Wholeness: The truth is blood red

Some people say the truth is black and white, many of them being Christian educators and theologians. So let me outline black and white doctrine for you in the most literal sense. Righteousness should be rewarded, wickedness should be punished, period. There really is no room for much else with such a rigid definition. So it’s no wonder that is the world’s stark perception of the church and feels unwelcome in it.

When we hold to a strictly black and white doctrine, we don't really leave room for forgiveness since we just haven't earned it. Maybe that is why legalists deny it to others, they don't believe they deserve it and expect them to earn it through obedience. So they condemn sinners for their failures, instead of offering the forgiveness we ourselves rely on. We could never truly make restitution for all the people we have treated so badly for the sake of self. Not to mention shutting the door to the kingdom of God in their faces. (Matt. 5:22, 6:33 & 23:13)

According to strictly black and white theology, only the righteous deserve love. So no wonder legalists are so hateful, choosing to be contemptuous of the lost. Yet, if God denied us, love, we would be left to the wolves for straying from the path of patience, kindness, politeness, and agape. (Luke 15:1-7)

In a strictly black and white view of Christianity, holiness has but the singular dimension of holiness that is righteousness. Denying that it is built upon a foundation of wholeness, or it setting us apart for a place in God's kingdom beyond just obedience. Yet, we wonder why people are knocked over so easily with only one leg to stand on. (Matthew 15:17-20 & 23:25-26, Romans 12:3-8)

For many of these strict people, they know of such concepts, but they are not put into action; they are just given lip service. (Matthew 15:8) For that reason, their gospel is functionally incomplete.

That is why I never say the truth is black and white. Rather I say the truth is black and white and red all over. It is the red blood of Christ that blots out the darkness and allows us to approach God despite our sin. It's the red blood that wipes the slate clean and gives us a chance to start over. What but the unconditional love of God would he offer up the cleansing blood of Christ to such undeserving people such as us? (2nd Timothy 1:9) So if we dare call ourselves Christ-like, we cannot deny forgiveness and love to the undeserving. Who are we to expect people to live up to a standard, yet not show them the way to do just that as Christ did for us? (Ephesians 4:11-13) For our hearts need to be renewed, to make way for a transformation of the mind to have any genuine desire to seek said standard. (Ezekiel 11:19-20, Romans 12:1-2) It's only through the red blood of Christ who grants us access to the Holy Spirit, which gives us the strength to do what we cannot in the flesh. (John 16:7) Again, nothing but the red blood of Jesus makes any of this possible. Not a critical black and white standard that only defines right and wrong and judges those who fail to live up to it in the strength of the mere flesh. (Matthew 7:1-12)

The Old Testament was the sad story of the Israelites failures to live up to a black and white standard. Yet, we want to continue to live out this same scenario without the benefit of the tools granted to us by the New Covenant. Tools that can make us whole again, tools that can dramatically change the course of our story, the red tools of renewal and rebirth.

The Visual PARABLEist.

Wholeness: Backsliding

“When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first.”-Luke 11:24-26

This is one of a handful of the sayings of Jesus where he uses rather dark imagery. Which begs the question why? It doesn't seem to go with how we try to portray him. As some have suggested, by speaking in parable and figures of speech he separated those who were genuinely seeking truth, and those who just wanted easy answers. Also, being a disciple of Christ and seeking holiness is not a surface pursuit. If you can't go to the effort of discerning a simple parable, you won't likely get very far in righteousness either. So it only seems fair to assume, he saved the ghastly imagery that people would tend to shy away from, for the most profound truths. Let's face it, humanity has a bad habit of getting hung up on the surface. To this day, the most outspoken people are often just reacting emotionally to the surface, instead of acting rationally to the heart of the issue. Trying to explain anything to such people is really like casting "pearls before swine." (Matt 7:6) to use another of his blunt sayings. As disciples, we should strive for better.

So naturally, this passage reveals an important truth and one that says something about how wholeness is vital to our holiness. It’s a truth I’ve touched on before, but let’s take it head-on by tackling this creepy passage.

The first implication is that simply getting rid of evil is inadequate by itself. As dysfunctional as sin is, it's still a far cry from nonfunctional. Is this not what legalists do and teach? They think since righteousness is the ultimate goal, we need to focus on that alone, and not worry about replacing what we removed with something functional to guide people to wholeness. What if the person who built the foundation of your house thought way. Since concrete is the most valuable part, let's skip the forms and steel reinforcement and call it good enough. That would lead to a sloppy and weak foundation. Everything we tried to build on it would suffer as a result.

Consider what the passage says about the impure spirit itself. While you may think who cares about the impure spirits' motivations? This is often our same attitude towards our sin. Who cares why it's there, it doesn't belong, get rid of it, end of the story. Well, Jesus took the time to say something about it, so there must be an important detail relayed by it. His exact words are "it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it." There are real longings behind our sin, and they can make us restless and unable to rest easily. If we don't find a righteous place to direct these passions, they will manifest in unholy ways because of this restlessness. We need to be more strategic in dealing with our sin, because we won't find wholeness, otherwise.

Then, Jesus goes on to warn us what will happen if we don't heed the implications of his words. We can end up far worse than before. Backsliding is a real thing, and it's a strong indicator that we haven't found our ultimate wholeness yet. Without wholeness, our righteousness will just not stick.

With that being said, let me remind you of the truth behind the truth of this series. Wholeness is but one leg in the tripod of holiness. Take but one leg away, and it all collapses. Just like there is more than one dimension to dealing with sin. If we just remove it without dealing with the voids it leaves behind, it all collapses. We really need to approach it smarter, not harder as the legalists tend to. Fix the proverbial cracks in the walls that the impure spirits are sneaking in through. Then, we will find true holiness.

The Visual PARABLEist

Wholeness: Restoration

Classic car TV shows that revolve around customization, and restorations are all the rage right now. Many of their client’s starter cars are total junkers too. As bad as they may be, at least they know exactly what they are getting into. Sometimes they start with a car that's already been restored. Yet, often when they find one of these so-called "restored" cars, the work is only surface. This can be an even bigger problem than a rust bucket. There are many backyard mechanics that just do not have the means or talent to do a proper restoration. Often, piling on a ton of filler putty into dents, instead of repairing them properly. Painting over rust, instead of welding in new metal. Not straightening out frame and body issues, nor replacing beat-up trim and badging.

The point I’m getting at is our search for wholeness is often like these restorations. We can take the long difficult path to full on, down to every nut and bolt restoration. Seeking to work out our salvation completely. (Phil 2:12) Or we can do a sloppy backyard mechanic job with our discipleship. Then hope nobody looks too close, or that the floor doesn’t completely rust out from under you.

There are a few things we need to remember when engaging in the restoration of wholeness. The first is to seek God. (Psalm 14:2, Matt 6:33) Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us that God put eternity into our hearts. So it can be very easy to get lost, or barely scratch the surface of it without a guide. So we need to seek him through both prayer and scripture, not just one, or the other. Both have an important role that relies on the other. We need the scripture as a standard to hold what we receive via prayer to. Otherwise, we may confuse self, emotions, or something much worse for God. Where scripture without prayer makes it much harder to see how it applies to us, never really getting to the root of our brokenness.

The second is motivation. (Proverbs 10:5) If we are not self-motivated to seek God and his wholeness, procrastination can set in, and time can slip away from us more quickly than we realize. I learned the value of this at college when doing independent study. With no fixed time or schedule to work on projects. I had to constantly remind myself why I was doing this, and why it was important to keep on track. Not to mention strategize my efforts to completion of said project. There are many backyard mechanics that often neglect their projects for weeks or even months at a time. That will get you nowhere, and corrosion may continue to get worse while you wait.

The third is patience. (Psalm 40:1-3) We got to be patient with ourselves as well as others. Even in a physical restoration, there are times we got to wait for things to dry before moving on to the next step. Or redo things we didn't get right the first time. A spiritual restoration has holding patterns as well. There are no shortcuts to wholeness. We can either do it right, or we can do it fast, but not both. Shortcuts lead only to surface restorations that hide a lot of inner damage that works their way back to the surface, eventually. Having a judgmental attitude often only encourages others to follow this shortcut salvation of surface holiness.

Finally, connect with the right people. (Proverbs 18:15) While backyard mechanics always think they know everything, they frequently don't know as much as they think. They really need to drop the pride and seek expert advice and outsource when necessary. Those that only teach one dimension of holiness, are no better than the mechanics that paint over rust. So they are definitely not the right people. If you can't find the right people, then read the right books.

Our immortal soul is far more important in the long run than the proverbial dream car that I used as a comparison. But do you treat it that way? What do you really want for your Christian walk, a show-quality life that delights and inspires others to seek holiness as well? Or will you settle for an unfinished project that is but an eye sore for the neighbors? The choice is up to you.

The Visual PARABLEist