Gospel-Driven Sanctification

In our church, we talk a lot about the gospel being crucial not only to our justification (how we are brought into right standing with God), but also our sanctification (the progressive work of being made more like Jesus in our practice).  In this video, Don Carson puts a little flesh and blood on that reality:

Conformed to Christ

How will I be changed into the image of Jesus?

By re-rooting my mind and heart each and every day in the rich soil of the unfailing love, the inscrutable wisdom, and the unthwartable power with which the Triune God governs all the details of my life, and the entire world.

Checklist When You Sin

From Fitzpatrick and Johnson's book, Counsel from the Cross:

1. Confess our sins to God (openly and freely), while praying to God for the grace of the Holy Spirit to strive against them.

2. Thank God for our ongoing struggle with sin because, when rightly viewed, it makes us love and appreciate Jesus Christ more.

3. Strive to put off our sin and obey all the moral law in the light of God's ongoing forgiveness, love, and grace.

Do you, like me, find it much easier to practice points 1 & 3 than point 2?

Somebody Else

A meditation from Paul Tripp's book, Whiter than Snow:

I really wish I could blame
somebody else.
I wish I could place the responsibility
on somebody else.
I would love to point the finger
at somebody else.
I wish I could convince myself
that it was somebody else.
I tried to feed myself the logic
that it was somebody else.
For a moment I bought my argument
that it was somebody else.
There is always another sinner
who can bear my fault.
There is always some circumstance
that can carry my blame.
There's always some factor
that made me do what I did.
There's always somewhere else to point
rather than looking at me.
But in the darkness of bedtime
the logic melts out of my heart.
In the moments before sleep
the pain begins to squeeze away my breath.
As my mind replays the day's moments
the conclusion is like a slap.
There is no monster
to hide from.
There is no excuse that holds.
My war is not external,
the enemy is not outside.
The struggle rages within me,
nowhere to point or run.
No independent righteousness,
no reason for smugness or rest.
I am my greatest enemy
and rescue my only hope.
In the quiet I face it
I cannot blame somebody else.
One more time I close my eyes admitting
my only hope is found in Somebody else.

Feelings & Truth

John Piper:

This is the way I live my life every day -- seeking to bring my vagrant feelings into line with ultimate reality. My feelings are not God. God is God. My feelings do not define truth. God’s word defines truth. My feelings are echoes and responses to what my mind perceives. And sometimes—many times—my feelings are out of sync with the truth. When that happens—and it happens every day in some measure—I try not to bend the truth to justify my imperfect feelings, but rather, I plead with God: Purify my perceptions of his truth and transform my feelings so that they are in sync with the truth.

That’s the way I live my life every day. I hope you are with me in that battle.

I'm with you, John. Thanks for the challenge!

Critics

I might get this quote from David Powlison (via Tullian) framed:

"Christ uses critics to guard our souls from self-destructive tendencies."

The Gospel Drives Discipleship

I'd like to read this but don't have time to right now, so I'm posting it here so I can refer back to it when I have more time. Maybe you will find it interesting too.

In this series of posts, Bob Thune explores how the gospel drives discipleship from beginning to end by sharing his experience working with a friend, Ryan, who identifies as a transsexual.

Identifying Idols

After preaching this morning on idolatry from 1 Corinthians 10:1-22, I had a few people ask me for a list of the questions I mentioned to our congregation to identify the idols of our hearts. Here they are, in case anyone is interested in doing some heart-work.

You can listen to the sermon here.

What captures your greatest zeal?

Whose approval do you crave most?

What do you brag about? Ie, what personal distinctives tend to make you feel superior/look down upon others?

What do you feel like you need to have in order to be a happy, whole, meaningful, successful, person?

What are you afraid of?

What do you complain most about?

What is that one thing that, if you were to loose it, would cause you to feel that life isn’t worth living?

Where do you go for comfort in the midst of stress?

What angers and frustrates you most?

What things cause you to question God’s love and goodness to you? In other words, about what things do you say, “Jesus, I’d be sure of your love for me if only You…”?

What do you sacrifice the most for?

The Gospel Every Day

Pastor Tullian:

Once God rescues sinners, his plan isn’t to steer them beyond the gospel, but to move them more deeply into it.

Or to put it another way:

The gospel is not only growing wider in the world but it’s also growing deeper in Christians.

Or to put it another way:

The gospel doesn’t just ignite the Christian life but it’s also the fuel that keeps Christians going and growing every day.

Or to put it the way the Apostle Paul put it (in Colossians 1:6):

"Of this (the believer's future heavenly hope) you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth."

Bottom line: make your chief ambition of every day to get your heart deeply rooted in the gospel.

Annie's Gospel

Rich gospel implications in this clip. What is it that changes Annie's approach to life? Not being told what to do, but being told that she has a new identity.

She is not an orphan anymore. That changes everything (I realize that the rest of the plotline shows several discrepancies with the gospel storyline, but I think the clip still makes a point):



(Via Jared Wilson)

Painful Liberation

Pastor Tullian:

Much pain we experience is God prying open our hands & taking away something we’re holding onto more tightly than him.

Spiritual Dehydration

An excellent post from C.J. Mahaney addressing a common struggle for Christians:

Let me begin this post by asking you four direct questions about the condition of your soul right now:

• Do you sense that your affections for the Savior have diminished recently?
• Has your appetite for Scripture weakened?
• Does your soul seem dry?
• Does God seem distant from you?
  

If so, you are not alone. These struggles are common to even the most mature Christians—so common that Scripture anticipates them. But these are serious problems and must be addressed and not ignored. They don’t just go away over time. So how should we respond?

Read the rest here.

Real Lasting Rest

I was really encouraged -- in my parenting of the two little girls God has entrusted to me and in my living with daily trust in Him as a child -- by this blog post from Paul Tripp. The conclusion:

Real rest is found in trusting the Person who is in control of the things you don’t understand.

You Can Change

The other day, Michelle and I finished reading Tim Chester's You Can Change together. I've mentioned this book several times on the blog over the past few months, and highly recommend it for anyone looking for a primer on the basics of biblical change.

In the summary portion of the last chapter, Chester gives six bullet points that are tremendously important for fighting the daily fight of faith. I think we're going to put these up on our refrigerator:

* Change is a lifetime task
* Change is a daily task
* I can change
* I will change
* I am a sinner
* I am righteous

Read the last chapter of the book to fill in the details on those six bullet points. I'll give a free copy of the book to the first two people who leave a comment asking for one.

Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health

From Don Whitney's book by the same title (via Jared Wilson):

1. Do you thirst for God?
2. Are you governed increasingly by God's Word?
3. Are you more loving?
4. Are you more sensitive to God's presence?
5. Do you have a growing concern for the spiritual and temporal needs of others?
6. Do you delight in the bride of Christ?
7. Are the spiritual disciplines increasingly important to you?
8. Do you still grieve over sin?
9. Are you a quicker forgiver?
10. Do you yearn for heaven and to be with Jesus?

Remember, this is a diagnostic test, but it's not the remedy. In other words, trying harder to do these ten things better is not going to make you spiritually healthy. The only thing that will do that is embracing all that Jesus is, has done, and promises to do for you in the gospel.

Four Life-Changing Truths

In You Can Change, Tim Chester mentions four life-changing truths about God. I don't think it's an overstatement to say that every act of sin flows out of a failure to grasp one of these truths in the moment of temptation:

1. God is great - so we do not have to be in control.
2. God is glorious - so we do not have to fear others.
3. God is good - so we do not have to look elsewhere.
4. God is gracious - so we do not have to prove ourselves.

Get these four truths deeply rooted in your heart, friends. They are fundamental weapons in the war against sin.

Sanctification

@timchestercouk: "Sanctification is the progressive narrowing of the gap between confessional faith and functional faith."

Are You Still Trying to Prove Yourselves?

A set of questions from You Can Change, intended to help you discern whether you are functionally trusting in Christ to be your justification:

Do you ever get angry or brood because you want to prove you're in the right?
Does your Christian service feel like joyless duty?
Do you ever feel the pressure to perform?
Do you serve others so you can feel good about yourself or impress people?
Do you worry that you won't make the grade in life?
Do you enjoy conversations about the shortcomings of others?

Self-Righteousness

"Self-righteousness is being more aware of and irritated by the sins of others than you are conscious of and grieved by your own." - @PaulTripp

The Gospel and Your "Needs"

Another quote from Keller's new study, The Gospel in Life:

"The gospel, if it is really believed, removes neediness -- the need to be constantly respected, appreciated, and well-regarded; the need to have everything in your life go well; the need to have power over others. All of these great, deep needs continue to control you only because the concept of the glorious God delighting in you with all his being is just that -- a concept and nothing more."

To overcome our "neediness", we need to labor in God's strength to let the truth of the gospel sink deep down into our hearts so that it dwells in us richly. To the degree that we're really gripped by Christ's love, we'll be unshakable even when these so-called "needs" are not being met.

O God, give us the grace to own the gospel as infinitely more than a bare concept!