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I have been thinking a lot about how similar we are to Adam and Eve.  They did not kill anyone, or steal, or commit adultery. All they did was believe lies, and disobey one command.  But it ruined everything, because sin is not about doing immoral things, it is about believing lies that cut us off from the very Source of Life.  Sometimes I don’t think of myself as sinful because I do not behave immorally. Our understanding of the nature of sin is important because it impacts our understanding of the nature of salvation.  If sin is doing bad things, then when we are “saved,” we will become content to just live good moral lives. But if sin is seeking to find life in things other than God, then salvation is a restoration to our original design and a reconnection to our Life Source. This does not simply lead to moral behavior, it leads to the recovery of our purpose as humans and to joining God in his plan to create and cultivate life.  Living a moral life is not a big enough vision of salvation because I could life a moral life and completely miss out on receiving Life from the living God.

I constantly live in sin because I constantly fall back into looking to things other than God for my value, and source of life.  Salvation is finding out who I am in relation to God and my true identity, not just learning how to be good. As I grow spiritually, I learn to receive life and pour it back out into the world around me.  Morality is a result but it is not the main purpose or focus of my salvation.

We were created to be dependent upon God for life.  Adam and Eve were susceptible to believing lies and we are too.  They believed the lie that they didn’t need God and that they could find life apart from Him.  They believed that they would be better off if they ruled themselves. But it wasn’t true, the knowledge of good and evil didn’t give them the Life that they had hoped for.  They disrupted the whole order of everything that God created, and nothing worked as it was designed to work anymore.

We believe these same lies.  We listen to the lies that our culture whispers to us, like:

“God is keeping something good from me.”

“It’s okay to disobey unreasonable or unfair authority.”

“I owe God nothing.”

“God’s rules take away my freedom.”

“God’s boundaries keep me from good things.”

“I am my own authority.”

“God doesn’t love me, he just wants to control me.”

“As an educated society, we have the ability to determine what is right and wrong.”

“I can decide for myself what is true and right.”

And we just believe it.  And we miss out on all that life could be.  

We live according to the disrupted order of things, rather than according to the way that we were designed.  Rather than getting our needs for security and significance met in God, we go to other sources to fill us, just like Adam and Eve did.  We go to things like achievements, social status, talents, or love relationships to find a sense of identity and purpose. Those sources never fill us though.  Any source that we use to find fulfillment, other than God, is unstable, we can lose it at any time. We live in a state of anxiety and fear that we will lose the thing that we are counting on to make us feel like we are enough. We become defensive and angry when we feel that our misplaced identity is threatened.  We are devastated when we lose things that we placed our hope in. Sometimes we even feel like there is nothing left to live for. We also stay focused on ourselves and our needs. Relationships are seen as a means to meet personal needs. When relationships fail to meet our needs, we become angry and live in resentment or move on.

The reason for so much relational strife, especially in marriage, is that both partners are willing to meet the needs of the other, as long as the other is meeting theirs.  But they are both starting at a place of emptiness, waiting for the other to fill them first. We have nothing to give because we are empty. We are not the creators of love, God is. He is the only source that will fill us and enable us to love others selflessly, the way that we were created to.

Our problem is not that we are so immoral and “bad”, it is that we believe lies that keep us from returning to the Source of life.  God wants to rescue us and be everything that He was meant to be to us, and allow us to be everything He created us to be. He wants to return everything to the created order so that we will experience true Life.

God gave Adam and Eve a beautiful paradise to rule over.  They were to love, care for and cultivate the land, the animals, and each other.  God poured Life into them and they were able to pass that life on to the world and to others from a place of fullness.   They were made to be filled with God’s love and care. God was the source of life, their relationship with Him was central, and His authority over them was good.

We can be restored to our original design.  We were designed to be filled by God so that we can pour life into others, and the world around us.  We must recognize God as God. He is our creator. He does have authority over us. He is good and only wants good for us.  He loves us and wants to fill us with that love. His love enables us to have life and pass on life. He made the ultimate sacrifice to demonstrate His love for us.

Salvation is more than escaping the consequence of sin, it is returning to who I was meant to be, and how life was supposed to be lived.  This salvation begins to occur when I admit that I have been deceived, and denounce the lies that I have believed about God, myself, and life.  I need to admit that I have a need for love, acceptance, worth, and purpose, and that I have tried to use people and things, rather than God to meet those needs. I experience salvation when I begin to depend on God and receive His love, grace, and acceptance in a tangible way.  God’s love frees me to take my eyes off myself, because all of my needs are met, and pour out all of the love, grace, and acceptance that He has given me, to others.

Acceptance is a key part of spiritual growth.  When we understand that we are accepted, we live on the basis of relationship rather than trying to prove ourselves worthy.  We tend to work very hard to make ourselves good enough for God.  This is the law working within us.  It helps some sick parts of us- such as our self-righteousness, our pride, and our fear of being dependent -feel safe, in control, and less vulnerable and needy.  Acceptance does away with the need to prove ourselves worthy and replaces it with an appeal to living on the basis of relationship rather than by performance and good works.  When we truly understand that God isn’t mad at us anymore, we become free to concentrate on love and growth instead of trying to appease Him” (How People Grow p.150).

Sometimes, when parents discover that their teenager has made a poor choice they express their disappointment and provide punishment.  Sometimes in churches when people admit to going through struggles, their behavior is addressed with expediency, and they may be required to make a public confession, removed from ministry, or told to take a break from people. Sometimes in marriage, when we find out that our spouse has wronged us in some way, we express disapproval, we get angry, we may give the silent treatment.

In all of these situations, the responses are not without reason. We want someone who has made a poor choice to change their behavior.  And we want them to know that we do not accept that type of behavior.  But these responses are punitive rather than redemptive.  Shame and punishment may discourage someone from repeating the same behavior, but our goal should be restoration, redemption, and spiritual growth, not just behavioral change.

“Acceptance is the state of receiving someone into relationship.  To be accepted is to have all of your parts, good and bad, received by another without condemnation.  Because of God’s grace, we are accepted into relationship with Him.  The Cross appeased the requirement of God’s holiness and we are restored to acceptance.  Acceptance breaks our bondage to the impossible demands of the law.  So, when we break the law now, we do not lose our relationship with God.  We are forever in a state of acceptance” (How People Grow p.149-150).

“God’s acceptance of us in no way negates or minimizes our badness.  In fact, He is able to receive us now, not because we are innocent, but because our debt of guilt has been fully paid, once and for all.  So when we are afraid that He will not accept us because we have done something wrong, it is we who, at some level, are negating and minimizing what he has done for us.  There is truly now no condemnation for those who belong to Jesus (Rom. 8:1)” (How People Grow p.149).

“Acceptance is a bridge to developing safe and growth producing relationships, both with God and with people.  We can’t grow unless we are sure that we are both known and loved.  Relationship can’t occur unless both knowledge and love are present.  When people are in an accepting environment they can stop pretending to be someone they aren’t.  They can rest in the relationship.  That is what trust is all about. The warmth and permission to be ourselves allow us to be more honest and vulnerable and allow us to bring to light parts of ourselves that need to be connected to relationship.  This connection to relationship itself fuels growth in us” (How People Grow p.150-151).

“Many people are stuck in their spiritual growth because they can’t be completely themselves.  They are able to be real about their opinions, happy times, humor or care for others, however they think that their depression, sad times, addictions, or neediness are unacceptable to God or people, so they live as though those parts didn’t exist.  We need to experience all of our souls, whether good, bad or broken; otherwise, what is not brought into the light of God’s love and relationship cannot be matured, healed, and integrated into the rest of our character”  (How People Grow p.151).

“To experience and “be’” our sinful or broken selves is only one step in spiritual growth, however.  Another necessary step is to bring those feelings and parts into relationship with God and others. (James 5:16) We are to confess to each other, which means “to agree with the truth.” Confession involves taking a risk with a negative part of ourselves, letting someone else know about it.  As we experience comfort, identification, and truth without judgment, we begin to heal”  (How People Grow p.153-154).

If we want people to be able to confess and grow, we must provide an environment of humility an acceptance.  Punishment leads to a lack of trust.  A lack of safety.  If we are not safe from condemnation, we are not safe to grow in that environment.  A person is redeemed when they are able to address the deeper underlying issues that caused the behaviors in the first place.  This can only be done in the context of relationships. Safe, accepting, trusting relationships.  We can say punishment is done in love, but when people do not feel loved we are not accomplishing God’s purposes of restoring them to health.

In an environment of no condemnation, people are honest about issues they haven’t felt safe to reveal before.  When they find that it’s okay to confess one problem, they fire up the backhoe and they dig deeper into the dark parts of their souls. As acceptance increases, so does confession, and with confession come intimacy and growth. (How People Grow p.154)

See the Next Post for More on Spiritual Growth.

If not will-power, shame, and legalism, then what?  How do we grow?  If Spiritual Growth is not better behavior, then what is it?

It is common to try to grow spiritually by starting with our behavior.  But spiritual growth is not a process of changing behavior, it is a process of discovering who I was originally created to be.  It is the process of my heart being transformed by experiencing the love, grace, and acceptance of God.  The love and grace of God reveals my true Identity.  When I encounter the love of God, I begin to understand who I really am.  I am a chosen, valuable, deeply loved child of God.  As I become secure in my identity, my life simply flows out of an overwhelming sense of assurance of who I am as a fully loved person.  I begin to live more and more according to God’s original design and purpose for me.

Starting with behavior addresses growth at the wrong point in the process.  All of our behaviors are driven by our deeply held subconscious beliefs.   When we try to rush right into changing behaviors and don’t slow down long enough to look deep into our hearts for the beliefs that lead to the behaviors, we end up just “washing the outside of the cup.”  Outward behavior change is too shallow of a goal.

For example, let’s say someone at church did something to hurt you, and you know that “good Christians” forgive, so you do all of the actions of forgiving.  You accept the apology, you smile when you see that person, you even trade polite conversation occasionally. But in your heart you are still angry, you are hoping that someday the person will get what they deserve, and you know that you will never allow yourself to be friends again.  We can do all of the right things on the outside but still be dead inside.  If we want Life, we have to address what is going on in our heart that makes it difficult to love the things that God loves, rather than just being satisfied with outward behavior.

If we are gritting our teeth while following “the rules,” it is not biblical transformation it’s just living according to The Law.  When we are growing spiritually we will experiencing of a softening of the heart.  Don’t ignore or deny the tension between behavior and the heart, because it keeps us from addressing the issues that prevent us from changing at the heart level.  Only a transformational experience with the Love of God will reach deep enough to touch the internal beliefs of our heart.  When you see yourself as a loved person, your heart begins to change, and different behavior naturally follows.

For example, the other day my husband made dinner for our family and he tasted the vegetables that he made and said, “Wow, these are delicious, we should eat this every night!”  And I noticed a small miracle.  I did not feel hurt by his comment.  In the past I would have become disproportionally hurt and then angry as a result of his comment.  I would have taken his comment to mean that his cooking was better than mine. I would have blamed him and caused turmoil in our relationship.  I believed deep in my heart that my value and worth were tied to his thoughts about my cooking ability.  But through a very long growth process, I have come to believe deep in my heart that my value and worth come only from what God says about me.  I grew spiritually.  I became more dependent on God.  The changing of my deepest beliefs about the source of my value led to a change in my interpretation of the event, and therefore, a change in the emotional experience of the event, and finally a change in behavior.  I no longer become offended, blame, and start fights.  This is not because I am trying to be good, it is because I no longer believe lies about who I am.  God wants us to be alive, not just good.  If I had only focused on my behavior, I would have never experienced the freedom that I have gained through knowing the truth of my value.  And I have also been freed up to enjoy my husband’s joy in his own cooking.  I am free to love and encourage him rather than worrying about protecting my own self-worth.

Spiritual Growth is a process.  It takes time.  We are often in a hurry to be perfect but God is not in a hurry, He is patient.  He wants our hearts to be transformed, and that is a very long and complex process, not an overnight fix.  Growing as a human is not like programming a computer, it is more like learning to play baseball or guitar.  There is no point of “arrival”.  You never become “perfect” at playing a sport or an instrument.  There is always room for growth.  Even the best baseball player at the peak of his career makes mistakes, and even strikes out sometimes.  There is no perfect spouse, there is no perfect child, and there is no perfect Christian.  We will always be in process and dependent on God.

See the Next Post for More on Spiritual Growth.

Most Christians know that they are saved by grace, but once saved, many people live their lives as if their continued favor in the sight of God is based upon their good moral life or actions.  Even those of us who knew that we were loved by our parents, know the feeling of shame that comes from disappointing our mom or dad.  Unfortunately, many of us carry the shame of parental disapproval based on our action into our relationship with God.  Whether it was meant or not, we got the message that we were not acceptable when we did bad things.  We confuse seeing the behavior as bad, with seeing ourselves as bad.

There are many ways that we can be deceived or blind.  One example is not recognizing our ability to believe two or more conflicting things at the same time.  We believe one thing deep inside while professing another thing with our conscious minds.  Our professed doctrine and internal beliefs are at odds with each other, because what we truly believe in our hearts and what we think we believe can be two different things.  Many Christians profess to believe that we are saved by faith, not by works, but live out a gospel of good behavior and dependence on self-effort.  If we don’t examine our deeply held beliefs, we may accidentally fall into legalism.

Legalism– In theology, legalism is defined as the doctrine that salvation or “favor from God,” is gained through good works, and the judging of conduct in terms of adherence to precise laws or commands.

There are several types of legalism, but the type I am addressing is not the type that claims that salvation is gained by works, but the type that practices Christianity as if obeying rules and regulations was the main point.  In this distortion, the keeping of God’s laws is seen as an end in itself.  A person tries hard to follow the laws, and when they keep them, they have achieved the goal of being a “good Christian,” and when they break the laws they are not a “good Christian.”  The goal becomes earning affirmation and worthiness from those in authority through being good.

 However, the truth is, God wants us to experience the freedom and Life that Adam and Eve experienced in the Garden.  He wants to rescue our hearts, not our behavior.  God is the source of Life.  As we are loved alive by Him, we begin to see the truth of who He is, who we are, and how life is meant to be lived.  As the lies that we believed are uncovered, we begin to internalize Truth, and our behavior will change as a result of Truth, rather than will-power. But our good behavior isn’t the goal.  The goal is Life.  God’s power, not ours transforms our hearts and gives us Life.

These two descriptions may sound very similar because they both result in changed behavior but the difference is in the purpose, power, and motivation for following God.

These are the Main Components to a Legalistic Approach:

We try really hard to follow all of God’s laws, and we get really good at it, and it feels good.  We alternate between pride and self-condemnation.  We define sin to include only behaviors, so that we can follow all of the laws and see ourselves as “good Christians.”  We blind ourselves to our own personal sin.  If we were to see that our pursuit of security and significance in success or goodness is just as sinful, it would destroy the sense of value we gain from being good.  This blindness to sin leads to a sense of pride from earning our goodness by being good.  But, we eventually fail to live up to this standard, so we experience self-condemnation and believe that we are worse than everyone else, and therefore worthless.

We see everything as either black or white.  Everything is interpreted in terms of whether it is absolutely right or wrong; sin or not sin.  “Being right” is made to be the highest priority.  At any point in time, we feel we can evaluate ourselves as either being “in sin” or not being “in sin”.  We are either “on the right path” or “in disobedience”.  And we tend to evaluate others this way as well.  People are seen according to their being in or out of sin.

In a sense, we believe perfection is possible.  We believe that if we are really committed to Christ and we try our very hardest to follow all of the rules, we could do it.   We believe that those who struggle spiritually are morally defective, including ourselves.  We believe leaders can and should be morally perfect, or at least spiritually superior.  We put them on a pedestal and believe they have achieved holiness, and we compare ourselves to them and wonder what is wrong with us.  Then when we see them fail in some way we are shocked, and disillusioned, because it doesn’t make any sense with our belief that people are either good or bad, sinless or sinful.

We find ourselves laying guilt and shame on others. We shame others by pointing out their failures. “You have not loved well, cared well or tried hard enough.”  “You have not been a good enough son, daughter, or Christian.”  If you were a good Christian, you would- fill in the blank.  We shame ourselves as well.  The goal of this shame is behavior change.  We believe that shame is a good motivator.

Over time we find ourselves judging others. We find others guilty and we condemn them.  We see ourselves as having sinned less than others and we believe that puts us above them; in a position to judge.  We entertain feelings of superiority, indignation, and condemnation toward others who have sinned.  We punish others by yelling, intimidating, and withholding relationship.  We may call this Matthew 18, but if is punitive or done without humility, gentleness, and patience, it is not Matthew 18. Whether our judgment is acted out, or is only in our hearts, this is not our role as fellow sinners and strugglers (Matt. 7:1-5; John 8:3-8; Rom. 2:1-3; James 4:11-12).  Judging and punishing others only makes sense if we believe that behavior is the most important thing, and that people can avoid sin and, in a sense, be perfect if they try hard enough.  But neither of these premises are true.

We see those who have made mistake as “damaged goods.”  We lose respect for them because of their “failure.”  This thinking applies to ourselves as well.  We believe that once we mess up we are ruined.  We missed the standard and we are left with no way back.  We are overcome with feelings of failure, shame, worthlessness and defeat.

We force ourselves to behave in ways that we really don’t believe in.  We are constantly conflicted within ourselves because we want to be good, so we do those good things, but we don’t really want to do the good things, and we are actually bitter about having to do those good things, but we really don’t know why or with whom.

Legalism is a whole system or false beliefs.  One false belief leads to another.  And legalism can be practiced without God.  If we are able to be sinless by trying hard, we don’t need God’s power or his grace.  If we can be perfect by trying hard, we have every reason to be prideful and self-righteous.  If we have our own righteousness, then we don’t need the righteousness of Christ.

No one would ever purposely decide to be a legalistic Christian, but our experiences, false interpretations, or distorted teachings that we hear, influence our deeply held beliefs.  Over time we find ourselves accepting certain lies and practices, and we end up becoming legalistic in our approach to Christianity.

If we want to experience the Life that God has for us and a true heart change, we need to make ourselves available to the Holy Spirit to illuminate any lies that we have unintentionally come to believe.

When we stop focusing on our own will-power to change our behavior, and we open ourselves up to the work of the Holy Spirit to transform our hearts by his love and grace, our lives become an outflow of our identity as dearly loved children.

When we understand and experience the truth of God’s Grace, we begin to see ourselves the way God sees us.  When we stop expecting perfection of ourselves, shaming ourselves, judging ourselves, and punishing ourselves, we stop doing it to others.  We will never be able to accomplish this by sheer will power.  We need the Holy Spirit to illuminate the lies we have adopted, so that He can transform our hearts rather than just our behavior.  This is the ongoing process of spiritual growth.

The simplest understanding of salvation is being saved from eternal punishment.

This is true. Salvation from judgement is based on acceptance or rejection of Jesus.  When I believe that Jesus’ death on the cross paid for my sin, and I accept God’s gift, then the penalty of sin is settled.  I will not face condemnation or judgment.

So when you think about judgement, only think about what you believe about Jesus. Whether or not we receive the penalty of sin is based completely on our belief about Jesus.  This is legal or judicial salvation.  But, “forgiveness of sin” is not the whole Gospel. Salvation according to the Bible is so much more.

The Bible talks about a second way that we are saved from sin.  We are saved from the control of sin.  We used to be slaves to sin; we had to obey sin.   And we were experiencing the deadly results of it every day.  But God has set us free!  He has given us salvation from slavery.  Romans 6:17-18 says, “You used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted.  You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.”   Romans 6:20 says, “When you were slaves to sin you were free from the control of righteousness.”  And Romans 6:22 says, “You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God.”  If you believe that sin is good for you, then this may not sound like good news, but if you believe that sin leads to the death and destruction of your soul, then salvation from the control of sin is very good news!

We all believe many lies.  Some of yours may be:

No one loves me.

I am not worth anything.

Someone’s love will give me value.

God does not care about me.

God cannot forgive me.

Money will give me happiness and security.

I don’t need people.

I need to be perfect to be acceptable.

Lies go against the truth of who we are and who God is, and therefore they are sin.  Lies lead to more sin.  Sin destroys our lives.  But God wants to rescue us from sin.  He wants to breathe truth into us and give us Life.

I have been freed from so many of these lies, but I still have so many more to defeat.  This is what it means to fight evil.  I think that is the work of participating in our salvation beginning now.  These lies are sin that is still lingering after the forgiveness has been granted.  We are no longer slaves to these lies.  We can be free from them, but it will take reliance on God and receiving his truth.  Salvation from sin’s daily control, is the ongoing work of fighting evil by believing truth. God doesn’t do this by himself, this is the part that we have to participate in. This is how we grow in our own ability to live according to our design.  This is the process of sanctification.  When we are reborn in Christ we are positionally righteous, and it is not based on our works, but it will take a while to learn how to be “actually” righteous.

We have been set free from the control of sin but that doesn’t mean that we are free from the influence of sin.  We are still in a spiritual battle.  That is why we are told in First Peter 5:8-9, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him.”  And we are told in Ephesians 6:11 to “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”  We have collected a lifetime of lies to believe, we will not conquer them in one day or even one year.  It will take a lot of battle in the spirit with the power of truth on our side to uncover and defeat them.

Experiencing redemption from the penalty of sin is definitely a gift to celebrate, but when we experience the truth of God’s love, unconditional acceptance, unmerited favor, compassion, and kindness, it’s even better. We experience this when we snip our ties of dependence from everything else and depend on God alone.  He catches us.  He fills us full of Life.  When we experience freedom from the bondage of sin and all of its lies, it’s so freeing. It is like a second salvation.  Each new encounter with truth, and the falling away of another death-producing-lie, is like a new salvation.  The biggest salvation is knowing and accepting the truth of God’s love for you.

The cross was motivated out of love- not anger, I think many people miss that.  We see God as judge, and He is.  He had to judge sin, but it is finished.  Now, we only experience Him as “Father”, not “Judge”. We are His beloved children.  We need to spend time getting refilled by His abundant love.

So we don’t let go of sin because we fear losing our salvation, or God’s acceptance (although that would not happen anyway) but because we want Life, not death.  Life is being restored to who you were created to be, restored to your original design.  Think about what happens when a computer gets a virus. The computer no longer functions the way it should and if you don’t eradicate the virus, eventually you get the “blue screen of death”.  It is the same with us, when we allow sin in by believing lies, we begin functioning in ways that destroy our lives.  We begin to die, but when we eradicate the lies and become dependent on our Source again, we come back to Life.

Salvation should communicate a bigger picture than to just “stop being bad and be good”.  It should communicate the importance of coming back to the Life that God created us for; Life as God designed it to work.  Jesus did not die to make us into “good people”, he died to give us Life.  When we return to dependence on God as the Source, we benefit from experiencing Life as God created it to be.  Turning from our sin is not just a means to escape condemnation, it is the way back to Life.