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 - Endorsed - Indifferent - Contested
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| The Nashville Statement
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Name:Daniel
Home: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
About Me: I used to believe that evolution was reasonable, that homosexuality was genetic, and that people became Christians because they couldn't deal with the 'reality' that this life was all there was. I used to believe, that if there was a heaven - I could get there by being good - and I used to think I was more or less a good person. I was wrong on all counts. One day I finally had my eyes opened and I saw that I was not going to go to heaven, but that I was certainly going to suffer the wrath of God for all my sin. I saw myself as a treasonous rebel at heart - I hated God for creating me just to send me to Hell - and I was wretched beyond my own comprehension. Into this spiritual vacuum Jesus Christ came and he opened my understanding - delivering me from God's wrath into God's grace. I was "saved" as an adult, and now my life is hid in Christ. I am by no means sinless, but by God's grace I am a repenting believer - a born again Christian.
My complete profile...
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Daniel's posts are almost always pastoral and God centered. I appreciate and am challenged by them frequently. He has a great sense of humor as well.
- Marc Heinrich
His posts are either funny or challenging. He is very friendly and nice.
- Rose Cole
[He has] good posts, both the serious like this one, and the humorous like yesterday. [He is] the reason that I have restrained myself from making Canadian jokes in my posts.
- C-Train
This post contains nothing that is of any use to me. What were you thinking? Anyway, it's probably the best I've read all day.
- David Kjos
Daniel, nicely done and much more original than Frank the Turk.
- Jonathan Moorhead
There are some people who are smart, deep, or funny. There are not very many people that are all 3. Daniel is one of those people. His opinion, insight and humor have kept me coming back to his blog since I first visited earlier this year.
- Carla Rolfe
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| Remember Achan? |
In Deuteronomy 7:6, we read something very germaine to our understanding of what eventually happened to the Israelites, on account of Achan. The passage reads, "And you shall not bring an abominable thing into your house and become devoted to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest and abhor it, for it is devoted to destruction."
This instruction was fairly straightforward: If you know that God has devoted some thing to destruction, and you knowingly bring that thing into your house, you invite force God to devote you to destruction, in order to protect those around you from your corruption.
So when we get to Joshua 7, and are introduced to Achan as someone who secretly brought into his tent some of the spoil (from Jericho) that God had devoted to destruction, we begin to understand why it is that when Israel attacked Ai, God was not with them. By setting aside the command of God, Achan had not only devoted Himself to destruction, but by extension, devoted all of Israel to destruction.
Some may cringe at the judgment against Achan, for he was singled out, and stoned to death along with (presumably) his family. We might cringe I say at the thought of his family being stoned to death, then burned, then buried under a heap of stones because, although they were (again presumably) willing to silently harbor the forbidden spoil, they hadn't been the ones who brought that spoil into the camp.
Yet in making that distinction we set ourselves up to naively assume that the judgement against Achan (and his family) was harsh because God wanted to send a strong message, or maybe we might imagine that the judgment was simply a punishment for disobedience, and if we imagine that, then we are left to wonder why God seemed rather lacking in mercy when it came to Achan's family. We may reason that Achan rather deserved the punishment, but his family should have received a lesser sentence or something like that.
This again, because we presume that the judgment was more about what Achan did, and not about the consequences of what Achan did. You see, when Achan brought in the things that were devoted to destruction, he literally devoted all of Israel to destruction - including himself and his family. It is like when one allows a single drop of deadly poison into one's water - you throw it all away rather than straining out the poison.
When Israel went up against the city of Ai, God was no longer with them, because Achan's treachery had caused God to devote all of Israel to destruction. That is why dozens of Israelites died when they attempted to take Ai the first time. Recall that the Israelites had come to expect their victories to be flawless. In Numbers 31, we read that 12,000 Israelites went to war against (and utterly wiped out) all of Midian without losing a single Israelite (cf. Numbers 31:48-50). In the original assault against Ai, Israel fled from the battle, and three dozen Israelites were killed.
Now, three dozen may not sound like a lot of men - certainly it sounds to our ear like Joshua was over doing it a little when he fell down on his face at this news, and remained prostrate before the Lord for the remainder of that day. I mean, to our ear, we think: This is war! So what if 36 men out of 3000 fell. I mean, they were routed after all, to lose only 36 men would seem almost like an impossibly small loss. But when you are used to, and expect, flawless victories, the loss of 36 men screams one thing: God is no longer with us (Israel).
God wasn't punishing Achan for what Achan had done. Rather Achan had devoted himself, his family, and all of Israel to destruction by bringing what was devoted to destruction into his tent, and into the camp of Israel. When judgment came down on Achan and his family, it came down on them because Achan had willingly subjected himself and all of Israel to the same destruction that God was meting out on the Canaanites.
I don't write this merely to give us insight into what exactly was going on with Achan. I write this because I want those who themselves are professing believers, to have more traction in their own understanding when it comes to making a clean break from sin.
Not that I am saying, "Look at how Achan devoted all of Israel to destruction by compromising God's command, and tremble, for unless you make a clean break, you will likewise perish!" - which would more or less be telling you to pick yourself up by your own sinful bootstraps and fly right from now on --or else! Which itself would be an encouragement to do something you will never be able to do no matter how noble it might sound to try.
No, what I am saying is that sin's corruption (rightly understood) alienates you from the promises of God. You must turn away entirely from trusting in your own righteousness, for no matter how strong and vigilant you are, or imagine yourself to be, you will eventually do (ad nauseum) just as Achan has done. That is to say that no matter how many (seemingly) good things you might imagine that you do in your life, eventually you will mix these with such corruption that unless you were in Christ, God Himself would devote you to destruction just as certainly, and just as severely.
Given this; it is imperative that you learn, Christian, to stop thinking of Christianity in terms of conforming yourself to a regiment of religious duty (attending church, reading your bible, praying, and being involved in no less than two ministries), and begin to think in terms of drawing near to the Christ who has taken all (that has been devoted to destruction in you) to the cross. Christianity is lived out when you learn to draw near to God (through Christ) by faith. It is the fact that you draw near through Christ that is key. Make Christ the focus of your life Christian, and as you do, all the things that you would have done to try and imitate Christianity (attending church, reading your bible, praying, and ministering to others) will flow out of that naturally and abundantly - no longer will you draw these things laboriously from the well of duty, but they shall flow out of you like (living) water from an artesian well.
The sooner you learn that Christianity is all about living in the knowledge of what Christ has done, the better.Labels: how to be a Christian, living in Christ. |
posted by Daniel @
8:30 AM
4 comment(s)
 
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| 1014: Justified By Faith (Part III): Living by faith. |
In part I and II of this post, I have expressed the notion that Christianity is not a set of rules to follow apart from God, but rather a life that is supposed to flow from a walk of faith. In this post I hope to show how the preceding posts are put into practice in the Christian life by comparing living by faith with living apart from faith.
the righteous will live by his faith...
for we walk by faith, not by sight...
I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes
For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh
If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
But my righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.
And without faith it is impossible to please Him
Scripture teaches that faith is not simply something you have, but the orthodox "way" to be a Christian. That's a heady concept because we tend not to think of faith as something you "do" we are inclined instead to think of it as something you either possess or lack.
The notion of faith is further confused by the way many limit its application to justification. Everyone who understands justification knows that you -need- faith in order to become a Christian. Arminians would argue that you need to continue generating new (saving) faith in order to remain a Christian as well; though a Calvinist would correct that errant notion and say that saving faith does not wax and wane being a gift not generated by man, but received by him, and depending not on the person to maintain, but rather on God to sustain.
It doesn't matter if you are an Arminian, a Calvinist, somewhere in between, or in the fringe vociferously rejecting both views in favor of your own special understanding, I am guessing that there are many in your group, however common or elite it may be, whose application of faith in their lives is primarily limited to their justification.
Among those who recognize that sanctification is also by faith, we still have many, perhaps even the majority, attempting to become sanctified by applying faith according to a variety of mystical formulas, plans, and methods. It has been my experience both in person and online, that only a very few congregations are ever taught how sanctification works, and again, fewer still that are taught how sanctification *really* works.
Let's start with the gospel. How did you become a believer? You became a believer the moment you appealed to be reconciled to God on the basis that God would accept your appeal in Christ. We might describe that more commonly, by saying you became a believer the moment your repented and believed the gospel.
The trouble I have with clichés is that they are repeated until they become a Christian phrase that no longer means what it says - and people no longer are being indoctrinated according to the actual meaning, but rather according to the current cultural meaning associated with the phrase.
So I say you became a believer the moment you appealed to God to be reconciled to Him on the basis that God would accept your appeal in Christ. That describes what a repentant heart is doing. It is saying, I repent of my rebellion, that is, of obeying the voice of my own will, and desire to be restored to that position for which I was created - that is, I desire to be abandon my sinful rebellion and incline myself to be ruled by God the Father; I appeal to be reconciled, not because I am worthy of it, but because I trust that God Himself has made provision in Christ for my reconciliation, and that my reconciliation will not be brokered through any self merit, but entirely through God's provision appropriated through the impossibly gracious requirement of simply trusting that God will indeed reconcile me to Himself if I appeal to Him in Christ. I recognize that my sins condemn me, but that God is just in forgiving me by uniting me with Christ, so that I am in Christ (joined to Him through a spiritual union) during the crucifixion. I see that my sins have therefore been put away justly having received a full condemnation in Christ, and that Christ, being himself innocent could not justly be kept in the grave, and so was raised from the dead, and that by virtue of my union with Christ I too have been raised in from the dead - my sins having been left in the grave (as it were), so that the fact of Christ's resurrection is the stamp of my acceptance with God, for if I were not acceptable to God, He could by no means have raised me up in Christ. The fact that Christ is raised demands that I am acceptable to God in Christ. This all becomes a reality the moment I receive grace to humble myself before God, and accept His rule thereby having been restored into a right relationship through Christ, that is, restored as God's servant.
We say repent and believe, but those words are quite pregnant, and tossed about like bones that could use a bit of meat on them, given the rampant theological ignorance of our day.
So when I speak of sanctification by faith - I do not mean that I try and do good or try and do what I am required to do as a believer, and that I am supposed to "trust" that it will work when I do so. It means that the same gospel that I trusted on day one - the gospel that saved me, also sanctifies me. The moment I rest in the fact that God is for me, and not against me; the moment that I trust that I am reconciled to God in Christ, I am free to draw near to God, and free to choose to do His will. If I try to do God's will apart from resting in this knowledge, I am going to be doing it in my own strength.
A lot of sermons are spent on trying to motivate believers to act like believers. This pastor says that gratitude ought to be our motivation. Another pastor says it is love, we have to love God so much that we are pumped to do good works. Another says we ought to just read the bible a lot and hope something good happens. Another says that we are too prayerless, we need to pray more, or maybe all the time, so that we can surf the spiritual high into good works or obedience. We have to keep the fire stoked, to be on guard against losing the buzz - we want to be hyped all the time, so that we can always be ready to perform the Lord's will. Still others preach asceticism, or denying self - we need to just stop doing everything we want to do, and if we do that, we will be obeying God.
As a casual observer, I would suggest, based on what I see, that we are all prone to this sort of thing. We want to obey God, and never stop to consider whether we want to obey God because we are satisfied in Him, or whether we want to obey God in order to feel that He is satified with us.
Listen: The Christian who is looking for the right "motivation" for obedience, this Christian is not living by faith - he is failing in his effort to live by works and is floundering to find the right way to make the Christian life a "light yoke and easy burden". He is trying to find a way outside of living by faith, to live the life of faith.
Consider within yourself dear reader, how amazing it is that we are inclined to use the right language ("the life of faith") but fail to actually employ faith in the mundane process of daily living.
The example I gave in the last post whereby I was frantically praying for my daughter, only to realize that I was performing a religious duty without actually resting in God was given as an example of living in faith. That is what it looks like, that is how it is done. It is nothing more than trusting that every situation rests in God's hands. It is acting in the certainty of God's provision, and not freaking out when things don't go the way we think they are supposed to go.
Try and generate love, or patience, or assurance in your own strength. If you manage to conjure up something, whatever it is, it is superficial and powerless. You will never work yourself up into a lather sufficient to drive you the rest of your life. The love of the Lord is the strength of the believer. We rest in what He has done and in the knowledge of that finished work we find peace, comfort, assurance, and grace. The more we learn to walk in this way, the less concerned we are with generating motivations - we don't care to be motivated, but operate from the groundwork of genuine contentment.
Every other formula I have tried, has frustrated me and failed according to my own failing strength. Throughout all this however, as my faith has grown, I have learned to simply rest in the Christ, rest in the finished work of God - to recognize that this is life more abundantly - and as the song goes, the things of this world become strangely dim. In the strength of contentment and assurance, what do I care if I am to perform some task that would otherwise be loathesome to my flesh? Is my Lord and God with me? Does this please Him? Am I content to be His servant? Then I will rest in the work, whatever it may be.
Sure, I will stumble and fall, but I will rise up again, and run the race with endurance.
Be encouraged then, to walk by faith, to live by faith, and to stop looking for the magic key by which you can avoid God but still live an obedient life. You're problem is you are still running away from God even as you desire to please Him. Stop running away, and see what happens. Stop kicking against the goads, but accept the yoke, and see if there is any comfort in the Lord.
That's all I think I need to say on this point.Labels: faith, living in Christ. |
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posted by Daniel @
9:54 AM
11 comment(s)
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| 1008: Justified By Faith (Part I) |
You know how some Christians pray for patience, as though God granted patience apart from living in the Spirit? These are often encouraged in this direction by well meaning enablers who touch their noses and nod as they look over their glasses and say in their best Troy McClure voice, "You know if you pray for patience, God is going to bring things into your life that require patience..." <wink>
These believers, however they were led to the place of crying out for those things that God freely and always gives to the obedient, have come to think of Christianity in terms of the haves and the have nots; and they see themselves as have nots.
They genuinely want the blessings of Christ, they want to experience the fundamental truths of Christianity, but they want these in order to empower their obedience, rather than to have these flow from their obedience. They are lazy, and blame their lack on God not supplying up front what they "need" to be good Christians. Of course, they probably wouldn't articulate it that way, but deep down, they are already wondering whether they are false believers (because no matter how often they ask for this or that they never seem to get it), or whether they understand Christianity right, or worse, whether Christianity is all bunk.
At the very least, such a prayer betrays a confused theology; consider seriously, The one who lacks something that has been promised to everyone who walks in the Spirit is obviously not walking in the Spirit. The patience that God sends to His children is not called down in prayer, but freely flows from the Spirit when we walk in Him. No one who is in the Spirit lacks patience, and no one who is walking in the flesh has it.
I begin with that thought, because I am convinced that most professing believers do not live in, nor walk in the Spirit. Many, I suppose, are where they are because they don't really want God, they just want to avoid hell. They have considered the religions of the world, and determined that Christianity is the one truth faith, and so to ensure that they avoid suffering in hell, they seek out a church, and set about doing whatever they have to do to meet the absolute minimum requirements for getting into heaven when they die.
A few years back, the seeker sensitive movement was in full swing, and the conservative voices in Christianity rightly poo-pooed the notion that there were unsaved people seeking Christ, given that scripture plainly says that there are none who seek after God, not even one. But these failed to understand the subtleties involved - there are no sinners seeking Christ on their own accord, but there are many, many sinners seeking a get-out-of-hell-free card through religion. There are indeed many "seekers" - they just aren't seeking Christ, they are seeking heaven insomuch as they are trying to avoid hell.
It isn't that these hell-fearers haven't heard the same gospel, they have, but (and I am using a very broad brush here) because their faith is not the kind that seeks to be reconciled to God, but rather seeks to secure a better afterlife through whatever hoops need to be jumped through - they hear the gospel and regard it as the contract by which God is obligated to provide them with a better afterlife. They read "believe in Christ" as "believe that the contract binds God", and so they accept the freely offered better afterlife by exercising faith that God has to keep the contract if they do. They haven't sought God, they have sought personal gain, and believe that the gospel is the means to that end. They hear the same gospel, but understand it differently than a justified believer does.
Now, there are probably dozens of ways to misunderstand the gospel, but all of them end in the same way - works righteousness. Rather than try and paint every possible carnal misinterpretation of the doctrine of justification, I will just say that some people are deceived - they hear the gospel, and believe something about it that doesn't result in them being saved, but does result in them being (at the very least superficially) convinced that they are saved.
In this light, when we speak of the visible church, we are describing a motley lot indeed. We are not necessarily describing a group of homogeneously justified believers, rather we are describing everyone and anyone who claims to be a Christian. Not just those who attend a regular "Christian" service either, but a group of people who believe themselves, for whatever reason, to be Christians.
I mention these things up front, in order to paint, as it were, the picture of a typical church. There are typically some genuine Christians in any congregation - maybe even the majority, but mixed in with the wheat, scripture tells us that there will also be tares - people who believe themselves to be Christians, and maybe are even zealous for their religion, but who are deceived about their faith, thinking it to be the genuine article, when it is in fact counterfeit.
For most of you reading, this shouldn't be some shocking revelation. Yes, of course there are tares amongst the wheat. That is why we practice church discipline, to weed out those who may be tares, to maintain purity in the church.
One of the most dangerous consequences of having tares (counterfeit Christians) in the church is that these tares believe themselves to be genuine. Why is that dangerous? It is dangerous because in order to explain the unrelenting carnality they experience, they must redefine Christianity in terms of their own carnality. In other words, they invent doctrine that either excuses carnality, or mimics Spirituality with carnal effort.
Praying for patience, for instance. Where does such an idea originate? Not with the Spirit of God, but with a carnal person trying to be spiritual apart from the Spirit. That isn't to say that every person who has ever prayed for patience is not a real Christian. But it is to say that such teachings come into the church, and remain entrenched, because there are enough immature, or worse, counterfeit, believers to allow it. Most professors of faith want assurance, and a right walk with God is powerfully assuring. The carnal man, and the spiritual man have this in common, when they profess faith, they want to live out that faith, and they want to see evidence that they are not walking or running in vain.
Well. That's it for the intro.
Looking at the length, I suppose this needs to be a two parter (or longer). I will leave it at that for now, and when I pick it up again, I will show, Lord willing, the difference between walking by faith, and walking in some other way. What I want to deal with in this article is the relationship between motivation and faith. I want to show what it looks like to live in Christ, and contrast that with what I see (or suspect) in the faith of many who, while sincere, are ignorant of these basic things because they have (thus far) lacked instruction in such matters.
Update: In my reading this a.m., after posting this, I came across an article that makes for a good primer to what I am about to go on about... If you have time, please read this brief and timely article on the perseverance of the saints, h/t Daniel J. Phillips over at Biblical Christianity.Labels: living in Christ. |
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posted by Daniel @
7:13 AM
4 comment(s)
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