08-15-10 Getting It Right

I am afraid we’ve gotten it all wrong once again.

By “we” I mean the human race,

though those of us who cluster under the Christian banner

are not doing all that much better than the norm.

We missed the whole thing

from the very beginning.

With most people, most of the time,

when it comes to us and this whole GOD thing

we are just certain that the central issues in life

focus on who’s being good,

and who’s being bad,

and who is accepted or rejected by God on that basis.

We see God creating our world,

and then creating us and placing us in it.

Then we see Him

revealing to us the standards by which He expects us to live.

Those who fulfill those standards

find peace and acceptance with God,

those who fail to measure up

face His wrath and rejection.

Those of us in the Christian community

modify this a bit

by recognizing that none of us have done it “right” to begin with,

but if we accept the forgiveness

and the moral cleansing offered to us through Christ,

we are given a second shot at doing it better.

But our underlying perception

of our calling hasn’t changed -

we see ourselves as created beings

pursuing greater goodness

so that we can then be accepted by an absolutely and eternally good God.

Whether we pursue that goodness

through our own futile efforts,

or whether we pursue that goodness

through faith in Christ

and His life through us,

the accepted goal hasn’t changed.

But what if we have it all wrong?

What if this whole thing,

from the very start,

has never been about being good or bad?

What if it hasn’t been about US at all?

What if it has been about something else altogether?

The passage we were studying last week

contains a statement of truth that,

if we can allow ourselves to hear what’s really being said,

will bring us into what I personally consider to be

among the most remarkable discoveries of my entire life,

a discovery that will change our perspective on our God forever.

And I want to attempt to share it with you this morning.

Now, before I try to put into words

what I’m seeing and why it’s had such an impact on me,

let’s go to the passage

and see what’s there.

You’ll recognize at least one of the verses in this passage

because I refer to it often.

But this morning I want us to see that passage in context.

The two verses we’ll be studying this morning

are the last two verses of Romans 5.

They read,

Rom. 5:20 And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,

Rom. 5:21 that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

And the verse I quote so frequently

is the first phrase of the 20th verse,

“And the Law came in that the transgression might increase...”

The concept contained in that phrase

has profound implications

for our whole understanding

of our relationship to sin,

and to righteousness,

and to finding freedom from sin in our lives.

But that is not where I want us to start this morning.

If you were here last week

and were with us for our study

of the last half of Romans 5

you know what Paul does in those verses.

He sets up a comparison

between the two most significant men in history - Adam and Christ.

As we walked through that comparison

we saw Paul telling us that

one man, Adam, did it wrong

and we all suffered the consequences.

But then one Man, Jesus Christ, did it right

and we all reap the reward.

One of Paul’s main goals in the passage

is to show us how through Christ,

the “2^nd Adam”,

God took the failure of Adam

and not only patched it up,

but recreated it into a greater good

than would ever have existed

had Adam not failed in the first place.

But one of the things I want very much for us to see right here

is the context in which Paul makes that statement, ‟And the Law came in that the transgression might increase...”

Paul makes that statement

in the context of this comparison

between Adam and Christ.

In that context

he is telling us that God placed the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

into the Garden of Eden,

and then told Adam

that eating of that tree was forbidden -

that is, He created that one law, that one commandment

for the very purpose of driving Adam and Eve into rebellion.

If God would not have written

that one commandment for Adam and Eve,

if God would have created the Garden as He did,

placed Adam and Eve in it as He did,

but never declared that one tree as being off limits,

then Adam and Eve would never have sinned,

and their offspring would never have sinned,

and the human race would have lived in unbroken fellowship with God

in a perfect world

forever.

“And the Law came in that the transgression might increase...”

Last week I mentioned to you

that God could have stopped sin in the world

simply by making Eve barren

following Adam and Eve’s sin.

But the truth is,

on the basis of what Paul is telling us here,

we can back up one step further.

God could have prevented sin altogether

by His not having put the forbidden tree in the Garden

and then His giving Adam and Eve that one commandment.

What was the tree there for, anyway?

It certainly wasn’t there for food.

As far as we know,

it’s only purpose was to provide Adam and Eve

with a line they were forbidden to cross.

Does that bother you?

Do you find it unsettling?

Does it interfere with the concept of God you have held up to this point?

If we believe

that this whole thing is about us

and about our performance,

and about our finding a way to become righteous

so that we can then enter into union with God,

I think it will trouble us very much.

Even if we understand

that we can become righteous

through faith in Jesus Christ,

through having our sins posted to His account,

and, through Him, our entering into union with God,

I think it will still trouble us.

Why in the world go through all of this pain,

and this suffering,

and this death,

and these fierce battles with God,

and with sin,

and with ourselves,

if we could have never left God in the first place

simply by His never having given us that first commandment?

Now let me try to share with you

what I’m seeing in this remarkable passage.

From the very beginning

this whole thing

has never been about us,

or about our performance,

or about our finding a way in which we could become righteous

so that we could then return to Him.

From the very beginning

this whole thing

has always been about HIM,

about God Himself,

and about His designing a creation

in which we could discover the truth

about who He really is

and what’s really going on within Him.

Now listen closely to what I’m going to say here.

God tells us

that He places a value upon His friendship with us

that vastly exceeds anything we could even begin to imagine.

He doesn’t need us,

He is not dependant upon us,

and yet He loves us

and loves His personal interaction with us

at a level we could not even begin to comprehend.

Jer. 31:3 The Lord appeared to him from afar, saying, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness...”

Now, He knows each one of us perfectly,

as only a Creator could ever know His creation.

But He knew

it would be impossible for us

ever to get to know Him,

to discover who He really is,

to see into His heart,

to understand the depths of His true nature

unless we saw Him relating to us

in our failure,

in our shame,

in our self-inflicted pain and suffering.

If we would have lived out eternity

having never rebelled against our God,

we could have understood

His absolute power,

and His infinite creative genius,

and His sense of humor,

and His obvious fondness for us His creation.

But we could never have even begun to understand

the depths of His true nature.

We could never have understood

His heart of compassion,

or His absolute justice,

or His gentleness,

or His unending love for us.

And that right there - the LOVE thing -

is at the very top of the list.

We would never have been able to discover

the way He loves us.

We would never have been able to see His heart response to us

in the context of our rebellion against Him.

We could never have understood His grace,

that grace that flows from a love that literally has no limits and no end.

Most of what we know

about the true nature of our God

we could never have learned any other way except through failure.

And from the very beginning

this whole thing has never been about us and our performance,

it has been about a creative design of God

that made it possible for us, His creation,

to discover the depths

of the true nature of our Creator.

And the only way that could ever happen

is through His creating a world

in which we could see Him relating to us

in the face of our rebellion against Him.

And so, “...the Law came in that the transgression might increase...”

This whole thing,

from the very beginning

is not about God making us good.

It is about His designing a world

in which we can discover

the depth of His goodness,

and His compassion,

and His love for us.

Our God wants a friendship with us,

but He wants a friendship

in which He not only knows us deeply,

but a friendship in which we know Him deeply as well.

And there was no other way

for us to see into His heart

except through His creating a world in which we could fail.

When our little dog, Pepper, was still with us

we had a winter routine that he was very familiar with.

When he wanted to go outside,

especially if there was a fresh snowfall on the ground,

his fur would collect little bits of snow that froze to his fur.

He knew that when he came in during the winter

he had to run up and down the carpeted stairs several times

so that most of the snow bits would drop on the carpet,

and not on the kitchen floor.

I remember an incident that took place toward the end of Pepper’s life.

He still thought he was a puppy,

but he’d been putting on a little weight,

and he wasn’t nearly as agile as he once was.

This particular winter day he came in, all covered with snow,

and trotted about half way up the stairs and stopped.

I was standing at the bottom of the stairs

and he turned and looked at me

to see if he’d gone far enough.

I told him no, he had to go up the rest of the way,

and so he suddenly turned and bolted at top speed

up the remaining stairs.

But he completely missed his footing

on the second step from the top

and somehow suddenly launched himself into this terrifying backwards somersault

with his body upside down,

and his head facing straight down the stairs.

I saw him flying through the air,

reached out to catch him,

and he dropped right into my arms.

For several minutes after that

I sat there on the stairs

with him pressing himself up against my chest

as he cried in terrified relief.

There are things we can only learn about our God

when we come crashing down

from the top step in utter failure

and find His arms outstretched to catch us,

and hold us,

and calm our fears.

Do you remember those first 7 gifts

given to us by our God

when we enter His family through Christ?

Peace with God,

the discovery of His endless grace,

the assurance that God is always for us,

His commitment to use our pain for good in our lives,

His Spirit revealing to us the depth of His love,

freedom forever from His wrath,

and a spirit that exults in God Himself...

We could never have known any of those

except through experiencing His heart of compassion

poured out in the face of our failure.

Certainly it is true

that our growing correct knowledge of our God

has a profound impact upon our behavior.

It changes us as nothing else can.

But the mistake we so often make

is believing that the change is what it’s all about,

and it is not.

What it’s all about

is God designing the only possible creation

in which we can discover

the true nature of the heart of our Creator.

This world, as it now exists,

is nothing more than a fleeting blip in eternity.

But the understanding we gain while we are here

about the true nature of our God

is an understanding that could never be gained

in the endless ages we will share with Him

when we leave this planet.

Living a perfect existence

in the presence of a perfect God

in a perfect creation is wonderful.

But living that perfect existence

against the backdrop of a heritage with God

in which we discovered the endless depths of His love for us

in the face of our open rebellion against Him

is something altogether different.

And just so I’m not misunderstood,

let me state clearly,

I am not suggesting that our behavior doesn’t matter.

Our behavior matters very much

for many different reasons,

some of which Paul deals with

as he moves into Romans 6.

But what I am saying

is that correcting or altering our behavior

never has been the central issue

in God’s interaction with us.

The central issue always has been

and always will be our discovering more and more

about the true nature of our God.

Some of the greatest of those discoveries we will make

as we walk with Him

through the sometimes agonizing process of rebuilding our damaged moral characters.

But even then

the rebuilding process

is simply one more tool

used by our Creator

in allowing us to discover what He is really like.