Self-Effort

“The secret is that grace deactivates our pride. Removing the law from our lives means our self-effort is no longer prodded to control behavior. The law excites human effort. It encourages us to depend on resources outside of Christ. But unconditional acceptance deactivates human effort and allows the Holy Spirit to be all that he wants to be through us.” – The Naked Gospel

I have lived so much of my life with this unsaid understanding that God was so upset that I couldn’t measure up that in His frustration He sent Jesus so He didn’t have to be frustrated all the time. Ridiculous, I know, but I would challenge you to think about what you see as the Father’s reason for sending Jesus. I would dare to say that a large majority of the church lives with a skewed view of the Father.

The original sin in the garden was not that we couldn’t measure up. It wasn’t that we failed to be good enough. It was that we tried. We chose self-effort over rest. We chose performance over relationship. We chose knowledge over intimacy.

Adam and Eve’s plea may sound noble, “Wow think how good we could be if we knew what was good and what was evil. We could do everything right then. God would really love us then.” Did you know you weren’t designed to know right and wrong? You weren’t designed to know that murder was wrong. Do you know why?

One of the best illustrations I’ve heard is one of two glass buildings. Two young boys are walking down the street and pass the first one without a second thought. When they come up to the second glass building they see a sign with bold letters that says, “Do not throw rocks at glass building.” Well you can imagine what happens next. It didn’t take them two seconds to find the biggest rock around at chuck it through the glass building.

In the same way Paul writes:

“What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.” – Romans 8:7-8

So why would God institute a law, when without the law sin is dead. It seems insane. How could a good God create something that gives sin an opportunity? It lies in our choice. If God had wanted robots, He would have created us without choice, but also without relationship. Have you ever tried talking to your computer? It typically isn’t a very meaningful conversation (neglecting Apple’s SIRI). God didn’t want computers though, He wanted friends. God didn’t want slaves He wanted children. So instead of programming us, He gave us the right to choose. In the garden we asked God to program us instead. We chose self-effort. We wanted to know how to handle a situation before it came up. If situation a, b, and c are true, then respond with action a.

It turns out programming doesn’t work real well on anything other than a computer or a robot. Seeing as we are neither of those, when we chose to know right and wrong instead of knowing God, we chose failure. You weren’t designed to succeed on your own. That is a huge shot to our pride, but a huge relief in the grand scheme of things. You aren’t a failure for not being able to follow the law. You were never intended to.

Andrew Farley poses this question in “The Naked Gospel”, “Many agree that the ceremonial law, restricting everything from diet to wardrobe, is not for Christians today. Indeed, few Christians attempt to follow those regulations. But should Christians still look to the Ten Commandments as their moral guide? The Ten Commandments are a ministry of death.

“But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory.” -2 Corinthians 3:7-9

I want to go back to why the law was created. It wasn’t created to give us a chance to perform for righteousness. It wasn’t God’s “Plan A” that failed so He sent Jesus. Jesus was always the plan and the law was part of that plan. Adam and Eve chose self-effort in the garden and we have been choosing it ever since. The law came so that we would recognize the futility of our own performance. The law came to show us our inability to measure up. People still weren’t getting it when Jesus came on the scene. This is when Jesus shows the purpose of the law:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.” – Matthew 5:27-30

Jesus is speaking to people under the Law. Jesus is saying, “Let me show you what my righteousness truly requires, and see if you still think you can really perform for it?” We had to understand the futility of our own attempts and lay down our prideful self-righteousness, before we could accept Jesus death on our behalf. As long as you can do it on your own, you don’t need Jesus.

“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law.” – Galatians 5:1-3

You don’t need Jesus when you can keep the law. Paul is speaking to the Galatians who had accepted Christ’s freedom and righteousness, yet found themselves faced with the Law. The law is much easier to accept than Christ, because the goodness of Christ far supersedes what you believe you deserve. After accepting grace, they had returned to self-effort for righteousness. I hear them saying, “Well God wiped our slate clean, but now we have to be circumcised to stay clean.” I’ve lived with that idea for most of my life. God wiped my slate clean, and now I have to make sure it stays clean. God didn’t clean your slate, He took it away.

“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” – II Corinthians 5:21

You are the righteousness of God in Christ. That isn’t a temporary thing that is maintained by the Law. You are dead to the law and alive to Christ (Romans 7:4-6).

Here is the key to all of this. You have to understand that the law that you are dead to is so much for than the 600+ laws in the Old Testament. The law you are dead to is the law of sin, the law of self-effort. The institution of the law was so that we could see the futility of our own attempts and to stop trying. Regardless of how many good Christian principles you apply to your life, they will never bring life.

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” – John 10:10

The abundant life Jesus came to bring isn’t one of principles, rules, and behavior modification. You will never apply enough principles, follow enough rules, or modify your behavior enough to bring life. Jesus is the life He came to bring. I’m done striving on my own, trying to satisfy my God who is already completely satisfied with me. Where do I stand with Him? I am His righteousness in Christ Jesus. No longer am I a failure. Unable to succeed by myself, I’ve completely succeeded in my Jesus.

Source of Identity

Identity, identity, identity. It’s a word I’ve heard repeatedly in the last two years, increasingly in the last year. At first it sounded like a fancy Biblical term for something I didn’t get, but the more I understand about identity, the more I find it is incredibly central to God’s heart for me. So, what exactly is identity?

Identity is defined as “the distinguishing character or personality of an individual.” In the past year God has been repeatedly speaking into my life about how awesome I am. I know what you’re thinking, “Ryan has gone off the deep end, let’s take a moment to pray for him, pride is ruling in his life.” Spare the prayers, and let me elaborate. Most of us live a life focused so much on our failure that we never walk in the victory Jesus won at the cross. Several thousand years ago, God sent the Israelites a law that showed them how inadequate they were to live up to God’s expectations. A couple thousand years ago, God sent His Son to show us how adequate His Son was to live up to His expectations. Then in a turn no one really expected, God offered us that adequacy in His Son, Jesus.

So to say that you’re a failure, a loser, a liar, a sinner, is demeaning the cross of Christ. Kris Vallotton says it like this, “How does demeaning the painting glorify the painter? How does demeaning the creation glorify the creator?” Where do we find an identity that isn’t a failing losing lying sinner? We find it at the cross.

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” – Galatians 2:20

Here Paul is reminding us that we no longer identify with our failing losing lying sinning self, because we identify in both his crucifixion and his resurrection. We were made alive to Christ. We were restored into the fellowship that we were designed to walk in. No longer based on our sinful self’s attempt to be righteous, but through Christ’s perfect life and righteousness that has been given to us.

“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” – 2 Corinthians 5: 21

“So that we might become the righteousness of God in Him…” This isn’t a ‘sinner saved by grace’ mentality. Yes we were sinners, and we are saved by grace. But we no longer identify with our sin; we are identified instead with His righteousness.

I’ve heard this message repeatedly, but the question I continue to struggle with is this, “Am I really good? I’ve heard so long that I’m worthless.”

So this morning instead of ignoring it, I let God answer. As He often does, He took me back to the garden to see what His original design for us was. Adam and Eve walked with God in the garden. There was perfect relationship and that was enough for them. Their identity was totally wrapped up in their relationship with God. It wasn’t until they sinned that they had anything else to identify with. After sinning, they broke relationship with their best friend, their lover, and their God, and became “sinners.” There is no relating to God when we are identified with sin. If you have accepted Christ into your life, you are no longer a sinner. The Christian is no longer identified with His sin, but identified with His Savior.

So as was His original design, I’m no longer identified by my own actions, but I am identified by my Savior. I no longer live as a single man, but one totally intertwined with Christ. We are no longer separate entities that I can say, “I’m bad, but Christ is good.” To say I’m bad is to say Christ is bad, and to say Christ is good is to say I’m good.

“For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” – Colossians 3:3

Stop trying to separate yourself from Christ. At the cross He forever joined you to Him, hidden in Him. Let yourself realize how awesome you now are because you’re in Jesus.  When the Father looks at you He sees Christ and when He looks at Christ He sees you. As John Eldridge puts it, “You are not your sin; sin is no longer the truest thing about the man who has come into union with Jesus. Your heart is good.” As long as you identify with your sin, you will live as though you’re a sinner. When we truly learn to identify with Christ, we will together with Christ leave an impact on the world that hasn’t happened in 2000 years.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.” – John 14:12

Truth Trumps Temptations

For the past year or so, my quiet times have consisted mostly of journaling, listening to worship music, and the occasional Bible reading. I discovered last year that by forcing myself to read my Bible every morning I was actually distancing myself from Daddy, because I was doing it to appease Him, to force Him to bless me and grow me. So last year I gave up Bible reading for my quiet times and I saw an incredible growth in my relationship with Him. Growth didn’t come from setting down my Bible; it came from setting down my religious idea that told me reading my Bible was required for relationship.

                

Through that, God has begun stirring up a desire to dive into my Bible on occasion, where I will sit down and read the story of Joseph, or read through Galatians. It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does I find it is incredibly refreshing. In the past week God has been challenging me to renew my mind by filling it with His words. So this morning, not out of obligation, but out of desire I dove into Matthew.  I wanted to see how Jesus lived from His relationship with Dad. I didn’t make it very far before God started bringing revelation. I came to the temptations of Jesus and couldn’t move past without processing, thus this note I’m writing.

                

I’ve heard several teachings on the temptations of Jesus recently, but the one thing that really stands out is how immediately after Jesus is baptized He is taken into the wilderness to be tempted. As Jesus comes out of the water, Daddy affirms His identity:

“After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold a voice out of the heavens said, ‘This is My beloved Son, in who I am well-pleased.’” – Matthew 3:16-17                

Jesus’ sonship was affirmed by His Daddy. This is the place God wants to bring us all to before sending us out. Many of us try to dive into our ministry before knowing our place as sons. I’m not saying God won’t work in ministry before you know your place as royalty in the Kingdom, but I do think you miss out on a lot of the life and freedom God has for you to walk in. As soon as Jesus’ identity was affirmed, it was attacked and tested. Don’t think satan doesn’t want to steal from you the affirmation that you receive from God. But also don’t think that God won’t use satan’s attacks to assure you even more of your place as a Son of the King.

                

Satan attacks Jesus at three places: His focus, His identity as Lord, and His loyalty to the Father. Satan attacks Jesus at His very basic needs first, testing if He truly knows that the physical realm is a sub-plot to the spiritual realm. Jesus responds by saying:

“It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4)

Jesus confirms that He knows His physical needs are not ultimate. Satan attacks there first because it is our most vulnerable point. It is so easy for us to get caught up in the physical and I believe that is also why God affirms that first.

                  

The next attack comes at His identity. Satan comes at Him saying:

"If you are the Son of God, throw Yourself down…” –Matthew 4:6

Do you know your identity? How sure are you of being God’s son? I think after God moves us from the physical to the spiritual; He takes us into our place as sons, our royalty.  Many Christians never move past physical temptation because they never realize the truth that the physical realm is a shadow of the spiritual realm. When we do begin to gain power over physical temptations and turn our focus to the spiritual, our identity takes center stage. God begins affirming who we are in Him, as sons and royalty in His kingdom. Satan also begins attacking at that place, reminding you of your past, trying to get you to identify with your sin rather than with your Savior. I think this is the place that so many Christians get burnt out. We move out of the physical into the spiritual only to find the battle intensified and the wounds deeper. The wounds of identity run deepest because they pull us back from the heart of the Father. When you identify with your sins rather than your Savior, you pull back from the Father because you find yourself dirty and worthless. You will never rest in the Father’s arms as long as you see yourself being unworthy of His love. This is why God affirmed His identity as a Son before sending Him into the desert.

                  

The final attack came on Jesus’ loyalty to the Father:

“All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” – Matthew 4:9              

Notice that the attack on loyalty comes after the attack on identity. Royalty bestows loyalty. I find that I have lived most of my life trying to be loyal to a God that I haven’t known as Father. The amount of loyalty you have to God the Father is dependent on the amount of revelation of identity you’ve experienced in your life. I don’t see God calling Jesus to obedience before He solidifies Jesus’ identity as a Son.  Obedience without identity brings burn-out and a twisted view of the Father. I think too many times we rush into ministry because the world needs us without first finding out who we are. That is the place where we have ministry focused on performance rather than on love. We are trying to earn our place in the Kingdom rather than living and loving from the place we already have.

“Then the devil left Him...” – Matthew 4:11                  

I see satan running away here, not in frustration but in fear. Satan knows He is beaten, because Jesus was secure in His focus, His identity, and His loyalty. I believe this is the place that we start our ministry from. This is the place where we go on the offensive. Jesus moves into ministry immediately out of this place as satan tucks tail and runs to get away from this Son of the King.

                  

Satan doesn’t know what to do with someone who the physical has lost power over, who knows their sonship, and who is loyal to the King of Kings.

Grace

Grace has earned a pretty broad definition and use throughout the years of Christianity. For me grace entails anything that we’ve been given that we haven’t earned, which when I look at my life covers just about everything. The shortage of grace in the church has never been about the amount of grace extended, but rather the amount of grace received.

For centuries, satan has been trying to take away our ability to freely receive grace. He can’t stop God from offering His grace, but he has done a pretty good job of stopping us from receiving it. As a result of this, we live in societies where nothing is free and where everything must be earned.

As I experience a Thai culture that is inseparable from Thai religion, I see the effects of a Karma driven society. There is no undeserved gift and no unmerited calamity. Promotion at work… karma. Earthquake… karma. Six year old girl in prostitution… karma. What you deserve is what you get. And as foreign as the idea of karma is to us westerners, I wonder how much it has invaded our culture. In Christianity, we so often read our Bible or go to church to earn brownie points with God. We would never say that’s why we do it, but I would challenge you to re-evaluate why you do what you do. Do you read your Bible for God? Or do you read your Bible with God? Do you feed the homeless for God? Or do you feed the homeless with God? It may seem like a simple change of wording, but I think it signifies a change of mindset. One is based in performance; one is based in grace-filled relationship.

In a performance (or Karma) based mindset, I don’t sin because I don’t want to deal with the consequences. I find a lot of times I try not to sin to avoid the guilt that comes with it. That is a very performance-based approach to sin. I won’t let God take away my guilt, because my guilt is my motivation not to sin and if I let go of that, what will keep me from sinning. Grace transforms how we approach sin because grace totally eradicates sin.

When we begin to truly accept the grace that God extends to us, we begin to focus a lot less on what we are or aren’t doing and a lot more on the face of Jesus. At the cross, God took away your Karma scale. He didn’t just take everything off of the scale and promise to help you build up your good Karma, he completely destroyed Karma. Grace trumps Karma. Life trumps death. Jesus trumps satan.

Don’t ever settle for your understanding of grace, because you will never know the fullness of what God did at the cross. So when you think you get grace, ask God to show you more. Scientists thought they understood the universe until the telescope. I just see God chuckling as He hands over the telescope to the human race. May God smile on you as He hands you the telescope to look into His grace.

“You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.” -God

Going to Thailand!

Dear Friends and Family,

As I wrap up my first year of college, I’m excited to share about an opportunity God has opened up for this summer. Over the past couple of years God has been putting Thailand on my heart, specifically the orphans in Thailand. I’ve wondered why God would break my heart for a country I’ve never been to. This summer God opened a door for me to pursue that question.

I stumbled upon an orphanage that really caught my eye. The Family Connection Foundation is an outreach arm of the Chiangmai Christian Fellowship church. After seeing a glimpse of their passion for the orphans they work with and their heart for the Thai people, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I had a Skype interview with one of the head guys and everything he shared got me more and more fired up for the opportunity to serve with them.

The way they run the orphanage is different than the typical setup. As a church, they support host families that bring kids into their home long-term. As I serve with them I am going to spend time simply loving on the kids, learning about the Thai culture, and serving the workers any way I can. They also expressed the need for good photography to share with others what is going on in Thailand, so I will be documenting my time through that avenue. One of the most exciting opportunities I have is to go on a four day trip with the director to one of the poorest cities in Thailand. Because of the poverty it serves as a hub for the sex trade in Thailand. This is another big area that God has broken my heart for and I’m excited to be able to love on some of the orphans there and learn what is needed there to break the sex trafficking cycle. As I prepare both physically and spiritually, I am sensing that God has some really big things for me coming up and I can’t begin to express my excitement.

I will be leaving for Thailand on July 6th and returning home on August 18th. Until I leave, I will be shooting senior portraits and a wedding which should cover my airfare there and back. The money I have left to raise is going to be around $3000. This includes all accommodations, on-site transportation, materials, and fees. This needs to be paid in full by June 21st.

This time is going to be an amazing opportunity for growth in my relationship with Christ, direction in my future, and a chance to love on the Thai people. Please pray for protection and a chance to pour Jesus out to these kids. I also ask that you pray about financially supporting me. If you feel led to donate, you can make tax-deductible donations to their US-based funds processing agency:

Circuit 'Riter Ministries Intl.
Attn: Ryan Dunnewold
P.O. Box 635
Kittredge, CO 80457

While I am over there, I will try to keep up my blog with both stories and photos on here.

Thank you for your prayers and support,
Ryan Dunnewold

Good Works

For years, I’ve struggled with the idea of “good works.” What are they? How do we do them? From an early age my parents have taught me that we aren’t saved by good works but rather because of God’s grace and Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. That has never been an issue for me. Post-salvation good works are where I struggle. I’ve heard sermon after sermon where the word grace is used but good works is preached.

Why are we so stuck on good works? I think the reason good works is our goal so often is because we are stuck in a law-abiding, rule following, right and wrong mentality that we were born into. The first problem with this is that the law awakens our sinful desires (Romans 7:5), and the second problem is that we are no longer called to live under the law:

“But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.” (Romans 7:6)

Am I saying good works are bad? Certainly not. Paul says quite clearly that good works are part of our design:

"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)

For years, I’ve looked at this from the perspective of the law, which says that the sole reason I was created is for good works. Time after time in the last several weeks God has taken me back to the garden where He continues to show me that His design for us as a human race was and is relationship, not good works. Good works have never been ultimate; they have never been our purpose. The ultimate (our purpose) has always been to know Him, to walk in relationship with Him.

The other day, God showed me a powerful parallel for the role of good works in a Christian’s life. Just as sex is not the purpose of a relationship, neither are good works. If we live our lives with sex being the end goal (our purpose) we will go down any path that takes us there. Even if we end up going through the God-ordained path of marriage, our focus won’t be on that relationship but rather on sex. Just as so many times our focus is on the good works rather than the relationship.

When good works is our end goal, we will go down all the wrong paths to get there. It may be selfishness, pride, or some failing attempt at salvation. Regardless of what it looks like, it takes the place of relationship in our lives. This lie, this false focus is so engrained in our lives that even when we hear the truth that God wants relationship, we assume that it is only a way for Him to get good works from us.

Because of this, even when we go down the “proper path” of relationship, often times it is motivated by the end goal of good works. Just as someone who has been used in a relationship assumes that the next time someone is interested in them it is solely for sex. Relationship becomes just a means to an end.

God is calling us to make relationship the means and the end. Just as sex is a natural and wonderful expression of a marriage, good works becomes a natural and wonderful expression of our relationship with Christ when we lay it down as the end goal. God’s purpose in your life is not good works. His purpose in your life is you.

Inadequacy

For most of my life I remember praying, even begging, for God to fix me. I just knew that if God would take away my pride or my selfishness, if God would take away my junk I would be free. I even convinced myself that I wanted it so that I could “serve Him better.”

The past several weeks has been filled with God bringing a lot of my issues to the surface. I’ve been seeing more and more of the junk that comes with being human. I’ve been more aware than ever of my pride, my selfishness, my judgmental thoughts, etc… Through all of this I’ve been pleading with God to fix it. Take it away from me God.

Yet through all of this I heard God say, “Ryan, stop asking for adequacy, and ask for dependence.”

That is big for me. That goes against my years and years of striving to be good enough. As Christians we are offered and we offer steps: “14 Steps to a Better Marriage”, “11 Steps to Humility”, “26 Ways to Love Your Neighbors”, but in all of this we tend to neglect what Jesus truly called us to.

In John 5:19 Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”

Jesus got it. He knew that his power was in the Father. He knew that his life was in the Father. Here we are running around trying to do life on our own, and Jesus is walking in relationship, in restful intimacy with the Father. When I take time to look at my motives for asking God to rid me of my pride it becomes pretty clear to me that I was striving for adequacy, to be able to do it on my own.

Living a life of dependence on God is a lot harder than living by steps, rules, and regulations. As humans, we gravitate to formulas and cookie cutter rules. Sure it’s easy, but there is no life in it. There is no relationship in it.

One of my favorite quotes is in “Wild at Heart” by John Eldridge:

“The problem with modern Christianity’s obsession with principles is that it removes any real conversation with God. Find a principle, apply the principle—what do we need God for?”

God never intended us to live by right and wrong. He intended us to live dependent on Himself as Jesus did in intimate relationship. In a world where independence is freedom, God is calling us to new levels of freedom in utter dependence on Him.