Covenant Eyes

"If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh." Colossians 2:20-23

There is a story of a young boy who had gotten himself into trouble. He was told to go sit in the corner. When he arrived at the chair, he refused to sit down. After his parent told him again to sit, he refused. Under the threat of increased discipline, he finally relented and sat down. However, prior to sitting, he said, "I will sit, but I am still standing on the inside!" That is pretty funny. Humor aside, this story serves as an anecdote to something more serious. In Job 31:1, Job is giving a defense of his personal purity when he says, "I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman." Job made this covenant because of His knowledge that God could see everything. Therefore, His sin would not be hidden from the Lord. "Does he not see my ways and count my every step (Job 31:4)?" The Bible later records the reaction of his friends. "So these three men stopped answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes (Job 32:1)." Many of us have been like Job's friends and given up talking to somebody because nothing was going to convince them they were full of themselves; i.e. righteous in their own eyes. If we are honest, perhaps we have even been like Job at a time in our lives. Early on in my Christian walk, I attended a church that was heavy into teaching about overcoming sin in our lives. Once, the church made everybody fast from certain things like sugar. Everybody was talking about how they can avoid donuts, sugary cereals for breakfast, drinking their coffee without sugar and so on. You soon realize that sugar is in everything. Then there was a time when they challenged  people in the congregation to be like Job and make a "covenant with our eyes." Therefore, I took on this challenge and tried to avoid lusting. It didn't take long before I realized this was next to impossible. As a young man in my mid 20's at the time, this challenge buried me. My entire focus became, "don't lust." It was like the number of attractive women I encountered tripled. It was hard not to focus on not lusting! I cannot remember what we talked about in church after the challenge was issued, but if other people were like me, there was nothing to talk about. I failed miserably. Come to find out, that was not a bad thing. I should have failed. Enter the Apostle Paul.

In Romans 7:7-8, Paul writes, "Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting." Paul says that sin produced every kind of coveting. The Law said "You shall not covet" and all he did was find more ways to covet. It was no different with my experience with making a covenant with my eyes not to lust. All I found was more opportunities to lust! The same thing was true with fasting from sugar. That is why Paul would also say, "I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death (Romans 7:10)." We tell ourselves that we must discipline our bodies to the point that we rid ourselves of sin because we believe that is what God demands of us. Now, don't get me wrong, we should try and avoid sin. Sin is so terrible that it required the death of God, in Christ Jesus, to pay the penalty for it. However, when all we do is focus on sin, we will only produce more of it. Paul would also write that, "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law (1 Corinthians 15:56)." The laws or covenants we try to impose on ourselves in order to discipline our flesh against sin, only give power to the sin we are trying to avoid! We end up getting consumed by sin. That is why at the end of Romans 7, Paul exclaimed, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 7:24-25)!"In his attempts to overcome sin by subjecting himself to the Law, he only gave sin the green light to consume him. But, he also found the answer to overcoming his wretchedness; Jesus Christ. The Law did its work in Paul; it led him to trust in and depend on Jesus Christ. When a person discovers that Jesus Christ is meeting the deepest desires of their heart through His unconditional love, their focus turns towards Him and the Spirit of God and off of themselves and their flesh. The challenges, fasts, covenants, or whatever religious or self-imposed regulations we submit ourselves to have their place, but they do nothing to stop the indulgence of the flesh or its desire to be indulged. Only when we submit to the rest we have been called to, through faith in Jesus Christ, will we begin to see our hearts change. And when our heart changes, so will our behavior and we will start to indulge the Spirit of God living inside of us.

Consider Job

"Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land  But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”(Job 1:8-11)."

In Isaiah 14:14, Satan, the devil, said, "I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” In other words, Satan wants to be like God. However, what is Satan's perception of what it means to be like God? According to Job 1:8-11, he believes that God is one who provides people with protection and possessions. So, if you were to ask Satan, "What does it mean to be like God?" he may reply that it means, "God is one who protects His people and provides them with possessions." We must ask ourselves, "Is that how we see God?" Do we think God is there primarily to provide us with protection and possessions, among other things? If we are honest, most people would say, "Yes." Think about it for a moment; we have entire ministries under the banner of Christianity that promote this idea. There are entire networks dedicated to the idea that God wants you to prosper in every area of your life. I know I have heard countless times about God's "hedge of protection" or His "covering" around us. Now, don't get me wrong, God has protected and provided for His people, but there are those that act as though this is His sole purpose in their lives. I also believe this is has also given Satan an opportunity to step in and deceive people as well. There are countless ministries out there who teach a different gospel. They have been given names like the "Prosperity" gospel or the "Name it and Claim it" crowd. The followers are constantly "testifying" about how God "protected" them or "provided" for them in some way or another as a means to support false teaching. However, I question if these testimonies are legitimate for one, because many are not. But, for those that are legitimate I wonder if it was truly God behind it all. I say this because I am not convinced God would perform a miracle, if you will, if it is used to support bad teaching that is undermining His truth. But, don't forget that Satan, the unholy spirit, has power as well. It may be him behind some of these events that people attribute to God because Satan mistakenly believes doing these things is what it means to be like God.

Now, I say all of that to say this; if a person feels God is primarily in their life to protect and provide for them, what would they do if all of it was removed? Satan, in Job 1:11 provokes God by effectively saying that if you took everything from Job he would curse You to your face. This could be true to some degree since Job was not indwelt by the Holy Spirit like born again Christians are today. However, Christians always talk about our faith in God as a "relationship with Jesus." Yet, what would it say about that relationship if the physical blessings of the flesh we felt God blessed us with were suddenly taken away? How would we feel if somebody was in our life simply because of the things we provided for them? We might feel a bit used; perhaps even violated or lied to. How do you think God would feel if the limit of our so-called relationship with Him was to the extent He was blessing us with protection and physical possessions? Could Satan go before God and make the same accusations about us that he did regarding Job? Do we only fear God and worship Him because we feel He has a "hedge of protection" around us and has "blessed the works" of our hands? Many Christians today probably don't feel protected or provided for at all when it comes to God because of the terrible circumstances of their lives. Yet, many of those same Christians exude a faith worthy of Hebrews 11. I say this because they know God intimately and personally; they have a relationship with Him which is not conditional on the level of His protection or provision. I do not want anyone to have to go through anything like Job experienced, but I do want everybody to consider what is the foundation of their relationship with Jesus Christ.  Do we truly believe God "has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ (Ephesians 1:3)" or do we only seek after the physical blessings of the flesh that are not promised?

A Blameless and Upright Man

“Then the Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil (Job 1:8)?”"Nearly every time someone brings up Job the focus is on his suffering and moreover how God allowed Satan to test Job. It gives many Christians biblical, albeit anecdotal, support to blame God for their present suffering. They feel as if Satan is picking on them and God is idly standing by letting it all happen. Compile this with the fact that most Christians still believe God is holding their sins against them or, at the very least, believe their sins separate them from God, and you have the recipe for a defeated Christian. When you throw this belief in along with all the trials and tribulations of life it can be tough to see any hope in it at all. However, there is one thing that many Christians do not know about their identity in Christ, but is also plain as day even in this Old Testament verse from Job. Job is 42 chapters long and mostly full of Job’s suffering and his interactions with his friends and with God. Yet, right here at the beginning of the book God says one thing about Job that often goes unnoticed; Job is a “blameless and upright man” in God’s eyes. God may have allowed Job to suffer at the hands of Satan, but it wasn’t because He was punishing Job for his sins. In fact, you could make the argument that God was bragging on Job by allowing Satan to test him. While I can’t say that God is doing this to His servants today, I am sure of one thing; in God’s eyes, all who have placed faith in Jesus Christ are blameless and upright.

In Colossians 1:21-22 we read, “And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight…” The death of Jesus Christ has reconciled Christians to God and because of it we are holy, blameless and above reproach. To be holy means we are sanctified; set apart for works of righteousness. To be blameless means we are innocent, guiltless and perfect in God’s eyes. Above reproach means that no criticism can be made about us; we are flawless! You may ask yourself, “How can this be? I still sin and a holy God cannot have fellowship with someone in sin.” God answers that question. In Hebrews 10:17-18 we read, “"Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.” God knows you still sin, but He has chosen not to remember your sin or hold against you because of the eternal forgiveness we have through Christ’s once and for all sacrifice for sins. Therefore, we are able to “come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16).” Our right standing before God and our fellowship with Him is not conditional on our being able to rid ourselves of every sin, but to recognize we can boldly approach God when we do to sin; not being afraid that He is going to punish us or send Satan to destroy our lives. That is why the Bible says, “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Corinthians 1:9). ”God is faithful, not us! Despite the trials and tribulations of life, we are blameless and upright in the eyes of God just like Job because of our faith in Jesus Christ. The battle with Satan has already been won!