How do you make good choices for your life?

I’ve started trying to be very conscious of the choices I am making day by day since my awakening to grace. It’s been such a transformation in the way I see the world that I feel like I need to bring everything into right alignment. The old man definitely has a way of showing up in my thoughts and attitudes but I thank God for he who is in me is greater than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4). For 21 years, religion was drummed into me – externally from others and internally by myself – so I expect that it may take a while to correct some perceptions I’ve carried for more than half my life. If I say something way off, please pardon me. I’m still an infant in grace. So why not wait until I’m a little more versed in the gospel of grace before putting up public blog broadcasts about my experience? If you’ve experienced the gospel of grace, the radical love of God through Jesus, you know why I can’t! In any case, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³ and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. (1 John 4:1-3).

 

In recent days - getting back to choices - when I encounter a truth, a thought, an idea or just any commonly held norm, I’ve started to ask myself whether it conforms to the gospel of grace or what it would look like if it did. For example, what would a grace approach be to my finances, managing my time, my job at the office and what I do when spending time with my wife and daughter? Keep in mind that the gospel of grace is all about coming into the realization of our true identity as followers of Christ. The gospel of grace is the scandalously good news that we are forgiven, redeemed, and free from the power of the enemy that had enslaved us to sin, guilt and condemnation. The gospel of grace is the good news that God is not mad at us and that he loves us unabashedly. The gospel of grace is the good news that a fulfilled life is not found in following principles, steps or keeping commands but in allowing ourselves to rest in the finished work of Christ who nailed our transgressions to the cross (Col 2:14). Principles, disciplines and commandments are all good but they don’t make you right with God or even impress Him in the least! Doing good and living right is a result, or fruit, of who we are in Christ, and happens without effort when we walk in the Spirit and not the flesh. We are not made right with God by what we do; we are already right with God, so we do what is right! The gospel of grace is the good news that we are no longer under the old covenant where God dealt with us according to our keeping of the law; God himself fulfilled the righteous requirement of His own holy law, redeemed us in the process, and restored us as sons of God (Rom 6:14).

So, now that I know I am a son (or child) of God, I should operate and interact with the things of this world as such, right? Let me try an illustration: At my job, we are provided with access key cards and codes to allow us, as rightful employees, to access the office space and everything in it. This is true during normal working hours as well as outside those hours. I can literally come into work at 12am on Christmas night (which I won’t!) if I so choose. This analogy falls short but in the same way, I have all the rights and access privileges to the heavenly throne of grace as a child of God - 365, 24/7. How do I know I am a child and have these inalienable rights? That word alone, inalienable, is a whole other feast but for now, let us consider Romans 8:17 which tells me I am a child of God and a joint heir with Christ. This means that what Christ has, in terms of His inheritance, I also have! I know it’s scandalously radical but that why it’s such good news - I dare say GREAT news. What is Christ’s inheritance? Without even looking up verses, can we safely assume it’s everything great, whole and awesome? I think so. Romans 8:17 goes on to say that we are joint heirs provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. What does all that mean? Well, we can be assured that where Jesus is right now, he is not in torment, right? So Paul cannot be talking about an ongoing torment, but Christ did suffer death so that he could pay a price! I suggest that what Paul is saying is that our faith and belief in Christ imputes on us the righteousness he earned in suffering. We essentially receive the benefit or outcome of Christ’s suffering through faith. I would love to further explore this in a later blog but I wanted to include that section of the verse to allow for context, understanding and full disclosure.

Like most men, I’m pretty visual and my imagination is always on overdrive. Since our minds have been renewed in Christ, I am beginning to really enjoy my imagination under grace. In thinking about what it means to be a joint heir with Christ, I picture myself walking with Jesus and coming up to paradise - the place from where Adam was led away to prevent him from eating the tree of life (I am tempted to explore this as well but…another day) – and, as we approach, we meet up with the Cherubim that God set there to stand guard with a sword. God build this place so we could have perfect fellowship with him, the Father. The first Adam messed it up but Jesus restored us by paying the full debt and cancelling our sins and our consciousness of the same so that we are no longer enslaved by it (Romans 6:6). The Cherubim knows Christ but he has not met me yet and therefore, he asks for my pass/id/proof of entry, and before he can even finish asking, Jesus interrupts him and says, “He’s with me. He’s a joint heir with Me.” Angel Cherubim apologizes for asking, I tell him it’s all good and we enter into the garden. The first thing I’m looking for is God, the Father, but I can’t see him. “BOO!” He pounces at me from behind the closed door and we laugh for eternity. We forget he is a happy, jolly God. He created you, and me, and clever pranks too!

I did not intend to get away from the primary question of how to make good choices as children and joint heirs with Christ, but as I’ve been writing this, I feel a lot better about the outcome of the choices I will make now that I’ve re-affirmed my identity in God. Don’t you? When I accepted Christ and received the gift of grace, He came into my life and took over my heart – it belongs to Him and yearns to please Him. This is why we are pleasing to God; it’s not because we’re good, cautious and mindful of our ways and choices but because He lives in and through us. My mind is in Christ and my choices are guided by the Holy Spirit in me. So what is my part? Am I on some sort of Holy Spirit auto-pilot mode? No, I have work to do – believe (John 6:29). This is not always easy and it takes time to get good at walking in the Spirit (grace) and not in the flesh (law/religion). But what does all this walking in the Spirit or in the flesh mean in relation to making choices in life? Well, the apostle Paul answers that question but we seem to have missed it, so stay with me as I try to break it down. 

Until recently, I believed that walking in the flesh meant succumbing to temptations of the flesh like lust, greed, anger, malice, laziness, selfishness and all sorts of debauchery = sinning. However, walking in the flesh is not that at all. Walking in the flesh is being sin conscious. In other words, walking in the flesh is allowing ourselves to feel condemned even after God has called us righteous. Another word for the flesh is the law of sin and death.

Romans 8:7(ESV) - For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. ⁸ Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Paul is saying that those who operate their lives based on God’s law cannot please God! What? Why would God give men laws they cannot keep, why would he set people up for failure? Well, he did not. He gave us the law to point us to Jesus. The entire word is about the Word and if it’s not pointing to the Word then we must be misreading the word. Get it? You see, Jesus did not come to get rid of the law but to fulfill it on our behalf. God is holy and so are his laws. If we could keep them to perfection, we would never need a savior. But we couldn’t, could we? In fact, Jesus raised the stakes every time the law came up. Why did he say things like (paraphrased) it’s not enough to not commit adultery - if you so much as look at a woman with lust in your heart, you have committed adultery. It’s not enough to not kill your brother, if you so much as have hate in your heart towards another person, you are a murderer. We can try and live under these extreme conditions but we can’t. I admit that I can’t but I grew up believing I should, or should at least try my very best. I got saved when I was about 13 or 14 and until recently, the song has been do good and God will be good to you, do bad and God will… not be so good.

So, if living in the flesh is being sin conscious, what is living by the Spirit? Resting in your identity as a redeemed, cleansed, forgiven, overcoming child of God. More than anything, this is what the enemy is after in his schemes against believers – your ID. If he can cloud your mind and heart and cause you to second guess your identity, he can frustrate your efforts no matter what choice you make. Even good choices! Oops. Think about it; if you start a business or take a job to support your family, isn’t that a good choice? Absolutely. However, if the deceiver persuades you that you really didn’t deserve it in the first place because of your past life and how miserable you are at keeping God’s commandments, what is the likelihood that you will keep that job or business running when things get tough? “I knew it was too good to be true. I should just go back and work at the minimum wage job and just be happy with that.” There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a minimum wage job but there’s something wrong with believing that you don’t deserve to be successful because of past sins. God doesn’t keep a record of sins and neither should we; against our brother or ourselves. 

It takes time, at least in my case, to allow the good news of the gospel of grace to sink into our minds and permeate every corner of our lives. When you’re hungry and are presented with a savory meal, it tastes great the moment you take your first bite but it takes a while for the nutritional value to permeate your body down to the cellular level. Similarly, the truth about the gospel of Jesus is so deep and wide and colorful and flavorful and all things awesome. Once you start receiving it and repent (repenting is not feeling deep remorse over sin but changing you mind, in this case, walking in grace and not the law), it will steadily take root and change you from the inside out. So perhaps the question is not how do I make good choices for my life but who am I and who’s am I?