Meat Head part 5
If you're a meat head you think you can do it yourself. You think you please God with your behavior, with what you do for Him. But according to Hebrews 11:5, "...without faith it is impossible to please him..." Because faith is knowing and believing that the work is finished. Faith is trusting in God because He has shown Himself faithful. Faith is trusting God and not yourself. The carnal mind is all about YOU and what YOU can do. Faith (or the mind of Christ) is all about JESUS and what HE did (for us and as us) 2,000 years ago on the cross. A meat head tries to finish the work because he thinks, "If I finish the work, and do a good job, then God will be pleased with me and I can rest." But when the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in the form of a dove... when the Father affirmed His Son by publicly declaring that He was well pleased with Him... Jesus hadn't done anything yet. He didn't begin His ministry until AFTER the Father declared His pleasure. And that, friends, is the difference between works and labor, and rest. The carnal mind thinks it has to earn the Father's love and acceptance, and does everything from that place of trying to get something it thinks it doesn't have. The mind of Christ knows that Daddy loves Him and does everything from that place of sharing what He does have. You can't act the right way in order to GET salvation. You act the right way because you HAVE salvation. And by salvation I mean, "salvation from sin." Which is why Jesus came. He didn't come to save us from some firey prison called hell that you go to after you die if you're on the naughty list. He came to save us from our sins. He came to save us from unbelief. He came to save us... from ourselves. Remember that we were God's enemies IN OUR MINDS because of our wicked works. God was never our enemy. He always has and always will love us. He vowed to never leave us nor forsake us. But we FELT like enemies in our carnal minds because to a meat head the simply equation of "If I do good I'll be accepted, if I do evil I'll be punished," makes perfect sense. Things like mercy and grace and unconditional love can only make sense in the context of the relationship between a heavenly Father and His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. That's why Jesus said, "...no man cometh unto the FATHER but by me" (John 14:6). Listen, Jesus didn't come to improve you. He came to remove you. He came to crucify and bury that old man, that carnal mind, that meat head, and raise up a new creation in Him! He came to give us life and that more abundantly. He came to move us out of religion and into relationship. He came to show us the Father. He came to save us from our sins so that we could stop TRYING to please God and so that we could KNOW and BELIEVE that Daddy IS pleased with us. Daddy loves us. Not because of what we do, but because of who we are. That's the good news of the gospel. You don't have to (and can't) earn Daddy's love. It is a gift that is freely given, and received through faith by the Holy Spirit!