“As I’ve pursued the disciple-as-slave metaphor, a rich vein
of Scripture has opened up to me . . . Disciples who see themselves as slaves
do what their master commands. Ours is not to question the cost, the inconvenience,
or the risk. Rather, ours is to hear the Master, delineate his imperatives, and
perform them.”
Wow, what a turnoff message to any unsaved college student!
But this is exactly the kind of stuff you hear from evangelicals who want you
to wrongly believe you’re in a “discipleship” relationship with Christ and are
to strictly follow His instructions and parables to His apostles in the Four Gospels
as your personal growth regimen. This is the message of the Adversary!
*****
In his
Sunday morning sermon this week, Jordan expounded on Paul’s Romans 8:15 declaration:
“For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to
fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba,
Father.”
“Notice how the Spirit of God confirms in your heart that
spirit of adoption; God doesn’t give you the fear of a slave, but He gives you
the spirit of adoption,” said Jordan. “He gives you the affection of a son and
that’s what verse 14’s talking about: ‘For as many as are led by the Spirit of
God, they are the sons of God.’
“How does the Spirit of God lead you as a son? You see how
verse 14 starts with ‘For’? It’s explaining the verse before it, and that
started with ‘For’ so it’s explaining verse 12: ‘Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to
the flesh, to live after the flesh.
[13] For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.’
[13] For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.’
“If you want to get rid of that old man’s life in your life,
and put on the new man, then you’ll be led by the Spirit of God. How’s the
Spirit of God going to lead you? Well, He’s not going to put you under the fear
of slavery and bondage to a performance system that you got to perform a
certain way to gain God’s blessing.
“He puts you under the position of the affection of a son.
The work of the Spirit in our lives is to change our slavish fears toward God
into confidence and happy, peaceful affection for who He is as our Father.
“I’m not trying to strive to get there; I’m just rejoicing
in who He’s made me. And that’s where the victory is. That’s where the liberty
from the flesh, and walking in the flesh, and minding the things of the flesh,
is. I’m living in the reality of the identity God has made me in Christ.
“The Spirit doesn’t lead us by stirring up that slavish fear
of, ‘If I don’t perform right . . . am I doing it right?!’ You ever do that? Of course you do: ‘Am I being a good enough Mom? Do I
understand how to be a wife properly? Am I parenting my children correctly?’ We
do that to ourselves all the time. It’s part of the Christian psyche.
*****
“You know, Christians worry about things the world never
worries about? Christians worry about sin in their life. The world doesn’t
worry about sin in their life. They think they enjoy it.
“Christians worry about their kids turning out right in the
context of godliness, not just the success of the world.
“That’s not a bad
thing to have goals and godly thinking, but when you start letting that be
where you get your identity . . . I’m
not doing this to get it; I’m living this way because of who I am!
“The grace of God teaches me that denying ungodliness and
worldly lust—that’s not who I am. I live in the reality of the true current
actual identity that I have in Christ. I have that Spirit of adoption and the Spirit
brings about that response in our heart to God’s love by crying out ‘Abba, Father.’
“Not just saying it, but when you cry, you enter into the
emotional reality of it. You see, being able to cry ‘Abba, Father’ is having
access to it to the place that it’s REAL to you—it’s reality for you. That’s
why Paul says, ‘For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto
the Father.’ (Eph. 2:18)
“That word ‘access’ is literally taking someone by the hand
and introducing them to the Father and making Him real. That’s not a mysticism;
that’s to make His will, His thinking, His person, His mind the delight of your
heart.
“That’s what renewing your mind is all about. You see, if
you want to know the power of God in your life, you don’t put your ear to what
you do. You put your ear to the Word. You put your ear to the fact God loves
you: ‘But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us.’
“You look to Him because the only individual in the
Scripture who ever cried ‘Abba, Father’ was the Lord Jesus Christ when He
entered into the reality of your suffering and my suffering. Our sin. So it’s
through Him who cried ‘Abba, Father’ that we have by the Spirit of adoption and
the capacity to go cry ‘Abba, Father.’
“It becomes a reality in our life that allows us to take His
Word and understand . . . and folks, that’s why that daily intake of the Word
rightly divided is so crucial. The reality is it’s you having that
understanding, and you spending the time to take that information in and say,
‘That truth is what lives in me.’
“Let the reality of the literal, absolute, perfect place that
God has given you in Christ be who you are and then recognize and reject
anything else than that as unworthy. And that skill set that you get in doing
that, that experience you get in doing that, gives hope because that’s going to
give you the skill set to use in the ages to come to be able to think like He
thinks and to delight in the things He delights in.
“That’s a wonderful way to
live and it takes all the things in life now and makes them something far more
than just things to endure. It makes them glory.
“As you sit in your life and look at the details of your
life and you say, ‘Father, just how do you look at this?’ you’ll quit seeing
the circumstances of your life as something you need to use and manipulate and
gain something for yourself. You’ll see all of that met in Christ and now
you’ll see your circumstances of life as an opportunity to serve the Lord by
serving others in His stead.”
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