Friday, October 14, 2016

A Lesson...!



Apostle Paul quotes in Romans 1 (from Book of Habakkuk)
"The one who is Righteous by faith, shall live." 
Which simply means "if, you believe what Christ did for you through his Death and Resurrection can save you, it indeed will." 

You mean to say just believe and you'll be saved..... Really? Just believe that Christ has paid for all my sins and I'll be saved...!! What about the sins that I commit after that? Do I not need to make amends for them? 
 
The Gospel is so simple that our complex mind can’t accept it as a solution to all our problems, except when God reveals it to us, and it then starts making sense.

It all sounds too good to believe. I too struggled with it for many years, until one beautiful morning when I was reading my bible, pondering upon these questions and God taught me, a lesson!

I am a software engineer by profession and the parable that God told me that day would make more sense to people in similar profession. Anyone with some fair idea about how the IT industry works would be able to relate to it as well.

Once there was a person, who happened to be a software programmer and his job was to solve the defects that are there in the software. 
How things work in IT industry is that, once someone (customer or testing group) reports a bug (bug is defect in the software) the programmer has to fix it. Unfortunately, the bug has to be fixed within a time limit (Say, 1 week). If one fails to fix the bug within this deadline he's not fit for the job. The programmer's potential is judged based on him meeting the deadline.

This deadline is something like the "Law". If you keep the Law you are a good person and if you can't you aren't. If the person can fix the bug within the deadline he's a good programmer else, he isn't.

Well honestly, this person wasn't such a good programmer. He couldn't solve the problem in a week, it was impossible for him. He tried hard, but ever so often just failed to meet the deadline. This caused him frustration. He couldn't let this go on forever, else very soon he'd lose his job. So now he started to hide the bug. In other words, he just masked it so that no one can see it. He put hacks around in the software and everyone thought the defect is solved. In the eyes of customer, he now became a good programmer meeting his deadlines. But he alone knew that he wasn't. He had not solved the defect, it’s still there; just hidden from people.

This is synonymous to "Self-Righteousness". We know we can't keep the Law, but until we keep it we aren't good people. Thus we just try to show the world that we are indeed good by doing things that look good. We try to be just and kind and generous. We are kind to one person and a moment later curse another. We and we alone know, deep down our hearts that we can never be as good as the Law require yet in the eyes of the world we may be the nicest person that ever lived.

The company where this person worked knew what’s happening, how this employee had been just masking the defect. And not just he but many other employees worked more or less in the same manner. Hence one day the company informed everyone that there would no longer be any deadlines. Employees could take as many days as they want to fix the defect without any consequence what so ever. This indeed is too good a news to be true.

This is nothing but like the "Grace" of God. When God so kindly removed the curses of Law for all who believes in Death and Resurrection of Christ.

This person now can work afresh in this new freedom that he has received. He can concentrate on solving the defect without worrying about the deadlines. With new zeal he starts working, only to realize that he in fact isn't a good programmer and can never solve any defect in the software. Here's the paradox, he desires now to solve the defect with all his heart, he doesn’t want to mask it anymore, but he can’t do it. 

Our ongoing struggle with our "Flesh" after being born-again is all about this paradox. As Paul said in Romans 7 "For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing."

The company knew of this paradox and therefore when the deadlines were removed they also engaged all the employees on a training program under the best trainer available.

This trainer and the training program are alike the gift of "Holy Spirit" that all the born-again Christians get when they accept Christ as their Lord and Savior. The Holy Spirit from then on teaches them and guides them.    

The more the employees spend time with the trainer the better programmers they'll become. The same training program and same trainer is available to all the employees. It's just a matter of who spends more time with him to become better programmer. The trainer is indeed the best and if the employees continue with him they'll sooner or later become one of the best programmers. 

Remember! the training isn't easy, it requires complete commitment;  it requires giving up of all other priorities; it requires discipline; but we know this for sure, "its worth it!!!". The reproach of Christ is indeed greater wealth, than all the treasures of this World.

Needless to say that we, born-again Christians, must spend time with God, reading His word and depending on the Holy Spirit to teach us. And the more we do this the more our "Sanctification" will be. And this process has a cost which requires you to deny your self and let Christ be your all in all.

P.S. I don't mean to say you can go on 'living' (by living I mean continuous and willingly) sinful life just because your life is now saved by faith. You can't in fact you won't.
As in the example of this software programmer he still has to solve defects in the code. Only now he has a desire (willingness) to solve because he's free from the terror of meeting deadlines.


May God bless you and reveal Himself more to you!


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