Paying for Your Sanctification
Here it is: I tend to view my relationship with God as a series of transactions. We could call this transactional sanctification.
Transactional Sanctification.
Think about the last time you went shopping—for groceries, batteries for the remote, a sweet iPhone that just got replaced with an even sweeter one . . . whatever. It probably went down something like this: You drove to the store, found the items you wanted, walked up to the counter, and the salesperson rang them up. After getting your total, you pulled out your debt card, transferred money from your account to theirs, they gave you part of their inventory, and you went home. (Unless you didn’t have enough cash or your card was declined—in which case you went home empty-handed and embarrassed.) Repeat as needed.
It’s amazing how much we tend to view God like that. I do things for God, God does things for me. Quid pro quo. I don’t do the right things for God, God doesn’t do things for me. Now, most of us wouldn’t say it anything like that—but it’s at the core of how we think. If we’ve been around church long enough, we’ve learned to use the language of grace, but most of us are still trying to figure out how to dance to its rhythm.
Let me give you an example. Awhile back, I was meeting with a guy from our church over breakfast. We talked about how he was feeling distant from his wife and how things had been pretty chaotic in his business. Immediately, he follows up by explaining he hasn’t been praying very much, not to mention the fact that he drank a little too much on a fishing trip last weekend. After thinking for a minute, he looks at me and says, “I guess it makes sense.”
You see the formula there, right? Life—inconsistent prayer + getting drunk = God not giving me peace at work or at home. Now, of course, obedience and prayer are important, but could it be that work is crazy just because it is? Could it be that his wife is just going through a lot at her own job, and when you combine his work stress and hers it makes for a pretty rough stretch at home?
Let’s try another example—this one is for all of us pastors. I was reading about a church recently that has experienced unbelievable numeric growth over the past few years. The church is only a couple years old and has several thousand people attending worship. In a recent conversation about this particular church, I listened to two other pastors talking about why this church has grown so quickly. The answer given? “I’ve heard that so-and-so (name of pastor from growing church) spends a ridiculous amount of time in prayer. That guy is with Jesus A LOT, and Jesus shows up in their church.”
Now, I have no doubt that this particular pastor loves Jesus with all his heart and spends tons of time with him. But did you catch the formula? Pastor who loves Jesus + spends lots of time in prayer = God blesses their church with tons of people attending. You do something for God, then God does stuff for you.
Life isn’t a Transaction
Here’s the problem—it doesn’t work that way. Think about all the pastors whose churches aren’t exploding with attendance growth. What do they hear in the above conversation? “I guess if I just pray more maybe my church will grow too. Maybe the reason we’re not seeing similar results is because I haven’t been committed enough to Jesus. Maybe I need to really get serious about prayer—maybe then God will bless our church.” I won’t tell you how many times I’ve had that very conversation with myself—in my head and in my journal.
Transactional sanctification always leads to despair—when you don’t see the results you want, it’s obviously because you didn’t pay a high enough price. If you would only try harder, not screw up so much, and have more faith like all those other people who it seems to be working for, then maybe God would bless you.
As I meet with people, I remind them (and myself) that we are completely loved, accepted, and perfect in Jesus. God is a transactional God, but the transaction has already been completed—at the cost of the very life of Jesus. There is nothing more I can add to it or take away from it. My standing with God is secure—regardless of the “success” of my ministry, family, or career. Can you imagine the freedom and peace that would come if we could truly live out this belief?
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Bill Streger serves as the Lead Pastor of Kaleo Church, an Acts 29 Network church in Houston, TX. Born and raised in Houston, he attended Houston Baptist University and is currently pursuing his M.Div. from Reformed Baptist Seminary. Bill is a husband to Shannon, daddy to Mirabelle and Levi, and a life-long Houston Rockets fan. Twitter @billstreger
New Book: Make, Mature, Multiply by Brandon D. Smith
Today, we release the newest book from GCD Books—Brandon Smith’s Make Mature Multiply: Becoming Fully-Formed Disciples of Jesus. You can buy a digital copy from the GCD Bookstore for $3.99 or get paperback for $9.99. Here’s an excerpt from the editor’s preface:
As a new Christian, I was told that being a disciple of Jesus could be summed up in his own words—“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mk. 8:34). While this statement is certainly a foundational truth of being a disciple, is this it?
In one sense, yes. Jesus could have stopped there and we could aim to model our lives after the self-sacrifice and humility he displayed on the cross. There would be nothing wrong with that. But he didn’t stop there. Scripture gives us more. Much more.
The good news of the gospel is not only for self-application; it is for proclamation. It’s meant to be shared. A disciple follows Jesus, invites others to follow him, and then trains them how to repeat the process. Simply put, disciples are called to make, mature, and multiply disciples.
First, we are called to make disciples. This means that we evangelize, we share the good news. Making disciples is about telling strangers, friends, family, and anyone else who doesn’t know it yet that Jesus Christ is their King, their Savior, their God.
Next, we are called to mature disciples. So we don’t tell people about Jesus and move along. We don’t say, “I’m glad you believe! Enjoy yourself.” Maturing disciples is teaching them to obey all that Jesus has commanded (Matt. 28:20). It’s the process of sanctification—being made holy, becoming more and more like Jesus. We rely on God. We devour and dwell on the things of God found in the Scriptures. We pray. We kill sin in our lives. We serve others. We take “WWJD?” seriously by remembering what he actually did. These are but a few characteristics of a mature disciple. We model these things and we teach others to model them.
Finally, we multiply disciples. Mature disciples don’t keep the good news of the gospel to themselves. Mature disciples, by the Holy Spirit’s power, take Jesus to others. We are evangelized to evangelize. We are loved to love. We are forgiven to forgive. We are served to serve. We are redeemed to point to the Redeemer. We complete the cycle of discipleship by making disciples who make disciples who make disciples who make…
This is not a perfect process, but it doesn’t have to be. Jesus was and is perfect so that you don’t have to be. You can’t save anyone, but you can show others the One who can. The Holy Spirit is with you (Jn. 14:25-26; 1 Cor. 10:13). My prayer is that this book will help you become a fully-formed disciple of Jesus who makes, matures, and multiplies fully-formed disciples of Jesus.
These chapters have been adapted from articles that originally appeared at GCDiscipleship.com. We like to think of this book as a “best of GCD” compilation. I speak for every contributor in this book when I say: we hope you see the glory of Christ on every page, and that you are so captivated by the beauty of the gospel that you can’t help but take it to the ends of the earth.
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GCD Store: All Digital Formats (Mobi/Kindle, ePub/iBook, and PDF)
Amazon: Paperback
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Brandon D. Smith is Executive Director of Gospel-Centered Discipleship and serves in editorial roles for The Criswell Theological Review and The Council on Biblical Manhood & Womanhood. He is proud to be Christa’s husband and Harper Grace’s daddy. Follow him on Twitter: @BrandonSmith85
I Am Noah's Wife
I had just spent the majority of the last 36 hours at a Christian women’s conference. The conference was well done with inspiring speakers, moving worship, beautiful ambiance, and, most importantly, the coffee was really good! I was glad I went. But once I returned home I couldn’t seem to get out of the car. I just sat there in my husband’s (not awesome) 1998 Infinity with no air conditioning. Although I was burning up in the Texas heat, I just couldn’t go inside. I was stuck in the seat with my seatbelt still wrapped around me. Over and over again I kept asking myself, “How do I describe to my husband what I’ve just experienced?”
He had sacrificed a lot that weekend to make it possible for me to attend the conference. I was certain he’d love hearing about the beautiful worship I heard. He’d love to hear the glowing reports of women being challenged to be what God made them to be. I know for a fact that news of the good coffee would be a welcomed report.
How in the world could I tell him the truth--that despite all the beautiful words I heard, despite all the perfectly arranged songs I sang, and despite all the perfectly brewed coffee I drank. . . I wasn’t satisfied. I was still bored. I was still wrestling with something very deep inside my heart. Although I couldn’t quite name it, I knew it wasn’t something I was proud of.
Eventually I did manage to collect my pamphlets and gift bag and get out of the car. As I took a deep breath and walked in the door, there he was, my husband--smiling from ear to ear! I could see the excitement on his face, his excitement to hear of my excitement. Rats! Typically I might lie a little bit. Not a bad lie. . . just a little twisting to make myself look better. I really didn’t want to seem unrighteous or ungrateful, so I wish I could’ve come up with something wonderful to say. Instead, I chose to tell the truth as best as I understood it. I know now the Holy Spirit was working powerfully to give me these words, but at the moment, it was a little weird! Are you ready for it?
Here’s what I came up with: “I am Noah’s wife.”
Yep. Insert the creepiest looking emoticon you can think of right here.
I am Noah’s wife.
You may, like Jonathan, be wondering what in the world I meant. Truthfully, it’s something I’d been chewing on for a while, but right then and there I understood the reason for my boredom. Let’s me explain.
Years ago I participated in a bible study of the book of Genesis. Oh sure, it was an amazing study. I am sure I learned a boatload of amazing truths. Wanna know what I remember most? Genesis 7:6-10:
“Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth.”
Let’s think about this together. Who is Noah? Duh.
Who else was on the boat? Noah, his wife, his sons, and their wives.
What were the sons’ names? Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Yep.
What was his wife’s name? Think. . . think. . . think. . . I got nothin’.
Noah’s wife was nameless.
Hey, writer of Genesis. . . are you kidding me right now? I can understand leaving out the daughters-in-law’s names, but the wife? You can remember names like Shem, Ham, and Japheth but not the wife’s name?
I’ve always been sad for her. I mean, maybe she wasn’t as awesome in the whole “righteousness” thing as her husband, but she must have done something right. Right? I mean, she was good enough for righteous Noah to fall in love with her. She raised their children in such a way that they got access to the boat. Something must have been noteworthy about her. Right?
Well, the author of Genesis decided to leave her nameless. She’s known forever as simply “Noah’s wife.” The unnamed wife of one of the most well known men in history.
Back to real time--and here’s where it gets uncomfortable to talk about. It’s the truth though. . . and since I’m being truthful. I sat there the whole weekend trying to engage my heart in worship, but all I could think about was how much I had in common with Noah’s wife. How utterly unknown I was. Over and again I thought about my different titles: “Owen and Ellie’s mom,” “Teacher helper,” or “That girl who sews things.” Oh, I can’t leave out the most popular one, “Pastor’s wife.”
It’s crazy, but no matter how well I know a woman, no matter how many hours we spend together, and no matter how many laughs or tears we share, she will always introduce me as her pastor’s wife. Occasionally the title of friend comes in at the end, but first and foremost I’m her pastor’s wife. The nameless companion of her pastor. Are you picking up what I’m putting down?
Well, the real heartbreak came on as I watched the women on stage. Please put your grace cardigans on because this is vulnerable y’all. It might not be pretty but it’s what I got. They were all friends, and were all exercising their unique gifts on stage--together. As each one was introduced with a glossy photograph, it was like a parade of comrades who gave themselves away to us so that we could know them too. This was not at all their intention, but as I watched I became increasingly and painfully aware that not only did I not know them nor they know me, but my gifts were lying dormant in the room as if they were nonexistent. All of a sudden I saw what I had been suppressing in my heart because I didn’t want to believe it:
I’m average.
I’m unnamed.
I’m unknown.
When I’m alone and have time to think (also known as either house cleaning or showering), I’m confident I’m a strong leader. I’m pretty certain I’m an able public speaker and teacher. I know hands down that I can throw a pretty good party. I mean come on. . . I’ve been a Christian for 25 years, so I’ve had time to accept my talents and figure out my spiritual gifts. They’re part of me, they’re who I am.
At the conference, I realized, however, that to most people I’m known differently. I’m known more generically.
Jonathan’s wife.
Pastor’s wife.
The woman in the back.
That girl.
Average.
Unnamed.
Unknown.
It’s one thing to fear being unknown, it’s altogether more painful to realize that you are unknown. It was devastating. In fact, my fingers are still a little shaky just typing about it. I don’t enjoy the truth of it, but it is the truth.
If I weren’t baptist, I’d make a bet that many of you reading this feel the same way.
WHAT'S AN AVERAGITE TO DO?
So, fellow averagites, what do we do now? Do we stay in our seats and either shake in fear or seethe in bitterness? Do we hurl insults and cheap commentary on those women who are known? Do we hide our gifts away as we decide that if no one’s gonna notice we’re just not going to perform? Oh Lord please no! I don’t want that. I don’t want that!
In the days that followed, I cried out to the Lord in a way that only a lonely soul can do. The privileged voice of helplessness was crying out to him asking him to make sense of my selfishness and sorrow. I was asking him to turn my mourning to dancing. To use my gifts and remove my desire to make a name for myself. I refused to live a life of jealousy, but I had no idea how to exercise it. And then I watched a video. I remembered the unnamed, and, soon, I called out for his name over my own. It’s exciting. If you are or have felt like me--average, unnamed, unknown--I hope you’ll read on.
I WATCHED A VIDEO
My husband recently co-wrote a book on the resurrection of Christ called Raised? to help engage doubters and skeptics. A movie was made about the spiritual journey of a dear couple Ben and Jessica Roberts. The story the Lord has written for them is truly amazing. I have personally watched them walk from darkness into light and have witnessed the corresponding life change that is gifted to those who know Jesus as their resurrected King. It’s been an amazing gift to observe this process in them and celebrate what the Lord has done. I know that this couple is just at the beginning of something amazing.
A week after the conference, I was watching part three of the movie. In this part, Jessica tells of her return to church. She chose our church because “it met in a bar.” She goes on to share what I’ve heard about twenty times before, but this time I heard it with keen hearing, like it was the first time I’d ever heard something so amazing.
She said something like, “I sat with my son in the children’s worship. They were singing Father Abraham, which has no spiritual significance, but somehow I met Jesus. I knew then that I was loved, that I belonged, and that I could be cleansed.”
Averagites--that was ME leading children’s worship! Even though I swore I’d be the only pastor’s wife in the history of pastor’s wives to never ever lead the children’s ministry. . . that Sunday, I was in charge of leading the children’s ministry! I remember that day like it was yesterday. I remember feeling stupid for choosing to sing that song, but it was the best my ineptitude could come up with so I went with it. I remember meeting Jessica. I remember her son’s uncertainty there. And I remember seeing her facial expression change from fear to comfort.
As I sat there watching the video, tears begin to fall uncontrollably as I began saying to myself, “That was you! That was you! That was you!” I became completely aware that the Lord had used me and my service to him to change this family’s life.
Jessica never said my name nor did she even hint at it. . . but I know it was me! I am so happy for the Roberts’ faith and influence so the realization that my unnamed status had a part in their faith is overwhelmingly wonderful! In all honesty, I’d love to have a million more of those stories where my unnamed, unknown, and even inept self is used to bring others from darkness into light. What a privilege!
That moment, the Lord taught me that being unnamed is not the same as being unknown. I felt the love of my Father pour over me in such a way as to bring purpose to my generic status. Like Hannah, I felt completely seen. I felt known. He knows me and is using me in mysterious ways! I am unnamed but I am not unknown. What a joyful distinction.
THE HOPE OF BEING UNNAMED
Come to think of it, the world is overflowing with powerful no-name Christians. We call them missionaries, Sunday school teachers, doctors, neighbors, parents, and friends. When I think of the people who have had the greatest impact on my life, I don’t think of the amazing conference speakers I’ve heard or the great authors I’ve read. Nope. I think of the family in Minneapolis who taught me how to open my door to strangers. I think of the couple in Boston who showed me that all of life is repentance and discipleship. I recall the gentle rebuke of a church planter’s wife who pointed to me to Christ and away from bitterness. I think of my aunt who lived well and died even better as she drew nearer and nearer to Christ. Each of these have made an indelible mark on my faith--yet to the world they will always be nameless. The nameless souls who teach other nameless souls to proclaim the name of Christ.
All of this unnamed searching led me to where else...the cross. (And this is where I hope I camp out for the rest of my life!) There we meet two of the most powerful unnamed characters in all of Christendom- the two thieves on either side of Jesus.
Two men. Two criminals. No names.
One chides Jesus, refusing to repent. He wants to save his own life, his own name so to speak. I’m certain he’d be happy to use Jesus’ power for his own name’s sake but he wants nothing of the Christ as Lord. Forever unnamed. Forever unknown.
The other, however, is altogether taken with Jesus. He places no demands on Jesus, and instead, he asks Jesus to be who Jesus says he is...the Forgiver. He loves Jesus just as He is. He accepts his calling as a thief on a cross. He asks for the glory of the Lord to shine on him and give Him grace. Forever unnamed. Instantly known.
Fellow Noah’s wives we can get a name for ourselves or we can get Jesus. One leads to death, the other to beautiful life. May we strive for the popularity of our King and not ourselves. May we be content to use our gifts in secret knowing that our God sees us. Let us delight in being unnamed yet fully known.
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Robie Kaye Dodson lives in Austin, Tx with her husband Jonathan and their three young children. She’s a horrible cook and a worse housekeeper…but she loves Jesus who gives her worth and meaning in the majestic and mundane of life. When all else fails, she makes dresses! Read more of her craft at www.sosewsomething.com. Follow on Twitter: @RobieDodson
9 Ways to Battle the Darkness
I know from personal experience the difficulty of battling depression, condemnation, and anxiety. The fight can take many forms, ranging from legalism to thoughts of suicide. Whatever the case, it is all overwhelming. I love Jesus and he loves me. But I have struggled with fear, anxiety, condemnation, and even depression my whole Christian life. I actually struggled so much with these issues that I had to resign from my first pastorate. I wasn't eating, I couldn't get out of bed, I was having demonic nightmares, and I was thinking about suicide. I'm not out of the woods yet, but I have learned a few things in going through these struggles about God's grace despite our failures to trust him.
Though each of us faces unique circumstances, here are a few lessons I have learned that I pray will help as you, too, battle depression, condemnation and anxiety.
1. Look to Jesus.
It’s tempting to believe that what you need is to find more answers or to “do better,” or to get yourself out of depression by sheer human effort. But what you need to do is rest in Jesus and his finished work. His job is to deliver you; your job is to rest in him. His yoke is easy, and his burden is light. He wants you to rest, allowing him to fight the battle for you, through you and with you. Don’t run to legalism. Run to the Savior who will deliver you when you can’t deliver yourself.
2. Worship.
Set aside time once a week to worship the Lord through music. Anxiety and depression focus your eyes on yourself, as the enemy wants you to focus on anything except Jesus. Worship focuses your eyes on Jesus. Don’t feel as though you have to “get your worship right.” If you don’t feel like singing or your thoughts feel very confused, then just listen to the music. Let God minister to you. You might even set up “worship nights” where you ask a few friends to come over and worship with you and pray for you.
3. Be around community.
The enemy prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Just as a lion wants a gazelle to step away from the herd to destroy it, so the enemy wants you away from people so he can destroy you. When you are facing anxiety, depression and condemnation, being by yourself is extremely difficult. Being alone too long can send you into “self-destruct mode,” and your thoughts can seem to “own you.” Being around people provides a source of community and helps you from keeping your thoughts on you.
4. Don’t answer the “broken record” questions in your head.
“Maybe I’m not really saved.” “Maybe God doesn’t love me.” “I need to clean up this area of my life before God will save me.” Anxiety and depression feed on a pattern of asking the same questions over and over, even if we’ve already answered them satisfactorily. It can feel like, as one man put it, “Vietnam is going on in my head.” Taking thoughts captive is not just a practice for issues like lust or anger. Taking thoughts captive sometimes means not answering the questions or condemning thoughts that pop into your head at all.
5. Talk to God more than you think about him.
God is a person who exists in reality outside of your mind. It is helpful to remember that he understands everything and, unlike you, is not stressed. He is absolutely confident in himself and his ability to save you. Rather than making God a puzzle to solve, remember he is a person. Talk to him. Don’t just think about him.
6. Realize that perfect faith is not required.
Don’t penalize yourself for lacking faith. The opposite of faith is not doubt; it is disobedience. Our faith has never been and will never be perfect this side of eternity. It is okay to have faith the size of a mustard seed and to cry out to Jesus, “I believe. Help my unbelief” (Mk 9:24).
7. Serve.
Service gets our eyes off of ourselves and onto others. Find a ministry that needs help in tangible ways and set aside time to serve. Think hard about the needs in your own home that you could focus on meeting. Are there household chores, child care tasks or maintenance projects you could take on for the sake of serving your family? Who in your neighborhood or community could use your help with a project or cause? Look for ways to shift self-focus through service to others.
8. Meditate on Scripture.
When you’re battling anxiety and depression, your tendency will be to read the Bible looking for everything that is condemning, ignoring the rest. Make a list of verses that point you toward hope and God’s love. Make a list of verses that celebrate grace. Make a conscious decision to approach Scripture through the lens of God’s love and grace rather than his judgment. Ask a trusted friend or mentor to help guide you toward reading that will edify.
9. Get counseling.
You need an outside perspective on what you’re going through. Whether it is at Recovery Groups or at a biblical counselor’s office (biblical counseling versus generic “Christian counseling”), it is helpful to get advice from godly pastors and counselors to help you navigate the path to wellness.
Battling depression, condemnation, and anxiety requires you to embrace a number of reversals: Resting instead of striving. Grace instead of works. Asking instead of doing. It also requires a tremendous amount of patience. God is determined not to allow you to remain in the shadowy valley of worried, anxious Christianity, desiring instead that you would rest in gracious, peaceful Christianity. I know firsthand that he is able to lift your shadows and restore your soul.
Take hope that he remains faithful when we are faithless, for he cannot deny himself (2 Tim. 2:13).
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Zach Lee is Associate Home Groups Minister at The Village Church and is married to Katy. Follow him on Twitter: @zacharytlee.
[© 2014 The Village Church, Flower Mound, Texas. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Adapted from “9 Ways to Battle Depression, Condemnation and Anxiety.”]
John Calvin and Assurance of God’s Love
Spiritual Dry Spells
Many times when we as Christians go through spiritual dry spells, we tend to think that God does not love us. In fact, I have met many people who have called their salvation into question when going through periods of doubt, sin, depression or all the above.
In his greatest work on theology, Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin writes:
When we stress that faith ought to be certain and secure, we do not have in mind a certainty without doubt or a security without any anxiety. Rather, we affirm that believers have a perpetual struggle with their own lack of faith, and are far from possessing a peaceful conscience, never interrupted by any disturbance. On the other hand, we want to deny that they may fall out of, or depart from their confidence in the divine mercy, no matter how much they may be troubled.
Calvin says that faith is not simply the removal of all doubt or disturbance. Faith is not certainty. Saving faith has very little to do with the strength of our faith or our ability to conjure up mental images to remove all worries. Calvin defines faith elsewhere in the Institutes as “a steady and certain knowledge of the divine benevolence towards us.”
Faith Rests in God’s Love
Faith is trusting that Christ will be faithful even in the times when we’re not faithful to him.
Faith is resting in the fact that God loves and enjoys us.
Far too often I put faith in faith instead of faith in Christ. This leads to a loss of peace and to my thinking that something is wrong with me or that I’m not even saved, just because I have doubts and worries.
But note Calvin’s comment: No matter how troubled we might be, that in no way changes Jesus’ love for us or our security in his salvation.
To say it another way, God’s love doesn’t waver even when our faith does.
Faith is trusting Christ instead of trusting in ourselves to trust Christ. There is a huge difference between the two. One looks upward; the other looks inward.
Look upward.
There’s No Condemnation
So what does this idea have to do with discipleship? The answer is everything. For discipleship to truly be gospel-centered there has to be a foundation of love, joy, peace, and justification. Without a foundation of knowing that you are accepted (even during the times you don't "feel" accepted) you never feel free of the guilt, shame, and condemnation that plagues you or your ministry.
In our discipleship, we far too often subtly try to earn what has already been given to us. There is a small voice in the back of our minds that wants to “do ministry well” so we can prove that we are not as bad as the voice in our head tells us we are.
The enemy cannot condemn the believer. Therefore, he will do the next best thing which is to make us feel condemned. This is almost just as good. Discipleship flows out of a loving relationship with Christ. If the enemy can get us to feel like Jesus hates us then we will be useless for his kingdom.
But the good news is that Jesus doesn't hate believers. He loves them enough to die for them, though he knows all the sins (and doubts, and feelings of condemnation, and feelings of self-hate) that they will ever experience.
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Zach Lee is Associate Home Groups Minister at The Village Church and is married to Katy. Follow him on Twitter: @zacharytlee.
[© 2013 The Village Church, Flower Mound, Texas. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Adapted from “John Calvin on Faith and Assurance”.]
Doubt Is Not a Disease
Should we focus on engaging those who are skeptical about the truths of Christianity? Should Christians who are struggling with their faith join a discipleship group? Should the Church spend more time and resources engaging the doubts that people have in regards to Jesus Christ? Well, yes.
Pastor Timothy Keller once said:
“A faith without some doubts is like a human body with no antibodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask the hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic. A person's faith can collapse almost overnight if she failed over the years to listen patiently to her own doubts, which should only be discarded after long reflection.”
Keller makes it clear that in today’s world we must be willing to acknowledge the doubts that we have and to confront them. Sometimes evangelicals tend to overlook the doubts that people struggle with and just sweep them under the rug. This is not the solution. Church leaders must focus on discipling those who are struggling with doubt. Here is what Scripture reveals to us about faith and doubt.
Faith is a Gift
In Romans 12:3 the Apostle Paul says, “For by the grace given to me I say to every-one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has as-signed.” As we meditate on this verse, we are able to see that God gives out different amounts of faith to his people. The measure and amount of one’s faith depends totally on what God has assigned. Faith is a gracious gift from God. However, we are also able to see that doubt is a tool that our Father in Heaven uses for his purposes and plans. In God’s sovereignty, he sometimes uses doubt as a tool to drive us to Jesus Christ. All of this is done in his perfect timing. With that framework in mind, we can now turn our attention to examining why doubt should not be taboo.
Scripture reveals many doubters to us. The disciple, Thomas, is probably most widely known for struggling with doubt (Jn. 20:24-29). However, there are plenty of others who are worth mentioning. Abraham struggled with believing that God could make him a father in his old age (Gen. 17:17). Moses did not believe God could use him to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt (Ex. 3:10-15). Peter struggled with belief, when he almost drowned at sea (Matt. 14:28-32). So if you struggle with doubt, know you are not alone. The Bible is full of doubters who were used by God for his sovereign purposes, and there is no question he can use those who struggle with doubt today.
There are plenty of men and women you probably know who struggle with doubt within your church. These people should not be treated as inferior Christians. They should not be treated as people who have an infectious disease. When we understand that faith is a gift and that the measure of one’s faith does not determine the level of one’s spiritual maturity, we will finally be a people who do not drive doubters away from the church. The church should always be a place for skeptics and saints alike.
If all of us were honest with ourselves we would admit that doubting as a Christian is not abnormal. When Christians go through intense trials or have been praying for God to answer a specific prayer over a prolonged period of time with no answer, doubts arise. Does this suggest they are not trusting God enough? Perhaps not. I have found myself more than once in my life exclaiming in prayer the same words uttered by the father of a demon possessed child (Mk. 9: 21-24). The simple prayer: “I believe; help my unbelief,” is indeed a prayer that should be included in almost every Christian’s life.
The reason this prayer should be included in our prayer life is because of the ever-present reality that Christians struggle with doubt. This should not make us feel ashamed. We must always remember that Jesus Christ still heals the child in Mark 9 despite his father’s doubt. This should encourage us because it serves as a constant reminder that God still works with us and in us through our doubts.
Picture yourself in a home group filled with both skeptics and mature believers. Imagine the diversity of this group. Skeptics are able to voice their concerns and ask questions about the faith. Mature believers are able to evangelize and present the gospel message in a practical way. This benefits both parties and there is no question that a community like this would encourage skeptics and believers.
The Gospel for Doubt
There is good news for those who are struggling with doubt, and that is the message of the gospel. The good news proclaims to both skeptics and saints that God has done everything for us through Christ Jesus. His faith excels where our faith falters. Unbelievers and believers should acknowledge their doubts and always be willing to confront them head on. The church can help in this area. The gospel is the message that the church should always proclaim because it is the only message that has enough power to provide confidence for both the unbeliever and the believer.
An unbeliever might be struggling with doubting certain tenets of Christianity, and he might need to be confronted with an apologetic defense of the faith, but that should never take complete place over the gospel message. Hearing the gospel proclaimed is what leads to faith (Rom. 10:17). For a believer, the gospel is what encourages the Christian to look to Jesus Christ and his finished work even in the midst of doubts. Christians must preach the gospel to themselves because it serves as an antidote for the doubtful heart and mind.
The Church should always do everything it can do to help those who are struggling with doubt. There are various ways that this could be done, but I believe that the most effective way is by explicitly and constantly proclaiming the good news of what Christ Jesus has done for sinners. And we must always remember that faith is a gift, and doubt is not a disease.
_
Matt Manry is the Director of Discipleship at Life Bible Church in Canton, Georgia. He is a student at Reformed Theological Seminary and Knox Theological Seminary. He also works on the editorial team for Credo Magazine and Gospel-Centered Discipleship. He blogs regularly at gospelglory.net.
The Danger of Not Doubting
“Who is Jesus?” I asked my students on the first day of class.
“The son of God”
“God”
“The Savior”
They concluded drearily between secretly checking their smart phones and staring vacantly at me, as if I were speaking Portuguese. So I ask again, “Really, who is Jesus?”
If you had walked into the classroom, you would’ve assumed we were practicing our awkward silences.
I teach Bible classes at a nice little Christian high school with about sixty students and a fairly conservative culture. They’re good kids. Most of them are remarkably bright and incredible at Bible trivia. But something is missing.
The students, like most students, have been taught to memorize and regurgitate information. They are actually pretty good at it. And my students have had the added blessing of memorizing and regurgitating incredible Biblical truths on a daily basis for most of their lives. But there is, for the most part, a lack of any realization that the Biblical truths they are memorizing are actually true!
I believe their apathy (and all apathy) is rooted in deep doubts about the goodness, practicality, and truth of the information they’re being taught. In high school, I hated math because I doubted its usefulness and I didn’t trust Old Man Marley for the first half of Home Alone because I thought he was secretly a bad guy.
I believe a lot of these students have doubts about who God is, why they have to read the Bible, and what the “good news of Jesus Christ” has to do with anything. Not because they weren’t raised in godly Christian homes, or because they are rebels—but because they are human. Humans doubt truth. We always have.
Doubt
When we approach the profound truths of God or anything, really, sometimes we just see a black hole—something that seems impossible to comprehend, enjoy, or believe. We doubt every day. Every time we fear the unknown, we practice doubt. We cannot just ignore or write off doubt. We must wrestle with it.
Belief is essential in the Christian life. John wrote his account of the life, death, and resurrection “so that [we] may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (Jn. 20:31). Paul says that grace comes to us “through faith” (Eph. 2:8). And Jesus says that the work of God is to believe in Jesus!
But belief isn’t easy. Belief is not simply scoring high marks on a Bible quiz. It’s the pursuit of truth—an investigation into the depths of reality. As Jonathan Dodson says in Raised?,
“Anything worth believing has to be worth questioning, but don’t let your questions slip away unanswered. Don’t reduce your doubts to a state of unsettled cynicism. Wrestle with your doubts. Find answers. If you call yourself a believer don’t settle for pat proofs, emotional experiences, or duty-driven religion. Keep asking questions.”
My students had been catechized well, but they had never wrestled with their doubts, and in turn most have never interacted with the living Jesus. They assume that expressing doubts will get them in trouble —but really, they will be in much deeper trouble if they never ask “what does this mean?” Despite what they may think, their doubts may, in fact, be from God.
Just as God came down from heaven to wrestle with (not to catechize!) Jacob (Gen. 32), doubts may at first seem to be an enemy, but prove to be dear friends. As George MacDonald observed,
Doubts are the messengers of the Living One to the honest. They are the first knock at our door of things that are not yet, but have to be, understood…Doubt must precede every deeper assurance; for uncertainties are what we first see when we look into a region hitherto unknown, unexplored, unannexed”
Our doubts can take us deeper into the knowledge of God—not further away, as many fear. When we wrestle with God, we come away changed.
So this semester, I have decided to encourage doubt in my classroom. While I will be teaching my students the fundamentals of Missiology (the topic of my course), I also want to teach them to wrestle with God. I want them to ask the hard questions—to really ask themselves (and me) “what does this mean?” I foresee a long semester ahead, but as a student wrote on a worksheet last week, “if you don’t ask questions, you won’t get answers.”
Using Doubt in Discipleship
How can we steward doubt—“messengers of the Living One to the honest”—in the already messy process of disciple making? I don’t know exactly, but here are five general thoughts on disicpling amidst doubt.
1. Don’t Ignore Doubt Have the courage to look for doubt. When someone gives a “Sunday School” answer, don’t be afraid to search for the heart behind the answer. Maybe there is a true, orthodox love for God behind that “right answer,” but that isn’t always the case. Jesus didn’t ignore Thomas’ doubt, instead he directly engaged it. Jesus didn’t condemn him for his doubt, but told him,
“Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” (Jn. 20:28)
2. Be Humble Just because you may not wrestle with nagging doubts about the resurrection right now doesn’t mean the doubts of others are not legitimate. Pride is particularly deadly, when you are instructing others. Humbly encourage doubters to draw from the same well of truth you have. This will foster a safe environment for others, as they wrestle with their doubts.
3. See Doubt as an Opportunity Doubt can certainly lead to sin, but doubt can be an opportunity to trust and seek God. Encourage yourself and others to “see doubt as the door to that which is unknown, but must be known.” Faith is not the absence of doubt, but the “assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1). God can, and historically has, used honest doubts as an opportunity to lead believers to rest, repent, and believe. Doubt is an opportunity to encounter the living truth, and, as Sir Francis Bacon observed, “no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of truth.”
4. Remember the Gospel The absolutely certain, imputed, and active righteousness of Christ shows us our doubt is not our demise. Doubts do not stop God from saving, loving, and pursuing his people! This means, when a brother or sister in Christ is wrestling through doubts—intellectual or otherwise—God still loves them, and still views them as perfectly hidden in Christ. The cross is doubt-proof—as much as we doubt, we cannot change the glorious, historical truth that Jesus died once for sin. This means that every question is safe to ask and no doubt is too big for the cross to overcome! Jesus’ perfect lack of doubt has overcome our doubt.
5. Remember that God Transforms Doubt Thankfully, God does not leave doubters in their doubt. God has a long record of intervening in human history and radically transforming even the strongest doubters. From Moses (Exod. 3) to Job to Jonah to Thomas, God works through those who have deep doubts about God and their call. Consider Sarah,
The Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” (Gen. 18:9-12)
God promised things that seemed impossible. Our humanness wants to doubt God because, honestly, some of the things God promises are insane. But God delivers. Sarah laughed at the thought that God could ever fulfill His promises, but God answered Sarah’s doubts and through it, glorifies Himself,
“The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.” (Gen. 21:1-7)
Sarah’s laughter was transformed from doubt to joy. God answered Sarah and God answers our doubts. God replaces our doubt with worship. The burden of proof is on God, and God comes though. This is the only hope I have that my high school students will encounter God in the foolishness of what I teach.
Conclusion
We never “arrive” and we will never know everything. As long as sin wages war against the Spirit, we will struggle with doubts. But thankfully, we are not alone in this struggle. Our perfect righteousness, hidden in Christ, is secure despite our doubts. And God has promised to be with us in our fight with doubt. My students may not “get the gospel” this semester, they may play Flappy Bird in class instead of wrestling with truth, but as Jonathan Dodson rightfully notes in Raised?,
“Those who are skeptical and struggling with belief, Jesus remains ready to receive your questions. He will listen to your doubts”
_ Nick Rynerson lives in Normal, Illinois (no, seriously) with his groovy wife, Jenna. He received his B.A. from Illinois State University and currently serves as a deacon and pastoral intern at Charis Community Church in Normal. He writes regularly for Christ and Pop Culture, and is passionate about Americana music, (lower case) orthodoxy, and whatever he’s been reading lately. Connect with him on twitter @nick_rynerson or via email.
How Our Union with Christ Defines Us
Every day, men and women get bombarded with ideas, subtle and obvious, on who they should be. The messages are mixed and they come from all corners. Whether it's the culture of the world or the culture of the Church (and the countless veins within each), the propaganda and advice can be dizzying and confusing.
I am convinced that the breakdown in our understanding of Christian human identity today is a lack of understanding and living out of our union with Christ. Setting aside the gender issues, there is one answer which Scripture gives us to the question of identity for men and women: to be conformed to the image of his Son (Rom. 8:29).
We may have many earthly identities: single, married, husband, wife, mother, father, daughter, son, friend, butcher, baker, candlestick-maker, etc. However, there is a wider and deeper reality than all of this: a Christian man or woman is in union with Christ. A Christian man or woman is in Christ. That is our reality. It is Christ who defines personhood.
New Life in Christ
As a first principle, this is where we need to start as Christian humans. All thought, and the subsequent actions from that thought, should come from our union with Christ: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come" (2 Cor. 5:17).
Let me give an example (and there are countless others) of how our understanding of our union with Christ affects our everyday life. As a wife, I submit to my husband according to Ephesians 5 because of the fact that I am united to Christ. I submit because Christ submitted to the Father and I am in Christ. All the secondary and tertiary reasons for why I am called to submit are of no value unless I fully internalize what it means to be in Christ. Moreover, there is no greater motivation or power to live in line with this section of Scripture except the knowledge of my union with Christ. Saying that it is in the Bible does not make this Scripture effective. Claiming to be a complementarian does not make these verses effective. What makes all the realities of new life effective is our union with Christ and living out the wisdom contained in his Word.
Here are some ways we can think about how our union in Christ define us, with a little help from Anthony Hoekema’s Saved By Grace.[1]
A Defining Union
1. If we are Christians, we were chosen by the Father before the creation of the universe and before anything existed; even before we existed. Our union with Christ has its roots in divine election.
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him." (Eph. 1:3–4)
2. Our union with Christ is based on his redemptive work. Christ came to earth to save his people.
"You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." (Matt. 1:21)
3. Our actual union with Christ began at new birth. At regeneration (new birth – when our spirits are made alive), the Holy Spirit brings us into a living union with Christ.
"He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit." (Titus 3:5)
4. Throughout our lives, we live out our union with Christ through faith. That is, we exercise/seize/live out our new life in Christ, through faith.
"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Gal. 2:20)
5. Our justification (where God declares us "not guilty," forgiving all our sins) is inseparable from our union with Christ. As we are spiritually moved by the Holy Spirit out from under the kingdom of darkness and the reign of sin, and brought into Christ several things happen: Our nature (ontologically) is changed from being under Adam to being under Christ. At which time we start sharing in Christ's obedience and righteousness. God sees us now through our new nature. Christ defines us. We are freed from the dominion of sin and driven by grace to live a new life.
“And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption." (1 Cor. 1:30)
"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Rom. 8:1)
"In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace." (Eph. 1:7)
"…and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith." (Phil. 3:9)
6. We are sanctified through our union with Christ. The progressive work of the Holy Spirit over our lifetime conforms us to the image of Christ, leading us to bear spiritual fruit. As Sinclair Ferguson has said, “We must consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God. … let it dawn on you... you must reckon this to be true.”
"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:4–5)
7. We persevere in our faith because of our union with Christ. Through power of the Holy Spirit we endure, persist, and remain steadfast in our devotion. We remain because if we are in him, we cannot come out of him.
"For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom. 8:38-39)
8. We die in Christ. Being united with Christ means that we die to ourselves that we may live through his life.
"For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s." (Rom. 14:8)
9. We are raised with Christ already and not yet. In one sense, our new self has already begun at regeneration. At the same time, we will be resurrected as our glorified selves at Christ's return.
"Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is." (1 John 3:2)
10. We will live in eternity with Christ as glorified men and women. The ultimate result of our union with Christ is that we will spend eternity worshiping him for who he is and what he has done.
"For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord." (1 Thess. 4:16–17)
Tell This Story
It's beautiful to see our union with Christ spelled out theologically. But how are these truths played out in us Christians?
The most important thing to remember and to stay conscious of is that the power of the Holy Spirit which raised Jesus up from death is the same power doing all this work.
By the power of the Holy Spirit, God regenerated my heart. The Holy Spirit then mysteriously and spiritually united my spirit to Christ's. Now I live and move and have my being in Christ; therefore what I think, say, and do flows from this union. When Paul says in Galatians 2:20 that he has been crucified with Christ and that his life in the flesh is lived by faith in Christ who is living inside him—what can he possibly mean? How does this affect the life of flesh we live on this planet?
The Holy Spirit of the living God living inside of us changes everything. Sinclair Ferguson has said that “sanctification is nothing if it doesn't affect the bodily life.” You have a new being, and the progression of sanctification works backwards and forwards at the same time. The Holy Spirit is putting to death the old you as he continues to slowly build up the new you. That new you will look more and more like Jesus—slowly, incrementally, the power of the Holy Spirit is creating and will create the new you until you are glorified.
This means the new me will make different choices about my body, my mind, my friendships, my entertainment, my reading habits, my hobbies, etc. This is why Paul talks about fornication as uniting Christ with a prostitute.
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!... But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. (1 Cor. 6:15-17)
It says we are one spirit with him, and that our bodies are members of Christ. This means everything we do with our fleshly body has to align with something that Christ would do.
Would Christ get drunk and sleep around? No! Would Christ beat his wife? No! Would Christ lie to someone? No! Would Christ cheat on his taxes? Gossip about a neighbor? Cut someone off in traffic? Allow someone to go hungry? Do you see where I'm going with this?
Invariably someone will say, “Well that's just too hard. I'm not perfect. I'm not Jesus.” Good news: you are never called to be like Jesus by yourself. Scripture never says these are rules to obey in our own strength. Scripture says that the spirit of the God of this universe lives in us. He gives strength, power, self-discipline, and everything we need to live in line with the spirit of Christ in us.
We are a new people with a new nature on a new mission. We tell this story to a watching world as we worship, obey, and reflect our Savior. It takes fervor to say “no” to our old selves, the ones who like to indulge in our favorite sins. It takes humility when we fail to confess our sins and receive Christ's forgiveness, which he never begrudges but rather lavishes on us. It takes patience to love people who are not easy to love. It takes courage to talk about Jesus in the presence of those skeptical of his existence. Through our union with Christ, this new life empowered by the Spirit, we are given all we need to live as grace-driven members of Christ's body.
_
Luma Simms (@lumasimms) is a wife and mother of five delightful children. She studied physics and law before Christ led her to become a writer, blogger, and Bible study teacher. She blogs regularly at Gospel Grace.
Luma's book, Gospel Amnesia, is now updated and available in paperback. Buy it HERE.
[1] Anthony Hoekema, Saved By Grace (Eerdman’s, 1994), 55-64/
Returning to the Good News
"What you really need is good news," I told him. He didn't understand. We had met time and time again and unbeknownst to him, he was trying to perform his way into the kingdom. "You can't do that," I exhorted, "otherwise you miss the entire point of Jesus and his performance on your behalf!" Whether we acknowledge it or not, we all need good news. Not just good news, but better-than-anything news. News that announces something spectacular—like nothing you could ever imagine or fabricate. And until you recognize this need, you'll be helpless. Like an engine with no gas, your life, without a constant barrage of Jesus-is-King news, will stall.
I often tell my congregation that I have 34 years left in my ministry here, and for those 34 years, you will hear the gospel over and over again, not because you don’t know it in your brain, but because knowing it in your brain isn’t enough. We must know it—I must know it—in our hearts, and in our hands. The gospel isn’t the starting point—it is the point. It’s the point of everything! And until we understand this truth, we will continue to be lured away, enticed by other false gospels that over-promise and under deliver.
Martin Luther is reported to have said that he continues to preach the gospel each and every week because each and every week his people forget it. I’m sure he would include himself in this assertion because let’s face it, we’re all guilty as charged.
Because of this, I came up with five simple reasons as to why we need to hear about Jesus and his glorious gospel each and every day. “Give us Jesus” ought to be the rally cry of the church. Over and over again, our hearts should be yearning to hear the gospel again and again—like my two-year-old daughter begging for a “horsey-ride” on my back, let us go back to the truth that sets us free.
Give us Jesus and his gospel:
1. So Our Affections Are Stirred
Our emotions are impressed with many things. Whether a good movie, television show, football game, or shiny new Apple product, we love an emotionally stirring experience. We thrive on it. But what happens when those emotions become sour? What happens when we just don’t feel like worshiping Jesus and finding joy in him? What do you do when your affections are clouded with bitterness, jealousy, envy, and anger?
Jonathan Edwards is helpful: "Upon the whole, I think it is clearly manifest, that all truly gracious affections arise from special and peculiar influences of the Spirit, working that sensible effect or sensation in the souls of the saints.”[1] It is the Holy Spirit that drives our affections towards gospel holiness and one of the means by which he does so is through gospel proclamation. We need it. Fighting for joy is absolutely that: a fight; but joy in him is absolutely worth it (Ps. 16:11). Only when old affections have been expunged by greater, far superior affections can we be free from idolatry. Give us Jesus so our affections are stirred!
2. So Our Identities Are Clarified
Whether it is a counseling appointment with a young man trying to understand what he should do with his life, or a newly-engaged couple looking for some premarital help, I am convinced that the root issue with all of our problems is an issue of identity. For example, no matter the marital issue, I can always trace the issue between the husband and wife back to the problem of a husband not being a biblical husband, and a wife not being a biblical wife. Identity matters tremendously.
If you think about it: sin is a loss of identity. When Adam and Eve sinned against God in the garden, they lost their identity as a covenant people with their covenant God. Subsequently, because of their transgression, their lives were marred by sin and ever since then, man, made in God’s image, has simply forgotten who he is in relationship to God. Everyone knows he exists (Rom. 1:20); however, the issue is identity amnesia.
Take the example of the pursuit of holiness. For the Christian, the battle of sanctification is a battle to be who you are. If you’re a redeemed saint, then act like one! Though we don’t have the time to get into this too far, the reality is, the indicatives of the gospel drive the imperatives of holiness. When we give ourselves to sin, we lose our identity—hence the need for the gospel. Again, and again. We need a reminder that we are freely justified in Christ to rest in him. Give us Jesus so our identities are clarified!
3. So Our Idols Are Uprooted
John Calvin once wrote, “The human mind is, so to speak, a perpetual forge of idols.”[2] Calvin was on to something. Every time we lose sight of the gospel it is because we have taken our eyes away from Jesus and placed them on an idol. Idols can be subversively deceptive, or they can be patently obvious. Either way, this side of glorification will undoubtedly be marked by a constant fight with idols.
One of my favorite quotes on idolatry and the gospel comes from Thomas Chalmers:
“The love of God and the love of the world, are two affections, not merely in a state of rivalship, but in a state of enmity—and that so irreconcilable, that they cannot dwell together in the same bosom. We have already affirmed how impossible it were for the heart, by any innate elasticity of its own, to cast the world away from it, and thus reduce itself to a wilderness. The heart is not so constituted; and the only way to dispossess it of an old affection, is by the expulsive power of a new one.”[3]
This is brilliant. An idol cannot be uprooted by mere moral effort. It has to be uprooted and replaced by something far superior, namely, the gospel. And what better way to see an idol uprooted, than the goodness of the good news? The intensity of pain we feel when an idol is removed from us is directly proportionate to how far away we walked from belief in the gospel. If sin is trusting, confiding, believing and gaining identity from something other than God, then it follows that we ought to, through repentance and faith, trust, confide, believe and gain our identity in Jesus. Idols are destroyed when good news is heeded. Give us Jesus so our idols are uprooted!
4. So Our Covenant Is Kept
Whether we know it or not, the New Covenant instituted by our Lord is meant to be kept (it is, after all, a covenant!). Sometimes we do not often talk like this, mostly because in portions of our culture we’ve lost the key concepts behind covenant. Irregardless of unconscious ignorance, it is our duty—indeed it is commanded of us!—to “be holy” (1 Pet. 1:15-16; cf. Lev. 11:44). To be sure, Christ is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30). However, we are still called to the covenant obligations of obedience. And because of the indwelling power of God the Holy Spirit, we can follow Jesus in obedience (John 14:21) because the law has been written on our hearts (Jer. 31:33; cf. 2 Cor. 3:6). How this happens is through the work of the Spirit leading us to truth (John 17:17) and glorifying Christ (the power of the gospel in us). You need to hear it, because the Spirit uses it to drive your obedience. Give us Jesus so our covenant is kept!
5. So Our Mission Is Spurred On
So having had our affections stirred, our identities clarified, our idols uprooted, and our covenant in check, what do we do? The answer? Make disciples. This is our mission. The gospel is news, therefore, it should be proclaimed. Boldly, I might add. After all, Jesus has been given all authority—we need not fear! (Matt. 28:18)
If we do not continue to go back to the good news again and again, we will lose sight of our identity, and purpose. The gospel is the engine that drives the mission! Without it, we are lost. Again and again, we need to hear, see, believe, experience afresh, enjoy and understand the good news of Jesus’ work on our behalf: his virgin birth, his perfect life under the Law of God, his perfect fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures (including Israel’s story!), his substitutionary death, his resurrection, his ascension to the throne, and his current mediation—this is our gospel! Let it spur us on to do his work. Give us Jesus so our mission is spurred on.
“I have stored up your word in my heart,” the writer says, “that I might not sin against you” (Ps. 119:11). The issue is not just hearing the gospel, but marinating in it as well. Whether proclaimed from the pulpit or shared over a cup of coffee, the gospel must take center stage, because we do not want to sin against God. When it is stored in our hearts and minds, we get all of the benefits mentioned above. But the ultimate benefit is that we get God. We need the good news because we need God. May all of us be immersed in the gospel of our Lord, Jesus Christ!
_
Jason M. Garwood (M.Div., Th.D.) serves as Lead Pastor of Colwood Church in Caro, MI. Jason and his wife Mary have three children, Elijah, Avery and Nathan. He blogs at www.jasongarwood.com. Connect with him on Twitter: @jasongarwood.
[1] Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume 1 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2008). 267. (Emphasis in the original).
[2] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion. (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 2008), 55.
[3] Thomas Chalmers, The Expulsive Power of a New Affection. (Minneapolis, MN: Curiosmith, 2012), 19.
The Prideful Pursuit of Humility
These days, I have a constant, repetitive prayer to God. One that asks for God to remove my pride and my self-doubt. It’s a prayer for humility, something I feel more in need of now than ever before. Pride and self-doubt are really two sides of the same coin. One believes that we know better than God does, the other believes that he isn’t good or powerful enough to change us. Neither makes much of God, effectively bringing him down below us. The prideful and the self-doubters both believe they’re better than God, they just show it in different ways.
Pride and Self-Doubt
Pride is more of an obvious manifestation of a lack of humility. It’s easy to spot most of the time. Some of those who struggle with pride link their own lives to their success. And when they don’t succeed, it probably wasn’t their fault. When things go well, pride points the finger inward; when they don’t go well, the finger points outward. Their eyes are horizontal, not vertical.
Self-doubt is a cloaked version of humility’s lack. It’s not so easy to identify, as cynicism can sometimes be seen as merely a need for gentle encouragement. We shouldn’t forego being gentle, but a rebuke is also needed for self-doubters. We self-doubters understand well our failures but struggle to see God as more gracious, loving, and forgiving. Essentially, God isn’t enough to change us. He doesn’t have enough power or goodness. Unlike the prideful, a self-doubter struggles to accept any form of praise. When things go well, their finger points outward, when they don’t, the finger points inward. Again, like the prideful, their eyes are locked horizontally.
Sometimes the prideful are looked up to because of their confidence, albeit broken. Sometimes the self-doubter is looked up to because of their humility, albeit broken. But both really are living lives out of themselves. Neither has “considered the lilies of the field” and looked up to God as provider. One thinks man primarily provides, one denies provision altogether. None asks with the author of Psalm 26, “Test me, O Lord, and try me; examine my heart and mind.” One doesn’t examine enough; one examines, but without God.
True humility asks the God of the universe to gaze into ourselves with his unflinching eye, that he might examine us and illuminate our shortcomings. Of course he can do this (and does) on his own without our requests, but there’s something important about that desire coming from us. In our request for God to examine us, there is an implicit acceptance of our faults, the drive to not stay the same, and the belief that God in his goodness can do something about it.
When confronted with the desire for real humility, we tend to fall into two categories: the anxious and the accepted. The stem of anxiety comes from knowing we’re not where we should be, but thinking we can get there on our own. It’s a prideful chase of humility. Our eyes are locked towards others or ourselves, never looking up to where our hope comes from.
The stem of acceptance comes from knowing that we are God’s beloved children. In Matthew 3:17, Christ is baptized and God declares, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” This same declaration is now directed to those who have faith in Jesus. How can this be? Having faith in Christ means our lives are woven into his. his life becomes our life. his goodness becomes our goodness. Romans 6:4 tells us that Christ’s death and his new life become our own. This means it is only by the power of Christ that we can participate in anything like humility. The gospel puts that which is wrong in us to death and brings that which is good to life.
Doing and Being
Our doing comes from our being; what we do arises from who we are. And if you are a disciple of Christ, you are, first and foremost, the radically accepted son or daughter of the King. You have flaws and shortcomings, baggage and sins. He has welcome arms. You have brokenness, hurt, pain and unfulfilled desires. He has a loving embrace.
It is only because of our acceptance with our Father that we can be obedient. Our obedience is our acceptance lived out. And one of the bi-products of this kind of life is humility. It’s tricky: searching for humility first attracts pride. But searching after God himself will attract humility. Christ himself embodied this example. Paul teaches us about the Incarnation in Philippians 2:8 and says he “humbled himself.” How did Christ do this? By “becoming obedient.” Christ, knowing his acceptance in the Trinity, knowing the Father’s love towards him, submitted his own body in obedience, in turn bringing about humility. If there was anyone on this earth who could have looked within and mustered their own humility outside of the Father, it would have been Christ. But he was obedient to the Father and that’s where Christ’s humility shines.
More than merely our example, Christ himself is our means for humility. The Philippians 2:8 passage says that Christ’s obedience led to his death, “even death on a cross.” Christ’s death on the cross was an act for us. Because Christ died, our pride can die. Not because we’re good enough, but because Christ has put an end to it. Because Christ died, our self-doubt can die. Not because we’re self-effacing, but because Christ looked our sins in the face and took them on, putting them to death. And now, being accepted by our Creator, we can live the new life that Christ rose again for. He walks in resurrection life so that we can. We don’t have to be primarily prideful or self-doubting (though we’re not perfect… yet), but we can live in the freedom of being an accepted son or daughter of our loving Father.
The Courageous Servant
Our new freedom takes on the character of a courageous servant. Psalm 116:16 says, “O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds.” We are not kings, we are servants, not slavishly serving ourselves, but freed to serve the King. Our identity as such does not afford pride. But we servants aren’t weak, either. Psalm 31:24 exhorts us to “be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the LORD!” We are servants and we are rooted in a strength outside ourselves. This is a vertical orientation.
Both the prideful and the self-doubter need to take courage by waiting on the Lord. If you are tempted to overshadow your inadequacies with pride, take courage. The life you now live is marked by our acceptance by the Father. Run to him, confess, and ask him to change you. If you are tempted to believe that God isn’t good enough to change you, run to him, confess, and ask him to change you. This is what waiting on the Lord looks like. This is the obedient life and true humility. We are saved from pointing the finger inward, saved from pointing the finger outward, freed to live with our hands outstretched heavenward, to our loving Father.
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Greg Willson is the Church Planting Resident at Riverside Community Church. He likes creating music, and writes about art and the church at gregwillson.com. Follow him on Twitter: @gregoriousdubs.
Why Patience Is Vital
We all know how disappointing life can be. Maybe you never thought you’d still be single at age 35, or still stuck in an entry-level position, or still battling depression. Or maybe you never thought…fill in the blank. All of us have something that goes in that blank. We all know what it’s like to feel that things haven’t worked out quite the way we expected. What do you do about it? The Christian answer involves being dissatisfied with it. Paul tells us to “wait eagerly” and “strain towards” what is ahead of us (Rom. 8:23; Phil. 3:13): the perfect New Creation, where there are no disappointments. We’re not to act like this is all there is; that way lies despair.
But it’s dangerous to tell ourselves (and call each other) to be more restless. Why? Because the wrong kind of restlessness tells us that to be content in the present, we must be content with the present. If we’re not content in the present, we need to change our present.
This kind of restlessness doesn’t trust God’s timing. It wants heaven now. But those who seek heaven on earth make it hell for everyone else. Parents who demand perfection crush their children. Employees who trample on anything and anyone to reach the top create toxic workplaces. Worse, when we’re content with nothing less than heaven now, we’re bound to disobey God in order to grab it. Attempting to walk into happiness, we stay far from God, or walk away from God. And that’s (eternal) disaster.
We need to combine our restlessness with patience. Restlessness with patience is Christian maturity. Restlessness without patience is disaster.
Our Patience Problem
We live in an age that lacks patience! We’re bombarded with the message that we can, should, must have everything now. So we hate to wait. After all, if this life is all there is, there’s not much time to get everything done, to experience all we want to.
And the problem is that while we want fast, God likes slow. He really likes slow; and he often makes his people wait. God promised Abraham a son twenty-five years before Isaac was born. The nation of Israel waited hundreds of years in Egypt before being delivered, and thousands of years before receiving the promised Messiah-King. So we need to get used to waiting. We get help in the book of James:
Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. (James 5: 7-8)
Have It All, and Have It Now?
James’ call to be patient for Jesus’ return is a big challenge for most of us. Our general impatience in life often translates into an unhealthy impatience for the new creation—unhealthy, because it’s shot through with lack of trust in God’s timing.
There’s a supposedly Christian movement that promises health and wealth in this life to followers of Jesus. If you have enough faith, God will give you houses, money, and cars. Here’s an example of the message, quoted in December 2009’s issue of the Atlantic: “We declare financial blessings! Financial miracles this week, NOW NOW NOW! … More work! Better work! The best finances!”
Who wouldn’t love this prosperity gospel? It shouts: Don’t wait for the new creation. Seize it all now.
And I have to confess that I fall for it. I have opposed this gospel and sought to persuade others of its dangers; and yet I often construct my own mini-versions of it. My mini-prosperity gospels arise when I cultivate false expectations of what this present world can and should offer. When I begin a new day, my usual assumption is that things will go well for me. There will be ample food for breakfast, and enough hot water for my shower. My car will start. The people I meet during the day will understand and appreciate me. My neighbors will be friendly and will lend me their tools. My children will be well-behaved in the evening, be in bed on time, and will sleep well. When I’m on vacation, my expectations are ratcheted up even higher— I’ve waited and worked for this little slice of heaven on earth, and no one had better take it from me.
I can tell when my expectations are too high—when I’m trying to seize it all now—by noticing my reaction when something deviates from the plan. Am I annoyed at car trouble? Impatient with inefficiency? Grumpy when hungry? If something goes wrong, do I feel cheated? Am I angry with God, as though he hasn’t delivered what he promised?
If the answer to these questions is “Yes,” then I’m not being patient enough. I’m not trusting God’s timing. I’m trying to enjoy all his promised future in the present. I’m expecting perfection from an imperfect world. So I need to hear James’ call for patience. If James were a prosperity preacher, he would say to his economically deprived readers: Believe and you will receive! Have it now! But he doesn’t say that. Instead, he twice urges patience for the return of Jesus. Full deliverance and blessing will come—in the future. We wait patiently until then.
Being Patient
What does this mean in practice? Well, picture the man who always wished he could go to university. Two years ago, he was offered a scholarship, but he’s married with four kids now, and he knew pursuing a degree would require neglecting his family and mean he was never in church. He said no to the scholarship. That hurt, but he’s okay with it. He knows he’ll have forever to study God’s words and works in the new creation, and he doesn’t need to seize it all now.
Or imagine the woman who longed to be married, but somehow it never happened. There was a time in her late 30s when she hit it off with a guy she met at the gym. Everything went well for the first couple months, and then one night he pushed to have sex. When she said she wouldn’t do that, he distanced himself, taking her dreams of marriage with him. That hurt, and still does, but she’s okay with it. She knows she’ll have forever to enjoy an intimate relationship with God and his people, and she doesn’t need to seize it all now.
Patient trust in God and his timing makes us resilient and hopeful when life is hard. It’s essential to avoiding disaster. It prevents us walking away from Christ; it means we won’t try to seize it all now, and lose it all in the future. How can we be patient? By remembering the true gospel, which tells us that our future is glorious, and certain, and whispers: Wait for the new creation patiently. You’ll have it all then.
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Stephen Witmer (PhD, University of Cambridge) is Pastor of Pepperell Christian Fellowship in Massachusetts, and teaches at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. This blog is an excerpt from his new book, Eternity Changes Everything: How to live now in the light of your future (The Good Book Company, 2014), which will launch at the Bethlehem Conference for Pastors in early February and is available for pre-order now. Follow him on Twitter: @stephenwitmer1.
8 Characteristics of Sanctification
One of the things I enjoyed most about my previous job was the direct connection between how hard I worked and the results I saw. If I just put my head down and pushed hard I could get where I wanted. It was an independent role and I liked the fact that my production rested on no one’s shoulders but my own. Much of my frustration in growing as a Christian is because sanctification isn’t exactly like my job. Yes, my effort does affect my growth but I can’t simply produce the desired outcome from my performance alone. I’m learning that while I certainly play a part in my maturity I can’t just will it through hard work. This has not only shaped my own spiritual formation but it changes how I encourage other believers. When a brother comes to me sharing a struggle with sin I realize I can’t just take him to the mat for not working hard enough but I must take him to the cross to rest in Christ’s work for him. I find many Christians genuinely desiring to grow but they end up throwing up their hands in discouragement saying, “I’m trying but things don’t seem to be changing.” I think as weary believers, we can go from feeling frustrated to feeling free as we take the yoke off our own backs and place it on Jesus.
Gospel-centered sanctification tethers becoming (growing) to being (identity) by making Christ’s accomplishments and provision for us the catalyst of our lives. Here are eight characteristics of gospel-centered sanctification that frame our theology of the doctrine while also steering our practice.
1. News, Not Advice
“And this word is the good news that was preached to you.” (1 Pet. 1:25)
The gospel is first and foremost an announcement. It is news about the historical events related to the life, death, and resurrection of the God-man Jesus.[1] And it is good news because the objective events have personal significance; they are for us so we might be redeemed from our sin and reconciled to God. I do my brothers and sisters in Christ little good when I resort to offering sage advice, giving opinions, or dispensing the latest spiritual maxims.
For the gospel (and no shabby replacements) to remain the center, we must regularly remind one another of the good news of Jesus Christ. We retell this accomplished, objective, historical news and unpack the never-ending applications gushing from it. If the majority of my conversations sound like “you should try doing this or that” instead of “Jesus has already done this for you” then I’m headed out to the stormy sea of advice and opinion.
“Advice often masquerades as the gospel. Messages filled with advice to help people improve their lives or turn over a new leaf are in contradiction to the nature of the gospel—news we respond to, not insight we should consider heeding.”[2] Also see: 1 Cor. 15:1-8; Eph. 1:13-14; Acts 15:6.
2. Repentance, Not Resolve
“Confess your sins to one another.” (Jam. 5:16)
The gospel grabs us and shakes us back into the reality we quickly forget: sin is a big deal and our hearts reek of it. I avoid thinking of myself or my sin in these stark terms. I’ve noticed that instead of confessing my sin, I settle for praying that I would “do better.” Instead of seeing my cutting tongue as sin requiring humble repentance I might piously say, “I’ve not done a good job in my speech this week and I need to make that a higher priority.” Through my language of “trying harder” or “being more disciplined” I create the mirage of being a good person. All I need, I tell myself, is to dig deeper into my inner reservoirs of strength and goodness. In reality, I need more God-dependent and self-humbling repentance and less self-sufficient and God-ignoring resolve.
“In confession, we become authentically Christian, agreeing with God about our judgment-deserving sin and trusting in his sin-forgiving grace. We return to the reality of grace, in Christ, which in turn compels real obedience.”[3] Also see: 1 John 1:8-9; Ps. 32:5; 2 Cor. 7:10; Rev. 2:5.
3. Needy, Not Self-Sufficient
“God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.” (Jam. 4:6)
Once we turn to repentance from sin instead of improving on our weaknesses, it becomes clear we can’t dig out of the problem we got ourselves into. I don’t just need more discipline. The problem isn’t primarily that I’m not giving it all I’ve got or trying with enough vigor. The gospel unshackles us by allowing God to be in charge of my sanctification instead of me (deep exhale). When I stop relying on myself and my resources and collapse into trust in God, I see He possesses the power I needed all along.
God promises help to the humble but leaves the self-reliant to their own resources. My generation laughed when Stuart Smalley picked himself up by looking into the mirror and saying, “I’m good enough. I’m strong enough.” Unfortunately, we failed to see that this kind of thinking had slipped into how we live our lives.
“This bruising makes us set a high price upon Christ. Then the gospel becomes the gospel indeed; then the fig-leaves of morality will do us no good.”[4] Also see: Rom. 8:9-11, 13; Phil. 2:12-13; Eph. 3:16; Gal. 5:16-17, 25; Col. 2:20-23.
4. Heart Transformation, Not Behavior Modification
“I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts.” (Heb. 8:10)
The biblical view of sanctification requires a genuine change of the heart (root) in order to have the long-term effects of reflecting Christ (fruit). Heart transformation takes time and work. Because most people “don’t have time” and don’t like work we try to short-circuit this process by simply altering a few behaviors. Since the person hasn’t actually changed—including their motives and desires—it’s a near-sighted solution at best. For example, instead of actually dealing with the pride in my heart that fuels sarcasm, I just tone it down a couple notches.
If others are less offended by my words then I assume I’ve fixed the problem. Despite the better version of me on the outside the heart remains unchanged. We might know this cognitively but think how often when someone shares a struggle with sin the first thing they’re told is how to work on the behavior. These might be helpful strategies, but they aren’t solutions. Care for the root and healthy fruit will eventually ripen.
“It’s all too easy to turn the fight of faith into sanctification-by-checklist. Take care of a few bad habits, develop a couple good ones, and you’re set. But a moral checklist doesn’t take into consideration the idols of the hearts. It may not even have the gospel as part of the equation.”[5] Also see: Mt. 15:19-20; 23:25-28; Luke 6:43-45; 2 Cor. 3:3.
5. Freedom in Christ, Not Slavery to Law
“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” (Gal. 5:1)
The gospel promise is that at the moment of faith our condemnation is removed and we are declared righteous—with the results of full acceptance and fatherly love. Hearts changed because of grace are given a stronger motivation than a person striving to merit God’s favor through works. Grace jolts us into joy because of an undeserved redemption and we can now live out of gratitude and love for Christ. We seek to grow in sanctification, not to receive favor but as a result of tasting such favor. This does not eliminate the role of law completely, but it does change our relationship to it.
The difference between gospel-centered sanctification and its performance-based counterfeits is that the former prompts heartfelt obedience out of gratitude and the rest provoke external compliance out of guilt. The fruit of the Spirit are not what we bring to God for approval. They are the result of walking in the freedom Christ brings to children freed from the law’s enslaving power.
“Even the Christian with his nose to the obedience grindstone can miss out on this transforming positional view. I may outwardly look very diligent in the faith and dutiful in good works, good words, and good manners, but if inwardly that is all the result of an insecurity about my standing with God, the hardest work I can muster will be both worry-inducing and worthless. The performance treadmill simply leads to exhaustion.”[6] Also see: Rom. 5:1; 8:1, 15-16; Gal. 5:14-16.
6. Under the Rule of Christ, Not Apart from It
“He has delivered us form the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.” (Col. 1:13)
In the gospel, God heaps good news on top of good news. We’re not only freed from slavery to sin and Satan but we’re also redeemed to the kingdom of the Son. There we receive the guidance, protection, and presence of the all-powerful King. Imagine if God had freed Israel in Exodus—people who had been slaves all their lives—and then left them in the wilderness. They lacked wisdom, understanding of righteousness, and knowledge of how to live consistently with why they were created. Thankfully, for Israel after the exodus and for Christians after redemption in Christ, God does not leave us as refugees but makes us full-fledged citizens.
When I see sanctification through gospel-centered lenses, living under the rule and reign of Jesus doesn’t steal my joy but maximizes it. The biblical concept of kingdom unites gospel and law. God’s law for those already in the kingdom is not a criteria for citizenship. Instead, it is just as much a demonstration of his care and grace as it his authority. In Christ’s kingdom, his laws are not to be loathed but to be loved, and his rule is not dreadful but delightful.
“The gospel of the kingdom is the announcement that life with God, under the rule of God, is made immediately available to us through Jesus, our King. He arrives as one who restores, rules, and provides access to God’s kingdom.”[7] Also see: Rom. 6:6-7, 22; 1 Cor. 6:20; Ex. 20:1-2; Matt. 13:44-45.
7. In Community, Not Isolation
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.” (Heb. 10:24)
Many of the frustrations and shortcomings in the Christian life occur from trying to play a team-sport on our own. The kid playing basketball alone in his driveway never becomes great without instructional coaching, the complementary strengths of his teammates, and the sharpening of skills that only comes from other people. When we start thinking we’re strong enough and good enough on our own we believe self-reliant lies opposed to a gospel of need. If you’re not in a biblical community focused on Jesus and anchored in the authority of the Word, who will ask tough questions when you choose sin or share your joys when God is faithful? Who will speak the gospel of grace when you think you’ve blown it? Who will pray with you when you feel alone or shaken in your faith?
Sanctification within community is a two-way street. God matures us as others love us in word and deed, but he also strengthens us by stretching us to share our faith, serve with our gifts, and enter into messy relationships—which all of them are of course. Being plugged into a church body and committing to grow in maturity alongside others isn’t an option. Gospel-centered sanctification only happens as you humbly receive the gospel and the gifts other believers bring to you, and then doggedly commit to doing the same for them in return.
“We are to be sanctified by living lives together that are honoring to God and marked by growth and maturation. Bonhoeffer anchors the goal of Christian community in ‘meeting one another as bringers of the message of salvation.’…A life-giving community is one that is continuously being transformed by the gospel as a people.”[8] Also see: Heb. 10:24-25; 1 Thess. 5:11; Col. 3:16; 1 Cor. 12:25; Gal. 6:1-3.
8. Progression, Not Perfection
“But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.” (Phil. 3:13)
Unfortunately, we often talk in a way that fosters misunderstandings about what the Christian life will look like. Our speech can make it sound like the Christian’s life should be characterized by complete victory over sin instead of continued repentance from sin. Martin Luther provides a good counter-balance in Thesis 1 of his famous 95 Theses: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said ‘Repent,’ he intended that the entire life of believers should be repentance.”[9] In this life we will always remain simultaneously sinners and saints—people who have been justified and yet remain nagged by indwelling sin.
The Puritans portrayed this lifelong perseverance in their picture of the Christian carrying a weight on his back but the Word in his hand on his pilgrimage to the celestial city. Since we never arrive at perfection in this life we must daily bring our sins before God and receive fresh grace from his hand. We not only confess our sins but we by faith look to Christ to find assurance of our forgiveness and the help to change. This is why many church liturgies include confession of sin and assurance of pardon, modeling the rhythm of our own lives. Just as sure as the sun comes up after the night so also we awake daily in need of grace that pardons and grace to persevere.
“This life therefore is not righteousness but growth in righteousness; not health but healing; not being but becoming; not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it. The process is not finished, but it is going on. This is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified.”[10] Also see: Phil. 3:12-14, 20-21; 1 Thess. 5:23; 1 Pet. 5:10.
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Dustin Crowe has a bachelor’s degree in Historical Theology from the Moody Bible Institute and studied at the master's level at Southern Seminary. He is Local Outreach Coordinator of College Park Church, a church of 4,000 in Indianapolis, where he also helps with theological development.
[1] The language of the gospel being good news and not good advice began with Tim Keller: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2007/05/23/keller-gospel-centered-ministry/
[2] Eric Geiger, Michael Kelley, and Philip Nation, Transformational Discipleship (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2012), 72.
[3] Jonathan Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), 68.
[4] Richard Sibbes, The Bruised Reed (Carlisle: Banner of Truth, Reprinted 2008), 4.
[5] Kevin DeYoung, The Hole in Our Holiness (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), 34.
[6] Jared Wilson, Gospel Deeps (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), 47.
[7] Daniel Montgomery and Mike Cosper, Faithmapping (Wheaton: Crossway, 2013), 35.
[8] Brad House, Community (Wheaton: Crossway, 2011), 40.
[9] http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/history/95theses.htm
[10] Edward M. Plass, What Luthers Says, vol. 1 (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1997) 234-35.
What Can Protestants Learn From Mary?
In Luke chapter 1, the angel Gabriel greets Mary: “O favored one, the Lord is with you!” He then continues with: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.”
It is rare for us Protestants to linger long over Mary, the mother of Jesus. Whether in reading or meditating over Scripture, we quickly pass over her.
For those of us working to keep the gospel at center, taking a longer look at Mary's place in our theology and practical living could yield much fruit. After all, part of internalizing the gospel is understanding how God brought it forth through real flesh and blood people. The incarnation happened because God favored a woman and chose her to be a real live mother to his Son!
Mary Was Favored by the Lord
We may not fully comprehend how it is that God “favors” someone, but we cannot deny that the words came out of the angel Gabriel: “O favored one,” and “for you have found favor with God.” God the Father loved Mary, the young lady, living in Nazareth. Out of all the women in the history of the world, he chose her to be the mother of his Son.
This particular word, favored, used here in Luke 1:28 (KJV says “highly favoured”), is used in only one other place in the Bible, and that is in Ephesians 1:6. It means to bestow favor upon, to freely give, or to show kindness to, endued with grace. The Latin Vulgate translates it into “full of grace” which has given some the impression that Mary inherently had this special grace. But that is not the case. Mary was given a special grace from God. In the wise and secret council of God he determined that out of all the women in the history of mankind, that he would give a special endowment of favor to Mary—a poor, young, virgin girl from the lineage of David.
Matthew Henry says of Mary: “We have here an account given of the mother of our Lord, of whom he was to be born, whom, though we are not to pray to, yet we ought to praise God for.”
My question is: If Mary found favor with God, why does she not find favor with us? Why not give honor where honor is due, as Scripture teaches (Rom. 13:7)?
Giving Appropriate Honor to Mary
I believe we can honor Mary because of what God did through her. Just as we look highly upon the Apostle Paul and learn from him, we can look at the life of Mary and learn from her.
Later in the first chapter of Luke, after her encounter with her cousin Elizabeth, Mary sings a song of praise to God, which we refer to as the Magnificat. Although the song extols the character and virtue of God, it tells us some things about Mary herself:
And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, In remembrance of his mercy. As he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.
Her humble acquiescence alone puts me to shame. How many of us if we were told by an angel that God would do something in our life that will bring raised eyebrows, possibly lose a spouse, ruin our reputation, and cause us grief, would submit with such grace and humility?
Learning from Mary
We Christians will, without hesitation, give honor to church fathers and theologians, authors and pastors whom we find to be “full of grace” in their own ways. We “magnify” them by reading them, learning from them, telling others about them, quoting them, appreciating them.... They have “found favor” with us. So again, I ask, if Mary found favor with God, why not with us?
Mary didn't huddle down in sinful fear at was going to happen to her; her soul magnified God and her spirit rejoiced in God her Savior. She is not puffed up because she has been so especially blessed. Her soul lifts up God and her spirit finds joy in the one and only person who can give lasting and true joy—God her Savior. Furthermore, we see that she understood her salvation was from God.
She confesses she is of a lowly estate, she's not being proud of her poverty, nor puffed up in the redemption offered to her. She gives honor to God because he is the one that has done a mighty thing for her. Although she is not afraid to speak of her blessed position and the grace that was given to her, there is no arrogance or false humility in her words.
Mary knows her theology; she is versed in the words of the Old Testament Scriptures. Her words testify that she was a young woman who had invested time in learning. She may have been young and poor, but she wasn't uneducated.
Studying the words of Mary we also see that she was a woman of faith. Her understanding of the Scriptures was not just academic, Mary had internalized her knowledge of God. Her knowledge came out in a devoted and fervent faith. And we see the fruit (outward manifestation) by the way she questioned the angel—without doubt and faithlessness; We see it by her submission to God in verse 38 of Luke chapter one. And we see it in faith filled words in her song.
This small article is but a stone skimming. There is a lot of depth to Mary and her life if we but put in the effort to study. God gave a special grace to Mary—I think we would be wise to learn from her.
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Luma Simms (@lumasimms) is a wife and mother of five delightful children. She studied physics and law before Christ led her to become a writer, blogger, and Bible study teacher. She is the author of Gospel Amnesia: Forgetting the Goodness of the News. She blogs regularly at Gospel Grace.
When We Intentionally Invest
The phone call between my future church employer and my former college campus director (and character reference) went like this:
“We’re looking to hire Jason for a position in our church. Have you ever known him to be interested in working with seniors?” “Seniors in college?” “No, senior adults.” “I gotta be honest: I’ve never known Jason to be interested in working with senior adults.”
My campus director spoke the truth. He was a horrible job reference, but he spoke the truth. I still inexplicably landed the job. I had zero experience working with senior adults and even less of a desire to pursue a position that would require me to do so for 40 hours a week. The impetus for me was ignorance; not ignorance of what I was getting myself into—though that was certainly a reality—but an acknowledgement of my ignorance about the Church.
You see, I became a Christian just before college and had no healthy understanding of church for the first 18 years of my life. Then, in college, my college campus ministry was my de facto “church.” Post-college, I lived overseas for two years where I, for all intents and purposes, didn’t even have a church that I could attend.
Fast forward to the conversation mentioned above. I was entering seminary with a future in pastoral ministry looming on the horizon. I knew that I had to work at a church while walking through my post-graduate years. My ignorance forced my hand. I had no idea how a church operated, I had no clue why it was important, I had no picture of what it looked like to be a healthy church member, and I didn’t have an inkling of what it would be like for me to exercise my spiritual gifts in a local gathering of Christians.
So when the only position open at my church was “Associate Pastor to Senior Adults” I, as a 25-year old, applied. And it was one of the best jobs I’ve ever had. In fact, my one caveat to taking the job was that I would work with the ministry to seniors for two years and then excuse myself to work with a college campus ministry for my final two seminary years. Sure enough, after two years there was an opening in college ministry, but I didn’t even think about applying.
Loving & Fighting for the Church
A funny thing happened during seminary: the more I got to know the church, the more I loved her. I had no ecclesiological background except for bashing the church and arguing against those who defended the church. I arrogantly elevated parachurch organizations above local fellowships and couldn’t be convinced otherwise, despite loving encouragement from a couple close friends.
But things changed once I committed to the relationship. Influenced by a number of theologians and authors, I stopped dating the church (Harris), committed to being a healthy church member (Anyabwile), came to understand God’s plan to display His glory through the church (Dever), saw the importance of the church in the mission of God (Keller), and developed my doctrinal understanding of the ecclesia (Clowney; Horrell). I realized that contra my individualism, Jesus was saying, “I haven’t come for only you // But for My people to pursue // And you cannot care for Me with no regard for her // If you love Me you will love the church” (Webb).
A breakthrough moment for me came when a number of my peers and younger men I was discipling started leaving the church where my wife and I were members. Some were leaving for good reasons (e.g., geography) but others for not so good reasons (e.g., music preferences). I found myself not only loving the church but also defending her. I never thought I’d be an apologist for local church membership and commitment.
Through this whole process, I felt the need for how we gather together on Sunday to be a part of the discipleship process. It was really a spur-of-the-moment epiphany for me.
A close friend of mine was sitting in my living room, complaining about various aspects of church. I was getting more and more fed up since I had been in this conversation on an average of 28.6 times a week. He elaborated: “There’s no community; you just can’t get to know people in a big church.”
“You’re wrong,” I blurted out. I’m not sure why I offered up that unsolicited evaluation for my friend, but I did so nonetheless and figured I’d just roll with it.
“Can I challenge that statement? Let’s do this: on Sunday, let’s go to church together. You can pick the service [there were three from which to choose], we’ll walk in with each other, and between the car and the sanctuary, I promise you that I’ll introduce you to 20 people by name.”
I just picked the number 20 out of the air. It was never a goal of mine to be able to complete such a feat; I wasn’t building towards knowing 20 names between my Jeep and my seat, but I felt confident in my ability to deliver. In reality, I probably could have introduced my friend to closer to 40 people.
He got the point. And the point wasn’t to impress him; the point was to instruct him. “Do you know how I came to know all of these people?” I asked. He stared back at me. “It wasn’t by coming to church late, leaving early, and refusing to get in a small group.”
Invested & Intentional in the Church
I learned a great truth through this church challenge: we desperately need to disciple people through how to go to church. In the vast catalogue of areas of life and truth transference that are needed in discipleship is simply helping someone think through what it looks like to gather together with other believers in a helpful and mature manner. I fear this is too often neglected in our relationships with younger men and younger women.
Thus, when I’m asked about the topic of discipleship in the church, I’ve found it helpful to speak of (1) Investing in Your Local Church and (2) Intentionality in Your Local Church.
First, we need to be invested in a local church. The local gathering of believers is very important. I need to be a part of a community where I can know and be known. I need to be a part of a family that will shepherd me back to health if I wander and de-fellowship me if I go off the rails.
There is a sense in which the church is a global entity (e.g., Eph 5:25), but we see it more commonly in the NT as a local gathering (e.g., 1 Cor 1:2)—the church scattered and the church gathered, as some have phrased it.
If we don’t have a healthy view of church in this local, gathered sense, how can we obey Hebrews 13:17 where we are told to obey and submit to our leaders? How will our leaders know the people for whom they will one day have to give an account? Who are the elders we are to respect in 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13? Who are the specific men considered worthy of double honor in 1 Timothy 5:17?
If we don’t have a healthy view of church in this local, gathered sense, how can we live out the model of restoration that we see in Matthew 18:15-17 where we see the church disciplining its members?
If we don’t have a healthy view of church in this local, gathered sense, how can we make sense of a passage like 1 Corinthians 5:12-13 where someone is put “out of the church?” How can someone be put out of a nebulous, global, invisible entity? They can’t.
If we don’t have a healthy view of church in this local, gathered sense, who are “those among us” that we are to go after in James 5:19-20?
Second, we need to be intentional in a local church. Three things that have been a helpful reminder for me are to do what your church does, build relationships, and create an atmosphere.
Do what your church does. I often have conversations with guys who lament, “My church just doesn’t get it! I’m the only one who wants to do _______” (fill in the blank with small groups, community groups, cell groups, missional communities, Sunday school, etc). They go to a conference, complete a training program, or read a blog post and now want to clean shop and crack some skulls at their church. Bad idea. Exist within your church’s system for spiritual growth. Even if it’s not perfect, be the most faithful and transformative person in that system. If structural, systemic changes do need to be made (as they often do), you need to be the change first.
Build relationships at your church. Get to know people above, below, and beside you. Those “above” are older, more mature Christians who can pour into your life. Make sure you find some sages to live out Titus 2 with you and invest in your growth. Those “below” you are folks that are a life-stage or two behind you. You need to be the sage in their life and live out Titus 2 with them. Those “beside” you are peers with whom you also need to be living out the “one anothers” of Scripture. Do each other good spiritually as you walk side-by-side in this mutual season of life.
Create an atmosphere at your church. You might also call this an expectation at your church. The churches I’ve encountered that seem to “do the best” (whatever that means) at discipleship are the churches for whom discipleship is a culture, atmosphere, or expectation and not the churches where it is merely a program, class, or sermon series. It should be the normal thing for Christians to gather in homes to study the Bible together. It should be normal to inquire how someone came to know Jesus or what God is doing in their life recently or what they’re praying about and/or struggling with these days.
You don’t have to get permission to start loving other church members this way and you don’t need a formalized program to see it take root. Create an atmosphere of healthy discipleship at your church and watch Jesus do some amazing things as He grows, matures, and shapes his Bride.
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Jason Seville is the Director of Emerging Leaders for Downline Ministries, Chief Editor of "Downline Builder: Customizable Curriculum for Biblical Discipleship," and a church-planting resident with Fellowship Associates.
[This originally appeared at Downline Ministries.]
5 Ways to Landscape Your Heart
Over the last few weekends, I've been putting some muscle and sweat into the front yard of our home. The north portion of our front lawn has been a dust bowl and weed-breading ground over the last two summers, and the time came to put down a real lawn that will not be despised by myself and all our neighbors. According to the experts, fall is the perfect time to seed your lawn and get it ready for next spring. It's been a big task.
While seeding my lawn, I was inspired by how it relates to the work on the soil of my heart. In fact, there is an immediate parable or correlation between yard work and heart work. Here are five ways that we can landscape our heart.
1. Kill Off the Old
The work of replanting the lawn begins with the killing off of the old yard. My lawn was fertile place for every sort of dandelion, crabgrass, thorny vine, thistle, and bare patch known to man. Weeds, rocks, old grass, and all sorts of craziness had embedded itself in my front yard. To begin the process of a lawn redo, I had to kill off all the old growth. So I spent an entire day spraying the lawn with some pretty potent Round Up. Everything had to be dead and ready for removal.
In doing heart work, the starting place is the same. Killing off the old, deathly weeds of the heart. Paul spoke of this work as a putting to death what is earthly in you (Colossians 3:5). It is a matter of seeing that which is contrary to the Law of God, being repulsed by it and going to work in confessing, rejecting, and forsaking these sins. The Law of God is a helpful "Round Up" for us because it shows us that we are sinners. God's good and helpful Law exposes the sin in our hearts and make us realize just how far we are from him. Yet killing off isn't just acknowledgement that there is sin in our lives, it is rejecting and forsaking it as well. It must be removed.
Do we desire the roots of bitterness to grow in our hearts? Do we long for lust and sensuality to overcome our hearts so that we cannot perceive others with the dignity and worth that God gives them? Are we eager for the love of money so much so that we cannot rightly give and sacrifice for the advancement of a greater Kingdom and King? Unless we are repulsed by the sin of our hearts, we won't go to work in killing it off. We must hold our hearts up to the Law of God to see our sin, loathe it, and by repentance put it to death.
2. Make the Soil Ready
Killing off sin isn't the only step we must take, although it is a necessary step. Even though my front yard had become a brown and crisp deathbed of weeds and grass, it still wasn't at a place where new growth and life could emerge. I had to put some muscle into the yard and remove all the old growth. As I removed what was dead and decaying, I also had to till and break up the soil. It had to be ready to receive the new and better seed. I don't necessarily symbolize what many would consider a strong man, so spending an entire weekend raking and digging up the dead grass and weeds was a difficult task. Thankfully, I had a few friends come and help me dig up and remove what was unnecessary or harmful in the area we were landscaping.
For many of us, preparation of the soil is best done in community. Not just in landscaping, but in heart work as well. I needed the manpower of my friends (and the truck power) to remove stumps, thorny bushes, and all sorts of vines and weeds to accomplish the task in a reasonable amount of time.
The heart work of dealing with our sin requires a good tilling, as well. Not only are we removing what is dead, but we must prepare the soil of our hearts for what is life-giving. In heart work this is often found in a few ways. First, we must create space for the gospel to be received. It may seem obvious, but if there is no dedicated room for our hearts to receive the good seed of God's word, we won't grow. A helpful practice is to set aside both time and place for heart work. If it has been some time since you've done serious heart work, taking a day out to cultivate the soil of your heart will be helpful. If nothing else, take a specific time daily to cultivate your heart.
Secondly, do this in community. Many prefer to do this sort of heart work alone and "get away" like a medieval monk for introspection and silence. That may be helpful to a degree, but I believe that the job is done even better with friends. Just as I needed my friends to make the soil work more accessible, so I need faithful friends to help do the work of cultivating my heart for the sake of Jesus. Sometimes we don't know where the sinful areas of our heart lie. We aren't aware of the imbedded stumps of pride and bitterness. We can't see (or feel) the thorns of distention and division in our lives. We can't pick out why that certain destructive vine of greed will kill everything. But our gospel-minded friends see it, and they can help expose and remove it. We need their community and fellowship to remove the sin of our hearts and prepare the soil of for the life-giving nourishment of the gospel.
We should set aside time to cultivate our hearts by engaging in gospel communities. Such people will lovingly hold up the Law and call us to repentance, helping ready the soil of our hearts for the planting of new and better seed.
3. Scatter the Seed
Killing and tilling is a good start in dealing with the restoration of a suburban lawn, but we can't stop there. Left to itself, the lawn would return to the pathetic weedy, thorn-and-thistle-producing lawn it had always been. If I want my lawn to produce a nice, lush space of grass, I have to actually put grass seed down. Contrary to my childhood beliefs, grass doesn't grow up from the center of the earth. So obviously I had to get the seed and distribute it on my patch of ground that at this point was merely a barren space of dirt. Even finding the right seed is important. Everyone who has experience doing this told me to get the "99.9% weed-free" fescue, otherwise I'd be back at steps one and two next year.
The process here was fairly simple. Put the seed in the spreader and go for a walk all over my future lawn. Distribute the seed everywhere and abundantly. Honestly this was my favorite part of the whole job.
Heart work requires the same sort of distribution and application. Lest we stick in the morbid work of mortification and exposure under the Law, we will become discouraged and despairing. We need a thorough and frequent application of the gospel to our hearts. Let me be clear here, the seed that we need is the gospel word found in the Scriptures. The "99.9% weed-free" application is the 100% infallible Word of God. We must apply the Word frequently and thoroughly.
Make it your aim to be in the Scriptures often, looking to Jesus and letting the life of the gospel cover your heart. Walk in every space of your heart and look to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus for your life! Listen to the laments of the Psalms, the warning of the Prophets, the exhortations of the Epistles, the wisdom of the Proverbs, which will all point to the good news of Jesus over and over and over in your heart. Let his life-giving Word cover every area of your life and heart. Scatter the seed of the gospel-word everywhere. Pray and say, "I believe, help my unbelief!"
4. Supplement with Life-giving Nutrients
The ground has been prepared and the seed laid, and now we can anticipate a great yard coming in the spring. At least, that is the expectation. Most lawn-care experts, however, will tell you to supplement what's already been done. My plot of earth has some exceptional topsoil and I am sure that the grass seed will do fine. But I need to water and fertilize the seed that has been planted. So, I have my sprinkler system dialed in to deliver a fresh covering of water twice a day. After laying the seed I walked around the yard one more time with a starter fertilizer to help nourish the soil, move out any remaining weeds, and give some supplement to the seed that had been laid.
Some might have their religious radar going on red-alert at this point because of my potential heresy. I'm not saying that the Word of God needs any addition or supplement to make it better. Nor am I saying that the life-seed of the gospel is deficient and in need of a boost or it won't flourish. What I am pointing out is that these supplemental practices are helpful for maximum growth. The fescue seed in my yard is sufficient in and of itself to produce a nice, healthy lawn. But its growth is aided by the resourcing of water and fertilizer to strengthen the good that is already laid.
Our hearts will benefit from the supplementation of life-supporting resources to aid in our growth. Engaging in community with others is similar to watering the seed of the gospel. Not only does our community help us expose the sins of our hearts, but they also nourish and engage the gospel-Word in our life to help it grow. Community that only exposes sin and calls for repentance forgets the goodness of the gospel and is a terror to be a part of (consider why so many "accountability groups" are really liars clubs of self-righteousness). We need to engage a community of grace to remind and "fertilize" that grace within us. Gathering with others who will hold up the Law and then the gospel will cause the seed of that good news to flourish in our hearts. Paul shared exactly what this looks like by saying, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God" (Colossians 3:16).
Supplemental reading outside of the Scripture from faithful Christians is also a way to build on and benefit from the implanted Word in your heart. Books, both old and new, that reveal the glory of Christ, the depth of the gospel, and the nature of God will help us grow in the gospel. Sites such as this one are helpful places to consider gospel-centered life and discipleship. Reading through and reflecting from these sources are helpful ways to support and engage the growth of the gospel in our hearts. Be reminded, however, that these are not the life-giving gospel growth that we desire to see. They are merely the water and fertilizer to help the gospel grow. The gospel must be planted first.
5. Be Patient
My son has been an observer and somewhat causal worker with me in this whole process. After I finished fertilizing and watering the lawn yesterday, he asked me where the grass was. The next morning, he was still disappointed to see that no grass had come up in the spots we had planted. Where he longs to see immediate and verifiable results in my work on the lawn, I know it will be a few weeks before anything shows.
So it can be with heart work. We will long to see immediate growth and depth come from our labors of mortification and gospel planting. Certainly, we can expect to see some difference immediately. My lawn today looks nothing like it did a month ago. In some ways it might look worse. However, the growth of the seed will happen. And in the same way the growth of the gospel will occur, too. As we are faithful to work diligently by faith in exposing, killing, implanting, and watering the gospel into our hearts, so the Holy Spirit is faithful to bring the growth we long to see. In some cases it might be immediate, like a heart-change from an addiction or besetting sin. In some cases it might be a long obedience that takes time.
I encourage you to be patient. Continue to do the work of cultivating the heart in the gospel, and ask for the Lord to give evidences of growth and grace. Seek Christ as the source of your life and look for the growth of the gospel patiently. By cultivating the gospel in your heart the person you will be in three years will be different than the person you are today. And like the grass that is (hopefully) growing now in my front yard, the progress will be incremental, almost invisible, but it will be there. Lay hold of the fruit of the Spirit in patience and look for a harvest of gospel-life as you seek Christ.
Landscaping As Heart-scaping
It's no wonder to me that Jesus used agricultural metaphors and parables in teaching about heart work. There is much similarity in the process of death, removal, preparation, planting, and watering. As a pastor I don't often do lawn work, in fact I'd rather do just about anything else. Yet, by looking to best practices for the growth of natural things, we can discern some steps for cultivating the gospel within our hearts for growth. It seems that the "organic" growth of grass within the ground really points to the supernatural growth of Christ within our hearts. By faith, with the empowerment of the Spirit may we move forward into doing the work of heart-scaping so that the gospel may grow and flourish and be an abundant and glorious display of God's grace in our lives.
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Jeremy Writebol(@jwritebol) has been training leaders in the church for over thirteen years. He is the author of everPresent: How the Gospel Relocates Us in the Present (GCD Books, 2014) and writes at jwritebol.net. He lives and works in Plymouth, MI as the Campus Pastor of Woodside Bible Church.
4 Anchors of Repentance
Repentance is a big deal. You’ve probably heard that. It’s a motif in Scripture that you absolutely cannot avoid. We often create terminology, systems, or routines that help to motivate and remind us to regularly repent because we see its importance. This surely isn’t bad. However, complicated theological definitions and white-knuckled systems often lead to a dry, mechanical, lifeless interaction with God. This, of course, is bad.
The most common definition of repentance that I have heard is to turn from your sin and to Jesus. This is a helpful definition, but if we let a definition drive our repentance, it isn’t really repentance. So, what drives repentance? What type of repentance is truly biblical? The scope of this question is deep and wide, but there are four foundational aspects of biblical repentance: biblical repentance is from God, centered on God, produces life-giving joy, and should be sought in community.
1. Biblical Repentance Is from God
If we look at Psalm 130, we see the Psalmist waiting, seeking, and needing God. It seems as if, without God, there is no hope. Biblical repentance starts with God. The Psalmist later cries out in the midst of repentance saying, “Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me” (Ps. 51:11). David knows that there is no hope for repentance outside of the Holy Spirit’s leading. He is petitioning God to grant him forgiveness. We also witness Paul encourage Timothy to correct his opponents with gentleness, so that “God may perhaps grant them repentance” (2 Tim. 2:25).
Biblical repentance is initiated by God. How is this helpful? If God grants repentance, then we have no need to fake it. That doesn’t mean we give ourselves over to sin while we wait for God to grant repentance. Surely if your heart heads in that direction, there is cause for concern. But, the truth that God grants repentance should drive us to seek him earnestly. Instead of settling for going through some routine, we ask the God of the universe to brake our hearts over our sin. Scripture also encourages us to “draw near to the throne of grace with confidence” (Heb. 4:16). God is willing and able not only to respond, but to give generously.
Why does appealing to God often feel difficult? Perhaps it’s because we want God to zap us from a distance rather than seek him in the midst of disobedience. Our mechanical, humdrum repentance is dry because we don’t want to be intimate with God. We have blown it, perhaps for the thousandth time, and facing the most offended Person is unbelievably humbling. But in this, we have forgotten another aspect of biblical repentance. We are told that not only should we approach God with confidence, but that “God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance” (Rom 2:4).
We don’t seek God for repentance because we are good, but because he is good. David’s opening cry in Psalm 51 rings with desperation, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgression.” David bases his plea on God’s mercy.
Jesus’s words remind us ever-so-clearly that we need God’s mercy. Consider the parable to those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous while treating others with contempt:
“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:9-14)
We tend resemble the tax collector at times when things go badly. But does the rhythm of our lives consistently communicate the same need for mercy? Do you more often resemble the Pharisee, bartering with God based on your own deeds? You go to church, tithe, read Christian blogs, and even share the gospel at times. Those these things are right and good, they do not necessarily mirror a heart seeking after the God who grants forgiveness.
Entitlement to grace creeps into our life subtly. It's an insidious disease. One way entitlement manifests in our lives is blaming God for our sin. Have you ever said, “God I do all of this stuff for you, why have you not saved me from ______ sin.” Maybe we don’t say it in those words, but we know that God has the power to help overcome any sin, and yet he hasn’t. Entitlement rears its ugly head.
We must remember that our repentance will be maturing until we go on to glory. Holy Spirit led, God-centered, life-giving, joyful repentance is a gift you continue to discover for the rest of your life. And the good news is that God wants to give it to you.
2. Biblical Repentance Is God-Centered
In Psalm 51, David also laments, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment” (Ps. 51:4).
At times, our repentance can be centered on everything but God. If we were to think of repentance as a play, then God is the main character while sin, ourselves, and others play supporting roles. However, we are often grieved over our sin because we are tired of being the guy that struggles with porn or the mom that blows up at her kids. Sometimes we don’t like when relationships are off or that our workplace or church has issues. Our response is to try and make everything right again, but this will get us nowhere.
In these situations, we should join in with David, recalling that our sin can only be called sin because God himself declares what is holy and what is not. People are affected, no doubt, but God is always the most offended. In repentance, we have the obligation to going before the most offended party and acknowledging our guilt without excuse. If repentance isn’t God-centered, we can give him a token apology while avoiding facing the depth of our sin. Unfortunately, this causes us to miss enjoying the most abundant, heavenly pardon ever offered: our sin for the Son’s perfect righteousness. Jesus righteousness feels most undeserved when we are aware of our sin, and our heart rejoices most deeply when God is at the center of our repentance. Our joy in repentance is intimately intertwined with God’s work to crush sin for the glory of his name. He reminds us in Isaiah:
“For my name's sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.” (Is. 48:9-11)
3. Biblical Repentance Leads to Life-Giving Joy
Repentance should lead to joy, as Scripture often reminds us. For example:
“For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death” (2 Cor. 7:10).
“Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice” (Ps. 51:8).
“Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit” (Ps. 51:12).
Taking our sin seriously and experiencing the joy of repentance can and should come in many forms. Surely we have had times where our brokenness over sin has led to genuine godly grief and tears have flowed. But there are often times genuine repentance takes place in the midst of ordinary life.
Here is a brief personal vignette:
I have some friends that raise chickens. One night, they were telling us about the death of a chicken and my buddy mentioned that chickens will often pluck the eyes out of their dead counterparts. He even said as a joke that if you lied down out there, they would pluck your eyes out. My young son, Wyatt, loves the chickens.
I was at work remembering the conversation with my friend and realizing my son was over at their house. I had the ridiculous picture of my son lying down near the chickens and getting his eyes plucked out. I realize this sounds quite silly, but it caused real anxiety in me. I called my wife and couldn’t get in touch with her. I was going to have her check on Wyatt’s eyes. Then the Lord brought to mind a struggle of mine.
I have realized more and more that I struggle to trust God with my kids. I often feel the need to over-control situations because, frankly, I don’t trust God. I happen to be dwelling on Psalm 130 that week, and I remembered the Psalmist exhortation at the end: “O Israel, hope in the Lord!” I then began tell myself, “Jake, hope in the Lord!” A sweet joy came over my heart as I ventured from lies to truth, sinful disobedience to Spirit-led obedience.
This is a picture of repentance in the everyday rhythm of life. If we are to be more consistent and genuine in our repentance, we must realize God grants this gift in many different forms, although the substance is the same. Whether at church, at home, at work, or anywhere else, joy can be had if we simply focus on the One who offers it to us.
4. Biblical Repentance Is Sought in Community
It’s important to note that these three aspects of repentance should not be sought alone. There is great joy in seeing a sister who has been asking God to mold her into the image of his Son come to the place of repentance. Joy abounds. It’s beautiful to be a part of a community where people don’t just talk about some abstract theology of repentance, but who actually point each other to the God who grants repentance. As with most things, it is hard to be a pointer if you aren’t a practitioner. But as you swim in the abundant grace available for you in repentance, your spirit will be renewed.
As we walk through the highs and lows of life with others, we shouldn’t feel a heavy burden to “fix” them our make sure they “get it.” We continually walk humbly with them, trusting them to the only One who is able to save. The Psalms are very helpful in this regard. We see men experiencing and interacting with God. We don’t merely want people to see their sin; we want them to see their sin in relationship to a holy, forgiving God.
Repentance is not simply an individual affair. Repentance experienced in community allows us to share in each other’s joy and marvel at God’s good grace. So take heart, and seek him for the gift of repentance. May the Spirit blow a fresh wind into your soul. And may you have the courage to share it with others.
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Jake Ledet is Pastor of Discipleship at CityView Church. He lives in Texas with his wife and two kids. Connect with him on Twitter: @JakeLedet.
How Faith Affects Our Work
I’ve had some busy people pick up Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work, look at the subtitle, and ask: “OK, so, in a nutshell, how does God’s work connect to our work?” Always a good exercise for an author, to be asked to explain your book in just a few minutes! Here are four ways Christian faith influences and shapes our work.
1. Faith Gives Us a Moral Compass
First, the Christian faith gives us a moral compass, an inner GPS giving us ethical guidance that takes us beyond merely the legal aspects or requirements in any situation. A Christian on the board of a major financial institution—recently publicly embarrassed by revelations of corruption—told me about a closed door meeting there between top executives. Someone said, “We have to restore moral values.” Immediately someone asked, “Whose values? Who gets to define what is moral?” And there’s our problem.
There once was a habitus of broadly felt moral intuitions that governed much behavior in our society. It went well beyond the legal. Much of the ruthlessness, the lack of transparency, and lack of integrity that characterizes the marketplace and many other professions today come because consensus on those moral intuitions has collapsed. But Christians working in those worlds do have solid ethical guidance and could address through personal example the values-vacuum that has now been recognized by so many.
2. Faith Gives Us a New Spiritual Power
Second, your Christian faith gives you a new spiritual power, an inner gyroscope, that keeps you from being overthrown by either success, failure, or boredom. Regarding success and failure, the gospel helps Christians find their deepest identity not in our accomplishments but who we are in Christ. This keeps our egos from inflating too much during seasons of prosperity, and it prevents bitterness and despondency during times of adversity.
But while some jobs seduce us into over-work and anxiety, others tempt us to surrender to drudgery, only “working for the weekend,” doing just what is necessary to get by when someone is watching. Paul calls that “eye-service” (Colossians 3:22–24) and charges us to think of every job as working for God, who sees everything and loves us. That makes high-pressure jobs bearable and even the most modest work meaningful.
3. Faith Gives Us a New Conception of Work
Third, the Christian faith gives us a new conception of work as the means by which God loves and cares for his world through us. Look at the places in the Bible that say that God gives every person their food. How does God do that? It is through human work—from the simplest farm girl milking the cows to the truck driver bringing produce to market to the local grocer. God could feed us directly but he chooses to do it through work. There are three important implications of this.
First, it means all work, even the most menial tasks, has great dignity. In our work we are God’s hands and fingers, sustaining and caring for his world. Secondly, it means one of the main ways to please God in our work is simply to do work well. Some have called this “the ministry of competence.” What passengers need first from an airline pilot is not that she speaks to them about Jesus but that she is a great, skillful pilot. Third, this means that Christians can and must have deep appreciation for the work of those who work skillfully but do not share our beliefs.
4. Faith Gives Us a New World-and-Life View
Fourth, the Christian faith gives us a new world-and-life view that shapes the character of our work. All well-done work that serves the good of human beings pleases God. But what exactly is “the common good”? There are many work tasks that do not require us to reflect too much on that question.
All human beings need to eat, and so raising and providing food serves people well. But what if you are an elementary school teacher, or a playwright? What is good education (i.e. what should you be teaching children)? What kinds of plays should you write (i.e. what kinds of stories do people need)? The answers to these questions will depend largely on how you answer more fundamental questions—what is the purpose of human life? What is life about? What does a good human life look like? It is unavoidable that many jobs will be shaped by our conscious or semi-conscious beliefs about those issues. So, finally, a Christian must think out how his or her faith will distinctly shape their work.
How wonderful that the gospel works on every aspect of us—mind, will, and feelings—and enables us to both deeply appreciate the work of non-believers and yet aspire to work in unique ways as believers. Putting all of these four aspects together, we see that being a Christian leads us to see our work not as merely a way to earn money, nor as primarily a means of personal advancement, but a truly a calling—to serve God and love our neighbor.
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Timothy Keller is the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, which he started in 1989 with his wife, Kathy, and three young sons. Dr. Keller’s books, including the New York Times bestselling The Reason for God and The Prodigal God, have sold over 1 million copies and been translated into 15 languages. Follow him on Twitter: @timkellernyc.
[This was originally posted at Redeemer City to City and is used here with permission from the author.]
Sabotaging Your Kingdom
There are ambitions which silently attach themselves to those of us who are participating in the work of the Kingdom of God. The desire to be known. To be recognized. To be wanted. To be in demand. To make a name for yourself. To have a calendar full of important speaking engagements. We each indulge our favorite flavor. And often we think we’re helping Jesus out when we do it.
With the same effect of a succulent burger ad, we salivate. Then we order “it.” We order to get what we saw the happy, successful Kingdom-workers enjoying. Then we pay for it. We justify a real sacrifice to get what others have and we want. Then we open the box. We encounter a disparity between the mess we’ve ordered and are experiencing and what was seductively held up to us through someone else’s life.
Two years ago, in the middle of my self-created busyness and self-supposed importance, I realized how desperately I was straining to be known. I was confronted with the reality that all of the “Kingdom” work I was doing was really a convenient front for another empire I was building. My own.
In his book, Sensing Jesus, Zach Eswine recounts a jolt he received from a mentor (p. 243):
Bob looked at me.
‘Zachary’, he said, ‘You are already discovered.’
‘What?’ I asked.
‘I want you to know that you are already discovered. Jesus already knows you. You are already loved, already gifted, already known.’
Is that enough for us? To be known by Jesus? If you and I are never “discovered,” will our hearts survive?
Although this temptation is greatly pronounced in our modern evangelical celebrity culture, it is not a new problem. The Apostle Paul observed the same sin in the church while he sat in a Philippian jail. “Some preach Jesus out of rivalry and envy” (Phil 1:15). Paul was aware that many used the Kingdom of God as a platform to serve a more personal agenda – the kingdom of self.
I confess the sickness of my own heart and am disgusted by the surfacing of these motives in it. I’ve begun to wonder, “How can I destroy my kingdom? What measures must I take to keep my intentions and affections in check?”
Well, here are three habits I’ve begun to cultivate in response to this tension. In many ways these practices have the power to help us “seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.”
1. Cultivate a Skepticism Towards Your Use of Social Media and Entertainment
I was about to drop the name of an impressive leader with whom I’d met to another impressive individual with whom I was tweeting. It was relevant to our conversation on international church planting trends. Though just before firing off the message, I realized the pride that was embedded in it. I didn’t send the message.
I’m fascinated by how social media affects our daily lives. People now sleep with their smart phones. I would never do that! I just kept it on my nightstand for a while, and during that time the first thing I would do in the morning is check my Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail. You might feel that’s bad. Or you might feel it’s acceptable. I’m not interested in the verdict. I’m primarily intrigued by what my behavior tells me about my heart. What is it that drives the average American to check their smart phone 150 times a day?
In a real sense, we are tempted by a desire for omnipresence. Social media propagates the idea that we can be in more than one place at the same time. The idea that I can maintain the awareness of what 900 “friends” are up to indulges the illusion of real engagement with their lives. I can like a status. Or try to post a status or picture that will compel others to engage with me through clicking “like.” Resultantly, many sociologists have observed that social media leads to more interactions – but not more meaningful interactions.
My love for TV furthers my desire for omniscience. When my son crashes around 9 p.m. or so, my wife and I use all the energy left in our bodies to drag ourselves onto the couch. We then transport ourselves to the wilderness of Alaska. Or into a crowd watching America’s favorite dancers. We become part of an exciting auction. For a moment, we aren’t full-time working, toddler-worn parents. We are in a different place and part of a different story.
I’m not condemning social media or TV, but I do want to cultivate a healthy skepticism for my use of both. What does the frequency of your social media usage say about your heart? What does your compulsive need to rest via TV say about your soul?
2. Combat Boredom by Embracing the Ordinary and Mundane
G.K. Chesterton has said that we must learn to “exult in monotony.” Why? If the ordinary moments of life are not deserving of celebration, then life itself is not worthy of being lived. The essence of boredom is discontentment with “what is” and a desire to be somewhere else, doing something else. This state of being indicates that we do not yet possess gratitude for our lives. We haven’t yet absorbed the simple weight of what it means to be able to change diapers, pay taxes, and put in contact lenses.
“For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike, it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never gotten tired of making them.”[6]
What would it mean to oppose your boredom for the sin that hides beneath it? How might you and I come to celebrate those moments that leave us wishing we were present in another place and time? Perhaps, we were made to live like Jesus in life’s most simple moments. The Son of Man built stuff with wood in Nazareth for two decades. Perhaps, this is the kind of life Paul had in view when he said that we should seek to lead, “a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (1 Tm 2:2). If something in your soul recoils at this prospect, what is that part of you?
German theologian, Jurgen Moltmann, observed, “The knowledge of the cross brings a conflict of interest between God who has become man and man who wishes to become God.” The incarnation speaks to the astonishing reality that God was willing to become “one of us.” Furthermore, the Son became the very best “one of us” who ever lived. The Son was the most fully human human being who has ever been. He relinquished the benefits of his membership in the Trinity so that he could live life as you and I.
But the ironic tension Moltmann noted is that although God descended to be with us, our universal desire is to ascend to the place of God. In many ways, I deny the limits of my humanity and posture myself as divine.
If the most human human being experienced life the way it was intended to be by occupying one place (an obscure and impoverished town) and simply “being there,” what can that teach us about embracing the glamour-less moments and places we tend to despise in our lives?
3. Remain Aware of What Your Worship is Doing
My sin causes me to love the wrong things. I am a “desiring being.” I have cravings that actually shape my entire person. These “wants” form me, rippling out from the core of my being and driving my thoughts, will, emotions, and behavior. This is what it means to be a worshiper. I am always worshiping and must remain conscious of what my heart is treasuring.
I must constantly ask myself, “What am I looking for right now? What is it that I most deeply want?” Sometimes it may be important to even ask a layer beneath that, “I crave acknowledgement. Why do I want that acknowledgement? What am I hoping it will do for me?”
Conversing with the Father after viewing both him and ourselves in the mirror of Scripture leads us to pray, “Your Kingdom come.” And when we pray with this heart, we are killing our own kingdoms.
There are moments I sit quietly with the Father, unable to offer my Creator any kind of adoration. I remain silent, wondering why I can’t piece together some string of affection that would communicate a perception of his worth. And then I realize why I can’t. I can’t worship God because I am simultaneously pouring out my heart to something else. There’s something that I want more than him. There is some good “second thing” that I have enthroned as my ultimate thing.
And then I have to do something even more pathetic. I must ask God to change what I want. The convenience of more superficial sanctification is that I can change myself. I can modify my behavior. I can filter my thoughts and words. But I am powerless to change what my heart wants. Only God can do that for me.
Conclusion
If your inner traitor is as sneaky as mine, then it’s almost certain there is a way in which you’ve been secretly siphoning off glory intended for God and stockpiling it for yourself.
There’s an impending rationale for why each of us must halt construction of our personal kingdoms immediately. One day, Jesus will take possession of the kingdoms of this world. He will set up his rule on Earth, and it will never end. You and I will sit under his rule as willing captives to his unmatchable radiance.
Then for many of us, the tears of regret will come. On that day, we will wish we could relive each hour we spent preoccupied with building our own kingdoms. Jesus will then wipe away tears of regret.
With the vision of the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven in mind, let’s skip back a few scenes. Skip back to right now. Invite God to help you sabotage your kingdom so that you can begin to truly live in his. It’s not a kingdom where you rule. It’s a better and enduring empire.
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Sean Post resides with His wife and son in Maple Valley, WA. He serves as Academic Dean for Adelphia Bible School - a one-year Bible and mission immersion experience for young adults. Sean is also a leadership coach, doctoral student, book-lover, and a has-been basketballer. Twitter: @Sean_Post
Character is Different Than We Think
One of my mentors says: "80% of life is character development." Most of us want it the other way. We want our first 20 years to be about 'growing up' and the rest of life to be about successful leadership, disciple making, movement building, and world changing. We think that we can master the character stuff by the end of college, and then take on the world. Then, we find ourselves in our 30s learning all over again what it means to be humble, when our dreams don't come to fruition and we fail at changing the world. In our 40s, when our work becomes difficult and monotonous, we have to learn afresh what faithfulness means. The older we get, the more we see of our need to learn the basics: humility, self-control, perseverance, love, wisdom, generosity. Life teaches us we know nothing about those things. Hardships remind us we don't have life figured out.
We are faced with two choices: proceed unchanged or press into the character journey. You know what not changing looks like, but what about character change? In the character journey we re-learn the gospel. We cling to God. We realize that God is working all things together for our good. It just doesn't look like the good we want; it looks even better: conformity into the image of the Son (Romans 8:28-29). In the midst of the struggles, God has been transforming our character as much as he has been using us to transform the world. We want God to work through us, but he is doing just as much work in us.
Character is Different Than We Think.
Often we get into the mindset that we are transforming ourselves at one thing or level at a time. For example we might think: first we master humility , then we start working on generosity, then we pursue faithfulness, all the while getting closer to the 'goal.' Essentially, we think we are moving up the character ladder. However, the character journey is actual a constant process. Christ not only redeems us, giving the status of righteousness, but also begins to transform our core. It is more like a path we walk with him than a ladder we climb to be like him. Each day we are learning many new things about who we are in Christ and how to live and we are learning old things all over again. Each day we realize that Christ has changed who we are, and is changing how we live. His divine power is giving us everything we need for a godly life. These qualities are ours and are increasing.
His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. - 2 Peter 1:3-8
The character journey is like climbing a mountain, painting a picture, or earning a college degree. It not only requires process, it is process.
Who You Are And How You Live
Character is the collision of who you are and how you live. There is an unmistakable connection to what we believe and what we do, and who we are and how we act. Everyone has character. Most of us arrive at a personal identity and a personal way of life opposed to and absent from Christ. We live out of a false perception identity based on who our parents say we are, what our teachers, peers, or even culture says we are. We are told we are sexual beings who's urges must be satisfied, and so we act on those. We are told we are the best and most important being in the world. Therefore, look out for #1, and we do just that. We may even base our personal identity and way of life on 'churchy' things. For example, we are good people, raised in a good home, who know the truth, so we should read our Bibles, pray, tell the truth, tithe, and say hello to strangers. We begin with a false understanding of who we are and move forward with wrong living and deceived hearts. Mostly our deceit is in our thinking we can decide what is good and right for ourselves. That we, on our own, are living an abundant and good life. When we fall on our faces, we simply muster up enough strength, or attempt to change our circumstances enough, to change ourselves.
Personally, I think of myself as a missional expert. "I know how to start and lead missional communities and can do it better than anyone," I say to my deceived self. This belief leads to a new legalism instead of new character. It is a legalism or self-justification around inviting neighbors to dinner, doing something every night with community, serving every Saturday, throwing a party every holiday, and sharing the gospel not out of love and belief but out of a duty to accomplish the mission. This is not the picture of godly living or transformed character we found in 2 Peter. This is a lie-filled identity and false actions. I'm not becoming more like Christ, I'm just becoming more exhausted.
Character transormation is actually found in a life lived close to God. It is in a God informed identity that our core is transformed, conformed, renewed, and recreated into his image. Character change is a redoing and repairing of a destruction from long ago. When Adam sinned, our relationship was broken with God. We, humanity, stopped walking with God. In fact, we rejected God. When we sin, we are acting different from God: distinctively selfish and prideful. The character journey is where Christ decisively transforms us into selfless and humble humans in relationship with God and others. God conforms us into his image. New identity and new way to live. This is exactly what Peter is talking about in his letter:
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. - 1 Peter 2:9-12
God has made us a people, a holy, special, chosen, and mercy received people. I am not a missional expert, I'm God's special possession. How much better is that! It is with this identity that we are called to abstain and live good lives. In the end, as Peter writes, the character journey isn't even about you. It is not for the sake of improved leadership, or for the sake of success in the Kingdom, it is for Christ's sake. It is Christ's work in us. It is for his glory.
What sort of "lessons" will be learned on the Character Journey?
What can you expect from embracing a life of change not only in who you are but how you live?
- You can trust that God is good and nothing but pure joy exists in that trust. You see his good character everywhere. You trust he is concerned for you. You trust he is good at being in control.
- Persistence is possible because of God's faithfulness. We continue down difficult paths because all we see is how abundantly gracious God is every morning and evening.
- Weakness is strength. You will depend on God for everything. You will rely on the Spirit for the words to pray and preach. Rely on God to counsel the messy and be a husband or wife. You will come to a place where you regularly pray: "I don't know how and I know I can't. God empower me and walk with me. Please give me grace to do this thing beyond me."
- Forgiveness will be tasted and extended. You will grow to know the depths of your sin and the heights of the cross. You will look forward to opportunities to extend forgiveness to those who wrong you. When folks rebuke you and expose your sin, you will be neither offensive or defensive.
- Wisdom doesn't look like high GPAs. It looks like studying the scriptures with an intent on living them and applying it to life.
- Humility isn't thinking bad about yourself or putting yourself down in front of others. Humility is viewing God rightly and taking your proper position as his child, his beloved, and his creation.
- Faith is obedience. Obedience is Faith. You will realize that obedience doesn't come from getting the write Bible reading app, or setting enough reminders in your phone. It doesn't even come from making lists or accountability partners. Obedience is rooted faith. When we believe the gospel, that we were dead but raised to life by the person&work of Jesus, we read the Bible because it is our story. When we believe the gospel, we don't need reminders to pray, we know we can't survive without God's presence. We share the gospel in obedience because we believe it. We live on mission because we are recipients of the mission's message of grace.
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Brad Watson serves as a pastor of Bread&Wine Communities in Portland, Oregon. He also works as the director of GospelCenteredDiscipleship.com. Brad is the co-author of Raised? Doubting the Resurrection. His greatest passion is to encourage and equip leaders for the mission of making disciples. He is Mirela’s husband and Norah’s dad. Twitter: @BradsStories.
Other Articles by Brad:
Fire from the Gods: Why Control Doesn't Solve Worry
Prometheus is a hero to many. He was a gigantic Titan god who challenged Zeus. Prometheus’ crime? Stealing fire from the gods. He thought Zeus’ rule over humanity was oppressive. Until Prometheus’ history splitting action, mankind lived a mundane existence, knowing the day of their death, ignorant of the Arts and Sciences. Zeus kept mortals in the dark. Prometheus thought this was unfair, so he sought to bring men and women out into the light. How? By stealing “fire from the gods” and giving it to humanity. This treasonous act was met with unflinching punishment. With Prometheus subdued, several gods escort him through a mountain gorge, carrying his massive stature to a mountain, where they fasten him to a rock. Hephaestus, the Vulcan blacksmith, reluctantly bolts the Prometheus to the mountain face.
Fire from the Gods
What did Prometheus accomplish in this seditious act? He gave humanity three things: a sense of immortality, ambition, and technology. As the story goes, the fire empowered the ambition of man to master many arts and ignite technological change. You might say Prometheus’ bondage freed humanity. What has been the benefit? Well, we’ve come a long way since hunting and gathering by moving into the progress of the Industrial Age, and now live in a globalized knowledge-based economy. We push the boundaries of science and technology century after century. Using the fire of the gods, we’ve healed diseases, extended life, sought to eradicate poverty, end human suffering, and even clone life.
Many would assert the fire of the gods is the way into a higher quality of life. Just look at human progress. When I come home, I kiss my wife, hug and greet each of my kids, talk to them about their day, and then check my phone. I may or may not put it away in my office. I feel the pull to check Twitter and email. The wireless signal draws me in, undetected, like a siren call. It makes me feel good, even in control. But am I in control? Is life better? While technology isn’t the devil, we must also remember that we aren’t the gods. In the words of Eugene Peterson, “we have the technology of the gods without the wisdom of the gods.”[1] Not knowing the day of our death (and knowing the Arts & Sciences) has given us, in the words of Prometheus, “blind hope.” We stumble forward and backward, fumbling our hope to change the world. Despite technological advance and educational leaps, we still haven’t eradicated poverty, stabilized the economy, or eliminated war. Is it possible the fire has blinded us?
Illusions of Sovereignty
Blinded by ambition, unaware of our mortality, we proceed under the illusion of control, under the spell of human progress, unaware that we are human because we can act like gods. Using Google maps we can pinpoint any location on earth. Using wireless technology we can contact anyone on earth. Using our laptop we can work from anywhere on earth! Many would argue this creates a better quality of life, we can do more for the world and more for the family, but that isn’t always true. Very often, we are controlled more than we control. We have an illusion of sovereignty. Possessing technological strength, we assume a sense of sovereignty that transmits the lie that we can minimize anxiety, insecurity, even suffering. We believe the more we control, the less we will worry.
My illusion of control protrudes into my family. After ten minutes of genuine niceties with my kids, disputes and complaints inevitably break out (They are 7, 6, and 2!). Summoning my sovereignty, I try to wield godlike control over the chaos. Commanding obedience and issuing reprimands, I try to secure the peace…but it doesn’t work. More control doesn’t lead to less worry. Why? Because my sovereignty is an illusion. We are not in control of our environment, circumstances, or children’s hearts. The only thing we can control is ourselves, and we are in desperate need for help with that.
Why doesn’t control work? Control doesn’t work because someone else is in control. There is a true sovereign who is willing something greater than temporary silence and false peace at home. There is a sovereign who has appointed the chaos of raising kids. God is willing weaker parents, gentler parents, more patient parents, parents who ask more questions than orders given. He could intervene at any moment, but he wants us to trust. Where is he exposing your illusion of control?
Worry Creep
The deceptive thing about the illusion of control, is that it works sometimes. Sometimes my kids quiet down when I threaten them. Sometimes employees do exactly what you want. Sometimes technology fixes things. But sometimes it doesn’t. What happens then? When kids act out, employees blow it, and computers go down, anxiety takes us by storm. We don’t expect it. We scramble, problem-solve, and worry begins to creep in. Our spell, now broken, brings our dreams crashing down around us. Plans, deadlines, and goals are thwarted. Anxiety begins to raise its ugly head.
What does Jesus have to say when worry hits? “I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? (Matt 11:25). Jesus says, “Don’t be anxious.” That doesn’t relieve much for me. It actually makes me anxious about not being anxious. Jesus offers some relief when he tells us to compare ourselves to the birds, well fed, and to the flowers, well clothed. If God feeds and clothes them, will he not take care of us? He tells us to consider the lilies. The word “consider” means to ponder and learn. What’s the relief Jesus is offering here? He says, in the moment of anxiety, rely on your head not your emotions. Remember what God does. He cares for the lesser. Will he not care for the greater? After all flowers and birds were not fashioned in his image. Honestly, this doesn’t help me much either. Why? Because reason isn’t the root of the problem. Faith is: “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” (11:30).
How does faith help worry? How does faith secure peace? Sounds like a sham. Are we supposed to close our eyes, cross our fingers, and wish our worries away to God? That’s not faith. That’s wishful thinking. Jesus’ counsel isn’t a sham because we all have faith. Regardless of what we look to for help (technology, God, ambition, personality), we look to something. We are creatures of trust. You might trust a spouse, but then you get hurt or burned, so you trust yourself. You think to yourself: I can secure happiness by leaving this marriage. Even though you don’t trust others, you’re still trusting. You might trust a great business idea or career move, but what if we hit a recession again and the business goes under? The capital dries up? We all trust, every day. The question is: “Is what you’re trusting able to hold you up, no matter what?” Are you in control or is it in control? Jesus explains: “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
Seeking First the Kingdom
Jesus said don’t worry by having faith, but now he tells us how: “seek first the kingdom of God.” Three critical elements have to come together to get us away from worry: seek, first, kingdom.
Desiring the Kingdom
Seek first the kingdom. Pursue. The word can actually be translated desire—desire the kingdom. Yearn the kingdom. Crave the kingdom. This is an emotive command, a strong, persistent way out of worry. Do you crave the kingdom? Do you pulse with desire for the things of God? If you don’t, you’ll be dominated by worry.
How do you know if you desire the kingdom of God? Anxiety will go down and prayer will go up. I’ve desired my kingdom at home, trying to enforce peace instead of entreat peace. Worry goes up, prayer goes down. So how do we desire the kingdom? First we have to know what it is. The kingdom of God is the reign of Christ over all things, in his way, and in his time. So to desire the kingdom is to long for Christ’s way over everything, especially the thing we worry about. The way out of worry is the way into the kingdom.
Desiring the kingdom is desiring God’s will more than our will. George Mueller said: “The will of God is to have no will of your own.” That will rub an American wrong. No will of my own? That’s mindless faith! Close your eyes and will it away? Do you really expect me to be indifferent about screaming kids, crashing economies, and vocational changes? No, remember, consider the lilies. Reason it out. Does God create? Does God provide? Does God care? If so, he’s the one that’s really in control, not you or them. He made it all—your kids, your spouses, your world. Trust who’s in charge. When something goes wrong with your Macbook, do you call Microsoft? No, you call the one who made it. You trust the one who has the power to fix it, who can control your technology. You trust the one in charge. Desiring the kingdom means calling upon the King. It means trusting his way and his timing, especially when things seem broken. The way out of worry is desiring the way into the kingdom.
Making the Kingdom First
Seek first the kingdom of God. By first Jesus means first, supreme, uppermost, on top of all things. If the kingdom of God is the reign of Christ over all things, in his way and in his time, then we would be foolish to not make it first. This is the kingdom of God, who dwells in unapproachable light, Lover-Beloved-Love, Restorer of shalom, the very Wind and Word of God, the Holy, holy, holy. His kingdom is first, not our kingdom. For the Christian, the kingdom of God is ultimate, supreme, of chief importance. We must long for it, for him, more than any other thing—more than family, security, technology, and even democracy. It must to be first because it is first.
The British preacher Martin Lloyd Jones remarked: “If [the kingdom] isn’t the first thing in your life, then you haven’t got it. Rather, it should have you.” How do you know the kingdom has you? You desire it. You pray for it: “Your kingdom come your will be done.” No caveats. The more we pray for it the more we will desire it. Pray it: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you.” I’ve been praying this prayer regarding my attitude towards my kids. It’s changing me, which is changing them. Their mother was gone all weekend. But instead of trying to get an iron grip on the weekend, I asked God for his kingdom to grip me. I asked that I would desire his control first, especially in the disputes, trusting his agenda to change me. I asked that I wouldn’t be seduced by the lie that: “The more I control, the less I will worry.” It’s actually quite the opposite. The less I try to control, and the more I trust his control, the less I worry. My control is an illusion and grabs at fleeting peace. His control is true, and leads me into true peace.
We’ve forgotten that Prometheus Bound is a tragedy, not a triumph. Bolted to the rock by the Vulcan, Prometheus was scorched by the sun and frozen by the moon. By day an eagle pecked out his innards. By night they grew back. Riddled with anxiety, his suffering repeated itself day after day. The Greeks want us to see that it is folly to trust in ambition and put faith our control. Instead, we need to desire first the kingdom of God, the kingdom where the king is bolted to the tree for our transgressions, for our worries, and liberated for our triumph and our peace. Seek first the kingdom of God and worry will be a far second.
[1] This reflection on Prometheus is inspired by Eugene Peterson, Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987), 28-31.
Jonathan K. Dodson (MDiv; ThM) serves as a pastor of City Life Church in Austin, Texas. He is the author of Gospel-Centered Discipleship andUnbelievable Gospel. He has discipled men and women abroad and at home for almost two decades, taking great delight in communicating the gospel and seeing Christ formed in others.
Related articles by Jonathan: Questioning the Gospel and How to Avoid Brain Meltdown and Increase Theological Vision