legal vs practical consequences of distrust

When we in Christ, the legal consequences of our rebellious distrust of God - condemnation, alienation and death - are no longer part of our status (i.e. we no longer stand condemned before God) nor are they a part of God's disposition toward us. These are entirely removed. They can not be revisited by God and should never be by us. To do so dishonors Christ and his work on our behalf. As Christ said in his dying breath "It is finished..." The work required for us to stand right (perfect) before God is done, over, completed! We can add nothing to it.

The practical consequences of our ¹distrust of God, however, are fully in play and have a real, ongoing, and significant impact on our disposition or sense of closeness to God, our day-to-day relationship with Him, and experience of His love. ¹Distrust may no longer be a legal issue for God but it is still very much a practical one for us.

Though these are entirely separate issues, both are equally significant in how we relate to God. To the degree distrust is no longer a legal issue it is equally significant as a practical one. We often mix these up and have a hard time keeping them separate.

Accurately assessing and acknowledging these two very different and seemingly opposite - but vitally ³connected - aspects of our relationship to God are essential to living in the fullness of love now that he's called us to i.e. to love God with all we are and have and our neighbors as ourselves. To not see the former clearly - i.e. our legal status - is to not enter into the day-to-day practical benefits of our relationship with God fully.

To fully participate in the life we now have in Christ we must see both our perfect righteousness before God and our ongoing deeply embedded distrust of God at the same time.

To recognize and focus on the practical issue of our ongoing distrust is not to revisit - place ourselves under - God's rejection and condemnation we were once under. It is to clearly assess where we need to trust Him more. In Christ, rejection, and condemnation by God no longer exists. We are now fully accepted, cherished and embraced by God. 

The practical issue of our distrust is an entirely separate matter from the legal consequences of our rebellion. It has to do with our moving toward or away from God, not God moving toward or away from us. In Christ God is now fully and perfectly for us, never against us. He is now Immanuel - God with us. 

The practical issue of our distrust must be addressed daily if we are to honor God, experience all He has for us, and be all He created us to be.

To illustrate, once a couple marries, they are fully husband and wife no matter how strained their relationship becomes. Unless they legally divorce, they will remain husband and wife with all the vows, responsibilities, and potential benefits of that relationship intact. However, while held together by binding covenant, they can become completely alienated from each other emotionally due to distrust within the relationship. To build trust does not make them any more a husband and wife legally than they already are but it does make them better partners as husband and wife i.e. The practical outworking of their legal status as husband and wife is more fully and appropriately expressed,  experienced, and demonstrated when trust is a vital part of the relationship. The more they trust each other the more they experience the other's love.

Trust is vital to our developing a stronger relationship with God just as it is with our spouse - or any other significant relationship. This involves our ongoing and increasing love and faithfulness to each other. In each, the stronger the relationship, the more healthy, satisfying, and rewarding it becomes.

Is God's love conditional or unconditional? For a further discussion click here.

For a further discussion on the now but not yet aspect of the gospel, click here.

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¹Even though we are redeemed and the legal consequences of our distrust are gone and no longer held against us, distrust itself remains. It is still embedded in our character, nature or disposition. 

Though trust is greatly restored once we are initially reconciled to God it is still deeply ingrained in our makeup and its negative effects still linger, even as His children. 

God continues to work on and  increase our trust - remove our distrust - in order to strengthen our relationship with Him i.e. He seeks to increase our faith and our experience of His perfect love.

²We are freed from the latter (distrust) to the extent we grasp the former (no condemnation). The greater our grasp of our perfect legal standing before His unfettered love the more impact it has on us practically in our trust of God and day-to-day walk with Him. In this way these two aspects (legal and practical) of our relationship with God are vitally connected though they are seperate.

³Though I am perfectly loved, I do not experience his love perfectly. How far that progresses in this life depends on the progress of my faith-trust in God and faithfulness to him. Once we are in eternity and glorified, the unfettered experience of his love for us begins. Distrust is no longer part of the equation/relationship i.e. we will fully trust at that time because we we will be face to face with Him. We will be like Him because we will see Him as He as is, our perfect loving God.

The more we learn to trust him now, the greater our experience of him in eternity - and today. He is our greatest reward.

Gospel (good news) or religion?

All religions say:

* Do good and be good

* Then you will be accepted and approved by God and ultimately achieve heaven - bliss.

Much of the evangelical church says:

* "Trust Christ" — ¹see footnote.

* Do good and be good i.e. live a righteous life

*Then you will be fully accepted by God.

This 2nd view indicates many within the church do not believe the true gospel but only a "Christianized" version of religion i.e. the first view above. 

It is easy to do. We are naturally inclined to want to "save" ourselves. Acknowledging we ultimately can not is a hard pill to swallow and that few of us can easily and constantly admit. 

This is the essence of the same spirit of rebellion our first parents had in Eden and all humanity continues to have since. It was also the spirit that surfaced at the very beginning of the church through the Judizer's.  An entire letter was written to the church at Galatia addressing this. It is clear we are bent on winning the approval of others; including and especially God's.

In contrast to religion...

The Gospel says:

* Receive the free offer of Christ's perfect righteousness and forgiveness because you can not and never will be good enough or do enough good to ²earn God's approval or acceptance. If we could have, there would have been no point in Christ coming and dying. Or to say it another way, we can not and will not ever love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength or our neighbor as we love ourselves. 

* Only when you accept what Christ did for you - versus what you do for him - are you perfectly and fully accepted by God. There is nothing else for you to do to be accepted. FULL STOP!

*Now, in, by, and through His perfect love-acceptance, live to honor God in response to His love that fully restored us back to Him.

Note that obedience - living for God - is just as vital a part of a driven lifestyle as a works-based one (religion). But not as the cause of God's acceptance, but in response to it. Obedience matters, but for a very different reason.

Both views -- I obey God to be accepted vs I am perfectly accepted therefore I obey God -- involve how we live... But they have a different order of priority and for very different reasons.

The former is acting out of the belief I must earn God's love, and the latter out of the belief I already perfectly have it in and through Christ. Nothing I do or do not do will add to or take away from God's love and acceptance of me, ever! Why? Because it's based on what Christ did for us, not what we do for Him. 

The former is about me -- acting for my benefit -- the latter is about ³God -- acting for His honor because every benefit is already mine and bestowed on me in, by, and through Christ.

Christianity is not I obey and then I'm accepted but I am accepted therefore I obey.

The gospel says nothing you do or don't do can add to or take away from God's perfect acceptance of you in Christ - i.e. His love and acceptance is unconditional and complete, not based on any of our deeds, good or bad. The only condition required of you is to recognize you need Him and can not be restored to Him without accepting his offer i.e. being and living justly is by faith. This requires humility i.e. we can not and will not save ourselves by our good deeds or be rejected by God because of our bad ones if we trust Christ.

If we have not been transformed by God's love and do not have the desire to live for and obey Him to bring Him glory, we do not yet understand the good news, aka gospel. We are wise to make sure we are even His child. This is a primary theme of 1 John.

For a discussion on how we are inclined to try and earn God's love click here.

For a discussion on the difference between "Cultural Christians" and grace-driven followers of Christ, click here.

For a discussion on how God's love is conditional and unconditional click here.

For a discussion on whether our focus should be on morality or Jesus click here.

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¹ I put "trust Christ" in quotes because if we truly trust what Christ has done for us, we do not feel compelled to do good deeds to win his acceptance. Love will, however, compel us to put Him on display. "Obedience" is the supernatural and organic response to God's love. I put obedience in quotes only because we act because we want to - as a response to God loving us first before we ever lifted a finger for him - not because we have to gain God's acceptance.

²This is true not only before we come to Christ but after. We can please God once we are in Christ but this is not a matter of His acceptance of us. His acceptance is already addressed and perfectly settled by Christ's work on our behalf. What pleases God now that we are in Christ is faith. Without it, we can not please God. This faith is in the complete love and acceptance of us in Christ. His love - not our efforts to try and earn it -drives us to love Him in return and honor him in all our words and deeds, i.e. obedience.

³Since God has fully taken care of the "me" side of the equation, acting for God is the only reason left.

seeking comfort

Seeking comfort-pleasure is merely the flip side of avoiding pain. This is a clue that pain is the true underlying state of our present condition.

Why are we drawn to comfort? Through it, we gain a sense of importance - significance - value. To not have a sense of these is ¹painful.

We are also drawn to anything that gives comfort because it makes us feel we have control over our pain. And to some degree we do, but only temporarily.

We prefer control and resist dependence with everything that is in us. We don't like trusting and, depending on anything we don't control. Dependence gives us a feeling of weakness. We don't like being weak. We avoid anything that makes us feel inadequate or insufficient – to experience this is ¹painful. We are drawn to anything that makes us feel strong and significant - in control.

Yet, ironically, there is value in weakness and failure. It is a reality check. It helps us realize our limits – how weak and dependent we truly are. It causes us to consider that ultimately we must rely on God to be all we were designed to be. 

It also makes us consider that wanting what we most need but do not fully have yet, is not available in this life. This causes us to think beyond this life. 

For those who trust in God, this is also a reminder we won't have all we are designed for until we are fully united with our Creator in eternity, i.e. until we are glorified -- the true and ultimate state of existence we were designed for.
 

Longing is painful

We all long for a greater sense of meaning and purpose. However, this longing is painful. It speaks of something missing. The greater the longing, the greater the pain.

But, the more we enter into the pain of longing, the more we increase our capacity to experience God in all His glory – what we are ultimately created for. This is true now but even more importantly, in eternity. Therefore, we should not avoid our longings or seek to satisfy them temporarily by our independent efforts, but let them press us closer to God.

For a fuller discussion of “the anatomy of pain” click here.

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¹We weren’t designed to feel insignificant but important. This is a necessary part of our makeup so we might participate in a relationship with the most significant-important Being in the Universe – the Creator and Sustainer of all things. For further discussion, click here and here. 

Because this relationship is severed – by our choice – our self-image is severely damaged and extremely fragile. We are constantly looking to ease the pain of this damage and protect ourselves.

This is why we are so easily influenced by the labels others give to us, both positive and negative? The more significant another person and our relationship with them are – such as a parent, a coach, a mentor, a leader, a spouse or some other person of influence etc. – the more impact their words have on how we see ourselves – i.e. our self-image.

However, the only opinion-identity that matters ultimately is the one given to us by our Creator, the most significant person of all.  We are the beloved sons and daughters of God, loved in the same way the Father loves his only begotten Son.  If the most important being in all the universe -- the Creator and Sustainer of all things -- considers us this valuable that is saying something most significant about us vs. what anybody else says. "If God is for us who can be against us?..."