Righteousness vs shame

Righteousness is a dirty word for many today. In the minds of more than a few, it suggests someone who is self-righteous or hypocritical. This is justifiably unappealing to anyone. 

However, the Bible offers a very different definition. 

Righteousness means to be and feel presentable, acceptable i.e. right. To pass inspection and be approved and found acceptable and in right relationship with another, even pleasing in the eyes of someone I wish or seek to please. 

We want to be approved by someone we value and even more so by someone whose opinion we value most; someone who is ¹highly valuable themselves that we highly regard or value. The more important they are to us and others the more significant their approval.

We all desire to be well-pleasing - approved, accepted, praised, and impressive in the eyes of another. 

Shame is feeling just the opposite - it is feeling rejected,  unacceptable, unapproved, and insignificant.

Prior to the rebellion in Eden, there was no shame, i.e. No sense of being unacceptable or unpresentable; of not feeling or being right. We were totally comfortable being uncovered with nothing hidden - not just physically, but in every way. (Hiding indicates guilt and shame. Before the rebellion in the garden, there was neither). We felt no need to hide or cover anything, particularly failure since there had been none.

And the man and his wife were both naked and ⁵were not ashamed.  Genesis 2:25 ESV

Why does shame matter? 

Ever since the rebellion of our original parents in Eden we have been under the burden of a deeply buried sense of shame from failure. This sense of shame (failure) has a very powerful hold and control over us. So much so that Adam and Eve felt compelled to hide - to cover themselves in an attempt to hide their failure to heed God's directions and its resulting shame. 

Since the original rebellion of Adam, we are now filled with shame because of alienation from (and absence of) our Creator - the true and rightful source of our significance and value. 

We severed our connection with God (and our sense of His acceptance and approval) by turning away from Him and refusing to heed his warning to not eat from the forbidden tree. 

As a result, we had to be removed from the garden - i.e. paradise, home - so we could no longer eat of the tree of life while ²in this state of rebellion. This would have allowed us to live indefinitely without having to deal with and face the consequences of our rebellion. This is contrary to who we truly are - i.e. creatures designed to be in harmony with their Creator and willingly participating and experiencing life with and in God. Their choice severed their relationship with our Creator.

Ever since our rebellion we have also longed to be restored and return to Eden; to be welcomed again; to be complete again; to have peace and contentment again; to be filled with love and joy without interruption again - as we were originally and are still designed to be now. 

We long to be "home" i.e. in a place where we feel we belong and are safe. A place where we are welcomed, held, and cherished.

But we want this on our terms, not the terms we were designed to live under. We have rebelled and continue to rebel against God and our design. We now refuse to trust Him and seek Him to fill this longing for "home."  We seek "home" anywhere and in anything other than God.

Our rebellion may not be conscious on our part but every time we look to anything other than God for our sense of value, it is an act of rebellion, i.e. distrust of God. We put our trust in anything but God - who alone can give us our true sense of value (glory) - and look anywhere except to Him for life - i.e. for meaning, significance, purpose, value, identity, fulfillment, glory etc. This is now our default response on how we handle life (until God gets hold of our hearts). It is a response of rebellious distrust of God.

We may not feel or be fully aware of the depth of our shame, but we are often keenly aware of a need for approval or praise - or when we are disapproved of or rejected i.e. shamed. At the heart of our need for approval and praise is a sense of shame and a desire to avoid it at all costs. 

We always carry with us a sense of rejection (and a fear that our shame can't be fixed if our failures are ever exposed), a sense of restlessness, of being out of the environment we were meant to be in, of being "away from home." 

Our need to constantly be affirmed (and prove) we are significant, important, and loved - i.e. worthy of these - is because we don't feel we are but should be. ³We are in a constant state of shame, no matter how deeply buried it may be or how unconscious we are of it. 

We may feel good about ourselves in our best moments, but as soon as we mess up - or are simply accused of messing up, the shame - ever lurking under the surface - rushes to the top and rears its ugly head. 

Our failures are devastating because we depend on our successes to feel significant, accepted, and loved - i.e. to feel good about ourselves - instead of looking to God for these things.

Once we get a hold of the fact that we are significant, accepted, and fully loved in Christ, these failures and the fear of them being seen have far less sway over us. The more we believe (abide) in God's love, the less our shame or fears control us and the more we operate from love for God and others. Shame is all about me. Love is about others. 

In Christ, we are free from the need to be approved by others - or even ourselves. As we more fully grasp that we are ⁴approved by the most significant person of all - the very Creator and Sustainer of life and all things - we are increasingly freed from trying to win the approval of others. If He is for us, then who (including ourselves) can be against us?

God constantly seeks to reveal to us how much we depend on something other than him for life (feeling accepted,  loved, and approved). This occurs most often in our pain and struggles. He seeks to strip away our ⁶idols and draw us closer to Him (which usually feels more like death at the time, not a means to life). He is always calling us closer because he knows in Him alone is true and eternal life i.e. to draw us closer is not only for his greater glory but our highest good - our best interest. 

The maturing process is increasingly turning away from those things we derive our worth (and identity) from and more to Him. God is constantly seeking to help us see that finding life - i.e. a sense of value, meaning, and significance - is only in Him and not the other things we look to and have grown to count and depend on. 

As we mature we come to see – by God's love and Spirit - how much we look to ⁶everything but Him for “life.” 

The only question is will you return to him? Christ has done all that is necessary for you to be perfectly accepted and fully embraced by His Father. It is up to us now to receive (believe) this (His) offer. To not, is to continue on our current path, rejecting His offer and Him i.e. to continue on our path of shame and destruction. 

For a discussion on the meaning of life, click here. 

For a discussion on pleasing God, click here

For a discussion on good and bad self-confidence, click here. 

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¹And who is greater, more significant, more valuable and worthy of our respect, honor, and worship then the Creator and Sustainer of love, life, and all things? No one and nothing! For from him through him and to him or all things!

²To continue living in a state of rebellion unchecked by death, only results in increasing destruction by us. 

³I am speaking of humanity in general when in a state of separation from God. We can be and are freed of these things the more we understand, receive and partake of the love of God.

⁴And not only are we approved by the Creator of all things - the most significant person in the universe - but this same person provided for us all that was necessary for that approval. This in great part is why He is so significant.

⁵God's description of us just before we rebelled.

⁶ An idol is anything we value more than God. 

⁷To get an idea of our shame consider having your private thought's or actions played out and posted to a YouTube channel the entire world is subscribed to. Thoughts or acts of anger, lust, fear, disloyalty, lying and hatred and so on we might engage in over the course of a several days. 

Would we be proud of everything revealed or embarrassed to show our face in public? Would people want to embrace us or avoid us after watching? To avoid shame we may go as far as saying any rejection we experience is the fault of others, not our own.

How are love and life connected

Is there a connection between life and love? If so, what is it? To help us gain a better understanding, let's define our terms.

Love - 

is recognizing someone elses value, worth, significance, and treating them accordingly. This isn't about what we get out of someone or something or only about how we feel about them but how we treat them and show them we feel. As DC Talk - the former Christian band - says, love is a verb. 

You could characterize this in several ways; cherishing someone, treating them with honor, dignity, importance; as worthwhile; willingly giving up something you value - be that time or other resources - to show someone you value them more than what you gave up. 

Love at the highest level is always sacrificial - giving up something - but doesn't necessarily feel sacrificial because we love (value) the one we are giving it up for i.e. who we are showing love to. As John said, 

"For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome." 

And what are the greatest commands?  To love God with all we are and have and our neighbor as ourselves. 

Though true love is sacrificial it is ultimately something we are glad to do, just as Christ was glad to love us sacrificially even though it was painful. The greater the pain the greater indication of our valuing that which we made a sacrifice for.

How a loving parent cares for their child would be a classic example. Parents pour thousands of hours and dollars into raising their children yet we wouldn't have it any other way. Though it requires a ton of effort and is hard at times, it is a sacrifice we gladly make because we love our kids. 

In this same way, our heavenly Father loves us. He gave up something of infinite value - His Son - so He could have us and share His life with us.

Life - 

is knowing and experiencing our worth, value, significance, etc. When we do, we "come alive" because we feel most valued and significant... in a word, we feel ¹loved. 

Giving life to someone is to acknowledge their worth, value, and significance through our words or deeds. To do this for others brings life to them.

How we do this can be expressed in many ways. Giving them something valuable - such as our time, attention, resources, efforts - to serve them. Telling them how important they are to us, how much we value and appreciate them and backing it with actions.

So you could say love and life are the flip sides of the same coin of value. Love is giving value and life is receiving it. Valuing is what they have in common; either giving it or receiving it.

But where do these notions of life and love come from? 

God is the source of life because he is the most significant and valuable of all beings or things. And therefore He is most worthy of our love and praise i.e. of being recognized and treated as most valuable, most worth being admired, praised, cherished, worshipped, honored, exalted (glorified). 

When God calls us to honor or glorify him, he is saying value me, love me above all other things or persons.

Why? Because he is more valuable than all other things or persons since everything else that is, comes from, is sustained by, and points back to Him. He alone is the Alpha and Omega. 

"How great are God's riches! How deep are his wisdom and knowledge! Who can explain his decisions? Who can understand his ways? As the scripture says: “Who knows the mind of the Lord? Who is able to give him advice? Who has ever given him anything, so that he had to pay it back?” For all things were created by him, and all things exist through him and for him. To God be the glory for ever! Amen." - Romans 11:33‭-‬36 GNB

Because this is who God is - the source (Alpha), the means, and the end (Omega) of all things - to value him as such is to experience our greatest sense of value, for we are like him i.e. in His image and made to share in and experience his glory, majesty, beauty, worth, significance, etc.

We enjoy him because He made us like himself so we could. Like Him, we can give and receive honor and value in and through him; so we can feel, experience, and bathe in His significance, worth, glory, etc. In so doing we experience our own significance, worth, and glory.

For us to feel His worth, we too must experience our own significance in doing so. Our sense of significance comes from partaking of and participating in His. 

In this way, we are like God. God's sense of significance comes in Him valuing Himself within the community of Father and Son, in, by, and through the Spirit of infinite love. 

We were made like him so we too could participate in this community of love in the same way He does.

For related topics see the following:

Is God on an ego trip?

Love is power 

Why are relationships important?

What is the fountain and foundation of relationship? 

Why do we long for relationship? 

What is the love, life, Spirit and essence of God

 God is non-stop love with or without us. 

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¹The only reason we can feel loved-valued is that we are like God who is a community of love among and within the Father, Son, and Spirit. He is thereby the most lovely and valuable of all beings. This triune God created us like Himself so that we could partake of and delight in Him.

Good trees bear good fruit

Matthew 12.33-37 says, “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit (i.e. its fruit is evidence of what kind of tree it is). You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are ¹evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The ²good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil - (i.e. whatever is in the heart, whether good or evil, flows out. This is not describing something we must do, it's simply telling us what happens based on the condition of our heart).

I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (ESV) i.e. our words will be evidence (fruit) of a just or evil heart. 

The ERV also gives a helpful translation...

33 “If you want good fruit, you must make the tree good. If your tree is not good, it will have bad fruit. A tree is known by the kind of fruit it produces. 34 You snakes! You are so evil. How can you say anything good? What people say with their mouths comes from what fills their hearts. 35 Those who are good have good things saved in their hearts. That’s why they say good things. But those who are evil have hearts full of evil, and that’s why they say things that are evil. 36 I tell you that everyone will have to answer for all the careless things they have said. This will happen on the day of judgment. 37 Your words will be used to judge you. What you have said will show whether you are right or whether you are guilty.” ERV

Early in my Christian life, I found this passage confusing, as I did many of the things Christ said. The reason is what Christ says sounds like salvation is the result of our efforts "...by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”  

If a man is condemned by his words, are not his words the cause of his condemnation? If you do bad things you get a bad result i.e. condemnation - and if you do good things you get a good result i.e. justification. The result is based on what you do or don't do; on good or bad words. So it sounds like salvation is based on saying good words i.e. Salvation is by works - good deeds. 

But is this what Christ is saying? Not at all! At a closer look, He is actually saying just the opposite. He is saying evil words are evidence that we are already under condemnation i.e. We are not a child of God. In short, our hearts are evil and we are under the just judgment of God. This is also the point of the following passage. 

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 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 3:17-18. 

This passage doesn't cite any particular bad deed. The issue is what we have not done yet versus what we have done. It says we live under condemnation because of our alienation from God. 

But what did we do to cause this?  There wasn't anything we did in terms of a particular action, such as murder, stealing, or lying. It's what we do not "do." We refuse to receive the solution God offers to address our alienation i.e. our unbelief. We do not believe we need God the way God says we do. And we do not believe in the solution God provided to address that unbelief.

Our words and deeds are simply the result/evidence /fruit of the state of our heart i.e. we have and are turned away from God and in rebellion to him. As a result, we are under condemnation. This is our true condition. If we are evil we produce evil words/fruit. If we are good, we produce good words/fruit. Our words and deeds are evidence of the state of our heart, so in this sense, they justify or condemn us i.e. they reveal or expose the true condition of our heart - by their fruit you will know them. The state of our heart is why we are justified or condemned, not our words and deeds.

Once I got a better handle on this passage, I found it very exciting. Why? Because it indicates living the Christian life is not something we must or can do in our own power. Only by God's power, spirit, love, etc. are we able to live for God. If we wish to bear much fruit we don't double down in our efforts to do good, we double down on our faith in God's offer of love. The more his love gets ahold of our hearts the more good fruit we bear. It is his love (our belief in His love for us) that produces fruit, not our efforts. 

For a fuller discussion on this, the following posts should help. 

Empowered by what...

It all depends on God and you

Love is power

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¹So what exactly is the evil Christ is referring to? It is the evil of being in rebellion toward God, resulting in our disconnection from Him. The biggest evidence is our refusal of his offer of restoration. Note the passage says "you being evil" and does not say you doing evil. He talks about doing later - i.e. "bringing forth" good or evil things - as the fruit of being evil. Distrust of God is evidence of a rebellious/evil heart. 

If we are made to be in union with God and disconnected from that union, we are broken and are missing what we were designed to have - God in all His endless love. As a result, we break/hurt others. 

This is the essence and heart of evil; to do things that harm others because we are not in union with our Creator as we were designed to be. We have chosen to be our own god versus having faith in the only true God. We live contrary to God's design of complete dependence/Union with Him. We are like a fish designed to live in pure life-giving water, but living in water full of mud. We blindly thrash about harming others and, ultimately, ourselves and eventually die. 

When we are not in union with the perfectly loving God we cannot do the things God designed us to do. Out of the void of a broken and empty heart only comes broken actions and words - evil - not good loving actions and words. As a result, we are under a state of condemnation if we are not in Christ.

Christ is clearly saying it is impossible for good fruit to come from an evil heart. A thorn bush cannot bear apples or oranges no matter how hard it trys because it is a thorn Bush. 

If a heart is good it will bear good fruit. In other words, good fruit is evidence of a good heart, a heart that has been made righteous and set free from the requirement of perfect obedience in order to be approved and accepted by God. Good words do not cause one to be righteous but are evidence someone already is righteous by Christ's efforts.

Elsewhere, Christ stated, "...Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. - John 15:5 ESV

It is not possible to produce good fruit unless we - the branches - are connected to or in union with the vine - abiding in God.

²What does Christ mean by "good person"? He is simply describing someone whose heart has been changed through union with God and is now abiding in Him and His love. 

When we abide in him we produce good fruit i.e. do good deeds. It is the organic and inevitable outcome of that union because God is the source of life, love, and all things. To be "plugged in" to Him and His love makes us loving in the way God is and originally designed/created us to be i.e. The Father is the Vine keeper, Christ is the Vine through which life flows, and we are the branches through which life - God's very own life - is manifest in and through us as fruit i.e. loving acts - good deeds.

Thank you!

For those following my blog, thank you for your support! 

Thanks to you, we just past 37,000 reads of our posts and continue to see those reads steadily grow, averaging 1000 reads a month from around the world. At our present rate, we are on track to have over 50,000 reads by this time next year (i.e. *Dec 2021). Feel free to invite friends to join you and subscribe to this blog as we learn to honor God more together. 

!!!

Yours for advancing God's glory one step at a time. 

Jim Deal

p.s. If you are not already and wish to subscribe, click here - it's free! We post one new article a week on average. 

*UPDATE: We just passed 55k views since I posted this originally just 3 weeks ago. The vast majority of the reads are coming from Russia. I usually get visits from all around the world (the internet is an interesting place). At first, I thought it was some kind of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack but the hits are pretty evenly distributed over a few hours on my two recent posts a week apart. Time will tell, but it appears legit. If so, glad to see my site reaching as many as possible, around the world. At this rate, I will far exceed the originally projected 50k reads in 11 months. Again, thank you!! By the way, there is a site visit counter on the bottom left of my main page. 

UPDATE - 4/17/21: We just pasted 60000!! Thank you!

UPDATE - 10/8/21: We just pasted 76000!! Thank you!

Empowered by what

Are we empowered to live for God by faith, love, His Spirit, or God's promises? Yes - all the above. Though all of these might seem unique and separate, they are very much connected. 

By faith: No matter how much we are loved by God - and as his children, we are perfectly and infinitely loved - if we do not believe in this infinite love God ¹has for us - demonstrated in sending His Son - that love will never "land," take hold of, transform and empower us. Our faith is vital. God calls us to believe. The expression The just shall live by faith is repeated several times in both the Old and New Testament for good reason.

Love: We are designed to be in union with God, who is the God of love as Father and Son gazing upon the beauty and majesty of the other in, by, and through the Spirit. Because we are like God, designed (and able) to take part in this love fest within our triune God, we must receive infinite love - in the same way the Father and Son receive it in and from each other - to operate as He designed us to. Without abiding in Him - who is love - we can do nothing (Jn 15:5); we can not love as God loves and truly honor God and put Him on display according to His greatness. 

When we receive his love, we come to life and become loving. ¹His love empowers us to love others. We love him because he first loved us and empowers us to love others because of and by this very same love.

His Spirit: How does God's Spirit empower us? It is the Spirit - passion - love of God that flows out of God's love for Himself as Father and Son in, by, and through the Spirit. The Spirit - who is the essence of God and is God - reveals God's love to us which moves us to love Him in return and then others.

God's promises: God says - i.e. promises - He loves us. He demonstrated this most clearly and loudly by sending his Son. His Son demonstrated this by giving up his life so we might be restored to his Father's love. God says when we are in Christ, absolutely nothing can now separate us from this love. In all things - including the hard or even evil things we might go through - God still works for our good. That "good" is not necessarily experiencing good circumstances, but becoming more like Christ. 

Becoming like Christ is the best and highest good we can attain. The more we do, the more we partake of God's infinite love set upon us in the same way Christ does. This is what He promises and what we are called to believe. If we do not believe these things (promises), we will never tap into the love that is there and is always being poured out on us in unending abundance. 

Why is this important? To be like Christ is to be in perfect alignment with the Father and experience the perfect bliss of that union between the Father,  Son, and the Spirit who pours out His love in and on us, and out through us to others. These are the promises God makes to us.

What is the common connection between all of these? 

Love! And not just any love, but the infinite and perfect love of God between Father, Son, in, by, and through the Spirit poured out on us, in us, and through us because of Christ. 

For a fuller discussion on the promises of God click here

For a fuller discussion of living by faith click here.

For a fuller discussion on being empowered by God's love click here.

For a fuller discussion on how God uses even our poor choices to achieve our highest good click here.

For a more extensive discussion of the power within Click here

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¹Which he not only tells us repeatedly but showed us by sending His Son who willingly sacrificed Himself to restore us back to his Father's love.

²If you look closely at the greatest commandment - particularly in Deuteronomy - where the quotes in all the gospels are taken from - it starts with "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one." To Love God and our neighbor as we are designed and called to, it starts with God; recognizing he is perfect union (one), harmony, love - i.e. one God but also one being and one purpose among three persons. He is the source - Lord - of all things.

For more on the union of God in being and purpose, click here.

Friends

John 15:9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants,[a] for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants,[a] for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 

"As the Father has loved me, - Jesus - so have I loved you. Abide in my love." - Jesus

What is the nature of the Father's love for His Son? Is it not an infinite, unrelenting, boundless, and perfect love? Is it not eternal bliss, overflowing with joy? It is indeed! 

This is exactly the same love - indicated by "as...so" in the above verse - that the Son has for us.  Christ is telling - and promising - this same love (the Father's love for the Son) is his love for us. Do you believe!? Selah... ponder this for a moment. Read it over and over until it stirs and delights your heart... "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word" - i.e. promise - of God-Christ. Rom 10:17

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

In carrying out the will of another, we are aligning ourselves, our desires, and conduct with their wishes and desires. It is how we show our love, respect for, and delight in them. And when we do we more fully partake of - abide in - the love they have for us. This is what relationships are all about - the giving and receiving of love.

Our keeping the commandments of God the Son and Christ keeping the commandments of God the Father is how we both participate in the joy the Father has in the Son by the Spirit. This is a mutually shared interest we have with Christ - a key reason we are friends. We both desire to honor the Father we love, with our words and actions.

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

And what is the joy of the Son? It is the mutual joy of friendship - union - with the Father. The Son delights in the Father and the Father delights in the Son. They share a mutual delight in each other (a mutually shared interest is the essence of friendship). And it is this very same joy that we are invited to enter into, partake of, and share. This common interest that we share with Christ makes us friends.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

As the Father has loved the Son and the Son has loved us so we are to love each other. The early verses spell out that love. This verse talks about how this love flows out from us to others. 

And how has the Father loved the Son and the Son loved us? Sacrificially. They both ¹gave up something they loved and valued greatly - a mutual, perfect, unobstructed union with each other - for the benefit of another i.e. us. They valued another's benefit and interests - ours - more than their own.  

The Father sent the Son - of his eternal union, infinite love, and unfettered communion - away from himself and down to earth to be with us. The Son left the Father of infinite love, became a man, took his body and the life it possessed, and laid it down for us so we might have the same love relationship with the Father of infinite love and delight. Christ wanted to share with us what he valued and delighted in most - the Father - and gave up something he valued, to do so i.e. his own life and unobscured fellowship with His Father, as the next verse confirms.

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

You are my friends if you do what I command you.

The central component of friendship is mutually shared interests. Friends share the same values, interests, and desires. What is that mutual interest that we and Christ share? A desire to bring honor and pleasure to the Father by following His will, desire, and commandments.

No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

The father is not only the ²Sovereign head - the master/Lord - over all things, he is also our friend. The secret things that only the Son knows and hears from the Father are shared with us.

When someone lets you in on who they are, their most intimate personal joys, desires, and secrets they are opening up and sharing their heart with you. They are even making themselves vulnerable. This is what friends do and only what friends do. We do not share our secret dreams, joys, and desires with strangers. Nor does God.

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¹Ironically in so doing they experienced their own value and joy for each other more.

²To be friends with someone doesn't mean you are equals in skill or ability but in interests, values, and desires. You both have an interest in the same things. For us and Christ, that mutually shared value is love for the Father and a desire to honor Him. And how do we honor him?  How do we honor anyone we love? By doing what they ask us to do. We share this in common with Christ which makes us friends.

When God or Christ reveals something secret about themselves to us this is a gesture of friendship.

The key to friendship is mutual or common interests. In this sense the Father, Son and Spirit are friends and have been from all eternity past. We also are friends with God if we desire what he desires i.e. his honor and glory.  And when we do he reveals himself to us and shares himself with us.

Loneliness is not a characteristic of imperfection but of perfection. The Father and Son are not alone - and never were at any time - but they are friends and we are like him/them. We are not designed to be alone but to be in relationship just as the Father and Son are in a relationship of mutually shared interests. To participate in their friendship is to be like them; to be friends.

It all depends on God and you

You may have heard the following…

Pray as if it all depends on God and work as if ¹it all depends on you; because it does... both of them.

Is this true? If so, how do we reconcile this seemingly contradictory and paradoxical statement? Can we?

First, God is the cause - driving force behind all things. As Paul under the Spirit's inspiration said,

“...For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever...” Amen. Rom 11:36

All that we are and have comes from God, is by Him, and points back to Him. Nothing exists or happens without God and outside His perfect rule.

This includes our obedience. It is God who works in us to will and do of his good pleasure... so work out your salvation (which is already ²fully ours in Christ... this means we are to bring forth in practice what God has already declared about us i.e. we are perfectly righteous in Christ, so live accordingly) with fear and trembling.

Why fear and trembling? Not because we are afraid we'll lose our salvation but because obedience matters and honoring God matters. There is significance to our conduct that has real consequences,  either positive or negative, for God, others and ourselves. 

Phil 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. 

Our "work" is to believe in God, what He says about Himself and us. He says He is the almighty, all-loving, wise God, and his love is set upon us in Christ. It never stops, no matter what we do or don't do, and no matter what our circumstances are. Nothing happens to us, in us, or through us without His complete care and rule. The more we believe this, the more his love and power are released in and through us to others. 

Make no mistake, it is only by God's love, which empowers us, that we are able to faithfully follow him. However, we must believe God's love and His claims about his care and control and act accordingly, to partake of and participate in this power. We must receive His love - by faith - to give love i.e. for it to empower us...we play a major part in how God empowers us. We must believe Him and His promise that nothing, no adversity, no challenge, no pain can or will ever separate us from God's loving care and will. To believe this, is our part in obedience. Without faith, we will not subjectively and consciously take part in what he freely extends to us in Christ… his full and perfect love, care, and guidance.

What is it exactly we must believe about God and ourselves that makes this work?

God - He is the all-wise, all-powerful, all-loving, and everywhere present God. He is working in all things, at all times to advance our greatest good and His greatest glory, regardless of how it might appear to the contrary. All things are from, through, and to him. To him be the glory forever, Amen!! There are no exceptions. Full stop!

Us - We are his image-bearers, perfectly accepted, valued, and loved in Christ. Nothing we did, do, or don't do can change this. This is based on Christ and that we are in his image. This is who God made us be – first by creating us like Himself in key ways and second by restoring us by grace to Himself in and through Christ - and therefore it is a fixed reality. It is not based on anything we did, are doing, or will do; ever (other than simply believing it is true). He made us in His image and considers us worth his love, enough to send His Son to die in our place and restore us.  So much so that we were told by Christ Himself we are loved by God in the very same way he loves His Son 🤯. Christ's words, not mine!!!

To fully experience all God designed for us, and seeks to do in, and through us, we must believe all God says about us, to us, and for us, and about Himself regarding us. When we do, we will act (obey) accordingly, and the more we believe the more faithfully - full of faith - our pursuit of him will be i.e. we act/obey, regardless of how challenging it may be.

So while God is the driving force and cause and everything depends on Him, we are the means by and through which He works to bring about His good purposes and it is through our trust in this God, He works to accomplish this i.e. *it all depends on us...our trust in who he claims to be for us.

John 6:28 Then they said to him (Jesus), “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

Related posts:

Faith is hard work

The necessity of faith in an infinite God

Obedience... the fruit of abiding

The strength for self-denial

The fight of faith

The necessity of choice 

The spiritual and our spirit

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Footnotes:

¹This is why man is always fully accountable for all his actions. He may not possess the power to obey God, but he does possess a will by which he can either choose to believe what God says about himself and us or refuse to believe. Which one we choose determines how we will live, and how we live, we are fully accountable for. No one else is.

²His love is always there objectively if we are in Christ, but we won't experience it subjectively until we believe, receive, and act upon it.