It seems that the Lord is impressing the concept of humility on me this morning. Perhaps not a concept, but a radical need. It is easy to slip into smug, self-righteous, judgmental assumptions of self, others and circumstances. It is very easy. What is not easy is looking out from inside those smug, self-righteous, judgmental assumptions and see that they are smug, self-righteous and judgmental. Wrapped up inside such a blanket, self-justification of thoughts and actions is far more pleasing—and far easier.

But, the Lord gently and graciously speaks to our hearts—often times, even when we don’t mean to listen. I read this morning in John 17, Jesus begins the “High Priestly Prayer”. I actually get to read the Saviors prayers for me. Not in a general sense, but personally. He prays for those who the father has given him—that’s us, that’s believers. What could be more humbling that hearing the Savior’s prayers for those elected by Grace, unto salvation?

Tim Keller writes this, in The Reason for God:

“Sin and evil are self-centeredness and pride that lead to oppression against others, but there are two forms of this. One for is being very bad and breaking all the rules, and the other form is being very good and keeping all the rules and becoming self-righteous…If you are avoiding sin and living morally so that God will have to bless you and save you, then ironically you may be looking to Jesus as a teacher, model and helper but you are avoiding him as a savior.”

What really is that smug, self-righteousness that quietly slips in when we let our guard down? What is it really? It’s the very sin Keller is talking about here. It’s a slap in Jesus’ face. It’s saying, “I’m good enough”. It’s as good as saying, “Jesus, you’re a great teacher, but I’ve got it”. We forget that we were not saved because of how good we were. We forget that we were not chosen because of our good doctrine, great understanding or moral uprightness.

We, instead, understand that we are saved by the gracious wisdom and kindness of our God. It’s a massive logical contradiction to look condemningly on others when we were spared the Lord’s piercing stare for the same exact thing!

Keller continues later on the same concept, talking about the difference between being motivated by grace and being motivated by self-righteousness:

“Another difference [between the two motivations] has to do with our identity and self-regard. In a religious framework, if you feel you are living up to your chose religious standards, then you feel superior and disdainful toward those who are not following in the true path. This is true whether your religion is of a more liberal variety (in which case you you will feel superior to bigots and narrow minded people) or of a more conservative variety (in which case you will feel superior to the less moral and devout).”

Keller is right. When the heart of the Gospel—grace unto salvation, through the life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ—is lost sight of, then self-righteousness is the only viable option. And, it seems the inverse would also be true. If I feel smug, self-righteous and judgmental, there’s a very good chance I’ve lost my view of the Gospel.

So, I feel humbled this morning—reminded that it was the perfect work of my Redeemer that I am privy to this great salvation. I should not, cannot, assume superiority and when I do, I forget the very foundation of that perceived “superiority”—which is of course no superiority at all.

To round it off, I find this in the prayers of the Puritans:

“Sin’s deformity is stamped upon me, darkens my brow, touches me with corruption: How can I flaunt proudly?… [When] I fall,  let me hide in my Redeemer’s righteousness… Keep me humble. Keep me meek. Keep me Lowly.

Some people call death the great equalizer. But, I think there’s really a much greater equalizer: Birth. Think about it. Indeed all will die. But, where they die, in many cases how they die, and for many, many people when they die, is all very much dependant on status—financial, social, spiritual. So, yes, all will face death, but their status will bear heavily on that occasion.

But birth, birth is another story. All who are alive were born. But no one who is alive had any say in their birth. Some are born the rich and affluent, while others are born to the poor and destitute. Who can really claim greatness in the lot that was given to them?

Job expresses this idea in Job 31:13-15:

“"If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or my maidservant,
   when they brought a complaint against me,
what then shall I do when God rises up?
   When he makes inquiry, what shall I answer him?
Did not he who made me in the womb make him?
   And did not one fashion us in the womb?”

“Did not he who made me in the womb make him?” Job’s point is, although they may have been born into a less than desirable situation and he was born into another, the fact remains that the position was assigned by God, not chosen by him.

It seems to me that maybe, if we could allow this concept to penetrate our hearts and minds deeply, we would find our own prejudices more difficult to stomach.

Life flows from God, flows from God.
To the weak man, to the hurt.
Life flows from God, flows from God.
To the addicted, to the questioner.
Life flows from God, flows from God.
To the poor, to the homeless.
Life flows from God, flows from God.
To the drug dealer, to the prostitutes.
Life flows from God, flows from God.
To Iraq, to Afghanistan.
Life flows from God, flows from God.
To Africa, every country in Africa.
Life flows from God, flows from God.
To all across the world, His creation is His.
Life flows from God, flows from God.

-Charlie Hall, “You Are God”, from Passion 2007

If you’re still breathing, then God has specifically, personally, purposefully caused it. If you’re heart is still pumping, then the Almighty has sovereignly commanded that organ not to stop. If blood still flows through your veins, then the Rock of Ages has decreed from all eternity that, this moment, nothing stand in its way.

Every inhale, every exhale, every blink, sniff, cough, sneeze, itch and ache, is a persistent, driving mercy and grace from a good God, who’s infallible intentions for his children are good and Always Good.

Life does indeed flow from God.

Being a part of various Christian communities over the years, I’ve been to quite a few non-denominational or semi-denominational wedding ceremonies. Not to mention that I make part of my living photographing weddings. It seems that every ceremony the person marrying the couple has to scrape and scrounge for a new and fresh way to talk about marriage. Unfortunately, there’s only a couple of directly relevant verses—and of course the whole Bride of Christ thing. But, the point is, it starts to get tired and stale. The message is almost always the same. There’s just not that much room for creativity. (side note: that is a point to which I ask, why must we always be creative?).

All this brings me to my point today, for a blogger, It seems that every major holiday demands a relevant post. After a while, the holiday themed posts start to lose their luster and we’re just scraping the bottom of the pot looking for something to say.

Well, I decided not to do that this Thanksgiving. Instead, I’ll leave just one little verse. Perhaps the most important thing to remember today, and every day. Romans 6:17:

“But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted.”

Thank God that we believe. Thank God for the gifts that come by belief. Just, just thank God.

Tim Keller writes, in The Reason for God:

“If we get our very identity, our sense worth, from our political position, then politics is not really about politics, it is about us.  Through our cause we are getting a self, our worth. That means we must despise and demonize the opposition. If we get our identity from our ethnicity or socioeconomic status, then we have to feel superior to those of other classes and races. If you are profoundly proud of being an open-minded, tolerant soul, you will be extremely indignant toward people you think are bigots. If you are a very moral person you will fee very superior to people you think are licentious and so on.”

Christians are often accused of being judgmental, and often times they are. But, the ironic thing is, it’s only by placing our identity squarely in Christ are we are given the freedom not to be judgmental.

As Keller points out here, when we place our identity on finite things, they are constantly at risk. If  a person feels their worth in their vehement support of the Republican party, then the mere fact that a Democrat exists is a personally threatening reality.

But, it’s in classic orthodox Christianity, that a person’s personal worth cannot be threatened. No man can threaten God, or the work he’s done on behalf of his children. But, what’s even more than that, as believers—saved by grace alone—we cannot heap judgment on those who do not believe, since we ourselves were once sinners, completely unable to save ourselves.

So, the reality that there are those who disagree with us, ought not produce anger, bitterness or judgment toward them. But, rather it should produce compassion for those who are where we once were.

From his book The Holiness of God, in the chapter dealing with God’s justice, RC Sproul discusses Uzzah’s sin of touching the Arc of the Covenant. You can read the whole story of Uzzah in 1 Chronicles 13. Uzzah was the priest who, while transporting the Arc, touched it when it appeared to become unstable and threatened to fall to the ground. Immediately when Uzzah touched the Arc, God struck him dead. To many, this appears to be a twisted sense of justice. Sproul has this to say:

“[Uzzah’s act]…an act of holy heroism? No! It was an act of arrogance, a sin of presumption. Uzzah assumed that his hand was less polluted than the earth. But it wasn’t the ground or the mud that would desecrate the ark: it was the touch of man. The earth is an obedient creature. It does what God tells it to do. It brings forth its yield in its season. It obeys the laws of nature that God has established.”

Sproul doesn’t stop there in his explanation, but for my attention now, this is the section that caught me. I have always had trouble reading these passages about Uzzah. I can’t help be see a fatal accident and an overreacting God. But as Sproul points out, it was not simply a momentary sin that resulted in Uzzah’s death, it was a heart condition of arrogance that contented itself that way well before the physical offense.

Uzzah had to assume, deeply, that his hands were "less polluted" than the ground. All of God’s many, many explicit commands would fall by the wayside in Uzzah’s mind, because Uzzah arrogantly presumed his worthiness.

Now, for me, I see a couple of things that stand out.

1. Reading into God’s word with "eisegetical" eyes is a dangerous practice. Uzzah reinterpreted all of God’s commands not to touch the Arc, based on one single presumption that his hands were not as filthy as the ground. He was wrong and paid dearly for it. So similar is the person who turns a deaf ear to the Gospel because he knows he’s a good person and he knows God doesn’t send "good" people to hell. God’s word must speak for itself; we cannot tell it what to say.

2. The death of Jesus is magnified even more in Uzzah’s death. God instantly poured his wrath out on Uzzah and his blasphemous gesture. In a split second, we get to see God’s holiness and his terrifying commitment to uphold that holiness. Uzzah’s death reminds us that we’ve all arrogantly reached out and blasphemed God, yet Jesus has taken upon himself all of that wrath which was due to our sacrileges and bore them on the cross. So, even today, while we continue to reach out and touch the proverbial Arc, Jesus continues to plead our case on the grounds of his spilled blood.

A Parable

Imagine that there were ten men in two groups, and they were all enslaved to a third group of men. There were five in one group and five in the other and five in the group that owned them. They were to do everything they were told and if at any time the owners were dissatisfied with the men, they could exercise their rights over their property and dispose of them.

One day, a man from among the slaves rose up with great charisma and a powerful argument. The owners were moved and convicted by this charismatic leader and they freed all five members of that man’s group. The group, now free and satisfied with their own freedom turned a cold cheek to the other five men still in bondage. And, to the charismatic leader’s dismay, in time, they themselves became slave-masters.

A Double Standard

I read in the newspaper today a commentary on Obama’s intentions to sign the Freedom of Choice Act and the strange irony that it presents.

Less than 150 years ago African-Americans were still being held as property. Less than 40 years ago, there was still legislated separation between blacks and white. Now, in just a few short (compared to the whole human timeline) decades, we have a officially elected a black president. This is a profound moment in American history. And, in many ways, and on many, it is a great grace from God, overcoming sin in a fallen world.

But, the president chosen, who has personally and directly benefitted from a fight against unjust laws of slavery, segregation and discrimination, stands passionately by another legislation that ensures millions of people continue to be treated as property.

Therein lies both a philosophical problem, a logical problem and a double standard.

Indeed, no person should have the right to enslave another. No white man should ever have the freedom to own a black man. Nor should a black man have the freedom to own a Hispanic man. Or a Hispanic man, a white man. Much less should they have the freedom to dispose of them as property who no longer desired. While we would affirm these things strongly, and our president probably even more strongly, yet he, and many, affirm the right to dispose of unwanted children.

If children indeed should be treated as property and their owners should have the freedom to dispose of them for convenience sake, then why is it so passionately affirmed that the African slave trade was an evil—or the modern sex trade, for that matter. After all, these things made many lives much easier.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s niece, Alveda King, said it like this:

“The battle for equal rights has reached a major milestone [with the election of Barack Obama], but Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream of full equality remains just a dream as long as unborn children continue to be treated no better than property…”

A Conclusion

I’m finding a more tender heart these days for the unborn; the helpless, those who truly cannot defend themselves. We should:

…Pray for President Barack Obama, that God would have mercy on him and his heart would be softened and changed. 
…Pray that God would stay the hand of our government from passing into law the Freedom of Choice Act.
…Pray that God would have mercy on the millions of unborn at stake.

…Pray that God would have mercy on our nation that loves comfort and convenience, literally, more than life itself.