Marriage Rights versus Married Love

In 1 Cor 9 and 10, the Apostle is concerned to address the Corinthian habit of expressing their Christianity in terms of "rights."  And, the context will show that he is not opposed to respecting the rights, and especially the moral sensitivities and weaknesses, of others. It is living by one's own rights, regardless of the effect on others, that the Apostle regards as un-Christian and dangerous.

He points out that though "rights" have their place, they are not an absolute, and the real Christian life is motivated by love and not by "rights."  He goes on in those chapters to speak of this at length.  Furthermore, he points out at the end of chapter 9 that he keeps his body under, disciplining himself lest he be cast away even though he has preached to others.  Clearly, he sees that an emphasis on "rights" (for oneself) can lead not only away from ministry opportunity (which depends on the sacrifice of rights), but can lead to the loss of ministry -- or worse.

As an example, consider marriage "rights."

The Lord sometimes ordains a degree of celibacy between married couples (apart from disability) as a consequence of poor spiritual fellowship between the spouses, even when his own word makes that celibacy ill-advised (1 Cor 7:1-5).  Our Lord has the sovereign right to ordain this, and we must accept it, and pray.  This hopefully may have the effect of revealing to our own hearts how much our relationship to our spouses is based on ideas of our own rights instead of on love.  The “love” that we give to our spouses, if we do, could be an ulterior motive. 

However, if we begin to actually love our spouses, even in celibacy, we may begin to see this kind of estrangement resolve, given enough time.  From creation, the marriage union was designed to be a union of persons through love, and the body was given to provide a means for the expression of that love and to promote the welfare of that personal union.

Marriage was never designed to be a tool by which to satiate our flesh or to manipulate our spouses.

Hardness of Heart

The descent into sin is often a consequence of slow hardening of the heart.  Likewise, repentance and the rise out of sin requires what is often a slow softening of the heart.

Paul makes it plain in Romans, Chapter 2, that full knowledge of the Law -- the difference between right and wrong -- is perfectly compatible with blindness toward one's own depravity.  Jesus said (Matt 23) that the Pharisees sat in Moses' Seat, but blindly and continually broke the law.  This happened because of the hardness of their hearts.  Jesus' story about logs in ones own eyes, compared to splinters in others could fit here, too.  

Therefore, if we even recognize our sin as sin, what passes for "repentance" may often not be very serious.  From bare knowledge of the Law, one can admit to sin.  But, it requires divine illumination to see sin in its true light -- to be horrified by it -- to be repulsed by it -- to hate it and pray against it.  While the heart is still hard, insensitive to sin, it is profoundly easy to fall again, because the only real fear is the fear of being discovered by man.  Softening of heart takes time.  In fact, it is a lifelong process.  It's a common thing for old men who are godly to repent of sins they committed at much younger ages.  Back then, those sins which were so easily ignored are now repugnant in memory.

It's interesting to notice the relationship between Law and Gospel in this matter.  The Pharisees could thoroughly understand how to apply the Law to others, but not to themselves.  It is beyond human capacity.  Bare knowledge of the law may harden you in your own sin.  Only the Gospel delivers from sin.  "Come unto me," said Jesus, and "I will give you rest."  Only the grace of Christ softens the heart.  This is the real work of sanctification, and it is not a work of man.

We ought to continually repent and believe the gospel of our Lord, worship the Triune God, pray, especially for others, fight sin always, and never stop serving Him -- and wait for His deliverance.

It will come.

Sin shall not have dominion over us, because we are not under Law but under Grace.

Sin and Deliverance

Paul is clear.  The unmitigated ministry of the Moral Law is a ministry of death to sinners.  But, then we should likewise by no means think that the unmitigated ministry of the Moral Law is life to believers.  Paul is clear:

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^{Rom 3:19} Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. ²⁰ Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. ²¹ But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, ²² even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.

The phrase I bring out in significance is the comment "apart from the Law."  What Paul is saying is not that the Incarnation, Ministry, Death, Resurrection, Ascension and Session of Christ at the Right Hand of God has made the Moral Law "keepable."  What Paul reveals is that the Way of Life is the path to fellowship with God apart from all Law.  Yes, the gospel must be received, but the gospel is not Law.  It is a free gift.  The Gospel may be called the "law of faith" by Paul, but this is to distinguish the way of faith from the way of works which belongs to the Moral Law.  The "Law" of faith is not another name for the Moral Law.  The way of faith is the only way to fellowship with God in Christ, and this way is apart from the Moral Law.

Now, Paul goes on to teach that our deliverance from the bondage of sin is part and parcel of the way of faith, because it is connected with our union with Christ, which comes about inwardly through faith by the Spirit and is reckoned outwardly in baptism.  He speaks of the contrast between Letter and Spirit, meaning the contrast between the word of the Moral Law and the Spirit of Holiness who comes upon us in Christ.  There is no divorce here between forgiveness (justification) and holiness (sanctification).  The way to forgiveness is the way of the gospel apart from any stricture of the Moral Law whatsoever.  So is the way to holiness.  Not that we aren't instructed by the Moral Law.  The Moral Law, as descriptive of the ways of God, is beautiful.  In Christ, it does not curse, but it nevertheless always accuses.  One would have to be dead in conscience not to feel the accusation, even as a true believer.  Therefore, as Paul teaches, the law is not the medium of our deliverance from sin.  We are delivered in the way of the free grace of the gospel, a way that does not burden us with accusation, but invites us into fellowship with Christ freely.  Do we then not care whether we are delivered from our besetting sins or not?  Surely not.  We must repent.  We certainly must fight against our sin.  But, we can only be delivered from it by our death and resurrection in Christ.  We can only be delivered by the way of free grace.  We can only be delivered by fellowship with Christ, and he only receives sinners.

Are you seeking deliverance from besetting sin?  Give up all your attempts at obedience for acceptance with God.  You are not acceptable to God that way.  The harder you try, the worse it will be.  The Letter of the Moral Law will stimulate more sin, as you strive for acceptance.  Stop that process.  Truthfully accept your state of moral poverty.  Rest in Christ the Savior.  Rest in him whether your friends, your spouse, or your church accept you.  See Christ's deliverance!  You will still have to fight sin, but Christ in his grace will begin to take it away.

This is the way of deliverance.

It is not our victory.

Is The Gospel a Law ? (revised)

There are a million kinds of legalism, for most deviations from the doctrinal and practical center of our faith in the direction of "holiness" can be labeled that way, or at least tend to that.

Gerhard Forde (Lutheran theologian) once described himself, looking in the mirror, as if he were introducing himself to a 'twelve-step group':  "Hello.  My name is Gerhard Forde ...., and I am a legalist."  He was referring to the natural propensity of all men -- especially the unregenerate man, and that portion of our own Christian nature which is as yet unredeemed.

Any motion away from the center of grace in Our Lord Jesus Christ ends up in legalism of one kind of another.  This is just natural, because we are naturally "legal," not naturally "graceful."

My complaint in this post will center on a doctrinal tactic seen often in Reformed circles -- a tactic probably pathognomic of our movement, though by no means held or taught by our confessions, nor by many of our best teachers.  It is this:  The propensity for describing the whole of the Christian life under the rubric of "law," instead of recognizing the distinction between Law and Gospel, and how their relationships interplay.

When we think of repentance and faith as obedience to "law," the Christian life then just becomes an obedience to the Law which is made easier by the work of Christ and the indwelling Spirit.  The same orientation to Law pervades the exhortation to faith and the exhortation to obedience.  But, the Gospel makes a free invitation to receive salvation.  It is not a "law."  (See Rom 4:15 in context).  Receiving this invitation of free grace by faith results in the spiritual freedom of sons -- a state of not being under law, or sin, in the inner man.  The Spirit coming as a gift brings salvation as a gift, and freedom from law and sin in the inner man, resulting in the fruit of the Spirit, fruit which is not against the law, but which begins to fulfill the law, by love.  Peace and freedom in the inner man -- that is, love -- is the real motive for the acts of love, the fruit of the Spirit that the gospel calls for.

The Law gives us the vision of what ought to be (but isn't), and we must have this testimony for our warning and instruction.  But, evangelical obedience is produced by the Gospel.  It is not produced by the Law.  Love only comes with the Spirit of freedom.  Spiritual freedom is the free gift of grace, received through faith alone in the atoning work of Our Lord Jesus Christ -- nothing else.

Glory and Anti-Glory

We think too much in worldly terms concerning glory -- and other things, too.

1)  Paul is clear in 1 Cor 1 that it is God's intention to shame the worldly powers in all their greatness by means of those who are weak and shameful in the eyes of the world.  The world has one idea of what power and glory are, and the church has another, opposite idea.  From our standpoint, the world's power and glory are vain, but our power is glorious, because we know and are empowered in all our weakness by God the Lord.  The world, on the other hand, is empowered in all its strength by that fallen angel doomed to the Lake of Fire.

2)  Think about Christ's suffering.  He was doomed by the world, and the Prince of this World, to shameful death on the Cross.  Yet, from the standpoint of faith, our Lord on the cross reigned as from a throne!

3)  Think about our sufferings as we follow in the footsteps of Christ.  The world thinks that our hope in Christ in the age to come dooms us to lack of self-fulfillment in this age.  From our perspective, any hope of self-fulfillment in this age is futile.  The only real hope of any fulfillment lies in the age to come.

4)  The world thinks that disease and difficulty, and eventually death, are evils to be avoided at all costs.  Suffering, while occasionally seen by the world as heroic, is really looked upon as an unmitigated evil.  From our perspective, we learn obedience through suffering.  Our character is built through suffering.  In suffering we give thanks, and testify to the grace of God, because we know that we will be rewarded with eternal rewards for spiritual endurance through suffering.

These instances could be multiplied.  In every case the world's conception is opposite to ours.  What is glorious to the world is hateful to us.  What is glorious to us is hateful to the world.  The world fears the world to come, because they know they will get what they deserve.  We long for the world to come, where we will receive as a gift the full inheritance of all that God has to give.  It will be a day of fulfillment and glory, in the only world that matters, and our lives are now filled with joy and anticipation as we wait for it by faith.

Paul said that he was crucified to the world (in Christ), and that the world was crucified (subjected to capital punishment) with respect to him.  The Cross is the great separator that crucifies the relationship between this age and the one to come.

Christ was made sin for us, taking away our sins on the cross, and triumphing over death for us, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him by faith.

Therefore, believe and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling upon the name of the Lord!  Receive the Spirit of God who wages war against sin within us, and who fills us with all joy!  That Spirit is himself God's own down-payment to us from the inheritance we are destined to receive in the Age to Come!

Ideals Hiding Idols?

The deception of sin is such that sin can masquerade as righteousness.  Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light in order to achieve his ends.  Wrong masquerades as right, and, to those who are deceived by this, their righteousness in their own eyes hides from themselves a multitude of their own sins.

Our flesh is so weak that we are unable to discern the hidden idol at the heart of what appears to us to be righteous in our own selves.  Therefore it behooves us as believers in Jesus Christ to implore the help of God to reveal to us our own idols, and to give us the power to disable and destroy them.

Every one of us ought to look over all our bright and shiny personal ideals and high-sounding personal goals, and look for dark sides that we haven't clearly seen before.  These secretly empower our lusts, discontent, and personal conflicts.  Only the power of Christ can deliver us from all this and bring peace.

Gospel, Gospel! And there is no Gospel

Life under the Gospel is just not at all easy.

Talk of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is easy, but enjoying the peaceful and nonthreatening environment of gospel talk is not the same as exercising faith in the Christ of the Gospel.

Believing in the Christ of the Gospel delivers from all condemnation only those who are, and who continue to be, abased by their sins before God.  But, sadly, we're more ashamed if men see our sins, than we are if God sees them.

This feeling of abasement and shame before God, so seldom felt (and a product of his grace), is also a strange feeling because it is simply so wonderful.  It moves a person powerfully toward humility.  It is inevitably sanctifying.

The justification of the shamed and their sanctification cannot be parted.

Sin as Discipline

Jesus said that the Pharisees put on their show of legal righteousness simply to impress other men.  Elsewhere he blamed men for seeking the glory that comes from men, instead of the glory that comes from the only God.

All this serves to focus our attention on our motivations for avoiding outward sin as Christians.  Haven't you noticed that we feel more repulsed by our sins if other Christians see them?  We're ashamed to look like fools -- in the eyes of men.  We seek the glory of men.

The pungent consciousness of being seen to be a sinner by other men, and the resulting personal feeling of disgrace, ought to serve us notice that our focus is in the wrong place.  The real disgrace of sin is that it is done before God.

Therefore, whenever we feel the disgrace of having been seen to be sinners by men, we ought to transfer this sense of disgrace we have in the eyes of men, to a sense of disgrace we ought to recognize that we have in the eyes of God.

In this manner, our consciousness of sins before men can be a form of discipline to remind us of our spiritual isolation from our Father, so that we may begin to be meek again before him, and be delivered from the personal pride and vain-glory that comes from a life lived in the sight of men instead of the sight of God.

The Look and Feel of Sanctification

We may describe all the world as filled with two kinds of people -- short ones and tall ones.  That gray area between the two is problematic, of course, but the distinction between short and tall is still valid.  Similarly, one is either on the road or off -- and there's a gray area that doesn't invalidate the basic distinction.  So, we may classify schemes of sanctification.  There are two kinds (and a gray area in between).  Those two kinds are:

1)  Progress in sanctification means you gradually achieve a measure of triumph over sin, such that you see less and less of it in your life.

2)  Progress in sanctification means you see more and more sin in your life.

I will assert strongly in this post that #2 is the proper position.  Let me explain.

The commonest observation in spiritual things is that the spirituality immature and unwise do not see the full depth of their own sin.  They typically don't even see the sins in themselves that are obvious to others.  Sin may appear to others to run wild in them, but sin may appear to themselves to be quiet.  The immature see little in themselves, and they perpetrate much that they're not aware of.

The mature, on the other hand, see much evil in themselves, but outwardly, at least, mostly perpetrate less -- at least in the judgment of other people.  The consequence of maturity is that humility develops.  This is not just a virtue accumulated by nice good boys, but is a result of knowing the depth of sin in themselves (that others do not see).  As a consequence, the mature are less apt than most to think highly of themselves -- for very good reasons.  They also understand the magnitude of grace more than the immature, and they rest in it.

One can understand the danger faced by those who take the opposite view of sanctification.  They think they are doing better and better spirituality because sin gradually disappears from view in the inner man.  Too much of this will result in a fall.

Therefore, it's wise to pay attention to the doctrine of sanctification you read.  If it promotes the idea of triumph rather than repentance, confession and absolution, then that doctrine may lead you astray.

Woe to you on the day you have nothing to confess.
"If we say we have no sin, the truth is not in us."

Confess big ones.

Sanctification (revised)

The original badly written article has been revised to improve the sentence structure.

If sanctification were a process of becoming better and better by striving against sin by the Spirit (which, of course, we must do), and if we measured our progress by comparing ourselves against the standard of the Law, how would this comport with the doctrine of justification by faith alone?  Likely this way:  We would have to separate the process of justification from that of sanctification, because justification and sanctification were carried out by different methods.  Justification would be carried out through faith only in the gospel apart from Law, and sanctification would be carried out by laboring at holiness (which, of course, we must do) while using the Law as our guide.  This results in a common doctrinal dualism found in the churches.  The consequence among the insensitive Christians is perhaps legalism, as they practice a socially acceptable Christianity.  The consequence among the sensitive Christians is despair, through their (correct) perception of their constant sinning.

This kind of distinction between justification and sanctification does not do justice to the fundamental principle of grace inherent in the doctrine of justification by faith alone.  It reduces the relevance of this doctrine to the process of sanctification, and to the whole Christian life.  This is wrong.  We need a doctrinal formulation which makes justification and sanctification work together in a holistic doctrine of the Christian life that actually works.

Now, if justification by faith alone be the key doctrine for sanctification, it is obvious that real sanctification comes about by moving away from striving for personal self-improvement (before the Law) and toward Spiritual reliance on free grace in Christ.  Sanctification is measured less by accomplishment, as we perceive it, and more by repentance, humility, the sense of forgiveness, and the empowering vision of free grace in Christ, producing the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience ... .

This does not mean that we need not strive against sin when it threatens.  Because we are still in flesh, we have to fight and hopefully defeat sins at least some of the time.  But, real victory comes by deliverance from the power of sin by the grace of God.  It is not a product of human effort.  We may not see holiness coming over us as we persevere in repentance, and in humility, and in our joy and peace in Christ -- but others do.  The most self-forgetful, who are least fond of measuring their spiritual accomplishments, and who meekly boast in the merits of Christ will be the sanctified.

And vice versa.

Life Achievement (v4)

A saint near death writes in his will, commenting on his efforts to glorify God:

But alas! The desire which I have had, and the zeal, if so it must be called, has been so cold and so sluggish that I feel myself a debtor in everything and everywhere, and that, were it not for his infinite goodness, all the affection I have had would be but as smoke, nay, that even the favors which he has accorded me would be render me so much more guilty; so that my only recourse is this, that being the Father of mercies he will show himself the Father of so miserable a sinner.

One may marvel at the professed humility of such a saint, John Calvin, but unwittingly continue to regard these comments by Calvin as a wonderful sounding example of pious language on the part of a great Christian man.  But, this falsifies what the man is teaching in his final witness!  Because his example of real humility is not taken seriously, our own desires for greatness are not exposed as sin, and our own path to greatness is not revealed.

In fact, if Calvin's own self-image near death were ours now, then we would be more like him.  At the end of our lives, we should hope, like Calvin, to have finally achieved the true vision of our own humility and weakness -- and therefore to have finally rested in total reliance on the Grace of God.

What a goal!  A self-vision like this is a judgment on the idols of personal glory.  It is a real hope, that having learned obedience through suffering in the cause of Christ, we may in the end recline on our death beds, in the arms of Christ, and be carried by his grace to glory -- the glory reserved for those who rest on his finished work, and not their own.

God's Zeal to Save (Revised, 3/28/2010)

The Gospel of John Chapter 9 is a remarkable story, unusually long for a gospel, but it ought to be read.  In this story, our Lord Jesus turns a blind man into a believer, prophet, and teacher of the Jews!

But, the point addressed in this blog article is simply this:

NKJ John 9:1-3  Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him."

Christ's disciples thought they were delving into big-time theology when they could converse with the "expert," God's Messiah, about the legal niceties of responsibility for sin.  But, our Lord would have nothing of it.  He simply would not talk about or calculate the consequences of the man's sin.  He even says that the real reason for the man's distress isn't his sin!  He can say this because there is a bigger revelation to make than judgment for sin -- a revelation so big that it swallows up sin.  The man's predicament is instead an opportunity for the works of God to be revealed in him.

Now we know that the man born blind could not have been born blind if Adam had not sinned.  The man is guilty.  So are his parents.  They are more guilty than the disciples can even imagine.  But, God did not permit sin in order to simply bring a curse.  He permitted sin in order to show himself the Savior.  Jesus portrays the healing of this blind man as a manifestation of the (good) works of God -- as opposed to the (evil) works of man.  God is good -- and he is good to sinners.  He is the saving God.  The "works of God," which are his glory, are saving works. And, his saving works are greater than all our sin!

Christ is so zealous so save and to show forth the works of God that he put the man's sins out of his mind!  He simply refuses to bring them up against him -- forever.   (Heb 8:10-12)