It Just Keeps Popping Up
I keep thinking about this justification *(see previous post) and the self deception that arises from our justifications, and it seems to keep popping up everywhere. It's kind of like when you buy a new car, you suddenly notice there are thousands of your particular new model already on the road that you never saw before. Well, lately, when I read the Word, this whole justification thing just keeps popping up.
For example, this morning I was reading in Romans and Paul was asking all those questions about "do we keep on sinning to show how good God's grace is?" and he said, "I'm using a human argument here", and I instantly thought, is that a justification argument? And I thought about it, and yeah, I've actually heard that human argument being made.
I once talked with a someone who had gone prodigal for a while. They lived a life of sin that was harmful to others and themselves, even though they knew full well how this was grieving Holy Spirit. When they returned to the Lord (thank goodness!!!) they justified their choice by saying "well, at least now I have a good testimony", suggesting that God was ok with the choices they had made, because now He was going to be glorified by the exhibition of His grace towards their sin. At the time I did not pay much attention to the conclusion, thinking perhaps it had some validity, but now, in the light of my understanding of our tendency to attempt to justify our bad behavior, I see that as one great big minimalization and rationalization, which is just another form of deception brought about my our own self justification. Perhaps it makes one feel better to excuse and justify their deliberate choice to sin, but they are better served with simple true repentence, which includes actual grief and repentance over our sin. That is when God's grace and mercy gets to be demonstrated!
At another time recently, I was reading Jesus teaching about love. A teacher of the law asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was, and Jesus answered, "to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind and all your soul", and He went on to say, " the second is like it, love your neighbour as yourself" and "wanting to justify himself", the man asked, "who is my neighbour?" and Jesus went on to teach the parable of the Good Samaritan.
I have read that passage many times and never noticed before the comment "and wanting to justify himself" . It struck me that the man knew in his heart that to love his neighbour was God's will for him and he knew in his heart that he was not doing it. We only feel the need to justify when we know we are doing something we ought not to be doing, or when we are not doing something we know we ought to be doing.
I could be reading more into this than is there, but it occurs to me, that the man did not like the feeling of failure, sin and shame that he felt knowing he was not loving his neighbour the way he should, so "he wanted to justify himself". If he could justify himself, those feelings would be eliminated. The man was hoping Jesus would tell him that his "neighbour" was someone easy and natural to love, like his children, or wife, but no, Jesus gave him a natural born enemy instead - a Samaritan. A stranger, a person in need, a person usually looked down about, an unlovable.
This whole justification thing has really opened my eyes to the depths we will go to make ourselves feel better about our sin, even to the point that we deceive ourselves, and highlights for me more and more just how much we need Jesus. Like I said, He is all the justification we need.
For example, this morning I was reading in Romans and Paul was asking all those questions about "do we keep on sinning to show how good God's grace is?" and he said, "I'm using a human argument here", and I instantly thought, is that a justification argument? And I thought about it, and yeah, I've actually heard that human argument being made.
I once talked with a someone who had gone prodigal for a while. They lived a life of sin that was harmful to others and themselves, even though they knew full well how this was grieving Holy Spirit. When they returned to the Lord (thank goodness!!!) they justified their choice by saying "well, at least now I have a good testimony", suggesting that God was ok with the choices they had made, because now He was going to be glorified by the exhibition of His grace towards their sin. At the time I did not pay much attention to the conclusion, thinking perhaps it had some validity, but now, in the light of my understanding of our tendency to attempt to justify our bad behavior, I see that as one great big minimalization and rationalization, which is just another form of deception brought about my our own self justification. Perhaps it makes one feel better to excuse and justify their deliberate choice to sin, but they are better served with simple true repentence, which includes actual grief and repentance over our sin. That is when God's grace and mercy gets to be demonstrated!
At another time recently, I was reading Jesus teaching about love. A teacher of the law asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was, and Jesus answered, "to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind and all your soul", and He went on to say, " the second is like it, love your neighbour as yourself" and "wanting to justify himself", the man asked, "who is my neighbour?" and Jesus went on to teach the parable of the Good Samaritan.
I have read that passage many times and never noticed before the comment "and wanting to justify himself" . It struck me that the man knew in his heart that to love his neighbour was God's will for him and he knew in his heart that he was not doing it. We only feel the need to justify when we know we are doing something we ought not to be doing, or when we are not doing something we know we ought to be doing.
I could be reading more into this than is there, but it occurs to me, that the man did not like the feeling of failure, sin and shame that he felt knowing he was not loving his neighbour the way he should, so "he wanted to justify himself". If he could justify himself, those feelings would be eliminated. The man was hoping Jesus would tell him that his "neighbour" was someone easy and natural to love, like his children, or wife, but no, Jesus gave him a natural born enemy instead - a Samaritan. A stranger, a person in need, a person usually looked down about, an unlovable.
This whole justification thing has really opened my eyes to the depths we will go to make ourselves feel better about our sin, even to the point that we deceive ourselves, and highlights for me more and more just how much we need Jesus. Like I said, He is all the justification we need.
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