Puh!
“…the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” -Rom. 3:21
Believing is the conduit for all who believe. A bit repetitive, yet purposeful I think. He emphasizes the condition of receiving Christ’s righteousness–faith. To tell a child he will receive a reward without telling him the condition of receiving it is cruel. The same is true of saying that Jesus died for a person without expressing that he accesses the benefits of that through faith.
Someone asked my brother once when we were young what Dad did for a living. Curt replied, “He kills people.” That was not accurate. At the time, our father was a police officer, not an assassin. I did not question the legitimacy of him being my father’s son because of this.
Unwavering faith in, not the faultless articulation of what Christ did on the cross is the conduit of our salvation.
“Paul said, “I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet’” (Romans 7:7). That is, I wouldn’t have known the seriousness of my evil if God had not named it in the law.
But lawbreaking is not the essence of my evil. Desiring anything above God is the essence of my evil, before any commands name it.
One reason this is important to know is that it will affect the way you pursue change. If you think the essence of your evil is commandment-breaking, your focus for change will be commandment-keeping.
That is doomed to fail for two reasons. If we get good at it, we think we have changed, but the essence of our evil remains. If we can’t get good at it, we despair and quit trying.
But if we know that the essence of our evil is not commandment-breaking, but preferring anything to God, then our focus for change will be a change of heart. That is hopeful, because God promised, “I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 11:19).
This is the new covenant that Jesus purchased with his blood (Luke 22:20). We receive it by faith.”
-John Piper
- I’m learning that my apologies should be accompanied with an explanation of the ungodly motives behind what I apologized for.
- Holding to sound doctrine should never be apologized for or relented. Our responses to doctrine are always tainted with sin.
- I should be more aware of my sins than the sins of others.
- I want to be constantly aware of my need for mercy.
- The resurrection of Christ is the climactic centerpoint of the gospel. My faith must stand or fall on its historical reality.
- The words I say to my own soul are far more influential than words from others.
- If my presupposition is that people are indifferent towards me, then my perception will always reflect the same.
- I am an evangelistic coward.
- An underlying belief of mine has been that only Calvinists are exceptionally useful to God’s kingdom. I have personally disproved that.
- The ability to trust in an invisible God during times of suffering is miraculous–more miraculous than any physical healing.
- Honor, Character, and Integrity are cruel idols and their wrath is never appeased.
“The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed.” -Lloyd Jones
I saw this on an ESL site. I’m sure there are overweight people who exercise every day, seeing their ultra-metabolizing lazy friends, who would strongly disagree with a cute little inspiring quote like this. Some may even kill upon hearing it. Thank you Lloyd.
A Christian that perceives that he/she deserves anything less than hell will do a lot of damage when speaking to the non-Christian who feels the same.
“The man who has faith is the man who is no longer looking at himself, and no longer looking to himself. He no longer looks at anything he once was. He does not look at what he is now. He does not [even] look at what he hopes to be as the result of his own efforts. He looks entirely to the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work, and he rests on that alone. He has ceased to say, ‘Ah yes, I have committed terrible sins but I have done this and that…’ He stops saying that. If he goes on saying that, he has not got faith… Faith speaks in an entirely different manner and makes a man say, ‘Yes, I have sinned grievously, I have lived a life of sin… yet I know that I am a child of God because I am not resting on any righteousness of my own; my righteousness is in Jesus Christ, and God has put that to my account.’”
- D. M. Lloyd-Jones, quoted by Timothy Keller in The Message of Romans (Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2003), 59.
As a Christian, feeling as though you are more sinful than you ever were as an unbeliever is, in many cases, inaccurate. The unbeliever maintains a surface understanding of his sin at best. The believer, upon rebirth and the process of sanctification, is periodically plunged into the depths of his own sinfulness. The extent of one’s sinfulness does not necessarily change, only the acute awareness of it.
God’s purpose in making us aware of our own depravity is not as much centered on exposing our sin as it is exposing His abundant grace.
Friendships of Law-
“Our relationship is contingent on your behavior.”
Friendships of Grace-
“Our relationship transcends your behavior.”
I thought about how I model the gospel in every area of my life. Most of my relationships with people, even my wife, tend to resemble that of law rather than grace.
God willing, I’ll be moving to Korea with my new wife in a few months. I wish all my motivation to go was pure and Christ-centered. I think at one point it was moreso. It seems that all the prior transitions in my life have sprung from shame or despair. I felt like this transition would finally be the first time I moved without the overwhelming desire to set aflame to all bridges. That is an extremely sinful attitude. But, its one that I’m having a more and more difficult time fighting. The desire to go to Korea started out as a desire to serve a people I have so much affection for and to get closer to my dream of serving the persecuted Christians in N. Korea. I feel like a shift has taken place recently where Korea is now becoming my escape from the despair of failure. I sinned and was publicly removed from leadership a few months ago. It almost prophetically corresponded to an event in my life before I became a Christian. It was definitely discipline from the Lord. I fault only myself. I see God’s sovereign hand in it but my sense of moral responsibility far outweighs that.
It has been one of the darkest times of my life. Two nights before I was married I felt as though my failures were going to suffocate me. I must glorify God, He has sustained me and shown me so much grace. He continually pulls my eyes to Christ’s moral perfection on my behalf. He is my success. In Him I have only triumphed. God is sanctifying me. I was praying the other day and said, “God, I only want you to be glorified.” I realized that I actually meant it in that instance. For so long I have been saying that without believing that I meant it. It is a testimony to God’s power. For years, my strongest desire has been my glory–my ministry, my calling, my spiritual gifting. Sure, God could have most of the glory, but I wanted to own a piece for myself. There is no limit to that desire. The lust for glory only increases and will veil itself as a godly attitude until its too late.
God’s glory has been a topic of confusion for the last several years of my Christianity. My brother asked me one time why God created the world and I instantly said (without thinking), “For His glory.” Unfortunately, I retracted that statement when it repulsed my brother. Going to a charismatic bible college (which was far more “charismatic” than “bible”), God’s glory was depicted more as some subjective spiritual experience than due honor, renown, and worship. It wasn’t until after reading some John Piper stuff that I realized that God is on a mission to glorify Himself. He shows mercy because it brings Him glory, He forgives sinners because it glorifies Him. How disgusting that is to the average mind! Self-exaltation is a vice to most. How is it that the Creator of the universe can desire His own exaltation when He demands that we not do the same? It is because He knows that He is the the only One worthy of glory. To demand anything less than His own glory is to place something else as more worthy of worship than Himself.
I know that He works all things out for good–for His glory. My sinfulness has served to show how merciful He is. I deserve to be eternally damned, screaming in torment. But I will never be because Christ was tormented on my behalf. God is just and justifier–He rightly demanded payment but then paid it Himself. I was told recently that Christ died to give us a fulfilling life. I actually believed that for several years. Well, I’m not fulfilled! The past few months have been less than fulfilling. This life is a fast from the most fulfilling thing in the world–Christ. He gives us tastes of Himself here and there, but this life should be filled with a joyful longing for Him. There will be despair. There will be sin. There will be pain. Suffering is promised and relief is not. But, if we joyfully endure in faith, the long, painful, blistering march will end with the never-ending crescendo of delighting in Christ Jesus.
“The dying thief rejoiced to see that Fountain in his day,
and there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away.”
-”There is a Fountain Filled with Blood”
by William Cowper
Sometimes I surprise me with my own sinfulness.
A person who avoids speaking of his/her desperate need for Christ will many times fail in communicating someone else’s need.
God’s view and the world’s view of cowardice are polar opposites.
Christ and His work is the absolute only thing in the world worth obsessing over.
Pride veils itself with false humility. God offers two choices–humble yourself or be humiliated. I’ve chosen the latter every time. It seems that humiliation for me is a yearly subscription.
Marriage is awesome. It surprises me how many people will tell you, “Oh, you just wait…”
George Whitefield was given so much grace.
When you constantly run from one problem atmosphere to another, a strong sense of being replaceable develops.
Refusing to be encouraged leaves only yourself to do the job.
One who is disgusted about being around a homosexual hasn’t peered into the sinfulness of his own soul.
Ted Haggard needs prayer not criticism. Our flesh might say stupid things too if we were globally humiliated. God had compassion on our disgustingness, the least we could do is show the same for another sinner. Doctrine without compassion is worth nothing.
The difference between black slavery 150 years ago and humanity’s slavery to sin is this–the former desired freedom, the latter do not. Christ gives us the desire to be free and does the freeing too.
There is a way of masking a desire to share glory with Jesus for His work of salvation. It is usually done with strategic communication.
The truth of God’s sovereignty in salvation–that He has chosen those whom will be born again and respond to the gospel in faith…is one of the many truths that is repulsive to the pride and arrogance of humanity. We tend to feel that God should reward us seeking Him in faith with salvation. We can grow to feel entitled to God’s blessings. But we fail to realize the darkest side of our humanity:
No one seeks for God
All have turned away
We are slaves to sin
We are dead
Christ took the initiative to change all of that for each individual who comes/will come to Him. He even granted us our ability to respond in faith. That will always be a blow to the ego of one who confesses Christ.
The Founder of our faith was homeless, beaten, ridiculed, and slaughtered…but, if I believe hard enough and deny reality, I will be a beautiful, glowing, white-washed tomb.
I’m married. Glory.
