The Story – Luke 15:1-10

Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, ‘This man receives sinners and eats with them.’ So… Jesus told this large assembly The Parable of the Lost Sheep and The Parable of the Lost Coin. 

Jesus’ stories brought to mind ‘the fulness of time‘, a unique phrase from Galatians 4:4-6

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

In our passage we learn something about the nature of this fullness. There is tension in it. Heaven is prone to rejoicing yet the stewards of the Law on earth are grumbling.  And what is the source of their grumbling?

By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, “He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends. (MSG)

This suggests that in the fullness of time those entrusted with God’s Law had missed the spirit of God’s assignment so badly they were persecuting those responding to Jesus who was the actual fulfillment of the Law!  Paul tells us that, ‘Because of you (Jews who were mishandling the Law) God’s name is blasphemed among the nations‘! In attending to the letter of the law they totally missed the spirit of itIn Romans, Paul, a former steward of the law elaborates on it.….

The ‘Jew’ isn’t the person who appears to be one, you see. Nor is ‘circumcision’ what it appears to be, a matter of physical flesh. The Jew is the one in secret; and ‘circumcision’ is in the heart, in the spirit rather than the letter. Such a person gets ‘praise, not from humans, but from God.

In a study of Romans I was recently involved with we had some who thought Paul was a bit hard on the Jewish leaders. They commented, “They had been given the Law and they were simply doing their utmost to obey it.” I suppose in a sense that was true but we have to keep in mind that Jesus’ stories are designed to help us see what we are not seeing. Outward obedience to a code anticipating blessed outcomes was never what God was after. That is what men do with God, in their flesh without the Spirit. We need to keep in mind that it is the heart, and apparently the circumcision of it, in which God is interested.

   Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. (Proverbs 4:23)

The Holy Spirit is focused on the “why” (or the spirit of the matter) while man, in his flesh is hung up on the “what” (or the letter of the matter). God, as He is perpetually endeavoring to transform us into the image of His Son is intent on why we do what we do. This happens along the way as we experience the circumcision of the heart . If we do not we will be destined like the Jews to focus on external obedience and repeat history – misrepresenting God to the very people He is endeavoring to reveal Himself to.

In our Romans study a number of questions came up which I pray we might find answers to. One in particular stands out; Is the circumcision of the flesh a one time affair or is it an ongoing one?

I believe the answer is  ‘Yes!’ Physical circumcision takes place once in a baby boy’s life. It is something done by others to him. Flesh is cut away. I believe this happens once to us as well when we place our confidence in Christ as our new Life. Our rebirth is accomplished by the giving and receiving of His Spirit, something that God does to us – thus accounting for our new hearts which were promised as a part of the new covenant. And while it is a mystery, our flesh was crucified with Christ. In the unseen eternal realm the reign of our flesh is over. It is cut away.

Recall that it was circumcision of the flesh that was the evidence of being a partaker of the old covenant and its Law. It is circumcision of the heart that is evidence of the new birth and of being a partaker of the the new covenant. Also keep in mind that we have been saved and are being saved. I believe in this being saved aspect of our lives (this working out of our salvation) his apprentices will also experience an ongoing circumcision of the heart. Those whose hearts are being formed into the image of Christ will see the scalpel again in the fulness of time when it becomes necessary to cut away aspects of our fleshly life which have yet to be surrendered to His rule.

I believe discipleship itself has itself has been cut away from the normal Christian life in western culture. Living actively with Christ as Lord over our hearts is not well taught or modeled.  Discipleship, for the most part, has become an optional track for those who have been called into full-time ministry or into the deeper Christian life (as it has unfortunately been labeled). It is quite simply more than most signed up for when they asked Jesus into their hearts or performed whatever external ritual to join the church.

Could the widely acknowledged malaise in western Christianity be traced to the circumcision of discipleship away from the Christian life? Could this error account for millions of believers who are anticipating God’s kingdom when they die when in fact, unbeknownst to them, its already here? How are we different than the Jews who were in trouble for their stewardship of the covenant entrusted to them?  Is there sufficient transformation into Christ’s image to prevent His name from being blasphemed by us in our age? Isn’t this already happening?

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

So many of us are laboring in our obedience to live lives that are pleasing to God. If we are to measure ourselves by new testament standards (and not our own present culture’s) there are a few litmus tests we can use. The first one I see is; when God’s will is being done on earth as it is in heaven, joy will always accompany it, (certainly not grumbling).

A second is; persons of questionable character will be drawn to the salvation which they see is being worked out by the adopted sons and daughters whose identities are being altered and whose character is being reshaped, saints who are infected with celebrant childlike joy. Sadly though people will continue to be repelled by joyless lives attempting to comply with the letter of a particular religious code, however hard they are laboring to please God. Always, the Spirit gives life but the letter of the law kills.

Is being a disciple really a deeper Christian life or is it just the normal one which has been, of necessity, cut away from western Christian culture so that we can focus on the here’s and now’s of a temporal material world without troubling our consciences?

Father, We have rejected discipleship for so many wrong reasons and not surprisingly we are failing in Your commission to go and make disciples.  Let ‘now’ be the fulness of time Lord. Let authentic renovation of our hearts take place. Deliver us from all the heart-errors that contribute to our misrepresentation of You. Awaken us and restore to us our new hearts which do not see your reign as a heavy burden, rather as the very Spirit of righteousness who indwells and animates us. Work within our hearts until our realization of being Your sons and daughters spills out into a flood of stories honoring Your holy and precious name.

 

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