Posted on by Abe Austin

A Loving Relationship with Christ- Missing Love

Discovering Jesus’s Love)

I have already discussed how Christians that defend sinful habits by an appeal to the love of Jesus Christ are incorrectly conflating being loved with being saved. But actually, I think there is an even more fundamental confusion than that. When they say, “well Jesus loves me anyway,” I suspect that most of them don’t actually believe that.

My reason for this is personal experience. For much of my life I was a slave to a sinful addiction, and through it all I would have adamantly insisted that Jesus loved me. But it was not an excess of Jesus’s love that gave me license to do evil, it was a dearth of it. For while I truly believed in Jesus’s love in my head, I did not feel it whatsoever in my heart.

Indeed, it was as I managed to break down my walls and actually start feeling his love that my behavior became more holy also. I could never feel the beautiful reality of his love and continue living in sin. That’s not say that I’m perfect, to say that I don’t still do wrong things from time to time, but I can say that I don’t live in sin like how I used to. What was once a way of life are now only slips were, and it was his love was what made that change possible.

A Recurring Pattern)

And I’ve been to enough 12-step meetings to know that this isn’t only true for me. One of the most common refrains I’ve heard in these stories is a severing of the connection to the love of Christ, and the resultant increase in sin. I’ve heard many of these men say something like, “I knew that Jesus loved everybody in the world…just maybe not me.”

For many people, sin is used as a drug to try and dull the sense of being fundamentally unlovable. They do what they do from a starvation of love, not an excess of it. Those that are truly secure in Christ’s love are freed from the spiritual pain that leads to wrongdoing. Those that are truly secure in Christ’s love, and know that he died for their sins, feel less compulsion to hurt him, not more.

I understand why people who are not ready to let go of their sins would look for a divine excuse to not change their ways. I think invoking the love of Christ is not only inaccurate, though, I think it is tragic, because admitting that they don’t feel any love is one and the same as hard as admitting that they’re not doing okay. They have my sympathy, not by disdain, but sometimes the kindest thing is to speak the hard truths that sting…and then heal.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Elements of a Spiritual Journey

If your spiritual journey does not include a time of
Guilt
Shame
Failure
And being saved
Then you don’t have a spiritual journey

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 32:19-20

19 And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.

20 And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.

At the start of this chapter I mentioned that Moses up in the mountain with God and the Israelites down in the valley with their idol was an allegory for all mankind. Today, we see those two opposites meeting again. The elevated and transcendent has touched back to the fallen earth.

The first thing that Moses does is break in pieces the Lord’s invitation to Israel to build Him a holy house. The people were not worthy of it. They had not only violated the principles etched upon the tablets, but also the earlier law that was the prerequisite to receiving the latter tablets. Of course, we know that ultimately Israel would build the tabernacle as planned, but only because God would restore that privilege. First the people had to lose everything. They had to be condemned before they could be redeemed.

Next, Moses similarly broke the people’s sin. He took their perverse calf and destroyed it in the most complete way imaginable. First burned, then ground into powder, then poured into water, then drunk. It’s hard to think of a way he could have decimated it any further!

Also, there is an obvious symbolism in Moses having the people drink the very essence of their sin. They were drinking the consequences of their own wrongs. No one can pervert the ways of the Lord and not be soiled within. Many the man has tried to have his secret vice on the side while still maintaining that he is a “good” person, but it never works. The sin does not live outside of the man. It begins external, as the influence of temptation, but by engaging with it the man ingests its evil, and then it churns within him.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 32:5-6

5 And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the Lord.

6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

The idolatry of the Israelites bore yet another similarity to God’s tabernacle in that both required animal sacrifice. We have already discussed the symbolism of the offerings to be made to the Lord in the tabernacle and how they represented the people giving up their sins, devoting their passions to the Almighty, and submitting their lives to His purpose.

Assuming that the animal offerings to this golden idol carried the same symbolism, then they were giving their passions, their energies, and their very lives to something evil. Anyone that has dabbled in a life of sin knows that you cannot just have it on the side, totally separate from the rest of your life. Many have tried, but to maintain the course of sin we must progressively lay on its altar the very best of ourselves, including the love and energy that we had intended to withhold from it.

It is interesting that the Israelites would be so forward in admitting that this was the aim of their idolatry. I think most of us are caught unawares by the cost of sin, having only entered into vice because we assumed it wouldn’t take so much from us. Not for the first time, it appears to me that the Old Testament takes all that is subtle, invisible, and spiritual today, and makes them immediate, real, and physical.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 29:10-14

10 And thou shalt cause a bullock to be brought before the tabernacle of the congregation: and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the bullock.

11 And thou shalt kill the bullock before the Lord, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

12 And thou shalt take of the blood of the bullock, and put it upon the horns of the altar with thy finger, and pour all the blood beside the bottom of the altar.

13 And thou shalt take all the fat that covereth the inwards, and the caul that is above the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and burn them upon the altar.

14 But the flesh of the bullock, and his skin, and his dung, shalt thou burn with fire without the camp: it is a sin offering.

After being properly dressed, washed, and anointed, the priests were further prepared by sacrificial ritual. First came the bullock, which we hear in verse 14 was being offered up as a sin offering. This was for the priests to make atonement for all that they had done wrong. Like the rest of us, each of them had violated the ideal at one point or another. They had pursued self over others, they had betrayed their own consciences, they had entered misalignment with truth.

The symbolism of having the priests place their hands on the head of the bullock is clear. This placing of the hands upon the head is repeated with just about every sacrifice and is a clear representation of the animal being made to stand in place of the person. The people are choosing the animal as their representative, and witness as it receives the punishment in their place. That punishment is death, because “the wages of sin is death.”

It is worth noting, the laying on of hands is also a common practice when a disciple is ordained to a particular responsibility in the church. This makes sense, as once again that person is being selected to stand in for the other people, to make a sacrifice of his time to do the responsibilities in place of all the others.

Let us consider the meaning of what is done to the separate parts of the bullock. First, its blood is placed upon the horns of the altar. Later in the Bible we hear how the guilty would cling to these horns when seeking mercy for their wrongs, so perhaps the blood upon them represented coming to the Lord in desperation and moral anguish, casting yourself upon His mercy.

Then, the fat and the kidneys are burned upon the altars. The significance of giving the fat to the altar should be immediately clear. It was giving one’s passions, one’s indulgence, one’s reserve of energy to the Lord. No longer would the repentant give his indulgence to his carnal appetites, but to His maker.

Then, all of the bad parts: the skin and the dung, and also the very flesh of the beast, were burned without the camp. This means exiling the sin and the self, taking it out of the camp that it doesn’t belong in and destroying it. From this point on the sinner is not to be those parts anymore.

And so, atonement for sin is made. The old man of sin is destroyed, his passion and energy are dedicated to the Lord, and he casts himself upon God’s mercy. This is the same offering that we all spend our entire lives making over and over again.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 19:14-15

14 And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes.

15 And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at your wives.

Moses relates God’s instructions for the Israelites to prepare themselves to witness His presence and hear His voice. Specifically we are told that they are to wash their clothes, and to refrain from any sexual activity.

There has, of course, been a history of sexual shame in certain sects of Christianity. Not just immoral acts of sexuality outside of the marriage covenant, but even suggesting that every child is born in sin because of the act that brought them into existence. However, it is worth noting that this passage is not at all evidence that any such view is appropriate.

Let us consider the other imperative given to the Israelites: that they wash their clothes. Certainly we can all appreciate how nice and fresh it feels to be clean, and how we want to present our best to those we respect and admire, yet would we say that we are sinful if we come home dirty from a long day of manual labor? Certainly not. Could we not have the same nuanced view towards sexuality within the marriage covenant?

Also, the command for husbands and wives to keep their distance calls to mind the practice of fasting, whereby we forego food and/or drink for a period of time. No one thinks that we are sinful because we have to eat food, but we appreciate that a period of self-denial can help to cultivate the spirit within. Could it not be the same with sexuality within the marriage covenant?

Therefore it is logical to assume that the instruction given to the Israelites for temporary sexual abstinence between husbands and wives was one of preparing themselves spiritually, an act of self-denial that would focus their energy inwards. That is not at all the same as saying that any sexual activity, even in a committed marriage between a man and a woman, is sinful.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Trending Towards Death

It is a terrible thing to be faithless, nihilistic, cynical, and depressed. There are many that find themselves in a state where effort seems ineffectual, the future appears bleak, and life itself feels meaningless. Too long in such a state can be a very dangerous thing, as the broken person may begin to consider ways to expedite the end of their miserable existence. Even if not, though, they will continue forward in a sort of waking death, unmotivated to do any of the things worth living for, isolating and numbing, and just letting themselves go. They may reach a “natural end,” but one that was premature and avoidable.

On the other hand, though, one might love life to the point of debauchery. They might become carnal, sensual, eagerly pursuing every pleasant, vibrant experience, trying to live as full and varied a life as possible. But gross hedonism is just as tended towards death as depression. Promiscuous sexuality, drunkenness, risk-taking, late-night parties, and gluttony do not prolong life, rather they burn it out faster, resulting in either an accidental death, or once again, a demise that might be considered natural, though premature and avoidable.

The soul cleaved from its purpose becomes depressed and gravitates towards death, but also the soul that makes its purpose the pleasures of life also gravitates to death. Survival itself is contingent upon finding the true life worth living, and committing ourselves wholeheartedly to it.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Loving Your Enemy vs Renouncing Evil- Judge Not

Matthew 7:1, 4-5:

1 Judge not, that ye be not judged.

4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

In my last post I considered one of the passages typically used to say that Christians should not judge others, today I am looking at another.

“Judge not, that ye be not judged,” Jesus said, and so, we are told, it is not our place to call out the behavior of another as sinful or in need of censure. Admittedly, when looking at that verse in isolation, that could be a potentially correct interpretation of the passage. But how, then, does that hold up when three verses later Christ talks about removing the beam from your own eye so that you can remove the mote from your brother’s? How are you even to determine that there is a mote in your brother’s eye, and help him to pluck it out, if you have not “judged” that something about him is amiss?

And surely, even the staunchest critic of Christian judgment must admit that they, too, believe in renouncing some forms of evil. Can we not call a murderer, a child abuser, or a rapist wrong? Would anyone really make the case that with such crimes we must simply shrug our shoulders and say “well, it’s not my place to judge?!”

Obviously, any coherent interpretation of “judge not, that ye be not judged” must be consistent with Christ’s other words and also consistent with common sense. So what could a more fitting interpretation of this phrase be? Well, let us consider that our English word “judge” has multiple meanings. There is the sort of “Judging” with a capital “J,” such as when I am convicted by a court of law for a serious crime. There is also “judging” with a lower-case “j,” though, such as when my neighbor thinks I am lazy for leaving my Christmas decorations out until Easter.

And, as it turns out, this same strong/weak form is also found in the original Greek word that is used in today’s passage. The word that is being interpreted as “judge” is κρίνετε (krinete). This word is used at various points in the Bible, in a weaker form, being written as “judge” with a lower-case-j. In it’s strong form, however, it is more similar to our English word “condemn.” In fact, it is translated exactly this way in other verses, such as in John 3:17 where it states, “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

Do Not Condemn)

In the King James Version of the Bible, Matthew 7:1 is translated as “Judge not, that ye be not judged,” but another valid interpretation, and one that I think might be more accurate to our current vocabulary, would be “Condemn not, that ye be not condemned.” And this sentiment I fully agree with. If anyone tells me that it is not the role of an individual Christian such as myself to “condemn” another person, they are absolutely right. I am not sitting in final judgment for anybody. I cannot comprehend the sinner’s whole life story, where they are coming from or where they will go, and I cannot state unequivocally that they deserve hell fire. Maybe they do, maybe they don’t, it just isn’t my place to say.

But that doesn’t mean that I cannot judge their behavior. That does not mean that I can’t stand in opposition to the act of sin and renounce it emphatically.

Put another way, Christ’s words compel us not to condemn the sinner, for that is a child of God, but we absolutely should condemn the sinful behavior, for that is the work of the devil. I am, myself, a sinner, and everyone should condemn my acts of selfishness and meanness, just as I do. But also, I am a Son of God, and because of that fact no one should write me off as a completely lost cause. It is possible to do the one without the other.

This is exactly what Christ is describing in the passage above, hating the mote in the eye, but loving the brother enough to point it out so that it can be removed. Not only are loving our enemy and renouncing evil compatible with one another, in most cases they are one and the same thing! Like God’s Son, let us not condemn the world, but let us use righteous judgment to help save it from the condemnation that it is already in!

Posted on by Abe Austin

What Benefit Do You Get From Your Sins?

There are a number of reasons why people break God’s commandments. Perhaps they do not believe in God, or they don’t see the importance of the commandment, or they don’t want to feel dictated in their behavior. All of these examples are a form of the person not agreeing with the commandment, so they don’t keep it.

But there is another category of commandment-breaking as well. We also break commandments that we do agree with. All of us have things where we say, “I know I shouldn’t do that…but I do it anyway. “I know I shouldn’t yell at my kids,” “I know I shouldn’t give in to my lust,” “I know I shouldn’t be so materialistic.” We can be genuinely convinced that that behavior really is wrong, yet have no plans or intention to stop it.

In these sorts of situations, I feel it is important to ask, “What is it that I am getting from this sin?” And that question should be asked sincerely. In our shame we might be tempted to respond, “Nothing, I get nothing from it, I just do it because I’m no good,” but that’s probably inaccurate. Most likely we continue with our sin because in the midst of all of the disgraceful, destructive elements of it, there is also something of value that we gain.

  • I know I shouldn’t yell at my kids…but it gives me an element of control.
  • I know I shouldn’t give in to my lust…but it soothes my loneliness.
  • I know I shouldn’t be so materialistic…but it motivates me to work harder.

Though we might not like giving into our vices, we’re not ready to live without the benefits that come with them. We might say that we don’t think that the ends justify the means, that the positive attribute isn’t more important to us than the negative ones, but our behavior would suggest otherwise. Part of us really does believe that the vice is the best way to get what we want, and it is terrified at the idea of living without that.

Identifying which benefit our vice provides us is the first step to being able to do something about it. Once we know what it is we are trying to get from the behavior, we can start to consider better ways that we can get it. Maybe we really do need more control in our home, or reprieve from our loneliness, or motivation to work hard. Is there another way that we can achieve that? A way that doesn’t compromise our conscience? A way that is harder, but more pure?

Hopefully so. But if not, then we still have our second option, which is to surrender the benefit to God. The fact is, we can’t always have all of the benefits that we want in our lives, at least not by moral means. Having identified exactly what that benefit is, though, allows us to be very specific when we lay it on the altar. We don’t just say, “God, I give you my will,” we say, “Here, God. I lay my desire for companionship on the altar. It seems for this chapter of life I just have to be lonely and I surrender to Your will in that. I will no longer seek to numb the pain from that loneliness by immoral behavior. I will embrace the hurt, that I may learn whatever lessons that You have for me in it. Amen.”

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 10:20-23

20 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go.

21 And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt.

22 And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days:

23 They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.

Pharaoh had given his most solemn pledge yet, approving death and unforgiveness for him and his people if he ever again turned back on his promise. Yet in today’s verses he still “would not let the children of Israel go.”

Thus far Pharaoh had witnessed miracles of transfiguration, pests and vermin, and the destruction of crops and cattle. Now, though, a new sort of affliction was summoned, one more strange and fantastic. This one was an attack on something much more fundamental than any of the previous: the ability to see.

Darkness spread throughout the land, casting the Egyptians into pitch blackness. We are told that the darkness was “thick,” that it could even “be felt.” Some have suggested that the darkness might have been thick ash or dust, actual particles that were so dense as to block out the sun. Verse 22 tells us that in their blindness the Egyptians didn’t dare venture out into the streets, remaining still and alone in the darkness of their own homes.

The connection between this curse and the effects of sin is obvious. Prolonged sin blinds a people to the spiritual world, warping their sense of right and wrong, and obfuscating the connection between behavior and their consequences. A people so afflicted then grope stupidly through their relationships and attitudes, making wrong choices and causing harm without even knowing what they do.

As before, a division is put between the Egyptians and the Israelites, such that the Israelites still have “light in their dwellings.” It is unclear whether the exterior in the land of Goshen was still veiled in darkness, but at the very least we know that in the comfort of their own homes God’s people could still see. This, of course, is symbolic of “the light that shines in the darkness,” Jesus Christ. Even as all the world blinds itself to the truth, Christ is the light that will keep us grounded on solid principles and understanding.