Ouch! Thank You!

S

(Romans 3:19-26) Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by the works of the law no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and Prophets bear witness to it--the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in His Divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of one who has faith in Jesus.

O

Paul lumped into one category called "Law" all the Law and Prophets (i.e., Hebrew slang for what we now call the Old Testament). All God's Word, he said, was law that therefore defines our duty toward Him and relationship with Him, and it is a gracious gift. Without it, we wouldn't see the discrepancies between the motives that drive our conduct and the life-giving alternate motives and conduct that God designed for us to be guided by. However, as good as this law is, it doesn't solve our crises of regularly falling short of God's glory. It enlightened us, but that light increased our painful darkness because we still remained stuck with our guilt: some days we get up on the wrong side of the bed and sometimes we gripe or gossip or choose selfishness. And we learned from God's law that even this misconduct was called sin.

Our sin plus God's love for us explains the cross. Because God is just, He wouldn't ignore the appropriate judgment for our sins (Psalm 99:8)--both justice and mercy require judgment's full vengeance for all sin. Through the cross, God justified His forbearance for all evil anyone had done before the cross. In God's eternal present, the cross reveals the gold standard of righteousness (Galatians 2:20). In the eternal future, the justifies God's unending forbearance of everyone who trusts Jesus' blood as the price of redemption (Romans 3:25).

A (Personal)

My conscience colluded with the Holy Spirit to help me admit that I've not only failed God's law with my conduct, but even more seriously, as the Gospels revealed, my motives (my will and heart) had to be right, too (even when my outward goodness hid my bad attitude from people). Paul, by the Holy Spirit, revealed that I share that same condition with all humanity. Thankfully, God's law also revealed that by faith, I can receive God's gift of forgiving grace all because of Jesus' cross. Praise God: the reach of God's grace exceeds the reach of sin's contamination--it reached even to me!

A (Psychological)

Unfortunately, pain is impossible to remove from just about every aspect of sin, the cross, failure, redemption, or even love. Edwin Friedman, in his book Generation to Generation (pp. 47-51), provides great insight into the necessity of pain as a tool for growth: "If one family member can successfully increase his or her threshold for another's pain, the other's own threshold will also increase, thus expanding his or her range of functioning.... The more that family members are motivated to achieve goals, the less their pain will bother them; [however], where family members are too quick to spare another pain, the resulting dependency tends to make the other's threshold fall. In addition, he or she will become addicted to having pain relieved through someone else's functioning.... Those who focus only on comfort, on relieving pain, or on filling another's need, tend to forget that another's need may be not to have their needs fulfilled."

Here's where Friedman collaborates with the Holy Spirit's process: the Holy Spirit lovingly reveals to us the painful truths of our misconduct and our lost condition without God. The more honesty we learn to tolerate, the more options we discover that keep us from stumbling in darkness. Friedman continues: "The problem is that we cannot make another family member responsible by trying to make him or her responsible. The very act of trying to make others responsible preempts their own responsibility.... There is, however, a way to be our brother's keeper, to manifest responsibility for a fellow human being without getting stuck in a triangle between that person and his or her failure to be responsible. It is called "challenge," but it requires one to nonanxiously tolerate pain, and sometimes even to stimulate pain, thus forcing the other to increase his or her threshold.... Sticking someone with the pain of responsibility for his or her own destiny is far more "sobering" that giving the person black coffee after [getting drunk]." Is my threshold for truth large enough to invite the Words of the only one who could correctly say of Himself, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by Me" (John 14:6).

P

Lord, I encounter people fairly often who shock and sadden me by their resistance to even the concept that they might be wrong. I see foolishly stubborn people, perhaps because it's easier to see it in others than in myself. Help me to never get between another person and their necessary pain. Help me to discern, too, when I am to be their necessary comforter and Your hands in delivering them from their pain. It's just too difficult for me to discern--I need a miracle, and let it begin with the miracle of me being wholly honest with You.