Grace in Tolerance?

Grace,

Tolerance is a bad word in many Christian circles. And rightly so: what it often refers to is an indifferent attitude toward sin.

Sin rightly defined is horrible. We ought never to be indifferent. We ought to help people out of it by pointing them to Jesus Christ. Our tolerance often is driven by fear of man or a desire to not ‘ruffle feathers.’

So how does tolerance reveal grace? Well… when there’s a different subject. Not our tolerance. God’s tolerance.

God’s tolerance isn’t indifference, or driven by fear.
God’s tolerance is more rightly defined as permitting behavior that is at odds with His holiness for a season. Perhaps it could be summarized “delayed judgment.”

Just ran across this in 1 Samuel. Eli’s sons are absolutely positively acting horrifically as representatives of a holy God. Very great sin, the Bible tells us.

No lightning bolt. No fireball. Their actions continued.
And thus we see God’s tolerance of sin. Of besmirching of his name. Of dishonor, for a season. Years, apparently, going by with common people looking on as God’s priests ran amok. Apparently not caring.

I think this is so incredible.

In the case of Eli’s sons, it is a tolerance of a fixed duration… because it fit God’s plans. He’s got plans. He’s willing to suffer external shame for his plans to come to fruition. In the case of Hophni and Phinehas, his patience is revealed as he waits for Samuel to grow… to contrast God’s deliverance through a child, God’s Word through a child… as opposed to man.

God’s plan has always been that in the fullness of time, he would send a child. A messiah. A prophet, priest, and king. And he bore with constant and continual sin… seeming defeats, seeming setbacks… when he was waiting patiently for his plan.

Amazing.

And what drives home the amazingness (is that a word?) for me is one of the reasons for his temporal tolerance. It is found in Hebrews 11:39-40:

“And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.”

The author is saying that God allowed his people to suffer and perish and be afflicted and not receive what was promised… because he was waiting for us. We needed to be added in. He loved us so incredibly much… that he tolerated much affliction in his people, and apparent shame and setback for himself.

2 Peter 3:9 has the same thought:

“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

See… God is tolerant… patient… because he wants to include all that are his.

Jesus was serious when he said that he would not lose any that God had given him. That’s how serious God is about redeeming every single person on whom he has set his love.

And once his… we are a new creation, righteousness given not earned, sin forgiven through the finished work of Jesus… no longer aimed for certain wrath delayed only by temporal tolerance, but rather gloriously redeemed and united and adopted into God’s family forever.

So yes, grace in tolerance. In God bearing apparent shame and apparent loss and apparent setback and apparently doing nothing about evil and sin… because his plan is sure, his love is set, his reason includes you.

Fantastic. May his kindness pull us toward repentance and trust in him alone.

The critical contrast

In Christ

Continuing to walk through James, a wonderful book which gloriously reveals the depth of the gospel as it works into our lives. Living for Christ is so much more than a moral checklist or cultural conformity. Our faith in Christ will produce much – but the incredible thing about gospel-based progressive sanctification is that we bear more fruit as we more fully understand our relationship with God – especially that it is based on Christ’s performance for us, not our performance for him.

So even beyond the wondrous truth that “faith works,” James reveals how it works. And even more critically, James reveals the contrast of this fruit-producing faith with the world’s view of religion. There’s a variety of ways that pastors say this… here are a few phrases that draw out the contrast of works grounded in unbelieving religion… or gospel faith:

Our works drive God’s love for us… or God’s love drives our works.
Our good works direct God’s favor… or our good works reflect God’s favor.
Our actions are the root of God’s favor… or our actions are the fruit of God’s favor.
Obey so God will be happy… or obey because God is happy with you.
Our obedience motivates God’s infinite happiness… or God’s infinite happiness motivates our obedience.
I am obligate so that God will love me… or I’m free to live this way because God loves me.
I obey therefore I’m accepted… or I’m accepted therefore I obey.
If I behave, then I belong… or I belong, that’s why I behave.

O the glories of what our Savior has done! May our hearts be more and more grounded in the gospel, that we might more and more see the reality of who we are in Him.

A few words from James 3…

In Christ

Several have asked me to post the week-long speech check referred to in last week’s sermon. Here it is, adapted loosely from World Harvest Mission, via Tullian Tchividjian.

The exercise is to spend an entire week (start with a day) without protecting yourself with your tongue. So:

Don’t gossip
Don’t complain about anything
Don’t blameshift
Don’t defend yourself
Don’t boast at all
Don’t criticize (yes, there is good criticism… but not for this exercise :>)

Do speak only good
Do encourage
Do speak only of your weaknesses (not strengths)
Do admit quickly when a hint of wrong

The point in this exercise is to see what James is proclaiming… that no human being can tame the tongue, and that the one who does is perfect (not you or me).

That’s so we can come back to the hope that we do have… of Jesus Christ, His work in the Gospel. May our eyes be fixed on Him, may our hope be ensconced in Him, may our speech more and more reflect our awareness of our identity in His family!

Identity thoughts

Quotes,

A beautiful Monday morning, another day to marvel at God’s grace in giving us life and breath. O that we might use it to reveal that our identity has been radically changed — as we’ve been redeemed and adopted into Jesus Christ’s family… by His wondrous work alone!

Along the lines of a new identity, here’s Tim Keller from King’s Cross:

“Are you beginning to see how radical Jesus is? It’s not a matter of saying, ‘I’ve been a failure, I’ve been immoral, so now I’m going to go to church and become a moral, decent person. Then I’ll know I’m a good person because I am spiritual.’ Jesus says, ‘I don’t want you to simply shift from one performance-based identity to another; I want you to find a whole new way. I want you to lose the old self, the old identity, and base yourself and your identity on me and the gospel.'” 

No, Commands don’t Enable

Grace, ,

I’m hoping to get back to weekly thoughts on Scripture and daily living… as we (hopefully) finish up with our several-month-long move to a new facility.

Today I’m tackling a particular catch-phrase that I’ve occasionally heard echoed through modern Christianity. A brief Google search reveals sermons from Seoul to California promoting this saying:

“God’s commands are his enablements.”

This is at best misleading, and when not understood correctly, hurtfully wrong.

What is meant, charitably, by this statement is that God helps us do what he wants us to do. He says what we are to do, and then he gives us the strength, the power, to do what he commands.

This is fine, as far as it goes (which isn’t far enough, but we’ll take a look at that in a moment).
But that charitable reading is not what the phrase actually says.

“God’s commands are his enablements” is a clear equation: the commands of God = (“are”) the enablements of God.

This equation does not appear to be in the Bible.

Perhaps the closest echo is in 2 Peter 1:3.

“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness…”

So God’s power has given us what we need for godliness. Godliness in turn would seem to embody a life of keeping his commands. But it does not say that the commands are the power. Quite the contrary, the power is, as Peter goes on to write, “… through the knowledge of Him who has called us to his own glory… by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises.”

Catch that? The power is in the true knowledge of Jesus. The true knowledge of Jesus… by which we are implanted, united to Him. Made new by the power of the Holy Spirit. His promises are to make us a new creation… these very great and precious promises are the engine of our obedience.

In fact, the Bible consistently points to God’s commands, sometimes called law, as powerless rather than enabling (see, for example, Romans 8:3 or Galatians 3:21). That doesn’t make commands bad – to the contrary, they help reveal God’s heart and character and give us rails for living. But the commands aren’t shown to be empowering.

So if the commands themselves aren’t enabling, what does enable the believer?

What enables God’s commands is the gospel. The good news of Jesus. The indicatives of the Bible. The reality that your sin has been paid for, that a way has been made, that an inheritance is yours forever, the truth of a new birth.

Michael Horton uses the analogy of a sailboat:

“Think of a sailboat. You can have all the guidance equipment to tell you where to go, to plot your course, and to warn you when you’ve been blown off course. However, you can’t move an inch without wind in your sails… the law directs, but it cannot drive gospel sanctification.”

See the difference?
God’s commands are not his enablements. The gospel is. The gospel is the motivator, the gospel is engine, the gospel is what enables response to God’s commands. The desire for you and for me to follow God’s commands is in no way the commands themselves. It is a new heart.

This difference is incredibly important to Christian living in several ways. Here’s two:

First, if you realize that your enablement is Christ, when you fail… you run back to Christ. Your prayer focuses not on impartial empowerment to overcome a particular sin, but dependent pleading to have a life more focused on Jesus. Sin is a result of unbelief and pride… not only (or even primarily) the failure itself. Since that sin has been paid for by Jesus Christ, there’s not an accompanying guilt of despair with failure (as opposed to the ‘it is all up to you’ flavor of God’s commands being his enablements).

Second, omitting the gospel from the equation of keeping God’s commands blurs the distinction between moralism and true Christianity. True Christianity is firmly founded and centered on Jesus’ finished work. He kept the commands, so now I’m saved… and that salvation pushes me to want to keep God’s commands. That last phrase is decidedly subservient to the first. If it isn’t, I’m headed toward moralism.

Tim Keller puts it this way:

“…modern and post-modern people have been rejecting Christianity for years thinking that it was indistinguishable from moralism. Non-Christians will always automatically hear gospel presentations as appeals to become moral and religious, unless in your preaching you use the good news of grace to deconstruct legalism.”

It really is important not to skip over the gospel, nor to skip over how a gospel-driven life is fundamentally different from God’s commands themselves being the empowerment for your obedience.

So I’d propose we should stop using “God’s commands are his enablements.”

We could replace it with Tullian Tchividjian’s “Imperatives minus indicatives are impossibilities;” or “Jesus plus nothing equals everything”… or “God’s gospel is his enablement”… may we joyfully exult in following our Savior because of who he is and what he has done for us!

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.