Demo Day

I haven’t watched the tv show Fixer Upper in a few years, but I remember Chip Gaines celebrating “demo day.” He found great joy in tearing down old walls, tubs, sinks, etc. in order to make space for the new.

For Christians, every day is “demo day.” I’m not sure it feels as exciting as the smile on Chip Gaines’s face, but the work is just as necessary. We all have imperfect ideas about who God is that we need to destroy to make room for the truth.

Through his book Gentle and Lowly, Dane Ortlund helped me work on this in my own life. Here is one example from chapter 19, which is a reflection on Ephesians 2:4 “But God, being rich in mercy….”

Nowhere else is the Bible is God described as rich in anything. The only thing he is called rich in is: mercy. What does this mean? It means that God is something other than what we naturally believe him to be. It means the Christian life is a lifelong shedding of tepid thoughts of the goodness of God.”

Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund, p 172

My natural tendency is to believe God is judgmental first and merciful second (or third or fourth or way down the list). Over time I developed a pervasive assumption that God was always disappointed in me. i.e. I deserved his wrath because of my sin, but even my acts of love and service for him were massively less than pleasing to him.

The last few years have been both painful and beautiful to demolish those incorrect thoughts about God. I have found great comfort in repeating God’s own description of himself in Exodus 34:6-7

And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,  maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”

Exodus 34:6-7, NIV

Yes, he is a just God, but he is first of all compassionate and merciful. This is what demo day means for me: to break down the false picture of God’s disappointment in me and trust in his word that he is slow to anger and abounding in love.

As another example, I wonder if the 1st century Jewish followers of Jesus had a similar process when thinking about the priesthood.

For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah, and in regard to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests. And what we have said is even more clear if another priest like Melchizedek appears, one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life. For it is declared: “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”  The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.

Hebrews 7:14–19, NIV

How jarring would it have been to hear that the primary method they knew of connecting to God was “weak and useless.” What doubts and questions would that have raised? What trust broken in the people who loved them and led them to God?

The very existence of the book of Hebrews tells us that it was not easy to demolish their imperfect beliefs. They needed a good sermon on the superiority of Jesus as the Messiah. The demo process took time, repetition, and encouragement.

Eventually, when they really started to believe it, how freeing was this news that no more priests or sacrifices were needed to “draw near to God?!” It was definitely a better hope.

What are other false beliefs about God that Christians have to demolish in their own lives?