Monthly Archives: January 2009

Graceful Thoughts II

I am so thankful to the Lord for stimulating thoughts from other believers. Here are a couple to chew on.

From Tim Keller, in The Reason for God:

“When many first hear the distinction between religion and the gospel, they think that it just sounds too easy. ‘Nice deal!’ they may say. ‘If that is Christianity, all I have to do is get a personal relationship to God and then do anything I want!’ Those words, however, can only be spoken on the outside of an experience of radical grace. No one from the inside speaks like that. In fact, grace can be quite threatening.

Some years ago I met a woman who began coming to church… she said she had gone to church growing up and had never before heard a distinction drawn between the gospel and religion. She had always heard that God accepts us only if we are good enough. She said that the new message was scary. I asked her why it was scary, and she replied:

‘If I was saved by my good works then there would be a limit to what God could ask of me or put me through. I would be like a taxpayer with “rights” – I would have done my duty and now I would deserve a certain quality of life. But if I am a sinner saved by sheer grace – then there’s nothing he cannot ask of me.’

She understood the dynamic of grace and gratitude. If when you have lost all fear of punishment you also lose all incentive to live a good, unselfish life, then the only incentive you ever had to live a decent life was fear. This woman could see immediately that the wonderful-beyond-belief teaching of salvation by sheer grace had an edge to it. She knew that if she was a sinner saved by grace, she was (if anything) more subject to the sovereign Lordship of God. She knew that if Jesus really had done all this for her, she would not be her own. She would joyfully, gratefully belong to Jesus, who provided all this for her at infinite cost to himself.”

 

And from D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, in Spiritual Depression:

“The very essence of the Christian faith is to say that He is good enough and I am in Him. As long as you go on thinking about yourself saying, ‘I’m not good enough; Oh, I’m not good enough,’ you are denying God – you are denying the gospel – you are denying the very essence of the faith and you will never be happy. You think you’re better at times and then again you will find you are not as good at other times than you thought you were. You will be up and down forever.”

The Center of the Gospel

The empty cross... pointing to our eternally living Savior
A living, loving Savior -- the heart of the gospel!

Are we, as Christians, living our lives not really grasping the gospel?

Even asking if we might be living the Christian life without fully understanding the message of the gospel sounds a bit arrogant and presumptuous.

But one has to wonder when the Bible seems to point to a surprising answer to the question of what we need after salvation.

Consider Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Paul was so eager to pray to God for the believers there, for their daily life. What did he ask for?

Ephesians 1:16 I do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.

He prays that they might increase in their knowledge of Christ, their understanding of what they had been given, and also their understanding of God’s power exercised on their behalf throughout their lives (1:18-19).

He bows his knees again in Ephesians 3 and prays:

Ephesians 3:17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

After salvation, they have to continually more fully grasp the love of Christ (toward them), which is the means by which they will be filled up to all the fullness of God.

This leads to a seemingly basic but radically important foundation: what we need beyond all else, what we need to such a degree that Paul is pleading to God for it not once but twice before he tells the Ephesians to do anything, is an increasing knowledge of who Christ is and what He does.

For those who have faith, this increasing knowledge is what will fill them up to the fullness of God. In fact, it is Christ who “fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:23).

This Christ is the central focus of my whole Christian life. He is my Lord, Savior, motivation, hope, help, interceder, covering… my all in all.

All of this is quite before my own actions as a Christian (the first imperative in Ephesians is in chapter 4). There is no question that I do act; my faith produces fruit. But the fruit of my life comes from the outflow of my faith.

And my faith is sustained and grown as I learn more and more of the overwhelming blessing and deep sustaining relationship that I have with my precious Jesus Christ.

His righteousness for my sin, forever. His intercession for me, now. My union with Him, a reality.

So while I yearn to bear fruit, I know that fruit-bearing isn’t the center of the gospel. It’s what happens when I remain in Christ. I really yearn to grow in my understanding of my relationship to Jesus Christ,

Because my Savior is the ongoing center of the gospel through every moment of my life.

Graceful thoughts

Probably like you, sometimes I run across quotes that are worthy of chewing on… and I usually print them out, set them aside, and forget about them. Instead, perhaps, they can occasionally become a part of conversation. Here’s one such from Michael Horton, writing in “No Church, No Problem?”, Modern Reformation, July/August 2008.



“Christ has not only appointed the message, but the methods and, as we have seen, there is an inseparable connection between them. All around us we see evidence that churches may affirm the gospel of salvation by grace alone in Christ alone through faith alone, but then adopt a methodology that suggests otherwise. Christ has appointed preaching, because ‘faith comes by hearing the word of Christ’ (Rom. 10:17); baptism, because it is the sign and seal of inclusion in Christ; the Supper, because through it we receive Christ and all of his benefits. In other words, these methods are appointed precisely because they are means of grace rather than means of works; means of God’s descent to us rather than means of our ascent to God. 


In this way, Christ makes himself not only the gift, but the giver; not only the object of faith, but the active agent, together with the Spirit, in giving us faith. And he not only gives us this faith in the beginning, but deepens, matures, and increases our faith throughout our lives. The gospel is not something that we need to ‘get saved’ so that we can move on to something else; it is the ‘power of God unto salvation’ throughout our pilgrimage. So we need this gospel to be delivered to us regularly, both for our justification and our sanctification…”

The Grace of True Righteousness

This little nook of the web is called “practical grace.” That’s because true grace, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ, is the most practical, life-impacting thing I have ever encountered.  My personal outlook on life, my day-by-day living, has been radically altered by this true grace found in Christ. 

It seems that our initial confession of Christ almost always is accompanied by a deep appreciation of what Jesus did for us. A sinless life lived on our behalf, an unjust death on the cross, blood shed for our sins. What grace, that God has saved a wretch like me!

The grace of righteousness given lights up the sky of my life!
The grace of righteousness given lights up the sky of my life!

What has taken time and effort in my Christian life is the appropriating of the continuing grace of the gospel in my daily life. My life continues to be about Jesus Christ and His righteousness; He is as central today as the day He saved my soul, or even the day before the foundation of the Earth that He chose me in Him (Ephesians 1:3). My salvation includes my sanctification.

I think this is why the New Testament so emphatically affirms that godliness is not primarily a set of actions but a person (1 Timothy 3:16). Our life is hid in Christ; our whole existence is in union with Him. Including the existence I have after conversion.

From the Gospels to Romans to Ephesians to Galatians to Hebrews… in the Old Testament and in the New… God reveals that it is only through and in His Son, the Messiah, that we will ever stand before Him. Our relationship with Him is the center of life, really the only life we now have. Colossians 3 summarizes this well: “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory” (Colossians 3:3-4).

Ok… so I hear internet-minds thinking… this sounds like great, deep theology. It sounds heady and ethereal, but not really practical.

But the gospel (grace, our union with Christ) is fantastically practical. It is so intensely practical that it is hard to know where to begin.

For one, the centrality of grace is radically different than any other religious belief system known to man. What it practically produces is humility mixed with grateful service, rather than judgmental self-effort.

One Christian author puts it this way: “Grace understood and embraced will always lead to commitment. But commitment required will always lead to legalism.” (Jerry Bridges, Transforming Grace, p. 128)

But that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The gospel of grace has ongoing specific answers to the realities of our life – often typified in questions like:

• Do I have enough? Many people (Christians included) spend their whole lives striving toward some summit (money, approval of men or God, self-security).

• Am I good enough? Many people (Christians especially) live lives trying to “measure up” to a moral standard, and evaluate their lives based on their own righteousness.

• Am I valuable? Many people (again, Christians included) think they’re only valuable based on how ‘good’ they’ve been lately. We condition our feelings so that we feel good when we do certain actions (or avoid others).

The gospel of grace has important answers for daily living because it strongly answers these questions. It proclaims that our union with Christ is the center of our lives right now – we have such riches! It shouts that our worth is found only in Him. It thunders with the fact that the only righteousness we will ever have is someone else’s given to us.

One of the central struggles of the Christian life is that we are constantly pushed by the world away from persevering in the truth of the gospel. We are constantly pushed away from faith in the only righteousness or godliness we will ever have – away from faith in Jesus Christ alone.

Here is the gospel:
“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin, so that you might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Here’s how I’m tempted to alter this good news:
“He made Him who knew no sin to be sin, so that you might with great effort on your behalf become eventually the righteousness of God” (Not in the Bible).

Do you see the difference? Inasmuch as I am “in Christ” I am the righteousness of God. Even though I can’t write that sentence without trembling, my union with Christ means I have imputed (given, really counted, actually obtained) to me His righteousness. I can’t be putting my righteousness in His place. Not even the righteousness which I do after conversion.

(By the way, that righteousness produced in me by God is called fruit in the Bible [Galatians], it gives assurance [1 John], it is the mark of the believer [James]. I’m not in any way demeaning our fruit, it is wonderful. But may we not equate it with the righteousness of Christ which is ours forever in our union with Him.)

The shift we often subtly as we live as Christians is from our having Christ’s holiness and Christ’s righteousness by faith to us having our own (though verbally Spirit-enabled) righteousness and holiness. We must not equate these. They are not the same at all. The former is the very essence of our salvation every day, every hour, every moment of the Christian life. The latter is the evidence of a Christian life, not the center of it. To make such a shift can both confuse us and rob us of the wonder of what has been done for us, even after conversion.

Now what? Well, my life appears primarily to be about growing in understanding the gospel. My life is now about constantly holding onto faith, faith which includes the belief that I have that righteousness of Christ. Day by day, moment by moment, I desperately need continued, deepening understanding of the gospel of grace.

God’s righteousness is what I get through faith in Christ (Romans 3:21, Phil 3:9).

As I know the depths of Christ, as I grow in the gospel of grace, I am struck with wonder anew. I desire to walk in every way that reflects that I am sold out, absolutely engaged with, this amazing truth. My faith leads me to act and do because I trust God; when He says a way is best, it is! I become more and more thankful for the imperatives of Scripture, to which I am pulled because of the depth of my excitement in the gospel of Christ.

May the intensely practical, life-changing grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you in your Christian walk today and every day.

Running and Rest

Saturday morning I was out running in the rain. I’ve been challenged by a friend to try to run a half-marathon. So there I was, slowly shuffling along, getting drenched, enjoying God’s creation.

Well… ok, I wasn’t enjoying the creation too much because I was striving just to keep going: one more step, one more breath. I’m in such terrible shape that I have to stop every 10-15 minutes or so in order to rest. I jog for a bit in my out-of-shape condition, then I am forced to walk, to breathe and recover. “Rest” is when I just can’t strive anymore.

Exhausted runner (no, not me!)
Exhausted runner as the Christian life? (no, this is not me, he is far too fit!)

In one of my rest periods, I was struck by the thought – is my Christian life this way? I strive against my flesh, the world, and the devil; when I just can’t strive anymore, I have to stop to rest. Is that what grace is – when God gives me a break from the struggle of this exhausting life?

The Bible does seem to portray the Christian life as a running race. There is no doubt that our lives on earth involve effort and striving against sin. 1 Corinthians 9:24 refers to the self-control and discipline that we willingly desire to have as we “run in such a way that we may win.” Romans 8:23 proclaims that we “groan within ourselves,” longing for the coming redemption of our body when Christ returns.

But I’m not talking about that “end of life” rest (eschatological rest) here. I’m talking about my poor fitness. My tiredness in my run, my gasping-for-air need for a break before the end. Oh, I look forward so much to the finish, when I will cease from running, have a cold drink, perhaps even collapse to the ground in relief.

But is there any real “rest” during the run?

One line of theological thinking says – No, there is no rest. Struggle defines the Christian life: keep on striving against your sin. Hebrews 12:4 is sometimes brought up: “You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin.” Look, this thinking goes, you think you’re tired, but you haven’t actually made enough effort yet. Work harder, don’t think about rest. This is what God requires of you.

The main thought of this line of thinking is that God requires you to run. You don’t get rest. Go!

There seems to be some truth here. Sometimes what I need is more personal effort. I can get lazy, and mentally stop before my body really needs to. Perhaps I underestimate the power over sin that has been given to me in Christ.

But this seems to be a focus on running as a tough, barely-holding-on, joyless slog. Is that really the right emphasis?

Is there real “rest” during the run?

Another line of theological thinking – perhaps a better one – sees the question differently. Instead of seeing periods of striving and periods of non-striving, what if the striving came from an underlying experience of rest? What if running was really restful?

In God’s grace, there seems to be support for saying – the jog is restful.

Look at Matthew 11:28, the great invitation of Jesus Christ: “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Hmm. That’s my Savior talking. I’ve come to Him; He promises rest right now. I’m weary and heavy laden, so tired of my sin and my struggle. Could it be that my entire metaphor is wrong… that in a real sense my Christian life is about resting in Christ? About really appropriating the rest that He says He gives?

But, you might argue, there are responsibilities and duties and effort in the Christian life! Yes there are. That’s what Christ is speaking about as He continues:

Matthew 11:29-30: “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

There’s work going on in my life.  But Jesus doesn’t seem to put that work at odds with the rest that He gives to us right now.

I think, at the end of the day, that my problem is me. I don’t think rightly about my Christian life. My wrong thinking is that it is up to me, and about me, and focused on my striving. As I dwell there I get tired. I think that this is hard, this is heavy. I need a break from the effort that God is requiring of me.

What rest to think – my Christian life is about Christ, focused on His work, His finished striving. Because of this fact, I gladly take His yoke, and surrender all authority and direction and my entire life to Him. I strive to keep that unseen fact a reality in my life. This is the yoke of faith. Not focusing on the one more step, but on the One who ran for me.

With that thought – that I have found rest in Christ – I also find that my life is not really filled with the super-effort on my part that I imagined. I’m fully energized and excitedly desiring to help others find this rest as they also run through life. This yoke is easy. This burden is light. Is this not the perspective of Matthew 11?

This perspective gives Hebrews 12 new light. Right after a whole chapter on faith, the author writes, “Fix your eyes on Jesus.. consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart” (Hebrews 12:1,3). I should think – Jesus endured such hostility from me, a sinner. And yet He still loves me. What motivation.

Then, v. 4: “You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin.” No, I have not. But I know Someone who has. In striving against my sin, Jesus shed blood. So I am absolutely secure in Him. And the circumstances that happen to me will not shake me from that knowledge. I won’t think of God as wrathfully judging my sin (which has already been paid for by Christ). I can rest in the yoke of my Savior.

And this gives me rest as I strive against the sin of the world against me, which is the point of v. 4 (it is parallel to v. 3, Jesus bearing up under other’s sin). My difficult experiences don’t drain me – I’m resting in the blood of Christ. This gives me rest because I know that God isn’t whipping me or punishing me but lovingly shaping and molding and teaching me.

A better metaphor, I hope, sees all of jogging as restful. Even through the striving. Jogging is a time to pray, a time to wonder at creation, a time to think on form and a time to have victory. A time to strive, not in a out-of-breath-I-have-nothing-left way, but in the body of one who is supremely fit and able. That’s not just me in a little bit better shape, but in my Savior.

Now if only my physical body would get the message that jogging is restful.

Lowest Common Denominator – or Highest?

My parents blessed our family with a beautiful new computer for Christmas. The PC runs Vista, which I’ve never had as an operating system before. One interesting little feature is the “computer index” which it assigns your machine. It gives your computer a rating in a variety of different areas, like processor speed, graphics speed, amount of memory, etc, and then gives you an overall rating.

Why this is interesting to me is that the overall rating isn’t actually based on a median of your individual ratings. I’d expected, say, a processor rating of 7, a graphics rating of 3, and a memory rating of 5, so that my overall rating was 5.

High rating + Low rating = Low rating?
High rating + Low rating = Low rating?

Instead, the overall rating is simply your lowest rating. In the example above, my computer would have a rating of 3, because that’s the lowest score. It doesn’t matter that your processor rating was 7; it focuses on the lowest rating.

It makes sense, in a performance sort of way. It echoes what my collegiate athletics coach used to say to our rowing team: “You’re only as fast as your slowest man.” If you have something hindering you, everything else screeches to a halt until that hindrance is improved.

So here’s the question that comes to mind: is this the Christian life?

I’m tempted to at least concede that I usually think this way. When I’m struggling with an area, that’s what I focus in on, that’s how I “rate” how I’m doing as a Christian. If I’m struggling with anger in one area, I forget about the fruit of love or kindness or patience and just focus in on my inability to have victory over my anger.

I don’t think I’m alone in this. One godly saint I know, who spends his life on good works and humble living (I know, I know, externals, but still), recently confessed his lack of assurance and struggle because he is not a good evangelist. Whether the issue is stumbling in dieting, a wayward child, an anger issue, or marital conflict, we seem to find our focus in our failures.

Discouragement is one result; even in mature Christians who have much fruit, difficulty in a particular area can seem to stop us in our tracks, rob our assurance, make every other fruit of little consequence.

I’m thinking that this performance-based Windows Vista model is not a good one for me as a believer, though I tend to drift there.

I’m not suggesting that ongoing sin is inconsequential (it’s not), nor am I suggesting that you can just jaunt along in sin uncaringly (sin should grieve the Christian, if you don’t care then you aren’t understanding your relationship with Christ).

My thinking of my walk with Christ and in Christ may be better seen by taking a step back from the tree of my failure and seeing the forest of my life. For example, in Galatians 5:22, the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Should I not praise God for joy, kindness, and gentleness that the Spirit works through me (wonder!) as well as working on the patience that I don’t yet seem to have?

It leads me to think that perhaps some of my sin-focus (and certainly my discouragement because of it) is actually pride. Do I require perfection to prove something to myself? To other people? To God?

Rather than a lowest common denominator approach, perhaps I really should be training my mind and heart in highest common denominator thinking. Because my righteousness, my adoption, my inheritance, and all that I am are really as a result of that highest common denominator: Jesus Christ. My faith (also a gift) in Him is what will allow me to stand forever, united with Him.

As Paul writes in Ephesians:

Ephesians 3:17-19: So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

Filled up to all the fullness of God; that sounds like a pretty high rating; that rating comes as Christ dwells in our hearts through faith, and we comprehend the incredible depth of the love of Christ.

Such amazing grace! May we marvel that He produces anything good in us at all!