Mourning and Comfort

“We look at life through the eyes of reason and say that if a person will control his instincts, and educate himself, he can produce a life that will slowly evolve into the life of God. But as we continue on through life, we find the presence of something which we have not yet taken into account, namely, sin— and it upsets all of our thinking and our plans. Sin has made the foundation of our thinking unpredictable, uncontrollable, and irrational.

We have to recognize that sin is a fact of life, not just a shortcoming. Sin is blatant mutiny against God, and either sin or God must die in my life. The New Testament brings us right down to this one issue— if sin rules in me, God’s life in me will be killed; if God rules in me, sin in me will be killed. There is nothing more fundamental than that.” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest)

“Because of Your name, Yahweh, let me live. In Your righteousness deliver me from trouble, and in Your faithful love destroy my enemies.” (Psalm 143:11b-12a HCSB)

“Those who mourn are blessed, for they will be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4 HCSB)

I don’t necessarily agree with the wording that Oswald Chambers uses in the quote above. God Himself doesn’t perish ultimately but I understand the concept that he is putting forth: if we live in sin – we will die. Either God lives in us or we must die. Christ wasn’t defeated by sin in His death on the cross – He was crushed for our sin. There was an hour of darkness because He had to suffer the full brunt of God’s judgment and taste death but this was so that death might be swallowed up in life. There is no room for self-confidence in Christ. How can I defeat my enemies? The psalmist cried out rightly when he said “In Your faithful love destroy (or “silence”) my enemies.”

There will be a day when all of God’s enemies will be cut off.  Jesus has already overcome this world and the enemies that keep us in opposition to God Himself – sin and death. The Law – which is holy, righteous and good – is the avenue through which sin seems to derive its strength over me. Another way to put that is that the Law shows sin’s dominion over me. The more I try to do good, the more I see my inability to be good. It reveals my rebellion against God and my captivity to that fallen nature. God’s wrath seems harsh until we see sin for what it is: “blatant mutiny against God.” Every bad thing we attribute to God’s nature is really what is in us. We see Him through the leans of fallen people. Part of the depravity of our condition is that our mind cannot be subjected to Him; it automatically puts Him in the wrong and us in the right. We put Him on trial and assume He must answer to our standards. In this way, our minds are veiled by self-righteousness (meaning: “I am right in my own way”) to our sin and to God’s beautiful glory in Christ. This veil must be torn; the nice exterior must be broken down like a wall that is concealing mold behind it. A.W. Tozer said this regarding Christ: "He came to save us from our own moral and spiritual disorders - but it must also be said He came to deliver us from our own remedies" (Tragedy in the Church: The Missing Gifts).

Sin is death and leads us to death’s ultimate fulfillment: being separated from God forever. True life was never meant to be temporary and yet we substitute temporary things for the life that we are meant to intimately have in God. These things cam numb us to the effects of sin much like a drug addict has yet to face the reality of their wrecked life. God has to detox us at times, allow us to cease to feel the natural pleasures that can be stimulated by sin, the Bible says that sin actually does have pleasure “for a season.” Once that season has run its course we are left with its affects:  shame, guilt, fear, etc.

We must mourn over sin if we are to experience the corresponding promise of finding comfort in God. This isn’t merely a contrived, outward display of emotion (it will involve emotions). Many cry and display strong emotion out of regret and self-pity but this blessed mourning is different. The blessed state of mourning that Christ spoke of is a state of being in which we begin to see things for what they truly are. It means we are starting to see starting to see darkness for what it is and light for what it is. Eternity is in the heart of every person and when we see the eternal darkness in us, it’s actually the beginning of becoming enlightened. When we recognize that darkness exists in us apart from God and light (all that is good) is in God alone then we begin to understand how we can only approach God through Christ.

Christ’s death and punishment was ours and His death was devastating. He knew no sin became sin for us. Sin is a devastating reality for which there is no man-made remedy. Sin has positioned us to be God’s enemies and the only answer to that dilemma is reconciliation on His terms. The Gospel in a nutshell tells that we are wrong – wrong in who we are, sprung off what from what God intended us to be. God is right – He is the standard of all that is good. He doesn’t have a set of standards or some moral code that some other higher authority set in place for Him to measure up to. He has no advisors or counselors – He IS the standard. He IS good. He IS holy. He is also love. All that He does He does to accomplish His purposes of holiness, love and righteousness.

Before the foundations of the world God chose us in Christ to be holy and blameless before Him in love, Ephesians tells us. This eternal purpose has been upheld and has been accomplished in Christ. How? Jesus had to overcome the obstacles that hindered these purposes. He had to be innocent, completely sinless so that He could be a perfect sacrifice for the human race. He had to become sin – taking the full expression of punishment as though He were an enemy of God. He had to die – death would have had dominion over us through sin. God showed that nothing has dominion over His predetermined purposes, His love prevailed. In the devastating act of the crucifixion Jesus seemed to be totally defeated. Payment was made for our sin by God so that we could have life in Him again. We must come to terms with our state of total defeat and know that Jesus took on that condition to remove it by rising from the dead; He rose to publicly display the defeat of sin and death. Not only that, but we have life presently in Him.

By “life” I don’t merely mean the most sensational experiences of human existence. No, I mean having God Himself inside of us. The eternal place once dominated by darkness now under the dominion of light. That condition that caused such deep mourning and yearning now filled with life and love. “Those who mourn are blessed, for they shall be comforted”. Jesus wasn’t saying “you must start mourning if I am going to comfort you.” He was saying that this kind of mourning is a blessed state of seeing life and death for what they are. Death isn’t merely the cessation of our vitals and physical existence – death is being separated from God, a position He never desired for mankind but became a reality for us when man sinned and embraced darkness and rebellion towards God. Life is being united with God, in Christ we are joined back to Him. We are restored to the closest relationship that we were meant for; the closest picture is that of a man and woman becoming one in marriage.

With the debt of our sin paid, we are free to love and serve and when we fulfill this design we are walking in true liberty. The world has distorted the beauty of servanthood with its notions of self-centeredness.  You can’t love without service and you can’t serve without love. God Himself is a Servant, the cross is His greatest act of service towards mankind. How humble He is to have descended from unapproachable light to human flesh! He took on our weaknesses and experienced the temptation of sin. I would say that He experienced more temptation than any other person. You don’t experience the battle of temptation until you really start trying to resist it. Somehow the notion has infiltrated the church that someone has a “good testimony” by having experienced great outward expressions of sin. There is tendency to elevate such testimonies (great as they are) and hold up certain people as “more relatable” to a non-Christian. This is probably a response to some of the holiness movements that emphasized outward goodness, which inevitably led to being judgmental. One extreme doesn’t answer another – Jesus never sinned and yet no one can sympathize more with our weaknesses as sinners better than Him. Those who experience blessed mourning and comfort in Christ are those who understand how to relate to people regardless of what they’ve done and extend grace to them.

We are also in the habit in the church at times of wanting to cram theological truths into people and expect them to come a saving knowledge of Jesus. These truths must be ours through personal identification if they are to impact others. This takes time so that maturity can have its perfect way in us. It means going through trials and learning how to overcome by grace through faith in Christ. Paul said this in 2 Corinthians: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our afflictions so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:3-5). What gives substance to my existence and meaning to my experiences – whether they are joyful or painful – is knowing Christ and being availed to His purposes. To identify with His suffering and be comforted by the same grace that He relied on and freely bestows to me, so that I might be sympathetic to the eternal needs of others and be a purveyor of grace.

The church’s mission is that of reconciliation – to demonstrate God’s reconciliation in Christ in action and word. True divine love is also supernatural – it is God expressing Himself through His people so that others come to know the love He has for them. May God help us in this by His Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit it is impossible, He is just as much God as the Father and the Son. How much do we need Him to be and do what God desires. Let us not forget that God desires mercy over judgment. The world is already condemned and Jesus came to save, He came so that God’s desire might be accomplished for any who place their trust in Him. God did not make us like plants that are just dependent but have no power to choose. We must choose dependence on Him. We must choose to die to sin through faith in Christ’s death and embrace life by faith in His resurrection. He is the One from whom are all things and for whom are all things.

For the one considers themselves a Christian in this culture, this means we must have to forsake the cultural notion that we can be self-sufficient and be a Christian. He must be our source by choice if we are to be powerful, loving witnesses of Him. We must know by experience and not just theory that His love is better than the intoxicating wine of this world. Death to self, service is the path to joyful intimacy – not seeking security through comfort and the pursuit of things outside of God.

For the one who does not consider themselves a Christian but sees any part of this as putting words to what you are experiencing inside, go to Jesus yourself and ask Him to reveal Himself to you. When I first heard some of this, someone told me to even just say “sign me up, God, show me if this is true.” That was all the faith I had in that moment. You may grieve more before you find the comfort found in Christ. Grief is a part of dying to self if we would have Christ living in us. I had to actually pray that I would feel what was right and wrong in my life at one point because I had become so numb to everything. When I finally wept, I knew it was a good thing and I have never experienced the comfort I did when I surrendered my life to Christ. The One who diagnoses our festering wounds and peals back our man-made, temporary Band-Aid solutions is the One who brings true healing and wholeness. He is compassion. He is love. There is no greater love than Christ laying down His life for us when we were His enemies. He is love and we cannot know love for all that it is until His love has prevailed over our rebellion. His grace opens our eyes to what the world and the devil would have us be blind to. But the world and the devil cannot stop us from choosing. Whoever believes in Him will not ultimately perish apart from Him. Whoever – there is no distinction or qualifications that need to be met. He has mercy without distinction because He has met all the qualifications.

Here is my prayer: God, open our eyes that we would see. Let our hearts comprehend the love that You have for us so that we might be purged of every form of rebellion against You inside of us that leads to death. Sober us from the things in this world that distort our perceptions and numb us to real pain and comfort. Awaken us to love and fill every need that we have. Let us recognize the blessedness of godly sorrow that leads to genuine intimacy and union with You. Let us be genuine and transparent with You. Help us because You know our hearts better than we do and let us see how beautiful Your heart is. Forgive us for accusing You, for accusing Your character and not trusting You. Forgive us for blaming You for what is wrong in this world instead of taking responsibility for our sin against You, confessing it and receiving Your forgiveness and grace. You are love and You are eager to forgive – help us, Your people, to love and to be eager to forgive. Forgive us for judging and blaming other people instead of considering our own spiritual state before You. Let us receive Your mercy and walk in it. Thank You for loving us with an everlasting love and forgive us for accusing You of being evil when all You did was what was needed for us to be saved. Forgive us for seeking completion outside of You and embracing worldly, man-centered wisdom instead of the wisdom in Christ. The Gospel is beautiful and powerful, let us return to it and live in the power of it by Your Holy Spirit. Come and fill us and let us love as You love and let divisions in the church be overcome by humility and love – that can only be done with the help of Your Spirit. In that unity, the unity that You prayed for, Jesus, may the Father command an unprecedented blessing that will affect communities in every nation and let it result in people before Your throne from every tribe, nation and tongue praising You for unfailing love and mercy. In Jesus’ name I pray and thank You that You are able to do above and beyond all that we can ask, think or imagine according to the power that is at work in Your church. Amen and amen.