It's a great day for me, folks. I love this time of year. The leaves are changing. There is a briskness to the air that stirs body and soul. I particularly love this time of year because my sons and family are home for a short visit, and with them come friends and a full house, busting at the seams...an appropriate setting for thanksgiving. I awoke this morning to the wonderful smell of Thanksgiving food preparation. Kris had risen early to get the bird in the oven and the aroma was enough to prompt great memories and gratitude. Giving thanks today is easy.
But what about when it's not so easy? The Bible is full of reminders that thanksgiving is to be a part of my life experience...continuously. We read in 1Thes. "Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS. In EVERYTHING give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus..." Wow. Always. In everything. The writer of Hebrews says that (chapter 13) we are to bring the sacrifice of praise to God continuously and defines it as the "fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name."
So how can it be done?
I'll make two suggestions. Gratitude is a natural overflow from a heart established in grace. First, we will never be grateful for things we have earned or deserve, so we have to remind ourselves that we are loved in spite of our failings. That's what makes grace grace and not wages. I need a constant reminder that I need him. I can't do it on my own and whenever I've slipped into a works-gospel (believing that God will find me a bit more acceptable if I behave properly), I need to face the truth that walking in self-sufficiency will only bring me closer to myself and closes off the flow of God's grace.
Secondly, I need continuous grace awareness. Everything. EVERYTHING I receive is an act of God's grace. Every breath I take is evidence of grace. What I deserve for sin is hell. What I've been given because of the gospel of grace is right-standing with God. When I walk in continuous grace awareness, the natural result is overflow in gratitude (in addition to grace flowing out of my life to those around me).
The language the Bible uses to describe this amazing switch (my sin for Christ's righteousness) is particularly interesting and not something I'll pretend to understand. In Corinthians it says that Christ "became sin." Not died for sin. Not paid for sin. Became sin. And then it says that the result is that I will become the righteousness of Christ. Not have it, obtain it or that God will apply Christ's righteousness on my ledger to make up for my sin. It says that I will actually become the righteousness of Christ. That, I don't fully understand. Fortunately, getting it isn't necessary to promote thankfulness.
When you find yourself slipping into the complacency of ingratitude, remind yourself of the truth of the Gospel. Realize that God's grace wasn't applied once to your life at salvation. It is the ongoing, sustaining, sanctifying force that will hold us throughout life. God's grace determines his posture towards us as his children and it touches my life every moment.
This means that God's grace is touching your life as a believer when times are good, and when times are hard. Yes, God's grace is what prevents tragedy such as a car accident. But it is also God's grace when he allows tragedy to touch our lives. Sometimes grace wears a cloak of suffering. Car accidents. Cancer. The loss of love. The death of a friend. For the believer, all are evidences of grace. It is a recognition that God's grace is a constant, that it governs every action of God towards us, that allows us to react with a will to thank him in all circumstances.
Awareness of that grace is key to a life of thanksgiving. Today and year-round!
In reading Romans eight, we gain more insight into just what Paul means by walking according to the Spirit. He says,
“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”
Romans 8:5-6
It all works together. Considering ourselves dead and setting our mind on the things of the Spirit assist us in our fight for freedom.
If we keep our minds fixed on beating the problem (fulfilling the law), we fail. If we fix our minds on Christ, we find the victory we seek. Remember the sins that cling so closely? The writer of the book of Hebrews gives the same advice to win over clingy sins (addictions):
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Hebrews 12:1-2
Paul links the two (setting our mind on Christ and being crucified) when he states,
“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
Colossians 3:2-3
In the book of Galatians, Paul rebukes the believers for trying to complete by the law, that which was begun by the Spirit (by grace). I love the way Eugene Petersen says it in his paraphrase, The Message.
“You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a hex on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it’s obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives. His sacrifice on the Cross was certainly set before you clearly enough.
Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it?”
Galatians 3:1-3
An answer to our sin dilemma is coming into focus. We can’t beat sin by determining to keep the law. Winning comes when we begin to accept the gospel of grace as powerful and adequate enough to keep us from sin.
Perhaps contrasting the two methods will help us understand how walking in grace (the spirit) works:
If I battle according to the flesh, I concentrate on the law. If I battle according to the Spirit, I concentrate on grace. In the flesh, the emphasis is on me conquering sin. In the Spirit, the emphasis is on Christ in me conquering sin. In the flesh, I work. In the Spirit, God works. In the flesh, sin is central. In the Spirit, the cross is central. In the flesh, I’m seeking justification by works. In the Spirit, I accept the work of the cross as sufficient, a work of grace. In the flesh, I concentrate on me. In the Spirit, my eyes are on Christ.
Have you ever tried to not think a thought? The very act of not trying to think of something forces you to fail! This is a big part of the problem in trying to not sin. The very act of trying not to sin places sin in focus and we are ensnared by the temptation.
So what, do I just ignore sin?
Not exactly. Walking in the Spirit isn’t passive. It’s active with the focus on the Cross. And guess what happens when my thoughts are set on the things of the Spirit? Gratitude. Wonder. Jesus and his cross grow.
The good news about concentrating on Christ is that as he becomes my focus, my desire for sin falls away. I’ve beaten the addiction not by shear strength of my will, but by falling in love with Jesus.
I've been preparing a series of lectures on grace and wanted to put a few of my thoughts out here on the net for my readers. Walking in grace is all about walking in the Spirit. Walking in the Spirit: Oh great, another phrase that we’ve spiritualized until no one seems sure what Paul was talking about. What is walking by the Spirit? We envision a holy-man of sorts, eyes fixed on the clouds, walking in a zombie-like trance.
I think Paul meant something much more practical. Within the context of the whole book of Galatians, Paul is talking about walking in grace. He’s telling us that in order to win the battle over the flesh, we can’t do it by the law. We have to do it by grace!
“Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”
Galatians 3:3
Let’s go back and review a basic concept. How were we saved? By grace, right?
So right at salvation, a huge victory was won over our sins, and it had nothing to do with us. It had everything to do with the cross, with who God is and what he does. Grace is the avenue. Grace is the divine quality whereby God freely loves, forgives and exalts sinners into sonship. Grace frames every interaction that God has with his children. We were saved by grace and by grace God moves us on towards the image of his son.
“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son….”
Romans 8:29a
But most of us have accepted the part of salvation by grace, but we’ve left the altar and decided to carry on in our own strength. We fail and feel guilty and so we’re reluctant to approach God for help. That’s why addictions are so difficult to combat. Because, not only do we try to fight them in our own strength, we shrink away from grace because of our guilt.
Paul taught that when we were crucified with Christ so that we could find freedom from our enslavement to sin.
Some of you are thinking, That’s exactly what my addiction is like. I’m a slave. It says jump and I say, “how high?”
So just what does being crucified with Christ mean? First, Paul says we know this to be true. That’s something that the Holy Spirit settles in our hearts.
“We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.”
Romans 6:6
A few verses later, Paul says we must consider this so. This is what the King James Version refers to as “reckoning.”
“So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Romans 6:11
Paul likens being put to death with Christ so we will understand personally that a debt has been paid on our behalf. Christ died for our sins. In effect, we died, because that was what was required to pay off our debt. But Paul’s metaphor of dying works on another level. We’ve died to the law, our marriage partner, so in effect, we are free from its stranglehold on our souls to marry another, Christ, the personification of grace.
So walking in the Spirit and being crucified with Christ are both equated in the scripture to overcoming enslavement to sin.
But what does it mean?
I believe the answer comes as we begin to experience the freedom of grace.
“For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”
Romans 6:14
This is the secret to overcoming addiction: grace.
Paul makes it clear through Romans six and seven that the law is powerless to help us live the life we desire. Concentrating on the law only seems to stimulate a desire within us to break the law. So in my efforts to win over addiction (habitual sin), by holding up my determination not to break the law…I fall.
In reading Romans eight, we gain more insight into just what Paul means by walking according to the Spirit. He says,
“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.”
Romans 8:5-6
It all works together. Considering ourselves dead and setting our mind on the things of the Spirit assist us in our fight for freedom.
If we keep our minds fixed on beating the problem (fulfilling the law), we fail. If we fix our minds on Christ, we find the victory we seek.
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