The following is written to answer a friend's question, how Christians may walk more faithfully in the face of so many painful lapses and failed methods?
(I assure you, reading it yourself will sound better)
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Thank you for writing and confiding in me. In the first place, if I am able to offer any comfort to you, I confess it is "with the same comfort whereby you were comforted." [2 Cor. 1:3-4] I empathize with your feeling that painful circumstances, especially ones we thought were ordered by God to a specific end, can bring questions to mind about the character or even existence of God.
I do not believe God authored the American dream, the Disney ending, or Thoreau's idea of the simple life, at least not this side of heaven. Rather, God has ordained that consequences of a fallen world should often touch His people. True Christians are not exempted from common realities of sin and suffering, whether root canals, unjust sentencing, or the effects of poor judgment in choosing a spouse.
I do not believe God authored the American dream, the Disney ending, or Thoreau's idea of the simple life, at least not this side of heaven. Rather, God has ordained that consequences of a fallen world should often touch His people. True Christians are not exempted from common realities of sin and suffering, whether root canals, unjust sentencing, or the effects of poor judgment in choosing a spouse.
God's allowance of these troubles should cause us all the more to acknowledge our sinfulness and the fallen state of the present world, so that our hands cling more tightly to the imputed righteousness of Christ in anticipation of His consummated Kingdom. I firmly believe these events are used by God to reveal what our faith is really in, and to prepare us to minister the same comfort to others.
You wrote,
"I want to get there, but experientially I’ve always had to make a step of faith (a conscious decision to follow the Lord or witness to some random guy the Holy Spirit was telling me to talk to.) And the decision to sin is quite an easy one... I just wish it was constant, Like that eternal position you spoke about."
That makes two of us, brother. The place of automatic, perpetual obedience is not some "higher Christian life" on earth, but awaits the day when we are transformed once for all, and preserved in holiness. "We have a city," and it is not on earth. For the present, you and I are assaulted with so many opportunities to sin. In truth, these temptations are graciously appointed as opportunities to love God and neighbor more highly through denial of the old man.
This is not to say we ought to thrust ourselves in the path of temptation. By all means, no! But I would remind you that even as "Christ was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted," so God in His providence has ordered and allowed our enemies to meet us on the field. In God's decree there are no surprise attacks. We are engaged to obtain experience and spoils of joy! Best of all, Christ goes with us to fight. However, we often we see the battle not as His, but as ours on behalf of Him. Instead of sending our David we go as Saul, forgetting that "in us there is no good," but that, "it is God who works in you both to will and to do." Even in times of apparent loss, the fame of Christ's victory over condemnation is increased.
Without the intent of being offensive, I am prepared to defend the fact that Evangelicalism as a whole is in a shameful mess. It's camps are out of order, its doctrinal foundation AWOL, and the soldiers of the cross have taken a mighty beating for it. Much of our basic training has been sabotaged with ineffective tactics best suited to highly defended bunkers called "home fellowships". We are hardly equipped to meet the enemy on open ground. The single worst omission, in my mind, is the lack of emphasis upon God's use of ordinary means to provide strength necessary to "fight the good fight" daily. Allow me to explain, and pardon me if you know these things. They are nonetheless edifying to write.
For a long time I thought God worked more or less immediately, when and how He chose, and without any particularly identifiable pattern, in matters of sanctification. Even when I had discipline enough to read privately and to pray, to spend time with other believers, my walk was all over the map. There were more consistent seasons and these I associated with the aforementioned sort of "spiritual disciplines". However, I have since come to believe that private devotions and resolutions are not the primary way appointed to provide spiritual stability in the lives of saints, however helpful they are in themselves. In effect I am saying, those of us who live like this are functioning without regular access to the chain of supply for faith. Is it any wonder that the armies of God are confounded? What are His ordinary means for supply?
Without the intent of being offensive, I am prepared to defend the fact that Evangelicalism as a whole is in a shameful mess. It's camps are out of order, its doctrinal foundation AWOL, and the soldiers of the cross have taken a mighty beating for it. Much of our basic training has been sabotaged with ineffective tactics best suited to highly defended bunkers called "home fellowships". We are hardly equipped to meet the enemy on open ground. The single worst omission, in my mind, is the lack of emphasis upon God's use of ordinary means to provide strength necessary to "fight the good fight" daily. Allow me to explain, and pardon me if you know these things. They are nonetheless edifying to write.
For a long time I thought God worked more or less immediately, when and how He chose, and without any particularly identifiable pattern, in matters of sanctification. Even when I had discipline enough to read privately and to pray, to spend time with other believers, my walk was all over the map. There were more consistent seasons and these I associated with the aforementioned sort of "spiritual disciplines". However, I have since come to believe that private devotions and resolutions are not the primary way appointed to provide spiritual stability in the lives of saints, however helpful they are in themselves. In effect I am saying, those of us who live like this are functioning without regular access to the chain of supply for faith. Is it any wonder that the armies of God are confounded? What are His ordinary means for supply?
First let us observe a typical fight with temptation so that we might better understand our weakness. I urge you to consider temptation to be essentially the fight to love. Whereas the Law is fulfilled in love to God and men, temptation is an opportunity to seek self-gratification through neglect of pure love. For instance, suppose I am walking down the street and there comes an
immodestly dressed attractive woman. Here is an opportunity to love God
by showing preference for the purity of sexuality in my mind which the Lord
prefers. Here is an opportunity to pity the woman's indiscretion and to
love others by praying for fellows who will see her and be tempted, or persuaded to dress as she does.
As we are confronted with such opportunities to love or not love, we are faced with a choice either to prefer the pleasure of God in faith that our obedience yields greater ultimate rewards, or to walk in unbelief. We have faith that God's happiness is our true happiness, or we believe that sin will satisfy our unhappiness. When we stray from faith that God's pleasure is our pleasure then we seek satisfaction in disobedience. This is the deception of sin. Inevitably, whichever one which seems to offer greater satisfaction will inevitably win our choice, whether it is to prefer God's glory and find pleasure in worship, or to believe momentary sin will bring worthwhile pleasure.
We see that temptation is practically overcome by love. From where does love come? Christian love swells in proportion to one's present apprehension of benefits received or promised to us in Christ. It grows as we believe the gospel. Jesus has
purchased our true heavenly marriage; has secured us in it; has longed
for us and will satisfy us; He promises to work in us even now through
faith in the gospel. We walk in love as we find real enjoyment in
our Savior having secured the blessings of our salvation. Strong love overcomes strong temptation, and is the result of being strongly persuaded of our benefits in Christ. Strong persuasion is strong faith.
How then do we maintain and increase this faith? Is it by hours of personal reading, fasting, introspective writing or prayer? Done rightly these are good, but there is a danger that one might begin to see these acts as "our part" of sanctification. We look away from the monergistic, one-sided Almighty power of God; from faith in Him to act through us, thereby placing a portion of faith's weight on ourselves. It is not long before we come crashing down through the paper-thin skin of self-power. No, the primary and ordained means by which God unipotently increases faith are the preached Gospel, the right use of Sacraments, and biblical church discipline. I would like to speak with you about the first two, Word and Sacraments.
For what purpose did the Lord promise to appoint teachers and elders in every age? I fear some think it largely to "get people saved" and "tell them what to do next." This is far short of the mark. We are each parts of the body of Christ, but elders are the tongue of the Church. The pulpit is God's mouth. To the extent that preachers faithfully preach the gospel for grace, and law as a standard of evidential love, I believe we hear God's mediated voice. But do we listen as such? Does faith lay hold of the promises and clutch them as spoken by God Himself?
Before 2007 I had never experienced liturgy with biblical absolution. Absolution is a formal promise of grace given to those who rest in Christ alone by faith. Now every week for three years, following a reading of law and corporate confession of guilt, I have heard my pastor say,
Before 2007 I had never experienced liturgy with biblical absolution. Absolution is a formal promise of grace given to those who rest in Christ alone by faith. Now every week for three years, following a reading of law and corporate confession of guilt, I have heard my pastor say,
"To all those who have turned away from themselves to rest in the righteousness of Christ alone, by the authority vested in me as Christ's minister of the word, I declare that you are forgiven all sins."
This open declaration of grace has never motivated me to sin. The promise is made to faith, and faith is accompanied by works. But to hear the official declaration of forgiveness through faith alone on a weekly basis, to be assured that the Lord rejoices over us in Christ solely on the basis of Jesus' works, has been the spiritual height of each week. Many times when tempted I have remembered those words. Yes, the Lord uses ordained elders to minister His divine voice; by faith our love is strengthened to prefer the Lord.
Likewise, when we see others baptized or recall our own baptism, do we embrace what is pictured there? Namely, that God sovereignly cleanses His people (no man baptizes himself!) of the guilt of sin, and regenerates them to new life by the Spirit? In itself baptism is merely a sign, but do we receive what it signifies? By faith we may see in those waters the reality, that through Christ my sinning self is counted as dead and buried; my place in the heavenly court is occupied by the risen Lord, in whom I am covenantally raised!
Likewise, when we see others baptized or recall our own baptism, do we embrace what is pictured there? Namely, that God sovereignly cleanses His people (no man baptizes himself!) of the guilt of sin, and regenerates them to new life by the Spirit? In itself baptism is merely a sign, but do we receive what it signifies? By faith we may see in those waters the reality, that through Christ my sinning self is counted as dead and buried; my place in the heavenly court is occupied by the risen Lord, in whom I am covenantally raised!
Even so, when we receive the Lord's Supper we are called to believe a promise. Surely as my tongue feels the form of bread and flow of wine, so my heart is nourished and sustained by the bodily death and resurrection of our living Lord. The elements of Holy Communion are no less certain than the Mediator Himself. Just as food and drink are unified to my body through ingestion, so the Lord is united to me inseparably through faith, which is the mouth of the soul.
Unlike private devotions, Word and Sacraments are objective. They are not duties, but gifts of grace which hold out faith-inspiring gospel. They come from outside of us and are mediated by God's officers in the Church, not our subjective and swerving consciences. The Lord's means are not to be abused with superstition, as though faith could rest mere symbols. By faith we see beyond to what is signified; faith grasps the objective promise that we are eternally loved and thereby strengthened to love in return.
My purpose is not to discourage anyone from private worship, but to set our focus on the gospel and not legalistic use of religious exercises. We may read and pray all day long, but paper and posture do not sanctify of themselves. A sense of dependence and faith in the gospel are the means by which God acts in and through us. Devotional disciplines are only profitable as means to these ends, to reveal our weakness and affirm Christ's strength, though when used rightly they are exceedingly helpful.
"He who has been forgiven much, loves much." To the extent that we comprehend and presently consider our forgiveness in Christ ~ the cost of it, and the willingness of Jesus to pay that cost; His cheerful arms outstretched even now; the Father's reception of us in the imputed righteousness of His Son ~ we are empowered to love. Obedience is nothing other than "faith working by love."
With you I have daily failings. None of us keeps the first and greatest command, to love God with no less than all our being. In falling short of the greatest command, we commit terrible (though not unpardonable) sins. What do we make of it? We are forced back upon Christ, to believe the gospel. As truly as He was imputed with our sins and became worthy of the treatment of wrath which fell on Him, so by the imputation of His righteousness to us we are covenantally worthy of God's most loving treatment. The Father regards us as sons and friends.
My progress in grace has been slow but steady. I have grown daily to recall that I am dead to the threats of the Law by the cross. I am received in grace. Whenever I sin and feel distant from God, it is I who am hesitant to fellowship with Him; He is ready to cleanse and correct. His palms are open to comfort me even before I turn and remember Christ's sacrifice.
Brother, I tell you what the writer told the Hebrews, "don't lose heart." We haven't suffered to bloodshed. Our lives are not bleak expanses of evil laid out to the distance, but have been decreed by God to good purposes. Those plans may not entail the American dream, but they contain a heavenly vision. His will through us is to increase the wonder of men and angels at the ineffable patience of God. He is fashioning us into "vessels of mercy" which presupposes there will be much room in our lives for him to fill us up with gracious pardon.
Meditate on His goodness, but above all receive the gospel and the sacraments with faith that therein is pictured what belongs to you in Christ. When confronted with temptations to sin, recognize them as opportunities to love God through preferring His pleasure. Find your love to God in faith that He loved you without reference to foreseen faithfulness.
Every blessing to you in Christ, my friend,
~ Michael Spotts:.
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© Michael Spotts:. 2011
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You are permitted to reproduce and distribute this article in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and that you do not charge any fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For printed copies, as well as web posting, please include the following statement:
By M. Benjamin Spotts:.
Copyright © The Open Life
www.theopenlife.com
Titus 3:3-8
© Michael Spotts:. 2011
———————
You are permitted to reproduce and distribute this article in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and that you do not charge any fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For printed copies, as well as web posting, please include the following statement:
By M. Benjamin Spotts:.
Copyright © The Open Life
www.theopenlife.com
Titus 3:3-8
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