DIVINE SUPERLATIVE

DIVINE SUPERLATIVE:

Test me, LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind. -Psalm 26:2

God redeemed the nation of Israel out of Egypt so they could serve Him as “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). As a kingdom of priests (mediators) they were to live such holy (meaning separate & distinct as God’s ambassadors) lives that it would serve to draw the peoples/nations of the world to God.

Israel’s perpetual failure was idolatry – the lifting up of anything to the place where God Almighty is to rule exclusively as Sovereign. God gave Israel a system of living (Exodus 20-32, Leviticus, et al.), which would distinguish them externally from all the other people/nations of the world. But MOST importantly God gave them Himself in the form of His literal and tangible Presence, which not only led them as a pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night, but Who dwelt in their midst, i.e. “tabernacling” with them at the very center and heart of their community.

After witnessing God carve out the Ten Commandments with His own finer, and receiving all the externals (priesthood, rituals, etc.), Moses clearly understood it was the Presence of God ALONE that ultimately mattered – not the rituals, not the tabernacle or future temple, not the land, but God’s Presence.

Even after God told Moses that he need not be concerned - Moses abhorred the thought of taking a literal single step in any direction without God’s manifest Presence leading, directing, guiding, protecting, defending, and tabernacling (dwelling in community). Even after God said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest,” Moses besieged God, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? There is nothing else to distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

In my post a couple days ago, “PRIVILEGE DEFERRED,” I commented on pastor David Tripp’s assessment of our pastoral culture, i.e. there’s a serious inherent and systemic problem. Pastor Larry Osborne begins to address the problem in his book, Mission Creep, where in talking about the moral failures in three of his six mentors in ministry he notes, “...it’s obedience (orthopraxy) that produces proper doctrine (orthodoxy), not the other way around.”

In Oswald Chamber’s devotional for July 24 he states, “The only thing that exceeds right-doing (orthopraxy) is right-being.” Mr. Chamber’s is absolutely right, but we would be tragically remiss, misguided, and wrong to understand this as a graduated scale of correctness - as if to say, “Right-thinking is good. Right-doing is better. Right-being is best.” As Tripp, Osborne, and Chambers all address - this erroneous way of thinking is the epic fail of our Christian communities.

Jesus told Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again from above he cannot see the kingdom of God.” As odd as it may sound, there are atheist Bible scholars who are far more intelligent, far more prolific and successful writers, with immensely greater notoriety and wealth than myself. Bart Ehrman, author of Jesus Interrupted, is a prime example. Ehrman’s skill with biblical Greek puts me to shame. I can’t even recite the Greek alphabet.

Yet Ehrman put all his stock in his own knowledge and skill - not in Christ. It has been said that while Ehrman was working as a professor of biblical Greek at a prominent seminary - the “inherent inconsistencies” (paraphrase) within the Bible led him to reject the Christian faith. What actually happened was that Ehrman’s “faith,” like countless other gifted and talented brainiacs, was born - NOT FROM ABOVE - but from within. Ehrman’s wrong-being eventually undermined his right-thinking and eventually his right-doing.

Just like the Pharisees, scribes, and teachers of the Law, whom Jesus rebuked and corrected - Ehrman (and countless other brilliant, charismatic, dynamic, and influential “leaders” of our Christian communities) relied -not- upon the external, transcendent, divine gift of faith “from above,” but rather upon himself.

As Romans 14:23 reveals, “...and anything that does not come from faith is sin.”

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That’s the real beauty of the Incarnation of Christ; the Presence of God not merely dwelling among us, but literally IN us!  In John’s gospel we read “The Word became flesh and He pitched His tent among us. And we beheld His glory as the only Begotten, full of grace and truth, intimately united with the Father.”  Jesus didn’t simply “dwell among us” as most translations read.  That word (skay-na-oh) means to pitch one’s tent, to dwell as a member of intimate community.

Jesus, the Son of God, Immanuel (God with us), came in the flesh, and pitched His tent with humanity, with us, the rebellious, broken, nasty, slimy, fallen sinners who have repeatedly and perpetually despised and rejected our Creator since Eden’s garden. Then just before the Cross He said “I am going there (His Father’s house) to prepare a place for you.” Jesus ascended, then at Pentecost the Presence of God, in the form of the Holy Spirit, came to forever dwell – IN – those who receive Him to become Children of God!

Jesus told us “unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus was NOT talking comparatively.  He was not saying that we should merely have greater biblical knowledge, more passages memorized, more seminary classes, bigger, badder, and fancier degrees (orthodoxy); or that we should merely do better things (orthopraxy): e.g. refrain from dancing, abstain from alcohol, tobacco, and alcohol, to go on mission trips, tithe 10% of your income, or go to church on Sunday.

Jesus was saying that unless His Presence (the absolute superlative) dwells within – then you are unfit to enter the kingdom of heaven (i.e. His Presence). Did you catch that? Unless you have the Presence of God within - you are unfit to enter the Presence of God. No matter what “good deeds” you’ve accomplished in life they all amount to filthy rags. The prophet Isaiah said it like this, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sin sweep us away” (Isa 64:6).

One of the most powerful and transformative prayers we can pray is “Examine me O Lord.” (Psalm 139:23; 17:3; 26:2) and ask God to reveal how He sees you.  If we merely examine ourselves through our own filters, or the comparative standards of the world, then we’ll end up feeling pretty good about ourselves. But Jesus said, “unless your righteousness EXCEEDS…” i.e. unless we have the righteousness of Christ, the Sovereign Superlative, His Holy Presence, the very Spirit of God dwelling in you… then Jesus says that we are unfit for the kingdom.

When Paul wrote, “Examine yourselves,” in 2 Corinthians 13:5, he wasn’t talking comparatively.  Paul wasn’t telling us to be Jerry Springer Christians who feel good about ourselves because “compared to ‘those people’ (gays, Muslims, smokers, addicts, prostitutes, etc.) I’m doing GREAT!”  Paul wasn’t shooting for political correctness or sensitivity training.  Instead, Paul issues a raw, bare-knuckled, unashamed fish-slap to the face wake-up call: “EXAMINE YOURSELVES! See whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?”

The test isn’t any list of things you’ve done or accomplished; it’s not about what trials you’ve gone through or what you’ve sacrificed or lost. It’s not about your mental prowess or personal piety. It’s about the Divine Superlative – the Presence of God, the Holy Spirit - dwelling in your heat and reigning in your life so that in you and through you Christ is manifest, intimate Christian community is experienced, salt is poured out, light shines in the darkest places, sinners are saved, the Lost redeemed, and God’s mission (“through you all the families, tribes, clans of the earth are blessed”) is joyfully accomplished.

Therefore, let us not only examine ourselves for the presence and good fruit of the Divine Superlative, but let us beseech God Almighty to do so.

Test me, LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind. -Psalm 26:2

Blessings,

-Kevin M. Kelley

aMostUnlikelyDisciple.com

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