“Wrestling with God” – Seeking Jerusalem – Day 44
Wrestling with God – Lenten Season 2018 “So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When […]
A Burden of Glory
Wrestling with God – Lenten Season 2018 “So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When […]
Enjoy Him Forever – Lenten Season 2018 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or […]
Evidence of Life – Lenten Season 2018 “…those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For […]
Resurrection Power – Lenten Season 2018 “If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly […]
No Condemnation – Lenten Season 2018 “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of […]
The Good Fight – Lenten Season 2018 “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a […]
Spiritual Sacrifices – Lenten Season 2021 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy to offer your bodies […]
Do you remember the book called The Secret by Rhonda Byrne that they also made a movie out of? It was really popular for a while and promoted what they called The Law of Attraction which claims that thinking positively about something can make it appear in your life. A dubious idea at best. It was clothed with some religious language (ask, believe, and receive) and fits well into the Prosperity Gospel that has swept through the American churches in recent years. It sold 20 million copies at least and was translated into more than 50 languages. Rhonda Byrne certainly attracted a lot of money and fame into her life.
We have been talking about the Sanctification Gap, that chasm between the holiness and perfect love of God as seen in His justice and mercy on the one hand, and the depths of our sin, our selfishness, our inability to love ourselves, much less God or anyone else on the other. That Sanctification Gap continues even after we have been justified by grace through the blood of Jesus Christ. In fact, precisely because it is a substitution, that it isn’t our righteousness, the gap exists because we are not made immediately perfect in love. Our Sanctification is progressive. But that gap between our Justification and our Sanctification also creates a credibility gap, both in our own eyes as well as in the eyes of other people. And so it should. It is a necessary part of our situation as Christians.
This little story is making the rounds on the internet and on facebook. I love it. It’s a wonderful way to describe our situation as we live in darkness and grow and prepare for our delivery. It is very well done. But the metaphor isn’t perfect and I would like to improve it a little bit. Let’s talk about the umbilical cord….
So, the two babies are there in the womb but one has an umbilical cord and is fed by her mother but the other one is dead and withered in the womb (but still able to talk and discuss and “pretend” that it is alive when it is really quite dead). The metaphor is already starting to get ugly but it is closer to the truth.