Psalm 119:75 states "in faithfulness You have afflicted me." This odd statement by the psalmist makes sense because the psalmist, like all sinners, didn't naturally obey God's law and was prone to going the wrong direction. Put together with the psalmist's previous comment, that before he was afflicted, he went astray (Psalm 119:67), God demonstrates His love and faithfulness by afflicting the psalmist to correct the error of his destructive ways. "There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end is destruction." (Proverbs 14:12) This dynamic certainly applies to believers, who though they are regenerate children of God, they nevertheless require periodic scourging to discipline their unruly flesh. "He scourges every son whom he receives." (Hebrews 12:6) The net effect of affliction should be practical holiness, the keeping of God's Law. "He disciplines us for our good that we might share in His holiness." (Hebrews 12:10) So the psalmist declared, "before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word."
Affliction Leading to Awe of God and His Law
This episode takes the central theme of Psalm 119, "oh that my ways may be established to keep your statutes," and applies it to Christian sanctification. Sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit conforming us into the image of Christ: He gradually conforms our condition with our perfect position in Christ. With respect to the believer's attitude and obedience to the Law, the Holy Spirit cultivates the inner delight of God's law in the inner man (Romans 7:22), making it the governing disposition of the soul, where we love God (and His Law) with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. Psalm 119 describes affliction as one of the means God uses to force the issue of holistic delight in God's Law. Similarly, the Holy Spirit orchestrates affliction to push the urgency of sanctification, hopefully leading to a more exhaustive embrace of God and His Law. God intends that affliction graduate the believer from simply parroting God's Law into apprehending the "why" of God's Law, leading to delight.
Self-absorbed “salvation” and the Body of Christ
This episode concludes the 3-part application of the Nehemiah "half-and-half" strategy to the body of Christ. Ideally Christians should be working in ministry as they deal with their sin issues by being accountable to other believers and relying on their aid to build their "sanctification wall." With respect to sin issues, neglect of accountability/assistance of the body of Christ is sometimes based on an incomplete understanding of salvation. We're saved from our sins for service to God, but many see salvation principally in terms of "saved from." This attitude leads many to self-centered Christianity, in which one's own personal salvation is the objective, not the collective building of the kingdom of God. Not surprisingly, this self-absorbed salvation approach leads to maverick Christianity where sin issues are mostly about oneself and God, and sanctification becomes a "private affair," excluding involvement of the body of Christ. The natural consequence of this opportunist salvation perspective is also neglect of ministry. In essence, a faulty understanding of salvation creates few builders. Is it any wonder that in most churches 10% of the congregation does all the work?
Who’s Commenting on the Narrative of Your Life?
Informed by Nehemiah 4:1-5, where unbelievers mocked the progress of Nehemiah's men, this episode exhorts believers struggling with sin to surround themselves with spiritual saints who edify, even in their rebuke. Too often, believers, particularly those young in the faith, take the judgmental narrative of unbelieving critics to heart and become discouraged and despondent over their apparent lack of spiritual progress. "If a fox walked on top of their Christian wall, it would immediately crumble." But this assessment contrasts sharply with that of spiritual believers, who come along to gently restore and would never condemn the halting progress of a struggling believer. The episode calls struggling believers (all of us!) to surround themselves with godly saints who embrace God's narrative and speak it back to us as we all run the Christian race.
Beholding Christ’s Glory: the Pathway Ending in the Beatific Vision
In addition to rehashing the beatific vision as described in 1 John 3:2-3, this episode expounds on the theology of Paul regarding this issue, mostly from 2 Corinthians 3:18. While Paul acknowledges that the full manifestation of the beatific vision won't occur in this life (1 Corinthians 13:12), he nevertheless strongly suggests that degrees of it are possible in this life. "We all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.." This description matches the MEANS of becoming like Christ in 1 John 3:2-3. Hope (of the beatific vision) fixed on God corresponds with "beholding the glory of the Lord." This means is the ongoing mechanism of being transformed, leading the full manifestation of the beatific vision.
Carnality in the Church can lead to Identity Politics
This episode continues the application of embracing our identity in Christ and addresses the failure to fully embrace that identity in the Christian church. Factions and divisions within the church are sometimes based on Christian carnality in which Christ as our true identity is not urgently pursued. Sectarianism and religious division mixed with politics can lead to identity politics within the Church.
Fleshly Identities can’t compare to Knowing Christ
This episode unpacks Paul's rejection of fleshly identities in which he previously boasted. Identity politics by implication should also be rejected by Christians who count secondary descriptives like race, class, sex and nationality as excrement compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ as Lord.
Christ, our True Identity
This episode unpacks the process of sanctification, in which we progressively abandon fleshly identities and make Christ our true identity. It culminates with 1 Peter 2:9-11 which describes our true identity as a "chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation." This identity puts fleshly identities in perspective, Peter describing Christians as "aliens" who reject worldly lusts. Put together with 1 John 2:16, Christians are those who reject fleshly identities borne out of the boastful pride of life. The implication is that identity politics should never be embraced by a Christian.
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