To Fear Man is to Forget God

Another golden quote from John Bunyan:

"If this God be our God; or if our God be such a God...we should never be afraid of anything we shall meet with, or that shall assault us in this world. The great God, the former of all things, taketh part with them that fear him, and that engage themselves to walk in his ways of love and respect, they unto him; so that such may say boldly, 'The Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man can do to me (Hebrews 13:6). To fear man is to forget God."

John Bunyan, All Loves Excelling (1998), pg. 39. 

Reading this excerpt, the question that come to my mind is: Who (or what) do you fear? You see, the resulting action of fear is concession. If you are afraid or fear the power of something or someone, you will concede to their demands. If you fear something, you will necessarily bend your knee to that something. In other words, you  obey what you fear.

When Bunyan talks about fearing man, or being afraid of something, I don't think he is so much referring to walking home in a dark alley and being fearful a man may jump out and mug you. No, he is talking about a much deeper issue. The deeper issue is, what does your soul fear? What does your soul concede to? What do you bend your knee and give your life to? What or who do you obey? 

What Bunyan describes in this passage is the basic decision each human has in this life. The decision is what will you primarily obey? Will your primary obedience be to man or things of this world? Or, on the contrary, will your primary obedience be to God and His Kingdom? As Bunyan states, to fear man is to forget God. To ultimately fear what man can do is to forget that God is the one who is ultimately powerful. The establishments of man are but specs of dust compared to the eternal Creator. All things on heaven and earth are held together by God's hand. Their is not one molecule in the entire cosmos that is known and upheld by our Creator. God is the one who gives life and takes it away. Not man. 

When we stop the fathom the eternal power, sovereignty, and majesty of God, it makes perfect sense to live a life that is dependent and obedient to him. Why would we fear man or circumstances on this earth when the all powerful Creator of the universe offers us Himself?

Faith Will Become Sight

From the Epilogue of Jonathan Dodson's, "Gospel-Centered Discipleship." This was too good not to post.

"One day the fight will be over. Faith will become sight. Our image will be perfectly aligned with Christ's image. Our affection for Christ will be so strong that it will be chief among ten thousand. All competitors for his attention will bow before him, and we will recover a childish, yet mature delight that will never cease to thrill our souls. Every act will be a natural act of obedience sparked by joy. The warnings will fade and the promises will be fulfilled. Threats will no longer be necessary and rewards will abound. The Spirit will have full sway in our gladdened hearts as we live forever in Spirit-led worship. We will no longer lean toward performance or license. The gospel will be central forever. Our conversions will be complete, our community characterized by love, and our mission colored in worship. We will no longer know our sin, fight our sin, or struggle to trust our Savior. Until then, may God grant us his sovereign grace to fight the good fight of faith, for our joy, and for his eternal glory."

Relationship=Obedience

"As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you in holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy.' And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot."

1 Peter 1: 14-19

In this passage, Peter is calling his readers to godly obedience and holy living. He sets the bar pretty high, calling his readers to a holiness that parallels that of God. This leaves me wondering, "how in the heck could I ever be that obedient and that holy?" If you know yourself, you will know that being obedient to God's perfect standard is more than difficult. 

I love this passage because it sets this radical call to be holy in context. What is the means by which we are able to be holy and obey God? How do we break away from our sinful patterns in which we once lived? Peter starts the passage off by saying, "As obedient children". We obey because we are children. Our identity shift from spiritual orphans to beloved children of God. 

My college football coach used to always say, "Rules without relationship equals rebellion. Rules with relationship equals results."I think there is a lot of truth to that. Without a proper relationship with God, our default will always be rebellion. In the gospel, we are able to obey because of our new relationship with God. We obey, because,as God's children, He loves us. In fact, he couldn't possibly love us, or be more delighted in us that he already is. The reason is because we were ransomed in Christ. Not only did this act of ransom (Jesus dying on the cross as the ransom penalty for our sins) demonstrate God's love towards us, it also connects us and brings us into a relationship with him. It secures our place as his children. We now have the right to adopted as God's children. Further, the same way the Father views the Son (Jesus), he now views us. 

So, this is why Peter starts by saying, "As obedient children." It's as if he is saying, "because you have been made God's children, because you are united to Him, because God is your perfect Father who loves you, because Christ has ransomed you, go and obey. Because you are in God's family, you are now able to resemble the holiness of your Father."

This is good news for someone like me who constantly falls on my face. This is good news for someone who tends to view my obedience before God as a try out to be on God's team. The truth is, I'm already God's child. I already made the team. And me making the team wasn't contingent upon my performance, but because Jesus picked me and ransomed me so that I could be participate. 

Delight as Motivation for Obedience

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments." John 14:15

I'm struck by how often the Bible appeals to our delight as one of the many reasons we should obey Christ. In this verse, Jesus is essentially telling us that we should obey out of the love we have for him. Because we delight in our Savior, we should freely and joyfully obey. Obedience doesn't need to be a painstaking duty. Rather, when we see all that we have in Christ, and are grounded in his unfailing love for us, it starts to become the beat of our heart. I'm praying for more obedience out of genuine joy. 

Waking Up To Christ

"When a man really gives up trying to make something of himself-a saint, or converted sinner, or a churchman, a righteous or unrighteous man,....when in the fullness of tasks, questions, success or ill-happenings, experiences or perplexities, a man throws himself into the arms of God...only then he wakes up to Christ"

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

First, I have been pretty lax in posting this summer. I'm hoping that will change as I get into more of a routine with the school year. On another note, I love this line from Bonhoeffer and am thankful for such a great reminder this morning. So often, we turn the Christian life into making something of oneself. For me, being in seminary, and working in full time ministry, "making myself" in these capacities is often the criteria for which I determine my identity and life. This inevitably leads to a roller coaster of emotional and spiritual highs and lows. When I am doing well at these or am "making something of myself", I feel good. When circumstances aren't as favorable, I'm a wreck. It leaves me feeling like nothing I do is enough. It leaves me feeling like a spiritual orphan, who is tirelessly running on a treadmill in order to earn his Father's approval. My worth depends on my performance.

The gospel offers us rest from this tireless spiritual treadmill. The gospel offers us a peace that surpasses understanding. In the gospel, we have a secure identity as a child of God. We no longer have to earn approval, because in Christ, we are already approved. Our significance no longer depends on our performance, because Christ performed for us. This is freedom. Yet, I am not free to disobey, but am rather freed in order to delight in my Heavenly Father and serve him. This is true life! And as Bonhoeffer says, we only come awake to this life when we finally give up on trying to make something  of our self, and throw ourselves wholeheartedly into the arms of God. 

What is Your Drift?

"People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward holiness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith and delight in the Lord. We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation; we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism; we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated." 
-D.A. Carson-


In this quote, I think Carson touches on a very important trend I've noticed within myself, and also among Christians in general. The trend is this: Grace and disciplined effort are opposed to each other. I'm afraid we have created a dichotomy between resting in God's grace and grace-driven effort as if the two are mutually exclusive. Unfortunately, a lot of times I find myself drifting into this mentality that mistakes laziness with true gospel rest. 


Yes, the gospel does save us from having to justify ourselves with our own works and from having to prove our selves day in and day out. However, it also saves us to something.  It frees us from the slavery of sin and of self-justification and, in turn, frees us to pursue righteousness. The gospel frees us to life as it was meant to be lived. 


In Christ, we are no longer slaves to drift into compromise, disobedience, and lifelessness. In Christ, we are free to drift towards God. We are free to experience his grace in such a way that we are driven to action. God's grace is the empowering force behind our discipline and it is our motivation. With that being said, diving deeper into in the gospel and the union we have with Christ necessarily results in actively sharing in this life. 


Further, as Carson points out, our default gravitation is not towards holiness. Our default mode is to sink deeper and deeper into self-worship. Therefore, we must run to the gospel everyday and look to God's grace as the source of our effort in order to live this life. It is a mistake to call this legalism or unnecessary effort. God longs for his children to live in him. He longs for his children to experience the power of his resurrection.  He longs for his children to freely obey him. We only find this in the gospel of God's grace. When we taste of this, only then will we be in hot pursuit of righteousness. 

Blessings For Obedience

"If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely. I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and non shall make you afraid."

Leviticus 26: 3-6

Wow! The author of Leviticus paints this amazing picture of human flourishing under the reign of God. God says that he will give rain to the Israelites, the land will be blessed, it will produce abundantly, the Israelites will be satisfied completely, they will dwell securely, there will be peace, and there will be no more fear. What a glorious promise! This passage is a description of total human flourishing. 

However, there is one hitch. All these promises are contingent upon the Israelites obedience. If Israel keeps and obeys God's commandments, the outcome will be this immense blessing from God resulting in total flourishing. So, the question is, what happened? Did Israel obey?

Well, the short answer is no. Much of the Old Testament captures Israel's repeated failures to follow God and to obey his commands. Israel, like a stubborn child, refused to live as God's chosen people. Yet, God remains faithful. Despite Israel's numerous failures, God keeps making these promises to restore that which is broken. God keeps talking about this desire to bless his people and return them to this state of flourishing described in Leviticus 26. So, how does God accomplish this?

The answer is Jesus. Where Israel failed to obey God, Jesus obeyed perfectly. In Leviticus 26, we see the obvious blessings for obedience. The truth is, we all radically fail to obey God's commands. Left to ourselves, we don't deserve any of God's blessings. The good news is that Jesus came to fulfill the commandments of God perfectly, so that by his life, death and resurrection, the blessings in Leviticus 26 may be secured for us. 

Talk about a good deal! This literally is too good to be true, yet it is true. Jesus took upon himself the punishment for our disobedience, and in return, we get the blessing of his obedience. This can't be attained through any of our own goodness, but it is attained through repentance and faith. The ultimate blessing for which we were created to be in relationship with God. Only then will we be satisfied, secure, and at peace. In Romans, Paul describes how Jesus Christ's perfect obedience justifies us before God. 

"For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners,

so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous."

Romans 5:19

There is Only One Good Guy

A great post from my close friend Dan Orr

My little guy Isaac loves playing good guys vs. bad guys.  The game usually ends up with him tackling Lily, his little sister. For whatever reason, he talks about good guys and bad guys all the time.  Here’s a gospel truth that I share with him that you’ll hopefully be encouraged by:

1. We’re all bad guys.
2. There was only one truly good guy that has ever lived.
3. That one good guy has declared that his bad guys are now good, and he’s now on a mission to make them good like himself.

Two Opposing Paradigms

"Imagine two people, both trying to obey the law of God, yet they operate from these two opposing paradigms. Both want to keep the Sabbath day, but in one case the obedience is a burden, an enslavement; while in the other it's a delight, a gift. How can that be? One paradigm is religion, which - as we observed before - is fundamentally advice. The other is the gospel of Jesus Christ, which begins and ends with news. These are two completely different things."

- Tim Keller, King's Cross

....

When I think of advice, I think of something I need to do or not do in the future. When I think news, I think of the newspaper. You are reading about what is already done. The Scriptures are revealing to us NEWS about what Jesus has already done for us what we could never do. That is awesome.

Pleading the Work of Another

All thy lovingkindness is in thy Son,

I bring him to thee in the arms of faith,

I urge his saving name as the one who died for me.

I plead his blood to pay my debts of wrong.

Accept his worthiness for my unworthiness

his sinlessness for my transgressions,

his purity for my uncleanness,

his sincerity for my guile,

his truth for my deceits,

his meekness for my pride,

his constancy for my backslidings,

his love for my enmity,

his fullness for my emptiness,

his faithfulness for my treachery,

his obedience for my lawlessness,

his glory for my shame,

his devotedness for my waywardness,

his holy life for my unchaste ways, 

his righteousness for my dead works,

his death for my life

Valley of Vision

Like One Who Finds Great Spoil

Sometimes I think we have a tendency to think God's grace is opposed to His law. That grace=good and law=bad. But this is not how the Psalmist speaks in Psalm 119. It is true, that God's law does bring us knowledge of sin, and drives us to God's grace as the source of our redemption and justification. Yet, God's law is also given for our good.

God didn't give us the commands as a 'booby trap' per se, where it is just a road block to make us turn to him. The law, the commands, are for our good. Does a Father give his young child rules just so the child knows he's an idiot and needs grace. No. Having rules will show the child how often he breaks them, and how much he needs mercy. But, the rules are also there out of the Father's care and provision. They are their because the Father loves the child. More so, when the child comes to a greater knowledge of the Father's love and delight towards him, the child will begin to willingly obey and delight in the Father's rules. They are no longer burdensome, because the child knows the Father loves him unconditionally, and has given him these commands for his good. My point is this, I think a lot of the time we have an overly Lutheran view of the law where ANY mention of the law is bad. Any mention of commands is BAD! I just don't think that is biblical at all. The law does give us knowledge of our sin. It is the hammer that crushes any hope of self-justification, leading us to look to Christ's finished work as our only hope of being righteous before God. Yes! But, for those who are children of God, there is great delight in the good commands our Heavenly Father has given us. We need to constantly remind ourselves that we can't earn God's love or favor by our obedience to the law, yet, it is right that we delight in His commands. It is right that we should find ourselves gravitating more and more towards imitating the written inscription of God's moral character. As God's grace transforms us, as children, we will begin to trust and delight in the commands our gracious Heavenly Father gives us.

"I rejoice at your word,
like one who finds great spoil.
I hate and abhor falsehood,
but I love your law....
I hope for your salvation, O LORD,
and I do your commandments.
My soul keeps your testimonies;
I love them exceedingly.
I keep your precepts and testimonies,
for all my ways are before you.
Let my cry come before you, O LORD;
give me understanding according to your word!
Let my plea come before you;
deliver me according to your word.
My lips will pour forth praise,
for you teach me your statutes.
My tongue will sing of your word,
for all your commandments are right."

Psalm 119: 163-172

Indicatives and Imperatives

Per a blog titled Glimpses of Grace
It is awesome. It is written by a close friend named Erik Most. Thanks Erik.

....

"Most people think that Christianity is spelled DO: they look at the Bible or the life of Christ, and they simply try hard to live like Jesus. Christianity is really spelled DONE: it is what Christ has done that enables us to live a life of obedience.
Our problem is that we confuse the order of the indicative (what is true) and the imperative (what to do). As Bryan Chapell often says 'We put our do's before our who's'. The indicative is what is true about us in Christ. We are loved and accepted because of what Christ has done on our behalf. The imperative is what we do in obedience out of love for Christ. The key to the Christian life is to live out of the reality of who we are so that we can do what God has revealed in Scripture."

--Darrin Patrick quoted in Church Planter

The Law of the Lord is Perfect

The law of the LORD is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the LORD is sure,
making wise the simple;
the precepts of the LORD are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the LORD is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the LORD is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules of the LORD are true,
and righteous altogether.

- Psalm 19:7-9

...In knowing we could never keep even one precept purely, God graciously sent His Son, Jesus, who kept every condition perfectly for us. May we be eager to meditate on the law all the days of our life, for it is a reflection and revelation of its author, God himself, who is perfect in every capacity. Praise be to Him!

All the Acceptance

"All the love and the acceptance which a perfectly obedient Being could have obtained from God, belong to you, because Christ was perfectly obedient on your behalf"

Charles Spurgeon

The Law: Good or Bad?

I often think when we here about The Law, we instantly pit Law against Grace or Law against the Gospel. There are some good reasons for this. For one, the Law, (or God's Holy moral code) condemns us. When we look at the law, and then look at our lives, we are able to see the sin and defilement of our hearts. We fail to live up to the laws standards. In this sense, the Gospel frees us from the condemnation of the Law. Christ fully met the requirements of the Law and has imputed his obedience to us. Therefore, we not under the condemnation of the Law. We are free from this aspect of the law.

But, I don't think it is biblical to stop there in our discussion of the Law, or to think the Law is bad. Calvin talked about another use for the law (he called it the 3rd use), whereas Christians are to 'delight in God's law'. The logic is simple.

1) The Law is the written transcript of God's character

2) Christians, being in Christ, are in the process of being conformed to His image

3) Therefore, as Christians grow and are conformed to Christ's image, we will naturally obey His law. We will take delight in obeying God's law in being conformed to His character. It will be a joy.

Now, it is important to separate obeying God's law out of sonship and out of legalism. Christians do not obey the law in order to be accepted by God. Our acceptance was already accomplished by Christ and rests fully in God's grace. However, we increasingly obey the law because we are in Christ, and as our nature is renewed in the Spirit, we are inclined to love God. And how do we love God, well Jesus tells us pretty clearly, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." (John 14:15)

"And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments" (1 John 2:3)

Confession of Our Righteousness

O Lord, we confess our righteousness

Those thoughts, words and deeds that have taken our eyes off of Christ and His finished work

And put them on ourselves.

We have fooled ourselves into seeing our obedience as a substitute for your perfection.

We have failed to see that even our best works are as filthy rags in your sight.

Father, we confess that we have deserted your Gospel.

We have made a mockery of the Cross.

For the sake of your great name,

have mercy on us.

Refresh us with your love,

that we may remain fixed on Jesus alone.

Motivation

Relating to my post from yesterday, here is a great interview with Darrin Patrick (Pastor of The Journey Church, which is part of the Acts 29 network) and Bryan Chapell (President of Covenant Theological Seminary). This stuff is gold.

Motivation: How grace leads to obedience. from Journey-Creative on Vimeo.

Blessing for Obedience

"If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them,⁴ then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. ⁵ Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely.⁶ I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land. ⁷You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. ⁸ Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. ⁹ I will turn to you and make you fruitful and multiply you and will confirm my covenant with you. ¹⁰You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall clear out the old to make way for the new. ¹¹ I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. ¹² And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people. ¹³ I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect."

Leviticus 26: 3-13

The Bible, specifically the Old Testament is filled with countless promises similar to the one above. God promises blessing if Israel is obedient to Him. If they will follow His commands, He will bless them. Moreover, the Old Testament is filled with instances where Israel is in fact disobedient to His commands, and in turn, God punishes them. This is a reoccurring pattern. God acts graciously to Israel and calls them to obedience, for a little while they are obedient and experience God's blessing, but then turn away from God and His immediate favor is removed, and repeat. So how does the story end.....

In God's steadfast love, God provides a way for Israel. Jesus comes to earth and lives the perfect life of obedience that Israel never could. He completely fulfills the law, and in doing so possesses perfect 'spiritual blessing'. Furthermore, God no longer gives his blessing through obedience. Rather, His people are blessed through faith Christ. We receive the blessings based on what Christ accomplished. Our perfect spiritual blessing hinges on the perfect obedience of another. This passage in Ephesians exults in a few of the blessings we have in Christ, mainly, adoption, being predestined, being lavished with grace, redemption from our temptations and an inheritance.

"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, ⁴ even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love ⁵ he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. ⁷ In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, ⁸which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight ⁹ making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ ¹⁰as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth."

Ephesians 1: 3-10

Keller: The Difference of Grace

The following text is classic Tim Keller in The Reason for God in an analysis of religion and the gospel. I need to hear this daily as I am consistently finding myself trying to justify my existence. Let this remind us that for those who are in Christ, we are completely justified by the blood of Jesus...

"There is, then, a great gulf between the understanding that God accepts us because of our efforts and the understanding that God accepts us because of what Jesus has done. Religion operates on the principle 'I obey - therefore, I am accepted by God.' But the operating principle of the gospel is 'I am accepted by God through what Christ has done - therefore I obey.' Two people living their lives on the basis of these two different principles may sit next to each other in the church pew. They both pray, give money generously, and are loyal and faithful to their family and church, trying to live decent lives. However, they do so out of two radically different motivations, in two radically different spiritual identities, and the result is two radically different kinds of lives.
The primary difference is that of motivation. In religion, we try to obey the divine standards out of fear. We believe that if we don't obey we are going to lose God's blessing in this world and the next. In the gospel, the motivation is one of gratitude for the blessing we have already received because of Christ. While the moralist is forced into obedience, motivated by fear of rejection, a Christian rushes into obedience, motivated by a desire to please and resemble the one who gave his life for us...
...The Christian gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued and that Jesus was glad to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time."