Jude warns us not to, “pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality… denying Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord”
Most folks tend to think that license, that is, doing what they want, is a ticket to freedom but Christ tells us that the ticket to real and lasting freedom is the truth. John 8:31-32 Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Becoming Disciples and holding to our Sovereign Lord’s teaching is the only path to freedom.
This seems to present us with a real problem. We want to be winsome and appealing to unbelievers. However, in our culture, awash with feminized men and masculinized women the Word of God seems out of place, an embarrassment. We are told that we must be more nuanced. For example, we can’t have women upset because they are left out of the leadership positions they so covet and we must make a place for gay and LGBTQ Christians. We surely don’t want the pagans we are trying to bring into the kingdom shaming us for archaic insensitive patriarchal, homophobic, or transphobic beliefs. We best not even imply that they could be facing the wrath of God. Sin is, after all, such a negative and judgmental term.
So we just superficially dress the wound, if at all.
They have healed the wound of my people lightly saying Peace, Peace, where there is no Peace.
Real love is teaching the whole of Scripture. Faithful are the wounds of a friend but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. And speaking of deceitful takes us right back to the Garden when the original master of deceit, satan first asked, “Did God really say…? Nuanced.
After all what could go wrong?…When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some… Hell literally broke lose.
Because our unbelieving friends, family, neighbors are in rebellion against God we can count on 4 things.
Genesis 3 details four areas of frustration, imperfection, separation, and alienation that we all struggle with. Right now unbelievers are running from God trying to find meaning and happiness in their own way. But because we know that they are created in God’s image, we know that their attempts will inevitably and eventually fail.
1.The first alienation was spiritual, man was separated from God.
Instead of delighting in his creator’s presence, walking with Him in the garden, man’s first response to God after disobeying him was to hide. Adam and Eve had sinned and they were afraid of God so they ran and hid. You may from time to time hear the argument that religion is a crutch for those who cannot face life without it. Actually, from Adam’s response to God, we see that just the opposite is true. All religions, including the atheist’s believe system are a crutch for those who cannot face God. Unable to face God in the light of their rebellion folks figuratively either run and hide from the true God or pretend that there is no God. As if denying His existence will make Him go away.
Man no longer could have the communion with God that he was created to have and as a result he could no longer be who God had created him to be. He could no longer fulfill the purpose of his existence, to love God with all of his heart, and mind and to oversee the earth in a responsible manner.
All men have felt the effects of this alienation. It shows in our trying to find meaning in our lives and trying to find a purpose to live for. It shows itself in mankind’s striving for something beyond themselves. It shows itself in mankind’s universal striving for spirituality. It shows itself in the myriad of religions that mankind has invented in the attempt to address that need.
The feelings of alienation from God are real. Mankind’s feelings of distance from God are valid. As such, in our universal striving for spirituality we are seeking to fulfill a real need. And though the problem has been properly identified and mankind has adopted many religions to address the problem, we are addressing a real problem in the wrong way.
2. The second alienation was psychological. Man was separated from himself.
Where prior to his rebellion against God it was said, “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed”, Adam now says, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
Man now experiences fear, shame, guilt, anxiety. He lacks honesty, integrity, and courage. We all feel this as we experience psychological problems. We are not the people we imagine ourselves to be. We are not the people we want to be. We are in many ways at odds with ourselves. To some extent we all create images of ourselves or tell ourselves convenient lies to try to live more comfortably with ourselves. We practice self-deception, lying to ourselves about things we know to be true about ourselves; things we would rather forget. Or we anesthetize ourselves with drugs, both legal and illegal, alcohol, possessions, and any number of other pursuits to ease our psychological discomfort. Some come to believe that they are trapped in the wrong body or are the wrong sex and can only find peace if they change their sex.
We long to be at peace with ourselves, to be whole. We are addressing a very real problem, but in the wrong way.
3. The third alienation was sociological. Man was separated from other men.
When God created Eve as a partner for Adam his reaction was one of joy. “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” But after his disobedience to God, when confronted with his rebellion he repudiates her and attempts to shift the blame: “The woman whom thou gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” Instead of joyful union, there is suspicion and repudiation.
But not only were man and wife separated but soon, brother and brother would be separated as Cain was to murder his brother, Able. And we all do the same things thousands of times over. We lie, slander, gossip, hate, ignore, and blame. Friends become enemies, family members become strangers, associates become competitors, children become rebellious, sadly, even churches split apart. We cannot stand the sinner next to us so we move on to meet our need. We strive to have meaningful relationships and in the attempt do things that, though they seem to make sense, only serve to further alienate us from each other. The history of mankind is a history of broken promises and broken relationships.
For example, we may have sex outside of marriage believing that it will fill the void. And, for a while, it may. But only for a while because that is not how we were created to behave. That is not how we are wired. We are alienated from our spouse so we pursue affairs, moving on to meet the need. But adultery, like fornication, cannot satisfy the true longings that exist within us.
We are addressing a very real problem, but in the wrong way.
4. Finally, man is alienated from nature.
Man was created to be the immortal caretaker of God’s creation but as a result of his sin his work became toil. “Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
We have felt the futility of our work, the struggle of toil. We are at odds with nature. We have seen God use nature as an instrument of His judgment from Noah and throughout history. On a lesser level we have all struggled against heat, cold, storms, disease, parasites, pain and finally death, as we return to dust. We try to postpone death. We exercise, eat healthy, have cosmetic surgery, all to put off the inevitable death. Hebrews 2:15 reminds us “Those who fear death are subject to lifelong bondage.”
We are addressing a very real problem, but in the wrong way. The only solution to the emptiness of mankind is the grace of God.
So should the church jump into the cultural flow feet first and get rid of oppressive terms like MAN? Or rid ourselves of gender roles, or perhaps go all in and adopt the gender-neutral TNIV Bible. And how about sanctioning surrogate parenting for those gay Christians that, sadly can’t have children of their own, having abandoned natural relations? Has feminist ideology worked out so successfully in the secular culture that we must reinterpret 2,000 years of Church history and teaching to bring it into the Church? Or should we reinterpret the Lord’s teaching on morality? Or discard the ten commandments that God gave his children, Israel, when he established them as a nation?
…precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken. Isaiah 28
So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart to walk in their own devices… Or, instead of trying to imitate the culture we could be a light, holding up Christ’s teaching, a kingdom of priests displaying the love of Christ in our community, holding up the truth to our lost and stumbling culture, loving them where they are, offering them the true freedom that alone can satisfy their deep longings, freeing them from futility and the fear of death, and granting them life in our Savior’s welcoming eternal Kingdom. Addressing their very real problems with the only real solution, the love of Jesus.
Return to Jude 3-4
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