I’m slogging through the edits of my book on how to study the Old Testament. After that I’m considering a book on how to study the gospels.
The gospels are tricky. The main character is Jesus. He became human and took on flesh just like you and me. But at the same time, He isn’t like you or me.
For starters, He doesn’t have a sin nature. We are so accustomed to living with our sin nature that sometimes I think we are incapable of imagining what it’s like NOT to have one.
Our sin nature is corrupted, broken, defiled. It’s the very thing that made the Apostle Paul cry out “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
Our sin nature makes us naturally self-centered. We think of our selves first. In subtle ways that we probably don’t even recognize. Even when it appears that others might benefit, we we do things because it makes us feel good about who we are.
Try it some time. Try thinking about someone else without letting any thoughts of yourself creep in. No thoughts about how you are related to them, how they well being rubs off on you, no thoughts about how much easier your life is when they are happy….
And arrogance. We have a funny definition of arrogance. Because we’re all human, we typically think of arrogance as “that arrogance above the baseline arrogance”. Or the arrogant person is the one who is overtly arrogant.
Arrogance is baked into the core of who we are. Any time we think “I got this”, we’re being arrogant. Just the assumption that we understand what is going on is arrogant. With our finite created natures, to assume that we have mastery over a situation that we didn’t create, didn’t form and don’t know all the outcomes of…. That’s pretty arrogant.
I know for myself, I think all the time at work that I am “well equipped” to handle the situations I encounter. How arrogant is that? I think the greater reality is that I only perceive a fraction of the situation, and my understanding is extremely limited.
But I have no problems writing off all the things I don’t know and don’t understand. Treating them as irrelevant or dust.
Can you relate to this? How long has it been since you said to yourself “I understand what’s going on,” or “I know what to do.”?
Think about that from God’s perspective. Do you think He would agree that you understand or that you know the situation? Compared to another person, perhaps. But compared to God Himself? I don’t think so.
But Jesus didn’t have all these hangups. He wasn’t deciding Himself what to do, He said “I only do the things my Father tells me to do.”
Jesus did not rely on His own (human) understanding. He was fully dependent upon God.
That concept just doesn’t fit in my brain very well. I have worked all my life to establish my own independence. To prove that I’m enough to do what I want to do.
As a consequence, I am often consumed with earthy matters, to the complete oblivion of spiritual matters of far greater importance. I’m not attuned to my Father, but to my own will and agenda.
And in that is an ugly truth that I don’t trust God to take care of me while I pursue His agenda. Somehow I have to be taking care of myself in order to focus on what He wants…
So where am I going with this email…. Not really sure. But I’ve been convicted lately about this difference between me and Jesus. Being like Jesus is certainly about making decisions like He did… but it’s also much deeper than the outside shape. It goes all the way in to some of these finer points where I’m not very much like Jesus.
Of course, I have a sin nature. But I still seek to be conformed to the image of Christ. And for me, that means not letting myself off the hook easily.
So I guess this leaves me asking you to think about these things. How and where do you fit on the spectrum? Can you see where you still need some shaping?
Until next time…
Dennis
