All posts by dax

A Fun Letter

Grace,

One of the fears that frequently echoes back against a full proclamation of the Gospel is that it is unbalanced. Talking about grace alone in Christ alone by faith alone is too unqualified — you have to “balance” the incredible truth of Jesus Christ or people will be lazy slugs, ignoring the Bible’s imperatives?

Are you worried, for yourself or others? Worried that people who are too into true grace don’t obey?

If you’ve ever struggled there, or if you just want an encouraging read, head over to The Gospel Coalition for this wonderful letter by Elyse Fitzpatrick.

Enjoy!

H/T Tullian Tchividjian

Obey the Gospel

Righteousness,

How time slips by… for me, it has come with much effort on our new church location. Hope it is done soon!We’ve been dwelling on Galatians over the past weeks. Paul’s fiery passion for the Galatian’s identity and grounding in Christ has come blazing through. It is so strong I want to “fight back.”

Objection, Paul!

Don’t you need some caveats about my need for sacrificial living? Don’t you need to combat license as you lay down the gauntlet of “Christ plus nothing”?

Galatians has been good for me to chew on… because the strength of Paul’s conviction has led me to see that my flesh raises its head so very, very easily.

In my flesh, my focus of obedience, so often, is on me and for me. I live a clean and disciplined life, so that others will think well of me. Even my standing with God… and my view of myself… is seen through the lens of how well I’m obeying the rules.

So it has been good for me to think about what the content of my obedience is. It can’t be the Mosaic Law – not if the inspired words of the Apostle to the Gentiles is to be believed. So what is the object, the content, of my obedience?

Could it be the Gospel?

In the midst of illuminating true righteousness, Paul speaks of the condemnation of “those who have not obeyed the gospel” (Romans 10:16). This is the disobedience which leads to judgment: vengeance is on “those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.” (2 Thessalonians 1:8).

“The gospel of our Lord Jesus.” This seems to be the central obedience piece. How do I “obey” the good news of our Lord Jesus?

Perhaps I must believe it. Perhaps I must forsake all my works and my standing and my own striving… and trust completely in His finished work. Perhaps I must continue to trust in His finished work, in His shed blood, for my whole life long… even though friends and flesh and world call out to me to prove to them my worth through my own effort. To warp His work into something that includes mine. To not be true to the truth — the truth that my only hope, even after conversion, is Jesus.

Perhaps there is more to obedience than following my internal set of “do’s and don’ts”.

So sacrificial living does come out of me as a Christian. My will is engaged in living for Jesus, not for me… but that’s a fruit of true obedience – the obedience of faith. And it spans so much more than a rule set… because the impact of what Jesus Christ has done changes me forever.

Obey the gospel!

Second Things First

Grace, In Christ,

“You can’t get second things by putting them first; you can get second things only by putting first things first.” (C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock)

Somebody called this obvious today. I wish it were.

Our response to the Gospel is ‘of course.’ And then we are off into things we are more interested in.

“I understand Jesus is my savior. Get on with it already,” where the “it” is usually behaviorism. Christian moralism. Pragmatism.

This idea has come out several times in my week. A parent who wishes the church would teach their child not to listen to country music. A spouse wanting a better listener at home. Talking to people who are making lists – actual lists – of behaviors they are working on to improve their relationships.

You can argue about the wisdom or acceptability of any of these desires. But the difficulty is that these are all second things. And well-intentioned people are not seeing the primacy of first things. They’re not saying — oh, how I wish my child would be passionate about Jesus Christ; oh, that my spouse would would be rejoicing in their union with Christ; oh, that my eyes might be filled with my Lord, that my desires might change.

What is incredibly important, crucial to every moment of every day that we are alive, is the first things. And that the first things are first.

Faith is the absolute trust in salvation by Christ alone, a gift of grace. Open eyes to this first thing impacts everything else. The second things flow out of them.

Practical concerns, pragmatic approaches, may be helpful. But not Christian, per se. And all second things, not first things.

What you listen to is tied to who you worship. Your relationship with your spouse is founded your understanding of your relationship to Jesus Christ. Behaviors are impacted by your gratitude at what he’s done… and gives you a heart to flee the world and follow your savior.

My heart is a bit heavy today, not because of a rebellious world choosing against God… but because of my own quickness, and the quickness of others in the church, to want second things without a depth of understanding that first things are first.

“And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption…” (1 Corinthians 1:30).

Not obvious. Emphatic, rather. And first.

Seasons

Grace, Quotes,

In different seasons the Lord refreshes in different ways. In this recent season I’ve been thoughtfully challenged and encouraged by Tillian Tchividjian’s blog at The Gospel Coalition.

Here’s a sample:

The “what we need to do” portions of the Bible are good, perfect, and true–but apart from the “what Jesus has already done” portions of the Bible, we lack the power to do what we’re called to do. The good commands of God, in other words, do not have the power to engender what they command. They show us what a sanctified life looks like but they have no sanctifying power. Only the gospel has the power to move us forward. This is why the Bible never tells us what to do before first soaking our hearts and minds in what God in Christ has already done.

The fact is, that any obedience not grounded in or motivated by the gospel is unsustainable. No matter how hard you try, how radical you get, any engine smaller than the gospel that you’re depending on for power to obey will conk out in due time.

I’ve thought about this before, here. But it is a wonderful reminder… how I need, again and again, to bring my eyes back to my Savior in the gospel!

Cold Day Quote

Quotes, Righteousness,

Yep, couldn’t move my fingers so well after walking from my car to the church this morning. Cold! And those who experience real cold will undoubtedly laugh at me… but cold for Bellingham.

Can’t resist posting a quote from Tullian Tchividjian, pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, this morning:

…The bottom line is this, Christian: because of Christ’s work on your behalf, God does not dwell on your sin the way you do. So, relax and rejoice…and you’ll actually start to get better. The irony, of course, is that it’s only when we stop obsessing over our own need to be holy and focus instead on the beauty of Christ’s holiness, that we actually become more holy!

It is his main point in a couple of excellently thoughtful posts on Christian ‘accountability.’ Read the whole thing here.

Not balance but startle

Grace, Quotes, Righteousness

If those two words don’t seem to go together, consider this excellent excerpt of a post by Dane Ortlund, a senior editor at Crossway Books:

You wrote that we live “in a restraint-free culture dominated by Eat, Pray, Love spirituality and Joel Osteen-grade theology.” I am as averse to such things as you are. But there are two ways to seek to redress this.

One way is to balance gospel grace with exhortations to holiness, as if both need equal air time lest we fall into legalism on one side (neglecting grace) or antinomianism on the other (neglecting holiness).

The other way, which I believe is the right and biblical way, is so to startle this restraint-free culture with the gospel of free justification that the functional justifications of human approval, moral performance, sexual indulgence, or big bank accounts begin to lose their vice-like grip on human hearts and their emptiness is exposed in all its fraudulence. It sounds backward, but the path to holiness is through (not beyond) the grace of the gospel, because only undeserved grace can truly melt and transform the heart. The solution to restraint-free immorality is not morality. The solution to immorality is the free grace of God—grace so free that it will be (mis)heard by some as a license to sin with impunity. The route by which the New Testament exhorts radical obedience is not by tempering grace but by driving it home all the more deeply.

Let’s pursue holiness. (Without it we won’t see God: Matt 5:8; Heb 12:14.) And let’s pursue it centrally through enjoying the gospel, the same gospel that got us in and the same gospel that liberates us afresh each day (1 Cor 15:1–2; Gal 2:14; Col 1:23; 2:6). As G. C. Berkouwer wisely remarked, “The heart of sanctification is the life which feeds on justification.”

Read the whole thing.

Rainy Day Quote (another)

Grace, Quotes

C.S. Lewis conveys truth in such memorable ways. Here’s a thoughtful quote from Mere Christianity (Book III, Chapter 11) on Faith:

The main thing we learn from a serious attempt to practise the Christian virtues is that we fail. If there was any idea that God had set us a sort of exam and that we might get good marks by deserving them, that has to be wiped out. If there was any idea of a sort of bargain—any idea that we could perform our side of the contract and thus put God in our debt so that it was up to Him, in mere justice, to perform His side—that has to be wiped out.

I think every one who has some vague belief in God, until he becomes a Christian, has the idea of an exam, or of a bargain in his mind. The first result of real Christianity is to blow that idea into bits. 

Great image, isn’t it… blow that idea to bits (not too get too strident with rhetoric)! And I might, perhaps, suppose that even after we become Christians, we can try and re-construct the bits and slip back into this thinking.

May we see that by the work of Christ alone we have been transferred to His kingdom… and our entire trust, or entire faith, is in the One who has truly saved our souls.

Guilt and Grace

Grace, In Christ, Repentance, Righteousness, Uncategorized, , ,

I love church. Not as much as I love Jesus, but I’m constantly thankful for how our Lord uses the body to sharpen me and grow me. This week, a brief discussion about guilt and its relationship to the Christian life has made me think and pray much.

Guilt is, per one online dictionary, “an awareness of having done wrong, usually accompanied by feelings of shame and regret.” For the Christian, at the point of salvation, it’s commonly agreed that our guilt – and the sin that caused it – is removed. God’s forgiveness in Christ (as well as aspects of salvation like justification) pretty clearly remove guilt (i.e., see Romans 4:5-8 or 1 John 1:9). D.A. Carson, in For the Fame of God, writes that “for the gospel to be effective it must clear us of our guilt.”

Yet we run into guilt all the time, in our Christian life, after conversion. I am constantly tempted to carry it around with me. Guilt over past offenses… guilt over what I have done (or haven’t)… guilt can guide behavior, prevent peace, and worm its way into many, many areas of our lives.

Don’t get me wrong. An active conscience is a good thing. By it the Holy Spirit helps me avoid sin, and to quickly confess sin. If guilt is because of ongoing sin… then maybe it shouldn’t be called guilt, but conviction. We need to confess the sin. That’s an easy theological answer.

The difficulty is that even after confession… the feeling remains. That shame over what has already been confessed. Is that ok? Should we soak in this feeling of “I’ve let God down… I’m unworthy and ashamed… I’ll never measure up”?

I’m coming more and more to think that our overwhelming need is an increasing awareness of our relationship with Christ. It is His forgiveness, His love, His work that clears my guilt forever. Even guilt after conversion. One of my greatest continuing problems is that I let guilt drive me from Christ. I think this probably means that I have too high a view of myself – instead of trusting totally in the work of the Savior, I trust in my own work. I don’t want to “impose” on Jesus again… as if there is any way that I could ever not need His righteousness instead of my own. So, in this sense, guilt becomes a marker for pride.

Elyse Fitzpatrick, in Counsel from the Cross, writes:

“We can’t overemphasize the importance of knowing that all our sins are forgiven, once for all time, when we strive to become more like him. Love is the only motive that can impel true heart transformation, and love will be present only when we see, demonstrated before our eyes, how we’ve been loved. Guilt over former sins never propels obedience; it only breeds doubt, fear, and bitterness.”

I like this because I do strive to be like my Savior, I have a motivation to follow and obey what he says. But this is because of love – his love for me, which births in my heart new desires and motivations. Continuing to carry guilt after my sin is forgiven seems to be a rejection of the love of Christ. If I am motivated primarily by guilt I am not actually understanding the work of Jesus Christ, nor am I understanding the grounds of my acceptance and righteousness.

It seems a bit paradoxical (as many biblical concepts) but true – that crucifying of ungodly behaviors requires a realization that we have absolutely died to it in Jesus. We don’t get ‘superpower’ to overcome sin (though we progressively become more like our Savior)… what we primarily get is a relationship which lets us lean upon the risen Savior, to see ourselves with entirely different lenses… by which our guilt… and with it sin’s power… has truly been broken.

William Romaine, an evangelical pastor in England in the 1700’s, puts it this way (in his Treaties Upon the Life, Walk, and Triumph of Faith):

“No sin can be crucified either in heart or life unless it first be pardoned in conscience, because there will be want of faith to receive the strength of Jesus, by whom alone it can be crucified. If it be not mortified in its guilt, it cannot be subdued in its power. If the believer does not see his perfect deadness to sin in Jesus, he will open a wide door to unbelief, and if he be no persuaded of his completeness in Christ, he gives room for the attacks of self-righteousness and legal tempers… The more clearly and steadfastly he believes this, as the apostle did – ‘I am crucified with Christ,’ in proportion will he cleave to Christ, and receive from him greater power to crucify sin. This believing view of his absolute mortification in Christ is the true gospel method of mortifying sin in our own persons.”

How incredible it is that we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are… yet without sin. “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16).

Hasta la vista, prideful guilt. Hello, wonderful Savior.

Thankful

Uncategorized

Happy Thanksgiving! It seems somewhat of a cliché, but we have so much to be thankful for. Safe travels. Hot food. A day of rest and family. My mind goes right away to my wife and two wonderful children… but even as I do that, I realize these are blessings… and really, my greatest thanks is for the One who has blessed me with more than I can imagine.

Overflowingly thankful because of an incredible God

One example, this day: how I am thankful that I please God. Amazing. Here’s a fine quote by Martin Luther on this (from Bondage of the Will):

“Furthermore, I have the comfortable certainty that I please God, not by reason of the merit of my works, but by reason of His merciful favour promised to me; so that, if I work too little, or badly, He does not impute it to me, but with fatherly compassion pardons me and makes me better. This is the glorying of all the saints in their God.”

How grateful I am that I am spared from self-righteousness and given the righteousness of a perfect, all-sufficient Savior! Luther again:

“Whatever work [toward salvation] I had done, there would still be a nagging doubt as to whether it pleased God, or whether he required something more. The experience of all who seek righteousness by works proves that; and I learned it well enough myself over a period of many years, to my own great hurt” 

This thankfulness extends to a depth of gratitude that our God sets us apart, that he grows in us (from the grounds of his work, not ours) a desire for following in his ways and bearing fruit. For a convicting post on this, see Kevin DeYoung’s article. He notes:

I believe God would have us be much more careful with our eyes, our ears, and our mouth. It’s not pietism, legalism, or fundamentalism to take holiness seriously. It’s the way of all those who have been called to a holy calling by a holy God.

How thankful I am for a holy calling! And in the depth of that… that our Savior, Jesus Christ, has done it. And so I have God-given (thank you!) grounds for pursuing an ever-deepening knowledge of our Lord and his ways. This thought is summed up by an unknown commenter:

We must not put our trust in trying to be Holy. We cannot separate the justification of God from the sanctification of God. He came to seek and to save the lost. He is the author and finisher of our faith. He is faithful to complete the work HE started in us!

Thank you, Lord! I am so grateful for your love, your mercy, your sacrifice, your peace, your kindness, your holiness that is the grounds and motivation for mine.

And I have to confess… these two little kids you’ve given care of to my wife and I… we’re really thankful for them too.

Rainy Day Quote

Grace,

Well… it is actually not rainy, right now. But it has been… it is Bellingham, after all!

Two people today pointed me to this wonderful message from Tullian Tchividjian at the 2010 Desiring God National Conference. He clearly and with depth hits at an issue that resonates through my life… in being sold out to the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18). He has some words for those (‘those’ can include me) who try to “balance” grace. So often people try to add some ‘law’ to grace… and so this is very refreshing:

…In my opinion it is a huge mistake to frame the issue as two ditches, one on each side. There aren’t two ways to fall off the Christian life. It’s one way, with two forms. The biggest lie about grace is that it is dangerous and therefore needs to be kept in check. The devil does not want us to believe in the radical nature of grace. The biggest lie he wants us to believe is that grace is dangerous, unruly, and that we need to balance it out with a healthy dose of law.

Believing this violates gospel advancement. This “Yes grace, but…” is the kind of disposition that keeps moralism swirling around in our hearts.

Wonderful truth.

And if you’re still wanting more, here’s an article adapted from his book, Surprised by Grace.

Ok… and I’m giving in… and just embedding the video, for your watching pleasure… rejoice in such a wondrous gospel!

 

Update (2016): This content has been removed from Desiring God, which saddens me. For the moment, it is still available here.