The news that
hackers were able to steal private information from an adultery-based website
has exposed a lot of sin. Some of the names have included people in Christian
leadership. This hack-job not only exposes those who were sinning against the
church and marriage, but it also exposes how the church thinks of sin,
forgiveness, and discipline.
There are
three general views of sin in the church. Two are pendulum extremes, and one is
the plumbline. The pendulum-extremes are “legalism” on one side, and “cheap
grace” on the other. Legalism focuses on a law-based view of sin, urging
Christians to do the right thing, and heaping plenty of judgment, condemnation,
and shunning, on anyone failing to do so. Cheap grace focuses on an
anything-goes view of sin, accepting people the way they are in the erroneous application
of, where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.[1]
The plumbline
approach to sin in the church is clearly enunciated in I John, where the
apostle clarifies, “My little children, I
am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”[2]
From this, we see that God has given us the writings of the New Testament aimed
to help us “not sin,” but with the
understanding that, “if anyone does sin,”
there is a constant recourse to help us: “we
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
In this post, I would like to share a
few things to encourage us to look at the sin and failure in our own lives, and
the sin we hear about in other brothers and sisters in Christ, through the
mindset of “the obedience of faith,”[3]plumbline.
Legalism calls people to the obedience of the law; cheap grace calls people to
a faith that requires no obedience; and the plumbline of God’s word calls us to
an obedience based on faith, and a faith that obeys. Of course, with all
failures to obedience and faith going directly to our advocate, Jesus Christ,
the only one who can help us with both.
As I considered how to share about
these heartbreaking news stories in a way that would help all three groups of
Christians see the goodness and grace of God in such times as this, I was
confronted with a beautiful Scripture staring back at me from the place I am
meditating on God’s word this week.[4]
God wants his servants who struggle through the difficulties of this messed-up
world, and the confusion of the end-times church, to picture this “great multitude that no one could number,
from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before
the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in
their hands.”[5]
The thing we hear out of the mouth of this multitude is their united
declaration that:
“Salvation belongs
to our God who
sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb!”[6]
The message of the glorified church is
that salvation, from beginning to end, “belongs”
to our God. Not only does it mean that, “there
is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among
men by which we must be saved,”[7] but
it also means that all the work of saving us is God’s work. From beginning to
end, we are saved by God.
Let me clarify that this is not God
energizing us to do the work of saving ourselves. It is not God saving us so we
can keep the Ten Commandments and finally be good enough for him. It is not God
saving us from sin so we can please him by stopping our sinning. There is no
way to describe the work of salvation so it sounds like God saves us so we can
get ourselves along the rest of the journey in our own strength. Everything
about salvation must be understood as, “salvation
(and one hundred percent of our salvation) “belongs
to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
Let me share some words from God’s
book that show how this work of salvation, from beginning to end, is God’s
work, with no additional support required from ourselves. The point is not that
we do not join God in his work as he makes us alive in his Son.[8]
Rather, it is that we never take on ourselves the work of saving ourselves from
sin, stopping ourselves from sinning, experiencing victory over a sin-problem,
or getting us ready for our heavenly perfection.[9]
ALL the work of making us like Jesus is God’s work. We can join him in what he
is doing, something required for us to be like Jesus;[10]
however, salvation is his work no matter how much participation he works into
us.
Along with the glorious declaration of
the great heavenly multitude, God’s book tells us, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring
it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”[11]
There is nothing complicated about what this means. God is the one who began
his good work in us, and he is the one who will bring it to completion.
The book of Romans makes this
abundantly clear in wonderful detail.
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.[12]
“Foreknew”
means God knew his children beforehand, “before
the foundation of the world.”[13]
“Predestined” means that he gave us a
particular destiny beforehand, again, “before
the foundation of the world.”[14]
This pre-determined destiny is that we would “be conformed to the image of his Son.”
Therefore, because God foreknew us,
and predestined us to be like Jesus, he then “called” us to himself through the gospel, “justified” us into the righteousness of faith,[15]
and will finish his work when we are “glorified,”
fully like his Son. When we experience that wonderful change in which, “when he appears we shall be like him,
because we shall see him as he is,”[16]
it will be for one reason, and one reason alone: God carried on to completion
the work he began in us.
What does that have to do with the
Ashley Madison scandal, pornography, every kind of sexual sin, gossip, slander,
lying, and outbursts of anger, among those who are true disciples of our Lord Jesus
Christ?[17]
It means that those who are publicly exposed, along with all those who are
privately unnoticed, have the same glorious gift of grace: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”[18]
Please notice this very carefully:
ANYONE who confesses their sins (yes, that is it!), God is both “faithful and just” in his treatment of
all his children based on the finished work of redemption we have in Jesus Christ
our Lord.
Now, this is what God will do when
ANYONE confesses their sins: he will “forgive
us our sins,” AND he will “cleanse us
from all unrighteousness.” We cannot think that, when we confess our sins,
God forgives us, and we must go and cleanse ourselves from our unrighteous
habits.
NO! That would be NO glorious gift of
grace whatsoever!
Rather, our repentance of sin is the
way we join God in his work of forgiving us, and cleansing us. It is HIS work
to cleanse us from our unrighteousness. So, whenever we fall into any sin, we
go to God in confession, and we welcome both his forgiveness, and whatever work
he is doing to cleanse us from that unrighteousness.
Please see this wonderful news: no
matter how long God takes to do it, by the time we see Jesus face to face, we
will be cleansed from all unrighteousness, and we will be fully like Jesus,
just like God ordained before the foundation of the world.
And, we will not join that multitude
in heaven with a testimony of how God forgave us, and we cleansed ourselves
from our sins. It will be the wonderful reality of joining with the Church of
the Firstborn, shouting out in uninhibited joy and wonder:
“Salvation belongs
to our God who
sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb!”[19]
And, if that is the way we will praise
him then, we might as well enjoy praising him like that right now, even if we
have just had to confess one more sin.
© 2015 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
[1]
While Romans 5:20 speaks of “where sin
increased, grace abounded all the more,” Romans 6:1-2 is very clear that, “Are we to continue in sin that grace may
abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” Cheap
grace allows people to “continue in sin”
with the belief “that grace may abound,” something
Paul condemned. The, “grace abounded all
the more,” is to encourage those caught in sin that there is plenty of
grace waiting to rescue them from sin, not condone anything sinful they are
doing.
[2]
I John 2:1
[3]
Romans 1:5; 16:26
[4]
In my daily time with God, I have just returned to Revelation 7:9-17, and look
forward to exploring this passage for a full understanding of the hope and
blessing it contains.
[5]
Romans 7:9
[6]
Revelation 7:10
[7]
Acts 4:12
[8]
Ephesians 2:1-10 is very clear that we do not provide any works to our
salvation, even though those who are made alive in Jesus Christ will join God
in the works he has prepared for us. Philippians 2:12-13 is also clear that,
while God is working in us both to will and to work for his good pleasure, we
(the church) are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. There
is never a time when we are working something out independent of something God
is working in!
[9]
Again, my point is not that we do nothing while God does everything. I am not
saying that we do not participate in God’s work of stopping us from sinning. My
only contention, and it is a very serious difference from both legalism and
cheap grace, is that we NEVER rely on ourselves to save us from sin, free
ourselves from sin, stop us from sinning, or experience victory over sin. The
only thing we give to the picture, as people made alive in the Spirit of God,
is a response of faith. We do not stop sinning by our own will, but by joining
God in the work he is doing to stop us from sinning.
[10]
It has become very significant to my understanding of being like Jesus that we
will join our Father in his work in the same way as Jesus joined his Father in
his work. Jesus said in John 5:19, “Truly,
truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he
sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does
likewise.” And, he said in John 15:5, “I
am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is
that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” His work in
us is to give us the same relationship with the Father as himself, something
that requires us to fully join God in the work God is doing completely on his
own, so to speak.
[11]
Philippians 1:6
[12]
Romans 8:29-30
[13]
Ephesians 1:4
[14]
Revelation 13:8
[15]
Romans is full of teaching on the righteousness of faith: https://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?qs_version=ESV&quicksearch=righteousness+faith&begin=52&end=52
[16]
I John 3:2
[17]
This is only a summary list of sins that characterize those who profess faith
in Jesus Christ. I just wanted to remind us that gossip, slander, false
testimony, and the like, are just as serious in God’s eyes as getting busted
for signing up for an online adultery-service, being hooked on porn, or
struggling with a sexual-identity crisis.
[18]
I John 1:9
[19]
Revelation 7:10
No comments:
Post a Comment