Why Rehearse the Gospel?
It seems that the reason Paul felt compelled to begin "practical" arguments against sin or for good works by pointing to the gospel was due to the human tendency to misorder things. Evangelicals are taught from birth that they could never earn their salvation, but how many of us still try? If you ask 10 people who claim to be believers how they're making it to heaven, I'd bet that 5 of them would say something like, "I'm just working hard to get to heaven." (yes, that's a reference to an Alan Jackson song - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV292aZuYEo).
Remembering or rehearsing the gospel combats our human tendency to think that we can earn our salvation (justify ourselves) or pay God back for what He's done for us. I try to point out how crazy this is to my students with the following example: If you eat 3 meals each day and there are 7 days in a week and 52 weeks in a year, by the time you're 18 years old and move off to college to start your own life, given the conservative estimate of around $2 per meal, your parents have provided almost $40,000 in food for you. This is not to mention the power bills, cell phone, insurance, school supplies, extracurricular activities, clothes, shoes, and on and on. I've heard that it takes over 100,000 to raise child to the age of eighteen.
Now imagine that child trying to EARN his right to be a part of the family by being obedient. How many loads of laundry does he have to do to earn his parents love? Maybe worse, what about the child that would try to PAY BACK their parents for all the meals and clothes that they provided? How many plates does one have to wash in order to pay back $40,000 worth of meals? He can't do it! And even if he could, his parents wouldn't want him to because that's not the point. They love him and give him these good things as an overflow of their love.
In the same way, the child should obey out of respect for who his parents are and out of gratitude for what they have done for him... not out of an effort to earn or pay back anything.
If we can't easily calculate the number of chores we'd have to do to pay our parents back for 18 years of food, clothing and shelter, we have to ask the question.... "How many good works do we have to do to EARN salvation or PAY BACK the salvation we've already received?" There should be freedom in this statement: WE CAN'T DO IT! We never could… even if we wanted to. And the amazing thing is that God doesn't want us to! He simply wants our obedience to be a RESPONSE to what has already been done for us.
Do you see the power in remembering the gospel? Yes, it is painful to often remind yourself of your own lostness and hopelessness without Christ, but it is overwhelmingly glorious to consider the fact that He has overcome this helplessness through the cross and resurrection... this is GOOD NEWS!
Remember the gospel.
Before you get to DOING. Remember what's been DONE...
and then your DOING will be as it should...
a grateful response to what's already been DONE.
I am all but fully convinced that this is the ONLY WAY to overcome habitual sin the life of the believer. Remembering the gospel disarms the power of sin in a way that no other thing can; and when sin loses its power, it loses its control... but that's probably another post for another day.
Example – The Struggle to Stop Sinning
Let's say you’re caught thoughts of inadequacy. You beat yourself up because of every little thing that you think or say that's not right. The COMMAND (step 1) of God is to not feel unnecessarily or overly inadequate but rather to be humble before a holy God and allow Him to lift you up while casting all your cares/worries upon Him (1 Pt. 5:6-7).
The typical Christian response to the one who feels inadequate would be: "Remember that you are created in God's image," and, once again, this is not wrong... just incomplete. Yes, the fact that you are created in God's image does say a lot about how God values you. But, the reality is that you have rejected His good pleasure in you by going your own way. You have rebelled against Him, as have I. Because of this rebellion, your whole life is broken, even your mind. So, one symptom of this brokenness is your feeling of inadequacy. The solution is found in the good news of Jesus. He nailed all of your inadequacy and all of the things that make you feel inadequate to the cross so that they are now powerless before you. They are not the truth anymore. They are lies from Satan and your fleshly mind. Jesus has loved you with an everlasting love, and that is why He did what He did for you. Not only has your inadequacy been placed on Jesus, but all of Jesus' adequacy has now been placed on you. That is good news! And finally, you can look forward to the day when even the temptation to feel inadequate will be thrown into hell and you will never have to struggle with it again.
Two more powerful truths to walk in are the fact that even in (and I would say especially in) your moments of feeling inadequate now, you can trust that Jesus is praying for you (Heb. 4:15-16), and He has given you the church (brothers and sisters in Christ) to walk alongside you. They can be the hands and feet of Christ, encouraging you and reminding you of the truth when all you seem to hear are the lies.
Example – The Struggle to Be Obedient.
You know that you need to control your tongue. The COMMAND in James 3 is to control your tongue, yet James says, "No human being can tame the tongue" (3:8). So, what do we do? Give up? Surrender to sin? I don't think so. Obviously, I would agree with James. No man can tame the tongue. But the Holy Spirit of God in man supernaturally can. So how do we get to the point of believing this and walking in it?
First, we recognize, with James, that in our flesh this is impossible (back to the concept of need - this is always the first step). This is a picture of our fallenness due to sinful rebellion. It is a hopeless situation without outside intervention, but that's what Jesus is. He came to the earth and never spoke a cruel, cutting, or sarcastic word. He never spoke foul or hateful language. His death on the cross paid the penalty for all of our sinful words, which disarms their power. They do not condemn us, even when we speak them now. On top of this, we have been given the very righteousness of Jesus, so it is not only as if we've never spoken an evil word, but it is (in the eyes of God) as if we have always spoken the right words. We are righteous in His sight! Now we have been made new creations (2 Cor. 5:17), filled with the Holy Spirit, and God begins the process of unveiling who we are in Christ... ie... those who always speak rightly. This change of heart also compels us to confess and ask forgiveness of those whom we've harmed with our words. You see... obedience flows out of the gospel! What we do is an overflow of what's already been done.
Before... I was trying really hard not to say curse words or hateful things, but I always failed at this and continually felt discouraged by my failure.
Now... I stand fully accepted as one who never has said a curse word or a hateful thing... and that compels me to never say curse words or hateful things.
This difference is subtle but incredibly profound!
1 comment:
The example of "paying back your parents" is an interesting one because of 1 Tim 5:4 where it is said it is a good work (pious/godly) and pleasing to God for a widow's children to pay her back by supporting her. That's because it is expected that a child will outgrow their dependence on their physical parents and even at some point be more capable. But as children of God, we never become less dependent on our Father in Heaven and we still should cry out every day to him for our daily bread! The idea that we could earn back such blessing from God is silly.
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