Teaching that leads to revelation (continued) - CHAPTER THREE: Man's Problem

Man's Problem

Chapter 3
Teaching which leads to revelation (continued)
Man's Problem

What is man's problem? As we reflect and discuss all the things that redeemed men face as they come into the Kingdom and join God's communities of love (your church), what is man's problem? What is most basic? By now you know the answer--Broken relationships! He's not loving his neighbor! Why? He doesn't love God! In reality, it's the love of God that enables us to love our neighbor. “We love because He first loved us” (I John 4:19). This broken relationship with God is the root of all of men’s problems and must be solved before we can deal with the broken relationships with our fellow men.

We have broken and violated God's Law by refusing to love God. From the fall of Adam man has been plunged into a life of self-destruction. Every man is born a sinner, cut off from his Creator. Man’s relationship with God is nonexistent. We're born as zombies; born still-birth. We're born dead. Ephesians 2:3--"you were dead in your transgressions and sins." Man does not become a sinner the first time he sins; he is born a sinner cut off from His Father and dead to the very purposes of his creator.

How hard is it to teach a child to sin? To lie? To be selfish? You don't teach them how--by nature they know how to sin. They're born that way. They're born in a fragmented relationship with God, and live out their life doing the best they can to cope in the self-centered, selfish experience of this world. It is a life of fragmentation with their Creator, which is reflected in a progressive fragmentation in their relationship with their fellow man. The problem is sin! Man is born crippled, starting with his nature and working itself out into his practice.

If someone asks you why you think Christ is the only way, just ask them to seriously look at the world. And people can still believe in evolution? How can it be that man is getting better and better? Man is getting worse and worse! His brokenness is increasing in both magnitude and intensity. Fragmentation is progressively building generation upon generation of sin so that the 20th century has been the bloodiest and most inhumane in history! Man is born unable to fulfill God's plan for himself. Every person who gets redeemed into God Kingdom has no idea how to fulfill God's plan. They need to be taught (Cf. Matthew 28:20).

Let’s illustrate. Think of boats. What's the purpose of a boat? To float in the water and carry people or cargo, of course. Let's suppose you're Noah, and there's no water, no ocean. And you build this 450-foot long boat, 30 feet high. And it's sitting out there in the middle of the desert. How does it look? Ridiculous! When man sinned, he was transferred from the water of Eden to the desert of this fallen world.

Now there's a lot of good things you can do out on that boat in the middle of the desert. If you're the skipper you can polish the teak wood, polish the brass and make the boat look real nice. We call these things "good works." But will it get the boat to float? No! God is not impressed with people running around the decks polishing the brass! The problem is, the boat is not in the water! Man can do all kinds of good works and keep the boat ship-shape, but he can't get it in the water. Man, in his fallen condition, is unable to please God. Romans 8:7--"In the flesh man is unable to please God--he is not even able to do so."

So how does man respond to this situation? Some men don't even try. They are not polishing the brass or taking care of the boat. They have invested heavily in the desert and hope no rain comes while they are alive. Others are simply trying to survive and hang on, while their boat rots away. They have been so battered by sin in this world, that they simply hope to survive. And there are still others, the religious ones, who desperately try to keep the teak wood and brass fittings in good shape hoping this will be good enough for God. But no man is able to get his boat to do what God created it for--float in the sea--for "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23).

And suddenly they get saved! How well do you think they're going to take care of that boat when they're flooded with the living water of the Holy Spirit? How well are they equipped at keeping boats in good order to sail? Depending on what they were doing before they were saved, they will have varying degrees of proficiency keeping the decks clean and orderly. But NONE of them will know how to sail! You can only learn how to sail by sailing and they will need to be trained!

Being raised by Christian parents, or in a living church, may be similar to having read a lot of sailing manuals. Christian parents need to realize that they have a responsibility to raise their children “in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4), but they cannot force them to become Christians! Parents can teach them how to take care of the boat and we ought to be doing that, hoping that at a young age they will become saved and be flooded with the water of the Spirit, but it may happen at an older age.

Once saved, they will have to learn first hand how to sail and navigate in the tumultuous waters of this world. And that will be a scary experience for the parents! (I speak from experience here having raised two teenagers.). Keep teaching them! I have met numbers of people who came to Christ in their thirties and forties, having been raised in Christian homes, and their progress in the Kingdom was much more rapid than someone who was not (like me). Those who were raised in such homes were thankful that they were able to learn the principles of Christianity, even if they rejected the substance.

The goal of the church is to fulfill the great commission through calling men and women into fellowship with God and their fellow men in His Kingdom. Those coming into Communities of the Kingdom will come with all sorts of problems and ungodly methods for coping with the problems inherent in a fragmented world. Salvation which brings healing involves helping people find Biblical solutions to their problems in a way that brings progress to removing barriers between themselves and God as well as themselves and their fellow man. You could call the latter horizontal healing. The process of training people in this kingdom living we often refer to as discipleship. But remember, the horizontal is simply a reflection of the vertical relationship with God.

We must keep uppermost in our mind that the fundamental relationship man was created for was a relationship with God. Now, I ask you, how easy is it to see this relationship with God? How visible a relationship is it? Not very; primarily it is an invisible one. There are times when we experience tremendous floods of God's love and His care and mercy. At these times God appears more real to us than the things of this world. We may have experiences and visions which appear more real than this world. However, these experiences are like water flowing into a cupped hand: it runs out through your fingers. We may try different ways to keep that sensation or get it back, but it almost never works. Our relationship with God must remain invisible because God himself is invisible--at least in this present age! (One day, of course that which is invisible will be visible!)

Consequently, we must occasionally ask ourselves: "how am I doing with God? I feel like I haven't had much contact with Him. Am I okay or not okay?" Jesus said, "Inasmuch as you've done to the least of these my brethren, you've done it to me." (Mt. 25:40).

The horizontal relationship we share with our brothers is a reflection of the vertical relationship we have with our Father. The two are intimately connected. If you are truly experiencing the love of Christ, you will love your brother. And "if you are not loving your brother who you can see, how can you say you love God whom you can't see?" (1 John 3:).

Someone once told me, "find the person you like least in the church. That's how much you love God." That's pretty sobering. But that person was much more accurate than someone who says "I only need God; not anyone else." When I came into the Kingdom I had been a hermit. God used marriage to teach me that I do need someone else, and that relationship with my wife does affect my relationship with my heavenly Dad! 1 Peter 3:7--"Husbands, dwell with your wives in an understanding way, rendering them honor as unto a weaker vessel, as joint-heirs with God, so that your prayers may not be hindered."

A lot of men have not yet learned that lesson. They think they can treat their wife like yesterday's garbage, and then get to their little quiet time and pray and generate good feelings. Listen, the devil knows how to generate good feelings.

So, let's say it again, the problems in our horizontal relationships with people can and do reveal problems in our vertical relationship with God. I implore you: when you notice problems in your visible, human relationships, look at your invisible, vertical relationship with God. You may have to say, "Okay, God, what's wrong? I don't know you perfectly yet, but I want to. I want to know the true God perfectly. I want to learn what you would have for me through this difficult experience, and especially how to love you and my neighbor more perfectly. I'm the one who has to change and learn better how to love, for you are perfect, and everything from your hand is designed for my good." (See Romans 5:2-5; 8:28-37).

Many Christians try to solve their problems through "how-to" books which often rely on simple formulas. Follow the formula and you solve the problem. But if an unbeliever can follow the same formula as a believer and achieve the same results, the question is has any transformation of being taken place (Cf. Romans 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18)? How can someone who does not have the Holy Spirit put away sin? God allows problems in our lives to transform us into the very image of Christ! Man's problems are not solved by a bunch of disciplined activities. Rather problems are designed to show where there are flaws in our faith. As we face these we grow in our knowledge of God and our faith! When a person comes to you broken and battered, the solution is not confined to the horizontal relationship! Indeed it is usually not even the primary problem. We must always make sure that we get back to their relationship with their heavenly Father.

I have had much opportunity to meet with people because of a reputation for being a helpful Christian "counselor." Many an unbelieving husband has asked me for help with his wife. What was his real problem? He had a broken relationship with God! I could give such a man plenty of advice on his marriage and helpful things to do, but that would be like putting band-aids with anesthesia on a gushing wound; he could walk away saying "I feel so much better now," but later he would die from loss of blood! I wouldn't have solved his problem; I would have made him feel better.

To a large degree today in America, most counseling is reduced to feelings and solving horizontal problems. We hear it all the time: "how do you feel?" "Do you feel better?" If you study the Bible, you will find that it talks about "feelings" not nearly as much as we do. We need to get our minds to embrace on the mind set of the Bible; not the secular reasoning of this world. If we're going to truly help people, we cannot give them relief from their feelings; we must give them release from patterns of brokenness and fragmentation. Relief is filled with band-aids; release is surgical. Is surgery "fun?" Does surgery "feel good?" It does not.

When people come to asking for help in the horizontal relationship, the solution, which begins in the vertical, will not make them feel better. Chances are, since it begins with a revelation of sin which leads to repentance it will make them feel worse (Cf. Acts 26:18-20. For what happens to the messenger see vs. 21). True, the pain is short-term. In the long-term there is nothing in comparison to Kingdom-Living. The pain cannot be compared to the glory (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). But it is a painful road all the same. The Apostle Paul said in Acts 14:23, "encourage the brethren saying, through much tribulation you shall inherit the Kingdom of God." That's a promise. Not many of us as Christians claim it, but it is a promise we cannot escape. We cannot avoid the suffering, but we can grow through it. I'll be discussing this in much greater detail later.

So when people come looking for relief, and want to focus on the horizontal areas of their life, we must tell them: "No, the problem's much deeper than you think, and the solution's going to be much more painful than you think." We need to keep that in mind; the solution is much more serious than a bunch of simple do's and don’ts.

The problem of too many shepherds is that they focus on one plane--the horizontal. Someone comes and says, "My wife doesn't trust me."

"Well, what have you done?"

"Well, I slept around a little before we were married, and a little after, but I've been faithful for the last ten years."

A typical response is to do this and that thing, never thinking to deal with the man's relationship with God; never thinking to deal with his wife's relationship with God; never thinking about the vertical at all! Yet that is where the healing is going to happen! I can't say it enough; the horizontal merely reflects the vertical! Therefore, always ultimately we need to help those who are hurting in their relationship with God.

In the above real-life example, I found that there had been deception before they were married about the previous relationship, sexual immorality in their relationship before marriage, and bitterness on the part of the wife toward God that He had allowed her to marry such a man.

The man had many wrong understandings about the plan of God regarding sex and marriage which went back to a whole misconception about the person of our heavenly Father. No simple, one step solutions to healing here! But God opened their eyes, brought them both to repentance, and they have a wonderful marriage today.