Editorial | Frustration

The core essence of the Christian life is “to be spiritually minded”; and in that way of being and thought alone there is “life and peace”. Indeed, “if any have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of His”. We are to have the Lord Jesus living in us by His Spirit, thinking and being as He was and is to this day. But we compare these high ideals with our moment by moment life lived in this world, and there seems a worrying distance. We drop something; and are frustrated and irritated. We take a wrong turning which results in a few minutes added to our journey, and we mutter unspiritual things in our mind or under our breath. The person in front us at the supermarket checkout fusses around, can’t find their debit card, asks the checkout cashier irrelevant questions she can’t answer, and we roll our eyes and struggle not to think unpleasant things about them in our mind. We trip over a child’s toy and again, tend to mutter things we ought not. The driver in front dithers at the traffic lights so that we can’t slip over, and have to wait another turn before the endless red light, and we are frustrated and grumpy. And this can become the stuff of life, minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day. In all too rare encounters with Jesus, perhaps as we break bread, we can sense this apparently chasmic distance between our mind and His… and at best, throw ourselves upon His grace to make up the vast distance.

But all this need not be so. He has won, and He is eager to impart His Spirit to us. Not these days in terms of miraculous gifts, but as His mind, His way, His worldview, His Spirit within ours. “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us” (Rom. 5:5). We are “sealed” and have been given “the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts” (2 Cor. 1:22). We are “strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man… to know the love of Christ… according to His power that works within us” (Eph. 3:16-20). A far different mental life to that described in our opening paragraph is really possible. I could simply exhort you to be the more open to the Spirit, and to more fully allow the Lord Jesus to “dwell in our hearts by faith” (Eph.

3:17). But there are some practical thoughts we can reflect upon in order to aid that indwelling.

Don’t Blame Your Nature

The Lord Jesus as our total representative bore our nature. He was fully human, of a certain blood group, either right handed or left handed, made mistakes at work and had to re-do things, forgot things, misheard, caught colds, dropped things and all the other stuff of daily life. And yet He was holy, perfect and undefiled (Heb. 7:26). There was no barrier between the Father and Himself. However we define human nature (and no quick definition of it is found in the Bible), He had it but did not find it a barrier between Himself and the Father. He “did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth”, nor in His thoughts, nor under His breath. Whatever we posit about human nature, we say about the Lord Jesus. We are not inevitable sinners, burdened unto sin and death by this “nature” we must carry. Every sin we commit is real and was avoidable. And therefore we rightly hang our heads for it. The Lord’s perfect life showed us what human nature is capable of, the heights to which ordinary men and women can rise up to; and He challenges us to rise above the ties that apparently bind us to the mire of mediocrity when it comes to spiritual things. So let’s not think that we have no other way in life than to live frustrated lives. We must beware lest an unduly low view of human nature leads us to reason as do those who believe in a personal Satan figure- ‘It wasn’t my fault, I was overpowered by my nature, I am a victim of a power greater than myself’.

John Steinbeck, who was hardly a Biblical Christian, was fascinated by the early chapters of Genesis, and his 1952 novel ‘East Of Eden’ is evidently his commentary upon them. And he finds no place for a ‘Satan’ figure in the orthodox sense. Instead, he is struck by the comment to Cain that although sin crouches at the door, “do thou / thou mayest rule over him” (Gen. 4:7). Steinbeck concluded from this that victory over sin and the effects of Adam’s sin is possible; and therefore we’re not bound by some superhuman Satan figure, nor by an over-controlling Divine predestination to sin and failure. There’s a passage in chapter 24 of the novel that bears quoting; I find it deeply inspirational, and another example of the practical import of the correct understanding of early Genesis: “It is easy out of laziness, out of weakness, to throw oneself onto the lap of the deity, saying, ‘I couldn’t help it; the way was set’. But think of the glory of the choice! That makes a man a man. A cat has no choice; a bee must make honey. There’s no godliness there... these verses are a history of mankind in any age or culture or race... this is a ladder to climb to the stars... it cuts the feet from under weakness and cowardliness and laziness... because “thou mayest” rule over sin”. The practical inspiration ought to be evident; all further commentary is bathos.

Humility

The desire to be justified by works is very strong within our human nature. Much of our hour by hour frustration is because we have not yet surrendered to the simple truth that salvation “is not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:9). One favourite Biblical term for idols is “the work of men’s hands”. Whilst we may not worship pieces of stone, the modern equivalent is to trust in the work of our hands. And so when we are going to be slightly late for that meeting, perhaps miss that train… because of the traffic jam, this too shall pass. We write a letter on our computer, and we lose it. And so what. We are not saved by works. It is all of grace. Whilst we would all claim to accept this, the reality is that we are wired to prefer an attempt at justification by works. And all sin is rooted in pride. Pride in our own appearance and works. Justification by grace hits at the very core of the way we naturally prefer to manage life, which is in our own strength. It is pride which militates against repentance. The Old Testament prophets confront God’s people and Gentile nations with their sin- and it is pride which is their repeated criticism, rather than immediately seizing upon their idolatry or barbarism.

God is interested more in the process than the product; the road, rather than the destination. Our work for Him, and our work in daily life, is the path needed. And yet we tend to think that our works achieved are the significant thing. God requires not help from man, and can do as He wishes quite without our works. He looks at the heart rather than the achievements of the hands. Martha struggled to learn this lesson; and the Lord came down on the side of Mary, who was more interested in hearing His words than doing works for Him. We are as young children, painting their pictures or writing a few simple sentences to make a story. It’s not the end product which is particularly significant on a world scale. It’s the process of development the child passed through.

We are to humble ourselves under the hand of God, that we might be exalted in due time (1 Pet. 5:6). It’s a race to the bottom; only by the end of our lives will we have been humbled to the required extent. And that is why many lives feature a period at the end of declining faculties and ability to work. It’s all gently and lovingly designed to bring us to the ultimate truth- that we are saved by grace. And even our faith is not of ourselves, but the gift of God (Eph. 2:8). Paul doesn’t just start writing about predestination in Romans. He does so in the context of talking about salvation by grace and not works. And he sees our predestination to calling, the very fact that some are called and others aren’t, as the parade example of grace. This is also why we make mistakes; to humble us. And we are not therefore to be frustrated by them, but to realize that this too is part of a larger program to bring us to total trust. For the original words translated “faith” and “belief” essentially mean just that- to trust.

Peace with God

Every sin deserves eternal death. Each time, we are as Adam in Eden. For he there is every man. As Romans 1-8 demonstrates, we come before the throne of God and deserve to be sent to the left side. But the verdict is changed, and we end up actually justified, by grace, counted righteous, and are assured of salvation. Imagine coming before the judgment seat and being condemned. And then being told that it’s been changed, all is eternally OK, and we have instead been moved to the right hand side. There would be gasping gratitude, forever. And we are there, now. For the essence of judgment day is now. This is why in God’s bigger purpose, He allows us to continue sinning, and uses that experience; to regularly impress upon us the wonder of His grace and loving salvation.

We have been saved in Christ. We are redeemed. For these metaphors to have any meaning, we are to believe that if the Lord comes now, we shall by grace certainly be saved. And that means we live every moment in that peace with God, that deep gratitude for His saving grace. So when we trip over the carelessly abandoned toy, get delayed in traffic, have a computer blip, drop our phone and smash the screen… we go through those experiences under the umbrella awareness that far more importantly, we are at peace with God. I am saved, by grace. Someone loves me, more than I shall ever know. And loves me at that very moment of petty crisis, all the same. His arms are around you as the phone screen smashes; the love of God can be shed abroad in our hearts at that moment, by the work of the Spirit within us (Rom. 5:5); if we are truly open to it. I have “hope”, and elpis means a definite expectation; it does notmean merely a hoping for the best. All this really does make a practical difference, it has as it were, cash value right now. It’s not just a hope for the future, as we face death or struggle with illness. It means that in the here and now of daily living, moment by moment, we are enveloped in His saving love and grace. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also…” (Rom. 5:1-3).

Duncan Heaster