Inferiority Complex or Divine Awareness?

Posted on May 28, 2024 by Pete

Hovering over a couple of verses in Ephesians 3 this morning. Not the “money verses” that talk about who I am in Christ. Instead, I’m guessing, the mostly overlooked verses of who Paul thought he was for Christ.

Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of His power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.

(Ephesians 3:7-8 ESV)

I am the very least of all the saints . . .

That’s Paul speaking. THE Paul. The APOSTLE Paul. The guy that heroes are made of. With the experiences legends are birthed from. The accomplishments great men are known for. And he says, “I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians” (MSG). I am the very least, less than the least, lower than the lowest.

Not the first time I’ve encountered such an assertion from Paul (1Cor. 15:9). Not the last either, in his letter to Timothy (1Tim. 1:15) he refers to himself as “the chief” of sinners (NKJV), the foremost (ESV). When Paul looked in the mirror he saw “Public Sinner Number One” (MSG).

Really. Is that how Paul truly saw himself? As the chief of sinners and the least of all the saints? Evidently.

But how? This is Paul. A Hebrew of the Hebrews. A sincere zealot for God. A repentant enemy of Christ become one of history’s greatest servants of Christ. A steward of the gospel, an ambassador to the Gentiles. A faithful, enduring, runner of the race though repeatedly persecuted and beaten on almost every lap. If ever there was someone atop the food chain when it came to followers of Christ, this was the guy.

So, was Paul suffering from an inferiority complex? Was he not able to see all that everyone else saw? Was he inclined to forget all that God had done in him and through him? Was he overly concerned with how others viewed him? Was he prone to beating himself up? No, I don’t think so. In fact, Paul tells the Corinthians, “With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself.” (1Cor. 4:3).

No, Paul’s self-proclaimed “chief of sinners and least of saints” status wasn’t because he thought little of himself but because he thought much of Christ. He saw himself as so lowly because he regarded His Savior so highly. He was in a constant posture of humility because he abided with the One who alone is holy. Paul’s “low self-esteem” wasn’t due to an inferiority complex but due to a divine awareness.

How I need such a divine awareness. Not some winsome self-deprecation as I think about how far I’ve come, but a full-on, heartfelt contrition when I acknowledge and confess how far I have yet to go. Not some fake modesty but an authentic, faith-informed humility. Not just a disguised ego or a masked pride, but a divinely wrought, abiding awareness that my ability to sin is without boundary and that, if Jesus would die for me, He would die for anyone. If He came into the world to save me, He came into the world to save everyone.

Because Paul, with the mind of Christ, saw himself as the least, his “gospel capacity” was increased. If his sin did abound, then grace would more abound. If his debt had been forgiven in full, how could he not proclaim and extend equal mercy and grace to others in their sin. After all, if I’m the least, then everyone else is by definition more.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

(Philippians 2:3-4 ESV)

Big ask? I’m thinkin’ . . . But with God all things are possible. With Christ in me, His heart and mind are accessible. Not through some form of inferiority complex but because of a Spirit-formed divine awareness.

Realized only by His grace. Actualized only for His glory.

Amen?

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Divine Capacity (2011 Remix)

Posted on May 27, 2024 by Pete

Used to be that I’d often get an urge. A bee in my bonnet would compel me, something would go off inside me. Something that said it’s time to rearrange the furniture in a room. Most often it was driven by a perception that the room was looking overcrowded — that there was too much stuff in it, and it looked too untidy — and that, somehow, by rearranging the stuff I’d make it less crowded. Now my wife had a way too simplistic approach to an overcrowded or untidy area . . . take stuff out. Nah, too logical, too easy. For me, it was about rearranging stuff!

Now, I know (now more so than then) that it really all came down to capacity. Any given space can only hold so much. You can’t put a gallon of water into a two-quart container. You’re gonna need more space if you want to keep more stuff. The psalmist understood that too.

I will run in the way of your commandments when You enlarge my heart!

(Psalm 119:32 ESV)

The psalmist continues his impassioned plea to God for the knowledge and understanding of His ways: “give me life according to Your word” (v25); “teach me Your statutes!” (v26); “make me understand Your precepts” (v27); “graciously teach me Your law” (v29). But how does mortal man take in the mind of God? How can ways that are higher than our ways and thoughts that are higher than our thoughts possibly fit into our brains? There’s only so much capacity in these mortal minds. Rearrange all you want, without additional capacity it just ain’t gonna happen. It’s like trying to fit an ocean in a cup.

And so, the psalmist’s acknowledgement . . .

I will run . . . when You enlarge my heart!

I will soar when You provide the capacity for understanding Your ways. When You free my heart from that which clutters it . . . when You make broad and roomy pastures in which Your word may abide . . . when You prepare the soil such that it is ready to receive the planted seed and bear much fruit, then will I be able to take it in. Then will Your word be able to take me in. And then will I walk in the way You desire me to walk. No, then will I run!

This isn’t just a book sitting on my desk in front of me, it is the mind of God provided for the mind of man. It contains the things of heaven revealed to those on earth. And the ability to contain this vast storehouse of heavenly treasure is less about my intellect and more about my heart. The needed capacity for comprehension isn’t just about what’s between my ears, but it lies at the very core of who I am. It’s not about how smart I am but how prepared my soul is.

And apart from the work of the Spirit of God to enlarge my heart, I can try and cram as much as I want in there, rearrange it however I want, and it won’t make much difference — my life will still be untidy and encumbered. But oh, when God, through His Spirit, graciously provides the capacity, when He enlarges my heart, then watch me tank up and take off!

What a blessing to be able to be taught of God concerning His ways. What privilege to be illuminated through His Spirit concerning matters of divine revelation. Oh, that I might desire and cry out for the divine capacity to take it in.

Enlarge my heart, O Lord!

By Your grace. For Your glory.

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Seated and Sojourning

Posted on May 24, 2024 by Pete

Being a resident alien might just provide me with a bit of a spiritual advantage. My Green Card expires next year so I’ll have to renew it. The process itself will be a reminder that while I live and work (even if it’s now retired “work”) here, my citizenship is tied to a different place. An annoying reminder, perhaps, when it comes to going through the bureaucratic renewal process, but could be a welcome reminder, and pretty grounding, when it comes to my born-again residency perspective.

Noodling on a couple of verses from my readings this morning.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

(Ephesians 2:4-6 ESV)

Deal bountifully with Your servant,
that I may live and keep Your word.
Open my eyes, that I may behold
wondrous things out of Your law.
I am a sojourner on the earth;
hide not Your commandments from me!

(Psalm 119:17-19 ESV)

Seated with Christ in heavenly places . . . a sojourner on the earth. Chew on that for a bit.

Where’s Jesus? The empty tomb is evidence that “He is not here, for He has risen” (Mt. 28:6). So, if I am in Christ Jesus, my life and being inextricably wired to His through the indwelling Spirit of redemption, regeneration, reconciliation, and repatriation, then, as Paul says, I have been raised up with Him.

Yeah, so Jesus is not here; but where is He? He was taken up into heaven (Acts 1:9-11) and is now “seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven” (Heb. 8:1).

Okay. So, because of our union with Christ, if He has been taken up into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God, then we too have been, as Paul says, seated with Him in the heavenly places. Right? And home is where the seat is. Who I am in Christ and where I spiritually reside through Christ is what determines my enduring citizenship — a citizen of heaven. What’s more, it is what defines my relationship to this world — a sojourner on the earth.

I am a sojourner. A stranger (perhaps stranger than most). A foreigner in this land. A temporary inhabitant. A resident alien on earth. Passing through in the anticipation of that day when my actual seat will be in a different place and I will be physically, as I am now positionally, set down with Him in the heavenlies. And, like my Green Card, renewing that reality every so often can have the benefit of grounding me in who I am and where I belong.

So, what renews that heaven-grounded reality? Engaging with my bible, like engaging with my Green Card renewal, is the reminder of where home truly is.

So, pleads the songwriter, “Deal bountifully with me, LORD.” Open my eyes to see wonderful realities in Your word. Hide not from me the glorious realities and reminders which are found in Your letters from home to me. For I am a sojourner on the earth, and I so need to remain tethered to my citizenship in heaven.

For it is there where You are, not here, where I find my tribe and my people. It is there, not here, where my identity is set and secure. There, not here, where my ultimate allegiance lies, and my life-directing authority is found. There, not here, where I am seated in Christ Jesus. My union with Christ the daily calibrator of my relationship to this world.

Seated and sojourning.

By His grace. For His glory.

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Lavished Upon Us

Posted on May 22, 2024 by Pete

Short thought this morning. Massive implications. Chewing on but three words, but it will be a meal for eternity.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight . . .

(Ephesians 1:7-8 ESV)

Lavished upon us . . .

I don’t hear lavished used a lot in my circles. My King James says, “made to abound”, literally to “superabound.” Hmm, not quite the same ring to it. I’m savoring lavished.

Lavished, literally to exceed a fixed number of measure. To overflow, to be over the top. To give in abundance beyond the ability to comprehend the abundance. That’s what it is to lavish.

And who’s done the lavishing? He has, “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Eph. 1:3).

Blessed us with how many blessings in the heavenlies? Every spiritual blessing.

Every spiritual blessing? Yup, every spiritual blessing?

Really? Yeah, really.

Sounds kind of lavish to me. Exactly!

And the grace lavished upon us is according to the riches of His grace? That’s what it says.

How rich is that? Pretty rich. It’s grace flowing in abundance from a God who is eternal and without measure. Contain the God who sources grace and then you’ll measure the riches of His grace. But you can’t do that.

Unmerited favor without measure? Uh, huh. Without measure.

And we’re the objects of His lavishness? Apparently. The riches of His grace have been lavished upon us.

Hmm . . . noodling on that.

Noodle away.

And that too by His grace, for His glory.

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Something or Nothing?

Posted on May 21, 2024 by Pete

Hovering over a verse in Galatians this morning — kind of an uncomfortable hovering.

Paul has been defending the gospel, the TRUE gospel. The good news that “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13). The good news that “God sent forth His Son . . . to redeem . . . so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying ‘Abba! Father!'” (Gal. 4:4-6). A work in our lives begun “by hearing with faith”, intended to be completed “by hearing with faith” (Gal. 3:2-6). New creations in Christ with a new identity in Christ. And that, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.

But in defending the TRUE gospel, Paul also contends for TRUE gospel community. If the first four chapters are about how the gospel is defined, then the last two chapters are about how the gospel is demonstrated. The gospel is marked by freedom (Gal. 5:1,13). It is marked by walking in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16, 25). And the realities of gospel freedom and Spirit leading are manifest through gospel community.

Freedom not as an opportunity to cater to self, but to “through love serve one another” (Gal. 5:13). Led by the Spirit, bearing the fruit of the Spirit, so that we would “not become conceited, provoking one another, and envying one another” (Gal. 5:25). Rather, just as the gospel that saved us in the past dealt with our sin on the cross, so too the gospel that sustains us in our present is the gospel which deals with sin through community.

Brothers [and sisters], if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.

(Galatians 6:1a ESV)

And the great hindrance to TRUE gospel community? It comes down to how we answer a question. Something or nothing?

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

(Galatians 6:2-3 ESV)

The gospel is messy business because the gospel, by design, is up to its eyeballs in sin. Jesus says so: “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mt. 9:13). And while deemed righteous in Him, and while robed in righteousness through Him, until we are with Him, we people of freedom and the Spirit continue to battle recurring entrapment by the old nature (Gal. 5:16-17). Thus, from time to time — and more often than we’d care to admit — we get “caught in transgression”. Thus, the messiness continues. Thus, the gospel continues to be messy business. Thus, gospel community is gonna be a messy place. And if we think we’re above the mess, if we think we’re something, then we deceive ourselves and TRUE gospel community stops reflecting the TRUE gospel.

Instead, we are to think of ourselves as nothing. As Jesus did, we are to empty ourselves (Php. 2:5-7). Noodle on that for a bit and it gets a bit uncomfortable, doesn’t it?

I am a nobody who has been made somebody in Christ. But, says Paul, I am still to regard myself as nothing. For, it’s as I remember that I’m part of the mess and remember that through the TRUE gospel my mess was forever, and is forever, being dealt with, that I’m ready to participate in others’ mess and in TRUE gospel community. Engaging in others’ sin. Forgiving others’ sin. Helping others recover from their sin. But for those who think they’re something, they’ll “bite” others, “devour” others, consuming and being “consumed by one another” (Gal. 5:15).

Nothing. It’s the key to being something. And that something is found not in my consumption of, but in my participation in TRUE gospel community. Where what began by faith alone is completed by faith alone.

By grace alone. Through Christ alone. To God’s glory alone.

Amen?

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Lost in Christ

Posted on May 17, 2024 by Pete

While our current culture of “expressive individualism” may have accelerated it, it’s actually been going on for a while within the church. Sometime in our past, in order to battle dead, lifeless religion, we started talking instead about a “personal relationship” with God through Christ. I think the emphasis originally would have been on relationship as the counterargument to religion. That being a Christian wasn’t just about observing some formal construct but was more akin to living out a family connection.

Over time, though, as our culture became more about the individual rather than the family, so too our personal relationship with Jesus may have become more about being personal than a relationship. “You and me, Jesus” became the emancipation cry of many throughout the last generation or so. And as the old nature is wont to do, the “You and me” became more and more about “me.”

This morning, a couple of verses in Galatians reminds me again that it’s not at all about me. That when I believed and entered into a personal relationship with Jesus my personal identity was lost.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

(Galatians 3:27 ESV)

Baptized into Christ . . . Have put on Christ . . .

Implication? Lost in Christ.

The language of salvation is all about the loss of personalization. When I believed I was baptized into Christ with the Spirit (Mk. 1:8, 1Cor. 12:13) — something I later portrayed symbolically when I was baptized by men with water. At that moment, when faith was first exercised, I was literally immersed or submerged into Jesus. Or another literal way of rendering it, I was overwhelmed by Jesus. I was fully engulfed by the Son so that a holy God could look down and no longer see me but instead His holy Son. So much so, that from heaven’s vantage point, I was no longer I. Because, as one literal translator puts it, I was “introduced into union with Christ.” My life now intrinsically and intricately bound with His.

As Paul puts it, I had put on Christ. That is, I was robed with Christ. I was literally “sunk into the clothing” of the One who died for my sin and rose again from the grave to prove it. He, not me, defines our personal relationship.

In relationship? Yes. Personal? Yes, again. But personalized? Still about me? Nope. Not at all. In fact, my personal identity was done away with when I was crucified with Christ. Who I was was put to death so that, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). This morning I’m chewing on the reality that I am lost in Jesus.

Lost? Really? Yeah, I’m thinking really. Read on.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

(Galatians 3:28 ESV)

My personal identity, whether Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, or any other personal attribute or identifier is gone in Christ Jesus. There’s no more “individual” to seek to “express” other than to individually, and collectively, reflect Him. My “preferred pronoun” is now “in Christ Jesus”. My “best self” realized only when I am conformed to Another’s likeness (Rom. 8:29).

Introduced into union with Christ. O, that I might live into that divine truth. To believe and behave that while now in a personal relationship with Jesus, He alone is the Person who defines the relationship.

Lost in Jesus. Only then am I really found.

Amen?

Only by His grace. Always for His glory.

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Color Me Blue . . . Again! (2010 Remix)

Posted on May 16, 2024 by Pete

Wanna know what a man looks like who has not only met the Lord, but has also been molded by the Lord? Wanna see what a woman looks like whose character has been shaped by the marvelous light into which she’s been brought into by faith? Then chew on Psalm 112 for a bit.

That guy delights in God’s commands and deals generously with others. That gal conducts her affairs with justice and remains confident amidst bad news.

But there’s one part of the bio that arrests my attention. And it causes me to pause before for I shade it too quickly with my red colored pencil (the color for “the people of God”, those washed in the blood). Had to do a double take before proceeding. Apparently, the same sort of thing happened 14 years ago. Here’s how I wrote about it on May 14, 2010.

Okay, so as much I determine to be “fully engaged” in my morning readings, sometimes I do end up a bit on “autopilot”. Reading — even underlining with my colored pencils — but not really “all there” at certain points. Such was the case this morning. But when I “came to,” when focus was restored, I had been reminded of a pretty amazing truth.

So, here’s how it went down . . .

I start in on my last reading, Psalm 112 (I have 4 readings each morning laid out for me in The Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan). It’s kind of at this point that I guess I’m somewhat on autopilot. I underline the first three words, “Praise the Lord”, with a brown colored pencil as I’m on the watch for verses relating to praise and worship (there’s a few of those verses in the Psalms). I read on and then I underline that last part of verse 4, “He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.” I underline it in blue, ’cause that’s the color I use for verses about God. I recognize these words as the descriptors used by God Himself, about Himself, when He revealed His glory to Moses (Exodus 33:19, 34:6). They’re underlined there in blue, too. Yesterday I came across them in Psalm 111:4 and colored them blue there, as well. So, I read them here in Psalm 112 and I color them blue again. But then, as I read on, and my mind starts to fully engage, I realize something: Psalm 112 isn’t about God, it’s about a man.

“Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commandments
. . . he is gracious, merciful, and righteous.”

(Psalm 112:1b, 4b ESV)

And it’s a bit of a “wow” moment for me. Yeah, that’s exactly what happens to the man, or woman, who has been brought into relationship with the Lord — to the one who fears the Lord; to the one who loves His word and pursues Him. God works an “extreme makeover” in their lives such that they start to reflect something of the glory of God in their character, in how they’re now spiritually wired.

This guy described in Psalm 112 that I underlined in blue is the product of God’s sanctification. His righteousness, imparted by faith, becomes a reality in how he lives. The grace he has been shown by God, starts emerging more and more in how he relates to others. The mercy of God which has so radically changed his life, becomes more and more the filter through which he sees others. These attributes, indicators of the glory of God, show themselves increasingly in the one who pursues God.

So, my bit of “brain fade” this morning — my mistake in underlining a verse about a man with the “color” of God — was used, I believe, by the Spirit of God to grab hold of me and evoke a bit of “awe factor.” To generate some praise and worship with the reminder that God has undertaken a work in my life, and in the lives of all those who love Him.

“For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son”

(Romans 8:29 ESV)

Or, as Peterson puts it:

“God knew what He was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love Him along the same lines as the life of His Son.”

(Romans 8:29 MSG).

God has undertaken a work by which He has determined to weave His character into ours. To make us more like Himself. How amazing is that? Pretty amazing!

Praise the Lord! Blessed is this man! He is more gracious today than yesterday, by the grace of God. He understands mercy more today than he used to, through the mercies of God. He desires to order his life in righteousness because of the righteousness of God credited to him by God through faith in Christ. This man is way far from being perfect, he has still such a long way to go, but oh, he is so confident that the work which God has begun in him, God will complete in him (Phil. 1:6).

Just color me blue!

Again (2024 add).

By His grace. For His glory.

Amen?

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Where’d It Go?

Posted on May 15, 2024 by Pete

If yesterday’s readings covered one of my favorite chapters, 2 Samuel 9, this morning I endure one of my least favorite, 2 Samuel 11.

What a dolt David was! He should have been where kings ought to have been, going out to battle. He should not have been looking where kings should not look, on the nakedness of his subjects. He should not have been lusting after, and then sleeping with that which no man should lust after, another man’s wife. And he should not have been conspiring to put to death one of his most trusted and faithful soldiers in order to cover up what, before God at least, could never be covered up.

Ugh! So much for being a hero. But the “double ugh” is that there but for the grace of God go I. Maybe not the same details, or to the degree of severity, but not being where I should be, coveting what I should not covet, and covering up what really can’t be covered up . . . yeah, there go I.

How the mighty had fallen. There’s no joy in watching a train wreck occur. In fact, it downright empties the soul to consider, as one friend put it at coffee last week, that those we want to admire, esteem, and put on a pedestal are “screw ups.” Because, as he said, it reminds us that we’re all “screw ups.” Yup, just as soon skip chapter 11 if I could.

But that’s the thing about the gospel, isn’t it? The gospel is such good news because there’s always bad news. There’s redemption because there are people in need of redeeming. There’s a Savior ’cause we are all sinners. And I see the Savior this morning in the midst of David’s sin.

In 2 Samuel 12, David’s busted. Nathan is sent by God to bring to light what David had hoped would remain a deep, dark secret. Not only did David strike down an innocent man in order to take his wife to be his wife after he had got her pregnant, but in doing so, says the LORD, “You have despised Me.” (2Sam. 12:9-10). David’s covetousness for Bathsheba was, at its core, contempt for His Sovereign. His determination to put Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, to death was actually an act displaying disdain for His Maker. And David knew it.

David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.”

(2Samuel 12:13a ESV)

But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more (Rom. 5:20).

And Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die.

(2Samuel 12:13b ESV)

If you’re reading the NLT, grace abounded in that the LORD had “forgiven” David’s sin. If you’re reading the NIV, grace had “taken away” David’s transgressions. But reading the ESV, I’m left to chew on the divine declaration that the LORD had “put away” David’s sin. Forgiven because His sin had been taken away. But taken away and put where? Where’d it go?

Cue everyone’s most trusted Sunday School answer — Jesus! David’s sin was put away because it was put on Jesus. That’s where it went.

God put away David’s sin when He laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all (Isa. 53:5-6). When the Father “made Him to be sin who knew no sin” (2Cor. 5:21), David had a place for his sin to be put away to. All of it! The sin of chapter 11, as well as the sin that would trip him up in subsequent chapters. All the sin from all the chapters of David’s life, the LORD has put away!

Thus, while sin would have its consequence, there would be no condemnation (Rom. 8:1). Not for David, nor for me. Praise God!

How’s that for good news found in kind of a crummy chapter?

By God’s grace. For God’s glory.

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Always at the Table

Posted on May 14, 2024 by Pete

2 Samuel 9. Rank it among my top chapters in the bible. Mark it as a favorite story of favor shown.

Wanna talk to me about types and foreshadows? David, a type of Christ the king, seeking someone to show the kindness of God to for the sake of a promise made to another (1Sam. 23:18, 24:20-22; 2Sam. 9:1, 3, 7). Mephibosheth, a cripple with a heritage that was by nature in competition for the king’s throne, helpless to stand on his own; a foreshadow of all who have known the King’s favor though they themselves were marked as weak, sinners, and enemies (Rom. 5:6, 8, 10).

And what I’m chewing on this morning is that, despite Mephibosheth’s continuing infirmities, frailties, and sinful propensities, he ate always at the king’s table.

So Mephibosheth ate at David’s table, like one of the king’s sons. . . . So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate always at the king’s table. Now he was lame in both his feet.

(2Samuel 9:11b, 13 ESV)

Where did he eat? At the king’s table. How often? Always. In what condition? Lame in both his feet. And remind me again, where did this lame guy eat and how often? He ate always at the king’s table. Hmm . . .

Let’s look up the original meaning for that word translated always. Does it really mean what it seems to mean? Continually. Indefinitely. Perpetually. Sounds like always to me.

Even when he took the king’s table for granted? I’m thinking. Even when he arrived less than presentable? Sounds that way. Even when he despised his own weakness and the uselessness of his crippled feet? Yup, I’m guessing even then — especially then — his place was still set. What about when he just plain and simply blew it, when his actions that day were despicable and/or his attitude that week was just plainly horrible?

He ate always at the king’s table . . . and always really means always.

After all, he wasn’t there because he deserved it. He wasn’t there because he earned it. He was there because of kindness shown for the sake of another.

Me too.

Lame in my feet, crippled in my conduct, unable to stand on my own before a thrice holy God (Isa. 6:3, Rev. 4:8), I have been raised up and seated in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6). At a table I can only imagine. What’s more, I am welcomed — and more than welcomed, exhorted — to confidently approach a throne which I have no right, apart from Christ, to approach (Eph. 2:18, 3:12, Heb. 4:16).

And how often can I take my seat at this heavenly table? What are the hours when this glorious throne is open for me to access? Continually. Indefinitely. Perpetually. Always.

To sinners who are essentially lame in both feet, He is the Savior who shows the unfathomable, limitless, kindness of God for the sake of a promise made to another (Gen. 17:3-8, Gal. 3:7-9).

Cue Casting Crowns . . . Not because of who I am, but because of what He’s done. Not because of what I’ve done, but because of who He is.

Always at the table.

And always means always. Amen?

By His grace. For His glory.

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Not At All Inferior . . . Because I Am Nothing

Posted on May 10, 2024 by Pete

Paul covers a lot of ground with the church at Corinth through the letter we count as his second. But underlying it all is his contending for their affection, for “room” in their hearts (2Cor. 7:2a). And so, as Paul wraps up his letter he makes his final plea.

Though reluctant to be goaded into a battle of boasting by the super-apostles who sought to discredit him, Paul engages for the sake of a flock who have been tempted to fall in line behind self-proclaimed messengers of God rather than remain loyal to the divinely commissioned servant of Christ, the one who had been a faithful steward of the gospel (1Cor. 4:1-2). He engages not so he can maintain a following, but in order to present the bride he has betrothed as a “pure virgin to Christ” (2Cor. 11:1-2).

And it’s how Paul wraps up his “boasting” that’s got me thinking.

I have been a fool! You forced me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you. For I was not at all inferior to these super-apostles, even though I am nothing.

(2Corinthians 12:11 ESV)

I was not at all inferior . . . I am nothing.

Okay, that doesn’t sound like it should go together. To my way of think “nothing” is always inferior to everything. Nothing is inferior in power, in influence, and certainly in rank to anything that can be identified as a thing and is not nothing.

Behold, on this side you have a single strand of wet noodle; on that side, nothing . . . which is inferior? Don’t know what you’re gonna do with a wet noodle, but whatever it is it’ll be more than what you can do with nothing. So how could Paul stand up to the trash-talk of these self-promoting celebrities and declare, “I was not at all inferior” and yet also declare, “I am nothing.”

As I chew on it, I think it’s because the reason he was not inferior was because he was, in fact, nothing. He had been crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:20). And everyone knows that those who are dead and buried are essentially nothing. It was no longer he who lived, but Christ who lived in him and thus called the shots for all that was done by him. And so, because it was the risen Son of God now living in him and through him, though he was nothing, he also was certainly not at all inferior.

True of Paul, true of me, as well. Led by the Spirit, that’s what Paul says in another of his letters.

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

(Colossians 3:3 ESV)

Who has died? I have died. Ergo, I am nothing.

What is hidden? My life is hidden. Logical conclusion? I am nothing.

Hidden how? Hidden in who? Hidden with Christ in God. Inferior then? Second rate? Not at all! Nope! Not in the least! Uh, uh! Not me!

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

(Romans 12:37 ESV)

We may not be super-apostles, or even super-disciples, but our union with Christ is our super power. While we might be counted low by the world’s estimation, because of the great love with which God loved us, we have been made alive together with Christ and been raised up with Him and seated in the heavenly places (Eph. 2:4-6). Because we are no longer our own. Because we are nothing. Because we are “in Christ Jesus”.

By His grace. For His glory.

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