Naked Pride

Bread and Wine Reading: "Naked Pride", John Stott

Scripture Reading: Romans 8: 35-39
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We Americans don’t really do well with nakedness—either literally or figuratively. Perhaps it is our Puritan influence that sees the flesh as at least something less than good and at the most downright naughty. But I think, more than that, it is that we are taught to “put on a good face”, to “not air our dirty laundry” and to “act like that that we want to be”. And then we are shocked and even a little taken aback when someone is “real” and genuine. Why can’t we be real?

John Stott begins his essay by claiming that “the essence of sin is [humanity] substituting [the human self] for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting [Godself] for [humanity].” This is a powerful statement. Why can’t we be real? Why do we think that we have to be someone we’re not? Why do we aspire to be God? We will never be God; God is God.

We 21st century Protestants do not do well with confessions. Excuses are really much more our norm—“I’m only human”, “I was just trying to…”, “The devil made me do it.”---PLEASE! Why can’t we just admit that we messed up? But instead we try our best to cover it up with finery and frills, thinking that we can hide it from others, from God, and even from ourselves. But, as Stott says, “As we stand before the cross, we begin to gain a clear view both of God and of ourselves, especially in relation to each other…But we cannot escape the embarrassment of standing stark naked before God...We have to acknowledge our nakedness, see the divine substitute wearing our filthy rags instead of us, and allow [God] to clothe us with [God’s] own righteousness.”

We know those things that separate us from Christ—hardship, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword. We bask in the knowledge that God will save us from these in God’s time. But God doesn’t really use magic potions or save us because we are good. We are saved by grace. We are saved by our turning to God, by our surrendering our lives so that God can pick us up, set us on our feet, and coax us forward toward that perfect oneness with God. But surrendering is about acknowledging our need for God. It is about admitting hardship and distress, persecution and peril; it is about hungering for God even in the face of famine; it is about putting down the sword; it is about revealing our nakedness, showing our deepest needs, and working to bare everything that we pretend to be. It is about finally being real and letting God clothe us in righteousness. Think about it. A doctor will not dress a wound by merely covering an old bandage; our wounds must be exposed and redressed by the covering of God’s grace.

Discussion Questions:
1.) What aspects of your own life to you cover or shield from others?
2.) What are those things that you need to expose to God and to yourself?
3.) What is something that you pretend is OK that you need to surrender before God?

So go forth toward the Cross, and bare yourself before God!

Grace and Peace,

Shelli