Are Christians perfect?

Posted on September 8, 2010 by jonathanbuck

“Civilization,” someone wrote, ” is but a thin veneer covering a savage, inner self.” And how true that is, I discovered, just a while ago.

The occasion was rather embarrassing. I was in a public washroom, and the cubicle, as usual, had the coat hook ripped off. What people do with all those toilet cubicle coat hooks they’ve been collecting, I do not know. Anyway, there was no hook, so I threw my jacket and calendar, full of all kinds of important notes tucked inside, over the wall between my cubicle and the cubicle next door. The obvious happened, of course; someone decided to use that cubicle and when he slammed the door closed it knocked my calendar off the top of the wall, scattering my notes all over his cubicle floor.

I dived down to pick up what I could reach, yelling “thanks a lot!” – but not a word of apology from next door. Not a word at all, in fact, he was absolutely silent. A hand then appeared under the cubicle wall with the notes I couldn’t reach. Still not a word spoken. I was fuming and still a bit flushed (pardon the pun) for some time afterwards.

I thought later how funny the situation was. It wasn’t something to get angry about, but how angry I’d become, and so quickly, too. What a shock: my Christianity was but “a thin veneer covering a savage, inner self” too!

But surely a good Christian has perfect control of his emotions at all times, doesn’t he? Not so, 1 John 1:8, because ”If we claim we’re free of sin, we’re only fooling ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” A Christian isn’t Mr. Perfection. In fact, the “truth isn’t in us”  if we think we are. What “truth” are we talking about, though? The truth of verse 7, that “the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from every sin.” The truth is, I can’t purify myself or make myself perfect. To think I can is to cancel out the Christian message, that it’s Christ who makes us perfect, not us. And while he’s still growing us up toward that perfection we also have the marvellous assurance in verse 9, that if we do fail, and even fail miserably (as I did in that toilet cubicle) ”if we admit our sins, he’s faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing.”

So this is me: I’m not perfect, I get angry still, I admit it, I’m sorry.

And this is Christ: He knows, he forgives, he accepts and he’ll keep on doing my perfecting for me, 2 Corinthians 3:18.

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Why do Christians go senile?

Posted on September 5, 2010 by jonathanbuck

Being reduced to a helpless state by senility is hardly the “abundant life” Jesus promised Christians, is it? Where’s the “inexpressible joy” from receiving the goal of our faith, too? And if you can’t experience the fruits of the Spirit anymore, what’s the purpose of being alive?

But isn’t the goal of our faith and the source of our joy to get our minds off ourselves and onto Jesus Christ, Colossians 3:1-2? Senility may be an odd way of getting us to that point but it certainly works because we have nothing to offer anymore – no great works we’re doing, no good deeds, no service to others, none of the things we thought might gain us favour with God. What we do have, though, and what we’ve always had, no matter what physical condition we’re in, is God’s promise in 1 Corinthians 1:8 that he’ll keep us strong to the end, “so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We may completely fall apart mentally and physically but he’ll make sure we’re in top shape when Christ returns.

And what counts the most then – being blameless or being healthy?! But it doesn’t matter anyway at that point if we’re healthy and our minds are active because he’s already got a new mind and body in store for us, “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God,” Colossians 3:3. We died long before our bodies began to die and our minds began to deterioriate. That old body and mind of ours was buried long ago with Jesus Christ, and when he rose to life again he raised us with him to his new life, and “When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” So whether our bodies die prematurely, suddenly, or after long and lingering suffering, the end result is exactly the same – we receive a beautiful new body just like Christ’s, and it’s utterly blameless, too!

But why would God let us become senile, where it seems like we’re of no use to him or to anyone else? Could it be that he’s helping someone else get their minds off themselves? Because helping someone with Alzheimer’s is like looking after a baby – it’s self-sacrifice 24 hours a day. Who knows? But what we do know is that God is bringing us all to the same point eventually, of getting our minds off this temporary physical life of ours and resting all our hopes in the new body and new life he’s already fashioned for us. That’s our hope, not this life, which senility only makes more real.

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Why does God allow atrocities?

Posted on September 3, 2010 by jonathanbuck

Humans have done terrible things to humans but, guaranteed, the people committing atrocities felt utterly justified in doing them – in self-defence, for example, or getting rid of evil, or fighting for freedom, or “because it’s God’s will.” Meanwhile, in movies and other propaganda, we’re constantly fed the idea that justice justifies revenge, “payback time” and settling disputes by violence, even brutal violence by good people.

So atrocities continue, and God allows them. Why? “In order that sin might be recognized as sin,” Romans 7:13. We can’t see sin for what it is, that’s our problem, so we keep on sinning. So how do we recognize sin for what it is? Bywhat it produces. And look what it’s produced: never-ending atrocities and death, and insane, twisted minds that hate and kill and don’t think twice about it. But “sin is deceitful,” Hebrews 3:13. It’s very clever. It makes us think we’re right even when we’re blatantly wrong, like the husband who says he loves his wife but he’s having sex with someone else. Who does he think he’s kidding? But he really believes it. Why? Because, Romans 7:23, there’s “another law at work inside us, waging war against our minds” that’s very good at deceiving us.

So what’s the source of this law of sin? According to Paul it’s “The ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient,” Ephesians 2:2. But note what he’s saying here. Yes, there’s a real Devil at work, but where he works is in the disobedient. Disobedience, then, is what gets things started, as we see in the Garden of Eden. God gave a clear command to Adam and Eve but along comes a serpent with a pathetic excuse for disobeying it, and they’re hooked. It didn’t take much for them to disobey God. And nor does it today, either. Any excuse to disobey God will do, but unfortunately that opens the door to the Devil and he can convince us of anything after that, even the idea that God supports our atrocities, witness the prayers of people on both sides of a conflict believing God’s on their side!

So what makes us disobey? A weakness we’ve got for putting self before God. That’s why we need the incorruptible mind of Christ, because he never put himself before God. Result? Sin never deceived him, nor was he tempted into disobedience, and the Devil never messed up his head. Oh, to have such a mind. But we can have it, 1 Corinthians 2:16. How? By the Spirit who is now at work in those who are obedient, Acts 5:32. And that’s how atrocities would end.

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To an unknown God

Posted on September 1, 2010 by jonathanbuck

As the next new trend sweeps through Christianity, with its gurus, books, conferences and marketing machine, I feel heartsick.

Heartsick for two reasons: first, it’s “here we go again,” another panacea, another great solution to church attendance going down, another exciting novelty that will only last until the next new exciting trend comes along. And, secondly, I think, “Oh, no. Is this going to be something else I’m going to have to deal with, requiring another long study trying to figure out if it’s good, bad or ugly, creating yet another situation where people get offended if I don’t go along with it?!”

I remember all the excitement that swept the churches about the Purpose-driven Church book. Then it was Spiritual Formation. Then The Shack. Then – well, I’ve forgotten what came next because it’s the same old routine – more excitement, more conferences, more reams of intellectual material to read, more peer pressure to comply, more people making a name for themselves, more arguments for and against, and more enthusiasts lifting up their gurus like mini-gods.

I admit I’ve been just as susceptible, though. I got all excited about a Christian book I bought recently, did a sermon on it, and wrote two articles, as well. Someone then pointed out a problem, he was right, and down I went in flames, flagellating myself for getting caught up so easily.

It brought me down to Earth with a crunch, because I realized why I’d got so excited. It was the title of the book and the blurb on the inside cover. It promised new knowledge, a new way of looking at familiar scriptures that other Christians had missed. This was new territory, and the chance to spout off my new understanding to others. It was heady stuff!

But it also made me think of Paul when he toured Athens in Acts 17. The Athenians were like that, too, always on the lookout for anything new (verse 21). But they also had an altar “To an Unknown God.” All that new knowledge pouring in but God was still an unknown. Is that why they couldn’t stop grabbing onto anything that sounded new and intriguing, then? Was it some inner hope they had, that maybe, one day, they’d hear something that would make their unknown God suddenly come alive to them?

It made me wonder, “Is that why I’m still such a pushover for a new, exciting book, too? Is it because I really don’t know God yet, and I’m hoping some book, some trend, some new exciting program will suddenly make God real to me?” Horror of horrors! Do I still have an altar to an unknown God, too?

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Born of the Spirit

Posted on August 30, 2010 by jonathanbuck

I got my first real whiff of what being “born again” is like when our 6 year old granddaughter came to stay with us for a week. She was ecstatically happy to be with us, and for the life of me I couldn’t work out why. I’m a doddery old codger now and not much fun to be with, and I can’t run around like I used to. I’m risking injury just walking fast.

When she came to stay, therefore, I wondered what on earth we could do together to keep her occupied. She had the energy of three nuclear power stations, while I tottered in her wake on worn out batteries. Would she be so bored by Day 2 that she’d be crying for home?

By Day 6, however, she was still happy. She scampered down the front path each morning as happily as she did on Day 1. To her, it didn’t matter where we were going either, because wherever Granpy was going was just fine with her. And if all Granpy could manage was a trip to the Library where he collapsed with exhaustion with a newspaper, it was still fine, because for her being together was enough.

Her trust and contentment in whatever we did together was a joy – and a revelation, too, because this was John 3. In that chapter, Jesus is telling Nicodemus what being born again is like, and comes up with this remarkable explanation in verse 8: “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

When I’m born of the Spirit I have no idea where the Spirit’s taking me, just like my granddaughter had no idea where I was taking her each day. It was no problem for her, though. Granpy knew where he was going, and that’s all that mattered. She could scamper into each day in total trust and contentment. And that’s what it’s like being born of the Spirit. The Spirit knows where he’s going, so what else matters? And every morning it’s the same. Out we go together, the Spirit and I, just like I did with my granddaughter.

And Jesus said it would be like this in John 14:16-18, too. The Spirit would live with us and be with us forever. Every moment of every day, then, we’d have a Spirit guide. Where he’s going, we do not know. But he knows – and for my granddaughter with me as her guide – that was all that mattered.

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“You’re forgiven, you’re forgiven!”

Posted on August 28, 2010 by jonathanbuck

I wonder how many kids grow up in homes (and schools) where they’re constantly yelled at and punished for making mistakes. I wonder how it affects them in later life, too.

I know how it affected me, because much of my childhood was spent in a British Boarding school and I have vivid memories of how I was treated. I remember being locked in a room for bad behaviour and being left in total isolation, and many times being hauled out of bed at midnight to stand outside in the corridor, shivering with cold for hours. And during my teenage I was constantly being punished, the punishment sometimes extending for weeks.

I learnt that the only way adults could deal with my lapses and stupidity was by punishment. They weren’t the least bit interested in apologies or explanations for my behaviour, and there was never a hint of forgiveness. The only time I remember an adult even mildly accepting my apology and reason for my behaviour, the punishment was meted out anyway. So I assumed that even if I was forgiven, I’d still be punished.

Not surprisingly then, when I became a Dad, I thought this was the way I should deal with my own children. I based my relationship with them on their behaviour. I didn’t forgive easily, if at all, until I realized how God operates. It was an eye-opener! All I could hear from God’s word was, “You’re forgiven, you’re forgiven!” Every stupid mistake I’d made, every lousy action I’d done, every rotten mood I’d ever been in, all of them had been erased by Christ’s death and wiped from God’s memory forever, Hebrews 8:12.

Years of guilt and self-loathing evaporated in seconds. My head was clear of it. It was so freeing that when I heard a crash in the kitchen and found my granddaughter cowering in the corner, crying her eyes out because she’d broken one of our dishes, I knew exactly what to do. I grabbed her by the shoulders and I yelled at her, “You’re forgiven, you’re forgiven!”

The effect was electric. She looked up at me, stopped crying, and said, “OK,” and off she went, as happy as can be. It was amazing. I’d never experienced the power of forgiveness on someone else like that before. Her mind was completely cleared of all guilt and self-loathing and off she scampered as if the incident had never happened.

“Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven,” Jesus said in Matthew 9:2 – or - ”Cheer up, kiddo, it’s already forgotten.” Imagine growing up in a home like that.

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Why did God make us so weak?

Posted on August 26, 2010 by jonathanbuck

Without sleep, food and exercise we fall apart in no time. We’re vulnerable to injury, accidents and natural calamities. We weaken with age and fall victim to all kinds of horrible diseases. We’re born helpless, and we have little control over what our parents, teachers and religion do to us after that. And then there’s the god of this world who blinds and deceives us with ease.

And to think, God did all this to us on purpose, Romans 8:20, “For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it.” Result? Verse 22, “the whole creation has been groaning” ever since, due to the horrible mess we’ve made of it and the grim realization that there’s nothing we can do to solve the mess, either.

Rescue is coming, yes, verse 21, but not before we live in “bondage to decay” first. Why? It’s to make absolutely sure that our “adoption as sons” and the “redemption of our bodies” is the Spirit’s doing, not ours, verses 11, 13-15. We are but helpless “jars of clay,” 2 Corinthians 4:7, incapable of doing anything toward our eternal future, “to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”

We like to boast, though. We’ve created an entire world based on boasting – to show off what we ourselves can accomplish. But when it comes to salvation (eternal life and righteousness) we have nothing to boast about (1 Corinthians 1:29) because it’s God who provides the Saviour and he provides the Spirit. The power is his, the promises are his, the good works we do are his (Ephesians 2:10), and even the love we have for God comes from him (Galatians 4:6). It starts with him and ends with him, and he purposely chooses weak members of the human race for redemption first, to prove it.

And there’s one group of people who understand this – “the Gentiles,” Romans 9:30 – “who did not pursue righteousness (by their own works, verse 32),” but “a righteousness that is by faith.” In other words, Gentiles trust God to do the saving. So did Jesus Christ when he was a human being (Hebrews 5:7). He actually made himself as weak as us. Why? So it would be God who exalted him, not himself (Philippians 2:6-9).

He’s now in the position to do the same for us (Hebrews 5:8-10). We’re as weak as babies – but we’re his babies, and he gets his babies through by his power. Why did God make us so weak, then? So us weaklings would have something to boast about too – him! (1 Corinthians 1:30-31).

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No tricks needed

Posted on August 24, 2010 by jonathanbuck

I’ve been learning about the tricks women play to shave off those crucial ounces for weighing-in at Weight Watchers – like don’t eat breakfast that morning, wear the lightest weight clothes you’ve got, no underwear, and use the scales at Weight Watchers that register the lowest weight.

It reminded me of the tricks people play when it comes to Fate Watchers. Fate Watchers is for all those who are worried about weighing in on Judgement Day, who fear that day because, they believe, that’s the moment their fate is decided forever – and what if they’ve fallen short of expectations? In other words, Fate Watchers is just like Weight Watchers: there’s a price to pay if you’re overweight, and especially if you’re heavy on sin! So Fate Watchers come up with religions that supply them with all kinds of clever tricks to shave off the bad bits in their lives to improve their chances in the afterlife.

The tricks are a waste of time, of course, because the Judge knows all, but we give it a try anyway, like the fellow in Matthew 7:22 who says, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?” Nice try, but the Lord’s having none of it. “I never knew you,” he replies. “Away from me, you evildoers.”

But surely miracles are good for a few points on the Fate scales, aren’t they? No, they’re not. But if miracles aren’t good enough, what about all the other tricks that religions tell us will improve our chances on Judgement Day, like obeying the ten commandments, praying five times a day, doing good deeds, or creating mega churches? And if casting out demons doesn’t cut the mustard with Jesus Christ, then what does casting out bad habits by self-discipline and willpower do for us? Isn’t there anything we do that counts at weigh-in time?

Yes, there is: faith, Colossians 1:23. But faith in what, though? Faith that we are “holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation” because we’ve been reconciled to God “by Christ’s physical body through death,” verse 22. At weigh-in time we come only with the cross, because God accepts our trust in that. That’s how our “alienation from God” and “being his enemies because of our evil behaviour,” verse 21, are dealt with. There’s nothing else needed.

At Fate Watchers, the sign over the door should say, “No Tricks Needed,” because there’s no need to resort to all those tricks religions come up with to scrape us under the wire on Judgement Day. Imagine if weighing-in at Weight Watchers was so easy!

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“The Son can do nothing by himself” – meaning?

Posted on August 22, 2010 by jonathanbuck

When Jesus said (in good old King James language) in John 5:30 that “I can of mine own self do nothing,” I always thought he was referring to his helplessness, or admitting he didn’t have the strength or ability to fulfill God’s will on his own.

That isn’t what Jesus was saying, though. In context he’s showing the Jews he wasn’t acting on his own. Everything he did was completely in tune with his Father, and that’s why they could trust him.

He gave several examples. He never sought to do his own will, for instance, only his Father’s will (verse 30). He only did what he saw his Father do (verse 19). His judgement was his Father’s judgement (verses 30), his powers were his Father’s powers (verse 21) and his Father never questioned his judgement, either (verse 22). The Jews could rest assured, then, that Jesus wasn’t acting by himself, or doing his own thing. He simply couldn’t, and wouldn’t, do that. “The Son can do nothing by himself,” verse 19, meaning he would never act on his own.

Jesus gave more examples, too. What he spoke were his Father’s words (John 12:49), what he did were his Father’s works (John 14:10), and what he taught was his Father’s doctrine (John 7:16). He never did anything of himself. It always had the Father’s full authority and backing. There was power and authority behind his words, then, when he said, in John 5:24, “whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”

Jesus didn’t shy away from the fact that he had extraordinary powers. He could give eternal life “to whom he is pleased to give it.” verse 21, he’d been entrusted with “all judgement,” verse 22, he had “life in himself,” verse 26, and it’s his voice we hear if we wish to live for ever, verse 25.

These were incredible claims Jesus was making, which, understandably, the Jews were having trouble accepting. It sounded like he was saying he was God. But that’s not what Jesus was saying. He said “I can of myself do nothing.” In other words, he wasn’t setting himself up as God, or setting himself up as a great authority, or acting on his own. Absolutely not; everything he did came from the Father. It had his Father’s approval, the Father’s backing and the Father’s authority behind it. Jesus would never step outside his Father’s wishes.

Everything he did was his Father’s doing. That’s why they could trust him, and so can we.

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Expectations, the great killer of love

Posted on August 20, 2010 by jonathanbuck

I was watching an advice program on TV on sex, and it was tragic seeing what happens with couples. A wife rations her husband’s quota of sex each week; a husband loses interest if his wife doesn’t initiate sex, they blame each other, and on and on it went.

As I watched, the problem became all too painfully obvious. Each husband and wife had entered their marriage with high expectations. One wife, for instance, expected her husband to provide her with a better life than she had as a child. A husband expected his wife to be sexy at all times. And when a partner didn’t come up to expectations, that’s when the relationship began to crumble, and as soon as that happened, the couple lost interest in sex together, too.

I had trouble watching the program because I learnt some time ago that the quickest way to wreck a relationship is to enter into it with expectations. Or, put positively, that the best way to build a relationship is having no expectations. I learnt that from God, who proves his love for us by dying for us while we were yet sinners, Romans 5:8 (KJV). In other words, he began his relationship with us with no expectations on his part. He loved us at our worst. And that’s why, eventually, we come to love him in return, 1 John 4:19.

If only parents realized that too, that the way to build a relationship with their children is to love them “as is.” But what happens instead? They expect their children to get top grades in school, expect them to excel in sports, expect them to keep their rooms perfect, expect them be on their best manners with adults, expect, expect, expect. The child is hit from every angle with the parents’ expectations.

No wonder kids give up, get sullen and want to leave home. They can never be good enough for their parents, and eventually they reach the point they wonder, “Why bother? What’s the point in trying? Even if I do well, I’ll be told ‘you could’ve done better.’ I give up.”

It sounds like many marriages are going the same way, too. Husbands and wives are giving up on their relationship because they can never live up to their mates’ expectations. They could, therefore, do themselves a world of good if they tried loving each other like God loves them. It’s a revolutionary love, because it’s love with no expectations. But it’s love that creates love in return.

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