Conversing the Kingdom: Pursuing Perfection

Hebrews 5:8-6:8

Obedience cannot be achieved without cost. The cost may be as simple and temporary as going out of ones way but the cost can be as great and as perminant as laying down ones life. The cost of obedience to God is a restoration cost. This cost directly counters the destructive cost brought about by disobedience to God. It is this restoration cost that we are called to as Christians by bearing the destructive cost of not just our own disobedience but that of those around us too. In this we follow our Lord Jesus who took upon himself ultimate destructive cost to perform the ultimate restoration.

As we grow in obedience through bearing the cost there is a fruit that grows as well. A fruit of perfection and maturity. This is not a perfection of our own making through the law (as the law never made anything perfect) but a putting on of the perfection of Christ as we learn obedience and grow in maturity. Being sanctified, growing more and more in his likeness. This is also not a perfection that will see fulfilment in this life but only in the life to come when the restoration fruit of Christs perfection is revealed. That perfection produced, as here on earth, he learned obidience through what he suffered. v8

The writter to the Hebrew in verse 11 suddenly takes what could be seen as a tangent but the connection is there in an application of this principle to our lives. Those who have not recieved true faith in the Lord Jesus cannot progress in maturity. They cannot progress past the elementary truths because of the maturity required only possible by continued obedience to God. A non Christian who has seen and experienced the blessings of God by being a present in the church community can be identified by a lack of maturity, a lack of ability to progress past the elementary doctrines. If this person does not commit their lives to Jesus at this point and instead falls away what hope is there for them, what more can be offered. To come back into the presence of the church body once more would be to hold the Lord Jesus up to contempt.

As a Christian when we drink in the rain of blessings of God the fruit in our lives is a growth of obedience through suffering, a maturity of discernment and sanctification toward perfection. In this we have confidence of our salvation in Christ...

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Conversing the Kingdom: The Selfish Test

What does it mean to be a good person. Where do we draw the line between ourselves (who are obviously good people!!) and others who are not so good. This is always the challenge for a non-christian who believes that as long as we are good enough we will get to heaven, or lead a good life, or gain enough brownie points for a good reincarnation or what ever our motivation for goodness.The truth of the matter is that it is impossible to be good without God. The line is drawn rather high and only one person ever managed to obtain it, Jesus. Even the good we think we do is actually not good at all. I told this to someone the other day and they looked at me a little oddly.The truth is none of us are good not even one and all that good we think we are doing is essentially selfishness without God. It is impossible to be unselfish in our good works without God.

For example let say our good works is generosity - who are we really being generous for. Is it for recognition or acclaim. Are we looking to get noticed in our generosity. Perhaps it's out of a sense of guilt. Or maybe out of a feeling of superiority, or simply to make ourselves feel good. It is impossible to be generous without one of these motives (or similar) in the background. The only way to be truly generous is as a Christian to be generous for God, because of him and through him. We need to realise that our generosity is for him alone and out of the truth of the generosity we have received from him and out of our changed nature empowered by him.

This is the secret to all good works that they be for him, because of him and through him. Still not convinced of our own selfishness. Try this little tell that has been a challenge for me recently. If your in your car on a narrow road and you stop to let a car from the other direction pass, road etiquette dictates that the other driver wave a sign of thanks. What if they don't? Would it bother you? Would you be silently mouthing, ungrateful fellow? That reaction is very telling and helps us to understand better our selfish motivation for stopping in the first place... to receive the drivers gratitude.