HOLE-Y, WHOLLY, HOLY

The first Bible I opened as I began to prepare the message for this morning sub-
titled this passage in Paul's letter to the Colossians "Rules for Holy Living."  So, I 
went to another translation, which sub-titled this passage simply "Holy Living".  I 
turned to study helps....same thing.  While the overall theme in Paul's letter to the 
church at Colosse (kuh LAH see) is the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ, there is 
in this passage a theme within a theme.  What kind of life does one lead who has 
claimed the salvation of Christ and declared Him as Lord of their life?

My first reaction was to call Dave and tell him "something had come up' and I 
wouldn't be available to lead worship today.  Because how could I stand here -- 
with all the holes that remain in my "clothes of righteousness" -- as if I weren't 
guilty of sin that keeps me from living a holy life. Then the Lord reminded me of 
Paul's beginnings.  Paul, who in this passage is laying the ground rules for a life 
lived in the fullness of Christ, is the same Paul, who persecuted followers of Jesus.


How did Paul get past his past, so he could with confidence and acceptance, yet 
without arrogance or pretense, present the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

Paul didn't worry about his "right" to preach the gospel based on who he had been 
or what he had done.  He knew.  He knew the holes in his old self, and he also 
knew he had encountered the only one that could make him new.  The living 
Christ.  On the road to Damascus, Christ mended the holes in Paul's "religion", 
making him whole, and began the sanctifying work of making him holy.  This 
encounter was the first step in Paul's journey from religion to relationship. Paul 
got past his past not because of anything he did, but because of who he was.  A 
saved sinner whose life was now hidden -- concealed and safe -- with Christ.

Like Paul, I grew up in the church.  As someone once shared with me, "I always 
thought I was a Christian....until I became one."  I know what a creation I was 
before I started becoming a new creation in Christ.  There was a time when 
remembering my past left me lifeless for Christ. Seeing how the consequences of 
my choices continued to effect the lives of others -- people I really love.  Living 
with the memories made it difficult to find release from the guilt and shame.

I wonder, could that be one of the reasons the Israelites had such a history of 
turning their backs on God.  Like the passage in Hosea, we hear of God's lament 
that the more he called Israel, the further they went away from him. Why?  Why 
is it we can feel so guilt-ridden by our past that we think God could never forgive 
us, or accept us, or create in us clean hearts.   Loving us just us as we are...holes 
and all...where we are.

The 3rd & 4th verses of this 11th chapter of Hosea held out hope for Israel, and 
hope for you and me."It was I who taught Israel to walk, and I took them by the 
arms but they did not understand that I healed them.  I led them with cords of 
human kindness, with ropes of love.  I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent 
down and fed them."

Did you hear what God said through this prophet?  I HEALED them -- from the 
power of sin, from the   "desires of the flesh"  I lifted the yoke from their neck -- 
the burden that comes from remembering the sins of our past.  Now, through 
Paul's letter to the Colossians, God continues His instruction.  He is teaching us how 
to walk as a holy people, a people set apart.  All made possible by the grace of God 
and his free gift of Salvation through belief in Christ.

Like the Israelites, my life has taken several, shall we say, interesting turns.  And 
like the Israelites, some were a result of choices driven by my earthly nature.  You 
know...that thing that Paul is telling us here to put to death.  But where to begin.  
How do I get past my past?  How do I die to me so I can be raised with Christ, to 
be set free?

The starting place is to come to terms with any part of the past that must be 
buried with Christ.  Nailed to His cross.  No circumstance can defeat His promises.  
The past is a dead issue and we can gain no momentum to build up His Kingdom, to 
share the Gospel, if we're dragging the past behind us.

Ten years ago I joined a Bible Study at work.  At the first meeting it was very 
apparent that, with the exception of one other person, I was by far the senior 
member of the group.  I was amazed at the amount of knowledge and 
understanding these young people had about Scripture, about God, and about their 
personal relationship with Jesus.  What I knew about the Bible came from Bible 
stories --not study--of my youth and Cecille B. DeMille epics.  But these kids...they 
seemed to be experiencing the Scriptures.  Not to be outdone, I set about the task 
of reading the Bible from cover to cover, something I had never done.  It wasn't 
long before the Scriptures began to open up to me a story as I'd never heard it.  
Page by page, chapter by chapter, book by book, I discovered that the God I had 
known about was a God I could experience.  Even though my motive was 
misdirected, through daily reading of His Word, the Lord grabbed hold of me and 
He has never let go!

I approached the book of Revelation with apprehension because of it's perceived 
"doomsday' message.  I read that book in one sitting, held captive by the majesty 
of the story.  How glorious the revelation of Christ's return.  How different than his 
humble beginning in a manger in Bethlehem, and His rejection as He walked this 
earth.

Excitedly, I shared with a friend my eagerness to witness the end of the story (or 
perhaps the beginning?).  The recorded event of Christ's final victory over evil and 
the glory He would finally receive.  To stand with all the saints and cheer Christ on, 
even to fight with Him, in His final encounter with Satan.  Knowing where I had 
come from this seemed a giant step forward for me.  My friend's response?  "Why 
don't you want to be part of the story?"  Why don't you want to fight NOW?"


What?  Me?  Unarmed, unwise, unworthy, unprepared?  How could I be so bold as 
to even think I could be an effective soldier for Christ.  I had not yet learned that 
His unconditional love and boundless mercy would get me past my past. This 
challenge given by a young man 18 years my junior was the pivotal point in my 
spiritual journey.  That night...ten years ago, I re-dedicated my life to Christ.  That 
night, I began the journey out of my past.

There may still be an appearance of keeping the law (or at least trying to).  But 
obedience and a desire to please him are now a response to my personal 
relationship with Him, not driven by a religion that is trying to earn His love and 
salvation.  I never can.  It is His free gift.

Because we are made in His image, there is a hole deep within us that He..and only 
He, can fill.  I think that's what Jesus was telling the rich fool in the parable we 
heard in Luke.  Not that there is anything unholy about having things, or about 
planning for the future.  I think the message is that when we hang on too tightly to 
our possessions; when we rely to heavily on our own self-sufficiency...we will still 
not fill the void deep within. 

Once we invite Him into our hearts, he fills that void and makes us whole.  And 
that is how we put off the old and put on the new.  Being raised in Christ, hidden 
in him, concealed and safe in his love, we are being perfected.  And until that time 
when we are perfect, Jesus stands before God as our perfection.  We, by ourselves, 
are not holy.  Clothed with the righteousness of Christ, bought for each of us with 
his blood...we are made holy in the eyes of God.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the love story of God with us.  It's told over and over 
throughout Scripture as one after another encounter the living Christ.  And as they 
do, they are raised with Christ...out of their canyon of guilt and shame.  

Allow me to leave Colosse (kuh LAH see) and Paul for a few moments and take you 
back to other moments in this never ending story of grace.

There's Peter...the Rock...the one who was willing to die with Christ.  The one who 
would maim a servant in the Garden of Gethsemane to protect His Lord.  The one 
that denied Him hours later.  How did He get past His shame, his guilt.It's several 
days later now, after the crucifixion and resurrection.  The risen Lord stands on 
the seashore near where the disciples are fishing.  Peter is there...perhaps 
remembering.  How do you get past the guilt when you have failed a friend?  
Especially THIS friend?  Once he recognizes Jesus, Peter jumps into the water and 
swims to shore.  How did Jesus greet him?  He doesn't say "some friend you turned 
out to be...you let me down..Boy, was I ever wrong about you!".  He doesn't accuse 
or condemn.  Instead He asks simply, "Peter, do you love me?"  Three times, once 
for each denial.  And Peter remembers them all.  Jesus didn't recall the memory 
for Peter to inflict pain, but to relieve it.  "Feed my sheep."  He still believes in 
Peter...and with this command, relieves Him of the guilt he bore.  In a language 
beyond words love grows from the Savior's eyes.

Those same eyes that met the woman caught in adultery.  Surrounded by shouts 
and cruel accusations, those who had caught her stopped to ask Jesus His opinion.  
With one question He showed them that they too were guilty and could not 
condemn.  When she looked around the courtyard was empty, stones scattered all 
around.  He'd made her darkness light.  And in this new light now she understood 
He would not condemn her because He would be condemned one day for her. 1


Pages of scripture are stitched together with stories like these...of people 
acquainted with the hard floor of the canyon of guilt and shame.  Stories of failure. 
Stories of mercy, grace and unconditional love.  Stories of people getting past their 
past to a life of Holy living.

Can I have a guilt nature and speak convincingly of Christ's love and mercy?  Of 
his compassion and forgiveness.  Can I focus on my guilt and shame and let Him be 
reflected in me?  No.

It is so important that past failures don't set the boundaries of our lives.  Our past 
should be a guidepost...not a hitching post.  Jesus may have to remind us of our 
past from time to time, as he did the children of Israel.  He does it not to rebuke, 
but to restore, to heal.  So we can love and serve Him without the painful memory 
leaning over our shoulder, wagging an accusatory finger.

Now, in none of this getting past our past am I implying we should not remember, 
reflect, or contemplate on our past and the consequences of our choices.  Nor 
should we avoid confronting them.  On the contrary.  Regret and remorse are often 
predecessors to repentance.  I'm saying we do not have to live with shame.  We do 
not have to be controlled by the guilt.  I don't have to live my life trying to make 
up for the pain and hurt that resulted from my "sinful nature' and the choices I've 
made.  In fact, I cannot make up for it.  But I can learn from it and not repeat my 
mistakes.  I must put off my old self with its practices and put on the new self, 
which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of my Creator.  I am saying that 
we, like Paul, do not have to live with the shame, we do not have to be controlled 
by the guilt.Instead of sinking into a sea of insecurity because of his past, Paul 
asserts with confidence he was granted mercy that Christ's work may be displayed 
through him.  Paul had the Lord and everything else took care of itself.  That's 
what gives him the right to say to the Church at (kuh LAH see) ...and to us 
today...set your mind on things above, not earthly things.  Put aside the ways of 
the world.  Never mind that you used to walk in them.  Never mind what others 
will think of the "new you'.  you're a new creation since Christ came into your 
heart.  He has filled the hole and made you whole, and is leading you into holiness.

Have you personally experienced the grace of God and the promise of His 
forgiveness?  It is a message that runs throughout scripture.  Great is God's 
faithfulness, for that promise was kept on a garbage heap outside Jerusalem.  
Almighty God -- who has every right (and by the way, is the ONLY one who 
does)..who has every right to judge and punish me, has looked past my failures.  
He points to the cross and invites me home, forgiven, forever.  Accepting that 
forgiveness was my choice.In Christ there is no condemnation.  Absolutely none.  
Claim the promise   accept the cleansing.  Throw out the guilt.

With the Son of God our side, He will begin today to turn us into the same kind of 
thing as Himself.  The same way He turned Saul the persecutor to Paul the 
evangelist.  Peter, the denier into Peter..the rock; the adulterous woman into a 
loved and forgiven daughter of God.  

Take Jesus with you to your canyon of guilt and shame, if you have one.  Let Him 
stand beside you as you retell the events of the darkest nights of your soul.  As 
you are raised with Christ, as you step out of your personal canyon..whatever that 
may be...listen.  

Listen carefully.  He's speaking. And watch.  Watch carefully.  He's writing.  He's 
leaving a message.  Not on the sand, but on a cross.  Not with His hand, but with 
His blood.  His message has two words:  Not guilty. 2

1 Card, Michael, Paraphrase of "Forgiving Eyes' as recorded on "Scandalon" 

2 Lucado, Max "He Still Moves Stones"