Friends: We don’t have to want something when we already have it … as a gift. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1040

October 20, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

“… I Shall Not Want”

By Bob Walters

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” – Psalm 23:6 ESV

The structural center of David’s Psalm 23 (verse 4) reads, “for you are with me.”

Jesus promises, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt 28:20).

Jump to Romans 8:31, Paul writes, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

Here in God’s Word, we see the faith of David, the love of Jesus, and the hope of Paul. God, we can be assured, is with us: He follows us, He leads us, He pursues us.

All we have to do is look to see if God is there.  He is … and He is Jesus.

And He has been very close to us – personally – lately.

My wife Pam and I have been going through a bit of a health “season” these past five months. Well, her more than me, but we are in it together. And Jesus is, too.

Pam woke up May 27^th with upper left leg nerve pain so severe she was unable to walk. The emergency room doctor said it was sciatica. The chiropractor said “I can’t help you, go get an MRI.” The spine PA said, “it has to be a spine issue.” The pain specialist ordered, and sensing danger then cancelled, a spinal pain block. Two different neurology offices declared Pam’s case as “interesting.” Five MRI’s and a spinal surgery later (plus draconian physical therapy, two epidurals, a hip steroid shot, various pills, and blood work), we have ideas but no diagnosis and a train of baffled doctors and providers.

Throughout, Pam has been able to stand for short periods, take a few, slow, halting, painful steps, and blessedly, sleeps soundly, albeit in a pillow-laden reclining chair. She teaches, planted in a tall seat, and gets around school on a red scooter we named “Mario” (as in Andretti, not Kart). The MCA staff and students are amazing: caring, helpful, prayerful, and good-humored about Pam’s current mobility challenges.

I’m saying all this not as a plea for pity but as a witness to God’s closeness and Pam’s faithful steadfastness. Perfectly timed, Psalm 23 popped up this week in my Ray Stedman devotional emails. “Goodness and mercy ... follow[ing] me” got me to thinking.

We all have our “default” setting of how we read scripture and what various verses mean.  It is the strength of the Bible that it can be so all-encompassing and at the same time be so personal.  I have always read “follow me all the days of my life” as though it meant God would stay with me as I aged.  Well, I am old, I guess (so is Pam), but the abiding presence of Jesus is not about our latter days; it is about every day.

This challenging season has emphasized closeness to and trust in Jesus, not distance or disappointment. Hebrew literary structure often locates the main point in the middle of a passage, not at its beginning or end. Knowing that structure dramatically expands our understanding, for example, of Paul’s letters. In the 23^rd Psalm, the important Hebrew middle reads, “for you are with me.” God sent Jesus to “be with us.”

I’m not sure I had previously noticed that this “Psalm of David” models exactly the presence of Jesus in humanity and our salvation in His sacrifice. Jesus gives us what we need, and we know it, as long as we are at his side. We may “want” only healing; but Jesus strengthens our faith and assures our hope. It is not always easy.

This is indeed the “age” of Jesus, all 2,000 years so far. And despite that which is demonstrably against us in this world – sickness, sin, despair, disappointment, whatever – trusting the divine presence of our Creator, our Savior, and the Lord of all truth and goodness, molds the daily, sustaining strength and courage of seasons such as these.

We don’t have to “want” it because in His grace, we already have it.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) (Pam) notes the on-going power of prayer, as the best medical efforts, so far, have been generally ineffective while the prayer of friends and family has sustained her – and us – massively. Nerve block this week … we’ll see.

 

 

Friends, Jesus gave his life, but what did God get out of the deal? Are Christians supposed to be “givers” or “getters”? See the column below. Blessings! – Bob

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Spirituality Column #896

January 16, 2024

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Trading Up

By Bob Walters

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like unto it, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” – Jesus to the Pharisees, Matthew 22:37-39

Are you in church because you love something?  Or because you want something? Because of what you can give, or what you can get?

The greatest commandment, in the words of Jesus above, says our purpose in Christ is to love God and love others.  Jesus came to earth for our salvation because God is love and, in His grace, God is supremely giving.  What did God want?  He wanted us.  He had created us, and sent Christ not to tell us what He wanted, but to show us His love and give us a divine gift: restored relationship with God.

It is a gift we are fools not to accept, and we do not learn the lesson of Christ by sitting in church – or even by “being Christians” – because of some earthly thing we feel we want or need.  God had to give away His son to receive what mattered most in Heaven: the return to heaven of His favorite creation … us.

How many times have we heard someone – believer or non-believer – ask, in whatever words and however phrased – “If God wanted to save us, why go through all that Jesus-Crucifixion-Death-Resurrection business?  Couldn’t God just say, ‘You’re all saved!’ and been done with it?” You could call it, “Snap of the fingers” salvation.  It sure would have been easier for everyone.

Had that been God’s plan, I think we’d be justified sitting in church thinking of what we wanted rather than who we love and what we could and can give.  Because in that case, God would not have had to express His love and grace, and then to join in His eternal life, neither would we.  The lesson of Jesus – our lesson as Christians – is that value comes from love and grace, not from convenience and comfort.

It is maybe our worst modern trait – we think we are owed comfort, simplicity, happiness, and esteem, because that is what the modern world offers us. It is the core of our sin: not to want freedom, but to want free stuff … and easy stuff.  Freedom truly is never free; and freedom never comes without truly enormous personal responsibility.

And our own personal level of responsibility shows up in our own expression of love and grace … and giving.  Remember the famous John F. Kennedy quote – “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country”?  Replace the word “country” with the phrase “God and others” and you have one of the most accurate, Christian, theologically loving propositions of all time.  To want? Or to give.

We live our lives – especially our American, secular, free lives – in the habit of even trade, fair wages, expected justice, due reward, reasonable punishment, a better tomorrow, the occasional calamity, probably some nagging guilt and regret, and most assuredly hoping we “get what’s coming to us.” We are sure it will be something good.

As a sinner saved by Christ … the last thing I want is what I truly deserve.

I’ve often made the point that I first showed up at church not because I wanted anything or feared something; but also, certainly, not because I wanted to give anything.  My own love and grace in Christ were still far down the path, but through time, prayer, study, and fellowship I see that what I’ve received is an opportunity to love with God.

I never see salvation as a purchase or transaction, but as an expression of God’s love.  And from my former earth-bound life, I can’t help but think I’ve traded up.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is thankful, not cocky.

George’s 12-part Coptic Orthodox warning lands this week on salvation’s payment plan … of which – spoiler alert – there isn’t one. See the column below... - Blessings, Bob

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Labels:12 warnings, Coptic Orthodox Church, Egypt, Galatians 2:20,  George Bebawi, grace, Jesus paid it all, punishment, retribution, transaction

Spirituality Column #871

July 25, 2023

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

‘Whoever Says …’ Part 5

By Bob Walters

“It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” – Galatians 2:20

Before we get to George’s tenth warning to the Coptic Orthodox Church  (background HERE), let’s taste-test the retributive and transactional fine whine of the modern secular and Christian age: “Eye for an eye … A pound of flesh … I want my rights … That’s not fair … I deserve it … You owe me … Jesus paid it all.”

OK, that last one – I know – sticks stubbornly in our collective Christian craws and consciousness. But, oh my goodness – and I agree with Orthodoxy on this one – it is a piece of heresy that misdirects all that Jesus did.  Sadly, this profane, unbiblical, divinity-stripping metaphor – “Jesus paid for my sins” – has become basic modern Western Christian doctrinal exposition and belief while having nothing to do with the divine mission of Christ, purpose of God, or the comforting light of the Holy Spirit.  It puts Jesus and us in the check-out lane, not the Kingdom highway.

God is love (1 John 4:8), not a payment plan.  Jesus came to heal us, not buy us. The Spirit comforts us, not guilt-trips us. Payment, purchase, and guilt have become the default currency, human dynamic, and woeful understanding of Jesus’s divine and perfect sacrifice. 

Yes, we are forgiven, redeemed, and our sins are covered.  But, our salvation is not a receipt of transaction; it is the faithful plan, way, and will of God for us to return to His Kingdom.  God does not buy us like slaves, He adopts us like children. Only if we so choose are we slaves of our own love and so let Jesus live in us in faith and sharing.  It is love, not guilt. Renewal, not price.

“Price” puts believers on the wrong path of payment rather than grace.  Errantly, it is how we process the Cross of Jesus and translate it, coarsely, into the gaudy modern aesthetic of transaction.

Anyway … What did Jesus pay? Who did He pay? What did He buy? Here’s George:

“Tenth: Whoever thinks that the Lord paid the price of sins on the Cross, and that the Father has punished him and lighted on him the fire of divine justice; has by this tasted the bitterness of straying away from the Apostolic teachings that the disciple of the Lord [Paul] taught saying, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). He has lost the fountain of salvation, the Cross, the seal of baptism and the chrismation, because he has not been sealed by a seal of punishment and retribution from the son, but by the seal of righteousness, love, forgiveness, and renewal.”

This one is a real jolt for most Western Christians because in all things we think in terms of payment and punishment.  Jesus is different.  Paul says we are not sealed – i.e., restored to life – by God’s punishment, but by God’s love and Jesus’s life and obedience. Today’s culture thinks in terms of price and retributive justice, but Jesus is a divine sacrifice and a gift in grace.  He is not paying God; Jesus is freeing us and opening to humanity the only gate to the Kingdom of God, which is faith in Christ.  His life in us gives us life with God.  We don’t get an itemized monthly bill (thank God).

(And by the way, “chrismation” is the Coptic rite of what Catholics and others call “confirmation,” or doctrinal acceptance into the Church body.)

God – Father-Son-Spirit – wants our faith and obedience freely.  It is not a march of guilt or control by fear, it is the glorious truth joining our lives with God’s love.  We short-sell ourselves thinking we are a tradeable commodity.  No, we – humans – are God’s favorite Creation, created in His own image.  Here’s one way to compare and accept the mystery: I don’t think my own children owe me anything.  I just love them and feel no debt either way.  True loyalty is love, not price.

Alas, we will not escape this miserable doctrine of payment anytime soon.  It is claimed in almost every modern hymn and burbles up in almost every prayer. Why? Likely because payment is easy to understand; grace is not.  Heresy – or even inept metaphors – hurt us, not God, and are a low comment on our righteousness and present joy, not God’s.  Besides, the check – if one still insists on payment – has already cleared.  George’s final warnings eleven and twelve are next week.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), long ago, gave up calculating the value of his salvation.  The coin of God’s realm is thankfulness that returns to us as joy and love.  Praise God; Jesus lives.

George always knew it was one’s heart, not one’s church affiliation, that carries the key to God’s Kingdom.  And he’d fight a church that said otherwise.  See the column below.  Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #870

July 18, 2023

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

‘Whoever Says …’ Part 4

By Bob Walters

“…and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.” Colossians 2:10

George Bebawi and his wife May Rifka for many years hosted Friday night Bible and theological studies at their home in Carmel, Ind.  What was especially fascinating, beyond George’s teaching, was the makeup of the all-comers crowd.

It was completely normal to have Christian ministers, Catholic students, Orthodox priests, Bible scholars, serious Christian church members, and even the occasional seeker or non-believer crowded into their spacious living room.  When George talked, people listened and asked questions, but this was not a debate society. Conversations with this eclectic group during the social time before and after were always interesting.

I describe this because George, a Coptic priest in Cairo in the 1970s and 1980s, first begged trouble with the Church when he allowed non-Coptic Christians to share a Coptic eucharist (communion) he was celebrating.  George knew that Jesus looked at one’s heart, not denominational identity, and George’s faith led him the same way.

This led to rifts between George, who was a top Coptic administrator, and other clergy. George was first excommunicated, which meant the church wanted him gone.  Later George was anathematized, which euphemistically meant it wanted him dead.

Thankfully, inquisitions had gone out of style. When Coptic leadership changed decades later, George was restored to communion in late 2020 before passing in February 2021.

His firm focus on “Jesus as No. 1” helps explain the fourth installment in our series (background HERE) on 12 warnings George issued to Church leaders in 2012.

“Eighth: Whoever thinks that the bishop or priest, etc., are the mediators between himself and the Saviour Jesus Christ our Lord, then he has fallen far from grace that comes from and is given by the Lord Jesus Christ alone.”

This follows last week’s warnings, numbers six and seven, regarding holiness of the clergy and the church. George is now addressing who mediates between God and man.  Scripture is pretty clear: “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ.” (2 Timothy 2:5).  See also Hebrews 8:6 (ministry and mediator superior to the old covenant), 9:15 (“Christ the mediator of a new covenant”), and 12:24 (“mediator of the new covenant”). It is a trap for man to lose the mediation of his soul with Jesus, instead giving it to a fallen, earthly human. Grace is Christ’s alone.

“Ninth: Whoever says that the Patriarch is the head of the Church, or says so in theory, then he has denied the leadership of Christ, the head, from whom grows every member of the body (Col 2:19).”

While this is a fairly direct broadside at the leader of the Coptic Church – there were obvious issues between him and George – we must remember Christ is the head of the Church.  We can look around at all of Christendom and see examples of clergy humbly in control of their mission and acknowledging their roles as shepherd, teacher, and steward.  Sadly, we see the charlatans, too, and those “puffed up without reason” (Colossians 2:18).  Our spiritual growth and faith, are gifts from Father-Son-Spirit, God.  

I am grateful for all the humble but joyous clergy who have directed my steps, so we will close this week with a quote from George’s mentor, an Egyptian monk named Philemon: “You will be humble when you feel the glory of God and realize it isn’t you.”

Amen. More next week.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) especially enjoys refreshers of Philemon’s wisdom.

Friends, Today we address George’s 5^th, 6th, and 7^th warnings to the Coptic Church, which are also good reminders for all of us today. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #869

July 11, 2023

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

‘Whoever Says …’ Part 3

By Bob Walters

“The Spirit who raised Christ will give life to your mortal bodies as well.” Romans 8:11.

We are into Part 3 of examining George Bebawi’s 12 warnings to the Coptic Church that he penned – in Arabic – in 2012.  We explained the exercise in Part 1 (HERE), and today we’re looking at warnings five, six, and seven. George was from Egypt, and the Coptics – “Copt” is the “language of the Pharaohs” – are the Christian Orthodox Church of Egypt founded by Mark (yes, THAT Mark) in the first century.

George wasn’t one to mince words. The modern Coptic offenses he discerned are not always clear in this recently discovered English translation, but his basic theology of the body of Christ and the nature of the Spirit’s work in humanity is stunning.  It is not our task or aim to engage with the Copts, but we take an opportunity to marvel at George’s fruitful mind at work. George’s “warnings” are followed by my comments.

“Fifth: Whoever denies the descent of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity, upon the believers, and teaches the lie that this is the descent of grace only; then he has divided his participation with the Trinity and has lost his eternal inheritance, and even his resurrection from the dead (Romans 8:11).”

In his lesson notes on Romans 8:5-11 (Oct. 8, 2008), George wrote: “Paul does not speak of two human elements which are at war in us, the human flesh and the human spirit. Paul is speaking of the human life and its war against the Spirit, that is, God.” First, understand this life spirit is the Holy Spirit, not a human spirit.  Two, “descent of grace only” isolates “salvation” – our “get out of jail free” card – from the Lordship of Jesus. Everyone wants a savior; many are less enthusiastic about obeying a Lord. Our journey into eternity is only complete with both Savior and Lord.

“Sixth: Whoever teaches that the Mysteries are from the clergy and that they are its source rather than its servant only, then he has denied the priesthood of the Lord Jesus, and he has lost the power and work of the one Mediator and one Lord, Jesus Christ, who alone offers us to the service of the Mysteries that he distributes by himself.”

George here is telling priests and clergy to stay in their lane.  They are teachers, servants, and shepherds, not sources of grace or power nor mediators between our faith and Jesus. “Mysteries” are how George refers to God’s love, life, and truth, our redemption in Jesus’s sacrifice, and the Spirit’s presence in humanity.  God does all that; it is not the clergy’s job to declare or rescind salvation.  Jesus is our priest, period.

“Seventh: Whoever thinks that the holiness of a person is rooted in the episcopate or priesthood, or that the holiness of the bishop or the priest is the reason for him remaining holy, then he has denied his baptism and the chrism, and his participation in the one, holy, and catholic body of the Church.”

“Episcopate” means bishops, and “chrism” is the “oil of anointing” used in various Christian rites of consecration or “dedication to God” which, I think, is perhaps the best definition of the word “holy”: something dedicated to God.  George likely perceived that the Coptic leadership saw itself and its church too much as the purveyor of holiness while not assigning proper and full credit for holiness to the Father, Son, and Spirit.  We are drawn together as the Body of Christ, the Church, by the Holy Spirit, not by man.

Any Christian and any clergy in any denomination does well to maintain proper humility within their servant station.  It’s good advice, and George shared it abundantly.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) recommends “georgebebawi.com” for a deep dive, and offers thanks again to Stan Naraine for curating the site..

This finishes a four-part series regarding the modern church lexicon that gives so much credence to price over grace and payment over gifts … I think it’s a throw-back to the Old Covenant playbook.  Easter blessings to all.  Bob

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Spirituality Column #855

March 28, 2023

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Delightful Gift, Part 4  

By Bob Walters

“Delight is what distinguishes a gift from a payment.” – Ephraim Radner, First Things

What price did you pay to be married to your spouse?

The correct response, of course, is, “I married my spouse for love, for our life together, for our family, and for too many reasons to count.  Price?  My spouse is a delight; priceless!”

That’s the way I think we should approach our relationship with Jesus Christ, and embrace the safe assumption that it’s how Jesus looks at us.  It is relationship too big for measurement, and can only be expressed in love.  And if one could arrive at a material price, to whom would one pay it?  And what, besides love, could the currency possibly be?

Our churches endlessly put forth the notion that Jesus “paid a price” for our salvation in the form of His pain, suffering and death on the cross. The metaphor works as a relatable expression of “one thing leading to another,” for Jesus’s violent death allows our eternal life.

Where the metaphor does violence to our understanding of salvation is in applying the Old Covenant’s measurements to New Covenant grace.  God’s work cannot be measured, while man’s work under the Old Testament Law is nothing but measurement.

God’s Creation and his love are compared to the “stars in the heavens” (Genesis 26:5), the “grains of sand by the seas” (Psalms 139:18), counting “the hairs on our heads” “(Luke 12:7), and as “far as the east from the west” (Psalms 103:12).  When Jesus describes the magnitude of God’s love and generosity in the parables, He speaks of amounts so vast or so small and love so pure no human value can be assigned it.

On the other hand, look at the Law.  Everything in the Law is about price and transaction: payments for this, atonement for that, punishment for this, retribution for that.   That’s the law, specifying quantifiable actions, sacrifices, amounts, cost, price – even locations, worship, feasts, and festivals.  All are carefully described and commanded. 

The Law specifies human transactions to honor God.  Love isn’t in the equation, and neither, you may notice, is freedom.  Why? It is love, not the Law, that breeds freedom.

With Jesus, it is love that is the completely different and newly inserted dynamic in the New Covenant.  If one sees “love” as a “price” for something, one sees love as a quantity, not a quality: as a restriction, not freedom … as an obligation, not a cause for joyous thanks.

And as I can measure quantities, so can I compare yours with mine, keep a scorecard of blessings and sins, and turn my walk with God into an empirical exercise.  I become a judge of “quantities” … oops.  Life with God – you know, eternal life – is life in the quality of divine love.

One may easily notice that measurements and comparisons beget jealousies and factions.  Do I sense that God loves you more than me?  I am jealous.  Or loves me more than you? I am prideful.  In love, I am never jealous of another’s walk in the Kingdom … or station in the world.  The proper posture in Christ is to praise Him, thank Him, love Him, and love others.

And speaking of loving others, rather than comparing ourselves to others, Matthew 22:29 says the greatest command is “to love God, and to love others as ourselves.”  Am I to love myself?  Yes … I am a creation of God and it is my duty to love that which God creates.  It is also my duty to love others, who God also created. It’s not about me; it’s about God.

When Jesus is challenged about paying a tax to Caesar (Matthew 22:15-22), Jesus says “give to Caesar what is his,” i.e., money, and “to God what is God’s,” i.e., love.  Jesus knows that the way of the world is keeping close count on quantities.  Jesus also knows that the way of God’s Kingdom is freely and enormously bestowing love and grace.

Occasionally we see “price” in the New Testament, like the “price” of thirty shekels (Matthew 27:9) the Pharisees paid to Judas to betray Jesus; i.e., the Law’s price of a slave.

Instead, I’ll take God’s freedom and life expressed in Revelation 22:17, “Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.”

Delight may be in the Law of the Lord (Psalms 1:2), but the gift of Jesus is greatest of all.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes: Jesus’s value is too big to be imagined … or priced.

Friends, If life’s purpose is to glorify God, then our proper gauge is our delight, or rather, the deeply personal appreciation of God’s gift: not a payment made on our behalf. See the column below.  Blessings! Bob

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Spirituality Column #853

March 21, 2023

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Delightful Gift, Part 2

By Bob Walters

“Delight is what distinguishes a gift from a payment.” – Ephraim Radner, First Things

 Please forgive my continuing presence on this soap box mounted last week regarding the ubiquitous presence – in modern Christian worship and doctrine – of transaction theology that says it is payment, not grace, that frees our souls.

Disagree?  Count the times in a church service – in prayer, singing, homilies, or sermons – that our salvation is somehow tied to Jesus paying a mysterious price.  Our souls were purchased at a price. Jesus paid our debt.  Jesus was punished for our sins.

No one can point to the recipient of the “payment” – Jesus is already God so He’s not paying God, and I’ll lay great trust on God not paying Satan to “free” us – but that’s our modern, earthly, mercantile, unwavering metaphor for the saving wonder of God’s love, grace, and obedience.  God simply picked up the tab by killing himself. We’re on the payroll.

That rankles me every time I hear it and I hear it a lot.  More details on that are available in last week’s opening salvo (852 – Delightful Gift, Part 1). Today I wanted to fill in some blanks, still holding the belief that my delight is the gift of Jesus, not the lingering guilt of forlorn sin and an unrepayable debt I can barely comprehend. 

Love … I understand that.  Grace frees me … in humility.  Obedience? I try.

First blank to fill … who the heck is Ephraim Radner, author of the wonderful aphorism on the top line above? He was born to a Jewish father and lapsed Catholic mother who himself joined the Episcopal Church at age 14 and is now a priest, theologian, professor, writer … and current occupant of The Back Page column – an institution in itself – of my beloved First Things, a conservative Catholic journal of theology and culture.  I read it because 17 years ago, Russ Blowers recommended it.

The Back Page column is usually the toughest thing in the magazine, if you don’t count the theology arguments in the Letters section.  Radner here (March 2023) is analyzing another philosopher, but notes this: “In a created world, delight fuels the energy of our lives and, rightly understood, marks the governing purpose. Every moment or thing of delight is the incarnate articulation of God’s glory.” 

If life’s purpose is to glorify God, then our proper gauge is our delight, or rather, the deeply personal appreciation of God’s gift: not a payment made on our behalf.

Early in my tutelage under Dr. George Bebawi – my friend, mentor, and weekly Bible study teacher at E91 from 2004 through 2017 – he emphasized the laziness of reducing the love of Jesus to a simple idea of “payment,” “purchase,” or “cost.”

Though perhaps useful as analogy and metaphor, they diminish our potential for deep love and relationship with Jesus.  I don’t remember how he said it, but I’d express it as being similar to being friends with someone to whom you owe money.  That debt is always the first thing you think of, not the love or relationship. I’ve had that experience.

Is it a “salvation issue” thinking Jesus paid a price?  Not sure … not my call.  I would say it is a quality-of-this-life and joy-in-the-here-and-now issue.  Did you ever try to pay someone who didn’t want to be paid?  Or, they try to give you your “grace” back and both parties are embarrassed?  Maybe its unintentional and well meaning, or even noble, as in, “I should pay for this.”  I think Jesus tells us, “We should love for this.”

This is why God loves a joyful giver and, I’d add, a delighted receiver. Joy and love don’t keep score, and delight sweetens life.  In Jesus, we needn’t sweat the payroll.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) years ago tried to find the “paid the price” doctrine in scripture and was convinced only that it really and truly is not there.  That’s next week.

 Friends, If the death and resurrection of Jesus – and our salvation – was all such a great “free gift” from God, why are we always talking about it as a payment? Some thoughts.  Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #852

March 14, 2023

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Delightful Gift, Part 1

By Bob Walters

“Delight is what distinguishes a gift from a payment.” – Ephraim Radner, First Things

It is a Christian no-brainer that our eternal salvation is a gift from God.

We cannot buy salvation.  We cannot earn it or work for it.  We cannot trade for it, debate for it, bargain for it, beg for it, or pay for it.  Heck, before Jesus, humanity didn’t even know to ask for it.  

In the Bible we find the only road to it; we have to “believe” for it: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of your own doing; it is a gift from God, not a result of works...” (Ephesians 2:8). God’s grace and love save us, through Jesus.

And then, we have to love for it. Jesus commanded, on multiple occasions, to love God and love others.  Paul writes, “… If I have faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:2).  Faith, and love … Godly salvation.

The gift of salvation is Christianity 101.  Without faith in Jesus, we are sinners far from God.  With faith in Jesus, we are sinners close to God.  It is a closeness granted to us by the grace of God; we are restored and covered by the righteousness of Jesus. 

We know salvation because there exist in this life – a life of faith in Jesus – the prayerful “heavenly realms” of faith and love that tease and peak and promise relief from our sins, witness the truth of God’s righteousness, and reveal the purpose of Jesus’s life on earth: His mission to restore fallen humanity to our Creator’s Kingdom.

That is the gift: truth in relationship with Jesus and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit now, and grace and salvation in the assurance of God’s love eternally.  It is a gift; we know it.  The Bible never says “pay for it.”  The Bible never punishes us for it.

But that brings up the points – P Points – that are today’s bullseye: purchase, price, payment, and punishment as they regard our faith, salvation, and Jesus’s mission. Salvation is an expression of God’s love; yet we regularly make it a profaned expression of earthly, consumerist transaction in monetary or punitive terms.

How? Well, even though we would all agree it is a free gift and by grace, listen to how salvation is constantly characterized and marketed in churches, sermons, hymns, and virtually all modern and therapeutic Christian theology: “Jesus purchased us.” “Jesus paid a price for us.”  “Jesus paid our debt.”  “Jesus was punished for our sins.”

Really?  Find any of those specific things in the Bible. As general metaphors they work because our modern culture – commercial, moral, judicial – is based on all value requiring payment, and all wrongs requiring restitution.  But that’s not grace; it’s a picture of guilt-ridden, “get-even” transaction that interrupts God’s work of love and faith.

Grace isn’t Jesus “paying a price”; grace is Jesus loving us and obeying God.

Punished?  Crucifixion was a punishment, yes, but Jesus was murdered by those who hated what He said about God’s grace.  Jesus’ death opened our door to heaven. 

If humans understand the loving work of Jesus as only a “paid” transaction, you can be sure humans will try to keep score … on their own judgmental human terms.  No way will that equate to the divine justice of God’s Book of Life or mercy seat of heaven.

My advice?  Delight in the Lord’s grace and live with joy, neither measuring a mythical payment plan nor fearing punishment.  The difference is eternal.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) will fill in some blanks next week.  For now: prove him wrong.

 Spirituality Column #761

June 15, 2021

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

The Rest of the Day

By Bob Walters

“Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, ‘So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ (Psalm 95:11) And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world.” – Hebrews 4:1-11, verse 3

Have you ever noticed that the basic message of God in the Old Testament seems to be “Fear the Lord,” and the overarching message of Jesus in the New Testament is “Fear Not”?

That’s the difference between commandments and love.  God’s commandments are a tribal bond of daily works (OT Law) while Jesus’ love is a global bond of faith in eternal fellowship (NT grace).  The commands represent God’s correction of the first Adam who sinned in a garden, while love represents the perfect rest of the sinless Second Adam who died on a cross and was raised in resurrection glory in a garden.

When Israel – chosen by God to bring salvation to the world – failed in obedience to a commandment of the Law, it was Israel’s proper reflex to fear Godly punishment.  When God delivered our salvation in the perfect person and divine work of the “Last Adam,” Jesus, it was God’s love, not His wrath, that was on offer to whomever believed Jesus was the Christ, the son of the living God.  This was Israel, saving all mankind.

And we come to this wonderful passage in Hebrews 4:1-11, where the writer invites Israel into the new rest Jesus brings; the perfect Sabbath God enjoyed in his perfect Creation on the seventh day.  It is not the temporary rest – the shadow of a rest – as when Joshua led Israel into Canaan ending their time in the desert (Joshua 1).  This is the new, perfect, eternal rest of God, by faith in Jesus.  God’s perfect Creation is renewed by the New Creation of all things in Christ.  This is the point of the entire Bible.

In Christ, the work of the Law was fulfilled and the temporary “rest” in Canaan faded to metaphor.  The Sabbath day commanded in the Law was a reminder to Israel of the perfection, completeness, and good of God’s Creation.  The Sabbath rest offered in Jesus Christ is God’s enduring invitation to all humanity for forgiveness, love, and eternal life.  We celebrate it on The Lord’s Day, Sunday, but its joy is commemorated in the ever-abiding presence of the living Jesus illuminated by the Holy Spirit … always.

God displayed His anger toward the rebellious Israelites by not allowing the generation led by Moses from Egypt to enter Canaan, “the promised land,” and that included Moses.  The Christian believer writing this Letter to the Hebrews asserts the truth of God’s oath of anger, but notes God’s works have been finished since the world’s Creation.  When Creation was “finished,” God entered a day of divine rest.

Think of the last words of Jesus on the cross, “It is finished.”  Just as God rested in perfection on the seventh day after creating man on the sixth day, Jesus was crucified and finished his work redeeming man on the sixth day, resting on the seventh.

By renewing creation through Jesus, God’s perfect rest flows into humanity through the redeeming work of Christ: sins forgiven, iniquities covered, relationship restored, and the trust and comfort of perpetual Sabbath secured in Christ.  Fear not; God’s eternal love for His Creation, not his wrath at sin, wins out in the end. 

That’s not just a rest on Sunday thing; it’s a rest of your life thing.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) notes: “Enter my rest” is God’s open invitation to all.

 Spirituality Column #727

October 20, 2020

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Spirit with a Capital S

By Bob Walters

On a recent, breezy evening at an outdoor celebration, I met a devout man of another faith and engaged in a leisurely and thoroughly enjoyable conversation.

Without argument, suspicion, or disagreement, we discovered much about each other’s lives, families, professions, confessions, and priorities, and encouraged each other in our separate but sincere and life-defining faiths.  Laying aside – ignoring, really – any hint of doctrinal testing or competition for God’s larger favor, we spoke as men and brothers seeking only friendship while sharing mutual respect.  Truly a conversation to reflect on. 

How rare.  What a joy. 

Our chief point of agreement, exposed mid-conversation, was how faith means nothing if it doesn’t first inspire us to love, serve, and generally get along with and nurture our fellow human beings.  God is honored when our relationships reflect freedom, joy, and responsibility, not control, fear, and irresponsibility. 

Much of society seems to have lost especially that part about responsibility.  And a large swath of many different religions, sects, denominations, etc., have redefined freedom as “doing what I want” and “demanding what I get for free.”  This first priority of using and defending freedom to honor God is lost on a secular world of physical desires, human lusts, power plays, fear of death, and contrived spirituality (small “s”).

Freedom is an act of our own will, yes, but it is will freely bestowed by the true God.  We have to aspire to freedom: to seek it, discipline ourselves for it, and prioritize our desires to nurture, share, and respect freedom.  Passive human acceptance of the self-centered but self-defeating ill-behavior of others is not freedom; it is enablement, and never brings joy. 

Happiness and pleasure, maybe; or quite possibly misery and despair.  Not joy.

The default, natural posture of our fallen humanity is to be taken care of, as we are taken care of as young children.  The importance of parents – the moral guideline of raising children – is to instill the desire for freedom, to teach responsibility, to seek the creative and the kind.  It works well in America.  Throughout the Bible we learn, from God’s view, “what works best” for linking God’s true Spirit with man’s God-installed will.

And that is called “God’s love.”  God sent Jesus Christ to be sure we knew that. 

Faith is the trip-wire for understanding God’s intentions.  The purpose of God’s will that we learn in and through Jesus Christ is not only to find comfort and confidence in the truth and proven existence of God, but to dedicate our energies and purpose, with obedience and responsibility – and Spirit – to spending our freedom on God’s glory.

I hope I see my new friend again sometime.  Due to geography, jobs, and relational degrees of separation, our paths would not naturally cross.  And, it is unlikely our families would worship together, but that’s OK.  I deeply thank God for the lesson of how close we can be to, and to love, all God’s people; there is no one He didn’t create.

In this season of wide civic dissension, it was a joyful reminder of God’s grace.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is cheerier talking about Jesus than about politics.