The first bookend we learned about for the Christian life is: The righteousness of Christ. We have a right standing before God based solely on the righteousness that belongs to Jesus, apart from any effort of our own. This is Good News, it is news worth rejoicing over, meditating on, and it is motivating news. Because we are made right before God because of what Jesus has done on our behalf we have been brought near to God. We have the right to be called the children of God and have all the blessing that go with that. The problem is that even as children of God we at times forget or at least live like we have forgotten that our salvation is based on Christ alone and not our actions. Too often we get caught in the trap of trying to earn in some sense God's favor and pride kicks in.
We learned that the number one enemy of the gospel is self-righteousness and the enemy number two is persistent guilt. We can rest assure that if we are self-righteous or embrace persistent guilt we are not remembering that we have nothing apart from the righteousness of Christ and we stand clean and right before God for all eternity. In Chapter five we learn how to fight these enemies by learning to lean on the first bookend. The authors say by leaning they mean depending. This is how they define this type of dependence: Dependence on the first bookend means relying on, trusting in, and placing our confidence, faith, and hope in the righteousness of Christ.
As those who have placed our faith in Jesus Christ we may think, "no duh!' The trick is staying trusting, hoping, relying and being confident in the righteousness of Christ.
We have to start there and stay there! I don't know about you, but my pride is too great to stay there without struggling and slipping into a pattern of either persistent guilt or self-righteousness- I seem to go in and out of one or the other.
I loved the example the authors give when talking about Zaccheus. He responded to Jesus by repenting and following him, but the temptation to become proud comes into play if he at some point sees his acts of repentance such as giving to the poor and paying back quite generously those he defrauded, as things to place confidence in. His confidence in Jesus shifts to confidence in his own right actions. This example opened my eyes to ways self-righteousness can so easily sneak into my life; even though I know I have nothing to offer God but filthy rags and that apart from Him I can do nothing.
In this chapter we are given three focal points to help us fight for dependence on the first bookend.
1) Seeing ourselves as desperately lost sinners.
2) Seeing the righteousness of Christ as all-sufficient for us daily.
3) Seeing and rejecting any functional saviors. Functional saviors could be: career, possessions, sport, having a clean house (for me a finished house), working out, giving, ministry, not partying, or asceticism ( from the ἄσκησις, áskēsis, "exercise" describes a life-style characterized by abstinence from various sorts of worldly pleasures (especially sexual activity and consumption of food and drink) often with the aim of pursuing religious and spiritual goals.)
We must preach the gospel to ourselves everyday and in this book we were given some practical ways to do so.
I found using the gospel promises and filling in the blanks like on page 71 very helpful as well as page 73 where we are given a practical way to discover our functional savior.
Has anyone found help in doing any of these recommended exercises?
What do you do to keep dependent of the righteousness of Christ- to remember the gospel as the years pass on?
How do you preach the gospel to yourself?
Has this book been helpful to you? how?
What chapter has stood out for you so far?
Next week we will look more closely at the power of the Holy Spirit in all this.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
I have learned much from this book so far. Along with reading the Gospel Primer, the Gospel has come alive to me. I have realized that I have worth because God sent Jesus to die on the cross so that I, His enemy, could have fellowship with Him. Jesus paid the penalty for my sin. I will live with Him for all eternity. There was a time where I believed that my "functional savior" was a job and/or things that I could do. These things have been removed from my life somewhat, but I know that they aren't what saves or gives me worth anymore. I praise God for showing me these things.
I, too, have to bring myself back to the Word of God when I go between persistent guilt and self-righteousness. I loved the list of sins for when we are feeling pretty good about ourselves. I may be doing better in one area but there are plenty of other areas I need to work on with the help of my Father. But in my self deception it is difficult to see these areas when I am so happy about doing better in one area. I also loved how the authors used their sin to preach the gospel to themselves. In preaching the gospel to myself it produces such thankfulness in my heart that the God that I continually sin against (even though I sin against people it is first and foremost a sin against my God) has provided His beloved Son. He took my sin in my place and has given me His righteousness. And, therefore, when my Creator looks at me He chooses not to look at my sin but rather the righteousness of His Son. In giving thanks to God we bring Him honor. May we go into this dying world giving our Father thanks for all that He has given us in Jesus. And may we preach the gospel to them that we preach to ourselves each day. This is how we enjoy our amazingly awesome God and how we bring Him glory.
Post a Comment