Picturing the Gospel: Tapping the Power of the Bible's Imagery by Neil Livingstone

Author:Neil Livingstone [Neil Livingstone]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2008-09-13T23:13:00+00:00

As IF, So THAT

But doubt did creep in on me. After my acquittal in God's court, I was full of joy and I made big changes in my life. But it soon became very clear that I was not perfect yet. In fact, I could still be quite bad.

I was told that being justified meant that God saw me "just-as-if-I'd" been as good as Jesus. But I wasn't really, and I knew it. Maybe I never would be that good. How would he deal with me then?

Sometimes, trying to preserve the fact that we are undeserving of such a gift, Christians preach justification in a way that says "as if, but not really" We emphasize how undeserving we are to be God's people, which is true. But we neglect to say much about how the cross guarantees that we will become fit to be his people. The deepest truth is not that God treats us like the people we are not, but that he treats us as if we are the people that we soon will be.

Once I was facing a daughter who was having a meltdown. This happens to all of us at some time, and this was her time. As we spiraled down into a fierce argument that was going nowhere, I could see in her eyes that she wanted out. She was going to be embarrassed about losing her grip, but she could not pull out. She needed help from me. So I just stopped with the judgment and criticism, talked quietly and let her retreat and compose herself. She didn't win the argument. She didn't even apologize. I forget what it was all about, though I'm sure I was in the right. (Aren't we all?) But I had to treat her as if she were okay, so that she could become okay And I knew it would work. I was dealing with the girl I knew I would see in an hour, the girl in her right mind. I was treating her as if she were as good as she soon would be.

That's how God was treating me, how he treats everyone he justifies. God has a plan so that these newly justified children of his can grow up to be truly pleasing to him. Paul says, "He condemned sin in human flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit" (Romans 8:3-4 TNIV). I was afraid that he had merely made a change in my heavenly paperwork but I was going to still be as bad as I was. I was afraid the story was forever going to be, "I'll treat you as if you are one of my good people, but you aren't really" But the real story was "as if ... so that." He treated me as if I was one of his-he put his Spirit in me-so that the Spirit could actually make me righteous.

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