Redemptive Community

Yesterday and today I woke up with a kick in my spirit, unlike any kicks I’ve experienced recently. Days are rare when we can wake up and feel excited and eager for life. I have felt overjoyed this past weekend, and I cannot express how thankful I am. I attribute it to the people that surrounded me this past weekend and the way that they motivate me to live life.

There is something that living in community does to my spirit. Living in community can also be challenging because sin easily taints the beauty of relationships. But redemptive community is different. It is a group with two things in common that can bond a human soul faster than any other commonalities I’ve known in relationships. 1) We are all sinners to the same degree. 2) We are all forgiven and made righteous through Christ. This makes these relationships a lot different than relationships built upon other standards. This makes these relationships out-of-this-world, literally. These kind of relationships don’t exist naturally in the world. They only exist when both people in a relationship have experienced the radical forgiveness of Christ. This makes these relationships full of freedom, honesty and forgiveness.  This makes these relationships all about celebrating life- because its forever!  A side note:  My friend Mary and I decided we never would have been friends unless we shared the bond of Christ- pretty funny huh?  Now she stands as my ex-roommate (only because I got married!) of two years and a dear friend who stood by me in my wedding.  Anywho…

As a part of the human condition, we have a natural tendency to only hold on to relationships if they can give us what we feel we need and deserve. I’ve realized I wake up each day with expectations from certain relationships. What I don’t often do is consider the after math of when one of my expectations doesn’t get met. How will I react to the failure of myself as a friend and the failure of others as my friends?

The moment a relationship in our life betrays or hurts us in any way, we often gravitate away from that relationship. Sometimes I’ll hold a grudge against whomever has wronged me, and I’ll even begin thinking that I am the ultimate friend who would never hurt someone. But, if I dig a little deeper and get a little bit more honest, could I stand as though I’ve never thought something nasty about someone else? Even my close loved ones? As much as no one wants to admit this- as much as I don’t want to admit this, its true. I’d be a hypocrite- ( and I’d also be Jesus!) if I esteemed myself as maintaining this level of loyalty and love for those whom I regularly relate to. I would have to be without sin to perfectly love them.

Aaah… there’s so much hope for this condition of relating that we are often stuck in! Covered in Christ’s righteousness, we can begin to look at each other as God looks at us: without sin! But its hard to look at each other that way, especially when we’ve been hurt.  But I want to fight for this kind of redemptive community in my life.

I am not without sin on my own, but only with Jesus pardoning me and giving me himself. It is a war within me I have to fight every day. I will look to the sinless one to fight for me- Jesus- and thank Him for standing perfectly in my place and looking at me as though I am white as snow. Isa 1:18 says… “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” God is speaking to the prophet Isaiah sending a message to his people, challenging them to repent and live differently, telling them that if they repent and fight to change, he will purify them completely and even look at them as without sin! What more approval could they ask for?

The living God has also just told the Israelites that he is tired of their sacrificial offerings. Isa 1:11 “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.” If you think about it, it seems almost humorous that we as humans try to offer sacrifices to the almighty, all knowing, infinite in wisdom and powerful God. God is trying to make a point to his people- that their righteousness is not enough. They cannot make up for their sins by offering Him something. It will never be enough. To make up for their failures, the Israelites believed that offering sacrifices to God would make up for their lack of obedience, but God had something else in mind: redemption! Rather than asking the Israelites to “pay their dues,” he offered them something better, something freer. All he wanted was the true heart repentance and a desire to change. Then, they would be white as snow in his eyes! This model of free grace and love is significant in redemptive community.

Redemptive relationships sharing the bond of Christ’s forgiveness have the potential to move past the bitterness, grudges, and hurtful words that sin often scars friendships with. If God’s promise from Romans chapter 5 is true- Rom 5:8 “…but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us,” could we love others while they are still sinners? So I ask myself: Don’t I still want to be loved and accepted among my friends, even though I am struggling with sin daily? The truth is, I do. I crave this love and acceptance- even when I don’t deserve it. In the redemptive community in my life, I get to experience being loved when I’m struggling with sin a lot of the time. In my relationship with God, I get to experience this complete approval all the time! It is always based on his love and not my own deserving or deeds. It says in Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

I am so motivated, full of freedom, and excited about life because of this community of redemption! I can show up to my small group and say that I’m not doing well. I can talk about the deep things that I struggle with- the deep sin, the deep fears- and I am loved and accepted and looked upon with hope and belief that God is working in my life. I can bear my sin without shame to these wonderful people around me, who continuously show me a model of free grace and love. These friends and family have chosen to stay in relationship with me, even when I have said hurtful things and acted foolishly towards them. Because of Christ’s ultimate forgiveness of sin, we can relate redemptively to those around us. If God could hope for the Israelites and love them amidst their rebellion, could He hope for us too? Does he want us to hope for others?

I don’t know about you, but I need redemptive community to truly change who I am, what I do, and what I care about in life. I need a lot of people to be at my side living this life with me. I will note that I don’t naturally gravitate towards community. I naturally gravitate towards withdrawing from people when life gets hard. However, when I have people around me who love me and help me through it with hope and not judgment and a vision of hope and change, I could spend a whole weekend with these people, even in the middle of the shadows and dark places of life. What a blessing.