2009

We are coming to the end of 2008 and entering into 2009 with great expectation. A revolutionary theological shift that initially took place more than 2000 years ago is continuing to unfold in this hour. Ephesians 2:7 says that God’s intention has been and will continue to be “…clearly demonstrating THROUGH THE AGES TO COME the immeasurable (limitless, surpassing) riches of His GRACE in His kindness and goodness of heart toward us in Christ Jesus”. In 60 AD Paul declared “the dispensation of the grace of God”. The law was slowly on its way out while God’s grace was surging in. And so it is today, especially in 2009.

Many times a new “prophetic” proclamation of a New Year inadvertently implies that God’s grace is peripheral or elementary. These New Year “emphasis” are often drawn from the Old Testament and characterized by an anticipation of what is “coming” and what the church must do in order to guarantee fulfillment. But Old Testament prophets speaking of the “grace to come” were actually pointing to the time we are in. (See I Peter 1:10-12). This 2000 year old outpouring of God’s grace is about the positive, PRESENT favor and activity of a loving God. God’s grace is the ancient emphasis of this hour and has been in every generation! The right direction is not back to Moses, Ezekiel or Jeremiah but to the One they pointed to; “For while the Law was given by Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ”. And while we are not to neglect the Old, it was designed to lead to the grace of the New!

At any rate, after reviewing the last three posts I put up on our blogsite, I realized they were all about position and identity in Christ. And by that I sensed that God might be trying to tell me something (it takes me awhile). In 2009 I believe the church is going to be brought into a greater understanding of what it means to LIVE from its position and identity in Christ. I believe this will happen as the grace truths of position and identity unfold and are built into our hearts by the Spirit of God. They include:

1. Who we are in Christ; a new creation birthed into a new order of existence, sealed by the Holy Spirit, perfect in God’s sight (Hebrews 10:14), righteous because God has placed us in Christ, not because of anything we do.

2.Where we are in Christ; by grace we are in Another, the risen and ascended Lord, hidden in God’s unconditional love and acceptance, seated with Him (resting from our works) in heavenly places (See Colossians 1:22, Amplified bible). Our part is not production, but reception of our life in Christ.

3. What we are in Christ, “no more a servant but a son and if a son, than an heir of God through Christ”, walking in the assurance of uninterrupted favor.

In 2009 I think it’s less about the church “becoming” and more about this new creation community believing who they already are through the finished work of Jesus Christ; “Complete in Him” the One “In Whom we have obtained (not attained) an inheritance…”. So THINK POSITION, it is far more real than our condition, “looking not at the things which are seen (condition, temporal) but at the things which are not seen (position, eternal)”. As we do so, our position will gradually become as indisputable to us as our condition. Scripture tells us to behold as in a mirror who God says we are in Christ and, by faith, walk in more and more assurance; for our citizenship (our reality) is in heaven (our position in Christ) even now!

Finally, the reality (and magnitude) of what Christ’s finished work has accomplished must no longer be made peripheral to the church. As He takes center stage again, 2009 will see God’s love, mercy, faithfulness, and forgiveness increasingly visible in grace-driven missional communities world-wide. For “As He is, so are we in this world”.

Reserved In Heaven For You

When we are saved, we immediately begin moving away from who we were towards what we’ve already become in Christ; a new creation, citizens of heaven. No wonder we are told in Colossians 3:2 to be “…mindful of things above, not on things on the earth…” Paul tells us because of this new focus on who we are in Him, “we do not faint, not CONSIDERING the things which are SEEN (earthly), but the things which are not seen (heavenly); for the things which are seen are not lasting, but the things which are not seen are eternal”. What do we find “up there” in that heavenly sphere that is so compelling, so powerful? “The immeasurable (limitless, surpassing) riches of His grace in His kindness and goodness of heart toward us IN Christ Jesus”. (Ephesians 2:7). As we hear more about these positional truths, the Holy Spirit can take them and empower us to abide above in Christ,  avoiding the temptation to live below by law.  

Increasing understanding of our vertical position reduces the inconsistency between us and our horizontal condition; the two start becoming one. However, we cannot take what is vertical and try and cram it into an earthly, law based horizontal. That which is from above is pure vertical, it is heavenly and uncut. Peter says we are “born anew into an inheritance which is beyond the reach of change and decay [imperishable], unsullied and unfading, reserved in heaven for you,”.

As we continue connecting to our inheritance in Christ we begin breaking away from the gravity of the horizontal plane and the sin consciousness that so easily besets us. “Lift off” comes from our place in heaven of already being and not from a place on earth of  trying to get to. Ephesians 2:6,7 says, “But God–so rich is He in His mercy….HAS raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together in the HEAVENLY sphere [by virtue of our being] IN Christ Jesus. He did this that He might clearly demonstrate through the ages to come the immeasurable (limitless, surpassing) riches of His free grace (His unmerited favor) in [His] kindness and goodness of heart toward us in Christ Jesus”.

Position, Possession And Privilege

It’s interesting to note that through the first three chapters of Ephesians, Paul does not ask anything of us other than, “when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ”. (Ephesians 3:4). It is not until he has completed the incredible catalogue of positional realities in Christ that there is anything mentioned about DOING. He apparently knew that when the grace truths of position, possession and privileges in Christ were built into our hearts by the Spirit of God, fruit would simply manifest.

Paul received the Gospel of Grace which all New Testament doctrine stands and which we, as the church, are built upon. The foundation of Jesus Christ is FULL of grace and truth; it is shocking, it is a scandal, it is a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offense for the self-righteous.

Yet much of the church remains back in a pre-grace, pre-identification, law-based “do” realm. This in spite of the fact that one of the primary characteristics of the grace church is its “verticalness”, its certainty of its heavenly position in Christ. But while lavish in its understanding of “justification grace” the church, generally, is limited in its understanding of “sanctification grace”. Sanctification, in part, is the removal of a law relationship and entrance into a living relationship with God; absolute assurance that God loves us regardless of our performance. In that way, we are certain that our fluctuating condition will never effect our eternal position! As a result, our love and gratitude towards God is always on the increase and creates a union of reciprocation, living no longer to and for ourselves, but to and for Him who loves us and gave Himself for us.

Jesus wasn’t born so that He could begin something that we could complete. No, we are already complete in Him. So this Christmas, live loved. Rest in His completed work. Abide in the Vine. Behold the Lamb of God who took away the sins of the world. He is God’s best and final Word spoken from a heart of Love.

Understanding Grace And Identity

The church’s Source is heavenly; it is from “above”. As we are exposed over time to positional or heavenly identification truths (e.g. who we are in Christ), we can begin to live out conditionally, what we are becoming more conscious of positionally. A foundation built upon the truth of  “The old things have (positionally) passed away”  is transitional to “all things have (conditionally) become new”. The ministry of the indwelling Spirit of Christ takes these priceless positional realities and makes them progressively more experiential in our present walk.

Steve McVey, a prolific blogger and writer, describes some “grace teachers” as those who may understand grace but not identity. He says, “There’s a big difference between understanding the grace of God and understanding who we are in Christ. I’ve read a number of authors whose writings about God’s unconditional love deeply touches me, but they are missing the identity component. It’s a fact that not everybody who understands grace also knows the truth about who we are in Christ”.

People can see themselves as cared for by the Father, but cared for in spite of their shortcomings. It’s having partial truth. It diminishes our new creature status by integrating what comes from “above” into an antiquated, sin-conscious theology. The teachings of law and grace are complete paradigms in themselves and cannot be mixed. Jesus said, “No one puts new wine into old wineskins. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved together”.

Through the message of grace, the church can realize her unique positional peculiarity, her life in the glorified Christ. May He deepen our understanding of the fact that through grace we have been eternally placed in the same life, the same position, the same character of blessing with Him who, as first-born from among the dead, is “the beginning of the new creation of God.” 

Everything Is Different

I haven’t posted in awhile, though I always have something to say about God’s incredible GRACE! However, this might be the reason for the delay. A mom wrote me recently about her son who, as a Christian, had relapsed and returned to drugs. He had also been arrested and was back in jail. She said he was without hope and that he believed because he had “bottomed out” so many times before (and would relapse soon after) that this time would be no different. She asked me to write him in prison. Here is the letter I sent him:    

Hi Steve (not his real name),

You have never met me but your mom e-mailed me and asked me to write you. My name is Jim Hoag and I’m a friend of your family. They are all tremendous people, in fact, they are some of the kindest most loving people I have ever met. My purpose in writing you is to encourage you and I pray that God will use my story to bless you.

After I got out of jail in 1972 and went through my third drug program, I became a counselor and eventually the director of that program. Times were good, but I “fell” again after many years of drug abstinence. I had hit bottom more times than I could count so I felt that this time there was little if any hope for me. There seemed to be an irresolvable divide between who God said I was and the loser I thought I had become.

At the time of my fall I was the director of the largest drug rehabilitation program in Florida, with approximately two hundred live-in residents. Many of them looked to me as a role model, an example of what they could become. But one night in February, 1977, under the influence of alcohol, I flipped my car over three times going 110 miles an hour on a Florida interstate, in pouring rain,  somewhere in the middle of nowhere. I was found by a passerby in a ditch three lanes over on the wrong side of the interstate with the car on fire and a broken back. Miraculously, the roof on the driver’s side of the car had formed a a perfect canopy over my head while on the passenger side, the roof was crushed.  An ambulance came and took me to the hospital. After I arrived, I was strapped down on an x-ray table and told not to move and that it wouldn‘t be long until someone came to assist me. It seemed like forever. But during that time waiting to be x-rayed, I asked God to help me, to get me out of the jam I was in. However, after doing so, I received this clear, succinct, one word answer….. it was simply, “No”. And I completely understood. Even in the condition I was in, it was laser clear, it was as if God was saying to me, “No, that’s not the way it works”. So I said to God, with some (limited) knowledge of the gospel, “Fine. I don’t care what happens. All I know is I need You and that there is nothing to lose and I believe that You are”.

Things got fuzzy after that. But when I woke up in the hospital the next morning, everything was different. When I should have been the most depressed and hopeless I’d ever been in my life, knowing there was no possibility of undoing the catastrophic damage I’d inflicted on myself and others, I was the happiest I had ever BEEN in my life! I know that sounds ridiculous. Especially since I had totaled my car, embarrassed my wife and her family and let hundreds of people down who looked to me as an example. In addition, I would probably lose my job, drivers license and vocational credibility. I mean, what’s to be happy about? Well, when I woke up that morning, something supernatural had happened to me, I KNEW I was forgiven! Not in my head, but in my heart. I knew what I had done was not (I repeat, not) being counted against me. Obviously this was  not on account of my performance, but on account of Jesus Christ’s performance on my behalf. ALL my sins were forgiven; past, present and future. When I woke up in that hospital I KNEW this. I was experiencing the grace of God! There was NOW no condemnation; none, nada.

And as for my wife and family, they were just glad I was alive. My job? Not a problem, I was on a brief probationary period and it all worked out. My car? We got another one. The kids in the drug program I let down? Well, when I finally returned to work in a back- brace and much humility, God just used what happened as a testimony of His faithfulness and proof that He can raise up a ten-time loser like myself and use him as an example of His unrelenting love. (See I Timothy 1:14-16, Amp.).

Well, all of that was 31 years ago. And after the accident, everything changed. I started a bible study in the drug program. And though I didn’t know too much about the Word of God, He sent help and used that bible study in spite of us. Again, His grace and mercy. There’d be 40 or 50 of us smoking cigarettes and praising God. Because of all the smoke, we could barely see each other across the room! And it wasn’t until much later that we finally stopped using some fairly creative profanity as we talked about how awesome God was! Yet over the years that followed, many of those one time “ex addicts” came to faith; no longer “ex” anything but now BRAND NEW CREATURES IN CHRIST! God’s grace draws broken people; it draws them to the One full of grace and truth. They stopped thinking they needed to do something about their lives and realized they needed to trust Somebody. And though I didn’t know anywhere near what I know now about God’s grace, we experienced it anyway; in a way that “passed knowledge”. In that “relapse” 31 years ago, God’s grace mercifully intervened. I stopped trying to get sin out of my life and, instead, received the revelation of the love and forgiveness of Christ in my life.

This is all waiting for you, Steve. See, you are becoming a part of a revolution that is currently flooding the whole earth. You are going to be yet another vessel of God’s mercy, used mightily of the Lord! God’s grace extended TO us, then extended out THROUGH us for His glory. Steve, believe it. And receive it.

Bless you and keep me posted, we’ve just begun,

Jim