TRAUMATIC STRESS AND THOSE TOUGH DAYS

I.  Experiential Focus: Even In Our Union with Christ, Failure Is Expected

You've probably heard the expression, "Failure is not an option." That mindset will create all kinds of issues when it comes to living with traumatic stress as a believer in Christ. Throughout the pages of the Bible, failure is expected.1 That does not mean, "I might as well go ahead and live like I want to." Far from it. Paul dealt with that issue in Romans 6:1ff. We've died with Christ in His death to sin, so we can't live any way we want. We now have the Spirit of God living in us. We've been raised with Jesus to new life. Therefore, sin shall not rule over us. We're dead to it's reign in our lives. 

What's amazing is any believer does anything right. I say that tongue-in-cheek. Whereas, I used to love sin and pleasing myself, but much of that changed when God saved my ornery, useless hide (soul). Sanctification is about the lifelong process of dying to self through the application of the life and death work of Christ by His Spirit to me that I might be useful to my neighbor. This brings glory to my Father. During this life, though, external triggers like inattentive or aggressive drivers, unexpected bad news, your tools left in the yard by the kids, bad behavior by children, nasty remarks from a co-worker, spousal nagging, combat anniversary dates, the vanity of the daily grind, or what our government keeps doing to destroy this great nation, almost guarantees our sinful reactions. 

How are we supposed to understand and then adjust so we can accommodate the unexpected or the daily mundane paths of life after combat? My wife Catherine, is "Miss Upbeat." I'm Mr. "The glass isn't even half full." I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. Walk into enough enemy ambushes and that's how you see the world post-combat. The effects of so many unfortunate circumstances linger, sometimes for days, months, or years on end, and no one close to you grasps why you react the way you do, and worse, why you can't simply get over things like everybody else does.

These types of experiences seem to be the norm rather than the rule for many veterans, and that leads us to another failure in our understanding of our faith. Why doesn't it work so we handle stress better? Surely, we can't be a Christian. We ought to be farther along in our faith. Why do these things keep showing us how weak we are? Shouldn't we be better? Do better? Think better? Love God and our fellow man more? 

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1 By failure, I mean the inability to live according to God's standards; loving God with your whole being, mind, and soul, and loving your neighbor as yourself--the two great commandments that summarized the entire law of God.

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I'm seminary trained. I have a PhD. I know more than the average Church member. I ought to do better than them and struggle less than most Christians I know. I ought to but I don't so often. Why? Is my behavior a sign I'm not in Christ or He's finally had enough of my lousy performance? Does God only love me when I'm having a good day and loving Him back? What's wrong with my faith? Will more time reading my Bible and praying bring a resolution to my conundrum? I wonder how many other Christians struggle with this?

I'm in the process of getting tear duct surgery scheduled. As of two days ago, I had surgery scheduled with the VA for five months out, May 20. That means I have five months of wiping the infection and tears from my eyes because my tear duct is completely blocked. The effects are worse when my allergies kick in. The surgery is not a big deal and should take less than an hour, total. 

I was given the name of a "civilian" doctor whom I saw on February 6, one day after a Vietnam  "anniversary" date. On Feb. 5, 1968, the NVA attacked and partly overrun our hill at Khe Sanh. I lost two buddies. With that in my subconscious, I liked the civilian doctor and preferred his procedure to the VA doctor. All I needed to do was cancel my VA surgery. Things are never as easy as they might appear when dealing with the V.A.

On the afternoon of February 6, the doctor's assistant called me and said I needed to get the V.A. to do an EKG, bloodwork, and give me a physical, all before April 10, my civilian surgery date. That sent me into a low place. What if the V.A. can't or won't schedule me for these procedures before April 10? That is a real possibility. I'm ready to have my tear duct unplugged--yesterday. That was my trigger. I could only see things from a negative point of view; what the VA wasn't going to or couldn't do. Unfortunately, my grandson took some of the brunt of my agitation. Poor kid. 

Now, I'm not concerned how you would have handled this. This is how things fell out for me, and it affected me adversely for the rest of the day. I can still feel some residual influence of that call as I write this. In the midst of all this drama, I saw once more how spiritually weak I am, what an utter failure. How can I teach other veterans about Christ when the winds of life can so easily upend me?  

Last year, I read the whole Bible nine times. I studied my Greek and Hebrew Bibles numerous times. I continued to travel overseas and teach the Bible, showing my students how Christ can overcome traumatic stress, sin, Satan, etc. I mention these things because none of those activities has altered the way various triggers tend to drive my moods and behavior into the dirt. I ought to live "triumphantly" over such situations, but I don't. Shouldn't I? From every Christian measure, I am a failure.

Knowing the Bible doesn't guarantee spiritual maturity. The tendency is believe the greater the knowledge of Scripture and theology, the greater the growth in Christ. Just read your Bible more. Pray more. All more knowledge does is make you proud, not mature. The greater accumulation of facts and figures ought to humble you. But, exposure to the devil's wiles can, more often than not, lull you into thinking what we know and how we perform in trials is sufficient to guarantee success. What a lie that is.  

II.    Biblical Reality Check: Failure And Weakness Abounds In The Believer Until Death 

All the distressing situations I mentioned above have been pre-planned by God--from all eternity past. Don't worry; your will isn't put in a vise, thus destroying any hope of making free, human choices. Any good thing we do that pleases God is because, first, all our good works God has already predestined before time that we do, walk in them (Eph. 2:10). Second, God's Spirit is continually applying the benefits Christ won for us to us. God's love is constant. Nothing can change that, not our failures, no matter how great. God no longer evaluates our performance based on our motives but on the Person and work of Christ. God has condescended to allow us to participate in His works because He covenanted to put us in union with Christ from eternity past (Rom. 8:29-30). You only need to ask, "Have I believed the truth about Jesus today?" Stop asking, "How did I do today?" You did lousy. You're pathetic. But Jesus is magnificent, and so are you in union with Him.  

Let's look with fresh eyes at Paul's life experiences as a Christian. What a failure he was by every spiritual standard! He wasn't even a combat veteran! However, a cursory reading of 2 Corinthians 11:23-33 should give us pause and a little more appreciation for his sufferings for Christ. Did Paul have some traumatic stress issues that might have interfered with his daily ministry for the churches? Maybe. Paul wrote these words as a believer in Christ. He didn't have a leg up on you or any of the churches.

Rom. 7:14-24 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. 16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. 17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 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. 21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?

1 Tim. 1:15 It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.

Our priority in this life is to love God totally and obey His law (Dt. 6:5). But our "faithfulness" is so often to other things that we fall farther short of God's commands each day. We can't even keep our own standards (Rom. 2:1ff), "I will never do "X." Second, we stink at what ought to be our main priority. How can we obey God's law perfectly with our whole being for a nanosecond? If the apostle Paul failed to comply with divine ordinances, then there is NO hope that we will. Our flesh battles us daily (doing the things we don't want to do, etc.; Rom. 7:14ff), sin, evil, and the devil's wiles will see to our failure.

So, what do we do? First, you have to know what to believe.

III.    Gaining A Fresh, Righteous, And True Perspective Of  Ourselves Is Crucial

Let's think truthfully about the spiritual disaster and bankruptcy that is our lives (Eph. 2:1ff). For this reason, we pursue sound, objective Bible doctrine to know the truth about the divine will. Truth informs us that God knows we are incapable of perfect obedience. What Jesus did every second of every day for three years was not for Himself but for you and me. The good news is God shows us our failure and Christ's perfection.

With this saving knowledge, we grow up in Christ. What if God didn't tell us who and what we are? We would keep doing the same insane, self-righteous, sinful things that brought us under His condemnation and wrath in the first place. Learning our inability to conform our lives to God's law is a huge plus and demonstrates God's mercy. 

Forget moral free will (and prevenient grace) to choose Christ. We don't have a will that is spiritually free (or a grace that brings us to spiritual neutrality). Dead in trespasses and sins is synonymous with slavery to sin. Israel's bondage to Pharaoh is God's best example of slavery/death to sin. All the free will (and prevenient grace) Israel could muster wasn't going to get them out the gate, moving toward Canaan. God had to initiate their release, judge Egypt, and remove Israel by His great power. 

Ex. 5:4-23 But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you draw the people away from their work? Get back to your labors!” 5 Again Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now many, and you would have them cease from their labors!” 6 So the same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters over the people and their foremen, saying, 7 “You are no longer to give the people straw to make brick as previously; let them go and gather straw for themselves. 8 But the quota of bricks which they were making previously, you shall impose on them; you are not to reduce any of it. Because they are lazy, therefore they cry out, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ 9 Let the labor be heavier on the men, and let them work at it so that they will pay no attention to false words.”

10 So the taskmasters of the people and their foremen went out and spoke to the people, saying, “Thus says Pharaoh, ‘I am not going to give you any straw. 11 You go and get straw for yourselves wherever you can find it, but none of your labor will be reduced.’” 12 So the people scattered through all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. 13 The taskmasters pressed them, saying, “Complete your work quota, your daily amount, just as when you had straw.” 14 Moreover, the foremen of the sons of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and were asked, “Why have you not completed your required amount either yesterday or today in making brick as previously?”

15 Then the foremen of the sons of Israel came and cried out to Pharaoh, saying, “Why do you deal this way with your servants? 16 There is no straw given to your servants, yet they keep saying to us, ‘Make bricks!’ And behold, your servants are being beaten; but it is the fault of your own people.” 17 But he said, “You are lazy, very lazy; therefore you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ 18 So go now and work; for you will be given no straw, yet you must deliver the quota of bricks.” 19 The foremen of the sons of Israel saw that they were in trouble because they were told, “You must not reduce your daily amount of bricks.” 20 When they left Pharaoh’s presence, they met Moses and Aaron as they were waiting for them. 21 They said to them, “May the Lord look upon you and judge you, for you have made us odious in Pharaoh’s sight and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us.”

22 Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have You brought harm to this people? Why did You ever send me? 23 Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done harm to this people, and You have not delivered Your people at all.”

One of the reasons Pharaoh increased Israel's servitude was to seal their fate to a life of hard servitude to Egypt's king. Life had been hard before, but now, life has become impossible. Israel had become an Egyptian, like their father, Abraham, who lived in Ur of the Chaldeans, an idolater. We know this from Exodus 32, in which Israel made a golden calf for themselves to worship to lead them to Canaan. God also clearly distinguished between Pharaoh, his Egyptian gods, and Yahweh, Israel's King of heaven and earth. Israel had no way of escape. Pharaoh would work his Israelite slaves to death rather than free them from bondage. 

There's a comparison between Israel's bondage in Egypt and the veteran or First Responder's bondage to various sins, which can lead to freedom in Christ. We enter the faith as idolaters. But year after year, God in Christ removes those enslaving idols. By going to church where the means of grace is plentiful--preaching, the sacraments, fellowship, singing, etc., the Spirit grows us up into Christ. More personal Bible study and prayer cannot accomplish this.

Underlying Israel's bondage was her God and His purposes: 21 The Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go (Ex. 4; emphasis added). There are many lessons we can glean from Exodus 4 and 5. In some mysterious way, God often conceals His participation in our distresses. We see this unmistakably in Job's suffering. Even though God declared Job righteous twice so we wouldn't miss it, that didn't stop the LORD from calling Satan to take note of the patriarch and "inciting Me against him to ruin him (Job) without cause” (Job 2:3). We serve a God of mystery who is not obligated to answer our questions (Dt. 29:29a). We however, are compelled to obey His law (Dt. 29:29b). 

You will notice who Israel sought out when life became impossible: 15 Then the foremen of the sons of Israel came and cried out to Pharaoh, saying, “Why do you deal this way with your servants? God's people cried out to Pharaoh, not Yahweh. God was not their first thought; the king was. Over the centuries, the God of Israel had receded into the background and Pharaoh into the foreground. 

Pharaoh was all-powerful. Pharaoh had caused this disaster, and Pharaoh was the only one to stop it. Let's go to Pharaoh. But God had hardened the king's heart. Yahweh had made life unbearable, not Pharaoh. Pharaoh did not have power over Israel. His authority came from God. Yahweh had come to show who the LORD was and to scour Egypt out of Israel. Unfortunately, God's gracious character didn't alter His people's stiff necks. They died in their sins in the wilderness, rebellious lawbreakers. 

Heb. 3:7-11 Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you hear His voice, 8  Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, As in the day of trial in the wilderness, 9 Where your fathers tried Me by testing Me, And saw My works for forty years. 10  “Therefore I was angry with this generation, And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they did not know My ways’; 11  As I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’”

Dt. 29:2-4 And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and all his servants and all his land; 3 the great trials which your eyes have seen, those great signs and wonders. 4 Yet to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear.

God's prerogative or right is to keep us in the dark if it pleases Him, not out of spite, even though we disobey Him regularly. No sir. In Christ, the Father cannot be more pleased with us, His chosen. On the one hand, every day, our report card reads "F." 14 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin (Egyptian servitude; spiritual death; Rom. 3:10-18; Eph. 2:1-3). 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. 16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. 17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me (Rom. 7). In Christ, our report card reads "A."

What on earth is God doing to us? Better yet, why? Moses asked why: 22 Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have You brought harm to this people? Why did You ever send me? 23 Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done harm to this people, and You have not delivered Your people at all.” (emphasis added) God didn't kill him for asking. A greater freedom awaited Israel, but suffering came first. God wanted Israel's eyes "front and center," on Him, not Pharaoh. He wants your eyes on Him as well. Yahweh wants you and me dealing directly with Him through Christ.

There is great purpose in God's disciplining hand--and our suffering as a result. 4 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; 5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him; 6 For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.” 7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; (Heb. 12). And why does God discipline us by bringing tough day after a tough day? 11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been (and continue to be) trained by it, afterwards it (continually) yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness (Heb. 12).

We're all Egyptians! Our eyes continually lift to whatever God we serve: power, money, sex, fame, being left alone, our past guilt over living when our buddies died, our anger. We are born into that world. We look to everyone and everything but God. So, God initiates the relationship and comes to bring us out of slavery to sin in His Son and makes us slaves of righteousness.

Whereas, we once loved sin. We didn't want God or anyone else messing with our perversions and corruption. But God came to Israel in their bondage because He swore to Abraham He would: ‘The God of your (Moses') fathers has sent me to you.’ . . . ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’. . . ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has appeared to me, (Ex. 3). 

Ex. 6:8 I will bring you to the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession; I am the Lord.’”

Ex.s 13:5 It shall be when the Lord brings you to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, which He swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, that you shall observe this rite in this month. (emphasis added)

Traumatic stress, with its negative complexities, is given by God to drive us out of ourselves, out of our self-righteousness, out of our self-reliance to Christ, His life and death work, His resurrection power (Phil. 3:7ff), and intercession (Rom. 8:34) for us. The law, which is holy and righteous and good, reveals our moral failure perfectly, crushes us, adds to the misery of combat stress, and can accomplish God's perfect will--union with Jesus in His suffering now.2

Phil. 3:7-11 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Heb. 12:14 Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.

1 Pet. 5:10 After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. 11 To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.

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2 One of the main points of the Sermon on the Mount, aside from its comparison to Moses going up on Sinai to receive the law, and Jesus, the greater Moses, going up on the mountain to explain the law, was to crush His audience with the weight of the law, get them to see themselves as sinners before the law,  and to send them to Himself as the answer to the law. The Jews swam in a world of self-righteousness because of the false teachers, the Pharisees.

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What do these truths have to do with difficult days? Distressing events often trigger us to behave sinfully. Our minds/brain3 stay in react reaction mode closely resembling combat as we have seen. The force of negative emotions moves events along toward sin before we know it. We act out of instinct learned on the battlefield that changed various components and systems in our brain. 

I want to continue to cover this so you can see how important knowledge about brain functions and changes are to us. 

Amygdala

• This 1-inch, almond-shaped area of the brain is considered the “fire alarm.” Once it senses danger, the amygdala is the part that kicks you into fight-or-flight mode.

• If you’re living with trauma, research shows that your amygdala doesn’t recognize the difference between a threat then and a threat now. So, when you’re reminded of a past experience, it responds exactly as it would if you were experiencing the traumatic event for the first time, sending out a rush of stress hormones, like cortisol.

• As a result, you may feel like you’re on edge, on high alert, or have high levels of stress or anxiety all the time.

Hippocampus

• Located at the back of the brain, the hippocampus is considered the learning center.

• Research shows that the hippocampus is smaller and less active in people who’ve experienced trauma, which can create issues around memory and problem-solving.

• This can make it hard for you to distinguish between the past and present, keeping you in a constant state of hypervigilance or strong emotional reactivity.

Prefrontal cortex

• Located at the front of your brain, the prefrontal cortex is the rational, decision-making area. For those living with trauma, research shows that the prefrontal cortex is less active.

• This suppression can slow down the learning of new information that could help you control your fear. Combined with an overactive amygdala, the prefrontal cortex can have a harder time overriding the fight, flight, or freeze response.

• As such, you may feel like you have a hard time controlling your fear response or struggle with logical thinking.

Nervous system

• When the nervous system is constantly in overdrive with PTSD, it can shrink your window of tolerance — that is, the amount of stress you can handle before it becomes unmanageable.

• Compared to a person without a history of trauma, you may find that you’re set off by smaller events or have a trauma response around an event when others might not.4

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3 Parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems can no longer return to their former state. They "get stuck" in overdrive. "Trauma has such a severe impact because of the way it affects, and ultimately, rewires the brain. When the brain goes into stress or is stuck in stress, it leads to physical changes and a complicated ripple of life-altering symptoms. Beth Shaw, "When Trauma Gets Stuck in the Body," Psychology Today, October 23, 2019.

4 Kendra Kubala & Hillary I. Lebow, "The Science Behind PTSD Symptoms: How Trauma Changes the Brain," Psych Central, July 2, 2021.

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Under the tremendous pressures and stresses of combat, our hippocampus shrank as much as 8%. Our right amygdala increased in volume, and our prefrontal cortex could not tell the amygdala to calm down after the firefight ended. These effects remain in ready mode until we die. How did you react the last time you heard an unexpected loud noise? Yeah, me too. 

But we're also ready to fight our spouses and children when they trigger us. Hitting the deck is not a sin. Hitting our spouse, whether physically or belittling them emotionally, is a sin. Worse, we do it without thinking because our brain is stuck in the "on position," ready to fight so we can survive. Even so, sin is still sin.

What does sin deserve, even after we trust Christ? The wages of sin is always death. R. C. Sproul called sin cosmic treason. However, Jesus died to bring our inability to shut down our nervous system under His Kingship. He controls it from His side because we can't from our side. How often should a wife forgive her neighbor, i.e., her husband? Seventy times seven, Jesus said. In other words, we never stop forgiving the one who offends us, who harms us, who belittles us.5 

God cannot change His love or affection for me when I'm having a tough day. I used to think somehow, my emotional bouts with depression or my anger caused God to cool toward me. If I performed well in my dad's eyes, everything was good. But if not, look out. It was especially tough when I didn't get my jersey sufficiently dirty for his tastes or I didn't hit so and so hard enough. I didn't want to go home. 

It is so easy to transfer this thinking to God. At best, God likes me. At worst, He has to keep me "on the team" because He's stuck with me. I'm worth more dead than alive to God. My dad loved me "because" or "if" I didn't embarrass him or go against his wishes. 

The early stages of traumatic stress began with my dad. Thus, God must relate to me the way my dad did. God was on my side if or when I thought I performed up to His standards. God must be happy with me if my internal performance evaluation didn't churn my stomach. We win or lose life and Christianity internally. Pietism6 turns Christianity in on itself through constant self-evaluation. PTSD makes self-evaluation of our performance a continuous, miserable pursuit. But when I'm having a tough day, when I have little patience with anyone or anything, negative self-eval can lead us to the doorstep of suicidal thoughts or worse.

For this reason, Christ's positive appraisal of me and His invitation to me is so crucial: 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).

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5 There's more that needs to be said here. A veteran or First responder husband that cannot stop beating his wife needs to be confronted and fired, if necessary. A wife needs to remove herself and children from physical abuse. The church leadership needs to be notified and get involved if one of the family members is in church. In some cases, law enforcement needs to be called for the protection of the family.

6 For instance, I would ask if I'd read enough in my Bible today, or prayed enough, or witnessed enough? Were my motives pure enough? I have to do better. What's the solution to Pietism?

Mt. 11:28 “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.” Christ Himself is the solution--coming to Him. He demands it and He brings us to Himself for rest.

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IV.    Gaining A Fresh, Righteous, and True Perspective of  How God Relates to His Elect in Christ

Notice how the apostle Paul, the great persecutor of the early Church, viewed himself in Christ. Paul imprisoned many early Jewish converts to Christ, tortured them, and probably killed others (see Acts 6:8-8:3).

1 Cor. 4:4 For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord.

Heb. 9:13-14 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (emphasis added)

Our consciences have been and remain cleansed in union with Christ, and Jesus' blood does away with sin's guilt.

Knowing ourselves as God does doesn't equal maturity. Head knowledge about self, however, is essential. Seminary students should be the most mature believers. What matters most is the knowledge that God alone saves to the uttermost, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing (Jas. 1:2-4). It takes various kinds of trials--big ones, small ones, medium sized ordeals to slowly draw us out of ourselves, our self-worship, and our self-reliance to ask of God, who gives (wisdom) to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him (1:5). . . . But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. 18 And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace (3:17-18).

V.    How Did Jesus Portray Himself to the Lowly?

Who is this Jesus to suffering vets, First Responders, wives, and children harried by traumatic stress? Too many of us believe the God of the Old Testament is harsh, but the God of the NT is gracious and merciful. The same God exists in both testaments. Remember doubting Thomas's words of exclamation when he actually saw the risen Christ: “My Lord and my God!” The only Scriptures available in the synagogue was the Greek OT. They didn't have the NT with Psalms. Thomas connected Jesus with Yahweh Elohim!

Gen. 19:16 But Lot hesitated. So the men seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, for the compassion of the Lord was upon him; and they brought him out, and put him outside the city.

Ex 22:27 for that is his only covering; it is his cloak for his body. What else shall he sleep in? And it shall come about that when he cries out to Me, I will hear him, for I am gracious.

Ex. 33:19 And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.”

Num. 6:25 The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you;

Dt. 8:1 “All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to give to your forefathers.

2 Sam. 12:22 David said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who knows, the Lord may be gracious to me, that the child may live.’

Ps. 4:1 Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved me in my distress; Be gracious to me and hear my prayer.

Ps. 103:8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.

Ps. 111:4 He has made His wonders to be remembered; The Lord is gracious and compassionate.

Isa. 14:1 When the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and again choose Israel, and settle them in their own land, then strangers will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob.

Jer. 12:15 And it will come about that after I have uprooted them, I will again have compassion on them; and I will bring them back, each one to his inheritance and each one to his land

Hos. 1:7 But I will have compassion on the house of Judah and deliver them by the Lord their God, and will not deliver them by bow, sword, battle, horses or horsemen.”

Mt. 9:13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”. . . 36 Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.

Mt. 11:29 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.

Mt. 14:14 When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and healed their sick. 

Mt. 15:32 And Jesus called His disciples to Him, and said, “I feel compassion for the people, because they have remained with Me now three days and have nothing to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on the way.”

Mt. 20:34 Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes; and immediately they regained their sight and followed Him.

Mt. 21:5 “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold your King is coming to you, Gentle, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”

Mark 1:41 Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and *said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.”

Lk. 4:22 And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?”

Luke 7:13 When the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her, and said to her, “Do not weep.”

Rom. 11:5 In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice.7

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7 "The emotion which we should naturally expect to find most frequently attributed to that Jesus whose whole life was a mission of mercy, and whose ministry was so marked by deeds of beneficence that it was summed up in the memory of his followers as a going through the land 'doing good' (Acts xi. 38 ), is no doubt 'compassion.'". . . “eleos is the inclination to succor (give assistance to) the miserable, the feeling of pain arising from the miseries of others ... oiktirmos is the feeling of sympathy dwelling in the heart; eleos is sympathy expressing itself in act.” splagchnizomai is a term of feeling, taking the place of oiktiro. B.B. Warfield, The Emotional Life of our Lord, Monergism. https://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/sdg/warfield/The_Emotional_Life_of_Our_Lord_-_B_B_Warfield.pdf.

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Lk. 4:14-30 And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district. 15 And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.

16 And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. 17 And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written,

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,And recovery of sight to the blind,To set free those who are oppressed,

19  To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”

20 And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” 23 And He said to them, “No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’” 24 And He said, “Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. 25 But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; 26 and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. 27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” 28 And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; 29 and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff. 30 But passing through their midst, He went His way.

Before I conclude this blog, I want you to notice Jesus' presence, speech, and response to Jesus' words. What kind of words were they? Gracious words which were falling from His lips. What was the reaction to His words? 28 And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; 29 and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff.

What did Jesus say that made these Jews go nuts? Elijah went to the Gentiles, to the land of Sidon to a woman who was a widow instead of helping Israel's widows during a famine. God sent Elisha, the prophet, not to cure Israel's lepers but to Gentile Syria, to the leper, Naaman. What is Jesus doing? He's throwing gasoline on the Jews' self-righteousness. God must show mercy to Israel alone, not to Gentiles.

One minute, they all were speaking well of Jesus, and the next, they wanted Him dead. So, Jesus went around the Jews to those poor people outside of Israel. Instead of making these Jews jealous, making them want Jesus' healing words, His gracious words falling from His lips enraged them to the point of murder. For the Jews of Jesus' day, life began and ended with Israel, the "apple of God's eye." These Jews were Paul's kinsmen according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, 5 whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen (Rom. 9). 

Self-righteousness does that in the context of Jesus' gracious words. As He did with me, God has overloaded you with traumatic stress intentionally to humble you. He has spoken Jesus' gracious words to you in this blog. What is your reaction? God has said you are poor and wretched in yourself. Do you accept that graciously, humbly, or does it enrage you? If with anger, you are self-righteous. You believe you are better than Jesus' indictment. His words must be for someone else. Then you are poor indeed and more spiritually wretched than you know. But Jesus died for sinners like you and me and He rose again. He sits at the Father's right hand interceding for the elect. The Holy Spirit groans for us to obey God's will with words too deep to grasp. I trust Jesus's words gracious in your ears. Praise God.  

Jn. 6:28 Therefore the Jews said to Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”