Category Archives: Sanctification

Human Sexuality & Redeemed Personhood

25 Monday Feb 2019

Posted by in Biblical Womanhood, Complementarianism, Egalitarianism, Female in the Image of God, Sanctification, Submission and Headship, The Believing 21st Centruy American Woman

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So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.  (Genesis 1:27 ESV)

It seems to me that when it comes to the topic of human sexuality, teaching in the church usually centers on biology and function. Some suggest that the only essential created difference between a man and a woman is the woman’s ability to bear children. Others emphasize the role-relationships between men and women as the only Biblical answer to questions regarding the male/female distinction. And still, others offer no legitimate answers at all to questions such as:

Why did God create humanity as a bisexual creature, i.e., with a male/female distinction?

What does it mean to be created in the image of God?

What does it mean to be created in the image of God as distinctly male or female?

Are those differences only biological and functional – pertaining to matters of child-bearing or role-relationships (headship/submission)? Or are we male and female at a soul level?

What is the appropriate Christian perspective on the socially constructed cultural expressions of the sexual distinction between men and women?

Should we embrace, reject, ignore, or attempt to redefine cultural expressions of masculinity and femininity – or are they irrelevant? 

Questions like the ones that I have just listed have been the topic of intense personal study and contemplation for me for about two and a half years now. My increased interest in understanding human sexuality was triggered by a theological debate that at that time was raging in the evangelical world on some issues touching on complementarianism.*

However, the topics of human sexuality and female image-bearing have been something that I have wanted to understand since my earliest day as a Christian (more about this in the next post). But it was the eruption of the complementarian controversy which drove me to a more thoughtful consideration of the matter at hand. As a result of that dispute, I began to study the Trinity, the image of God in man and woman, human sexuality, gender, and other related topics with renewed diligence. You could say that the controversy opened my eyes to my own need to be more careful in my thinking and conversations regarding the male/female distinction.

Redeemed Image Bearing

About a year and a half or so after the genesis of this increased interest, I began to teach a ladies’ Bible study on sanctification. As the Lord so often does, He used my research on the topic of sanctification to drive me to search the Scriptures for a yet even deeper understanding of human sexuality. It was then that I began to search the Scriptures for answers to the following questions:

What does sanctification look like in a man as opposed to a woman?

What does being conformed to the image and likeness of Jesus look like in a woman? After all, Jesus is the God-man, and not a god-woman.

Does redeemed image-bearing look differently in a woman than a man?

What really is holy femininity?

This post-series on Human Sexuality & Redeemed Personhood is my first attempt at putting what I have learned and am learning in these two studies into a written format. Here I will attempt to answer the aforementioned questions (and other related ones) in the following order:

Foundational Thoughts on Human Sexuality and Gender

Why a Bisexual Humanity (a male/female distinction)?

Male and Female in the image of God:

What Is the Image of God?

Female Image-Bearing: Definitions & Implications

Male Image-Bearing: Definitions & Implications

Redeemed Image-bearing and

Redeemed  Personhood

Questions on Sexuality and the New Humanity

Sexual Ethic and Sexual Essence

And, finally,

Pursuing a Sanctified Sexuality.

The first post (after this introductory one) in the series is called From Sexual Ambiguity to Ontological Uncertainty. In this post, I share a little bit of my life experience and how it has fostered in me a desire to understand issues regarding human sexuality and female image bearing in particular. It is an explanation of my personal interest in this topic, it is not part of the study per se. But, for any who are interested, it is an opportunity to get an idea of where I am coming from on this issue.

The last post will include a book/resource list used in my study of this topic.

*2016 Complementarian Controversy Simplified

The controversy was  regarding the legitimacy of using the incorrect understanding of the eternal subordination of the Son to the Father as an analogous model for teaching male and female interaction in the home and, by extension, in the church as well. As far as I know, this issue is no longer being discussed with such wild intensity. (It has been a few years. It took me a really long time to feel confident that I understood the issues at hand.) But, read on, if you care to.

There was no argument regarding the obedience of the Son in to the  Father throughout His earthly life (within the Economic Trinity) . Christ the God-man clearly was obedient to the Father and in taking on humanity He humbled himself (1 Corinthians 11:3; Philippians 2: 6-8; Hebrews 5:7-10).

Some complementarian theologians were saying that it is wrong:

  1. to look at the earthly ministry of Jesus as a means to understanding the  eternal Intra-Trinitarian relationships and conclude that the Son, i.e., the Word (John 1:1), has always been and will always be subordinate to the Father in a way that indicates a hierarchy or pre-eminence of the Father over the Son.
  2. And, thus, further conclude that this form of hierarchal subordination should be used as a social model (paradigm) for the husband / wife relationship (to teach headship / submission).

This would be wrong for a number of reasons, but most importantly, because it would eventually necessitate an essential (ontological) inferiority of the Son to the Father (which, among other things would bring into question the divinity of Christ, thus undermining the doctrine of justification). In other words, if the subordination of the Son to the Father existed in such a way that relegated the Son to anything less than being fully and eternally God in essence and being – than everything that we know about God, or that we thought we knew about God and salvation is for not.

All three members of the Trinity share in one essence equally – there is no second class member of the Trinity – they share equally in majesty, dominion, authority, and power because they are of the same essence. That is the Doctrine of the Trinity: the teaching that God is one in three : three in one – one essence (being) in three persons (personal relations) : three persons (personal relations) in one essence (being).

The church fathers and historic orthodox Christian creeds and confessions have always affirmed the total equality and perfect unity of all three persons of the Trinity: one eternal and undivided essence, one eternal and undivided being, one eternal and undivided will, one eternal and undivided mind, one eternal and undivided heart, etc. etc.

None the less, the same recognized an eternal order within the personal relations of the Trinity – Father, Son, and Spirit. But as one Trinitarian theologian aptly states, “the true order is not a rank, but an orderly disposition. In that order, with no diminution of deity or severance of unity or identity, the Father begets the Son and spirates the Spirit.” †

All that to say, the Bible tells us to model our marriages on the Gospel. Ephesians 5:25-33 explains that a man should love His wife as Christ loved the church and that a wife ought to reverence her husband as the church reverences Christ. That paradigm for marriage maybe (at times) hard to emulate in real life, but it is clearly God’s chosen pattern for teaching us how to glorify Him in marriage.

†Letham, Robert. The Holy Trinity: In Scripture, History, Theology, and Worship. Phillipsburg, P&R Publishing, 2004. p. 483.

Read the following articles for a greater understanding of this and related issues.

Definitions and Resources:

Complementarianism is an understanding that God created men and women equally in His image, but with different and complementary roles, responsibilities, inclinations, and dispositions for accomplishing His work on earth. This understanding is typically juxtaposed with egalitarianism which is an understanding that that God created men and women equally in His image, but with no distinction of roles, responsibilities, inclinations, and dispositions between men and women. These are simplified definitions. For a more detailed answer see: CBMW.ORG

Immanent Trinity: The Triune God as He actually is, has been ,a nd always will be within Himself – i.e., the being, essence, and nature of the one in three, three in one: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Economic Trinity: The Triune God with reference to the activities of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in creation, redemption, and human history.

These are simplified definitions. For a more detailed discussion of the Immanent / Economic Trinity, read this article by R.C. Sproul: What’s the Difference between the Ontological and the Economic Trinity?

*** Byrd, Aimee (the Housewife Theologian). (2016 June 3). Is it Okay to Teach a Complementarianism Based on Eternal Subordination? and (2016 June 60. Reinventing God [Blog Posts written by Dr. Liam Goligher]. Retrieved 2019 February 25 from:

1.) http://www.alliancenet.org/mos/housewife-theologian/is-it-okay-to-teach-a-complementarianism-based-on-eternal-subordination#.XHP9TuTsZ9B

2.) http://www.alliancenet.org/mos/housewife-theologian/reinventing-god#.XHRO_OTsZ9

Emerson, Matt. (2016 June 20) We Talkin’ ‘Bout Taxis: Nyssa on Order in the Trinity. Retrieved 2019 March 2 from:

https://secundumscripturas.com/2016/06/20/we-talkin-bout-taxis-nyssa-on-order-in-the-trinity/

Knowing Jesus

12 Monday Dec 2016

Posted by in Faith, Sanctification, Walking in Newness of Life

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“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”  John 17:3

The new life that God has called Christians to walk in is an eternal life, which consists of knowing God. We cannot know God without knowing Christ. It is by faith in Jesus Christ, faith in the Gospel, i.e., the message that “…Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures…” (1 Corinthians 15:3-5) that we begin to know God and that we begin to walk in newness of life. It is through faith in Christ that we are saved from the wrath of God, restored to a right relationship with Him, and given the ability to know God. (Romans 1:18; Ephesians 2:8; Colossians 1:19-22). Without Christ, we cannot know God, and as you can see from the verse above (John 17:3), knowing God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, is eternal life.

When I say that we cannot know God without knowing Christ, I mean that we must believe in Christ, and in believing, confess Him as Lord if we are to know God. Romans 10: 9-10 says, “…If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” When we confess Jesus as Lord, we confess Him as He is- our master, our ruler, our God. When we confess Him as our Lord we are acknowledging that Jesus Christ has absolute ownership rights over our lives. In His grace and kindness, He has chosen to give us new life in Himself. This salvific (saving) confession is not a magic incantation that saves our souls. It is a public declaration which is an outward manifestation of an internal belief about who Jesus Christ is. We confess with our mouths that which we know to be true- that Jesus is God the Son incarnate (in the flesh), crucified for our sins, buried, and raised on the third day by the power of God, and as such, He is Lord of our lives.

During His earthly life, Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). No one who rejects the Lordship of Jesus Christ knows God. It does not matter how spiritual sounding or outwardly pious they might seem. The Bible teaches us, “No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.” (1 John 2:23). Jesus Christ is the measure of all true religion. Any religion which claims to have the way to God, and yet denies the deity and Lordship of Jesus Christ is a false religion, a pathway that leads to further condemnation and alienation from God. Jesus said, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life… …Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (John 3:16-18). Jesus also said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). Therefore, it is impossible to believe in God and at the same time reject Jesus. To reject the Person of Jesus Christ is to reject God. If someone says that they believe in God, but do not believe that God sent Jesus into the world to reveal Himself to man-kind, and to die for the sins of His people, they do not truly believe in God.

You see to believe in Jesus is to believe in God. Jesus is God. The Bible teaches that Jesus is the pure self-revelation of God. Hebrews 1:3-5a teaches us that, “…in these last days he [God] has spoken to us by his Son… …He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power…”. And, in another place we are told, “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).” So, in short, walking in newness of life begins with knowing Jesus Christ as Lord. As Jesus said, “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

 

Death by Public Confession and Life by the Grace of God

24 Friday Apr 2015

Posted by in Call to the Cross, Confession of Sin, John Owen, Repentance, Sanctification, Sin

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“Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.  On account of these the wrath of God is coming.  In these you too once walked, when you were living in them.  But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” Colossians 3:5-9

The other day I posted a prayer of confession. In it I detailed some of the specific out-workings that the fear of man has had in my life. Some may wonder why I did that. Someone might ask a question like, ‘Isn’t it humiliating to publicly own such a low and cowardly sin as that of man-fearing?’ Or, someone might wonder “Doesn’t she feel any shame or embarrassment about admitting that her fear of man has given birth to a multitude of other sins in her life- sins like those of sulking, self-pity, murmuring, complaining, and gossip?” And, the answer to that question is, well, yes, actually, it is very embarrassing to publicly confess my sin- and, in large part, that is why I posted Confessions of a MAN-PLEASER.

John Owen wrote, “Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.” The public confession of my man-fearing was one of many personal attempts to kill my sin of people-pleasing. For me, embarrassment is a very effective tool in the practice of the mortification of sin. When I feel embarrassed by something- I want to get away from it. Or, to put it in Bible language, embarrassment over my sin makes me want to “…put off the old self with its practices…” and to “…put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” I have also found that for me, genuine intentional self-abasement is a pre-curser to humbleness of mind; and humbleness of mind prepares my heart to receive the grace of Christ- His grace to overcome my sin; His grace to walk in the new life that He has called me to; and His grace to receive more of His grace.

Grace empowers me to “…put to death whatever is earthly…” in me (like, my fear of man), by teaching me how to “…put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”  That is, grace enables me to put on the life of Christ, and be renewed by the promises of the Word of God which reveal all of the perfections of Christ; His person, His character, His image, and His glory.

The following are four verses that I am praying over in the continuing effort to put my man-pleasing tendencies to death, so that I can live in the joyful, victorious freedom of living in the fear of God. I might be battling this particular sin for the rest of my life. Although, Monday’s public confession proved to be a decisive victory in the on-going battle with this particular sin. No less, I am certain that John Owen was right. I need to “…make killing sin my daily work – I better be always at it while I live; and cease not a day from this work. I better be killing sin or it will be killing me.” So, in the end, I am okay with feeling the shame of my sin. Actually, I welcome it. If by feeling it more acutely, I can more earnestly welcome and more powerfully experience the grace of God – why wouldn’t I?

“The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.” Psalm 18:10

“Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he?” Isaiah 2:22

“Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify you before them.” Jeremiah 1:17

 “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Galatians 1:10

Confessions of a MAN-PLEASER

18 Saturday Apr 2015

Posted by in Boasting in Weaknesses, Confession of Sin, Hypocricy, Repentance, Sanctification, The Believing 21st Centruy American Woman

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“The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe.” Proverbs 29:25

Lord, please forgive me for allowing my fear of man to shape an ungodly view of church life in my soul.  I confess that all too often, I have left church on Sunday mornings upset that I wasn’t invited into the “Cool Kid’s Huddle” after service. I confess that instead of leaving church full of rejoicing that I have been accepted into Your family; I have left church sulking that I wasn’t accepted into the “in” crowd. It is so embarrassing that I do this. It is embarrassing that I have even gone to church one time thinking about me at all- let alone having done it countless times. Church is about worshipping You, and serving Your body; not about my pride or my fear of man. Lord please forgive me.

Lord, please forgive me for allowing my fear of man to shape my ungodly speech. I confess that I have often hopped on the “Complaining about Everything Ban-Wagon-”  just so that I could share in conversation with others who were complaining. I have done this even when in reality I didn’t feel upset about anything that You had providentially ordained into my life. I know that the Word says, “Do all things without grumbling or disputing…” (Phil 2: 14). I also know that my complaining and grumbling, has often been motivated by wanting to have something in common with other people, or because I didn’t want others to think that I was being overly pious. (Which is really lame, considering that Christians are supposed to be pious.) In truth Lord, I think that my obsession with people pleasing also accounts for most of the gossip that I have ever shared. It is like I just wanted to be the one with the juiciest morsel of the day- the person who is in ‘the know’ with what’s going on in the lives of others. – Lord, please forgive me- I know that Ephesians 4:29 says, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”

Lord, please forgive me for loving the praise of men more than loving the opportunities that You have given me to serve You. I have often allowed my fear of man to make me feel ashamed that You have manifested your grace in me in a different way than You have manifested your grace in the lives of my peers. It has been my fear of man and my pathetic desire to just “fit in” that has given me that uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach, when I have been called to serve you in a different way than my friends have been called to serve you. I have thought foolish things to myself, like: “What if so and so doesn’t approve?”, or  “What will ‘this one’ or ‘that one’ think of me when she hears about me doing thus and so?”.

Lord, I would have thought that the grace that you have shown me in giving me unique opportunities to serve You- would have caused the other type of pride to well up in side of me. You know the “I am so great, look at me” kind of pride. But, I am such a mess (outside of your grace) that that type of pride is quickly squelched by the reminder of my intrinsic uselessness, my lack of innate intelligence, and the horrifying reality of my sinfulness. Besides, like 1 Corinthians 4:7 says, “For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” Lord, please forgive me- I confess that my pathetic man-pleasing, people-pandering pride has made me so fearful of people that I have sometimes even wanted to forfeit the blessings of Christ and the graces of the Holy Spirit- so that I could just be like everybody else. I mean really, how sad is that? How wicked is that? How sad am I? How wicked am I? I don’t think that it gets more debased than to want to shirk the calling of God just so that I can “fit in” with the world around me.

Lord, please forgive me for my fear of man- it has been a systemic problem in my walk with You.  Even in this brief time of confession I can see how terrible of a snare this sin is to my soul. Please forgive me, please free me, please grant to me the faith that I need to trust in you, and to be kept safe. For Your Word warns me that “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe.”

The Obedience of Faith

08 Tuesday Jul 2014

Posted by in Exhortation, Sanctification, Walking in Newness of Life

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Day 11: The Obedience of Faith
Everything that goes into saving us from sin has been given to us from God through Jesus Christ. This includes every dimension of our salvation: the payment for our sins, our inheritance, our new lives, our new hearts, our clean consciences, all the saving promises of Scripture, and even the faith necessary to believe those promises. Faith is an indispensable grace for walking in newness of life, for without faith we cannot even begin to walk in newness of life. Hence the Bible says, “…by grace you have been saved through faith…” (Ephesians 2:8). Walking in newness of life is a step by step walk of believing and obeying God’s Word.
Faith is a supernatural enabling that God gives to the believer. It is the ability to believe, to have confidence in, and to trust God so that we confidently obey His word. For our faith in God and our obedience to God are two sides of the same coin. For this reason, the Scripture calls the obedience which results from our faith in God the obedience of faith (that makes sense, doesn’t it? Romans 1:5; 16:25-27). You see, true faith in God’s Word motivates our obedience to God- we obey Him because we trust Him and love Him (1 John 5:2-3). Obedience to God procures all of the promised blessings of God. This is because obedience is the proof that we truly do believe God. We know that trust in God pleases Him; for Hebrews 11:6 tells us,”…without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Believing God pleases Him because it magnifies His glory and the greatness of His holiness. Faith in God shows the world around us that God is real and that He is very trustworthy.

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Paradigm for Life

09 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by in Sanctification, Testimony

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“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” Romans 6:3-4

My personal paradigm for life is identification with the Lord in His death, burial, and resurrection from the dead. I see each affliction, difficult relationship, and painful circumstance in my life as an opportunity to identify with Christ in the cross. I see every season of my life spent in waiting or in rest as an opportunity to identify with Christ in burial. I see every victory that God gives me as an experience of resurrection. And, when God gives me sustained progress in something or a pattern of victory in my life, I see that as walking in newness of life. My mental process for dealing with life centers on the cross of Christ. To me the Christian is by definition a parable of Christ, and her life, an analogy of the glory of God expressed in the power of the cross.

This all started about 10 years ago when the Lord began to a healing work in my soul. After, living in denial for my entire adult life that the abuse in my past had any affect on me, I sensed the Lord prompting me to take a closer look at what had happened in the abuse of my younger years. But, having grown up in a home where I was bottle fed Sigmund Freud and spoon fed Carl Jung; I was not very happy about the prospect of counseling. However, I was extremely zealous for God and very much desired to do what I thought He was prompting me to do. SO, after much prayer (and a lot more prompting from the Holy Spirit), I looked for a good Christian counselor and got busy trying to figure out what was the matter with me. I wanted to understand why it was that I felt depressed; why I was having such difficulty being vulnerable and meek; and why I was having an increasingly difficult time connecting with people (relationally and emotionally). I mostly wanted to understand why I did not have the abundant life which Christ promised that His followers would have.

After about three years of counseling with a professional Christian counselor, I had learned a lot about myself and my past, but I came to the conclusion that therapy had brought me as far as it was going to bring me. I understood what had happened, I understood that it was wrong, and I began to understand that the abuse had permanently impacted me. I guess, I just realized that my past was not going away; it was seriously messed up; and I wasn’t doing that great either. At the same time, I was trying to reconcile these conclusions with the truth of the Gospel –  that in Christ I was a new creation. Paul wrote, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (See 2 Corinthians 5:17). The problem was I did not feel like my  past had passed, or that the new me was very new at all. As I prayed about these seemingly contradictory realities, I realized that I needed to put the past on the cross with Christ, and by faith appropriate His resurrection life to overcome the soul-deadening effects that the abuse had on me. I started to identify the “deaths” in my soul, with the death of Christ on His cross. For example, He was betrayed with a kiss; I was betrayed with a kiss. He felt forsaken; I felt forsaken. He felt the filth of the sins of other people upon His soul; I had felt the filth of the sins of one other person on my soul, etc., etc . Through this process, I began to fellowship with Christ on the cross.

For me, this was the beginning of experiencing the power of resurrection for walking in newness of life. When God began to resurrect what was dead in me – through this type of intentional and conscious fellowship with Christ in the cross – I began to experience in real-time the powerful reality of the doctrine of my union with Christ. I guess; it was then that I began to live in the Biblical truth that “…all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death… …We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4). It was at this time in my life that all of Paul’s seemingly enigmatic statements about having been crucified with Christ, and having fellowship with Him in His sufferings, and filling up those afflictions that were lacking in His body, started to make sense to me. Identification with Christ on His cross was no longer an abstract, theological statement to me, it had become… Well, I guess that it was then that it became my paradigm for life.

Buried with Christ- Accepting the Realities of Sin and Death

08 Tuesday Apr 2014

Posted by in Boasting in Weaknesses, Sanctification, Walking in Newness of Life

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“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined He also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” Romans 8:28

Not every Christian that has ever experienced some form of “soul-death” as the result of someone else’s sin needs to embrace the cross for the sake of emotional healing. Some people are instantaneously and miraculously delivered from the death-effects that result from the sins of abuse, neglect, and mistreatment. God delivers some of His people instantly from the death-effects of past sins, and He delivers some of His people progressively from the death-effects of past sins. Either way, God delivers all of His children from the power of sin and death. If you are not presently suffering any negative, painful results from some issue in your past- Praise the Lord! No need to go digging up things that God graciously buried in the tomb of Christ nearly 2,000 years ago.

However, if our relationships with God are being negatively affected by some issues in our pasts, then we need to deal with those issues. We do this by honestly acknowledging the sins that we have committed, the sins that were committed against us, and the different dimensions of death in our souls that resulted from those sins. In this way, we begin to appropriate what Christ did for us in His cross-death. In like manner, we also need to accept the painful realities associated with those sins and the different dimensions of death that occurred in our souls as a result of them. It is in this way that we begin to appropriate what Christ did for us in His burial. Both acknowledgment and acceptance of the realities of sin and death are necessary parts of experiencing the healing power of God in resurrection. If we want to be raised to walk in newness of life in Christ, we need to come to grips with both the reality and the finality of sin and death.

The question, then, is how does one do that? How does one come to grips with or make peace terms with the sins of devastating betrayals, destructive abuses, or humiliating violations? Or, in other words, how does one “move on”? How does a person “let go and let God”? How does a person accept the actions and consequences of the past, when those actions and consequences are very bad? Well, Biblically speaking, there is only one way to do any of these things, and that way is by trusting God.

We can accept the past and its deadly consequences by entrusting the past to God. We can come to grips with the death-effects of the sins that were committed against us, by trusting that God sovereignly ordained those sins and their death-effects into our lives- for His own purposes. We can “move-on” by believing and owning the powerful reality that God is sovereign over all of our death. We can “let go and let God” by owning the truth that God is now and always has been in control of our lives.

The Bible is clear that God is sovereign over all of life and all of death (Ezekiel 12:28; Matthew 7:25-33, 10:29; Acts 4:24; Revelation 6:10). To say that God is sovereign, is to say that God has unrestricted power, absolute domination, that He has no limitations and that there are no restraints upon Him. As Christians, we know that God is sovereign. Even so, if we are going to accept the negative consequences that emotionally traumatizing sins can have in our lives, we are going to need to rest in the sovereignty of God (not just have a mental awareness or an abstract understanding of what it means that God is sovereign).

We will need to make a conscious, willful decision to entrust ourselves to God- by trusting that the deaths that resulted from the sins that were committed against us were ordained into our lives for our good and God’s glory. We will need to trust that God was in control of all the events of our lives (even the bad ones) and that He ordered them to the end that, through them, we would be more gloriously conformed into the image and likeness of His Son, Jesus. In other words, we have to trust that God can and will use all the wrong doing which we have experienced to sanctify us and make us more like the Lord than we would be, had we never suffered any of the effects of sin or death.

Trusting that God orchestrated or ordained all the events of our lives- even the bad ones- for our good is not as hard to do as one might think. For, to varying degrees, God may have already used the sins that were committed against us and their ensuing death-effects for our good and His glory. This is the case if God has used any of the sins or death-effects in our lives to cause us to recognize our need for Christ. That is probably the greatest good that any sin can bring about in any life. There are many other good blessings which result from the bad events in our lives. There is the ‘good’ of having great confidence in prayer. This ‘good’ results from having a great need for prayer; such as the need to pray that one would experience the power of the cross in resurrection for the reversal of the death-effects of sin. There is also the ‘good’ of having a clear understanding of God’s word. This ‘good’ results from needing to spend much time in God’s word; such a need results from the desire to hear God speak healing, comforting, and corrective truths. There is also the ‘good’ of having the ability to minister the love of Christ to other people who find themselves in similar circumstances to the ones from which we have come. Even the unique vulnerabilities and weaknesses that we have (as the result of the sins committed against us) are forms of ‘divine good’ that God has already worked out for us. For, weaknesses and vulnerabilities force us to rely on God’s grace. Weaknesses and vulnerabilities also force us to depend on God; to provide all that we need for walking in newness of life in Christ. By these few examples, we can see how God has already begun to cause the sin and death of the past to work out for our ‘good’. The Lord will only continue to do this good producing and God glorifying work in and through us -more and more- until we are finally and completely transformed by Him in glory.

We can willfully identify with Christ in His cross-death by acknowledging the realities of sin and death. In like manner, we can willfully identify with Christ in His burial by accepting the realities of sin and death.We can do this by resting in the sovereignty of God. Ultimately, we can accept the past- no matter what it was like- because we can trust God. We can trust God because we know that He is sovereign over all sin and death. Furthermore, we can trust God because we can see that He has already used the sin and death of our pasts to work out varying amounts of good in our lives. We can trust God because He sent Christ to identify with us in our sin, shame, and brokenness. We can trust God because we know that He loves us. Finally, we can accept our pasts and trust God because “…we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined He also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

By His Wounds We Are Healed

04 Friday Apr 2014

Posted by in Boasting in Weaknesses, Edification, Encouragement, Sanctification, Walking in Newness of Life

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But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:5-6

James 1:15b says, “…sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:15b). Rape, abandonment, abortion, neglect, all forms of abuse, betrayal, and other similar actions are sin. They, therefore, lead to death. First, they lead to the everlasting spiritual death of the perpetrators who commit these sins (that is, if they are not atoned for by the shed blood of Christ on the cross). And, secondly, to varying levels, these sinful actions lead to the psychological (mental and emotional) deaths of those people who are victims of them. For this reason, I use the phrases “death-effects”; “facets of death”; “ different dimensions of death” and other terms when I speak of (or write of) the negative psychological ramifications of emotionally traumatizing sins. I am using death-terms to describe the different manifestations of psychological damage that results from soul traumatizing sins, because the Bible teaches that death is the result of sin. “Death-talk” is better than “psycho-babble” for describing the results of these sins, because death-talk more effectively communicates the real problem with these sins: they lead to death in the human soul; not just dysfunction in the human heart and head.

When we talk about the emotional ramifications of such soul-traumatizing sins in terms of death; we are much closer to understanding the problems which result from them, from a Biblical perspective. A seriously, emotionally-injured Christian is in need of experiencing the resurrection power of new life in Christ; not the worldly remedies of self-help books, yoga, endless therapy sessions, and recovery groups. Emotionally traumatizing violations are sins against the human soul which result in “soul-death”; they are not amoral actions for which there are no spiritual remedies. What the emotionally broken Christian needs for healing is the redeeming power of God’s healing grace; not self-reformation and inner-child-reconciliation.

Rape, abandonment, neglect, all forms of abuse, betrayal, and other similar actions are acts of violence in which the perpetrator destroys certain aspects of the victim’s soul irrecoverably. These actions are violations of a person at the most intimate levels of their humanity; they are assaults on the dignity that all humans intrinsically possess as those who are “created in the image of God.” The results of these violations naturally end in some form of psychological death. For example, these sins bring about the death of childhood innocence, the death of a general feeling of well-being or safety, and the death of an awareness of personal worth as one who was created in the image of God. Furthermore, there are less obvious “soul-deaths” which result from the aforementioned, emotionally traumatizing sins. There are issues of insecurity, chronic depression, rage, dysfunction, and other equally life-damaging consequences which result from these sins.

Beyond these obvious death-effects, victims of soul traumatizing sins often develop habitual sin-patterns that result in compounding their own emotional brokenness and increasing the deadening effects of the root sins. They are more likely than someone who has not suffered such a severe injury of the soul to fall into the strongholds of bitterness, unforgiveness, addictions, lying, rage, and other soul-destroying sin-patterns. Of course, in saying this, the trauma endured is not excuse an for one’s personal pet-sins. As the Lord has said, “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself” (Ezekiel 18:20). None the less, understanding the location of a sin’s root can make weeding one’s soul an easier task to perform.

Even so, all of our sin issues are dealt with at the cross of Jesus Christ. We are forgiven for our own sin, and we receive healing for the brokenness in our souls which result from the sins of others through our identification with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. True forgiveness and real healing come through identification with Christ on His cross. God does not reform our old person: He crucifies her, He buries her, and then He resurrects her in the likeness of Christ, so that she can walk in newness of life. That is what Romans 6:3-4 is saying, “…all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death… …We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

As a result of the Lord’s triumphal victory over death, the power of our sin-patterns and the power of the sins that were committed against us have been defeated. Through our union with Christ on the cross the manifold and shame-filled consequences of having been abused, abandoned, neglected, divorced, and betrayed have been put to death and buried with Christ in His tomb. Now, through our relationship with God in Christ, we can experience the victorious resurrection life of Christ over all of the different facets of sin-induced death which linger in our souls. For the believer, the death of Christ overcomes all death. For example, by the power of the cross, God gives us victory over our fear-driven unwillingness to be transparent and gentle in our relationships, and He also gives us grace to give up all of our controlling and manipulative behaviors. Praise God that through our union with Christ, God puts an end to our insecurity, our pouting, and our rage-filled communication. These sinful patterns need no longer rule our emotions or ruin our relationships. Christ overcomes them by the power of His cross.

We can appropriate (i.e., lay hold of, and in practice make our own) the awesome reality of Christ’s resurrection by prayerfully acknowledging the sufficiency of Christ’s death to atone for our own particular sins, and to heal the unique manifestations of brokenness and death which characterize our lives. In order to do this, we will need to evaluate, with uncompromised honesty, the circumstances, the situations, and the relationships which both effected our emotional brokenness, and which are currently being affected by our emotional brokenness. Then we can deal with these truths by bringing them to God on the basis of the finished cross-work of Jesus Christ. We can nail these past events to the cross by systematically and intentionally praying through each painful realty that the Holy Spirit makes us aware of in our lives. We can seek God to administer His healing grace to our souls, and be confident that He will do just that; because Jesus Christ shed His blood on the cross so that believers can walk in the joyful freedom of newness of life in Christ.

Therefore, let us be intentional about contemplating the death-effects that sin has brought about in our lives. Let us consciously and prayerfully name the specific sin-induced deaths which we have experienced. No amount of shame-filled remorse will change what sins were committed against us in the past; nor will any amount of shame-filled remorse change what we did in response to the sins that were committed against us. However, we can be honest with ourselves about the sins that we have committed, and about the sins that were committed against us. By honestly acknowledging the different dimensions of death which have resulted from those sins we can begin to appropriate what Christ has already done for us on the cross. We can begin to partake in the power of His resurrection- and walk in newness of life in Christ. It is by identifying with Christ on the cross – by acknowledging our own soul-deaths- that we will receive healing. Biblical healing results from identifying with Christ in His cross work. As Isaiah 53: 5-6 says; “…He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

Losing Control

28 Friday Mar 2014

Posted by in Encouragement, Sanctification, Walking in Newness of Life

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“And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” Mark 8:34

Christ said if we were going to become His disciples, we would have to deny ourselves and take up ours crosses by living lives of willful self-denial. Self-denial and cross bearing are non-optional for the true Believer. Christ promised by losing our lives we would find ourselves.  In other words, as Believers we are called to surrender ourselves to the Lordship of Jesus Christ- every day of our lives. Giving up our lives for Jesus and the sake of His gospel, means striving to “…live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way.” (Colossians 1:10).

This requires that we “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than ourselves…” It also requires that each one of us is careful to “…look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others’ (Philippians 2:4-5). If we are going to lose our lives for Christ then we will have to give up our self-centeredness, our self-promoting ways, our heady self-sufficiency, our cut-throat self-preservation, and our constant self-defensiveness.

We can give up self-centeredness and self-promotion by intentionally drawing attention away from ourselves and towards God by developing a quiet and gentle spirit. We lose self by losing the abrasive, angry, sensual, loud-mouthed, tough girl; by smothering her with a gentleness, forbearance, and humility of Christ. This means that we stop using our words, actions, and clothing to draw attention to ourselves, and use our time, talents, and energy for the benefit of others and glory of Christ.

We can give up our heady self-sufficient ways by acknowledging our weaknesses, needs, and inadequacies to God, and by humbly asking other people for their help in the face of our inadequacies. The Lord expects His children to exhibit the child-like humility that is willing to admit its own helplessness.

We can give up our sinful self-preservation by valuing the needs of the people that God has entrusted to our care more than we value the desires of our own flesh. Practically speaking, this means that we recognize that our children need us more that we need to get high. This also means that we live in a way that reflects that we understand the truth that our children need our emotional care more than our friends or dysfunctional families need us to be an emotional crutch for them. Tactics of cut throat self-preservation can range from the lies that we tell to avoid our God-given responsibilities; to the addictions in which we indulge- because we “just can’t take it anymore”. The Lord calls us to abandon these self-preserving behaviors, trust God, and take up the cross in obedience to God.

Finally, we can give up our constant self-defensiveness by learning to be okay with not having the last word, accepting that we will sometimes be wrongly misunderstood and by acknowledging the reality that we are not always right.

The problem losing our lives for Christ; is that it feels embarrassing and uncomfortable to us. That is; the crucified life (as the Christian life is sometimes referred to) sometimes makes us feel vulnerable and out of control. These emotions are the same emotions that we felt when we experienced the emotional traumas of abortion, abandonment, betrayal, divorce, abuse; and/ or neglect. That is why those of us that have been subjected to these sorts of sin will have an especially hard time feeling vulnerable and like we are losing control.

However, what we need to realize is that all control- other than self-control- is an illusion. It is a satanic lie from the pit of hell. No-body is in control but God: because no-body is all-powerful but God. When we lose ourselves for the sake of Christ, and His Gospel we don’t make ourselves more vulnerable than before, we don’t lose control.  We just become aware (all be it, sometimes painfully aware) of the realities that we have never been in control, and that as frail humans, we are always vulnerable to injury.

Think about it. We were born helpless- we live our lives completely dependent on the sustaining grace of God (whether we admit it or not); and then we die- completely incapable of choosing the time, the place, or the way that we die. Unless, of course we commit suicide. But, even if we do decide to end it all ourselves- we still can’t control what happens after that. The second a person dies they become painfully aware of their utter helplessness and powerlessness- totally incapable of controlling even one second of an everlasting destiny. The point is that we are not in control: we never have been; we are not now, and we never will be. The sooner that we understand this truth, the sooner that we will experience the wonderful freedom of the super-natural gift of self-control.

Self-control is a very freeing grace gift from God. Self-control is the abolitionist that sets us free from the enslavement of our addictions.  It is the freedom key that unlocks the door to our new lives in Christ. It breaks our bonds to the fear of men, loosens the chains of our insecurity, and sets us free to walk in the joyful power of fearless submission to God. So, when we start to feel like we are losing control as a result of losing our lives for the Lord’s sake, we can remind ourselves that Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.”