DAY #103: Ephesians 2:6-7

BACKGROUND:

In addition to being given life, believers are also raised from the dead. Christ was raised from death and left the tomb—an act accomplished by God’s power alone. Believers have also been “raised.” In addition to assurance of physical resurrection and glorification at the end of the age, believers participate in a new “resurrection” life from the moment they believe (Colossians 2:12).

Additionally, believers are seated with him in the heavenly realms. Christ has taken his seat at the right hand of the Father, indicating his finished work and his victory over sin. Christ has been exalted by God’s great power.

Christians have tended to see this seating with Christ as a future event, based on Jesus’ words in Matthew 19:28 and Luke 22:30 as well as other verses that point to our future reign with Christ. Yet Ephesians teaches that we are seated with Christ now. We share with Christ in his victory now. This view of our present status should help us face our work and trials with greater hope!

Believers, as heirs of the Kingdom along with Christ, are spiritually exalted from the moment of salvation. We have a new citizenship—in heaven, no longer just on earth: The power that raised and exalted Christ also raised and exalted his people because we are one with him. That same power works daily in believers, helping us live and work for God during our time in the world.

Here is the final and definitive reason for God’s action on behalf of humanity, his reason for making us alive, raising us, and seating us along with his Son in the heavenly realms. God wants quite simply to point to us as examples of the incredible wealth of his favor and kindness. The Greek word for “point to” comes from legal terminology. God closes the case by presenting the astounding evidence of his church, his people. The church could only exist by God’s love; the fact of its existence, the fact that people have been offered salvation, reveals the abundance of God’s favor and kindness. Again, this was accomplished only through Christ Jesus. Without Christ’s sacrifice, there would be no hope for a relationship with God.

SO WHAT? (what will I do with what I have read today?)

I read an article in the Contra Costa Times a while ago. The scene was the Alameda superior court. Two men were on trial for armed robbery. An eye witness took the stand and the prosecutor got up to begin his questioning. He asked the eyewitness, "You were at the scene of the robbery?" Yes, answered the witness. "You saw a vehicle leave at a high rate of speed?" Yes. "Did you observe the occupants?" asked the prosecutor. Yes. The prosecutor in a booming prosecutor's voice said, "And are those two men in this courtroom today?" At this point the defendants sealed their fate. They both raised their hand.

I read the passage today and I am driven to think once again about God's grace and our guilt, The truth is, all of us at some point in our lives have to honestly say "I did it." There are things we've all struggled with. None of us is perfect. We're all in the same boat. James 2:10 says, "The person who keeps every law of God but makes one little slip is just as guilty as the person who has broken every law there is." You know what that means? In God’s eyes, everyone who sins is a sinner. Whether you sin one time or millions of times, you are a sinner.

Here’s what I know. Some of us in the San Ramon Valley don’t like that. We don’t like to think of ourselves on the same plane as everyone else. We think that somehow our economic status and the position we have attained in life kind of makes us exempt from thinking of ourselves as sinners. Man, are you wrong. Recognizing the fact that whether it's one sin or many in our lives we've all slipped, we've all sinned and we're all in the same boat. Today, I want to look at the guilt we face when we sin because most of us don’t understand God’s purpose for guilt.

#1. WHAT IS GUILT?

I know we all know what it feels like. David sure did – listen to what he says in Psalm 38:4 says "My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear." Every one of us knows that overwhelmed, burdened feeling. That feeling of, "I hope nobody finds out – or I really screwed it up this time didn’t I?" But is that all there is to guilt?

Is that what God means it to be? Is it some kind of punishment that He sends into my life/your life when we've done something wrong? He says "OK, you did something wrong. Live with this for a while!" Does He mean for us to do that, for a while or the rest of our lives? NO! Romans 8:1 says “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” So you ask, if that is true, why do I still feel guilty if I am a believer, a Christian?

Because we misunderstand the purpose of guilt. The purpose of guilt is not just to make you feel bad. God has a greater purpose than that. Guilt is actually a warning light. Picture it that way. It's a warning light that goes off that says, "Something's wrong. Something needs to be fixed." It's like the warning light that goes off on the dashboard of your car which says something's wrong. What the warning light is saying is, "You need some time with God. You need God to heal this." That's the warning light that God's bringing in.

But, there's another kind of guilt that is very important to understand if you're going to get past this and find God's grace in the midst of it. That is false guilt. There's many people who deal with this false guilt.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say something like this, "I just have this overwhelming feeling of guilt. I don't know where it comes from, but I’m haunted by all the bad stuff I have done in my life. I’ve asked for God’s forgiveness, but I still feel so bad. " If you're dealing with false guilt you're probably sending yourself a lot of mental e-mail – that’s says stuff like this… "You think that's enough... You call that acceptable .... Look at all the things you’ve done. ... You have hurt so many people…You’re a disgrace" That's the kinds of things you're hearing a lot if you're dealing with false guilt.

Some of the people who struggle the most with false guilt, struggle because they were caught up in the circle of someone else's expectations. It may be a parent, a friend, a boss, a teacher or mentor. Somehow, maybe even at an early age, you got caught up in how they thought you should live and act and when you don’t meet their expectation, they manipulate you and guilt you. Folks, that is false guilt. I see parents do this with their kids all the time. I see bosses do this with employees. I see husbands and wives do it with their spouse. I even see pastors do this with their congregations.

Probably all of us have dealt in some ways with false guilt. In fact, false guilt is very popular among church goers. Way back in the New Testament, in the book of Galatians, Paul talks to some people who are struggling with false guilt trying to make themselves feel better by doing a lot of good things, but doing them for the wrong reasons.

He wrote to them in Galatia and said, "You began your life in Christ by the Spirit. Now are you trying to make it complete by your own power? That is foolish." But that's the sign of what happens when we struggle with false guilt. We can't feel forgiven by God so we try more and more to make ourselves feel better by our own power. We work harder and harder for God. We render more and more service for God – someway hoping that it will assuage this false guilt we carry around. And we carry it around because we don’t understand Grace and forgiveness.

You say Pastor Mike, how do you know the difference between true guilt and false guilt? How do you know if it's God who's speaking to me or my grandmother or Sister Margaret from parochial school or Brother Bob from some fundamentalist church? Real simple - Is the focus on you or God? Genuine guilt focuses on restoration of that which is broken. Genuine guilt has the focus on coming back to God. False guilt on the other hand focuses on us. How terrible we are and how far we fall short. False guilt condemns and strips away our dignity. God never does that with us though. People do, but God does not. No condemnation

#2. OUR WAYS OF HANDING GUILT

Back to the light on the dashboard: What are you going to do when that light goes off? How do you handle it? It's amazing how we have common ways of handling these feelings. They go all the way back to the first man, the first woman, the first sin. The ways they dealt with that first sin are pretty common today. Probably all of us can relate to them.

In Genesis 3, the Bible tells us how Adam and Eve handled guilt. It says, "... they sewed fig leaves together and made something to cover themselves...they hid from the Lord God... `I was afraid because I was naked'... `she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it.'" Then they hid from the Lord God. Then when challenged, Adam said, "I was afraid because I was naked. She gave me some fruit from the tree, so I ate it." Three ways that are indicated in the way they responded and the way we respond today too.

#1. SHAME. First sewed fig leaves together and made something to cover themselves. They felt SHAME. That’s how many of us deal with guilt. Shame. We feel bad about it. And many people think if you feel bad enough about the wrong things you've done then somehow God will make them OK, probably most of you have already discovered that doesn't work. I sure have. Shame doesn't work.

#2. HIDING. Second, Adam and Eve hid. They hid in the bushes from God, as if God couldn't see them there. That's like trying to put your hand over the light on the dashboard that's going off, pretending that nothing is really wrong. It doesn't work. But they tried that one. They hid out. We try that one. HOW? We run from problems and people we don’t want to face. Running and hiding don’t work, because when you stop running and hiding the problem is still there.

#3. BLAME. This is a popular one. It's sort of a tragic, humorous story what happens in Genesis. You've got Adam and Eve and the serpent standing there and God comes. God asks Adam, "Did you eat of that fruit of that tree?" Adam took it like a man and he blamed his wife. He points right at Eve, "She did it. It's her fault. She gave me the fruit." So Eve's did what came naturally – she blamed too. She points at the serpent, "The serpent did it." Of course the serpent didn't have a leg to stand on...

Isn't it easy to try to blame your way out of the wrong things that have done? Blame your spouse for the affair you had. Blame your kids for your angry outbursts. Blame your boss for your lack of progress in your career. Blame your parents for the way your life has turned out. I’ve told you another way to look at the word blame haven’t I? B – LAME. We all do this. Pedlowe’s are great at this. Our initial reaction and the guilt from doing something wrong is to blame others. SHAME, HIDING AND BLAME – they don’t resolve the guilt.

LET ME SHARE WITH YOU GOD'S WAY OF HANDLING GUILT

When I was a brand new Christian – 32 years ago -- one of the first verses of the Bible that I was taught about how to live this new life that God was giving to me was 1 John 1:9. It says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." From this verse, we see God’s way of handling guilt is three fold. First there is my part – I need to come clean – I need confess my sins to God. You say, "God, I did it. I confess my sin." We need to lay out our sin before God and come clean with Him.

You say Pastor Mike what does the word sin mean? Sin is an old English term. It’s actually an archery term. If you were out shooting a bow and arrow and you had a big target that you’re shooting at. If you shot it and the arrow fell short, it missed the mark, that is called a sin. And sin literally just means “falling short.” It means missing the mark. You shoot an arrow toward the target and it doesn’t even get there. It falls short. That’s why the Bible says in Romans 3:23 “All have sinned and fallen short.”

The easiest way for me to understand sin is to look at the middle letter in the word. Sin is all about "I". It's all about my way. It's all about me saying to God, "Excuse me, but I'm going to live my life my own way. I've got my own plans." It's about me looking at other people and saying I want what I want and I don’t care who it hurts. That's what sin all about. Leaving God out.

How do you confess your sin? You tell God. You might as well tell Him, He already knows. He already knows everything so why not tell Him. Why not be honest about it? Psalm 69:5 says, "God you know what I have done wrong. I cannot hide my guilt from You." Why try to hide it from God? Tell Him. Be honest with Him. Telling God -- confessing to God -- means more than just admitting. The literal meaning of this word is "agreeing with God about your sin". You say to God, "I agree with You about this. I was wrong and I have hurt others – I left you out of my life. I put myself before you and others and I was wrong. That's what confession is all about.

The second part of 1 John 1:9 reminds us to really experience God's grace we not only have to confess our sins but we need to Trust God's character. Many people confess their sins but really never get to know the God who is forgiving them. Because of that they never feel the forgiveness that He wants to give. 1 John 1:9 goes on to say"... He is faithful and just..." That means you can count on God. You can count on His faithfulness. You can count on his character.

I know a lot of people who think they can't get close to God because they just don't feel forgiven. In a way that's a trap, because the truth is the closer you get to God, the more you'll feel forgiven. When you and I get close to the God who loves us, who gave His life for us in Christ, when we get close to Him, we really sense what His forgiveness is all about. So as long as you hold God at arm's length, you're not going to feel His forgiveness.

Look at His invitation in Hebrews 10:22. "Let us come near to God with a sincere heart and a sure faith, because we have been made free from a guilty conscience." Jesus makes us free from a guilty conscious. That's what the cross is all about. That's what Him giving His life for us is all about. Once I've accepted that gift, the invitation is, "Get close to me." When you get close to God and understand His grace in a new way it frees you to become the person that He wants you to be. You don't become the person God wants you to be through guilt. You become the person God wants you to be through His grace.

Then, there is a third part to that verse we must get – we must Accept God's forgiveness. If we confess our sins, He's faithful, He can be trusted to forgive us our sins. 1 John ends by saying, "... and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." He will purify us from all unrighteousness. Not, "He'll purify us from most unrighteousness or a lot of unrighteousness." But He will purify us from all.

An important three letter word about grace – ALL. Yet I know a lot of people who ask for God's forgiveness, recognize that Jesus is willing to forgive and yet they only feel cleansed from part of their sins rather than all. Listen to John 3:8 - "People who believe in God's Son are not judged guilty." When we believe in Christ and trust what He did for us on the cross, the Bible says you're not judged guilty.

If you've already trusted in Christ and believed in what He's done, why are you continuing to judge yourself guilty when God's already said, "I judge you not guilty." If you've never trusted in what Christ has done for you, His willingness to forgive you ‑- and God's saying, "I'm willing! I'm willing to say `Not guilty!' to you!" why not take advantage of that offer?

Does that mean you'll never fail again? Never make a mistake again? Of course not. But it does mean when you do, you confess your sin again, you recognize His willingness to forgive, you take the consequences and recognize that His grace can even help you with the consequences.


I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course.