A Model of the Cross-Centered Life
Trying to think through some categories for living a cross-centered life that focuses on the person and work of Jesus. To download, just click on the image.
Trying to think through some categories for living a cross-centered life that focuses on the person and work of Jesus. To download, just click on the image.
Here is a summary (Part 2) from last weeks Grace and Men Conference at Perimeter Church. For Part 1, just go here. The notes below are from Tullian Tchividjian's talk on Galatians 5:16-26.
Obviously, there is much more to say. Nevertheless, I think it helps us see that that a radical justification focus is the critical element in bringing about the radically sanctified life. After all, we are not sanctified by talking about sanctification, but through living in union with Jesus as our perfect righteousness. In other words, the root of positional justification produces the fruit of progressive sanctification.
Or as John Bunyan said, "Run, run the law demands, but gives me neither feet nor hands; 'tis better news the gospel brings: it bids me fly and gives me wings."
There is a righteousness which Paul calls "the righteousness of faith". God imputes it to us apart from our works--in other words, it is passive righteousness...So then, have we nothing to do to obtain this righteousness? No, nothing at all... Christians never completely understand [this] themselves, and thus do not take advantage of it when they are troubled and tempted So, we have to constantly teach it,repeat it, and work it out in practice.
We are all in a struggle for righteousness, whether as parents, students, professors, engineers or preachers. We all have an impulse in us that wants to "make a name for ourselves." What we discover in Romans 10 is that Jesus is the end of the struggle. Since he has built a righteousness for me, I have no need to build a "sandcastle righteousness" for myself.
At a Key Life pastor's conference, Dan Allender, said, "The Christian faith and the grace at its heart is so radical that most congregations can't deal with it." I will raise my hand to confess that I am one of those who wants to believe the gospel at a radical depth, but who struggles. Fear of failure and rejection. Insecurity and a need for approval and praise. These are often what influence me the most.
What if I were able to live completely under the liberating influence of the cross? What if I were to embrace the grace of God in Jesus that Tullian Tchividjian says is "way more drastic, way more offensive, way more liberating, way more shocking, and way more counterintuitive than any of us realize."
How would it affect how I pray? How I parent my kids? How I love my wife? How I treat my enemies? And what I do when nobody is looking? Nobody but Jesus. He would become the One for whom I long to live—to honor my Savior as a fully devoted disciple, enraptured by the immensity of his love, grace and mercy, knowing that I am that only because he was and is fully devoted to me... even when I wasn't devoted to him... even as I continue to wander, much of the time being much more devoted to my own reputation than to his.
Paul's prayer for the church in Ephesus was that they would know this kind of transformative love and grace more and more deeply. That is what I want for myself, my wife and my children. May that be our prayer together at Creekstone as a community of ordinary folks who are coming alive to the wonder of the gospel by living all of life in view of the cross!
This is today's message from Creekstone. The main point for us from this passage is to grasp that the macro-promises of God’s plan give context to the micro-problems of my life — they enable me to see every circumstance with hope. I trust that this will be encouraging and helpful.
You also may listen here.
Today we are studying Romans 8:29-30 in the morning service at Creekstone. Since we will be considering doctrines that require more explanation that I am able to provide in the time we have available, I have included below some exlanatory notes for you with regard to the five key doctrines Paul mentions in these verses: foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification and glorification. The point is not to "know your stuff," but to have a sense of hope, that God has done for us what we could never do for ourselves and has a big-picture context for our lives that is more glorious than we could ever imagine. Theologians call this sense of hope "eternal security." In Psalm 16:11, David called it "the fullness of joy."
Foreknowledge. This does not refer to intellectual knowledge of facts or actions, but relational knowledge of people. It is not foreknowledge of someone's faith, but of the person; not of something, but someone. For example, when the Bible says in Genesis that Adam "knew" Eve, it means he had an intimate love-relationship with her. After all, the result of that "knowing" was a baby. In Romans 11:2, Paul says, "God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew." In Amos 3:2, we read the Lord saying of Israel, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth." The New International Version of the Bible sharpens the meaning by translating the word foreknown to "You only have I chosen..." Concerning foreknowledge in Romans 8:29, translators have attempted to capture the essence of this relational knowledge in several other ways:
The New English Bible: "God knew his own before they ever were..."
Charles Williams: "For those on whom he set his heart beforehand..."
The Jerusalem Bible: "They are the ones he chose specially long ago..."
Predestination. This means that God predetermined the desinty of those whom he fore-loved and sent the Son to save. This doctrine highlights God's grace in salvation, gives security to those who are saved and provides jet fuel for missions. For more on this theme, check out Ephesians 1:3-14 for a more expanded treatment of Romans 8:29-30, and then Deuteronomy 7:6-8 to see how Israel is an Old Testament example of God's predestinating, choosing, electing grace.
Calling. There are two kinds of calling. The first is an external, universal call to all people to hear and receive to the gospel. The second is an internal, personal and effectual call, whereby the fore-loved are compelled to respond inwardly and affirmatively to the outward call. So one call is universal to all. The other is effectual to the elect, fore-love, predestined objects of God's love and mercy. Passages that emphasize the universal call (John 3:16 for example) are like a camera in a movie that shows a scene from ground level. Passages that emphasize the effectual call (like Acts 13:48, which reads, "as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.") are like the camera that shows the action from above—God's/heaven's view.
Justification. We have talked about this so much there is not much need to drill down on it. But since it is the doctrine upon which the church stands or falls, it will be prudent to mention the essence of this doctrine. We'll use the Westminster Shorter Catechism answer to question #33, which says, "Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardons all our sins, and accepts us as righteous in His sight, only because of the righteousness of Christ that is imputed to us that we receive by faith alone." Justification is the legal declaration of God to a sinner giving him a new status. No longer am I seen as a condemned rebel, but rather as a righteous son. This is because the result of justification is not only legal, but also is relational, whereby we are adopted into the family of God as full heirs of the fullness of God's grace in Jesus.
Glorification. This is when a sinner experiences complete sanctification, or moral perfection, at the return of Jesus. We do not achieve it, we simply receive it as part of the full-orbed gift that is the gospel. In glorification, I am given a new glorified body and perfected soul, completely devoid of any trace of a sin nature. I will be unable to sin in a glorified state. I will be like Jesus—without sin, and perfectly holy, righteous and good—to the glory of God's immeasurable grace.
I have been reading through the historic Belgic Confession (16th c.) recently (as suggested by my wife, Kristy), and wow, it is gold! For example, Article XXII, makes a helpful distinction between being saved by faith as a meritorious work versus being saved through faith as an instrument. Here is how it reads:
"Therefore we justly say with Paul, that we are justified by faith alone, or by faith apart from works. However, to speak more clearly, we do not mean that faith itself justifies us, for it is only an instrument with which we embrace Christ our righteousness. But Jesus Christ, imputing to us all His merits, and so many holy works which He has done for us and in our stead, is our righteousness. And faith is an instrument that keeps us in communion with Him in all His benefits, which, when they become ours, are more than sufficient to acquit us of our sins."
So, we are not saved by our faith, as if it is our faith that is redemptive. We are saved by Jesus and receive the benefits of his life, death and resurrection through the means of faith, and faith alone. So when my faith is weak, my salvation is still strong.
Be prepared to read a lot more from this great Confession, in addition to some good stuff from the Canons of Dort. :)
SDG
