CP 256 Satan can just buzz off...

CP 256 Satan can just buzz off…

There's unbelief behind asking for what you already have.

Friends, this week I got some feedback from a Gathering weekend I ran recently here in NSW. It was encouraging, heartening and helpful. The response included a paragraph which courageously raised something I teach about which 'was difficult to accommodate and created a challenge'. I have wanted for a long time to put into words what seems to be at stake here. So here’s a first effort. And here is the quote:

[Some of your message, however, was difficult to accommodate and created a challenge. One, in particular, concerned our weekly liturgy where we ask God for forgiveness. Unless I'm mistaken, you stated that since we have already been forgiven, this prayer in our liturgy is redundant? This comment came from another member, but I do recall you saying that the verse 'create in me a pure heart' is not needed because Christ has already created in us a pure heart. Personally this is a challenge, because my heart does not seem too pure to me. Nevertheless, that these thoughts are still challenging us, so many weeks later, is arguably a good thing.]

Here is my response:      

In regard to my teaching about the pure heart: That is from the text we sing after the Offering in our Holy Communion Liturgy. It's originally from the Psalms, from King David after his adultery... I will teach in the face of anyone, [and remember I invited you all to argue with me?] that we shouldn’t be singing it. It is a prayer that belongs to those who are not yet ‘held’ within the New Covenant. Christians are those who are born again, who are born with that new heart. "If anyone is in Christ that person is a new creation. The old has passed away, the new has come." 2 Cor 5:17. We have Christ’s righteousness, Christ's mind, Christ's Spirit and Christ’s heart. All the while we still have the heart we inherited from Adam. The very fact that the new heart is in place is exactly what reveals the truth that the old heart is not pure. The inner conflict is the sure sign that you have a new heart.

At the back of this is something we struggle to understand. One of the most powerful insights of the Reformation was what Luther called 'Simul Iustus et Peccator'. That might sound like Greek to you but it is actually Latin... and easy to translate. Simul (Simultaneously) Iustus (Justified-saint) et (and) Peccator (sinner). I do not get rid of the nature and heart inherited from Adam until I die my human death. However I have the nature and heart of Jesus Christ in me from being born again of water and the Spirit. My flesh hates the displacement from that internal throne and catches me unawares, moment by moment, day by day. My ‘selfish self’ rages against the instinct to unselfish love which arises from the Christ-heart in me. It’s perpetual war.

That internal personal war never goes away and I fail, again and again and again. For those continual failures I need to hear the declaration of forgiveness for sure... it’s certainly not redundant.  

But inside all of this is the greater truth that for Christ's sake, through his blood, by grace through faith, I am forgiven. I am forgiven! Only the forgiven can be his children, and that is what we are! 1 John 3:1 May I never surrender this truth to the Lord of doubt. I am forgiven. It's as a forgiven child of the Father that I come into communal worship every Sunday. I still have to deal with the sins the flesh constantly produces, but nevertheless I can and must always own the truth that I am forgiven. Isn’t it true that Sunday by Sunday, among other things, I remind my Lord that I was baptised in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit? Do we not baptise for the forgiveness of sins? Did he not forgive me? Of course he did. I am forgiven.

But there is more... much more. More than forgiving me, he has re-created in me his own nature, His own Righteousness. 2 Cor 5:21 (You must read this text… you must.) He sees me, comprehends me, knows me, welcomes me and embraces me, with the same joy and intimacy he has with Jesus. That is the Gospel. So for a Christian to ask for a clean and pure heart, (and a new and right spirit!) is to ask for what we already have. What I absolutely need, and what I pray for, and what he rejoices to give, is for a continual outpouring of his love through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5:5. It is the Spirit of Jesus who the clarity and charity, the power to grow in love and service from the new heart he has already placed in us.

You know, unless we ‘get’ that reality of the two hearts the devil can have a field day in our lives, constantly accusing us of sin and ever pointing us to our failures. And we, focussed as we often are on the abject failures, and the guilt and shame which come along for the ride, are crippled by the lie. All the while, the scripture is screaming at us, “I will remember their sins no more.” Sing it in your new heart. No more! Share it with your fellow travellers. No more! Shout it from the rooftops. No more. He remembers my sins no more. Washed away by the blood. Satan can just b….. off! There’s nothing sinful left to accuse those who are in Christ… I am forgiven. I am free… 

Fred