Is salvation only for past sins & future heaven? What about the present?

Blog post: Our tendency is to articulate justification by faith alone morally, for the past (conversion) & future (entrance into heaven), without applying it (justification/salvation) emotionally & psychologically, for the present. We embrace Christ for forgiveness of sins but move on to other ideas & strategies when it comes to our emotional life & the daily pressures that do not lie directly in the “moral” realm. This is a great mistake & a recipe for worried, half-hearted Christians, dabbling their toes in an ocean of grace, thinking they’ve hit bottom.

When sinners are justified (saved), however, 2 liberations wash into their life. The 1st & more obvious liberation is moral. The 2nd liberation is emotional & psychological, which is more subjective & more slippery. Rescued sinners bring to their new life in Christ a host of latent emotional lifelines onto which their affections have latched—relationships, skills, bank accounts, sexual stimulation, a reputation, a salary, a sense of humor, an education, affection from children, affection from parents. These have provided psychological stability. Often one lifeline in particular is the lifeline of all lifelines (the ultimate). As long as we have this, we know we’re okay. “If all of life unravels around you, at least you’ll still have _________.”

We must continue to clarify in our churches and books and preaching and conferences and blogs how alarmingly easy it is, operationally, to swallow the first liberation without the second. We embrace God’s free forgiveness of sins yet go on funneling our affections and emotions into our old felt securities—what the Bible calls idols. We rest assured of our ultimate destiny; but the internal restlessness & insecurity continues in the meantime.

This miserable half-liberation manifests itself in any number of ways—students finding their emotional security in academic performance; businessmen finding psychological stability through profits; pastors assuring themselves of the legitimacy of their ministry through congregational favor; mothers undergirding their sense of worth with obedient children; church planters silently validating themselves through growing attendance.

The knife that severs these functional lifelines onto which the heart is latched is the gospel, returned to daily, tenaciously. For Jesus is the one person who ever lived who was, from the womb, “okay.” “Justified.” And on Calvary he allowed himself to be made un-okay, to be condemned, so that you and I can walk into every class, every business deal, every pulpit, every parenting endeavor, every church plant, every anxiety-generating real-life situation, already justified. Not only morally, but emotionally. Not only for the past and the future, but for the present.

Slightly adapted & abridged from Dane Ortland, PhD candidate, Wheaton College: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2010/05/05/justification%e2%80%99s-double-liberation/

For Jesus' fame,
Ben (312) 363-8578

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West Loop Tweets

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Preacher-Onlys Aren't Good Preachers

15 Oct 2009, by Tim Keller

In my blog post on Willow Creek, I said that many Reformed evangelicals think of sound, expository preaching as something of a 'magic bullet.' We may think that as long as we are preaching the Word--preaching the law and the gospel rightly--that everything else in congregational life will somehow take care of itself. We may give lip service to the other two marks of the church--the administration of the sacraments and discipline--but we don't give them proper weight. Fully considered, the administration of the sacraments includes pastoral care, education, and discipleship, while the ministry of discipline means rightly ordering the community, that is, pastoral leadership.

I have often seen many men spend a great amount of time on preparing and preaching lengthy, dense, expository messages, while giving far less time and energy to the learning of leadership and pastoral nurture. It takes lots of experience and effort to help a body of people make a unified decision, or to regularly raise up new lay leaders, or to motivate and engage your people in evangelism, or to think strategically about the stewardship of your people's spiritual gifts, or even to discern what they are. It takes lots of experience and effort to know how to help a sufferer without being either too passive or too directive, or to know when to confront a doubter and when to just listen patiently. Pastors in many of our Reformed churches do not seem to be as energized to learn to be great leaders and shepherds, but rather have more of an eye to being great teachers and preachers.

I'd point us to the example of John Calvin himself. No one put more emphasis on expository preaching as central to ministry. And yet Calvin sat nearly every Thursday in the Consistory, hearing hundreds of practical pastoral cases each year brought by the elders of the city to the council of pastors and other elders. He applied his theology to the intimate details of "adultery and fornication, disputed engagements and weddings, family quarrels, incest, rape, sodomy, buggery, prostitution, voyeurism, abortion, child neglect, child abuse, education disputes, spousal abuse, mistreatment of maids, family poverty, embezzlement of family property, sickness, divorce, marital property disputes, inheritance..." (Witte and Kingdon, Sex, Marriage, and Family in John Calvin's Geneva, Vol 1, p. 15.) Also, Calvin's voluminous correspondence shows what a forceful and wise leader and statesman he was. Because Calvin was not only a preacher but also a great shepherd and leader, he built up the church in a way that changed the world.

I pastor a church with a large staff and so I give 15+ hours a week to preparing the sermon. I would not advise younger ministers to spend so much time, however. When I was a pastor without a staff I put in 6-8 hours on a sermon. If you put in too much time in your study on your sermon you put in too little time being out with people as a shepherd and a leader. Ironically, this will make you a poorer preacher. It is only through doing people-work that you become the preacher you need to be--someone who knows sin, how the heart works, what people's struggles are, and so on. Pastoral care and leadership (along with private prayer) are to a great degree sermon preparation. More accurately, it is preparing the preacher, not just the sermon. Through pastoral care and leadership you grow from being a Bible commentator into a flesh and blood preacher.

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The Most Amazing Marriage Proposal

Adoniram Judson, the 1st American missionary, asked the father of his bride to be:

 

"I have now to ask, whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of missionary life; whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death. Can you consent to all this, for the sake of him who left is heavenly home, and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing, immortal souls; for the sake of Zion, and the glory of God? Can you consent to all this, in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with the crown of righteous, brightened with the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her Savior from heathens saved, through her means, from eternal woe and despair?"

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The imperatives are based on the indicatives

"The imperatives are based on the indicatives and the order is not reversible"

In June 2009, Bryan Chapell, the President of Covenant Seminary in St. Louis and the author of Christ-Centered Preaching, gave a lecture at the Advance09 conference in Durham, North Carolina titled "Communicating the Gospel through Preaching." Regarding preaching (which also applies to sharing and teaching the Bible), Chapell said, "The imperatives are based on the indicatives and the order is not reversible."

What does this mean?: To those who have not heard this before, it might not be readily apparent. Very briefly, imperatives in the Bible express commands which Christians must do, while indicatives are the basis of the imperatives in the Bible. A closely related statement would be: "What you do is based on who you are and the order is not reversible."

Some biblical imperatives: Just randomly, some common biblical imperatives are: love God (Dt 6:5), love your neighbor (Lev 19:18), fear God and keep his commandments (Ecc 12:13), preach the gospel (Mk 16:15), preach the word (2 Ti 4:2), make disciples (Mt 28:19), deny yourself and take up your cross (Mt 16:24, Mk 8:34, Lk 9:23), feed my sheep (Jn 21:15-17), ask, seek, knock (Mt 7:7), the ten commandments (Ex 20:1-17), repent and believe (Mk 1:15), give thanks (1 Th 5:18), look after orphans and widows (Jas 1:27), etc, etc.

Biblical imperatives are wonderful but ... Incidentally, all of these biblical imperatives are wonderful. But they are not primary. These imperatives are always based on the indicatives, according to the flow, and pattern, and stories through out the Bible, although the indicatives are often not readily obvious. For example, when God gave the Israelites the 10 Commandments, God did not say, "Obey them or you're dead!" Instead, God prefaced the 10 Commandments (imperatives) with an indicative, saying, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery" (Ex 20:2). God did not say, "Obey the 10 commandments, and then I will deliver you from slavery in Egypt." Rather, God said, "I delivered you from slavery (the indicative), therefore, obey the 10 commandments (the imperative)."

Imperatives are primary in all religions of the world except Christianity: As I thought about imperatives and indicatives, I realized that Christians often communicate imperatives rather than indicatives, while thinking that they are being quite faithful to the teachings of the Bible. But if we communicate imperatives rather than indicatives, then we're really no different from any other religion in the world, which all communicate imperatives as the way to be righteous before God, for all religions in the world teach their adherents to be good, to be kind, to be selfless, to be loving and forgiving, to not take revenge, to be morally upright and not be a drunkard, liar, cheat, adulterer, murderer, etc. Only in Christianity is a man not righteous by what he does (or doesn't do), for in the Bible man is saved and is righteous only by faith alone, by grace alone, by Scripture alone, by Christ alone, and for the glory of God alone (The Five Solas). Titus 3:5 says, "he saved us, not because of righteous things we have done, but because of his mercy..." Ephesians 2:8,9 says, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith...not by works, so that no one can boast."

Our default is always toward imperatives: So how might we communicate imperatives when sharing the Bible? We might say or think, "If you don't shape up, how can God ever bless you?" Or, "If you don't repent, how can God forgive you?" Or, "Unless you obey God, God will punish you." Whether we're consciously aware of this or not, we have just communicated that God's blessings for us is up to us and on what we do (imperatives), and not on God (indicative).

We might even think on the basis of imperatives. We think, "God did not bless me day today, because I did not pray and read the Bible this morning." Or, "I better not give in to sin, so that God will bless my finals and give me an A." Or, "I better pray more and purify my heart more, so that I can preach better." Even if these thoughts seem to play out accordingly, we're still thinking and reasoning in terms of imperatives, and not indicatives.

The difference between the gospel and religion: Tim Keller, Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian church in New York, says it best in this way: Religion says, "If I obey, then I'll be accepted by God." But the gospel says, "You're accepted by God, therefore I obey." On the surface, both religion and the gospel look alike, because both believe in Jesus, both read the Bible, both want to obey the 10 commandments, both want to live by the "rules" of the Bible, both want to go to church and Christian fellowship, both want to serve the needy and the poor, etc. But in their hearts, their attitude is quite different. One does so in order to receive God's blessing and approval (religion); while the other does the same thing because they know that they have already received God's blessing and approval (gospel).

Conclusion: Religion, is what we do (or the imperatives we follow and live by), while the gospel is what God has already done for us in Chirst (or the indicative). As Bill Hybels said, "The gospel is done, not do."

If we regard what we do (imperatives) as primary, I will either become proud because I think I'm living up to it (and look down on those who are not), or I will despair because I'm failing to live up to it. So I will either become confident and not humble (because I think I'm doing well), or I will become humble and not confident (becuase I think I'm not doing well).

But when we base our Christian lives on the indicative, which is what God has done for us in Christ, then our entire lives will simply be an expression of what Jesus has done for me in spite of all my sins. When Jesus is our indicative, we can always be confident and humble at the same time, confident because it's not up to me but up to Christ, and humble because Jesus loves me in spite of all my sins.

We do not love in order to be loved by God or others. But 1 John 4:19 says, "We love because he first loved us."

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The way to Love and Serve

To increase influence and trust, give freedom; to decrease influence and trust, maintain control.

Man's agenda is to build himself up, but God is the God of generosity and grace who gives liberally and freely of Himself and to us.

Man's default is to keep some "safe" distance, but the Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is fully transparent, trusting and loving.

We pull rank over one another, but Jesus gave up everything, went to the very pit and died, in order to win us back to himself.

"The stairway to the ministry is not a grand staircase but a back stairwell that leads down to the servants quarters." Edmond Clowney

"There is too much autocracy (or oligarchy) in the leaders of the church, in defiance of the teachings of Jesus and the apostles, and not enough love and gentleness. Too many church leaders behave as if they believe not in the priesthood of all believers, but in the papacy of all pastors." John Stott

"Jesus is the only Lord who if you receive him will fulfill you completely and if you fail him will forgive you eternally." Tim Keller

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C.S. Lewis on Pride

"A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you." C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

What a reflective quote from Lewis' chapter on The Great Sin that we heard in the sermon. I found additional meaningful related quotes from that chapter:

"There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves."

"There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others."

"According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison..."

"...if you want to find out how proud you are the easiest way is to ask yourself, 'How much do I dislike it when other people snub me, or refuse to take any notice of me, or shove their oar in, or patronise me, or show off?' The point is that each person's pride is in competition with every one else's pride. It is because I wanted to be the big noise at the party that I am so annoyed at someone else being the big noise."

"In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that-and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison- you do not know God at all."

"How is it that people who are quite obviously eaten up with Pride can say they believe in God and appear to themselves very religious? I am afraid it means they are worshiping an imaginary God. They theoretically admit themselves to be nothing in the presence of this phantom God, but are really all the time imagining how He approves of them and thinks them far better than ordinary people..."

"Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good-above all, that we are better than someone else-I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil. The real test of being in the presence of God is that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small, dirty object."

"It is a terrible thing that the worst of all the vices can smuggle itself into the very center of our religious life. But you can see why. The other, and less bad, vices come from the devil working on us through our animal nature. But this does not come through our animal nature at all. It comes direct from Hell. It is purely spiritual: consequently it is far more subtle and deadly."