9/28/08 Forgetting Who We Are Pt. 2
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2PE 1:5-11 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge; and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness; and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

...he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins...

Two weeks ago we began looking at a fascinating comment

that Peter makes in II Peter 1:9,

a comment in which he links

our progress in true character growth

to our understanding

of our true identity in Christ.

Now if that sounds confusing

or theological,

or unrelated to what you’ve just been through during the past week,

stay with me for a few minutes

and maybe we can help bring it

a little closer to home.

This is another one of those places

in our interaction with Scripture

where our basic human operating system gets in the way.

You see, we as human beings

operate on the understanding

that what I do determines who I am.

But in this passage Peter is telling us

we have it exactly backwards -

the truth is that what I do does not determine who I am

but rather who I am, or more correctly who I believe I am determines what I do.

And to help explain what all of that means

let me back up a ways

and get a running start at it.

And just as we’ve done several times in the past few months

we need to back up far enough

so that we can understand

how we got into this mess in the first place,

which will require us to return once again to the Garden of Eden for a few minutes.

When Adam and Eve first put their little bare feet on this planet

they did so knowing just exactly who they were,

and where they came from,

and why they were here.

They knew those things

for one very obvious reason -

their Creator explained it to them.

Their understanding of themselves

and their purpose in life

came directly from God Himself.

There was no identity crisis of any kind

for Adam and Eve.

Adam did not wander through the garden of Eden,

deeply depressed and confused,

crying out,

‟Who am I?

Where did I come from?

What am I here for?

What is my purpose in life?”

Such questions would have been ridiculous -

Adam’s understanding of himself,

and his purpose,

and his identity

were an unavoidable result

of his relationship with God Himself.

To know who GOD was

meant to know who HE himself was.

Then came the big revolt

when Adam and Eve decided

they could go it on their own.

They turned their back on their Creator

and pretended they were capable

of running their own lives

and their own world

without the meddling interference of their God.

But they found out too late

that their revolt cost them dearly.

For, once they lost sight of God,

they also lost sight of the only certain

and secure reference point

that could tell them who they themselves were

- where they came from,

and what their purpose in life was.

And every one of us since that time

have entered this world in exactly the same situation.

With a spirit in revolt against our Creator

and our ears unable to hear His voice,

we are forced to find someone

or something else around us

that can tell us who we are,

and why we have value,

and where we fit in this world.

And one of the brilliant schemes we came up with

is to try to define who we are

by what we do.

It is this brilliant scheme, by the way,

that has given birth to such intelligent statements as,

‟I don’t do windows!”

and ‟I don’t do toilets!”

and ‟That’s woman’s work!”

and ‟That’s not my job!”

It has also created huge industries -

like the companies that make uniforms,

all sorts of uniforms,

uniforms for policemen

and for clergymen

and for doctors and nurses

and security guards

and waitresses

and waiters

and doormen

and bell hops and on and on and on.

It’s only logical - I am what I do

and my uniform tells people what I do

therefore I need a uniform to tell people who I am.

And of course we need all those companies

that make plaques and name plates and trophies

to put on our doors and desks and walls

so everyone knows that we are the president

or the vice-president

or the foreman

or the head of the department,

or the very best at whatever we do.

And that’s just all the superficial stuff.

The real heart of this whole thing

is found in the battles that go on inside us as we frantically attempt to eek out

some small measure of self-respect

and inner peace by doing things

that make us feel good about ourselves.

I can remember too clearly

the day I finished writing the manuscript for the Grace Exchange,

driving down to the P.O. to get the mail,

and I remember getting out of the truck

and starting to walk across the parking lot,

and suddenly being hit with the thought,

“I’M AN AUTHOR!”

And this warm glow of satisfaction flooded me as my new identity

began to take root.

Why was that so important?

Because I, like the rest of the human race,

begin by trying to figure out who I am by what I do.

When you meet someone for the first time

what is one of the first things you want to know about them,

and they about you?

What does this person DO?

Because once we know what they DO

we think we have at least some grasp on who they are.

That’s why we tend to be such disastrous messes

during those times when we’re unemployed.

True, the lack of income

is a difficult thing,

but I think the even greater issue

is that we don’t know who we are

because we don’t have a job to tell us.

And that’s why people’s lives

sometimes suddenly plunge into such emotional turmoil

when their children leave home.

For the past 18 or 20 years we have been Mom or Dad,

and now suddenly we’re not real sure

who we are any more.

And so much of it is rooted in our frantic efforts

to attempt to define who we are

on the basis of what we do.

You see, we are all in search of some reference point outside of ourselves

that can validate our existence.

And with our backs turned on our Creator

we are frantically searching the horizon

for something

or someone to take His place.

And then we come to II Peter 1:9

where our God tells us

we’ve gotten it all backwards.

We have been frantically trying to convince ourselves

that what we do

defines and determines who we are.

And our Lord says to us,

“WRONG! Who you are

determines what you do.”

Or more accurately,

who you believe you are

will determine what you do.

In this particular verse Peter is approaching this from the negative,

he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins...

But the message is clear -

if we are having problems with our performance

it’s because we have forgotten who we are

or have never really understood.

The foundation for all true transformation

in the life of the believer

begins with our gaining some degree of understanding

concerning who we have actually become

as the result of the work of Christ in us.

But rarely is that the way we approach it as Christians.

Rather, we take our same “what I do determines who I am” mentality

and try to paste it onto the Family of God

and then we wonder why it doesn’t stick.

We begin by pointing out to those who will listen to us

that we all have this sin problem between us and our Creator,

and that Christ has paid the debt for those sins

through His own death in our place

and if we will acknowledge our sin

and trust Christ’s death for our sin

we will be “saved”.

So far so good.

But then we start telling ourselves and our followers

that we all need to be good Christians,

and that the way we become good Christians

is by acting like good Christians -

we stop doing the things God doesn’t like

and start doing the things He likes.

Then we attempt to develop a wide range of motivational techniques

designed to prod the wayward saints

into doing the things God wants them to do

so that they can then be the Christians

God wants them to be.

And without realizing it

we have taken the same old lie,

dressed it up in a suit and tie,

put a little fish lapel pin on him

and a leather bound Bible into its hands,

and called it “Christian”.

But the bottom line is still the same -

“what I do determines who I am” -

if I act like a good Christian,

then I am one.

And then we wonder why rarely does anything of any real significance ever takes place

in the lives of God’s people.

So how do we go about fixing it?

Well, Peter gives us some help in the next verse.

...he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you;

He does not say, “Therefore, be all the more diligent to make certain that you really are called and chosen...”

He is not calling us to doubt our identity in Christ,

he calls us to fight for an absolute certainty about it -

he calls us to be diligent in our efforts to establish an absolute certainty in our minds

about what has already taken place in our lives.

What Peter is talking about

is a commitment on our part to diligently research and verify the truth

about who we have become in Christ.

Who we are is an inalterable fact for eternity.

The problem is not who we are.

The problem is who we think we are,

and Peter is calling us

to make the first focus of our lives

that of discovering with certainty

what God has already done within us.

I can remember one very warm tropical evening in 1972

when I was living on the Island of Trinidad,

and I was just beginning to gain my first glimpse

of who I had already become through Christ.

I remember walking down the road that twisted on down the Cascade Valley

saying over and over to myself,

“We have no idea what really happened when we came to Christ...

We have no idea what really happened when we came to Christ...”

And I still don’t, of course,

but I’m learning.

The problem

is that it’s not a learning process like we’re normally use to.

It’s not like when we were in school,

and the teacher said, “Tomorrow we’ll have a test over chapters 3 and 4 so be sure you know the material.”

It’s not about simply memorizing the facts.

It’s about our beginning to see ourselves

as we have never seen ourselves before,

seeing ourselves in ways that seem to go absolutely contrary

to everything we’ve been told since the day we were born

and nearly everything we experience on a daily basis.

The problem is twofold.

First, it begins with the way in which our identity

is so deeply rooted in what we have heard

from the voices of those around us,

voices that, even in the best of homes,

have not told us the truth.

Sometimes the lies are blatant and extreme,

like the ones that come through physical or sexual abuse -

lies that etch into the victim

the hideous message that they have no value except to be used by others for someone else’s physical pleasure

or controlled and dominated by those who are stronger.

Such horrible lies become the backdrop to their lives

and form the foundation of their own perception of themselves.

But even in the best of parenting situations

there are strong links forged between a child’s performance and their acceptance.

Rewards are given for good behavior

and punishment is given for bad behavior

and the link between performance on one side

and value and significance and identity on the other is the basis of life.

I am what I do,

I have value on the basis of what I produce,

I find acceptance and receive love on the basis of my performance,

lessons that are powerfully reinforced throughout our school years

and then form the basis of virtually all employment situations as adults.

And there is a second problem as well, one that has nothing to do with the external voices around us.

There is the problem of the inner knowledge we have about ourselves -

we know our own bent toward evil and potential for evil.

And none of us make it into our adult years

without at least a few painful regrets

for choices we’ve made

and things we’ve done in the past.

And when we then hear our God calling us His holy one

a huge inner voice responds, “I don’t think so!”

So it’s no wonder that when we first hear the good news about the death of Christ

and His payment for our sins

the best we can come up with is some form of “I’m just a sinner saved by grace”.

It sounds like great news,

but it actually continues to reinforce the same lie

that is at the heart of so much of our failure.

We still see ourselves as sinners -

our performance determines our identity

and our performance is deeply flawed at best.

So then, how do we go about making progress in hearing the truth?

In my experience there are two major voices God uses

to help dislodge the lies within us.

The first one is His own voice -

as Paul puts it,

ROM 8:16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God...

This is where it begins,

with a major work of the Spirit of God in our lives

in which He begins to reveal to us the truth about ourselves,

a truth that will go directly counter to everything we have learned about ourselves up to that point.

It is a truth that takes the “because” out of love

and the “if” out of acceptance.

He does not love us because,

and He does not accept us if...

His written Word is a critical tool in this process,

but it requires more than that.

It requires the active working of the Spirit of God within us

taking His Word

and applying it to us in the most personal, intimate way imaginable.

There is simply nothing in all of human experience

that has greater power to begin reshaping our concept of ourselves

than our own personal confrontation with the love of God for us.

And apart from my continually doing what I can to expose you to the truth through His Word

I can’t help you with knowing how to go about this.

I just know that right now He is doing everything He can to fight for your discovery of His love

just as Satan is doing everything within his power to blind you to it.

And I do need to prepare you for the pattern this learning process often takes.

The root problem that God must address

if He is going to succeed in allowing us to hear the truth

is His being able to break that link within our thinking

between our actions and our identity.

In other words, He needs to show us His acceptance of us, His love for us

apart from our performance.

And about the only way for Him to accomplish this

is to begin by showing us

either our own evil

or our own potential for evil

in a way that we simply cannot deny.

He does this in a way that strips us of all of our excuses

and calls us to honestly take possession of our own moral failures.

It’s not a fun time for the child of God,

but it is essential

because without it

we always believe there is a “because” attached to His love for us.

And there is not.

But until we can see ourselves utterly incapable of delivering the kind of life

that we think would justify His “loving” us,

we cannot correctly hear what He’s really saying

when He says, “My child, I have loved you with an everlasting love.”

But from there with most of us

it also takes that truth being reinforced through at least one human being -

at least one someone who can mirror for us

the love of God in a way that allows us to begin to believe it.

Do you remember a few weeks back

when we were talking about that characteristic of love that God seeks to build into our lives

and I said that there is no more powerful way in all the world

to impact another person’s life for good

that through loving them?

Well, what we are talking about right here

is at the heart of why that is.

You see nothing can more powerfully confirm the truth about our real identity

and real value as God’s unique creation

like discovering that another person truly, deeply loves us

not for what we do

but simply because of who we are.

It has a way of speaking the truth to our souls

as nothing else can do.

And here again, let me emphasize

that there simply is no higher calling,

no more crucial role we can fulfill on this earth

than that of communicating love, one person at a time,

one day at a time

to each of those our God entrusts into our care.

OK, just so we understand what Peter is saying here,

he is telling us that job #1 for each of us

is our wrestling with all that is involved

in God’s calling and choosing us as His children

until the truth of what has happened

begins to become an unshakable certainty in our lives.

As long as we are saying to ourselves,

“I really need to do better,

I really need to try harder,

I really need to be a better Christian”

nothing of significance is ever going to change

other than our stress level.

Only when we begin to discover within ourselves

an inner voice that is beginning to say,

‟You know, I really do have a new heart within me,

I’m not the same person I once was.

Hey! My God really is living in me, and expressing Himself through me

in a wonderful way.

Wow! I really am His ambassador,

a select member of a royal priesthood...”

in other words, only when we wrestle with the truth being offered to us by our God

to the point where it begins to form

some level of solid footing in our minds,

only then will we begin to see

our approach to living, our performance change.

In the first half of verse 10 Peter challenges us to focus on the truth,

and to keep listening

until we begin to hear it.

Then in second half of verse 10

and in v 11 he gives us the results

that will take place in our life because of that process.

...for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;

True stability in or lives

does not come from getting psyched up

and trying harder.

It comes from knowing who we really are

because we have returned to the only One

who knows who we are

and we have listened to Him

until we have begun to truly hear what He is saying.

#2...for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.

Peter is not talking here about our entrance into heaven.

He is talking about our entrance into the whole amazing world of life with our Lord.

The key word in this verse is “abundantly”.

Peter longs for us to know

the amazing wealth and riches of a life lived with God through Jesus Christ.

He wants us to discover

the abundance of life in the kingdom.

He wants us to understand what Jesus was talking about in Jn 10:10 when He said,

I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.

And he knows that such a life

can never result from our trying to become what we think we should be.

It can only come as we begin to discover

who we already are in Christ.