S2 E17 TRANSCRIPT
RESPONDING IN HUMILITY
INTRODUCTION
Hello everyone and welcome to Spirit-Led Hope. My name is Glenn Erichsen, and in this episode, we are looking at the topic:
RESPONDING IN HUMILITY
This is the last episode of Season 2, and at the very end I will give you an idea of what is coming next for Spirit-Led Hope.
Before we get into the heart of this final episode of the Season, I want to take a moment to speak directly to anyone listening who is not a Christian. I hope that Season 2 has helped you understand more about the agreements and disagreements between the origin stories proposed by naturalism and Christianity.
In this episode, I am wrapping everything up from a uniquely Christian perspective. I will be talking about sin, sacrifice, humility, and above all, Jesus. I hope you will listen to learn more about the Chrisitan viewpoint, but I do not want anyone to feel blindsided or caught off guard like I tricked you into attending a church service. Or something like that.
I have heard naturalists argue that God hides and that if God wanted relationship with us, he would be more visible. In the last episode, I presented the case that all of Creation points to God. In this episode I want us to see that God does even more by showing us how to have relationship with him. In fact, God made us so that we could have relationship with him.
And that is why this episode will talk about Jesus. If you do not believe in God and you decide to listen, I hope you will consider what I say, even if you do not agree with it. If you decide not to listen, feel free to jump to the end of the episode to hear what is in store for Season 3.
MADE FOR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
What I want us to see first is that we were made for relationship with God. In Episode 8, we read the entire first chapter of Genesis. There, in verse 27, we read this:
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27 ESV
God let us know that we are not made in some random fashion. Instead, we were made in a manner that somehow is like him. Now a full understanding of what it means to be made in God’s image is beyond us, because God is beyond us. But there are some things we do know.
For example, we know that as God’s image bearers we have intellect and moral free will. But there is more. If we are made in God’s image, it must mean that we are made for relationship with him. How do we know that?
We know that because God’s very nature is relational. God is one God, but in three Divine Persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have distinct personalities, but they are one in essence. If this is new to you, this is the short version of describing the Trinity, or the Godhead.
God’s fundamental nature is relational. God has never been lonely because there is perfect love within the Godhead. Because we are made in God’s image, it must mean that we too are made for relationship with God, and that he invites into that relationship.
By the way, this also means that we were made for relationship with each other. That is not the focus of this Episode…but that is very important and a good topic for another episode.
SIN SEPARATES US FROM GOD
But this presents a significant question. If all of Creation points us to God (as we discussed last episode), and we were made for relationship with God, how come everyone in the world does not have relationship with God?
The short answer is that sin separated everyone from God. When Adam sinned, all of Creation, all of Creation, was somehow broken. Every human inherited a sinful nature and our ability to fully relate to God was damaged. The Apostle Paul says that all of Creation is groaning because of sin. We covered this more in Episode 22 of Season 1, so I am not going to go into a lot of detail here. Refer to that episode if you want to know more. I will reference that episode in the show notes.
The main takeaway we need for this Episode, is that God made provision for us so that our relationship with him can be restored. We will discuss how, in just a moment. But here is the big picture summarized in five points:
1. All of Creation points to God.
2. We were made for relationship with God.
3. God invites us to have relationship with him.
4. Sin separates us from God.
5. God made a way for us to overcome sin and have restored relationship with him.
THE WAY TO RESTORED RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
So, what is the way that God gave us to restore our relationship with him? How do you fix what was created to be good and was broken? If you are God the Creator, you perform another creative act. Here is what we read in 2 Corinthians 5:17…
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV
When we repent of our sins and place our faith and trust in Jesus, the Holy Spirit makes us a new creation. In Season 1 we explained that the Holy Spirit takes up residence within us to make us new and this begins a very real and remarkable relationship with God. If you ever feel like God cannot make you into something new, look around at Creation. The very existence of everything we see around us, is proof that God can do something wonderful in you.
Now, there is a catch of sorts. Restoration with God is a freely given gift. We cannot earn it, but it does “cost” us something. Restoration with God means that we must humble ourselves and follow Jesus. This does not always come easy to us, but it is a requirement.
But here is something I love about God. Knowing that humbling ourselves would be difficult, God himself set an example for us. Jesus, the one through whom all things were created, humbled himself so that we could have relationship with God.
This is what Paul wrote in the book of Philippians:
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:3-11 ESV
Now these verses also describe more about how we should relate one to another, but for this episode, our focus is on what Jesus did for us. Jesus humbled himself and was crucified. In doing this, Jesus demonstrated his love for us so that we might respond with our own acts of humility.
Humility is what allows us to not only have a restored relationship with God, but to also have a deeper relationship with God. Look at what at humility does:
- It is only through humility that we can confess our sins and begin a restored relationship with God.
- We grow closer to God as we humble ourselves and become teachable.
- We grow closer to God when we humble ourselves and obey him.
- The humble person participates with the Holy Spirit to grow in the fruit of the Spirit. We talked about this in Season 1. Without humility, it is very difficult to grow in things like kindness, goodness, and self-control.
- The humble person becomes a willing vessel to serve God with the gifts of the Spirit. Again, listen to Season 1 if this is something new to you.
- Humility opens the door to a fresh relationship with God and others.
The difficulty, of course, is that we all struggle with pride…which opposes humility. Pride can keep us stuck in a place of pain and a place of stagnation. I shared in Season 1 that I did not think I had anything wrong with me until I was about 37 years old. Once I accepted that there were many things in my life to work on, the Holy Spirit was faithful to begin a serious process of transformation. There is no way I would want to go back to the person I was at that age. I would not mind having my 37-year-old body back! That would be nice. But it would not be worth it if I had to give up the changes made in me since then.
If you feel like your relationship with God has been stuck…let me gently suggest that you look at your level of humility. Ask yourself questions like:
- Do I confess my sins?
- Am I teachable?
- Am I obedient to God’s will?
- Am I growing in the fruit of the Spirit?
- Am I available to serve God through the gifts of the Spirit?
If your answer to these questions is “no” then consider that pride might be a factor keeping you from moving forward.
One thing that can happen when we do this type of inventory, is that we can feel shame. Shame often works with pride to keep us from humility. Shame can keep us from repenting of our sins. Sometimes we are embarrassed to admit that we are wrong or have stumbled and gone backwards. We may experience shame if we realize we have believed a lie, or something distorted about God that keeps us away from him. I have experienced all of these, and you may have too.
But there is something God does about our shame that we can understand through an imperfect analogy. If you ever read comics, or watch shows with superheroes, you will understand the imaginary scene that I am about to describe.
Picture someone in a car who ignores the flashing lights at a train crossing. Of course, their car stalls on the tracks and because they never fixed that finicky seat belt, they are stuck. As they humble themselves and cry for help, Superman, or some other hero, arrives just in time to rescue them before the train turns their car into a junk pile.
Normally, we might think that person would feel shame because what they did was foolish. But instead, something else happens. Whenever their story is told, the emphasis is not on their foolishness, but on the actions of the hero. This is what happens…the presence of the hero redirects the story from the shame of the one rescued, to the glory of the savior. Everyone remembers what Superman did to save the one who was helpless. The foolishness and shame are forgotten.
I know this is a cheesy analogy, but this a type of what God does. When we humble ourselves, God shows up with such brilliance that he takes the shame away from us. As we humble ourselves, the Holy Spirit moves in with healing, power, and transformation. In the process, Jesus gets the attention and is glorified, and the Father is exalted. The entire Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit work seamlessly together to bring us deeper into relationship with God.
If you find that shame is stopping you from humbling yourself, trust that God will take that shame and deepen your relationship with him.
SEASON SUMMARY
Thank you so much for joining me for Season 2. It has been quite a journey!
To recap the Season, we started out the Season by saying we needed humility to look at Creation through the worldviews of Christianity and naturalism. We saw how Creation causes us to ask Big Questions. We then looked at the naturalistic explanations for the beginnings of the universe and life, and then read the first chapter of Genesis to see the beginnings according to the Bible.
We then systematically compared the beginnings of the universe and life between the two worldviews. We found that there was a remarkable agreement between the Genesis account and naturalism, except when it came to the topic of time. We addressed the Creation dilemma of time and then discussed how sharing your beliefs about Creation requires humility.
We then completed the Season by showing how Creation points us to God, and that Jesus demonstrated how we can be restored to God. We saw in this episode, that God will take our shame and have relationship with us as we humble ourselves.
It is interesting looking back at how much we discussed humility this Season. And maybe that is not such a surprise. After all, Jesus, the Creator of the Universe, demonstrated the greatest example of humility ever known…so that we could become a new creation.
CLOSING
Now that we are done with Season 2, my plan is to take a break and get some rest through the holiday season. I hope to start Season 3 sometime in January of 2024.
I have been debating about what comes next and I think I know where we are headed, but I am not quite sure. I know that part of my calling is to help others to have hope in a life led by the Holy Spirit. And this means that we challenge ourselves to think deeply about God and then apply what we learn.
I do not want to scare anyone away, but one of the ways we can challenge ourselves is to systematically explore applied theology. I am currently looking into a framework that we can follow that will keep us learning and growing for many, many, episodes.
On a personal note, doing a podcast like this is a lot of work. What I would like to do is make Seasons shorter with breaks in between. That will make doing podcasts more sustainable for me. So do not be surprised if Season 3 is only about 4 episodes long, with a break followed by Season 4 and so on. Again, I am prayerfully trying to figure all of this out.
While we are in the break between seasons, I would love to hear from you. As always, if you have any comments, suggestions, or questions, please email me at glenn@spiritledhope.com, or simply use the Contact Form at spiritledhope.com. That is spiritLEDhope.com. Also, I will try to leave some updates on the website when I know more details about Season 3.
If you find these episodes useful, please share them with your friends, leave a good review, and make sure to follow the podcast so that you are notified when the next season begins.
As we close this Season:
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Until next episode, take care.
Copyright 2023 Spirit-Led Hope