Unbiblical expectations of what Christian growth should look like.

"Perhaps our greatest problem is not the reality of our sin, but our unbiblical expectations of what Christian growth should look like. What if growing in grace is more about humility, dependence, and exalting Christ than it is about defeating sin. … It is a radical and almost frightening thought to see that God is actually as much at work in our worst moments of sin and defeat as he is in our best moments of shining obedience.”

----Barbara Duguid, Extravagant Grace

A Mere Repair Job

From Gerhard Forde as quoted at Mockingbird Blog:

I think that most of our talk about [sanctification] represents the bad conscience of the old (moral or immoral!) being who has not really been put to death and so is worried because salvation as a free gift seems too easy and cheap. Since the old being has not died, the law is still in some sense in effect, and so sanctification becomes merely a repair job on the old, a progress according to the law, a transition from vice to virtue for the continuously existing being. To avoid the charge of “cheap grace” we talk very seriously and grandly about sanctification. The result, however, is only that a good deal of cheap talk replaces the cheap grace.

Consequently I watch very closely the way in which we talk about sanctification. To begin with, the problem lies in what we think such talk is supposed to accomplish. There is quite a difference between adequately describing sanctification and actually fostering or producing it. The description may be quite true, nice, accurate or even enticing, but it may be accompanied with an inadequate understanding of how to effect such things evangelically. We can end up preaching a description of the sanctified life but doing little or nothing to bring it about.

Preaching a description is deadly and usually counterproductive. It is like yelling so loudly at your children to go to sleep that you only keep them awake. You have to learn to sing lullabies. Or it is like telling your beloved that “love means thus-and-so, and if you really love me then you would do thus-and-so.” While the description may be true, it’s not likely to work. More often it will have the opposite effect. Instead one has to learn to say, “I love you, no matter what.”

“Faith without works is dead,” we are reminded. Quite true. But then what follows is usually some long and dreary description of works and what we should be about, as though the way to revive a dead faith were by putting up a good-works front. If the faith is dead, it is the faith that must be revived. No amount of works will do it. Whatever may be accomplished by such hollering about works–though it may even be considerable–does not really qualify as sanctification, that is, true holiness.” (pg 77-78)

Inexhaustible Grace

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”   Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)

 

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”   Matthew 11:28-30 (The Message) 

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Wherever I go and whoever I talk to (regardless of age or season in life) people are exhausted. People are exhausted relationally, emotionally, and spiritually. I’ve never been more convinced that the message of God’s inexhaustible grace is needed. 

After talking to the spiritually exhausted people, I discovered that their exhaustion is due, in large part, to what they think they need to be doing in order to gain and maintain God’s love and favor. The root cause of our exhaustion has nothing to do with what goes on outside of us and everything to do with what’s going on inside of us. In other words, we’re not weary and heavy laden simply because we’re busy raising kids, working, maintaining relationships, and so on. The reason we’re so tired is because, through these things, we are trying to save ourselves. We are desperately trying to secure for ourselves meaning and worth – desperately trying to justify ourselves – in and through all of the things we’re so busy doing.

The good news of the gospel announces that everything we need in Christ we already possess, so we no longer have to win, be the best, succeed, raise the perfect kids, and so on, to feel like we matter. This brings huge relief and freedom to our lives and we find ourselves now enjoying our work and our kids and our spouse because we’re no longer relying on these things to “save” us.

In theological terms, most people live their life as if their justification depends on their sanctification: if I do and become all that I must do and become, God will love me and accept me. We need to be reminded that God’s love for sinners like me is not dependent on what we do, but on what Jesus has done for us. We are accepted and approved by God because of Christ’s work, not our work. This message desperately needs to be recovered in the twenty-first-century church. Pastors can lead the charge in making, once again, the Church to be the one place in all of society where the weary and heavy laden can come and find rest—not to-do lists.

--- Tullian Tchividjian

Preoccupied

By Robert McGee:

It is important to understand that fruitfulness and growth are the results of focusing on Christ and desiring to honor Him. When growth and change are our primary goals, we tend to be preoccupied with ourselves instead of with Christ.  “Am I growing? Am I getting any better? Am I more like Christ today? What am I learning?” This inordinate preoccupation with self-improvement parallels our culture’s self-help and personal enhancement movement in many ways. Personal development is certainly not wrong, but it is misleading—and it can be very disappointing—to make it our preeminent goal. As we grasp the unconditional love, grace, and power of God, then honoring Christ will increasingly be our consuming passion…The only One worthy of our preoccupation is Christ, our sovereign Lord, who told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.”

Not a threat. It’s a promise

Mike Horton, in Christ the Lord:

As Christ is the answer to our guilt and condemnation (through justification), so he is the answer to our bondage and corruption (sanctification). He takes away not only the verdict, but also the slavery. To justify us in the heavenly court without giving us the gifts that, by virtue of that heavenly verdict, belong to us would be cruel and unjust on God’s part. No, he does not simply put money into our bank account and then leave us stranded along the side of the road, beaten and bruised.

 Holiness is not an option for the Christian. But hold on — I can hear the hearts racing: “Holiness, the impossible dream?” To be sure, “but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). Holiness is not an option; it is a requirement.

But this is not a threat. It’s a promise. What God began he will finish (Phil 1:6). In Christ we are already holy, righteous, sanctified, reconciled (1 Cor 1:30). Now we are called to live what we are, not to become what we are not yet.