Are You a Righty or a Lefty?

The question I pose today is a simple one, “Are you the righty or the lefty?” Immediately, most people think of which hand is their predominate one. They will then either say they are right handed or left handed. That is not the question I am asking. Instead, I am asking whether you are the man crucified on the right side of Jesus, or are you the man crucified on the left side of Jesus? Before you answer this question, let us take a look at the passage in the Bible.

Luke 23:32, 33, 39-43 says, "Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. . . . One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” 

So there are two criminals that were executed with Jesus. I have often wondered why Jesus was not crucified alone. Why were there two others there with Him if not for a reason? I imagine there is something for us to take away from the exchange between Jesus and the other two men, or it would not have been written about. What is it that we can take from the exchange that would apply to our lives?

For starters, we see the differences between the man who was saved and the man who was not! One belittled and bullied while the other displayed reverence. One spoke out of arrogance, the other showed humility. Finally, the man on the left of Jesus displayed disbelief while the man on the right side showed faith.  This is much like the world. When presented with the message of salvation through Christ, some mock and belittle while others display humility and faith.  

Next we need to take a good look at both of these men. They were being crucified, which was not your average way to kill someone back then. It was reserved for the worst criminals, as well as slaves and non-Roman citizens. Those who were considered to be less than or had done horrific things, that is who was executed by crucifixion. In a way, that is what Christians are today. We are not truly citizens of this world. We also are looked at as less than by some members of this world. We are not as intelligent as they are due to our belief and faith.

Much like the criminal on the right, most Christians realize what we are. We are sinners, we have done horrible things and we are aware that we are not worthy of a better life. Yet, as we wallow in our sin we reach out to the one whom we know can redeem us. This is akin to the dying criminal reached out to Jesus and asking that Christ remember him when He came to His kingdom.  

So to be the man on the right we must recognize and accept that we are sinners and as such deserve death. We must in all humility take credit for what we have done, not trying to blame our sins on others. Next comes faith, for we must acknowledge that through God’s mercy and grace all we have done can be forgiven. Finally, we must show our complete reverence to the King of Kings. We must also respect our fellow man yet at the same time not be afraid or ashamed to speak out when it is needed.  

We tend to focus on the middle cross, since Jesus was crucified there. The middle cross represents Christ, our Redeemer and the sacrifice He made so our sins could be forgiven. What Christ did when he was crucified was the greatest act of kindness ever done for man.  Lest we forget it, there were 3 crosses that day on Golgotha for a reason. We need to remember the other two crosses as well. For the cross on the left is symbolic of the nonbelievers of this world while the cross on the right those who have faith in Christ.

So again I ask, “Are you a righty or a lefty?”

I Killed Jesus

Today I am writing to you about a T-Shirt that I own. I get more looks when I wear this shirt than any other. Today, I had about half a dozen people comment on it and at least 50 people read it then glare at me as they walked past. The problem is they see "I Killed Jesus" written in white and can't read the rest written in gray. This shirt, made by Not of This World (NOTW), is an amazing conversation starter. More than that, it is a statement of truth.

The shirt actually reads, "I killed Jesus & Jesus died to save me ...Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst. 1 Tim 1:15" This is one of my favorite versus, written by one of my favorite authors. It is written by Paul, who had something in common with Prince as they were both formerly known as something. Paul was the Christian formerly known as Saul. He had once been the scourge of Christians. He hunted them down, persecuting and killing them for their believes. He was bad news.

Then something happened. You can read about the road to Damascus in Acts Chapter 9. He goes from following Judaism and hunting down Chrsitians as Saul of Tarsus in the first couple of verses to his conversion to Christianity then full circle to a conspiracy by the Jews to kill him. He accepted Christ and traveled all over the country, going from city to city proselytizing. What a change the Holy Spirit makes!

Every time someone comments on the shirt, it tends to go like this. Someone says,"So you killed Jesus, huh?" To  which I reply, "Yes I did. Jesus died to forgive us of our sins and I am a sinner. So are you. If not for our sins Christ would never have had to die. He died because of us." To which most walk off after saying something monumentally profound, such as "Well that makes sense."

The truth is Christ's crucifixion is the greatest thing that ever happened to man, and yet the worst thing man has ever done. It is the definition of the Taoist Yin Yang, an equality of good and evil. Christ died so that our sins could be forgiven, a one time sacrifice that changed the outcome of our lives. That death gave us grace, unmerited favor for while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Yet killing the only perfect person who had ever lived, the son of God and son of man.......that is a pretty bad deal on our part.

Yes, Christ died willingly. Yes, it was actually the Romans that killed Him based on the request of the Jews. But He came here to die for a reason. He came here to die for our sins. If we do not sin, He never has to be the sacrificial lamb who was slaughtered. Since He died for our sins, by proxy we killed Him.

So did I kill Jesus? Yes, we all did. Romans 3:23 tells us that, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Not just me, not just you but everybody! He died for us all, so that we could one day know eternal life. Now I want to give you something to think on. This is food for thought for today, and I want you to really think about it today as you chew on it. I know that it really struck me today when I thought about it.

When Christ died, it was to not only redeem us but to remove us from the bondage of sin. When we come to Christ, we are healed. Sin is a sickness, and the wage of sin is death (Romans 6:23). With his own life Christ paid that debt for us. BUT every time we sin we drive another nail into Jesus. We kill Jesus over and over again every day. When is enough enough?

So I only have one question for you today: Hasn't Jesus suffered enough?

Scriptures of Recovery - Romans 3:23

I can remember sitting in church the very first Sunday that I went. I had been invited by friends because I was hopeless and stuck in a major depressive episode. I had not been to a Sunday service in 20 years. I had stopped going to church the first week of my 5th grade year. I am exact on that, because that is the week that my mother left my father and we went to live with my paternal grandfather. He was my abuser for the next 1 1/2 years. That is when I had decided that there could not be a God. Don't get me wrong, I had tried church several times in high school. I felt out of place in church and from my sophomore year on I had not been to church other than weddings and funerals.

As the service started, I was already feeling a little more open to what was about to be said. One of the songs before the service was Third Day's "Cry Out to Jesus," which you can read about here: http://spiritualspackle.blogspot.com/2011/07/songs-of-recovery-cry-out-to-jesus-by.html. It opened me up to listen. So there I am, sitting in church actually listening as the pastor, Cal Swenson, gave his sermon. 

I remember sitting next to my friends Nate and Becca thinking that I did not belong in church. Truth be told, I probably did not feel that I deserved friends that were as caring and kind as Nate and Becca. I was looking at them and the people sat around me, all the while feeling that I we all had nothing in common. What could they possibly have in common with me? 

Then Cal read Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." 

I suddenly looked at every one around me, and I felt that maybe I fit in. I was not the only one in there who had sinned. But, and there is that word but, as I looked around I still felt that my sins were far more and far greater than every one else in there. I was so full of self-loathing that I felt my sins completely outweighed every one else's. 

I did not believe in God at this time, but I can remember thinking that even if God was real, my sins were bigger than his forgiveness. I guess that it is really easy to make God insignificant if you have no faith in Him. That does not make Him so, but perception is reality (at least your perception is your reality). Amazing how Paul helped me see that all can be forgiven. His conversion from Saul of Tarsus to Paul and what he was employed to do when he was Saul helped me realize the extent of God's forgiveness, but that is for another blog!

So all sin, not just me but everyone that sits in church. I mean from the pastor to the deacon to the greeter at the door.  Mother Teresa, Ghandi, the Pope, all of the disciples, everyone! I had somewhere forgotten that no one is perfect, not even the people in church. Romans 3:10 expresses this best when it says, "There is no one righteous, not even one."

Sometimes I wish that the people in church would remember that and stop looking down on others and instead love them enough to get them inside of the church. That gives the Holy Spirit the chance to work on them. I believe that we should hold each other accountable, but acceptance in a genuine and nonjudgemental fashion is what will get people to stay so that the Spirit can begin to work on them and recreate them. This is a soapbox of mine, and I will step off of it now and get back to Romans.

So we all sin and fall short of the glory of God. This is a relief, because as a sinner it should make it hard to look down on other sinners. I know that this does not really happen, but it should. As I looked around the church that day, even though I knew that my sin's were more extreme and more frequent, I felt a little more like I could come back. I felt like maybe I at least had one thing in common with everyone in church at New Life. We were all imperfect, and we all fell short of the glory of God. 

Since we all fall short of the glory of God, which I would define as how God intended us to be. We were made to be holy, righteous, and eternal. We have all fallen short thanks to Adam and Eve. That said, it is time that we begin to accept responsibility for out actions. How do we do that? 

Romans 3:24-25 says that we are, "justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood." So Christ was sent to redeem us from our past sins, so that we could be justified. Justified is another way of saying declared righteous. So thanks to God's grace, we are now able to be declared righteous based solely upon what Jesus did for us. 

When Jesus walked the Via Dolorosa on the way to Golgotha, He knew what He was doing. The blood that He shed, from the whipping post to His crucifixion, was all done so that we could be forgiven. We sinned against God, and out of His mercy, love and grace He sent His Son as an atonement. What we could have never done on our own, God out of His love did for us.  

Just so that you do not get caught up like I once did in my sins and never being able to find forgiveness, Romans 3:28 says that, "we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law." That means that we are not justified, or declared righteous by our obedience to the law. Instead, we are declared righteous by having faith that Christ died so that we could live eternally. 

Finally, this is not a ticket to sin. 1 John 2:3-6 states, "We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did." 

So in summation, everyone sins and no one is perfect. Jesus was sent as a sacrifice so that we could be forgiven of our sins by God. We are redeemed of our sins not by our acts, but by our faith. Yet, this does not mean that we are free to sin. If we put our faith in the redemption of Christ, our lives will be directed by the Holy Spirit that resides inside of us and we will begin to live lives that are more and more Christ-like. Ergo, we will live life more righteously and sin less!