The Gospel & Obedience

I was absolutely blown away by a quote from Tim Keller in his recent book The Prodigal God. He says:

“Religion operates on the principle of ‘I obey – therefore I am accepted by God.’ The basic operating principle of the gospel is ‘I am accepted by God through the work of Jesus Christ – therefore I obey.” (Pg. 114)

I wonder how much we distort the beauty and wonder of the Gospel and diminish its power when we confuse it with religion. I know there are many times when I have caught myself being the champion for religion instead of the Gospel. It's during those times that some rule or some tradition, no matter how well intentioned, subtly or not so subtly takes precedence over the message and values of the Gospel.

• The Gospel always values grace and mercy when religion seems to be out to win an argument.
• The Gospel always accepts people just as they are, trusting God to change them and religion tells them they need to perform first before they merit God's acceptance.
• The Gospel always seeks love and religion seeks compliance.
• The Gospel challenges, comforts and encourages while religion judges and condemns.
• The Gospel always brings out expressions of humility and forgiveness and religion often causes us to be prideful and self-righteous.
• The Gospel transforms and religion, at best, conforms.

The Gospel calls me to respond with my heart, mind soul and strength as a loving response to the love I have already received in Christ. It becomes the motivator for all that I do in life. Because the Gospel is fueled by the truth of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, it is the only way to produce true and lasting goodness in me.

Do you agree? Do you see any other differences between Gospel and religion?

Holiness & Ministry

Fredrick Buechner says, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

As we have been discussing the past several weeks, holiness is very dynamic and not static. In other words, to live a holy life means to be active in the world with real people in real life situations. It means getting dirty - not with sin - but in lovingly serving and ministering to people.

In that way it’s not too far from the example Jesus gave when he did the nasty job of washing his disciples feet. He did a humble act of loving service in order to illustrate what it meant to follow Him. Making his point, he said:

"Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them." - John 13:14-17

So, if I am serious about pursuing a holy life I need to be serious about washing feet. I need to be serious about ministry to others.

Which brings me back to the Buechner quote. Pursuing holiness means ministering to the needs of others in areas where we have God-given passion and joy. And it seems to me that each person’s passion may be different. If that is true, the key isn't WHERE WE ARE specifically, but THAT WE ARE engaged.

What do you think?

Holiness and Sacrifice

Teresa of Avila said this:

"Christ has no body on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion for the world is to look out; yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good; and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now."

Jesus said:

"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind' ; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" (Luke 10:27)

John went on to write:

"By this we know love, that he (Jesus) laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers." (1 John 3:16)

Taking those three quotes into consideration, doesn't holiness have so much to do with sacrifice? I cannot love without sacrifice. Jesus sacrificed His life out of love for all of us. If I make my life available to God, then I will sacrifice for the good of others.

If I want to live and pursue a holy life, doesn't there have to be plenty of sacrifice? That's very easy to speak of in the hypothetical realm, but how does it make sense practically? How can we sacrifice our lives today for others, for Jesus' sake? How will that make us more holy?

Holiness and True Repentance

I heard a talk given today by pastor and author Tim Keller on the Prodigal Son. I have heard that famous parable, one of my personal favorites, used dozens of times to make powerful points on what it means to be a true follower of Jesus. Keller gave me a brand new insight and I want to see how you would all react to it.

He pointed out the elder brother's ingratitude, his pride, his unforgiveness and his total lack of grace for his wayward brother. True, the younger brother squandered the Father's money in wild living and there is nothing honorable about his behavior. His life clearly demonstrated that he didn't love the Father. But that changed at the feast, when the younger brother was welcomed back into the family.

Being part of the feast was symbolic of salvation. When one accepts the gospel they accept the invitation to the feast (salvation) based on the Father's graciousness. The younger brother knew that. It was evident to everyone.

But the elder brother didn't get it. He refused to enter the feast (meaning he refused salvation). He refused to accept his Father's invitation, even His direct plea to come in. See, he was unwilling to come because he resented the reception of his brother, the fact that his brother’s reunion with the family was now costing him some of his potential inheritance. He wanted nothing to do with him and his attitude proved he didn’t love the Father either.

He even boldly expressed his anger with the Father saying, “Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.” (Luke 15:29) See, he was angry with God because he wasn’t being recognized enough for all the good he did.

And here is where the holiness subject comes in clearly. We look at the younger brother and clearly see he needed to repent of his sins against the Father. We think of repentance as expressing Godly sorrow and confessing our wrongdoing, desiring to change and be right with God. AND THAT IS WHAT REPENTANCE IS ABOUT! But repentance is ALSO about repenting for the wrong motives behind all the good stuff we did. In other words, like the other brother, we can deceive ourselves into thinking we are so holy and so deserving of God’s favor because of all the good we do. But the problem is our motivation can be all wrong and if the motivation is wrong it won’t produce holiness (the fruit of the Spirit) in us, only the sin of pride.

How do you react to this insight into repentance? What further light can it shine on our discussion of what it means to live a holy life?