Allow Jesus to arrive on the scene

However much we may pay tribute to grace with our lips, our hearts are so thoroughly marinated in law that the Christian life must be, at core, one of continually bathing our hearts and minds in gospel grace. We are addicted to law. Conforming our lives to a moral framework, playing by the rules, meeting a minimum standard – this feels normal. And it is how we naturally seek to cure that deep sense of inadequacy within...

...Law feels safe; grace feels risky. Rule-keeping breeds a sense of manageability; grace feels like moral vertigo… The Jesus of the Gospels defies our domesticated, play-by-the-rules morality. It was the most extravagant sinners of Jesus’ day who received his most compassionate welcome; it was the most scrupulously law-abiding people who were the objects of his most searing denunciation. The point is not that we should therefore take up sin. It is that we should lay down the silly insistence on leveraging our sense of self-worth with an ongoing moral record. Better a life of sin with penitence than a life of obedience without it...

...The Jesus of the Gospels defies our safe, law-saturated, reward-conscious existence. He is many things. But predictable is not on the list. ... No sooner have we convinced ourselves that God is real and the Bible meaningful than Jesus arrives on the scene and turns all our intuitive expectations on their heads. The deeper into grace we go, the deeper will be our wonder. But though Jesus’ intuition-defying grace surprises us, our confusion does not surprise him. He knows all about it. And he is a patient teacher, more patient than we have yet dared to believe.

--Dane Ortlund, Defiant Grace, pages 12-15.

Consider that the blood was enough

Sinner:
I see. I see for the first time. It’s clear to me. You died for me and for my sin. You took my verdict.

God:
I did.

Sinner:
So tell me what I can do to show you how grateful I am.

God:
You’re not ready for that.  You have forgotten what Anselm said: "You have not yet considered the depth of your sin."

Sinner:
But I want to show you I have. I really have. I know it is really deep. Talk to me. Teach me sanctification.

God:
I told you. You aren’t ready for sanctification yet. You just imagine that you are ready. You are arrogant and you don’t know it.

Sinner:
Well, what then?

God:
Just sit there. Sit there for a long while.

Sinner:
And do what?

God:
Consider the shed blood. Consider that the blood was enough. Think about the fact that it isn’t your repenting that has saved you. Think about the fact that it isn’t your faith that is saving you.

Sinner:
Can’t I just, as you said, just think about my sin and the depth of it?

God:
That is a start. But you like doing that. You like it too much.

Sinner:
This makes no sense. What are you saying?

God:
I am saying that you like atoning for yourself by feeling guilty. And you like atoning for yourself by thinking about your faith.

Sinner:
Well, what else is there?

God:
There is Jesus Christ – but you don’t consider Him. You are not used to gifts. You don’t think much about them. Gifts make you nervous and tense. You don't know what to do, so you jump to trying to impress Me. I am not impressible.

Sinner:
I’m confused.

God:
You are.

Sinner:
Are you saying that I find a thousand ways to avoid your graciousness to me in the cross of Jesus, the shed blood of Jesus?

God:
I am.

Sinner:
Are you saying that I try to buy your gifts, try to pay you for them so I don't think about them being gifts? Because I’m afraid that if they are gifts, it is really too good to be true?

God:
That is what I am saying.

Sinner:
You mean I don’t like letting you freely justify me? I resist what is really a free justification?

God:
Yes. You like what is inside of you. You like your commitment, your Christian life. My gifts make you nervous. You want to think about you. You like thinking about you. You would walk a thousand miles barefoot over glass shards to avoid My gifts to you.

Sinner:
Why haven’t I seen this?

God:
Because you are a child of Adam.

Sinner:
I know. But I’m not stupid. I have two master’s degrees. I’m a child of Adam with two master’s degrees.

God:
It is not a matter of intelligence. It is a matter of sin.

Sinner:
Well, what’s the answer?

God:
I’ve been telling you the answer all along. The answer is the gift, the blood.  The answer is you looking for once in your life to something other than yourself. Your religiousness is your enemy! You don’t hate it. And you should.  I do.

Sinner:
You mean I worship me?

God:
That is what I mean. Your sanctification is your golden calf. You love thinking about your lack of it. And you love thinking of how full you are of it. Either way, you are your own favorite idol.

Sinner:
That’s not true. I just want to play my part.

God:
You have no part.

Sinner:
Well, a fine kettle of fish this is! A salvation without me as even a part of it.

God:
That’s the only kind of salvation there is.

Sinner:
Well, if You’re not impressed by my thoughts or my feelings, what does impress you, anyway?

God:
Nothing in you impresses Me.

Sinner:
Well, does anything impress You?

God:
My Son’s shed blood impresses Me. And His shed blood is yours. It is reckoned to you.

Sinner:
Oh, Father, I’m sorry.

God:
You are. And I gave you that, too.

Sinner:
You gave me, “I’m sorry?”

God:
Yes.

Sinner:
Is there anything good or true that I don’t get from your generosity?

God:
No.

--Dr. Rod Rosenbladt, excerpts from a conversational sermon
source: here

We've been told so much

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:11)

We are told to realize something that is already true of our position or status. It is not an exhortation to us to do anything with regard to sin, but to realize what has already been done for us with respect to our relationship to sin.  It is an exhortation to us to remember what is already true of us... And what is true of us is that we are already in an entirely new position and standing with respect to sin.

This is something which we have to believe solely because the Word of God teaches it. You do not 'experience' your position, you are told about it and you believe it. That is what justification by faith alone means.

...We have all got to do what Abraham did. We must just take the bare Word of God, believe it, submit to it, and act upon it. That is what we have to do with this statement.

--Martyn Lloyd-Jones
(Romans 6: The New Man, (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 2008), 120.

A kingdom hidden from willpower

John Dink is reminded (by a quote from Louis Berkhof) that God, and not man, is the author of sanctification:

"… it’s a sobering reminder, aimed at the ways we tend equate our Father’s house with bigger-faster-stronger living.  Instead, Jesus makes his home with those who mourn. He waits for the weak. He conquers by laying down his life. God’s kingdom is a gift for any receiver — yet, it is hidden from those armed with willpower instead of faith."

--John Dink
source: here

Come to Him on such a footing

Faith is rest, not toil. It is the giving up all the former weary efforts to do or feel something good, in order to induce God to love and pardon; and the calm reception of the truth so long rejected, that God is not waiting for any such inducements, but loves and pardons of His own goodwill, and is showing that goodwill to any sinner who will come to Him on such a footing, casting away his own performances or goodnesses, and relying implicitly upon the free love of Him who so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son.

--Horatius Bonar

The law doesn't produce gospel behavior

Audio: (4:08 min.)

We know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully.  So clearly in Paul's mind, there's a lawful use of law, and an unlawful use of law.  He says that his goal in his preaching is love, and he explains why certain people have failed to reach that goal because of the way they're using the law. 

So you see what's at stake here?  Love at Bethlehem Baptist Church is at stake.  You can totally botch love if you make an unlawful use of law.  Love comes not from list keeping or law keeping.  Lists cannot turn unloving, selfish hearts into humble, child-like, God dependent, Christ exalting, loving hearts.  It can't do it. 

We come to Christ for this.  You don't go to law for this.  You go to Christ for this.  And you cleave to Him like a desperate sinner, and hold onto Him as your only hope, and through that hope that flows into you... a cleansing of the heart  ... the heart is cleansed by faith (Acts 15:9 says).  And then the conscience is purified because Christ declares it pure. 

There is a lawful use of the law, and there is an unlawful use of the law.  There is a right way to move towards change in people's lives, and there's a devastating way to move towards change in peoples lives ... successful change.  There is deadly success in getting people changed in the wrong way.  And Christ gets no glory from it, and therefore is a failure, and is not a fulfillment of the law.  Notice he does not say [that] the law was added because so many of you are righteous and longing to do good and I want to give you some helpful advice, and counsel and guidance.  He does not say that.

So here's my question.  What produces behavior that is not contrary to sound doctrine, but is in accord with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God?  Answer:  The gospel produces behavior that accords with the gospel.  The law doesn't produce gospel behavior.  The gospel produces gospel behavior.  And the law can never to that.  You stay dead to the law in that sense. 

All you justified saints who have come to Jesus alone.  And I pray that it's all of you.  And if you haven't that you come right now... that you turn away from law keeping, and you draw near, in your hearts, right now, to Jesus Christ who alone can forgive all your sins and make you right before God.  So [to] all of us who've done that ... What do we do with Exodus 20?  I'll give you three answers.  Number one:  Read it, and meditate on it, as those who have died to it, as the ground of your justification, and the power for your sanctification.  Second:  Read it, and meditate on it, knowing Christ is my righteousness, Christ is my sanctification, Christ is my redemption, Christ is my wisdom.  Third:  Read it, and meditate on it, to know Christ better, and to treasure Him more.

-John Piper, sermon, "How to Use the law Lawfully to Bear Fruit for God"
source: here

Why the Law cannot sanctify

Audio: (6 min.)

So now today we pick it up, to talk about why the law cannot sanctify.  You can't even get to first base in becoming a holy person until the wrath of God against you is removed, and condemnation has become acquittal.

If you're justified this morning, by faith alone.  You've put your faith in Jesus Christ.  You've received Him as the savior and Lord and treasure of your life and your verdict has been changed and God says, "not guilty" over your life ... accepted, received, righteous in Christ.  Does God, now that you are justified by faith alone, send you back to the law to get sanctified?  And I'm answering no, He doesn't.

Everybody in this room is corrupt.  Where are you going to turn to have your heart revolutionized?  Law?  A list?  It isn't going to happen.  The law is powerless to take away your rebellion.  The law is powerless to take away your treasonist preference for things over God.  In fact, (let's say it the way Paul really says it), if you go to the law, as a rebel, do you know what you'll do?  You will make the law a new theater for revolt.

Now let's see this.  You need.  We need to erect some barriers between us, (and I'm talking us christians now), barriers between us justified sinners and running to the law as the first or chief or decisive instrument of our sanctification.  Don't do that.

If Christ's obedience becomes the obedience I need to be accepted with God (which it does...that's the meaning of justification), and the law presumably is given to help me perform my acts of obedience, and he already did that for me ... why the law?  And that's exactly the question in Paul's head when he says the next sentence:  "The law came in so that the transgression would increase."  ... Wow.  That's God's purpose for the law ... to move into the hearts of rebellious people and turn rebellion into many transgressions.

So the function of the law, the purpose of the law, the effect of the law ... is rousing sinful passions, not subduing sinful passions.  You go to the law to get your sinful passions fixed?  It won't work.  The law stirs sinful passions.  If you turn to the law to get your heart changed, it won't work.  It will make you worse.

If the law is not the place where you go to as the first and chief and decisive means of sanctification, where do you go?  Answer ... You go to Christ.  Die to the law.  Don't turn to the law first, chiefly, decisively, as the instrument whereby your corruption can be made into holiness and loving humility.  Turn to Jesus, welcome Jesus into your life, see Jesus, savor Jesus above all competitors, and you will be changed.  But not by the law.

Oh how many christians there are who are just doing external stuff with lists.  Lists of doctrines, and lists of do's and dont's, thinking that's christianity and will commend them to God.  It won't!  Trust in Jesus.  Treasuring Jesus, resting in Jesus, delighting in Jesus, valuing Jesus, hoping in Jesus, enjoying Jesus, leaning on Jesus, knowing Jesus ... will.  Turn away from the lists to the person behind the lists.  Go through the lists quickly to the person.

So where does our obedience come from?  Paul says if I were to take on my lips a description of where your obedience came from, I would not dare to speak of anything except what Christ did.

The hardest thing in my life is to see Jesus.  To see Him.  Him... Him! ... not sentences about Him merely, but Him.  That's the dynamic of sanctification.  That's the process of holiness.  That's what will get you changed, and Him glorified.  And I welcome you to join me in the quest to get to Jesus, know Jesus, love Jesus ... don't get stalled at the law.

-- John Piper, Sermon, Nov. 11, 2001
(Source: here)

I believe, that I can't believe

Audio: (< 4 min.)

We'll read Luther's explanation:

"I believe that I cannot by my own understanding or effort believe in Jesus Christ my Lord, or come to Him.  But the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, and sanctified and kept me in true faith.  In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole christian church on earth, and keeps it united with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.  In this christian church, day after day, He fully forgives my sins, and the sins of all believers.  On the last day He will raise me and all the dead, and give me and all believers in Christ eternal life.  This is most certainly true."


The third article of the Apostle's Creed as Luther looks at it, and interprets it, gets to the heart, in some ways, of the reformation understanding of the gospel.  With this alarming beginning he makes, he really gets to the heart of the matter.

He starts by saying, "I believe, that I can't believe."  What Luther is advocating, and what the reformers were advocating in this third article was that there is absolutely nothing that we can do to gain faith in God.  And the word is... NOTHING. 

The objections that are raised, of course, by the old sinner in us are union, and manifold, and all over the place:  "Well God has offered Christ, but we have to accept Him.  God has put Christ forward, but we have to believe in Him.  God has put Christ out there, He's put the parts in place, but we have to assemble it and make it our own."  ... Well that of course is exactly wrong.  That is not the gospel... That is the religion of the old sinner that takes the gospel and turns it to his or her own advantage. 

But Luther wants to be clear... When it comes to belief, what I confess is that I can't believe this.  For if it is true that there is nothing that we can do to believe, then that means that God has put an end to us. It means that God has brought us to the foot of the cross and there said, "That's it.  As far as you are concerned, it's over.  You can do nothing." 

What was completed on the cross was the work of Christ, obliterating, destroying, demolishing, smashing, everything that had come before Him:  The old way of Law, the old way of moral improvement, the old way of self justification, the old way of religion as pathway to God's acceptance ... all of that destroyed ... Now there is nothing left for us to do...  But hear, and by God's grace, believe, that this is true.

If we believe at all in Christ as our savior, if we have any hope in Him, if we have any faith, that He is ours, that He is our Lord, it is not because we've sized Him up and decided He's worth the effort.  It's not because we've taken the bits and pieces of the story of salvation that God has laid on the table, and managed to assemble them in such a way that now they fit for us.  It's because the Holy Spirit has reached into our hearts and minds somewhere along the life we've been living and has called out of us trust and faith even against ourselves.

-- Mark Anderson

Still trying to redeem ourselves

But I'm the guy who struck out four times, waits on deck for his chance... and doesn't get to the plate. The guy in front of me hits the game-winning homer. We win! We're the champions! He did it, not me. I didn't redeem myself. Now, I'm sitting in the locker room, and I should be celebrating with everyone else.

-----

Truth is, we find this very, very hard to accept, but we can't redeem ourselves. Oh, we like to think we can, deep down, so it's still about us. Carrying around guilt? Still about us. Feeling stupid? Still about us. Feeling like a failure? Still about us. Turning our guilt into seemingly productive energy, seemingly "right" things to do? Still about us. Seems so... so... so "righteous", and yet, when we can't take our eyes off ourselves to celebrate the win, it's just plain about us. That's pride.

And pride always hurts, but it's positively deadly when masked by our attempts to pay our own way with our religious activity.

The game is over. We're in the religious locker room, still trying to redeem ourselves.

And God is popping the cork.

--Brant Hansen
Please read! :
This quote above is just Brant's conclusion to a great real life illustration found: here

The gospel: Our best minds are on it

What is the gospel?

Well, you remember the answer of the Apostle Paul, "It is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth" (Rom 1:16).

How easy it is to forget that. How easy to preach it as a system, to preach it as a collection of ideas, or just to preach it as a truth. Ah, but you can do that without power. There are people, says the Apostle Paul, who "have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof" (2 Tim 3:5).

Christianity is primarily a life. It is a power. It is a manifestation of energy.

--Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Revival (Crossway, 1987), 123