Reproach and Intercession

For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, "THE REPROACHES OF THOSE WHO REPROACHED YOU FELL ON ME." (Romans 15:3)

This verse and the ones following this that enhance it remind me of a most important revision of a word that I learned not long ago. I heard someone explain from the Bible the true meaning of the word intercessor and it brought a great deal of light into my heart and wonderfully enhanced my growing, changing understanding of the truth about God.

Yesterday I took a look at the context in Psalms from which this quotation was lifted and saw that it describes an identification with God so closely that the insults and reproach directed at Him fall on anyone who identifies that closely with Him as well. I also saw that in applying this principle of identification, Paul is instructing us to treat others around us with such an attitude of acceptance that the reproaches directed at them will be shared by us even though we may not agree with their viewpoints. But in doing so we are following the example of Jesus who identified Himself with all of humanity so closely that we could sense that He really cares about us.

The active ingredient that makes this so powerful is the element of joy. Based on the understanding that joy is the description of what we feel whenever someone is genuinely glad to be with us, Jesus is the perfect demonstration of how to live in the most joy. In Hebrews we are told that Jesus endured the cross and despised the shame for the sake of the joy that was set before Him. That joy was discussed at length in the last hours with His disciples before Jesus was taken away from them to die on the cross. It was the thing He focused on obsessively because it is the part of the human brain that is most important for successfully enduring trauma of every kind.

But what does this all have to do with the concept of an intercessor?

What amazed me the most in my update on the true function of an intercessor was the purpose of intercession and who it benefits and who it is designed to change. I grew up assuming like nearly everyone I know that Jesus was our intercessor for the purpose of convincing God to allow sinners to be saved in Paradise. I was not quite sure how it was all supposed to work, but from what I was taught I came to believe that basically Jesus was running interference for us to give us time to improve our lives with God's help to the point that heaven would approve of us and finally relent to allow us to join the rest of those in heaven.

This assumed belief system or some close variation on it is the basis for what is known as perfectionism and also for legalism. I am very well acquainted with these lifestyles though I have absolutely no desire to be involved with them again. The weight of fear and guilt and obsession with focusing on ferreting out every little supposed sin in one's own life is very debilitating, and the greatest danger in that way of life is the lack of joy and peace which are the most important preparations needed to endure hardship. Those caught up in this kind of fear-based philosophy tend to cultivate to a fine art the practice of fault-finding whether it be faults in their own life or in other's.

One of the biggest problems with fault-finding is that the principle of assimilation cannot be avoided in the process. This principle states that you become like what you dwell upon. So if I spend time focusing on the faults of those around me or even if I am obsessing about finding any little sin within my own heart in order to satisfy the demands of a perfect God in heaven, the undesired results will be that my own heart becomes more and more infected with the very things I am attempting to eliminate.

As a result, the people who follow the plan of perfecting themselves in order to get to heaven by working to eliminate what they believe is sin in their life end up adopting one or two means of making “progress”. They either work hard enough at this to blind themselves to their real shortcomings and end up in a self-deception that is extremely dangerous in the light of heaven and believe that they are far more righteous that how God sees them, or they become very discouraged and depression takes over their soul and spirit as they realize that they can never accomplish the task of becoming perfect. Either way their heart becomes hardened and they fail to grasp the real truth about God's attitude toward them.

Am I asserting that a person can never become righteous in the sight of God? Well, that depends on the definition a person is using for the word righteous. But what I have begun to see more and more clearly is that our real problem is the direction from which we view all of these elements of Christianity, religion, righteousness and salvation. What I have come to see so much more clearly is that for most of my life I have been taught nearly everything backwards, and trying to achieve righteousness or live as a Christian by doing it backwards will never produce real righteousness.

What is most liberating for all of this confusion about how to get right with God and find peace for my soul is to understand the true role and purpose of an intercessor. While it is very true that an intercessor lives for the purpose of changing someone's mind about another person, the problem most of us have with correctly understanding the part Jesus plays in this is knowing who it is that He is working to change or convince.

You see, if I think for a moment that God is the one whom Jesus is working to change in His attitude about me, then by extension I also am assuming that God is the problem that has to be fixed in order for me to get into heaven. It is assumed that if Jesus can do whatever it takes to change God's mind about me effectively enough then I have a shot at being saved under the merits of Jesus' intercession. But is that the real purpose of Jesus as my intercessor? Is He really running interference for me before the presence of God until I am good enough to impress God with my level of absorbed or achieved righteousness?

Putting it this way begins to expose the real fallacy of this kind of thinking. Jesus stated unequivocally that He and the Father had identical attitudes about us. So if that is the case then there is absolutely nothing that Jesus could do to change the Father's mind or else He would be denying that they already felt the same about us. Jesus came to reveal to us how passionately the Father and the Son both love us, not for Him to get tuned into understanding our predicament better so that He could go back and explain things more convincingly before the Father's throne.

So what is the real truth about intercession? First of all we must realize that the one's with all the misunderstanding are humans, not God. The antagonism in this relationship is all on our side with none of it on God's side. There is not one particle of bitterness, resentment, anger or misunderstanding in the heart of God toward us. (Yes He is very angry about sin, but not because He hates us but because sin is the lies that keeps us from believing the truth about His love for us and keeps us away from Him.) Any belief to the contrary comes straight from the father of lies, Satan himself who is known as the accuser. The sooner we divest ourselves of these false beliefs about how God feels about us the sooner we will be reconciled to His heart that is yearning for us to be united in total intimacy with Him.

And that is the whole reason and function of the intercessory work of Jesus. Jesus came for one purpose only – to change our minds about God by any means possible no matter how costly it was to Him personally. We are the ones holding on to myriads of lies about God, not God holding grudges against us that need to be resolved. We are the ones in all the need of intellectual and emotional adjustment by exposure to the real truth about God's constant and irrevocable love and forgiveness for us. And as we begin to accept this truth about reality and begin to believe the truth as it is in Jesus, we will also begin to experience this thing called joy. For joy is the experience that fills our heart as we begin to sense that both Jesus and God are always intently glad to be with us no matter how we feel or even how much we misunderstand or even hate them.

In these verses are described more accurately the role of Jesus as our intercessor. The reproaches and insults and lies that we have believed and directed toward God all of our lives have landed on Jesus, the one who is totally identified with God in spirit and heart. But Jesus gladly accepts all of this in hope and faith that it will open our minds and hearts to see the real truth about Him and His Father and that we will begin to change our minds about how they feel toward us. Intercession is 100% directed toward changing our minds about God and not at all about changing God's mind about us.

The more this truth sinks into my own heart – and I have to say I need to understand it much more clearly than I yet do – the more sense my mind can make of the real reason that Jesus came to live and die on this earth. I am still praying for a much clearer revelation of this truth, but what little I have grasped so far has produced moments of intense joy and amazement for me. It has also discounted nearly everything taught by religious people which continues to be a source of confusion for my heart. But the more focused I am on listening to the voice of God through His Word and His Spirit to my heart, the more all of this makes sense and more importantly the more my heart is warmed and drawn to love Him in return.

I am the object of Jesus' intercession in heaven. I am the one that needs my mind and heart transformed in my opinions about how God feels about me. I am the one with all the lies and hostilities toward God that need exposure and healing. And I pray that Jesus will continue to completion His work of intercession in my own life so that I too can enter into His joy and embrace His love for me unreservedly. Maranatha!

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Bearing Weaknesses, Carrying Burdens

Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, "the reproaches of those who reproached You fell on me." (Romans 15:1-3)

"Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30 NRSV)

I am wondering what these verses mean for me personally. There is so much here and almost none of it is going to happen in my life by my own efforts naturally unless the Spirit does His work in me. But how am I to relate to and perceive the application of these words to my own experience in the context of what I have been learning over the past few days and weeks?

I see in the words of Jesus here how He fulfills the description of what Paul talks about. And it seems clear enough that the example of Jesus and how He relates to me (and that requires ongoing updates of my perceptions about the real truth about how God relates to me) is the demonstration of how He desires me to relate to and treat others. That is implicit in the words, take my yoke upon you, and learn from me....

It is obvious that Jesus is stronger than any of us. From that place of strength He bears my weaknesses and puts my needs ahead of pleasing Himself. That too is implicit in the words, for I am gentle and humble in heart.... But it is not quite so clear just how I am to follow His example in my relationship with others.

I reckon that a good starting place would be to learn to reflect the gentleness and humility of Jesus in my own spirit. I am tempted to say that this is a very difficult task for me but then I notice the last words in this verse, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. That alerts me to the fact that if I think it is hard then I must still not be in right relationship with Jesus or I am still very confused about what He is really like and is desiring for me to emulate.

I am reminded of a term that carries a great deal of meaning that I have heard in the past – wounded healers. It conveys the idea that those ministering to others are themselves in constant need of healing but at the same time are likely ahead in their healing process of those they in turn are ministering to. Though at times it seems illogical, I must remember that I cannot wait until I am fully healed before I am willing to pass along the grace to someone else that is working to transform my own wounds.

But just how does this process of bearing weaknesses take place? How does Jesus relieve me of my heavy burdens? This all sounds very appealing and attractive in many ways but at the same time it seems obscure a little bit, sort of mysterious or mystical. I have had this question swirling around in my heart for most of my life whenever I hear these words quoted from Jesus. It's great to say that I should just come to Him whenever I feel weighed down in my spirit and find rest, but in actuality what does that really involve? And not only how can I understand it well enough to experience it deeply myself, how can I be able to explain it to someone else and how am I to copy that example for them as well?

I am not so sure I want to attempt to satisfy all of these questions in a hurry. Quick answers to deep heart questions are almost always disappointing at best and these are the kinds of emotional questions that I prefer to leave on the table for God to address more thoroughly in His timing. But at the same time I have also found it very helpful, instructive and often inviting for God to spend some time dwelling on the words and seeing the various ways they apply and the many different implications that can be discovered in the context. As I allow my mind to consider many different possibilities I am usually moved at a deeper level by confirmations, insights from the outside and convictions by the Spirit of God that bring me peace, rest and – yes, joy as I allow myself exposure to the presence of God in my meditation.

One thing that seems striking to me is the parallel nature of these two passages. In Romans Paul is addressing those he says are stronger than those they should be helping and in Matthew there is no question that Jesus is speaking from a position of greater strength than those He invites to come to Him. I also sense that there is similarity in the reasons or objectives of the activities described here. In Romans one of the main reasons for bearing other's weaknesses is for their edification, to help them integrate into the edifice of the temple of God. In Jesus' words the emphasis of the objective is much more relational in nature, though the purpose of the instructions in Romans is also relational.

I am running out of time right now to pursue this further this morning but I am going to be listening today to what the Spirit has to say on this as I work and travel and live life. I invite you to also open your heart and mind to listen to what God desires to share with you about this. And I would be thrilled to hear what you might receive as you listen for His voice in your heart about this. For if you are reading this you are likely being drawn into the same body, the same temple of God that I am being integrated into and we have something to share with each other for our edification.

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Sharing Reproach with Joy

Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, "the reproaches of those who reproached You fell on me." (Romans 15:2-3)

I have become estranged from my brothers And an alien to my mother's sons. For zeal for Your house has consumed me, And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me. (Psalms 69:8-9)

As I meditate on these verses and the context of the quotation in Psalms that was a prophecy of the experience of Jesus, a number of things are starting to come to my attention. The chapter in Psalms from which this quote was taken has a lot of very interesting implications about proper perspective on relationships to God and to those around us. It also reveals a great deal of honesty about feelings, frustration, shame and a number of other feelings. It tells me the importance of being honest with God about my true feelings instead of trying to pretend that I am not hurting while attempting to put on a religious facade.

But in the specific area of that chapter from which this quote was lifted I see another dynamic. The more that I identify with the real truth about God the more out of sync I will find myself with the world that refuses to accept the truth about God. As a result I will often find myself the object of scorn, reproach and shame for the very things that increasingly are becoming important to my heart. The closer I get to God's heart, and particularly the more I am filled with the passion that is the very essence of His heart the more I will encounter shame and reproach from maybe even my closest relatives, from anyone who is resisting the heart transformation that God wants to accomplish in their lives.

Given this background it almost seems a little out of context to apply this phrase in the place that Paul uses it in this passage. But that only alerts me that there is very likely something even more profound here that I am not yet seeing clearly. God, open my understanding and show me Your amazing ways from Your Word.

The connections or roots for what Paul is saying here extend quite a ways back through this passage in Romans. It is directly linked to the whole last chapter dealing with my need to accept those who are at a different place in their walk with God without judging them. It means treating them with love like the brothers and sisters that they truly are to me, even when they may not act in ways that elicit feelings of love and affection. It involves getting my focus shifted from the externals and disputes about differences over doctrinal variations to supporting them at the heart level while being very careful not to be a source of discouragement to them. This involves pursuing the things which make for peace and the building up of one another.

While I am not instructed to adopt their views on beliefs that they may be confused about or are mistaken about through unreleased fears or lack of knowledge, I am to treat them with the gentleness and kindness of Jesus in all sincerity and compassion. I am to be filled with the Spirit of service just as Jesus was who told His disciples clearly that He did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. (Matthew 20:28 and Mark 10:45)

So where is this reproach coming from that is referred to here? The first time Paul goes through this instruction he says we should please others more than ourselves. But when He refers to the example of Jesus he changes the sequence and replaces the pleasing others part with this reference to reproach. Just what does that really mean?

Notice the difference between the two here.

We who are strong ought not to... please ourselves.

Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification.

Christ did not please Himself...

the reproaches of those who reproached You fell on me.

My mind struggles to figure out just who or where this reproach is coming from or is originally directed toward. Is it reproach aimed at the fellow believers who are weak in faith? Is that part of how we are to bear their weaknesses – by joining them in the reproach they are receiving for the choices they make even though we may not necessarily agree with those choices ourselves? Wow! That takes on a whole new dimension now.

On the other hand, from the context in Psalms the reproach seems to be coming from unbelievers and originally directed toward God. Then the Psalmist along, with Jesus who is the object of this prophecy are experiencing the reproach by their identification with God.

Ah, now it is starting to become more clear to me. The common thread between the references in Psalms and Romans is the willingness to identity ourselves with someone who is receiving reproach from others and thereby putting ourselves in the line of fire along with them. In Psalms it is identifying so closely with God's passion and perspective that those who despise and reproach God will add us to their target list. In Romans Paul is saying that we should be willing to do the same thing even for people we don't agree with theologically but are still part of God's family here on earth. They may be someone we consider weak in faith and maybe even confused in some of their theology, but nonetheless we are instructed to so identify ourselves with them that we come under the same reproach and shame that unbelievers are directing toward them.

This really does parallel the example of Jesus as Paul suggests here. Jesus never adopted any of our crazy, confused ideas about reality or God that all of us circulate and hold in our blindness. But nevertheless He identified with us so thoroughly that all of the shame and scorn and reproach directed toward God and followers of God were experienced in full within His own heart. He felt every pain no matter how large or small that any of us have ever experienced and He felt it in full force. By doing so He joined us right where we are emotionally so as to mentor and show us how to return to joy and peace.

One of the most important principles of the brain is the fact that the maturity process involves learning how to return to a sense of rest and peace from any negative emotion. It has been observed that there are six basic negative emotions that are common to all people and that it is very important for mental health to very early on learn how to recover quickly from each one of these negative emotions if we are to grow and mature in life. But the only really effective way that our brain can learn to recover from any of these emotions is to track a more mature mind who is willing to join them in that emotion and then by example demonstrate how to get back to joy and peace together.

Given that principle of the mind I can see how it applies directly to both of these passages. According to the brain's neurological definition, joy is the experience I feel when someone is genuinely glad to be with me, when I am very important to their heart and I am considered very special to them. So when someone is willing to join me in my distress without first waiting for me to synchronize with their perspective and beliefs; when they are willing to enter into my emotions with me while at the same time being able to perceive things from a more mature perspective and then gently lead me back to a state of inner rest, peace and joy with others, that is the essence of what is described here in this passage and is the main focus of the heart of Jesus for each one of us.

So if I am to follow the example of what Jesus was willing to do for me and continues to do, then I will begin to reflect His heart of compassion for those who are weaker than me in faith just as I am weaker in faith than Jesus. It only makes sense that if we are to follow the example of Jesus – which is what the word Christian really means – then we must align ourselves with fellow believers in the same way that Jesus has aligned Himself with us. His willingness to identify Himself with our pain, shame and reproach and show us a way back to joy is the path that I need to follow in my relationship to those He has put into my life that are different and that even seem quite unlovable at times.

God, thank-you for this lesson in sharing joy with some whom I would not normally think of sharing it with. Please remind me and make me more intensely aware of how much Jesus identifies with me and gives me joy in the process so that I can be empowered to do the same for others through the enabling of Your Spirit. Make me a source of joy and a companion in recovery from negative feelings for others who may be stuck in their immaturity and in need of a lift. Teach me how to be Your assistant in bearing the weaknesses of my brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. Father, according to Your Word, I ask You to write this law, this principle of Your character into my heart today.

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Edification with Passion

Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. (Romans 15:2)

As I let the real meaning of each of these words sink in, both from the English and from the Greek, I sense a connection to a truth that has been emerging into my attention for some time. That is, the need for every single true follower of God to become filled and transformed by the passion that throbs in the very heart of the Godhead.

I see allusion to this passion in the original word for please. It involves emotion and an exciting of the emotions. So much religion is devoid of any emotion (except boredom if that can be considered an emotion) that it fails to ignite the affections of the heart toward God or attract others to Him. I have seen great emphasis on the need for us to love God, but in reality this is completely impossible until we begin to feel a sense of how passionately God loves us. Love can only be awakened by first being loved. We have no real love inherent within ourselves any more than a mirror has light inherent within itself.

What I have observed over the years is that one of two things tend to develop in reaction to the insistence that we must love God in order to be saved. Either a person will tend to redefine and remold the definitions of the words to fit what is already taking place in their experience and thus create a massive collection of altered vocabularies that sound right religiously, or else they will move toward an emotionally based religion that revolves around arousing feelings and excitement and emotional highs that come from all kinds of man-made sources but have little to do with the real spirit of God. These too, will tend to form their own set of definitions for all their religious words and will believe that the emotions they feel from their music or their interactions with other people or even their glossolalia is the kind of love required for them to be saved.

I believe that it is quite true that we must have love for God in our hearts in order to be safe to save in heaven. However, it needs to become much more clear to us that it is absolutely absurd to focus on our need for love without focusing even more on the real truth about God and His true feelings for us. If our concepts of God are confused with fear, are based on lies from the enemy of God and give us mixed messages about real love, then as mirrors, our souls will equally reflect confusion about God to others and we will still be living in spiritual Babylon as described in the book of Revelation. For the word Babylon means confusion and confusion is certainly one of the best descriptions of the religious atmosphere in this world today.

What I am seeing in this verse is a call to return to the true model of spirituality that will produce and bond together the true body of Christ here on earth. That is going to take shape when each and every person individually and personally makes the decision that they are going to reflect the example of Jesus and put others ahead of themselves. Each person will make a conscious and continuing choice through a vital and intimate connection with the heart of God to become a channel of God's passion and a source of real blessing for the purpose of integrating others into the edifice (hence the edification) of the temple of God. And the essence of the mortar that holds this edifice together is the strongest adhesive known anywhere in the universe, the bond of joy and love.

Any other model or activity outside of this basic formula will sooner or later be found to be a counterfeit and a fraud. Any other relationship or doctrine if not in complete harmony with this purpose will contradict it and must be exposed and reformed according to the standard of true religion.

Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. (James 1:27)

"By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:35)

Real love may indeed be a principle, but it cannot be real and effective unless it can also awaken our emotions. For our heart is the source of the emotions God designed us to experience and if we claim to have love but never have our emotions engaged then it is likely that our claim of love is only a head-trip based on an intellectual religion, a profession that has not been embraced by our heart.

Likewise, if our professed love is based only on the good feelings we get when we participate in an exciting worship experience but likewise has not transformed our heart and mind with the solid principles of the laws of God (which are the principles of true reality), then our professed love will have no backbone, no stability under pressure and our religion will be as fickle as our feelings.

True love can only be reflected by being loved, and that can only happen when we become truly exposed to and get a taste for the reality of the passion of God's love for us. That is what I want for myself. I want to become obsessed with knowing the heart of God and being sucked into the fire of His passion so thoroughly that I will not be able to prevent myself from passionately serving others with a spirit that is transformed and energized by the Spirit that powers all of heaven.

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