The Poison of Grace

See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled. (Hebrews 12:15)

I spent a little time looking up some of these words this morning and also where and how they are used elsewhere in the New Testament. I did not find anything very unusual from the word root; it seemed to be pretty straightforward in meaning just what it says, a root of a plant. This fits well with the meaning of trouble which can mean to crowd in. But the application here as something that can defile or contaminate many others would tell me that potentially this root contains something poisonous or dangerous, at least to some degree. However, when I looked up the uses for the Greek word translated comes short, I found a couple very interesting links that shed light on its relationship here to the grace of God.

First of all I found a similar phrase in Romans that parallels this one in Hebrews and also expands what it is that we come short of from God's perspective.

But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:21-23)

I have been learning more and more about what the true meaning of glory is even though I know there is much farther to go. Given the similarity in these passages I see two things: first that God's grace and God's glory are either very similar or are in fact one and the same thing, at least in part and secondly, I see that quite likely sin is the opposite of grace and glory. Sin is to glory and grace like darkness is to light; it is the absence of it. Therefore, when we fail to enter into the presence of God's glory or come short of accepting His grace that condition of lack in our heart is called sin.

I believe this is a far more accurate description of sin in place of the typical ideas of sin as external acts of disobedience to rules and standards. That has been the favored definition of sin for many centuries but fails to address the root of the problem, the internal heart issues that produce those outward symptoms. Simply cutting off the shoots that spring up from bitter roots repeatedly is not the method that effectively deals with sin in our lives, that is nothing more than a lot of hard work that both exhausts us and drives us to despair eventually. The roots are hidden out of sight, they are the internal causes, the false ideas and beliefs about ourselves and God buried in the heart that are not so apparent and therefore are often ignored in favor of attempted behavior management. But if the roots of bitterness are exposed to the grace and glory of God they will be eliminated or transformed and will no longer be a source of poison to infect us and those around us.

A couple days ago something came to my mind along this line that I quickly wrote down so I could remember it. Grace is the poison that kills the roots of bitterness. It is also possible that grace – or the glory of God, they likely are overlapping – can transform those roots into springs of living water producing life instead of death, to mix the metaphor.

One reason this may have come to my mind is that years ago I used to work during the summer in Texas killing trees for paper companies. Our job was to load up a tank of poison on our back which was attached to a special hatchet with a hose. The liquid traveled through the hose up through the handle in the hatchet to a spring-loaded piston in the head of the hatchet. Whenever we would strike the side of a tree and open up the bark with the hatchet, the poison would be squirted into the cut and would eventually be drawn down into the roots of the tree through the sap system and would cause the tree to die. We had to pay particular attention to completely ring certain species of trees with cuts that were all at the same height or they might survive the assault and keep on growing.

The reason we were sent in to poison most of the trees was so that a year or two later the only trees left standing would be the ones that the companies wanted to harvest for paper. The rest of the trees would all be dead and would be easy to get out of the way so they could harvest more easily. Then after all the cutting was finished some of us were sent back in to plant a new crop of pine trees to start the harvest cycle all over again.

In a strange sense, I realized that grace is like the poison that we used to kill the roots of those unwanted trees. Even though some of the trees were very hearty and vigorous in their resistance to our plans, if we were thorough in our application then the roots would fail to produce the life needed to keep the unwanted trees alive and the forest would dramatically be changed in its composition.

The same could be said in my own life. As I become more and more exposed to the reality of the glory of God and become infected with His grace and goodness, the roots that feed my bitterness and outward symptoms of sin begin to die and the landscape of my life slowly becomes more externally changed. It may take awhile for the results to be seen, but if I am faithful to continually receive the antidote from God, which is poison to the bitter roots, then the “poison of grace” will accomplish its work and the glory of God will become more clearly seen reflected in my own life.

Another text was found in my research this morning in the same book as the one I am studying. It also had some important insights to add to my understanding of this verse.

Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. (Hebrews 4:1-2)

What I see in these verses in relation to roots of bitterness and the effect of grace to neutralize them is that I need to respond to it by uniting faith to what is coming to me from God. If I choose to respond by believing what I am learning about God's grace and glory and allow it to affect me at the heart level, then I will find that I can enter into His rest (which is another word that is mostly understood in religion). This rest is the internal rest of soul and heart that is often referred to by Jesus as His peace.

But just like the Israelites talked about throughout the book of Hebrews who failed to enter into the rest of God because of their stubborn externalism and resistance to believing in His love and grace, I am always in danger of focusing too much on an external symptom-oriented religion instead of allowing His grace and glory to fill me with peace and rest no matter what circumstances are going on around me. I am realizing more and more the importance of spending time just resting in God's presence, contemplating the aspects of His character and glory and allowing Him to ravish me in His love and grace instead of constantly trying to stay busy with my left brain analysis or being distracted with a formula religion. I need to know from my heart what real rest is and what it can do to transform my spirit and attitudes if I allow it time and space to work in my life.

God, I choose to just sit quietly and listen to whatever you want to share with me, even if it is not something that can be formulated into words. I want to enter into Your rest, and I choose to put away all my own thoughts and imaginations as much as possible for a few moments and try to focus on whatever You want to communicate to my heart. Most of the time the things of the heart cannot be analyzed or quantified by my intellect, but I know that if I continue to expose myself with an open heart to Your presence and Your glory, my mind always appreciates the effects that come out of that experience and the time invested with You in intimacy. Set the tone of my heart this morning so that You may have more open access to my mind and influence my spirit all throughout this day. I ask You to use me as a channel of Your grace to help neutralize the poison from other people's bitter roots. Poison my roots of bitterness with Your grace and replace them with springs of joy. Demonstrate Your glory through me today for Your reputation's sake.

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Immoral and Godless 2

...that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. (Hebrews 12:16)

Yesterday I pointed out that a person who is immoral is not necessarily so sexually, even though that is usually how we view immorality. But the fact also remains that many times immorality does involve sexual issues. But my question is, what lies behind this? What is the real reason behind a person giving their sexuality over to another or even to a sexual activity without another person directly involved? What drives people's cravings for things of this nature that are outside of what God's will is for us? When all the condemnation is pushed aside that is usually present in this discussion, what is the real heart issues that drive so many into this trap?

Again, the timing is right on target so well that I have to believe that God arranged it. The devotional reading from Jon Pauline's book this morning was about this very subject and covered it so well that I saw this verse from yet a better perspective. Jon was commenting on the story of Balaam, Balak and the time when the Children of Israel were led into disconnecting from God's protection by alluring them into illicit sexual activity along with prostituting their allegiance to false gods. It all resulted in the death of 24,000 Israelites in the end and was a painful lesson for them.

What he brought out in today's message was the discussion about what's wrong with sex outside of marriage. Very many people today do not feel that there is anything wrong with enjoying sexual relations between consenting adults, particularly if they believe they love each other and may be planning to get married some day. It just seems that waiting for the “artificial” moment of being declared married before engaging in sex is just simply old fashioned superstition that most of society has outgrown today. That may be good enough for the older, more staid generations, but it just doesn't make any sense in today's realistic world.

This reasoning is very compelling if the rest of the truth is not factored in. But like all really good deceptions, no matter how compelling it may sound it is dependent on avoiding some very important fundamental truths that make up actual reality. Just like the Children of Israel found out in the agonies suffered after their loss of God's protection in the story mentioned above, those who buy into this emotional theory are setting themselves up for tragedies that far outweigh any enjoyment and pleasure they may be receiving in the present. And these consequences are not artificial punishments imposed by an angry, offended God as Satan would lead us to believe. They are natural consequences of violations of natural principles that govern reality just as strongly as the law of gravity holds things toward the earth.

But what drives many of us toward desiring these things even in the face of potential disastrous results? What is the underlying motivation that continues to urge us in this direction even when we agree that it is not good for us? I found the clearest answer in Jon's thoughts today in the following words.

“Promiscuous sexuality tends to occur when people have a low sense of worth. What they do not value they freely throw away.” (The Gospel from Patmos p. 63)

I don't think it could be put any better. What drives the whole industry revolving around the promotion of sex of all sorts is people's lack of self-worth. It is almost always masked behind layers of other issues, but when followed to its deepest core it will always be found that we just don't feel very valuable and our mind believes that engaging in sex with someone will somehow prop us up and make us feel loved or needed or valuable, at least a little bit or for a little while. So we take the gamble and give ourselves away sexually, even if only in our imagination, in hopes that maybe this will cure the deep pain of valuelessness that continually haunts our deepest soul.

Most of this reasoning goes on out of sight below our conscious radar, so it may come as a surprise to some and produce a lot of skepticism in others. But I believe that if we become transparent about what is really going on in our deepest heart that this scenario will be very close to the truth. Satan has embedded this false reasoning deep into our flesh and it feels so good that it is easy to override what God has revealed is for our best good. But not everything that looks and feels good for the moment is really for our best good. The very nature of deception is to act as a trap just like the traps set for animals. The animal is deceived into believing that they can grasp something that will bring them pleasure or satisfy their hunger only to discover that they become hopelessly caught in the overpowering grip of the hidden mechanism designed to ensnare and eventually destroy their freedom or their life. This is the same situation with sexual temptations.

Since the core hunger being utilized to entrap us with this bait is our lack of sense of real worth or value, what is the way we can satisfy this hunger without becoming entrapped? What is the healthy way for us to receive a real sense of value and feel loved and fulfilled? What is the original design for our heart to feel alive and thrive and grow in safety?

It is exactly at this point that I fear to say almost anything, realizing that many, many people are ready to switch off any attention they may still have because of their skepticism at hearing some religious platitudes that don't really work in the real world. I too am very skeptical of religious platitudes and simplistic answers and have spent years looking for more realistic reasons for why life works the way God designed it. Religion has fabricated and distorted nearly everything God has said with the result that the typical answers are often rendered ineffective or distorted.

Most religion makes God out to be the arbitrary punisher who is waiting to pounce on anyone He finds violating His rules and inflict as much pain and suffering as He feels like until He is sufficiently appeased or they are effectively taught a harsh lesson. I strongly reject this notion of God even though it is generally descriptive of the concept of Him that I grew up with. I have been increasingly aware over the past few years that these are all the lies of Satan to keep me blinded to the true beauty and attractiveness of the real God and I am determined to get past the huge smokescreen of lies and see the true glory behind all the smoke and mirrors of the enemy.

So what does this have to do with immorality and Esau and roots of bitterness? What I suddenly saw this morning when I again came to this text after reading Jon's thoughts on the problems with promiscuity was the realization that Esau did not really have a sense of real worth deep inside of him from a trust in God. His life revolved around a worth based only on his externals and a dependence on himself to take care of life with little regard for what God thought about him. Consequently, being disconnected from God he lost the only valid source of real worth and so was condemned to a life of intense activity to look after his own life in any way he could. He lived for the moment, for whatever would make him feel good today and whatever would fix his immediate pain without reference to God's view of reality or even what might happen in the future.

This text says that Esau was both immoral and godless. I now see that the two very clearly go together. Because God is the only reliable source of a real and lasting sense of value at our deepest core, when we disconnect from God as our source we become godless. That is not to say that we have no gods at all – indeed we exchange the one true God for many replacement gods that become more and more tyrannical in their control over our lives. But we become godless in that we have discarded the only true God from which we were designed to receive real life from so that we would be able to thrive and live and grow for eternity. To turn away from God as our source of identity and value to anything or anyone else is the very essence of sin itself. And the wages of sin is always death, not because God imposes it but simply because death is the absence of life and life can only come from the one Source of life.

The natural consequences of turning away from the only reliable Source of value and identity is turning to immorality to try to fill the void. Immorality is the counterfeit source of life that attempts in many ways to fill the gap created in our hearts by the loss of real love, of feeling cherished and nurtured by Someone who desires our best good and has all the provisions we need for life. If we do not accept the grace, the provisions for life and thriving that comes from the dynamic Source of all life, then we are forced to look anywhere we can to fill our inflamed hunger for satisfaction. Immorality then becomes the collection of gods that take over control of our life and enslave us in their ever-tightening grip of death. This immorality may or may not involve sexuality, but it will always be some form of false source of supposed life and satisfaction. It can even be religion itself that becomes our supposed source of life and value and identity in place of the real God. But anything outside of an intimate, life-receiving, on-going and growing connection with the Creator God who we were designed to live with will lead us in some direction that eventually ends in pain, loss and eventually death. That is the essence of immorality.

This has been the choice to make for everyone since the beginning of this whole tragic experiment with sin. We will either trust ourselves to the God who designed us for ever-increasing life and joy with Him or we will choose another way that produces disharmony, selfishness and tension. This is the core of the whole battle going on in the whole universe and has now become primarily focused on this planet.

See to it...that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. (Hebrews 12:16) Because Esau did not believe that the birthright from God had any current value for him because of his disregard for God's view of reality, then he was more than ready to exchange it for the immediate pleasure of satisfying his physical hunger for a few hours. Likewise, many who have disregarded God's gift of sexuality for bonding and intimacy in the God-like arrangement of marriage that reflects the original image of God created in Adam and Eve, are willing to exchange it for the pleasure of sexual release or supposed affirmation in an illicit rendezvous or even a live-in situation supposing that they can supplement their need to feel valued through such an arrangement.

But all counterfeits are destined to collapse sooner or later and the evil consequences always far outweigh the benefits when we attempt to extract value for ourselves from the imitation gods of our own making. Disconnecting from God's realities will always tend toward death just as disconnecting an electrical appliance from its power source sooner or later causes it to cease functioning.

But the good news is still available today. Where sin abounds grace much more abounds. (Rom. 5:20) The only thing between us and a return to Life is our choice to receive that grace and allow it to begin the work of salvage in our life. God yearns to save everyone who will give Him the chance to turn their hearts toward His heart of infinite love and passion for them. And I add my own prayers to His desire that anyone who might chance across this will choose to accept His offer of life and restoration for their heart right now.

God, thank-you for your grace and your infinite, unstoppable love and compassion. Fill my own heart with your passion and reorient my mind to see life and others through your eyes today instead of through my misconceptions. Use me as a channel of your grace and attraction so that someone will be willing to change direction and turn to you for real life that never disappoints. Fill me with more of your abundant life so that others will more easily believe the truth about you. You are my God, my Savior and my Lover. I give myself and my heart to you to be filled and satisfied and empowered with your value for me today however you want to do that. Thank-you for revealing more and more of the real truth about you to me over the past few months and years. You are so kind and generous and gracious. Surround me with your constant presence and keep transforming me into thinking, feeling and acting like you do so that your reputation will be improved by the exhibition of your work in my life.

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Immoral and Godless

See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled; that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. (Hebrews 12:15-16)

Immoral or godless – what was it about Esau that made him immoral and ungodly? He is not known for a lot of sexual perversion or even a lot of sexual activity. That is because morality is not primarily about sexual things but is about a state of mind. It has to do with the choices one makes of what is most important to them, where they are going to look to from which to receive life, value and identity for themselves.

One of the definitions of peace from verse 14 is “to set at one again”. This alerts me to covenant language, the term atonement. At-one-ment is all about relationships and the need for having close, healthy bonds with others and with God. And in fact that is what verse 14 is all about. What I see in the verses quoted above is an intensifying focus on the issue of living within or without a covenant bond. It is about the attitude of a person about what they think of and relate to a covenant. Their attitude toward a covenant reveals the level of morality that is within that person.

One reason that morality has become so much associated with sexual activity is because proper sexual activity is supposed to always be within the confines of a covenant relationship with a spouse of the opposite sex. Anything outside of that covenant is a violation of the covenant and is therefore immoral. But sex is by far not the only thing that violates a covenant even though we have come to nearly isolate covenant breaking to sexual issues. As I was saying, Esau is not known for being a prime example of sexual problems like many others in the Bible were, but he is listed here as being immoral. I believe that is primarily because of his callous and indifferent attitude toward the covenant of God with his family.

This whole concept of covenant is so foreign to most of us in our culture that we miss most of the significance of these words. We even have very vague, intellectual ideas of what a birthright was all about and so have a difficult time grasping the deeper implications of what was really going on with Esau. But the birthright was all about taking up the leadership responsibility of fulfilling the covenant terms and privileges that God had set up with Abraham and that was being passed down through the generations. Generally the first-born son was considered the one who was supposed to take this responsibility seriously and pass it along to the next generation – that was the accepted cultural norm. But as is shown in the Bible stories, God often chose to pay more attention to the condition of the heart than the order of birth.

From the things mentioned here the primary characteristic of immorality seems to be externalism. Esau wanted the external benefits of the birthright but scorned the internal morals; he did not want the character, just the power and wealth. When he was rejected (v. 17) he attempted to force himself toward repentance internally, but while he felt extremely regretful he simply had no internal capacity left for true repentance. He had destroyed that ability within him through years of rejecting the work of the Spirit on his own spirit and heart. He is an example of the condition of all who will be lost.

One of our greatest dangers and deceptions is the idea that we can repent anytime we want to. That is not true at all. We do not have repentance as an option lying on a shelf in our mental inventory that we can pull down at any time and utilize whenever things start to get too uncomfortable. That is what Satan wants us to believe so that he can keep us comfortable in our independence from God until it is too late to repent.

True repentance is a divine gift that must be initiated from the outside and must be accessed by a heart that is still capable of responding to the invitation of mercy. We have little understanding of how our heart really functions, but it seems clear that all of us can come to the point without even realizing it where we no longer have the internal capacity to accept the gift of repentance. We have lost the ability to appreciate the beauty and goodness and kindness of God that is the only access channel in our heart available for us to receive this gift. When that point of no return is passed by our heart, we most likely will not be aware of it until much later. But when our heart becomes so calloused and opposed to the truth about the goodness and purity of God's love that all we can believe is the lies about Him promoted by Satan, then the best we can produce on our own will be regret. Repentance can only be received via the Holy Spirit; regret is the cheap imitation that tries to be its substitute. Repentance is a gift inspired by choosing to dwell on and appreciate the beauty of God's character while regret is the selfish reaction of a heart deprived of satisfaction of its cravings for externals, pleasures and rewards.

Godless person in the Greek means someone who profanes a threshold covenant.

Esau's immorality was demonstrated by his obvious lack of value for spiritual internal substance. He only cared about his physical and emotional cravings for externals which always took precedence in his life. This is immorality and is the opposite of what God is like. And if you think about it carefully, the word godless simply means that one is not like God. But it is the character of God that is important to become like, not His apparent external trappings of power and royalty. That is exactly where Lucifer first fell into sin in the first place.

"You were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; you walked in the midst of the stones of fire. "You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until unrighteousness was found in you. "By the abundance of your trade you were internally filled with violence, and you sinned; therefore I have cast you as profane from the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. "Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, that they may see you." (Ezekiel 28:14-17)

Lucifer became Satan because he shifted his focus from internal values and wisdom to external beauty and intellectual prowess. That is the origin as well as the long track record of sin. It is the most common hallmark of the problem that makes up sin and that keeps us confused about reality and about God.

The following verses here in Hebrews continue the theme of external verses internal. It also contains illusions to Mt. Sinai where all the external display of power only produced the old covenant promises from the people that were nearly as strong as ropes of sand. The displays of power at Mt. Sinai interestingly are parallel to the exhibitions on that same mountain years later in the intense retraining of Elijah after his disastrous debacle on Mt. Carmel where he misrepresented how God relates to the use of power. It is an ongoing problem that we have due to our distorted value system inherited through our sinful nature, that we want external power and control but do not want the necessary character and internal structure needed to thrive in that environment of power.

Maybe this whole chapter is building to make the most important point of all – contrasting external power with internal Godlikeness. Power seems to be the greatest tripping point for God's people throughout all ages. And when we are tripped up by the allure of power and our subsequent weakness is then exposed, the great temptation is to afterwards fall into bitterness.

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Assembling Sanctification

See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled. (Hebrews 12:15)

Causes trouble, or trouble you. The original means to crowd in, annoy.

Defiled. To sully, taint, contaminate.

This verse is describing what appears to be the opposite of sanctification from the previous verse. It is distraction as opposed to becoming single-minded and devoted. It is being annoyed much of the time instead of being at peace. It is being defiled instead of being purified. It is being sullied instead of shined. It is contamination instead of cleansing. It is being tainted by sin instead of producing the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Let me look back over the passages I have been studying for the last several weeks to see what is involved in this thing called sanctification. What do I find here in the context that may explain what would be seen in a life being sanctified?

In chapter eleven there are many descriptions of people who were being sanctified. Many of their experiences were very exciting and many were things that most of us would not want to happen to us. But the chapter ends up on a note relating that God intends there to be many people somehow bonded together in this process. Chapter twelve talks about this great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. That certainly implies a group mentality, not an individualistic concept of religion.

Then I see a number of phrases that are likely to be seen in one being sanctified.

Lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us.

Running the race set before us with endurance.

Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

Considering Him who has endured so that we will not grow weary and lose heart.

Resisting and striving against sin.

Remembering the exhortation which is addressed to us as sons about discipline.

Becoming subject to the Father of spirits and receiving life.

Accepting discipline for our good and sharing in His holiness.

Having the peaceful fruit of righteousness become evident in our lives.

Strengthening or lifting our hands and our knees that are feeble.

Making our paths straiter and more level and being healed.

Pursuing peace with all men.

Pursuing sanctification so that we will see God.

Going all the way to accept the grace of God in order to eliminate all roots of bitterness.

These are the things that I have seen so far in this chapter. I was led to this passage several weeks ago to be taught and mentored by my heavenly Father about dealing with my own roots of bitterness. He has been teaching me every day, not only in my exposure to His word here but during the day in my experiences and impressions from His Spirit in various circumstances. I know there is still much more to come, but so far it has been a very rewarding experience for me.

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Poison of Bitterness

See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled. (Hebrews 12:15)

See to it – is this for ourselves or for us to help others around us?

Comes short of the grace – the original meaning of grace is being set up with everything one needs for an abundant and successful life. Coming short of grace then would be failing to receive and utilize that provision. Coming short is also the definition from the Greek word for sin.

Root... springing up – the opposite of pursuing peace and sanctification or a result of trying for those things but stopping short.

Causes trouble – bitterness always causes trouble, not only for the bitter person but for those who become infected around them. It has to do with our sphere of influence. I looked up the word defiled. The Greek word means to crowd in or annoy. That reminds me of the parable of the sower and the weeds that crowd the good plants and starve them out.

See to it – literally to beware, take the oversight. This is implied here as another instruction parallel to not coming short of grace.

Roots of bitterness are the enemy of peace with men and with God. Roots of bitterness if not dealt with will undo everything God is trying to accomplish in our life both with others and with Him. Roots of bitterness not only create trouble and poison but they grow and they spring up. This implies that the roots are lying latent in the ground of our hearts unnoticed but still connected to the soil and alive. Given opportunity they spring to life and produce visible shoots that can quickly grow into very troublesome weeds or poisonous plants. I wonder if bitter roots are what grows poison ivy? Is my bitterness like beautiful green poison ivy leaves that create trouble in the lives of anyone who touches me? I hate poison ivy and similar such plants, I have all of my life. But I never dreamed that maybe my effect on people around me was similar to the effect of poison ivy on me whenever I happen to brush against it. God deliver me from bitter roots today.

One of the things that is so despicable about getting a case of poison ivy, at least for certain people, is the ugliness that it produces on someone's beautiful skin. Of course that is not the reason I dislike it so much for myself, but for someone who has enough beauty to draw attention naturally to themselves it can be a very humiliating experience. Likewise, the poison of bitterness can deface and mar the beauty, not only in our own life but in how we perceive others and even God. Poison is the enemy of beauty and glory.

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Pursuing Peace with All

Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.

(Hebrews 12:14)

Sanctification is the process of clearing roots, leveling and straightening the path (v. 13) and enduring the strain of being discipled by God (v. 5-11). Grace (v. 15) is the provision of all the equipment and strength and resources that we need for this process. But we must make the choices to lay hold of the provisions and exert the muscles of our minds and emotions to tackle the problems. We do this by lifting up our hands in worship and praise to receive the blessings of God and by lifting up our knees to walk forward (v. 12). In doing so we find that we are receiving therapy to strengthen and heal our weak knees (v. 13) and have more and more endurance for discipline (v. 7).

No one will see the Lord. See in the original means, “to gaze upon with wide-open eyes as at something remarkable, not with merely mechanical, passive or casual vision.”

The original word for peace has within it the concept of atonement. We are not only to be atoned to God but are to pursue atonement with all men as much as possible. Peace with all men is the counterpart to peace with God which is sanctification. We need grace from God to do both of these things. It takes a lot of grace to pursue peace with all men. While we surely will not achieve peace with all men, we are to pursue it. But we can certainly pursue peace with God and will never fail to achieve it if we are willing to pursue it and not stop short of the grace provided for us.

What I am seeing in these verses is bitterness verses beauty. It is only in being sanctified that I am able to begin to see the real beauty of God. But sanctification is the process of removing bitterness from my heart and mind. Sanctification is a prerequisite for seeing the beauty of God more fully.

I also see this passage as strikingly parallel to the one in Isaiah that I keep thinking about along with this one in Hebrews. Take a look at the similarities yourself.

"Let every valley be lifted up, And every mountain and hill be made low; And let the rough ground become a plain, And the rugged terrain a broad valley; Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed, And all flesh will see it together; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken." (Isaiah 40:4-5)

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