Wading through life

The Complete Green Letters, chapter 3

Acceptance

“Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” — Romans 5:1

Well, that’s pretty straight forward, isn’t it. How often do I try to make things more complicated than that? Just rearrange the sentence and read it again: “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ because we are justified by faith.” Nowhere does it say we have peace with God because we’ve done good works, or we’ve bore much fruit, or we’ve won many souls. No, God says we have peace with Him through faith in his Son.

Consider this: without Jesus, we’re enemies of God. He still loves us…but by nature, God can’t tolerate and condone sin. If something isn’t standing in the gap on our behalf–sacrifices before Christ and then his personal sacrifice–we’re doomed. So when we try to transcend His sacrifice and achieve acceptance through works–we’re basically saying Jesus didn’t do a good enough job. And I would even consider the idea that we remove ourselves from peace with God…whatever that means.

God’s basis must be our basis for acceptance. There is none other. We are “accepted in the Beloved.” Our Father is fully satisfied with His Beloved Son on our behalf, and there is no reason for us not to be. Our satisfaction can only spring from and rest in His satisfaction. It is from God to us, not from us to God. J.N. Darby was very clear on this:

“When the Holy Spirit reasons with man, He does not reason from what man is for God, but from what God is to man. Souls reason from what they are in themselves as to whether God can accept them. He cannon accept you thus; you are looking for righteousness in yourself as a ground of acceptance with Him. You cannon get peace whilst reasoning in that way.”

Now, Stanford goes on to quote Darby further. The statement is pretty interesting–something I don’t know I had thought about before.

The Holy Spirit always reasons down from what God is, and this produces a total change in my soul. It is not that I abhor my sins; indeed I may have been walking very well; but it is ‘I abhor myself.’ This is how the Holy Spirit reasons; He shows us what we are, and that is one reason why he often seems to be very hard and does not give peace to the soul, as we are not relieved until we experientially, from our hearts, acknowledge what we are.

Until the soul comes to that point He does not give it peace–he could not; it would be healing the wound slightly. The soul has to go on until it finds there is nothing to rest on but the abstract goodness of God; and then, ‘If God be for us, who can be against us?’

I’m really struggling with this section. I’ve written and re-written my thoughts on this quote about three times…and nothing seems to line up and make sense. I just don’t like the phrase “I abhor myself.” I get what he’s saying about the Holy Spirit reasoning down from what God is…and how the Holy Spirit can be pretty harsh at times. But does fully experiencing God’s acceptance of me really require me to say “I’m worthless; I abhor myself?”

When Stanford, via Darby, says “…we’re not relieved until we experientially, from our hearts, acknowledge what we are…”, the first thing that comes to my mind is that “I’m a new creation.” So, when saying I ought to abhor myself so I can fully experience God’s acceptance through faith in Christ…I just don’t jive with that. While the Holy Spirit certainly convicts us of sin, he also empowers us to live lives of righteousness. He doesn’t empower us to wallow in sinner-sorrow.

Maybe I’m being semantically critical. Because as soon as I disagree with it, I again agree. We can’t find rest in the new creation–”the new man”–but rather continually turn back to the “abstract goodness of God”, who is the source of the new man.

Back to the topic of this chapter: acceptance. Stanford, as he’s done the first two chapters, riddles off a bunch of quotes to support his ideas. I’ll list, and react to a few here:

These I agree with:

• To believe, and to consent to be loved while unworthy, is the great secret.
• To expect to be blessed, though realizing more and more lack of worth
• To rely on God’s chastening hand as a mark of his kindness.
• To be proud, is to be blind! For we have no standing before God in ourselves.

These I have trouble with:

• To refuse to make ‘resolutions’ and ‘vows’; for that is to trust in the flesh.
• To be disappointed with yourself is to have believed in yourself.

All in all, I had some trouble with some details of this chapter, but I still found the overall message refreshing. God unconditionally accepts me because of the work Christ has done. I can attain no more love from God through works.

This is the first chapter I’ve run into some stuff I don’t agree with. But I’m OK with that; it just firms up convictions.

The Complete Green Letters, chapter 2

Time

“But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land
would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.” Exod. 23:29-30

Sound familiar? How often is it that we just don’t understand how God wants to work in our lives? We want things now, quick and in a hurry. We often figure that just because God can do something in our life (such as “fix it,” to be exact), then he must want to do it…and do it now.

Stanford’s insights into the Christian walk seem to be dead-on in my mind. He connects with me well. And this chapter on time and it’s role in our spiritual development is powerful–especially for someone who’s experienced seasons of rapid spiritual growth only to be followed by seasons of apparent stagnation, if not backsliding.

But Standford is quick to point out that they likely are not seasons of backsliding…that it’s possible the Lord pulled the reigns on the growth for our own good.

“God himself will modify the pace. This is important to see, since most instances when seeming declension begins to set in, it is not, as so many think, a matter of backsliding.”

An insight I had never thought of is this:

“Since the Christian life matures and becomes fruitful by the principle of growth (2 Peter 3:18), rather than by struggle and experiences,’ much time is involved.”

So, Stanford poses, what do we want to grow to be? An oak, or a squash? Do we appreciate the investment in time God puts into the mighty oak? 100 years? Then we must be willing to abide in the process.

“Growth is not a uniform thing in the tree or in the Christian. In some single months there is more growth than in all the year besides. During the rest of the year, however, there is solidification, without which the green timber would be useless. The period of rapid growth, when woody fiber is actually deposited between the bark and the trunk, occupies but four to six weeks in May, June and July.”

And some more key quotes:

“Unless the time factor is acknowledged from the heart, there is always danger of turning to the false enticement of a shortcut via the means of experiences and ‘blessings’ where one becomes pathetically enmeshed in the vortex of ever-changing
‘feelings,’ adrift from the moorings of scriptural facts.”

“Fruit ripens slowly; days of sunshine and days of storm each add their share. Blessing will succeed blessing, and storm follow storm before the fruit is full grown or comes to maturity..”

“The temptation to shortcut is especially strong unless we see the value of and submit to the necessity of the time element; in simple trust resting in His hands, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Phil. 1:6

I’m learning that everything requires committed communication with the Lord, including this “time” thing. We need to talk to him about the process we’re in. We need to speak our occasional frustrations with the process so that he can respond to us and assure us he’s in control and has us on a path.

When I don’t dialog with God about what’s going through my mind, I end up having weeks like this past one where I feel kinda aimless…and lost and without purpose.

But all isn’t lost, because in spite of the temporary aimlessness I sometimes experience, there exists a gnawing, underlying sense that I’m on some sort of journey…some sort of path. And though I might be in the middle of a wilderness and misplaced my compass and feel like I’m going to arrive at my destination a few decades too late, I am still en-route. And just as he’s still in control of Saturn’s orbit around the sun, he’s in control of my life.

The Complete Green Letters, chapter 1

Faith

“Without faith, it is impossible to please God.” (Heb. 11:6a)

Faith is such a tricky thing, though I don’t think it was meant to be, or even has to be for that matter. The basis of faith is quite simple: believe what God has said. After that, it’s a whole different story.

I seem to run into problems in two areas: 1) exactly what was mentioned above: believing what God says, and 2) even if I do believe it…believing it applies to ME.

For instance, I genuinely believe God heals people. I struggle to believe he desires to heal me. Where does that place my faith in healing? Probably a 2 out of 10 or so. For faith to be rock-steady, it has to be based on the WHOLE truth, not just parts. And the WHOLE truth is that God is “no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34), and if one person qualifies for healing, all do. Therefore, if God would heal a blind man, why wouldn’t he heal my impaired vision?

Anyway, I love how Stanford’s writing just seethes scripture…and quotes of others. He isn’t so much trying to establish his own ideas as he is compiling and reflecting on the ideas of others.

“Unless our faith is established on [scriptural] facts, it is no more than conjecture, superstition, speculation, or presumption,” he says. “Faith standing on the facts of the Word of God substantiates and gives evidence of things not seen.”

Good stuff. I’d love to just type out the chapter for you, because it really speaks for itself. So, a few more highlights and then final thoughts.

• “Faith has nothing to do with probabilities. The providence of faith begins where probabilities cease and sight and sense fail. Appearances are not to be taken into account. The question is: whether God has spoken it in His Word.”
• “‘Faith must be based on certainty. There must be definite knowledge of God’s purpose and will. Without that there can be no true faith. For faith is not a force that we exercise or a striving to believe that something shall be, thinking that if we believe hard enough it will come to pass.’ That may be positive thinking, but certainly not biblical faith.” (Standford quoted Alexander R. Hay)
• “Real faith is always increased by opposition, while false confidence is damaged and discouraged by it.” (Stanford quoted J. B. Stoney)
• “Faith is dependence upon God. And this God-dependence only begins when self-dependence ends. And self-dependence only comes to its end, with some of us, when sorrow, suffering, affliction, broken plans and hopes bring us to that place of self-helplessness and defeat. And only then do we find we have learned the lesson of faith; to find our tiny craft of life rushing onward to a blessed victory of life and power and service undreamt of in the days of our fleshy strength and self-reliance.” (Standford quoted James McConkey)
• “The more you find Him in your sorrows or wants, the more you will be attached to Him and drawn away from this place where the sorrows are, to Him in the place where He is.” (Stanford quotes Stoney)

Faith takes work. It takes studying and learning the Word and allowing it to penetrate our often stony hearts. It takes a continual yielding of our agenda and will to God’s. It takes a surrender of things we hold dearly to–namely our understanding of ourselves and our perception of how the world operates.

I think that is sometimes why it takes pain and hurt and discomfort for faith to grow. It’s often only in our brokenness that we allow God to enter into our hearts and whisper honest, faith-foundational truths that build us up and recreate us.

I know this is what happened just a week and a half ago. I emerged from a situation quite broken, identity shattered, self-esteem nil. But in that state, the Lord was able to minister to an old wound and mend it properly, allow for true healing to occur and faith to emerge. When I was stripped of my reliance on my utterly-unstable self, he was able to situate me on his universe-expansive foundation and assure me that I didn’t have to worry about falling and hurting myself again.

That, folks, builds faith…because it is based on the Word’s truth of his love for me and the promises that I’m a new creation in him and the fact that He’s always working for my good.