Forget about you in yourself

USA Today’s coverage of the Nepal earthquake included a story lamenting the destruction of the Kathmandu Valley’s ancient Buddhist and Hindu temples.

A professor of South Asia studies at the University of Pennsylavania said in the article that the region has long drawn people seeking a “middle world that is somehow between the earth and the heavens.” He said, “It’s the imagination of that that the valley represents.”

As a Bible student, one of the things you observe more and more closely about life and the world is how Satan counterfeits what’s God’s.

In his book on dying, the world’s most famous Indian guru, Deepak Chopra, dishes out the core New Age lie that says “who you meet in the afterlife and what you experience there reflect your present beliefs, expectations and level of awareness. In the here and now you can shape what happens after you die . . . Ultimately there is no division between life and death—there is only one continuous creative project.”

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Southern California preacher John Verstegen, in going over the Apostle Paul’s admonition in I Corinthians 9 about a Believer’s “prize” and striving for an incorruptible heavenly crown, said, “It’s all going to be glory for us (out there), but it has to do with the ability to take God’s Word and function with it here, and hence when we get there we’ll be put into a position that is parallel to that capacity and functioning in grace developed here.

“By the way, I should say as well, that even when we’re there in the heavenly places we will continue to grow and develop in our capacity to serve. We’ll be studying and learning forever. Learning will never end. The Word of God is eternal in nature. Your soul and my soul—you and I will be learning forever.”

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Because of this reality that the Believer’s heavenly reward is dependent on their understanding and standing in grace, Satan seeks most of all to deceive Christians away from even grasping the concept of true grace, thereby preventing it from operating in any meaningful way in their lives.

As Jordan once outlined grace in a sermon, “Grace exalts the Lord Jesus Christ as nothing else can because it holds up His work at Calvary and says, ‘That’s the answer! That’s it!’

“God’s grace enables the Believer to recognize that sin has been successfully dealt with, and totally conquered and vanquished, and you don’t have to be under its control. Rather, you can walk as a son. You can live and be who you are in Christ, not who you are in yourself.

“People say, ‘Well, what you need to do is know yourself.’ Really?! I mean, I know me too well! What I want to know is who God has made me in Christ. The answer isn’t to get to know me better!

“Human wisdom says, ‘If you just understood your personality better and your temperament better.’ If, for example, you’ve got a phlegmatic temperament, understand the strengths and weaknesses of it and then you’ll know how to deal with things.

“Listen, the way to get victory isn’t focusing on you; it’s focusing on what God’s given you in Christ. That’s the path of victory.

“If I’ve got a sin in my life, I’m not threatened by it, thinking, ‘Oh no, I got to bring this thing in before the Lord and make Him understand.’ He’s already taken care of it.

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“Grace puts you on the spot. Grace demonstrates who you love; it manifests your heart. It shows who you love. He said, ‘By love serve one another.’  Not because you have to. Old man Bob Jones used to say that what you do in the dark is what you are. You know what he meant by that? He meant that whatever you would do—what would you do today if you knew you could do anything you wanted to do, bar nothing and never have to give account of it?

“I’m saying nobody would ever know it, nobody would ever hold you in account of it, nobody would ever punish you for it in any way? You could do anything you wanted to do and never face a judgment, never face an accounting, never have anybody call you on the carpet about it?

“Instinctively when you think about that, you think about that bad thing you’d do that you don’t do because if you did, it would get you in trouble.

“You know what grace does? It says, ‘Okay, no judgment. Judgment’s gone; it’s passed. I want you to do this because you love me.’

“You say, ‘What can I do?’ The answer is, ‘By love serve one another.’ And you go around singing, ‘Oh, how I love Jesus.’ Well, if you loved Him, what would you do? Didn’t He tell His disciples, ‘If you love me keep my commandments’?

“That’s the sonship position you have in grace. Walk under grace and serve God out of love and gratitude, doing it motivated by what He’s given you in Christ.”