HOMESICK

“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”    C.S. Lewis

"For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not onlythe creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit,groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. Forwho hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience." Romans 8:22-25 ESV

The saying goes, "there's no place like home." I must confess that I am homesick. I long for home. Home represents a safe place, a free place, a secure place, a place of love and joy, a place of peace and rest, aplace of refuge, and so much more. I left what I called home in San Clemente over a year ago and made my new home in Maui. I confess that felt homesick since the day I came to Maui. But, I have learned great lessons this past year about home. Every day I have been on island I have thought about home and what it has meant to me. I longed for it so much that I left Maui to go back to what I called home in San Clemente. 

As soon as I got there I realized I had no home there anymore. My ex wife was long gone. My kids were grown up and living there own lives. My house of 33 years was occupied by another family. The two churches that I used to pastor had moved on with new pastors. Everything was changed and I truly felt "homeless". I had no home any longer in San Clemente. A deep sorrow and lonliness filled my heart. 

So I returned back to my new home in Maui. Though I live here, I never feel like its home. So what do I do with this longing for home? It is here that I have begun to understand.  

Have you unfulfilled longings that are unsatisfied? Deep inside I think we all feel there is something more, something bigger, better, and grander than what meets the eye. 

We all long for many things: beauty, happiness, joy, love, good health, harmonious relationships, meaningful lives, safety, security, peace, and prosperity. Sadly, most of us have found that we cannot even find fulfillment in these in a fallen world and when we do, we find both that we can lose them in an instant or we find that they in themselves do not satisfy us. 

This is because deep inside we know that there is something more. We join all of creation with this insatiable longing for something more. The apostle Paul says that all of creation is groaning for this "something more" (Romans 8:22). We know what we see and experience is neither ultimate nor is it final. We know there is more.

I believe that all of our longings point to what is our true, deepest, and ultimate longing, which is for a home in heaven. We long for heaven because it is there that Jesus lives, rules, and reigns. Heaven is a world of perfect, ineffable, infinite, and eternal love. Here on earth we see but black and white, but there there is color. Here we live in shadow, but we know that there it is substance and light. Heaven is our ultimate destination toward which we are all moving. 

When we see and experience for ourselves,heaven for what it truly is, we will become aware of how big, grand, and glorious it is in comparison to anything that this world has to offer us. Whatever there was in this old life will be swallowed up by the beauty and grandeur of the real thing. All this will happen because of who is there; we will see God in the face of Jesus Christ. 

We only see glimpses of heaven here, as if looking through a portal; but they are only that, glimpses. For example, miracles and supernatural events and experiences provide such glimpses to be sure. We all long for miracles. I have seen several extraordinary ones in my life. The apostle John referred to miracles as "signs" (Ex. John 2:11,23). Signs are pointers that point beyond themselves to something else.  The feeding of the 5000 was a "sign", for the people who ate that day became hungry again. It is Jesus who is the true bread, Jesus who is the true life. The true miracle of every miracle is Jesus. He is more than a sign, He is ultimate reality and the source of all light and all life.
 Heaven is our true home and the home we really long for. Jesus is the way to it (John 14:6) and Jesus is the destination. So the longing for home iis really a longing for heaven. We want more than healing of our illnesses, more than bread that will satisfy our appetites, more than an exotic trip that will satisfy our craving for beauty and peace. We want more than marriage, family, and friendships which satisfy our deep need to love and be loved. Our longings run deeper than temporary satisfactions.Our deepest desires are not for miracles/signs but for what the miracles/signs point to. We want heaven, we want Jesus. 

C.S. Lewis understood this and wrote, “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”    

May we never make signs and this world substitutes for our deepest longings no matter what good or bad this life and this world bring us. Jonathan Edwards exhorts us to stay focused on the reality of heaven, God, and Jesus:  

 

"The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives. or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but God is the substance. They are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams, but God is the ocean. Therefore it becomes us to spend this life only as a journey toward heaven, as it becomes us to make the seeking of our highest end and proper good, the whole work of our lives; to which we should subordinate all other concerns of life. Why should we labour for, or set our hearts on anything else, but that which is our proper end, and true happiness?"

 

Longing for home,

Pastor Bill

 

 

NO CONDEMNATION!

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Romans 8:1

"Your honor, the verdict is guilty." How often do we hear that in courtroom dramas? How often do you hear a voice in your own mind scream out, "Guilty!"? Do you feel free before God? Are you comfortable before Him? Do you believe that God is 100% for you? Are you holding on to guilt and shame? Do you believe that your sins, even though confessed are still held against you by God? Are you living as a fee person or condemned person? Do you live with deep regrets over your past sins and failings? Have you lost hope for your future because of the mistakes that you have made?

In his book Disappointment with God Phillip Yancey says, “What we think about God and believe about God matters-really matters-as much as anything in life matters.” I would add, what we think about matters- really matters-as much as anything in life matters. 

Some days I forget to live on the rock-solid truth of what happened for us when Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose again from the dead. It grieves me that in this life we will always be sinful and imperfect. Therefore, in ourselves we will always be guilty. Some days I feel so guilty that even when I have confessed my sins I find myself in the darkness of discouragement and depression. I ask myself: Does God still love me? Am I going to heaven? Am I a Christian? Am I saved? 

This why I must constantly remind myself of the reality of Romans 8:1. It is one of the most foundational and the most important things we do in what Paul describes as "the good fight of faith" (1 Timothy 6:12).

Please read what God has to say to you through the apostle Paul in Romans 8:1 ,"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus". 

“No condemnation!” None! Not any at all! Ever! The word “condemnation” has a dark and ominous sound to it. It’s hard to imagine a more sinister, depressing, discouraging, hope-killing word than the word “condemnation.” We hear it used often. We read of someone “under sentence of condemnation” for some heinous crime committed.

The President “condemns” the terrorist activity of 9/11. A dilapidated building is “condemned” by the city and consigned to ultimate destruction.

No less foreboding is the use of the word in Scripture  where it refers to the liability or exposure of sinners to the penal sanctions of divine law; vulnerability to divine wrath, etc. It is the opposite of justification. If to be justified is to stand boldly before God because righteous in his sight, to be condemned is to cower with fear because unrighteous and worthy of death.

When we think of that word and all it entails: the loss of hope, fear of the future, uncertainty of today, shattered dreams, painful separation, etc., Paul’s declaration suddenly begins to echo and reverberate in our hearts with a power and force that makes it feel as if we are going to explode with joy, exuberance, gratitude.

If you are in Christ Jesus, there is no valid reason why you should ever again experience fear or apprehension about your relationship with God or your eternal destiny. That doesn't mean you won't experience such fear. It just means there’s no condemnation if you do! It means there is no valid reason why you should experience fear.

The biblical truth of justification says that my rescue from sin and God’s wrath is a legal rescue completely outside of myself. I am legally absolved of guilt and credited with a righteousness that I don’t have. That is, I am declared righteous in the courtroom of heaven, where God sits as judge, and where I, without justification, would stand condemned by his law. That’s what the word “justify” means: not make just, but declare just. 

We are sinners and do not have a righteousness of our own. That’s why we are guilty and destined for eternal punishment. This is the deepest root of all our misery, shame, and sorrow. God’s gift of justification on the basis of Christ’s blood and righteousness severs this root of misery. 

To make a way for us to be saved, God sent Christ to live a perfect divine-human life, and die an obedient death. In this way Christ became both the substitute punishment for our sins (Matthew 26:28; 1 Corinthians 15:3; 1 Peter 3:18) and the substitute performer of our righteousness (Romans 5:19; 10:4; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:9). Therefore, in the courtroom of God, my guilt for sin is removed by Christ’s blood (“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses” (Ephesians 1:7); and my title to heaven is provided by Christ’s obedience (“By the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19). I am declared just—freed from the punishment of sin and now possessing a title to heaven. This is what the 

Bible means by justification. 

We must remember that justification is by faith alone apart from works of the law. Paul said, “We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. . . . To the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness” (Romans 3:28; 4:4-5). The best news in all the world to the “ungodly,” who grieve under the cloud of darkness, shame, condemnation, unforgiveness, and guilt, is the news that God, by faith alone, counts them as righteous because of Christ. This is the rock where we stand when the dark clouds gather and the storms of darkness, guilt, shame, and condemnation come. Justification is by grace alone (not mixed with our merit), through faith alone (not mixed with our works) on the basis of Christ alone (not mingling his righteousness with ours), to the glory of God alone (not ours). 

The legal issue before God is settled. In the courtroom of heaven, we ungodly sinners 

are declared righteous by faith alone. Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us. We do 

not have a righteousness of our own when God accepts us; we never do. Our faith was not our righteousness. It was our desperate receiving of Christ and all that he is for us. We had not yet become righteous. Instead, with empty hands we received Christ whose faithful life of love perfectly fulfilled the law of God. By faith alone we were united to Christ. And all that he is was imputed to us, the ungodly. This is justification. This lays the axe to the root of our turning justification by faith into justification by performance. God accepts us on the basis of Christ’s righteousness, not ours period! 

This means that right now at this moment God is 100% for you! John Piper puts it this way:

What the Bible teaches is that God becomes 100% irrevocably for us at the moment of justification, that is, the moment when we see Christ as a beautiful Savior and receive him as our substitute punishment and our substitute perfection. All of God’s wrath, all of the condemnation we deserve, was poured out on Jesus. All of God’s demands for perfect righteousness were fulfilled by Christ. The moment we see (by grace!) this Treasure and receive him in this way his death counts as our death and his condemnation as our condemnation and his righteousness as our righteousness, and God becomes 100% irrevocably for us forever in that instant. 

Do you hear this? God 100 % irrevocably for you?! Oh what a difference it makes to be assured, in the discouraging darkness of our own imperfection, that we have a perfect righteousness outside ourselves, namely Christ’s. For you and me there is a perfect, objective, external righteousness imputed to us that is not our own but Christ’s. ,

Living under condemnation actually strengthens and solidifies sin in your life. How? The pressure of condemnation, the feeling of shame, the fear of judgment, eventually become unbearable. You need relief. You are driven to self-pity and eventually to self-indulgence. We despair of ever being free, of ever feeling good about ourselves. Sinning then becomes even more attractive: an outlet, an appealing escape, a way of easing the pressure of bringing some measure of feeling alive and valuable.

No condemnation, not even in the midst of those experiences and trials that tempt you to believe that God is far removed, unconcerned, or angry, experiences such as . . .

Physical pain, suffering

Relational breakdown

Marital difficulties

Depression

Children’s rebellion

Business failure

Rejection by peers

Poor self-image

"No condemnation!"

Why is this declaration by Paul so important? Three reasons:

 (1) Nothing paralyzes as powerfully as guilt/shame. Financial worries, family struggles, physical pain, etc. are hindrances and create pressure in life. But nothing makes life look like it’s not worth getting up for like guilt/shame/condemnation. 

(2) Because the only sin we can defeat is a sin that has been forgiven. There are natural ways of overcoming bad habits: therapy, formulas, will-power, etc. But they invariably produce self-righteousness, not God’s righteousness. 

(3) When you feel beautiful before God, you feel powerful before sin.

Forgiveness of sin, the removal of guilt, with the consequent declaration: no condemnation, must precede our battle against sin if it is to empower our battle against sin. God’s declaration of No Condemnation must precede and enable and energize our transformation into righteousness loving, Christ exalting people. The divine declaration must come before the human transformation. Being right with God must precede doing right for God.

When is it true? – Now! Not when we get older. Not when we get more mature. Not when we overcome all sinful habits. Not when we get past being hurt by others. Not when all our bills are paid. Not when we get a new job. Not when we learn more of the Bible. Not when people start treating us nicely and with respect. Not when we get the praise and public adulation we think we deserve. Not when our enemies stop persecuting us. Not when the wrongs against us have been put right. Not when we’ve been vindicated. Not when we stop making fools of ourselves in public. 

How can this begin to be applied right at this moment in my life?

Here is where I start? I start with my despair. I mourn and grieve inside. I despair because I cannot find any answer in myself. I can find no hope, no assurance, no confidence within me and my feelings, thoughts, and self. I cease from all efforts to look inside myself for the rescue, forgiveness, assurance, and deliverance that I need. I do not allow my feelings of guilt, shame, God's disapproval, condemnation, to rule me and determine reality; I can only in desperation cast myself on Christ. I say to him, “You are my only hope. I have no righteousness in myself. I am overwhelmed with sin and guilt. I am under the wrath of God. My own conscience condemns me, and makes me miserable. I am perishing. Darkness is all about me. Jesus Christ, Son of David, Have mercy upon me a sinner. I trust you.” 

We read in 1 Peter 2:24-25 that Christ “himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls” (1 Peter 2:24-25). His point is that the work of Christ on the cross that delivers or cures us from divine wrath is the foundation for our experiencing freedom from the power of sin in our lives. It is only as we think about and reflect and meditate on the glorious fact that because of his death we will never, ever be condemned that we will find the power and incentive and desire to live as if I were dead to sin and temptation.

Let me drive this home by drawing your attention to how Paul put it in Romans 8:1. Hear me well: you will never “walk in the steps of Jesus” or “die to sin and live to righteousness” or return to the Shepherd and Overseer of your soul until you come to grips with the fact that because of what Jesus has done on the cross there is therefore now no condemnation for you!

What you read in Romans 8:1 ("There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus") is the result of one thing and one thing only. It is the result of Jesus bearing our sins in his body on the cross.

It starts Now!

No condemnation! PERIOD!

Praise God!