Thinking with grace rather than justice, part 14; John 15:18.

“The finer the net is woven, the more numerous are the holes.” Catholic theologian Hans Küng.

Having sworn allegiance to the 2,414 canons in the Roman Code of Canon Law, one day he realized his energy was going toward either keeping or getting around those canons, rather than accomplishing the work of the gospel.

Martin Luther, before discovering the freedom of grace, would spend as long as 6 hours a day racking his brain to confess the sins he might have committed the previous day. He wrote that he lived a blameless life as a monk but far from loving God, he wrote, “I actually loathed him.”

Samuel Tewk, an English reformer in the nineteenth century, introduced a radical new approach to treatment of the mentally ill. Instead of beating them, as was the common practice, he taught them how to behave at tea parties and at church. He dressed them like everyone else. No one could tell they were mentally ill overtly, but inwardly he did nothing to address their suffering. No matter how they behaved they were still mentally ill.

The church, says Robert Farrar Capon, “has spent so much time inculcating in us the fear of making mistakes that she has made us like ill-taught piano students: we play our songs, but we never really hear them because our main concern is not to make music but to avoid some flub that will get us in dutch [in trouble].”

Legalism may seem hard, but it’s actually easier than living the spiritual life. It is easy to avoid committing murder and much harder to lay down your life for another. It’s easier to avoid my neighbor’s bed and harder for me to strengthen my own marriage. Legalism is a fake that promises +R and can never deliver on it. One can learn to be a legalist in a relatively short time. One can only learn to love with Christ’s love over a lifetime.

Jesus proclaimed unmistakably that God’s law is so perfect and absolute that no one can achieve righteousness. Yet God’s grace is so great that we do not have to. By striving to prove how much they deserve God’s love, legalists miss the whole point of the gospel, that it is a gift from God to people who don’t deserve it. The solution to sin is not to impose an ever-stricter code of behavior. It is to know God.

Every time someone attempts to make a perfect, Christian world it degenerates into deep evil and terror.

Just as the Law increased sin so does legalism. Heavy handed rules only promote rebellion, Rom 7, while grace promotes true obedience.

John 15:18 "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.

Hatred breeds persecution. The grace oriented believer will be persecuted by those involved in the world system, which is a works based system and not a grace based system. Grace only comes with Jesus Christ.

John 1:17

For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

Yet, since the grace oriented believer will be persecuted this in no way justifies a martyr complex in which a fight to right the injustices against him is legitimized. Grace means God does all the work. God will repay in His way. Everyone reaps what they sow. The grace oriented believer retains the umbrella of grace when he forgives injustices against him and moves on without recalling them to mind. This cannot be done in human power. Divine power is needed for such a forgiveness to be easy under grace orientation.

God’s power system: Metabolized Bible doctrine in the heart and the filling of God the Holy Spirit.

1 Peter 4:12 Beloved, do not be surprised [literally: stop being shocked – meaning that Peter’s audience keeps on being shocked] at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing [peirasmos], as though some strange thing were happening to you;

1 Peter 4:13 but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing [in contrast to being shocked]; so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation [excitement at the JSOC and not embarrassment as well as excitement in time in anticipation of that event].

Verse 14 shows the source of this power that enables the believer to rejoice, or to maintain God’s joy and happiness in the midst of sufferings.

1 Peter 4:14 If you are reviled [censored, insulted, shamed or disgraced] for the name of Christ, you are blessed [happiness to you], because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

“If you are reviled” is a first class condition, meaning that you will be.

1 Pe 4:14 If you are censored, reviled, insulted, shamed, or disgraced for the person of Christ, happiness to you, for the glory of the God even the Spirit refreshes you from above. (corrected translation)

1 Peter 4:15 By no means let any of you suffer as a murderer [ignoring the life of others], or thief [ignoring the property of others], or evildoer [ignoring the rights of others], or a troublesome meddler [ignoring the privacy of others];

However, we live in a world where ourselves or people we love may be hurt or even murdered by another, be stolen from, have their rights violated, and have their privacy intruded upon. This is going to happen and there is nothing we can do to stop it.

For the Church at large to attempt to try and clean up the world so that these things don’t happen is ludicrous. First, it has never worked and in fact it has always made things worse. Second, the suffering is necessary in the Christian way of life for the doctrine in us to be applied to the extent that the proven character of Christ may be manifest in us and understood by us. You will never be able to learn this in heaven, since all suffering will be erased forever.

Phil 1:29

For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake

The world has become full of whinny babies who are trying to create a world where there is no adversity at all. I’m not saying that a person should create suffering, but working for a world where suffering is abolished is a flat out waste of time. You can’t control people. Man has inherent tendencies that create suffering, not even God has stopped them at this time.

Yet God has given the provision to man through His Son and His word and His Spirit to overcome any adversity or suffering and in His genius He has found a way for that very suffering that is against Him (not talking about deserved or self-induced suffering) to produce priceless virtues in the believer.

Rom 5:1 Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Rom 5:2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.

Rom 5:3 And not only this, but we also exult [rejoice, to boast, to glory] in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance [exercise analogy];

Rom 5:4 and perseverance, proven character [testing a metal’s purity, noun of dokimazo]; and proven character, hope [confidence in future deliverance];

The process is clear. We exult or rejoice in the beginning of the tribulation, not even knowing how long it will last, because we have been through this before.

But this is only true if when you have been through this before you didn’t fly off the handle emotionally, you didn’t resort to the flesh and use your old human defense mechanisms [pouting, guilt, shame, judging, acting out, sublimation, etc.] but you stayed under the doctrine in your soul and you applied that doctrine by means of the Spirit and you saw the outcome, which was refreshment. This puts such muscle on your faith that the next time a tribulational period comes around your actually rejoice.

You will never experience this is you never attempt it. (Navy Seal hell week) Many believers are just too afraid, lack the faith, or just too apathetic towards God’s plan that they never entrust their souls to God in applying doctrine in these tribulations and so they never see their proven, tested character and they never gain absolute confidence in God’s future deliverance.

Rom 5:5 and hope does not disappoint [make ashamed, same word used in 1Pe 4], because the love of [from] God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

“poured out” – evkce,w[ekcheo; perfect passive indicative] = to pour out, to shed, or to spill divine love.

Perfect – completed in the past with continuing results

Passive – subject receives the action of the verb

Indicative – dogmatic fact

This verb in the original language tells that our future confidence in God’s deliverance [NT word “hope”] will not disappoint us currently because we’ve seen God work this power of divine love through us before. Operating in love is operating in grace. Love covers a multitude of sins. Love lays down its life for one another. It doesn’t judge, condemn, assume, or take revenge, but it gives the benefit of the doubt, forgives, hopes for reconciliation, and bears all burdens. Faith, hope, and love will not disappoint you.

And usually it takes us seeing it many times before, when we don’t deserve to be delivered, to actually begin to have the faith that brings such hope. And you want to get rid of all the adversity and tribulation in your life?

Why did God deliver me like He did? He did it because you are a believer in Christ, you are His son and therefore He loves you as He loves His Son.

How did He deliver me? Did He take the tribulation away? No. You applied His word and you saw the power of the HS to deliver your soul from stress and MAS’s in the midst of the tribulation.

In fact, not only did you not have stress and a bouquet of MAS’s, but instead you had peace of mind, tranquility, and refreshment.

And you want to get rid of all the adversity and tribulation in your life?