Rock of Ages Part 2

Nothing in my hand I bring,

simply to the cross I cling;

naked, come to thee for dress;

helpless, look to thee for grace;

foul, I to the fountain fly;

wash me, Savior, or I die.

Nothing in my hand I bring reminded me of something I was taught while at college. I was taught the concept of “receipting” and no I’m not making it up. Apparently if you want God to heal you or bless you or give you more money you need to do good things like tithe, pray, read your Bible, help the old lady across the street, etc. After you do a good deed you need to write it down. Then when you pray you can show God your “receipt” and tell Him He has to bless you since you did good things. In case you didn’t catch that it’s called salvation through works and probably more resembles the idea of karma than anything Christianity teaches. But what makes Christianity so beautiful is grace. Jesus didn’t heal people because they deserved it! Jesus healed people because he had mercy on them and because they had the faith to receive it. Jesus didn’t die on the cross because we deserved it! There is nothing in my hand I bring but simply to the cross I cling! It would be like if someone brought filthy rags to pay for gold! I don’t come to God with anything in my hand or with any need to remind God of my righteousness. I come clinging to the cross. I come hidden with God in Christ.

Naked come to thee for dress will always make me think of the letter to the church in Laodicea from Revelation 3. “You say, 'I am rich and well off; I have all I need.' But you do not know how miserable and pitiful you are! You are poor, naked, and blind.” God is saying to all people regardless of your material wealth you can still be poor, naked, and blind spiritually. “I advise you, then, to buy gold from me, pure gold, in order to be rich. Buy also white clothing to dress yourself and cover up your shameful nakedness. Buy also some ointment to put on your eyes, so that you may see.” Only God can provide the solution to these spiritual problems.

Helpless look to thee for grace makes me think of Romans 7. Paul says “For even though the desire to do good is in me, I am not able to do it.” We must all recognize how hopelessly lost we are without God, the sacrifice of Jesus, and the power of the Holy Spirit. The church has taught us to be people of discipline. We are told to use will power and discipline to prevent ourselves from sinning. We will do better, but we will never succeed. The only hope we have is that the Holy Spirit will transform our hearts so we can desire the right things. By ourselves we are helpless but with the grace of God nothing is impossible.

Foul… how often have you thought of yourself as foul? You know people say when you’re drunk you’re always the last person to realize it. I don’t know how many conversations I’ve had with intoxicated people who swore they were sober. There are so many people Christian and non Christian who swear they’re righteous but none are righteous no not one. We need a wake up call to see ourselves as we are- foul. And only after we see just how disgusting we actually are we will “fly” or go without hesitation as quickly as possible to the fountain of God. When we see our sin as disgusting we will run from it and allow Christ to save us from it. My favorite line of the song is “Wash me Savior or I die.” We far too often think “I’m a good person.” “God’s lucky to have me.” But the truth is no matter how evil or how good you consider yourself unless you’re washed in the blood of the lamb you will die spiritually in hell the second death. And consequently if we have seen how fowl we actually are we will no longer be able to judge the horrible sinners out there. We would accept what the Bible teaches us in Romans 2 that we are just as bad as those we are judging with disgust. If we could only be people who recognize apart from Christ we are foul we could lose our reputation as judgmental people and be seen as people of love as Christ foresaw.

While I draw this fleeting breath,

when mine eyes shall close in death,

when I soar to worlds unknown,

see thee on thy judgment throne,

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,

let me hide myself in thee.

The Bible is clear that all people will be judged after death. Again we see the same theme of this hymn. On that judgment day I do not come with my own list of good deeds. I do not come saying “you can’t accuse me devil because Jesus forgave me.” On that day I’ll have nothing to say and nothing to offer God. All I will be able to do is look to Jesus and ask if I can hide myself in him. Only by the grace of God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ my Lord will I be saved from sin and hell.

Rock of Ages Part 1

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
let me hide myself in thee;
let the water and the blood,
from thy wounded side which flowed,
be of sin the double cure;
save from wrath and make me pure.

The first point I noticed was the idea of salvation through grace and not by works. Somehow now a days some Christians seem to have an almost Pelagian view of salvation. Of course if asked we’ll all say “grace through faith.” But then we go around saying “maybe I’ll go to hell if I don’t repent before I apologize for some unconscious sin of omission.” Or we say “they’re not good enough to enter heaven, ‘you’ll know a tree by it’s fruit’” Some even get angry when someone on their death bed gets saved without having lived all 80 years as a Christians. I wonder if we’ve actually grasped the reality that it’s only by grace. All I can hope for is to hide myself in Jesus and have his righteousness save me! My righteousness is as filthy rags!

The next thing I noticed is “let me”. It’s not I will it’s let me. Again the idea of respect and realizing I don’t deserve it but by God’s mercy I might be allowed to hide myself in His son.

The third things that struck me was the “double cure.” The blood and water which is to say the atonement and the spirit heals us in 2 ways. First, it saves us from wrath or hell. Our salvation is made possible by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. But the second thing is we are made pure. Throughout history the gospel has been presented as “fire insurance” or a ticket out of hell into heaven. We’ve all heard someone say “I’ll get saved on my death bed.” But somehow people don’t realize that it’s a double cure first from the wrath of God and secondly from sin itself. If you think you have salvation without purity or personal holiness you’ve missed it. It’s a pill that heals your head ache and stops your runny nose. You can’t have one without the other. And furthermore the salvation experience we can receive by grace through faith because of Christ’s sacrifice is a cure not a curse, freedom not slavery, a key not a lock. God loves us and wants to save us, help us, and set us free from every chain that binds us. He makes us pure to save us from what is killing us- sin. Just as much as we come to God to save us from hell we must desire he save us from sin.

Not the labors of my hands
can fulfill thy law's commands;
could my zeal no respite know,
could my tears forever flow,
all for sin could not atone;
thou must save, and thou alone.

I have Jewish friends who work so hard to keep the law but fail continually. They eat kosher, respect Shabbat, never even so much as turn on a light bulb on the Sabbath, honor every holiday, go to temple, fast on Yom Kippor, and so many other things. They’re always telling me “it’s so easy to be a Christian.” At first I was a little taken aback by that statement but then I realized that’s right it’s so easy to be a Christian! Christ died to make it so easy. What I can do myself could NEVER be enough. I’m one of those people who found Jesus very young and never had a rebellious phase. I really haven’t done anything on the big list of no no’s for Christians, but I’ve sinned and without Jesus I’m just as lost as the mass murderer. Tim Keller, my favorite preacher, often says if every word you said was recorded and God judged you simply upon what you actually said at some point in your life was right and wrong you still wouldn’t live up. Even if I am the most “of fire” Christian in the world and dedicate every moment of my life to the Kingdom of God it could never be enough to make up for my sin. Even if I was repentant and cried all day and all night in sorrow for my short comings it could not save me. Only by the grace of God. Only by the blood of Jesus can I be saved.

Hymns

I have a deep love and appreciation for hymns. I was raised in the modern worship music age back when the cool churches were rocking it with “He has made me glad.” Then I moved to Africa where we rocked it with “takwaba” but also “Yama, yama” (What a Fellowship”) and before long I knew far more hymns in foreign languages than I did in English. When I was a teenager Hillsong and Vineyard seemed so much cooler and more relevant than old hymns. As I grew up I started listening to more hymns- really listening to the lyrics. I was awestruck by how deep, how profound, and how beautiful the carefully crafted words truly are. Before long I was hooked. I couldn’t help but recognize that the modern cool feel good songs lacked a theological basis and became disgusted by how the songs were all about me and not so much about God.

In college one of my most hated songs was “Friend of God” because the whole song is me focused instead of God focused. Anyone who has experienced other cultures will recognize that US culture lacks respect. The whole Word of Faith movement where we demand that God give us what we want is unthinkable in most places because it’s so ridiculous. Who am I that I could ever demand anything from the God of the universe. Let’s just think about it for a moment. I support a pastor’s kids through school. I’ve made a commitment to him and I’ve never not made good on it. But that pastor would never dream of coming up to me and saying “Give me money for school fees because you have to!” instead he always comes in humility and asks for my help and he always says thank you. He recognizes that he doesn’t deserve my help but he gets it because of grace. The same is true with us and God. We could never deserve God’s blessings but only receive them by His remarkable grace.

So my next entry will be going through my favorite hymn stanza by stanza to show it’s depth, beauty, and power in understanding Christianity. Can anyone guess what my favorite hymn is?