:21  And they came, everyone whose heart stirred him, and everyone whose spirit moved him, and brought the LORD's contribution to be used for the tent of meeting, and for all its service, and for the holy garments.

A couple of articles ago I wrote of the prompting of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and that his first prompting came through the written Word and he never prompts us to do something contrary to the Word nor should we wait for him to move us if he has already told us to do something in the Word.  Another thought came to me as I was considering the above passage with regard to the inward prompting of the Holy Spirit.

Now in Exodus 35 it never says that the Holy Spirit moved them but instead if their own spirit moved them or if they have a generous heart they were to give.  But too often we attribute to the Holy Spirit what is actually just our own heart moving us.  I hear on a regular basis people saying that God or the Spirit told them or moved them to do or say something that clearly is contrary to the Word of God.  So it is clear that in such cases it was just their own minds at work. 

One reason I believe we are way too quick to attribute to the Spirit what our own hearts have devised is because the Spirit’s work in us is not easily discernable if they are discernable at all.  For the most part we can’t tell the difference whether it is our mind or the Spirit producing ideas and since the heart is deceitfully wicked we very easily, and I believe most of the time, attribute to God thoughts that he did not put there.

Another problem with all this is we have the mindset that it is the Holy Spirit’s work to plant thoughts in our mind; that this is how he leads us.  I want to point out what I believe to be a fundamental error in that type of thinking.  While the Bible mentions a few times that Jesus was led or Christians are led by the Spirit, it doesn’t say that this is merely an impression or thought that comes to us.  God spoke in dreams and visions or outright appearances, but I am not aware of Paul or someone ever saying that some subjective thought was the Lord leading them.  Unless we read of the Lord speaking directly to them it seems that for the most part they were just obeying the revelation they already had the best they knew how.  Can the Lord lead us by planting ideas in our heads?  Sure, and I am not saying he never does but as I hope to show that there is a much better way we are led by the Spirit. 

In the above passage in Exodus I believe what God wanted were freewill offerings that were given because the people loved the Lord and understood the importance of the Tabernacle and so gave for those reasons.  To me, this is a better motive than the Spirit planting the idea or prompting one to give.  If I give because God tells me to that is all well and good but is it not better that I give because my heart stirs me to give because I love the Lord and I want to help?  One can become mere duty but not necessarily from a desire to honor the Lord.  Do you give to the church because it is your duty or because it is your delight? 

Let me try to illustrate this.  Often we hear of someone who comes into contact with another person and they will say something like, “The Lord told me or led me to speak to that person about Christ”.  We all know that what they mean is that the thought crossed their mind to speak to that person.  Since it was in their opinion a good and spiritual thought they assume it was the Lord leading them.  But if this is true then all this encounter becomes is the Lord being concerned for that person, not the Christian, and so he prompts him to say what he wouldn’t have on his own; and I see this as a problem.

Let me give another explanation for such a scenario.  Here is a Christian who loves the Lord because the Lord came down while he was a rebel and gave him a new heart and by grace forgave his sins and promised eternity in his presence.  As he has grown in grace under the power of the Holy Spirit, his burden for those without Christ has also grown as has his desire to honor the Lord in every situation.  He is looking for ways to serve the Lord and he “happens” to come across this person and his spirit moves him out of love to speak to him about his soul. 

Has the Lord been part of getting him to that point, both in mind and in the encounter itself?  Yes, but is not the Lord more honored by us obeying because our hearts are prompting us rather than having to be told every move to make? Is there not something wrong with our minds if the only reason we serve the Lord is because he keeps having to “prompt” us?    

Yes, the Lord leads us because he is orchestrating all things, he empowers us, he causes us to grow in him, and he puts people in our paths.  But he does this so that we can freely serve him by coming up with our own ideas.  I would like to think that I am capable of having spiritual thoughts not just because the Spirit has to put them there but because by the Lord’s grace and strength, I am concerned enough to come up with my own ideas of how to obey him.  Just read through one of the many passages like 1 Cor. 16 where we see Paul and others making plans, changing them and making different plans to serve the Lord.  He didn’t need the Holy Spirit telling him every move to make because the love of God compelled him to serve the Lord and others.

So just like the Lord didn’t plant feeling in those Israelites to give whether they really wanted to or not, so I don’t think his usual work is to give us thoughts but he gave us the Word and works in us “both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”  He gives us new hearts that we might serve the Lord out of love that arises from our own thinking; he doesn’t do our thinking for us.

Don’t take any of this as saying that the Lord isn’t perfect sovereign in every detail.  The greatest mystery in the Bible is his sovereignty and our responsibility and this is my attempt to see both and not just one or the other.

Are You Legalistic?

Joh 9:1 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. Joh 9:2 And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Joh 9:3 Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

We might define legalism as the attempt to do something to earn God’s favor.  It has many forms and some have rightly said that we are all born legalists.  I think the very nature of sin demands that we are born legalists because sin causes us to think that we don’t need God and are capable of pleasing God on our own and that we actually deserve good things.

We tend to think of a legalist as someone who thinks they can do enough good in order to attain unto salvation or someone who thinks the Christian life is basically following rules that speak to the outward man while ignoring the inward heart.  And these are certainly examples of legalism.

My contention is that legalism remains part of who we are even after God converts us and makes us new creations.  It is very hard for us to start thinking and living by grace; instead we still want to live in a world in which we can earn God’s blessings.  To be clear, there are blessings to be had in honoring the Lord.  A home that honors the Lord as they love one another and do all for the glory of the Lord will generally have a better family life than a family that doesn’t.  (At the same time though, that home might suffer any number of afflictions.)  But that is not what I am referring to in this article.

The above text shows us an example of the legalism that the disciples lived by at that time in their lives.  Their assumption was that when bad things happened to someone it was because they had done something wrong.  Jesus’ answer very clearly exposes their mistake in thinking but unfortunately we have a very difficult time accepting this.  How often is our first thought when catastrophe comes to ask why me or why did that happen to him; he is such a “good” Christian?  Behind this is a legalistic mindset that everything that happens to us is directly connected to how well we behave.  It is the health and wealth, Joel Osteen gospel that says if we live right God will treat us better.  But it is not the gospel of grace found in the Bible it is just another destructive form of legalism.

 

At the heart of the problem with the disciples’ question and with us when we ask this same question when we see someone going through difficult times is that it assumes that we have not done whatever it is that they did.  It assumes we are in a better position than those that are suffering trials.  The disciples thought this poor blind man had done something they had not.  And this type of arrogance can destroy the Lord’s work and Christian love. 

We cannot look at possessions and circumstances as a spiritual score cards that indicate to everyone how spiritual you are or how much you are pleasing the Lord compared to others.  None of us please the Lord apart from his power and when we do anything that honors him we have merely done our duty.  A friend of mine recently pointed out that only Jesus ever did anything beyond what was required of him.  He alone earned the Father’s favor in and of himself.  And in his work he earned whatever favor we will have from God.  This is why grace is sometimes defined as “unmerited favor”!

To be sure sometimes the Lord chastens us for our sins and we suffer and are blessed according to how we live but it is the grossest arrogance and legalism to think that God is merely keeping a score card and doing to us as we deserve.  That would be justice and the last thing we want is justice.  What we want is mercy and grace because we would all wander away from the Lord and into gross sin unless he restrains us by his Spirit.  Are we to assume that those suffering for being a Christian or who have been martyred for the Lord have not lived as holy as those of us who are not suffering?

Hopefully what will happen to us when we stop asking why this or that happened to us or them is to be compassionate to those in need because we know that we deserve no better and that all of us experienced the grace of God while we were sinners; while we were in rebellion.  God came to us and gave us what we did not deserve when he saved us.  I am thankful that I am not receiving what I deserve because I deserve God’s wrath and it is only removed because Christ has endured it for me.  Living in a legalistic world will soon bring one to despair and cause us to elevate ourselves above our brothers and sisters instead of seeing ourselves as merely sinners saved by grace. 

I serve the Lord not in the hope of gaining something but because I already have all things in Christ!  And yet I am always fighting the tendency to think God owes me something.