JUST LIKE US (part seven)
Last week we looked at Peter. Peter was the foremost of the Apostles. He was a leader and devout follower of Jesus. He withstood persecution and was bold and courageous in contending for the faith. Tradition indicates that Peter met his fate being crucified upside down because he said he was not worthy to be crucified like his Lord. Pretty impressive.
Yet that didn't mean he didn't have any issues. He walked on water but began to sink when he focused on the wind and the waves instead of Jesus. After Jesus was arrested Peter denied knowing him. And we saw where Paul had to confront him about being hypocritical. Likewise we can be a devout follower of Jesus and love Jesus but there are times when our faith is weak or fear overrides our devotion or when we compromise and be hypocritical. Today let's take a look into the life of Paul.
1) Tug of war.
Paul has a very impressive resume. He was an apostle. He's the evangelizer to the gentiles. He wrote half of the NT books. His devotion was impeccable when you factor in the many times he was persecuted, beaten, imprisoned, etc. He was passionate and powerful and no doubt looked up to and admired by all Christians. However, as amazing as Paul was, he had his struggles.
Rom. 7:14-25, "We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.
As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin."
When you consider how spiritual Paul was, it seems weird to see him talking about having this struggle with sin. He was a spiritual powerhouse; leading the way; setting the example. Multiple times in his letters he encourages his readers to follow his example. He told the Corinthians to imitate him. I don't think Paul is going to put himself out there like that if he weren't living for Jesus.
So what about this revealing passage in Romans? Was Paul living a double life? No. Paul was revealing the struggle that every Christian has. He wasn't being a hypocrite; he was being transparent. The Christian has two natures-old and new-flesh and spirit. And I'm thankful that God compelled Paul to write this because we might think if we have this struggle then maybe we aren't legitimate Christians.
In fact, some think because this sounds so strange that Paul must have written this in reference to before he became a Christian. But that's not the case. Before we were Christians we didn't have this struggle; we weren't conflicted. We weren't thinking of God, we did what we wanted and thought little of it.
But as a Christian, there's a struggle-there's conviction-there's godly sorrow. That's what Paul is describing here. I don't want to sin but that's what I do. I want to serve God but I find myself sinning instead. It's one of those strange-but-true statements about Christians. And to see Paul being revealing about it helps to encourage us because we can totally relate.
I like how Paul said it wasn't him who sinned but sin living in him. He wasn't trying to shirk responsibility, he's making it clear that that's not who we are anymore. And he said it twice which means he wanted to emphasize that point. We still sin but we're not identified as sinners; we're saints.
Then Paul says there's only one who can rescue us-Jesus. That doesn't mean we can't be victorious over sin unless Jesus removes it. Jesus gives us the power to overcome. Jesus will rescue us when takes us to heaven to be with him. Paul struggled with sin-like us.
2) Paul had weaknesses.
Paul also talked about his weaknesses in 2nd Cor. 12:7-10, "To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
God allowed Paul the privilege of witnessing some things that probably no one else saw on this side of heaven. He wasn't allowed to talk about it but being privy to such supernatural information could've went to Paul's head. So, to keep from becoming conceited about it, God allows him to be tormented.
We don't know what the satanic messenger specifically said to Paul but it could've been something along the lines of reminding him how he used to be before Christ or possibly some of the defects he had like poor eyesight or his lack of eloquence as we'll see in a minute. Perhaps it was in reference to his struggles with sin that he wrote about in Romans 7.
Regardless, this thorn in his flesh was meant to keep him grounded and humble. Paul would've become conceited had God not done this. Paul didn't like it but he came to realize it was for his own good. Paul came to see that his weaknesses were something God could use to show his awesome power.
Maybe Paul was a perfectionist. Maybe he needed to see that weaknesses were part of being human. Not that we shouldn't try to overcome our weaknesses but we shouldn't get too discouraged about them either. We can ask God to remove them but we understand that his grace is sufficient for us and we don't need to have all our weaknesses removed in order to be accepted by God or be effective for God.
Paul had weaknesses but he was still a spiritual powerhouse. And not only could he admit that he had weaknesses and struggles; he could actually boast about them because that would give him the opportunity to highlight God's power. He realized that although he was weak-in Christ he was strong. He wasn't impervious to weaknesses; he wasn't immune to failings. He came to accept the reality of them-like we need to. Paul had weaknesses-like us.
3) Naturally weak but spiritually strong.
In his first letter to the Corinthians, he said this about himself. 1st Cor. 2:1-5, "When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power."
I like Paul's willingness to be transparent. It's hard to think of Paul in this way. We get a picture of a dynamic, bold and powerful person when we think of Paul but here he is describing himself as being inarticulate. To see Paul describe himself as weak and fearful is strange when we think of all the dangerous situations he put himself in as a follower of Jesus.
In Acts 20 he revealed that the Holy Spirit warned him that in every city he went to that he would be facing prison and hardships. Yet he still went. So when we see Paul writing this in 1st Cor. it's like there are two Pauls. But if you read the rest of the passage you'll see that Paul was addressing the difference between how he was and how the worldly philosophers were.
They may have been more gifted in their ability to put words together but at least Paul's words were true and powerful. They may have worldly wisdom but he had spiritual wisdom. They may be charismatic but Paul was genuine. They may have looked better and sounded better but Paul had the Spirit of Christ.
Get beneath the surface and it's no contest. He didn't want the Corinthians to go by their looks or vocabulary but to test them by their fruit. Paul didn't rely on sounding good he relied on the Holy Spirit's power to convince them. But that didn't mean he wasn't intelligent-he was a Pharisee so he knew the scriptures. He may not have used persuasive words but his words were persuasive. Paul worked hard and was sold out for Jesus. He preached the gospel with wisdom and passion.
And when Paul said he came with fear and trembling it didn't mean he was panic stricken-it meant he was humble-realizing that he needed the power of Christ to work through him if he was going to be effective and accomplish God's work. He knew that he was carrying the word of God to people and he took that seriously and he didn't want to misrepresent God.
We might have feelings of inadequacy when we're called on to do God's work. Maybe we're shy or we feel we're not as wise or eloquent as others. But even if that's true, we can find ourselves to be altogether different when God's power is enacted.
The things Paul said about himself may have been true in one sense, but because he operated in the Spirit of God that put his ability on a whole different level. The same goes for us. In our weaknesses and flaws we still have the Spirit of Christ in us, enabling us to do more than we ever could without him.
1st Cor. 1:26-31, "Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”
One of the mistakes we make in looking at biblical characters is to think of them as being big, tall, strong and handsome. In this we are transforming their spiritual qualities into physical ones. We might think of Paul as someone whose physical character matched his spiritual character. But the scriptures actually talk about him being bald and having poor eyesight.
When you look at Samson you would think because of his superhuman strength that he was this huge, muscle bound man but it's understood that he was actually very normal looking. Jesus himself was described as average looking with nothing about him physically that would draw us to him.
I think a big reason for all this is to highlight what Paul is talking about-that any attention we get is because people are seeing Jesus in us. Remember when Samuel was to pick a replacement for King Saul he looked at Jesse's oldest son Eliab and thought he was the one. But God chose David instead. God told Samuel that man looks at outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart.
We all have flaws but some are more obvious than others. It's difficult when they're more physically obvious like a speech impediment or some other handicap. Or even if it's being short, overweight or uneducated. It's easy for us to focus on our flaws to where they cause us to withdraw and isolate and not get involved in things. But they don't have to embarrass us. We can do what Paul was talking about-let the Christ in us shine through. This way, our focus can be all on him and he gets all the glory.
Don't allow your imperfections to stop you from doing God's work. Most of the famous people photographed by Yousuf Karsh included in his book, The Faces of Greatness, were not physically attractive. Somebody studied the faces of the 90 people in the book and determined that 35 of them had moles or warts, 13 had noticeable freckles or liver spots, 20 had obvious traces of acne, and two had highly visible scars.
The blemishes did not deter these people. Thorton Wilder the playwright, Richard Rodgers the composer, Picasso the painter, and many others had obvious imperfections. But what might have embarrassed some just added character when they posed before the truthful lens of the photographer. Flaws should not deter those whom God has gifted. The Lord wants to use us despite our flaws. Maybe even because of our flaws. Paul-humanly flawed but spiritually gifted-like us.
4) Just like us.
All the people we've looked at messed up but God still used them in powerful ways. He didn't allow their imperfections and flaws to keep him from making them into dynamic people of faith. Heb. 11-the faith chapter is where we read about all the heroes of the faith and some of the things they did.
If we take that chapter by itself we may conclude that these people were flawless and never made any sin errors. But as we've seen by looking at specific examples outside of Heb. 11, that's not the case. And I didn't talk about Moses who murdered a man or Solomon marrying women who served other Gods and was lead astray. That doesn't take away from the reality of their great faith, it just gives us a broader view of them and puts things in perspective for us.
So, after reading about all those heroes of the faith in Heb. 11, we have the challenge and encouragement of what follows in Heb. 12:1-6, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."
We get discouraged when we keep making the same mistakes. We get caught up in the sin that so easily entangles. And we may begin to lose heart and think we will never be able to throw them off. But we can. If we are being told to throw off everything that hinders us then we can do that.
How? By keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus-the one who is perfecting our faith. We consider the one who endured it all and was victorious. We keep our eyes fixed on the one who gives us the same power to resist that he had.
And when we do make mistakes we don't lose heart; we don't conclude that God is furious at us and he's going to cast us off. No, we accept our punishment as an act of his love that we would be corrected by it and strive to not make those mistakes again.
We are human so we are going to make mistakes, just like the heroes of the faith. But that doesn't mean we're defeated and doomed to a live a life of perpetual sin. No, we strive to consistently enact the power of the Holy Spirit who is in us and throw off what hinders us from running the race and reaching the goals that God has for us.
God used the people in the bible even though they made mistakes-sometimes pretty major ones. It's good to know the people in the bible are just like us so we can understand there's no reason God can't use us to accomplish great things. Imperfect people plus a perfect God equals amazing results-for his glory and his kingdom.
