That's The True You

I journaled on 2/2/17:

Our struggle seeing ourselves as so unworthy, so unlovable, something to be cast off, pushed aside, even burned is deep and pervasive. A friend wrote this morning struggling, feeling isolated, unwanted, worthless. This is gross, but deep down many of us feel like cur, something to be scraped off our boot. I hate dog poop. I love dogs but I hate the poop. I hate having to pick it up in a plastic bag and carry it to the trash can. I nearly gag. I love Wiley, my son’s dog. But the poop…ugh.

I had a little Facebook discussion this week with a friend about hell, whether it exists as a real physical place of eternal separation and torment. Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount speaks several times about a place we translate as “hell” but the literal name is “Ghenna” (Gk) or “Ge-Hinnom” (Hb).  Ge-Hinnom is a deep rift valley outside Jerusalem where human waste, dead animal bodies, and other nasty stuff is thrown and burned in a perpetual fire. When Jesus spoke of “hell” people undoubtably knew the imagery he was using for the fate human souls, if we stay angry or lust (Matt 5:22,30) and more. He said we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless our righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees (Mat 5:20). Wow. Feel condemned? Unworthy? Like a little piece of….? I sure have and at times still do.

But what has Jesus done? He, by his life, “fulfilled all righteousness.” Paul tells us that His righteousness becomes our righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21). And where did Jesus go? For us? Hebrews 13:10-11 “For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.”

Jesus became for us everything we want to scrape off the bottom of our shoe. All the shame, all the stink, all the unworthiness, all the filth and isolation. He, as the only righteous one who ever lived, became our unrighteousness and was essentially burned in hell as human waste/dead animal.

And now we have what theologians call “imputed righteousness.” We “are the righteousness of God.” “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). So yes, we do far exceed the Pharisees and we can thus sprint joyfully into the Kingdom. But what about how we feel today? Our hearts may be  telling us the opposite of what our minds understand as truth from the Scripture. When all we can so is smell the…

“Quick, Find his mother… that baby needs his diaper changed, … and fast.”

Years ago I was taught that in Christ God does not “see” my sin. “That’s nice” I thought. “He’s blind.” "But He can’t be because He’s God." Or "He has a clothes pin on His nose." I was taught that “in Christ” God only sees “Christ in me.” That may be so but all I could see was Allen in me. “Quick, get the clothes pin...  Where’s that Febreze? Anybody got any real dark glasses?”

No, that’s not how our Father God sees or smells. Satan sees, points to it, and literally rubs it in our noses. 

Father sees, knows, picks us up, undresses us, places us in the warm baby tub of sudsy water. Gently washes us sparkly clean, picks us up again and cuddles us to his breast. He then feeds us, wraps us in clothes of pure, spotless, clean-smelling righteousness. He takes that diaper (or lack thereof) and throws it into Ghenna where it belongs. And not only is the baby clean on the outside, but the crying has stopped, the smile has returned, the heart and belly are fully satisfied. And life is as it should be.

That’s the true you.