Frayed Edges

Guilt.
Shame.
Condemnation.
Jesus took it all away.

But it still gets my attention. Somehow, it’s easier to tune in on the droning, repetitive voice of the accuser instead of the voice of my soul’s Lover. Why is my selective hearing selecting that?

You will not need to fight in this battle. Take your positions, stand still, and see the deliverance of the Lord Who is with you.

I know He is. But still I fight. Still I fall. Still I fail. Still.

Then be still.

Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud.

Yeah. That’s what it feels like. Compressed by the pressure of a low-lying black cloud. Pretty sure that’s not the abundant life.

A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.

But what about moral standards? My expectations? His expectations! What about those? And judgment from other people. What about that? What if I mess this whole thing up and people point and say, “I knew she was a faker.”

It’s a dead end to obsess over self. If you want to find the way out into the open and a spacious, free life, turn your attention to God.

So, I’m pretty self-focused here in this game of moral living—that’s what you’re saying? That’s why I keep listening to the wrong voice and agreeing with it?

For you who welcome Him, in whom He dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you experience life on God’s terms. When God lives and breathes in you (and He does, as surely as He did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life.

It feels dead when I cave in to condemnation. “Life on God’s terms.” Interesting. I’ve been living on my terms thinking that was what pleased God. You know, keep a log of sin, apologize a lot, grovel if necessary, crawl around believing I’m a worm He let in to His kingdom against His better judgment.

Okay, well, that’s messed up. Don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent? There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!

I get really tired of hearing the accuser’s voice. He’s pretty good at pointing out my inabilities and disfunction.

I’ll bet.

I keep trying to protect myself by always doing the right thing. You know, keep the law with the help of God’s Spirit.

How’s that working for you?

Pretty wormy.

Listen, God went for the jugular when He sent His own Son. He didn’t deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In His Son, Jesus, He personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that.

But what about the greatest Commandment and the second greatest—and the other eight?

The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn’t deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.

“Simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.” I don’t know what to say. That’s the best news I’ve ever heard, even in church.

Sad. Now I don’t know what to say.

So, I don’t need to search my heart to see if there’s any wicked way in me?

You’re out of your league if you do that. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God!

Then it really is finished. He doesn’t expect any self-improvement efforts from me?

How can you improve on a plan that cost God the life of His Son?

You’re right. I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope.

The perfect place to be. Maybe it’s time to let go.

It’s been a pretty lousy rope, now that you mention it.

This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike, “What’s next, Papa?” Like I said, a new power is in operation. God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know Who He is, and we know who we are: Father and children.

When I look inside at me, I forget who I really am. That’s where the downhill slide begins.

God knew what He was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love Him along the same lines as the life of His Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity He restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in Him.

So, when I focus on Him, then I’ll see the real me?

The real you.

Even on my worst days?

Even then.

I’ll still be His?is

Still.

So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing Himself to the worst by sending His own Son, is there anything else He wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us?

No, I guess not.

And who would dare tangle with God by messing with someone who belongs to Him? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—Who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us.

That’s not exactly what I’ve heard from the pulpit, either.

Maybe you’ve been facing the wrong pulpits. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us?

Well, now that you ask . . .

There’s no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not threats, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture. None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us.

I guess I didn’t look at it like that.

I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.

Not even if I get in His way?

Seriously?

Right. I guess that covers it.

It covers it, heals, renews it, settles it, transforms, empowers, secures, and holds it.

Nothing can get between me and God’s love for me—not even me.

Not even you.

So, the best thing to do when the accusations start . . .

And they will . . .

Is just be still?

Every single time.






A conversation with Paul in Romans 8 (via The Message Bible) and the bold promise of 2 Chronicles 20:17.

Thanks to Al Levine for the use of his photo of this frayed rope. The original photo can be viewed at https://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/26240804093/in/photolist-6VFVAJ-LvDypq-pEDbEm-3adyAF-oZhG4u-64oSDk-Tn93Sb-cePW8S-FYNYQM-aSKssM-71NkLC-2pSgZz-9xMavz-5rQ313-aURRp4-mqJhv-PH8Tg-2ehya2z-EagMd-7LzVG9-y8bkpY-KW2GdR-3Qzy2-4xPcae-3ky4Y-o5L1Wg-6NWd32-cJJtr1-nd6CTz-23vh7E-7DVbfs-3ePfSp-aRpG1i-8ie4tL-8rurbu-7wJwuR-88xVkL-4E5tXw-n6UY9z-5hN2Fa-BtFzgD-7ckqvQ-aEyX2H-27YR3V-QpZLmg-QzR4i7-J5Jsxp-bYFtQ-ot51xR-dNpXFG