Breaking the Chains of Self-Judgment

SPEAKER 01 : 0:05

So when Paul is telling us why the Jewish people, Israel, missed the message of righteousness by faith, he makes a very, very interesting comment here. Verse 5 of chapter 10, for the righteousness, rather verse 5, for Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, the man who does these things shall live by them. But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way. Do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down from above, or who will descend into the abyss, that is, to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart, that is the word of faith which we preach, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. What an interesting and curious passage of Scripture this is. What does it mean? Well, you see, the people of God, Israel, were given the law by God himself. When Moses came down from that mountain, he brought two tables of stone written with the Ten Commandments by the finger of God. And he gave those commandments to the people. And then he gave lots of other laws as well. And you might say, well, why did God do that? Well, once again, it’s important to explain that human beings are delusional. We don’t know what our critical situation is. We don’t realize that we are a dying breed of humanity, a breed. We are broken. We’re under the power of sin and death. And yet the delusion has taken us that we really are living and have life and own it and can create it. The Ten Commandments were given so that humanity, not that humanity would become righteous by them, but humanity might see its sinfulness by them. But, of course, like all human beings, not just because they were Jewish, Jewish people could not see that. Israel could not see it. And they thought that the commandments were given to them to make them righteous. Now, think of this in your mind, that is, think of it in a very internal way. Remember Romans chapter 2 says that the commandments, the law is written in our hearts. Well, what does that mean? It means that we are aware of right and wrong and good and evil. In our hearts, the commandments, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not covet, and so on, are all sensitivities written within the mind. We know when we’re doing wrong. The trouble is, knowing that we’re doing wrong, that is, having the Ten Commandments written in our hearts, doesn’t stop us from doing wrong, does it? We feel guilty. We feel ashamed by what we do. And we often feel ashamed by what we don’t do. We have a goal to do something, or we have a duty that we must perform, and we procrastinate and we don’t do it. and we’re feeling bad and we start condemning ourselves. Or it’s maybe a long-term project that we have, and we just can’t pull it off. And we keep approaching it and avoiding it. And then comes all the recrimination, self-recrimination. You’re no good. Why don’t you do it? Why can’t you do this? What’s wrong with you? And on we go condemning ourselves. And so we take the outward look, which is the Ten Commandments, the law that is outside of us, even though it’s written on our hearts, and we try to achieve something that is outside of us that would make us feel good. That project we have, it’s outside of us. It’s something that is beyond our reach, and we’re trying to attain it. And if we don’t attain it, then we judge ourselves. Now, I’m talking to Christians about all this now. But here comes these verses that says… The righteousness of faith speaks in this way, do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above. So what is that implying? It’s implying that Jesus is beyond our reach, that he’s in heaven, and that somehow we need to get him down to us so that we can be saved. The idea that Jesus or salvation is out of our reach is what the law is all about. The law of God, written on the tables of stone, written in the heart, yes, but still out of our reach, as it were, is telling us that we haven’t succeeded yet. We’re not there yet. We haven’t accomplished what we ought to yet. We’re not righteous enough yet. We’re not sanctified enough yet. You need to try harder. You need to reach farther. You need to be stronger. You need to be better. All of these attainments and achievements that are somehow beyond our reach. Now, Paul says, do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven to bring Christ down. In other words, do not look upon Christ as someone who is beyond you, that you somehow have to find. And then he also says, or who shall descend into the abyss, that is, to bring Christ up from the dead. And there are many who sort of think today, I could know Christ in his resurrected form now like the disciples did. They saw him after his death. They ate with him after his death. They walked along the road with him after his death, or rather after his resurrection. And I wish I could do that. I wish I could somehow get Christ up from the grave again. All of that, you see, is reaching beyond ourselves. I know this sounds a sort of weird teaching, but this is what it’s implying by these verses. So the next verse says this, but what does it say? That is, what does the Word of God say? The Word is near you. In your mouth and in your heart, that is the word of faith which we preach, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. So this is the faith that Paul is talking about. We simply speak it out before God. Father, I believe in your Son, Jesus Christ, who died for my sins and who therefore took all my judgment from me. I believe that he rose from the dead and therefore I have new life in his resurrection. I believe that you are my Savior, Lord, and my friend because of this, and I will not judge myself even though I have failed in so many of my attainments and sinned against you and tried and tried and yet not succeeded. I am not going to try to bring Jesus down from heaven or bring Jesus up from the dead. I am going to thank you now. that you are with me in all of these circumstances and that Jesus is with me also even now, even though I have failed him, even though I have sinned against him. You know, this sounds so incredibly simple, doesn’t it? But you know, if you’ve had any experience with it, it’s incredibly difficult. Because when we are in the throes of procrastination, when we can’t move off our chair and do what we know we need to do, when we can’t make our plans for that goal ahead of us, and therefore we fail to meet the deadline, the judgment is like a rock falling upon us. But if you say, Father, I haven’t learned to succeed in my project yet. I haven’t learned to do what you want me to do and what I want to do. But I am not going to judge myself. I am going to thank you that you are with me now, that I can praise you and give thanks, that you are with me in this procrastination or in this defeat or in this addiction, whatever it may be. I’m going to thank you that you are with me and not judging me. Now this sounds to our natural mind as if we are indulging ourselves, as if we’re kidding ourselves. But what it is really doing is creating, over time, a peaceful state of mind. Now that peaceful state of mind, brought on by praise, knowing that Christ is with us already, will create a state of mind where, in time, that peace will enable you to act upon your project, or to get up from your chair and do what you need to do. It will help you to say no to that addiction that you have been feeling. Because, you see, faith creates a peaceful state of mind, and the peaceful state of mind in fellowship with God is what will move you forward. But the law wants to tell you to move forward based upon the guilt and the shame that it’s inflicting upon you. You may move forward for an hour or a day or a minute or a week, but it will bring you down ultimately because the law will not create creativity. The law will not create action because it operates on guilt and shame. Think of this then in what you want to do with your life and in how you want to live your life. The issue, first of all, is not what you do, but what you are. And what you are is who you are in Jesus Christ. You are accepted as forgiven, accepted as righteous in Christ’s righteousness, not your own, accepted as reconciled to the heart of the Father, so that you can give him praise and thanks for everything that’s going on in your life, even the defeats. And as you do this, giving thanks to him and praising him, a state of mind builds within you, a state of peace. And that peace is what enables you to act and move forward a little later or tomorrow or whatever. But without it, you’re simply fighting the wind. You will not succeed because you do not first have peace. So this is what Paul is meaning. Let’s read it again, shall we? The righteousness of faith speaks in this way. Do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven? In other words, how can I reach up to heaven and get what I need from heaven? That is, to bring Christ down from above. Or who will descend into the abyss? Who will get down in the dead where Christ is and bring him up and resurrect him for me so that I can have his presence now? Who will descend into the abyss? That is, to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near me, in your mouth and in your heart. And that is what you can say and know right now, this very moment. Father, I thank you that you are my God and Savior and you do not judge me. Therefore, I will not judge myself. How the Gospel Happens If you would like to support the program, it would be so much appreciated. You can send your donation to Faith Quest, P.O. Box 366, Littleton, Colorado, 80160. Or you can make your donation online at faithquestradio.com. This is listener-supported radio, so I thank you for all your help. See you next time. Cheerio and God bless.