Monthly Archives: February 2009

Grace in Proverbial Faith

Grace, In Christ, Quotes,

Undoubtedly like you, I can get so excited by a thought as I meditate on Scripture. Some verse comes alive, some thought just burns inside, and I worship my Savior anew.

I was thinking along these lines yesterday, as I thought about Proverbs 3:5-6:
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

Grace in Proverbs?
Proverbs: skillful living needs grace-given faith!

I became very excited that right here in the middle of Proverbs, which is so often used as a works-based rulebook for living, is a statement of grace.

Do you see it? This critical proverb states that God will make your paths straight if you entirely trust in Him.

How do I do that? How can I possibly trust in the Lord with all my heart? The answer that Scripture clearly presents for me is that I can’t… on my own. There’s no way I can totally trust in God. Romans 3:11, among others, states that I don’t even seek Him, much less trust Him.

So God must give me this all-consuming trust in Him. It’s a gift of grace, this trust.
This trust could be identified with another word: faith.

Another way to say this Proverb would be, “Have faith in God and don’t trust your own works; point to Him, He’ll take care of your life.”

I was thinking about this wondrous idea of faith as God’s gift, and ran across a wonderful passage written by Martin Luther in his commentary on Romans.

Luther writes, “Faith is not what some people think it is… ‘Faith is not enough,’ they say, ‘you must do good works, you must be pious to be saved.’ They think that, when you hear the gospel, you start working, creating by your own strength a thankful heart which says, ‘I believe.’

That description is not faith at all, he argues. Instead, “faith is God’s work in us, that changes us and gives us new birth from God… it changes our hearts, our spirits, our thoughts and all our powers.” This true faith brings the Holy Spirit. This true faith can’t help doing good works all the time, without even stopping to think about it. And again, this faith is God’s work in us, not our own work at all.

Faith is not something you can make for yourself. Faith, to Luther, is “a living, bold trust in God’s grace, so certain of God’s favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it.”

He goes on to say that this faith is grounded in grace: “Such confidence and knowledge of God’s grace makes you happy, joyful and bold in your relationship to God and all creatures.”

It is because of this fantastic gift, this gift of faith, we willingly and joyfully do good to everyone, serve everyone, and love and worship God. These latter things are all works, of course… but they are flowing out of and inextricably bound to the gift of faith, our utter whole-hearted trust of the Lord which He has, by His marvelous grace, given us.

So, yes, there is grace even in Proverbs. By grace, given faith – so that in faith I acknowledge Him, and my Lord directs my steps.

To Christ be the glory forever and ever and ever! He has done such wonders for us.

 

[for the interested, the quotes of Martin Luther come from “An Introduction to St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans,” from Vermischte Deutche Scriften (1854), trans. Robert Smith, pp. 124-125]

Peace, by Grace

Grace, In Christ, peace, ,

I had a few moments with my wonderful little girls today. Hope is a whirlwind; she plays at fifty miles an hour, leaving behind her a wake of crayons, plastic toys, and cardboard books (the paper ones are not durable enough for her yet!). Grace adds to the ruckus with her own sounds and actions of pre-toddler chaos.When I finally sat down after putting them both in their respective nap areas, I sat down on the couch and reached for Job (coincidence, surely).

Finally, I thought, peace.

Peace... more than quiet beauty!
A beautiful, peaceful lake... but true peace is even better!

But what I really meant was, finally – quiet. And I caught myself as I thought it, too. Wait! Quietness is not peace… peace is so much more than quiet. What a wondrous thought… I truly have peace, all day long! Peace when Hope is bounding on the sofa; peace when Grace wails; peace when I’m tired, peace when I’m busy. Peace with every breath I take.

The concept of peace is so wonderful, I can’t really get my arms around it.

In my head, I know that it was the very pinnacle of goodness in the Old Testament. It’s our translation of the Hebrew word “shalom,” which carries the flavor of rightness, of wellness, of a deep abiding sense of properness.

That kind of peace has an object: God. True peace is peace with God.

What does this peace have to do with grace?

Well… it is by grace that I have that peace today, and every day. Even if I don’t feel it, even if I sinned against God today, even if I overslept my quiet time, even if I start to get weary of service and daily living… I know deep in my soul I have peace, rightness, goodness, wellness, with my God.

How do I know that? Because I believe the Bible. I believe what my Savior has done for me.

Jesus proclaimed to those who believe in Him that He was leaving us peace: “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful” (John 14:27).

This peace is a direct result of reconciliation. Reconciliation is the putting back together of what was broken apart, what was at war, at enmity. That was me and God, due to my sin. But look what Jesus did, through the cross: it was God’s pleasure “through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross.” (Colossians 1:20)

So I have peace. Peace forever. Because of the atoning work of Jesus Christ.
Because of grace.

John Bunyon writes in his biography, Grace Abounding, that the peace-producing grace of Colossians 1:20 is what broke through his efforts at religion to actually touch his heart. It was this peace, by Christ’s work alone, which broke him of thinking of his life as keeping religious rules and regulations.

The grace of the atonement is so important that C.H. Spurgeon said, “I believe that if I should preach to you the atonement of our Lord Jesus, and nothing else, twice every Sabbath day, my ministry would not be unprofitable. Perhaps it might be more profitable than it is.”

The atonement is a fantastically deep topic for another day. Today I just remain reveling in peace. Peace through the grace of Christ, which has brought that peace to me forever.

Because this peace is the result of His atonement, and rests solely on His finished work in His life and sacrifice for me, I can’t lose it. This true peace doesn’t depend on me. Rather, it motivates me to lay down my life for Him.

In the quiet of children’s naps, I exult in it.
In the rush of today’s concerns, I lean on it.

“And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation” (Romans 5:11).

Grace and peace to you!

Religion, Gospel, Identity

Grace, In Christ, Righteousness,

Who am I?Just a quick thought stimulated by a recent book by Tim Keller (The Reason for God) that our church is reading in a men’s group.

I like the thought (which he makes) of distinguishing between religion and gospel. Religion as a whole pushes one toward salvation through moral effort. The Gospel is about salvation through grace, entirely by the work of another, Jesus Christ.

So there’s two ways to reject that gospel, that good news. Both ways are essentially being your own Lord and Savior.

The first way is to be a rebel: “I can live my life just how I want to!” This is obviously a desire to be one’s own Lord.

The second way is also to be a rebel… internally: “I can trust my own goodness, avoid sin, and live morally so God blesses me!” This is the same rebellion as the first, really – I will decide for myself the mode and method of God’s grace. I won’t submit to the way of Christ. This second rebel is who Jesus addressed throughout the gospels… folks we usually refer to as Pharisees.

Both ways of rebelling are a rejection of the gospel. You really can avoid Jesus as Savior as much by trying to keep all the rules you find in the Bible as by ignoring them.

I wonder how many of us are really Pharisees… internally driven by despair caused by sin, with no identity as a truly righteous adopted child, united to the Son of God through the blood and sacrifice of that Son, Jesus Christ. Pharisees… always wondering if we’re good enough, always comparing selves with others, always realizing that the inside doesn’t match the outside.

May we never build our identity on our moral achievements (religion), just as we rightly flee from building our identity on our job, our hobby, or our spouse. May our identity be foundationally grounded on the rock that is a relationship with Jesus Christ, the living God.

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live I in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

Who I was, my self-identity, self-righteousness, self-orientation – he is dead. My only hope is Christ. May I not return to trusting in who I was, in what that flesh through its own effort could do. May I trust wholly in Christ, in what He has done. By God’s Word and His mercy toward me, I know this is the gospel of grace.

Galatians 2:20 says that our life now is by faith in the Son of God. The content of that faith is that His righteousness truly does save me, that I have an eternal future with Him. My life now is wholly given over to Him, not as effort for more righteousness of my own, but for grateful living in His ways, building up other people, worshiping this God. The fruit of my mouth, praising Him; the fruit of my life, shining forth the result of the Spirit working in me. United to Christ forever.

Identity found!

Grace in Providence

Grace, Providence,

Lost: Donkeys... Found: Kingdom
Lost: Donkeys… Found: Kingdom

I was struck again today at how our God uses the small, seemingly insignificant minutiae of our lives to mold us, to shape us, to grow us… and to glorify Himself. We have such a wonderful, strange, unknowable, un-figure-out-able God!

This is all over the Bible. But one example is in 1 Samuel 9. It’s a typical day in the life of a farmer… who loses his donkeys. So his son, Saul, goes looking for them with a servant. They look, and look. No donkeys. So one says, ‘Hey, I’ve heard there’s a prophet in the town nearby where we’ve ended up, let’s go ask him where the donkeys are.’

Well, how random can the Bible get? Donkey searches? What does grace have to do with donkeys that can’t be found?

Because the account in 1 Samuel then notes, ‘Now the Lord had told Samuel (the prophet) in his ear the day before Saul came…’ (9:15). That’s right. The day before, the Lord had arranged it all.

So what appeared as a random act of lost donkeys (who unlocked the gate!?!) actually was absolutely planned by God. And Saul, in looking for his donkeys, is brought to Samuel to be annointed king of Israel.

He does that, our Savior. He uses insignificant events and daily life to move and grow and bless us. He uses seemingly insignificant events to bring about His purposes.

Proverbs 16:9 says “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.”
Proverbs 20:24 echoes, “A man’s steps are of the Lord.”

What’s happening with your donkeys today? Is not God in charge of you, graciously using the circumstances of your life for your good? Our Lord is so fantastically, providentially good to us!

So in reality there is no such thing as an insignificant day, no boring, unprofitable hours for the believer. May that not drain us (Oh no, God is watching!) but may our Lord’s providential grace expand our hearts as we rest in the goodness and love of our Savior.