Failing God: an excerpt from my book Understanding Paul: freedom in Galatians

Galatians 2:20

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me

If Gods life is living in us and we are His how do we still fail?

God’s gifts are without repentance. He gave Adam choice between life and living as he determined for himself and that choice is still Adams through us His progeny.

Two trees for Adam contain His choice. In one the self does not exist but instead a oneness with God’s shared life. In the other the self determines and makes its own life but is separated from God. We know which one Adam chose.

The death that Adam called life affected him to the core even his seed that would become every soul on the earth. As I write this there are more than seven billion selves living on this earth.

For these children of Adam there is still a choice; the self they have inherited from their father in the earth or a loosing of self and gaining a shared life with God by faith in the redemption of Jesus.

However what if we have chosen to give our life to Jesus but still see failure?  This is the result of strongholds in our mind. These strongholds are areas where we are still placing trust in ourselves and reaping a harvest of sin.

We are children of adoption. We have been adopted from a horrible darkness. Consider this as way of illustration.

A child raised in an abusive home will learn that abuse is normal and adjust their thinking and actions as best they are able to survive what they consider to be just life.

If this child were to be adopted into a kind and loving family they would experience great joy at the love and kindness. At the same time the ways they have learned about life would take time and experience to be dispelled.

They may horde food instead of sharing with their new siblings because of fear their new father may leave them without. When their new father corrects them they may fear he will punish them without mercy. They may mistrust instructions from their new father as being to take from them instead of to give to them. In all these things they will act in ways that are contrary to the new life their new father is trying to share with them.

Make no mistake; if you have desired to be adopted into His family your heavenly Father will not cast you out. If you act against His ways but desire His ways He says

 trust me,

I love you,

I will show you my ways,

 I will make you to become as I am,

 you need not fear anything,

I am with you and nothing can take you from me,

Rest from your worries and cares because I care for you

All who trust in me are made as I am; none of them are ashamed of trusting in me because I do not fail.

I know what you need; it will make you uncomfortable sometimes but you will see it is for your perfection.

When you see your fear dissolve help your adopted brothers to trust me too.

My love cast out fear and I am with you always even to the ends of the earth.

We fail because we fear to trust ourselves to Him completely. We fear because we do not believe He can love us completely without conditions. We set conditions because we cannot see that He is changing everything in our life.

He provides for us, He nurtures us, He teaches us, and He chastises us that we may mature. Not to make us a better child but that we would know we are His child.

Understanding the Old and New Covenant

2 Corinthians 3:7-9

 7 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:

 8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?

 9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.

I have quoted the scripture from Corinthians but though this subject is important for our understanding of all Pauls epistles and Hebrews the book I have in mind as this is written is galatians.

The church at Galatia was under attack. While Paul was busy elsewhere wolves had snuck in order to use the brethren for their own desire of recognition, honor, and a following.

These false teachers were claiming that they were showing the Galatians how to have a proper relationship with God. They taught that the gentiles were not in true covenant with God until they were circumcised.

Coming from Jerusalem; they claimed that they spoke with the authority of the original apostles and James the Lords brother and head pastor of the Jerusalem church.

If these men knew that James had addressed this issue is not known but we do know that the authority they claimed for their teaching was a lie.

James and Paul do not oppose each other in the least; despite the misunderstanding of some which has persisted for two thousand years. Paul has no desire to discard the teachings of Moses. In truth his teachings to the gentile church could be considered as commentary on Moses writings. James does not wish to add any source to salvation other than faith in Messiah alone.

The scripture makes witness to the fact that Jesus came to Israel to establish Gods new covenant; as prophesied by Jeremiah and others. This covenant is made with Israel but others are not excluded in old or new.

Under the old a man was required to have his foreskin circumcised if he desired to be included in the covenant. Under the new covenant the token of circumcision given to Abraham is fulfilled in the true circumcision of the heart.

The new and old are in reality the same. To explain what I mean by this I offer the following example.

My wife and I were married almost twenty four years ago. We received a marriage license, went to a court official, said our vows and ta da we were married.

I promised my wife that we would have a better ceremony later. Now as my twenty fifth anniversary is approaching I intend to keep my promise.

Laying aside my slackness in keeping my promise a great many things will be different this time.

The ceremony will be performed by a minister instead of a governor.

My childish understanding of what marriage means to my everyday life has matured into an understanding that my wife and I are sharing one life.

Our vows are not an oath to live up to but are a witness of what is living in our hearts.

In the old our actions and thoughts where on what and how to be married in the new we focus on why we are married.

The marriage relationship itself has not changed. There still must be faithfulness, compassion, a trust and submission to one another, and a desire to walk out our time on earth together if our marriage is to be more than in name only.

This is a very accurate picture of the two covenants. The way of life described and thought of as a standard in the old has not changed but instead become the natural result of the life in us. Righteousness is still righteousness but it has gone from being an imitation of Gods life to an emanation of Gods life in us.

Love without compassion is dead: pillars 18

1 John 3: 13-17

13Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.

14We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

15Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

16Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

17But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

Decades ago when I was a college student I heard a knock on my door one night. When I answered the door there stood a man with a jar wrapped in a printed paper. This man told me he was taking up a collection for a poor family whose daughter had recently passed away in order to help with burial expenses.

Although my weekly diet consisted of three different flavors of Raman noodles I gave a dollar toward His cause; after all that’s what good people do.

Four months later there was a knock again. When I opened my door it was the same man with the same jar and by some cruel twist of fate the exact same girl had managed to die once more. In this world there is always someone trying to take for themselves. When I lived by the flesh the answer was simple; I take care of me and leave it to you to do the same.

The world has no other source but the self so even when they do give in a charitable way the core motivation is along the lines of doing what they believe shows that they are a good person. Such giving is not acceptable if we are of the household of faith. Obedient giving to prove our love for God and man is also of no use.

Cain’s sacrifice was to God but only to prove He was acceptable and for this reason it showed he was not acceptable. The giving of a believer must start with a love that is in no way self-seeking for love seeks not its own. True love has no pride for it never lifts up its actions but by its actions lifts up others.

The book of acts tells us that the early church considered all they had to be the common property of all believers. Some have compared this to a communist thought but in truth it is very opposite. In communism no individual own anything and a government distributes to each their share. In the family of God there is no individual for we are one and all things belong to all. It is for this reason that if anything was held back for the self then the guilt was that one had lied and stolen from God. As a husband and wife would find if you place yourself as a self and then attempt to take from the family of God the results are deadly.

My point in this is not to speak to the economy of this situation but instead the necessity of the selfless love of placing all others as your only concern and the destructive result of the hatred for others witnessed by placing the self above all.

Acts tells us those who had little had no lack and those who had much had no excess. Paul said of the gift going to Jerusalem to give shows the sincere love for the brethren but also that it was not to be burdened that others would be eased. He instructs to give as we propose in our heart.

Our giving must not be done in order to receive but must be from a pure love that has no thought of itself. When our motive is tied to our own benefit John concludes we hate our brother. Why?

God declared all who place their faith in Him are made one with Him and each other. When one takes as for themselves they witness against themselves that they are not one with God. They steal from their brothers what God has given. And by their separating from trust in God they murder themselves.

This does not mean believers are to have nothing. However those things we have are for the purposes of our Father not our own. Consider the expensive perfume used on Christ; when one said it should have been used for the poor Jesus said it had been used for the propose it was intended for.

We are also told to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Men driven by the flesh will always try to take for themselves; we are to know the difference between the need of our brothers and the lust of Adam. When men wanted to take Jesus and make Him king it was not for the desire of having God’s messiah rule over them but instead for the benefit they would receive from being the head nation of the earth. The scripture says Jesus knew all men and so He slipped away from them.

Just as faith without works is dead so love without compassion is also dead. Love is a motive of the mind and heart driving us to act to the betterment of our brother. The action that we are driven to by love is called compassion. So John ask us if we have this worlds goods and see our brother in need and we have no act of compassion toward them how can we say we have the love of God alive in us?

John asks who is being formed in you?:pillars 17

1 John 3

 1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

 2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

 3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

 4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

 5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.

 6 Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.

 7 Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.

 8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

 9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

 10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.

 11 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

How often do we stop to consider what God has done for us? If you are as I am it is not enough. God has chosen to give himself to us and make us to be as He is. The human mind with its fallen bent toward the self is always asking why. Why did God make me? What does He expect of me? What’s in it for Him?

The idea of giving by nature with only a desire for another to be full and complete is foreign. Even when we say He did all this for me in the back of our mind, in that place where questions are asked that are never spoken, we wonder what the catch is.

It is this comprehension problem in us that causes to not be able to reconcile Gods vengeance and wrath with His love and mercy. How many well-meaning believers have worked themselves to exhaustion to do the work of God only to feel slighted when they don’t receive the blessings they expect.

If we look for the wrong gifts we overlook the true and precious gift. God has made himself our Father. What does that mean? It means He has placed His seed in us. He has made us to be one with Him.

When Messiah said He was the son of God the Pharisees attempted to stone Him for making Himself equal to God. They would have been fine with Jesus teaching that all that God had was given to Him; for this is simply to make God a benefactor. However to say He was a son was to say that who He was down to his DNA was a replica of who God was. When we have a child they are a combination of our DNA and our spouses which while making them in our image it is not an exact image. If we were to give both the x and the y chromosomes the child would be our clone; an exact image.

If we take this natural scenario and place it in the spirit which is the essence of our being and life we may see some hint of this gift. God has formed a juxtaposition of life in us. As a seed goes into the ground and dies before God makes it to grow into a harvest, or as sperm and egg become a new creation in the womb maturing to the image of its father, so we are placed in Messiah and at the same time Messiah is placed in us, we are hidden in Him while He is being formed in us. As this new creation forms and matures it begins to appear the same as the Father from which it has come. On the day of our manifestation we will be as He is and we will know as He is known.

John says to think it not a strange thing when men cannot see this life being formed in you. They could not see the life of the Father living in Messiah and because they did not honor God in their heart they could not honor His son in the flesh.

Those who understand that their very life is now one with the Father and we are in His Son and Him as He is in use and have been filled with the expectancy of this change seek after this purification of heart.

Pure life has no sin for truly the law is a description of the life found in the Father. Those who attempt to live by obedience to the law will find only death in themselves; however those who expect the Father to live in them will find He does not sin.

Messiah is the lamb that takes away the sin of the world. Bulls and goats blood covered it only but the blood of Jesus brings life.

Is John saying if I commit a sin I am not His child. No he is not. Sins plural is any transgression of the law; sin singular is the cause of all manifestations of sin. This core is the self-generated life that Adam sought to achieve.

In the believer as Christ is formed in Him the works of the devil are destroyed. If we attempt to live for God by our own effort we are not seeking to be born of His Spirit but of our flesh. Jesus concluded of those who would make their own way to God that they were children of their Father the devil and John gives us the same conclusion those who are not putting their trust in Messiah and the Spirit of God for the source of their every moment of life are children being formed of the devil.

Our righteousness is not generated by us but it does that which is righteous. Our righteousness is His righteousness and it is obvious to all in the same way His was.

So we must see that within us are both the flesh and the Spirit if we are believers. To which ever we place our trust our living is born; for this reason if we see transgression in our life we know that we have sown to our flesh and brought to birth death in us. If we find ourselves in the sin we must repent and place our expectation of having life in Him and John assures us if we confess our sin He is faithful and Just ( after all He has paid for them) to forgive us our sins.

Righteousness becomes evidenced in our lives by love. When we truly love God and men we do not sin. From Moses to John all that God has promised and given and desired in us is love. Not the false love of the world that only endures for the time it encourages the self of the lover making them either feel good or believe they are good by it.

True love has no thought of the self it does not attempt to endure but it expects.

John teaches believers what they know: pillars 16

1 John 2:20-29

 20 But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.

 21 I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.

 22 Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.

 23 Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.

 24 Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.

 25 And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.

 26 These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.

 27 But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

 28 And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

 29 If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.

The paradox of Christians who are called to the “fivefold ministry” is laid out in simplicity by the apostle. The new covenant that Jesus established with Israel was prophesied by Jeremiah many years before The Word was manifested in the flesh.

This prophet arguably had the hardest and most unaccepted ministry that we have record of in the scripture. Perhaps as way of consolation God gave to him the most beautiful sight of the result of promised Messiahs coming. This new covenant may have been understood and appreciated more by this prophet than it is by many of those who live in its benefits.

The paradox begins for us with this prophet when He tells us that in the new covenant “…they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest…” Jeremiah 31: 34. John affirms this in his listeners by saying they have an anointing and know all things and also He says they have no need that men teach them.

Yet our Lord who established this covenant told His disciples when you are converted strengthen your brethren, He told Peter if you love me feed my sheep, and His Spirit through Paul tells us that when the anointed one ascended He took us, who were the captives of the grave in the earth, as captives of the life in heaven with Him. He tells us we are hidden in Him and seated in His heavenly places. Also at His ascending He gave gifts unto us the so called fivefold ministry for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ till we are all brought to that perfect man and unity of the faith.

The word know, as in you know Him, is about being joined with Him not a scholarly knowledge. So if by faith I am joined to Him then when He died I died, when He was buried I was buried, when He was resurrected I was resurrected, and when He ascended I ascended.

 These things being true why is my body still living here? My body is not my own it is literally the body of Christ, the Spirit of God quickens my mortal body and both the Father and the Son and I abide here. God has made us one so now we are a package deal; if He is in heaven so is I, if He is in me so am I and not I alone but all who are of the household of faith.

These things being true why at times (many more than I wish) do I sin; how is it even possible after what we have just discussed?  The unity of faith is not about the outside of you and your brother, but instead about your fight of faith within. We all to some degree have a mixed trust reliance and expectation of Christ to live through us and ourselves to live through us.

The trials, temptations, chastisements, failures, victories, and blessings of our Christian life all serve to show us that we must let go of our old self and let ourselves be completely crucified in Christ in order that the oneness of God and us, sharing His life, may be manifested.

Now many who read this may have never heard such a thing stated but if you are Christ’s you know it is true. This is the purpose of a minister; not to teach you what you should know, but to stir up the gift that is in you. It is the anointed one working in us to encourage you to trust His working in you for it is in Him that we move and breathe and Have our being.

Any man that believes he can give you life by his teaching or work is at best deceived and at worst trying to make you into merchandise. You are anointed of God because you are made one with Him and it is The Holy Spirit that works in you to teach and to will and to do.

As much as your faith is in Jesus to live through you His glory rest on you. As much as your faith is not in Him you are in the flesh and He shares His glory with no flesh.

As a last point fear that you will fail is the exact opposite of faith that He is your maker and author and finisher of your faith. He is able to make you exactly what He desires…FEAR NOT ONLY BELIEVE!!