DO WE VETS REALLY WANT SPIRITUAL HEALTH?

The chief issue I run into with Christian veterans is not that they don't want to grow in their faith. They do. They are hungry for His blessings and seek to be used by God to reach their communities with the Good News of Jesus. The main problem I encounter is the espoused theology. I, too, was equally guilty of misunderstanding the Gospel by not separating God's law from His Gospel and for preaching and teaching Pietism.

In my years of seminary training, neither of these concepts, the distinction between law and Gospel and Pietism. In this blog, I want to stress the latter, Pietism. I will use Theocast's definition as it is the best I've seen on the topic.

"Pietism is a heresy. It is a confusion in my opinion. It is taking the obedience of the believer, and putting it in the wrong category with the wrong emphasis. And the category it often gets put into is not one's salvation, that's evangelical, that's not an issue. But it's in the acceptance and blessings of God. In other words, it is how well I perform and obey, is whether God accepts me as a believer and whether He will continue to bless me and protect me.

"We believe Christ should always be the focus. Christ should always be the foreground. And the Christian life is only understood in light of Him as a backdrop to what He alone has done. And in Pietism the Christian life is in the foreground and Christ is in the background. In Pietism, typically, our identity is derived from what we do or don't do. Whereas for us, as confessional Protestants, we would invert that and say that our duty, what we do, is derived from who we are."

From decades of struggle to be more Christlike and failing daily in my lack of obedience, I know this theology cannot produce what it presupposes. As long as a believer's investigation centers around what they perceive as their faithfulness to God, they are guaranteed more uncertainty than rest and assurance in Christ. Lack of certainty drives them to greater self-willed action, not Spirit-driven blessing and certitude. I lay the fault at the feet of us, the preachers, and antecedent to that, from the theological institutions where we studied.

So, let's ask ourselves THE question. How much obedience on our part is sufficient to merit God's blessing and acceptance? 50%? 37%? 94%? Unless our performance is 100% perfect, 24/7, 365, we're sunk, doomed, kaput. Only one human being has performed at that level for all 33 years of His life. He discharged His duties with flawless perfection, not for Himself, but for sinners like you and me.

IV. This office the Lord Jesus did most willingly undertake; which that He might discharge, He was made under the law, and did perfectly fulfil it; endured most grievous torments immediately in His soul, and most painful sufferings in His body; was crucified, and died, was buried, and remained under the power of death, yet saw no corruption. On the third day He arose from the dead, with the same body in which He suffered, with which also he ascended into heaven, and there sits at the right hand of His Father, making intercession, and shall return, to judge men and angels, at the end of the world.

V. The Lord Jesus, by His perfect obedience, and sacrifice of Himself, which He through the eternal Spirit, once offered up unto God, has fully satisfied the justice of His Father; and purchased, not only reconciliation, but an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, for those whom the Father has given unto Him. (Westminster Confession of Faith, Of Christ the Mediator)

2 Cor. 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

1 Pet. 2:22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.

1 Jn. 3:5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.

Heb. 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

By the Spirit, we can rid ourselves of the notion that God's acceptance must come through our performance or lack thereof. When we trusted Jesus to save us, not merely from sin but to bring us to Himself, Christ's performance for us destroyed all relational maintaining performance on our part. Unfortunately, Pietism resurrects what God buried. How? Good works are the fruit or result of salvation, not the cause of it.

Eph. 2:8-10 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (emphasis added)

Performance-based theology is a topic that profoundly affects Christian combat vets, First Responders, and abused women and children. As descendants of Adam, we still live under Adam's legacy of death, performance-based Christianity. Again, contemporary Christianity is Pietistic in its ontology or state of being.  

With this in mind, let's be honest about our study of the Scriptures. When we encounter the Bible's commands, we begin the self-evaluation process and find our labors wanting. We measure our faithfulness by our performance or lack thereof. So many pulpits need a focus on Christ, His sufficiency, and His performance, not ours. In one sense, our performance is irrelevant. Our sin mixes with our performance: 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me (Rom. 7). God accepts my paltry faithfulness for no other reason than the Spirit united me to Christ when I believed. God looks upon Christ in me and His perfection, not on me and my lack of it.

In these veteran "Bible" studies, Christian uncertainty revealed itself in the comments made and questions asked. Doubt, I believe, is usually traced back to the pulpit that preaches we measure ourselves by our spiritual performance or faithfulness. Jesus' righteous perfection, His works for believers, and His all-sufficiency imputed to us by faith are either nowhere in the background or not given their primary place in the sermon. When a preacher follows this order in a sermon, works/performance always results. Peter's words are relevant here,

"3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence, 4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. (2 Peter 1), or in Paul's words to the Philippian believers, 6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus (Phil. 1).

Heb. 12:2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Notice verse 1. Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. The only way God has provided for His people to lay aside every encumbrance and obediently lay aside THE sin that easily entangles us is by fixing our eyes on Jesus, coming to Jesus, resting in Jesus. Why? Jesus said to: 28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Why? Because Jesus performed flawlessly under the weight of the law on our behalf. Rest in that knowledge. Listen to the apostle Paul, He (Jesus) condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Jesus' perfect performance fulfilled the law's demands on our behalf. Our sin-mixed performance or works to maintain God's acceptance and assurance is now wrong. God views us in Christ as His law-keepers. And when we prove ourselves faithless? We fix our eyes again on Jesus, who Himself perfects our faith. We walk by the Spirit's leading.

Why is this topic critical for Christian combat veterans and their spouses? As I have explained in one of my blogs, traumatic stress reconfigures brain structures, specifically the limbic system. We don't have to think about reacting to situations and triggers. We react sinfully out of survival. We are impatient to the point of hostility. We are anxious over issues we can't control, like where the next mortar or artillery round will land. That immediate reaction carries into civilian life. We sin before we know it. Performance? What performance? Heck, I'm gonna kill something! Everything about me is wrong when I'm stressed. Jesus, in effect, says to veterans, First Responders, abused women or children, and spouses: "My performance is now your performance." 28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Mt. 11). And, if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous (1 Jn. 2:1b).

Christ, not our doing, is life indeed. The Holy Spirit continually takes from Christ's life-giving dialogue and gives it to us, His people, John 16:14, in our great need. The work Christians are to be engaged in is coming to Jesus after triggers and fixing our eyes on Him, where we find our rest.

As long as we think that something good within us can faithfully perform God's will, we will continue to strive in our flesh, living a life of discouraged desperation and failure. We now walk by faith in the Spirit's work for us. The Spirit leads us to Christ and His empowering words. Remembering is crucial. Remembering what?

"3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness (i.e., all diligence, moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love) through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence, 4 For by these (His divine power vs. 3, grace, peace, and the knowledge of Jesus vs. 2) He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises (repentance, the Holy Spirit, faith, adoption, reconciliation, a new heaven and earth where righteousness dwells), so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having (already) escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. . . . 9 For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins . . . 12 Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, . . . . 13 to stir you up by way of reminder (2 Pet. 1).

Sunday, Pastor Randy Pope of Perimeter Church spoke from Romans 6. He gave us three words: Knowing, Considering, and presenting.

I. Know

3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?

6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;

9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. (emphasis added)

Verse 3 In our union with Christ by faith, and in His baptism, our baptism with Him means we died to sin. Sin is no longer the master of our lives. Paul tells us to know this. It is true. In Jesus's baptism into death, our old masters, sin and Satan, became dead to us. They can no longer rule us. They still try to influence us, but Jesus' death and our union with Him made us dead to them. Why is that important? PTSD reveals sin residing in me when I get angry, anxious, impatient, or depressed. Do you not know this? (present-now, active-functioning, indicative-true)

Vs. 6 Crucifixion meant death for the criminal. God hung our sinful nature on the cross to die with Jesus. Vietnam died on the cross for and with me. It no longer has any power over me. I no longer experience its painful sting. For the believer, Jesus' crucifixion reveals God is slowly eradicating the sinful nature in me that loves to sin and replaced it with a nature that loves God and hates sin. Our slavery to sin is gone. Israel's exodus from Egyptian bondage is a perfect picture of this release from slavery to sin into freedom from sin. Knowing this.

Vs. 9 Positively, when God raised Jesus on the third day, He could never die physically again. Death, Jesus' master for three days, died with Him in His resurrection. Death can no longer hold us in its grip because the Holy Spirit united to Jesus.

Verse14 Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil. 15 and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. 16 For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham. 17 Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted (Heb. 2). Knowing this.

What is baptism?

I. Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible Church; but also to be unto him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, of his ingrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, and of his giving up unto God, through Jesus Christ, to walk in the newness of life. Which sacrament is, by Christ's own appointment, to be continued in His Church until the end of the world.

2. Consider

11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Consider means to 'take into account' something as true. What's true? The things you know. You died with Jesus to sin in His baptism. God crucified our old self with Jesus in His crucifixion. Sin and death are no longer our masters because of our union with Christ.

There's a story of a pirate dreaded far and wide by his men and the ships that sailed the oceans. Capt. Smythe used to beat his crew for the slightest infractions of his orders. This kind of terrible behavior went on for years. The crew were nothing more than Capt. Smythe's slaves.

One day, the crew had had enough of Smythe. As the ship headed for port, the crew revolted, dragged the Captain out of his cabin, and made him walk the plank. Now, they had to find a new Captain. They chose a very likable crew member, a good man who could lead and treat the men fairly and with dignity. The Captain's first order after the men arrived in port was for them to rest, eat, and take time off--such a deal for these former slaves. So they slept, ate, and took time off.

Two days later--their old Captain hadn't died at sea but had been rescued by another ship. With his old boat anchored in port, Smythe boarded the vessel and started giving orders to his former crew resting on deck. These crew members had a decision to make. They knew they had gotten rid of their old leader. They had to consider the implications of their actions of removing their old master--to reckon both their former and new circumstances sure. If not, they would once more put themselves under Smythe's servitude. Or they could do the third thing:

3. Present. 13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

Capt. Smythe's former crew could surrender to their old way of thinking and living, or they could run to their new captain and yield to him.