Please hear what I’m NOT saying…
Monday, February 28, 2011
I stood in front of the sanctuary last week and received a familiar look accompanied by a familiar question. The look was one of concern, confusion and suspicion. The question was very familiar. It began this way, “I’ve got to ask you a question, are you saying…” I interrupted them, “...am I saying that grace means you can go out and do anything you want to do, throw caution to the wind, embrace debauchery and live with a perpetual “hall pass” to do whatever you want, whenever you want?”
They smiled and graciously said, “well I wasn’t going to ask that exactly, but…” I interrupted again, “...but you were going to ask whether I believed that as Christians we are to put off the old man and put on the new man, participate in the mortification of the flesh, run the race with perseverance, buffet our bodies, die to sin and live to righteousness?” They smiled again. I got it.
I’d heard that question before, probably several hundred times. So why is this question so regularly coming my way? I’d suggest to you that the reason is fear. It is fear that my preaching is giving people license to sin, license to do “whatever they want” and license to ignore the clear teaching of Scripture that in Christ we’ve been “unshackled from slavery to sin and shackled to righteousness.” You need to know that far from finding such accusations insulting, I actually find them quite encouraging. It thrills me! I’m being heard—heard to be preaching grace deep enough, wide enough and high enough that in Christ there’s nothing we could do to make God love us any more OR anything we could do to make Him love us any less.
Nothing we could do to make him love us any more or any less? Being heard? Is this making your brain hurt? Okay Larroux, stop the double speak! YES or NO—Are you actually saying that you can go out and do whatever you want? Are you actually saying that the Gospel gives us permission to sin? Are you actually saying that we have a “hall pass” to do whatever we want? No, I’m not actually saying any of those things. Final answer.
Do you feel relieved? Can you finally exhale? Well, before you open the champagne make sure you hear this: I am NOT saying any of those things but what I am saying is much more scandalous. In Christ, neither our greatest performance or our worst failure has any defining power for us at all. You heard me right: neither performance nor failure defines us. The final verdict is cast about me without regard for me at all.
There is NOTHING, nada, not one-single-thing, not one-single-action, no intention, no inclination or smallest glimmer of our most minute desire that recommends us to God. I’ll even up the ante one further: I actually believe that the very BEST things we’ve ever done—the most pious, most religious, most holy, most selfless acts of obedience, with the purest motives we could possibly muster on our best days, if rightly accounted for, would be in the debit column of our lives, NOT the credit column.
Are you still breathing? I hope you so. I hope you are actually breathing easier. We should be because only grace this free, deep, high and wide has any hope of transforming our lives and truly setting us free.
We need to be set free from ourselves: set free from our disobedience by the finished work of Christ on the cross and set free from our obedience by the perfect life of Christ on this earth. When we see that and embrace it we are changed. Our motives are transformed from a myriad of frantic self-atonement efforts to “make up” for our failures to a restful response by adopted children who are secure in the arms of their loving Father. I can now HATE my sin, because I am no longer HATED. I can now LOVE holiness, because I am now LOVED. This is the reason I preach grace.
Am I saying that we’re not changed? Not at all. Actually, if you’re listening, you’ll hear me saying that this is the ONLY thing which has any hope of changing us at all.
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Recommended Reading
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“Jesus + Nothing = Everything will remind you of the ancient yet ever-fresh truth that everything we need is found in the perfections of Christ—not in ourselves, not in our reputation, our relationships or wealth or accomplishments—in Christ alone. If you’ve never rested in the finished work of Christ this book is for you. If you’ve rested in it for decades like I have, this book is for you, too. Why? Because we forget; And, although we love Jesus, we’re blind to the ways in which his work connects to our daily lives and we wonder why joy and zeal are foreign concepts to us.” -Elyse Fitzpatrick
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Get ready to be bothered by the Gospel. Steve Brown teaches grace in a way that gets under your skin—- Reading Brown is like having a gospel hair in your mouth of your conscience. The more it bothers you the more beautiful the pearl produced will be
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From the publisher: “It is a deep and rich biblical study of sanctification - how Christians grow in holiness and become more like Jesus. In a day when Christians are very prone to pursue self-help methods to grow in obedience to Christ, Walter Marshall lays out the biblical way of growth: obedience comes as Christians live by grace, in union with Christ, by faith.” This book influenced me PROFOUNDLY on the topic of sanctification. The Modern-English re-write makes this a TOP PICK for 2011!
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I ‘accidentally’ picked up this book simply for the title alone. I grew to hate it quickly. It hit a little ‘too close to home.’ Fischer’s book plunges the scalpel of self-awareness and need for deep repentance deep into the hard hearts of Pharisees like ME!
Recommended Listening
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- Key Life Ministries
Steve BrownSteve Brown is not the most subtle guy you will ever meet. If I were to write an S.A.T. question about Steve this is how it would go: Steve Brown is to legalism what a child hopped-up on cake and ice cream is to an pinata! I love this guy. Check out his website and fair warning: you are not heading to a ‘SAFE’ little Christian site!
- Coral Ridge Presbyterian
Tullian TchividjianAs one comment on iTunes said: “Tullian preaches the Gospel in an unadulterated and undomesitcated way…The way it should be preached!”
Recommended Links
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Tullian TchividjianWilliam Graham Tullian Tchividjian (pronounced cha-vi-jin) is a Florida native, the pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, a visiting professor of theology at Reformed Theological Seminary, and a grandson of Billy and Ruth Graham.
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Comments
Jonathan Barnette | March 01 2011 at 1:52 pm
Sorry everyone for the comment system (captcha- where it asks you to type in the characters) breaking. It’s fixed now. Comment away!
Anonymous | March 01 2011 at 7:42 pm
It is such a freeing, wonderful, experience to “get” the grace, if we could only just accept it…therein lies the “fly in the ointment”! Would that we would only graciously and boldly receive it! To God be the glory!
Anonymous | March 02 2011 at 2:16 pm
As we continue to hear that our joy and happiness is not found in “earthly things”, pride is our accomplishments,looking good,and etc,but in Christ,will you please tell me how the decision to “deck our halls” as been reached? it breaks my heart to hear we will no longer be “reaching out to Lincoln” until “the perfect plan” has been put into place that will make it “so much better!“May I ask if you have sat on the steps these past years as so many have “sweated” through letting God lead their hearts and serve these people.?Have you seen the lives transformed?I think,as Gods word tells us,He leads the way and doesn’t ask man to come up with “the perfect plan”,but according to Isaiah I just read this week(46,47,48),we had better be careful to NOT think man can come up with “the plan”...Have you been to the Link and seen how much help the things brought to Southwood and placed “not perfectly” “in the Halls” has brought beauty and joy to lives there ?Do you know how many different church have connected within the community ?Now our focus is on seats for all of us who are not lacking materially ,to fill our halls so we can be “comfortable” everywhere we go,with little effort on our part. Is this really what we are to be about?We surly will be viewed as “blessed?”.... I was asked after a bible study of different denominations today if Southwood won a lottery last week.What’s wrong with us “connecting ” within the places that God calls us to in order for Him to be glorified? Have we become such a “serve me” place that we have to have our relationships with other christians “made simple” for us?
Just curious how we are expected to believe and know the wealth and comfort of this earth is not “our mission” when this seems to be the emphasis everywhere you turn within Southwoods walls these days.Anxious to hear .As you have said,you ,as I and most,have been tempted to focus on “the good? Life” of this world and all the lies it tells us..How do you and the leading Elders really want Southwood seen?We were known for the church that set a example for the entire US by SERVING LINCOLN IN OUR IMPERFECT WAY!!!
Jonathan Barnette | March 02 2011 at 4:57 pm
To anyone that is uncertain what Anonymous above is referring to, visit http://lincolnvillageministry.com
Go check it out, open your heart, and serve. You won’t be sorry! And thank you to all the countless volunteers that tutor, work the food pantry, do construction, provide legal and health services, or are part of the body reaching beyond Southwood’s walls. You are key to Christ’s work!
pat six | March 02 2011 at 7:48 pm
This is truly a wonderful ministry that has the hearts of many at Southwood and all over our city and area .May we never change our involvement but for it to grow even more .