Know your God. How can Christians recover genuine heart religion and move past ‘box-checking’ Consumerism?
By Jay Wegter
Adapted from the book, Grace and Glory by Geehardus Vos, note pg. numbers.
The people of God have had the glory of God restored to them. For this glory was forfeited due to original sin (Rom 3:23). The redeemed possess God as their chief delight. God, so to speak, puts Himself in the service of man in terms of this – who He is, all about Him is made to serve our delight. God is ‘all in’ in the matter of giving Himself— God the Son is eternally joined to human nature in the Person of Christ (Ps 110:4). Restored humans go to God for pleasure, for He is the feast and Sabbath of the soul. God giving Himself is the joy of the Holy Trinity. Redemption is the path to that Trinitarian joy (pp. 2-6) (see the Upper Room Discourse, John chapters 13-17).
We must know the value of trauma in the conviction of sin. In terms of being broken for our sin, conviction brings devastation (we’re crushed over our sin), destitution (a staggering realization of the complete absence of merit), and desperation (recognition that only God’s initiative can bring repair). These Spirit-engendered postures of soul precede redemption—which is the path to delight in God (see Isaiah chapter six and the paradigm for this in Isaiah’s experience). The saved soul’s response to the three-fold conviction is: Christ was crushed in my place, He is my righteousness, He sought me when I was His enemy. There is an infinite difference between having a god belonging to one’s religion, and knowing the one true God who has brought you into His covenant, “I will be your God and you will be My people.” God’s unilateral covenant is the condition necessary for mutual possession (Heb 8:8-12) (pp. 7-9).
God’s antecedent love precedes and evokes our love (1 Jn 4:19). God’s particular love of His own comes with certain demands; our heart is to be an unshared temple for His presence (Eph 3:17). Single-minded affection for God is what it means to be possessed by God (1 Cor 6:19-20). Rival objects of worship can be subtle in their disguises. Idolatrous worship enters as self-preoccupation in religious garb. It finds entrance at the gate of self-improvement through a pantheon of ideals agreed upon as uplifting and beneficial to human flourishing (pp. 13, 15). But a dogmatic adherence to the externals of religion, or religious forms, may prove to be the error of worshipping one’s religion instead of God! This counterfeit slips in the back door in the context of religion existing for the betterment of the creature. In this trap, God is treated as an indispensable ‘partner’ to success. He is patronized as an influential helper. Countless pastors have become seduced by this ear-tickling error (pp. 16-17) (2 Tim 4:1-4).
God gives Himself within the private sanctuary of the heart. And as we continually receive the gift of Himself, we grow like Him (Eph 1:4). This gift of conformity to Him is an indispensable part of the gift of Himself, and it is the essence of heart religion (Rom 8:29-30). Conformity to Him is indispensable to eternal enjoyment of Him. Spiritual adultery consists of this: not knowing how to know God, and not caring that one does not know how to know God. Attraction to the world is the default response of the natural man’s worshipping heart. It is a great mystery how finite creatures can receive and possess God (pp. 20-24). Note the mutuality of mutual possession set forth in The Upper Room Discourse, John 13-17.
Repentance involves taking God’s side against our own sin, for all sin is against God. Sin is against who God is in His own Person, no wonder He takes our sin personally. There is trauma in conviction of sin. Vos refers to it as ‘the pain of moral truth’—God is so right, and we are so wrong. The shock of conviction of sin is like the mortally wounded stag with an arrow deep in its chest, it goes into the deepest part of the forest to bleed alone.
We need to be holy for God’s sake (1 Pet 1:13-19). Do church members understand this? The restored holy image of God through Christ is for His glory and for His pleasure (pp. 36-41). How shall we understand the beatitude that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness shall be satisfied? (Mt 5:6). Hunger for righteousness is a passion for God Himself. God answers their desire for righteousness with the substantive hope of becoming like their Savior—He will meet and fulfill that desire which He Himself has planted (Rom 8:29-30). This kind of hunger and thirst is only awakened by divine grace. Perfect righteousness satisfies and must be provided by God. This is the gift of the evangel in which God’s righteousness is revealed and then is given as a gift through Christ to those who believe (Rom 1:16-17; 3:25-26; 10:4; 2 Cor 5:21).
God does not change mourning into joy, sin into pardon, nor guilt and condemnation into peace by the mere fiat of His will. No, there must be the absolute satisfaction of His righteous demands through the Substitute He has appointed. Christ’s human nature is an altar of incense of pure consecration to the Father (Heb 9:14). Christ offered up body and soul on our behalf (Heb 10:10-14). God takes satisfaction that through the work of Christ we are made like His Son. When we awake in the resurrection, we will awake in the image of our Lord. We will have endless satisfaction in God in being made like our Lord—a sharing in His communicable attributes (pp. 42-43).
The effectual call is a creative work of God (2 Cor 4:6; 5:17). Our lostness required a seeker (Lu 19:10). The Law of God searches us and reveals our lost condition of darkness, alienation, chaos, and wandering (Rom 3:19-20). ‘Lost’ in this context means not having normal relations with God. Jesus reverses the lostness of His elect. For God in Christ brings the belonging of adoption, He restores the desperateness of our lost contact. To die in a state of lostness is to be given up to eternal destruction (pp. 53, 56-59).
As in the Psalms, appointments with Christ will include many appointments within the dungeon of soul, where reside the vermin of remorse, accusation, regret, shame, terror, fear, guilt, bosom sins, dread, disillusionment, memory of defilement. But He is the great Comforter, and Physician of the soul (Lu 5:31)—keep bringing your case to Him. As we go through life, like Mary weeping outside of the tomb, we will shed tears at the ‘grave’ of lost earthly hopes (Jn 20:11). But our Savior extends His hand; He grants a higher joy. God did not take from us. In her sorrow, Mary only wanted to recover the ‘dead’ body of Jesus. She could not have dreamed of the life of glory to come that began in the garden as she spoke with her resurrected Lord (pp. 72-73).
To the heart and mind yet to be awakened, the cross is but a stigma of weakness and foolishness (1 Cor 1:18-31). The Jews wanted signs and miracles, but the vanishing inferior splendor under Moses was a veiled glory (2 Cor 3:7-13ff.), and it was preparatory for the greater glory of the new covenant (see Romans 5:20-21, the law exposing sin). To the called, Christ procures a God-approved justifying righteousness. The gospel brings men face to face with the glory of Christ (2 Cor 4:6). The glory of Christ is joined to His work of satisfaction which is the cause of our pardon and peace (pp. 89-91, 94-96).
Christ’s glory is the ‘equipment’ He earned by His obedience. He is exalted and equipped with supernatural power, glory, and splendor (Phil 2:9-11). Thus, He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him (Heb 7:24-28). God solves the paradoxes of all paradoxes: the totally depraved and helpless (Rom 5:6) who believe are now righteous in God’s judgment. Our Lord’ bloody death and suffering and humiliation are divinely formulated into ‘medicine’ to heal the sin sick. He became a life-giving spirit (1 Cor 15:45). Christ so fully coopts the ministry of the Spirit (2 Cor 3:18), He is said to be the Spirit (see also, Romans 8:9). So fully does the Holy Spirit apply the benefits of Christ’s work, and manifest Christ’s presence that our Lord can say “I will come to you” (He does so in the Person of the Holy Spirit, John 14:18) (pp. 98-99, 105, 117-119).
Vos issues a warning about the development of a quasi-form of Christianity that will be devoid of focus on eternity. Religion will be reduced to usefulness in the present. But scripturally, heaven is the normal goal of redemption. Only redemption from sin reveals to us the essence of who God is in His justice and mercy, and what it is for God to be God in His sovereign bestowal of grace (Rom 9:15). Thus, what redemption reveals about God includes the content of what it means to worship God and to possess God (pp. 121-122).
In His vicarious work, by His obedience, Christ was the perfect believer and disciple, the author, leader, and perfector of faith (Heb 12:2). As such Christ is our living hope (1 Pet 1:3-5). Hope is spiritual health, for hope is a very reliable barometer of an eternal value system. Hope cannot flourish if the mind and the heart are fixed on temporal things; for hope is an eternal value system in action. No small part of the world’s enmity toward believers arises from the fact that we have eternal hope, and conversely, those who are of the world are fixated on earthly things (pp. 137, 146-147).
God desires our communion; in our salvation it begins by conviction of sin, condescension of God, invitation into covenant. Love to God is a disinterested or non-mercenary love that is characterized by a desire to be near God. This face to face or close contact is not as common in Christianity as you would think. What is more common is believers contenting themselves with the indirect contact of Christian service. This is exacerbated by sermons unpacking more knowledge of our duties, but not proclaiming the knowledge of God Himself. From the Psalms and from Hebrews 10:19-25, we see that cultivating a devotional life of abiding is what logically carries directly into public ministry (pp. 176-180).
In His eternal love for us, God gave Himself to us in Christ (Eph 5:25). We must be careful not to reduce or commodify the gift of God Himself into spiritual ‘things’ or even into spiritual blessings. As Piper titled one of his books, God is the Gospel—in other words, the gospel gives us God. Our response to God’s love is the consecration of ourselves to Him. God’s love is so great, it can only be satisfied in giving Himself. Do your fellow church members know how and why God gives Himself? (pp. 212-214).
God’s highest glory is truly our greatest good, for the two are
accomplished together and fully meet in Christ. To be affected by this at all evicts remnants of the Edenic lie from our hearts. For the Edenic lie suggested that God’s glory and our good were antagonistic to one another. With the incredibly good tidings of the gospel comes the promise of deliverance from sin and the warning not to practice our former sins. Sin alienates from God. It activates the enslaving ‘death meter’ (Rom 6:20-23), and as it says in James 1:15, when sin is fully conceived, it brings death, cutting men off from God who is the source of all light, life, love, and blessedness (pp. 216-217).
God sets aside His law for no one. There can be no talk of favor to sinners unless His law is fully satisfied. God saves by propitiation, and not by leniency (Rom 3:24-26). God does not grant eternal life under any other condition than the perfect keeping of the law (Rom 10:1-4; 1 Cor 1:30). Original sin plunged humanity into a hopeless state, a kind of cul-de-sac with no way out in terms of a human answer. The solution could not be found in fallen man. God solves the riddle through His Son and the angels marvel at the solution (Eph 3:9-11; 1 Pet 1:12). Wonder of wonders, creatures locked in sin and death are made alive in Christ. The sinner’s solidarity with Adam is replaced with solidarity with Christ, the Last Adam. Christ became the sphere in which our redemption is accomplished (Col 2:9-15).
God could not make us alive, or pardon us, or justify us by the mere fiat of His will. Justice had to be fully met. It was this satisfaction of divine justice through our Substitute that planted eternal life in us. But do not imagine that our spiritual life has experienced a jump start, and now our soul life is running on its own. We have been made alive in Christ through union with Him, He is the sphere in which life is imparted to us and maintained (Col 2:9-15). God the Son made flesh has the equipment to give us life; He possessed it before He gave it, for He is the Creator of it (pp. 224-229) (Jn 6:47-51).
Certainty about the condition and destiny of your soul is found only in Christ (Col 2:1-4; Heb 6:11-20). There is profound significance in the fact that truth is a divine Person who creates, loves, dies, rises, and redeems (Jn 1:1-5; 8:35, 45-46; 14:6; Rev 1:17-18). Physically and spiritually our moment-to-moment life is sustained solely by Him (Heb 1:3). This is why Scripture says that our life is hidden with Christ in God (Col 3:3). We draw our life blood from Him so that we are rooted and grounded in love (Eph 3:17-19). As we walk with Him our self-consciousness and self-concern gradually recede and He becomes more glorious as our majestic source Person. This is the very opposite of what Luther critiqued and exposed as Romanism’s Theology of glory. In that man-centered system, religion is the field of play or grid iron for man’s moral achievement. That is a Christless construction (p. 231).
God is not a magnificent category but is supreme reality from whom all
else derives its significance and meaning (Eph 1:9-11). Isaiah’s preaching was
conditioned by pure altar fire which was kept constantly burning. He was struck
by the awful realization of divine justice, the very nature of God’s inexorable
claims upon His creatures. Isaiah rejoiced in God’s exclusive activity in saving His
people. And he understood well why only faith may appropriate the blessings of
salvation. As in Isaiah’s experience, our devastation is met by His condescension.
For God’s marvelous condescension redounds in overflowing grace coming from
His divine purpose. In Christ’s willing humiliation, He spans the infinite gap
between self-existent holy God and defiled creature of dust. The Spirit prepares
the sinner by granting a contrite heart that is ready to receive God’s presence (Is
57:15; 66:1-2) (pp. 259-262).
Within the sinner’s devastation over his transgressions are the following marks of having been awakened by the Spirit of God: 1) amazement at the perfections of Yahweh. 2) a staggering realization of our finitude and imperfection.
- a radical humbling by the awareness of divine transcendence. 4) the change of fear and dread into reverence and adoration. 5) a blessed self-surrender to the purpose of our existence, that purpose being the timeless glory of God (p. 264). God’s judgment of sin flows from His holiness which vindicates His justice. This theme permeated Isaiah’s preaching, for the prophet beheld the moral majesty of God (Is 6). Isaiah’s experience is a kind of paradigm of coming to terms with God’s holiness: 1) Isaiah is stunned by Yahweh’s infinite perfection. 2) The perception of divine purity exposes the uncleanness of the sinful creature. 3) Isaiah’s conscience is crushed over his vast disharmony with God’s infinite holiness. This excites dread, for God has the infinite power to act. No created power in the universe may be compared to His power (Is 8:13; Mt 10:28). Isaiah perceiving his ruin could say along with us, “morally I deserved to be carried to the incinerator.” This step, moral self-criticism is how contrition begins. That sentiment, “I deserved to be swept away” precedes wonder at divine mercy.
- Amazement, consecration, and overflowing gratitude at God’s initiative in cleansing him (pp. 270-271). In this brief study, we’ve seen that theology is the love of God and the study of God. A holy person has a supreme desire and passion for divine glory. For it was God’s glory that provided Christ as the gift for sinners. True spirituality consists of our wholehearted responsiveness to God who sought us in Christ (pp. 273-274).
Addendum:
The church is awash in principles but is starving for a transforming vision of God. History is hurtling toward its consummation—the goal and end for which all creation exists, namely the glory of God revealed at the Day of the Lord. Jonathan Edwards’ magnum opus sermon, “The End for which God created the World” is a life-changing message. For in his dissertation Edwards poses the rhetorical question, shall God create the universe for His glory but have that end thwarted by human and angelic sin? Certainly not! God shall fully realize the end for which the creation exists.
God’s purpose to extend His glory by sharing Himself can be expressed as two great gifts, which together display His essential glory. Those two gifts are, the gift of Christ to sinners, and the gift of the church to Christ. The meaning of redemptive history is encompassed in these two gifts. Not only do these gifts reveal the wisdom, love, and majesty of God, these gifts also are a cause for exultation, reverential fear, and awe. For there is no greater possession conceivable than to be reconciled to God, to be rightly adjusted to His transcendent holiness. But unbelievers by their impenitence are spurning God. Though divine love and mercy are at the heart of the universe and proclaimed to the nations, the wicked subject God’s grace in Christ to open scorn. They will die justly as God’s adversaries and will experience eternal destruction. For they are bitter opponents of God’s glorious purpose to communicate Himself to rebellious creatures of dust.
The church needs the strong doctrinal meat of who God is in His character and attributes, and why He is focusing His power in the gospel. In cultural Christianity God’s patience and longsuffering is mistaken for mild mannered leniency. But the Scripture passages which set forth the Day of the Lord describe anything but a benign deity. When God invades human history at the end of the age, He will do Himself to the entire cosmos. He will press down His transcendent holiness upon all creation producing a cosmic-wide holiness. So comprehensive will this judgment be that everything from then on will function in accordance with its teleology, its cosmological intent and unique design to glorify God. Only reprobate people and angels will remain in a state of sin and cursedness. Is this not a cause for repentance, reverence, fear, wonder, and adoration?
Pulpits tend to neglect biblical cosmology. Consequently, church members tend to be mute when asked, can you describe who God is, and His relation to the creation, and what creatures owe Him? From this paucity of cosmology comes little fear of God. The constant drumbeat of humanist culture and media soaked in postmodern relativism has taken a toll upon the church. Indeed, where cosmology is all but absent, Christianity is relegated to an upper story esoteric experience. By ‘upper story’ we mean that values are treated as mere personal preferences and split off from facts which can be quantified. Truth gets torn in half and the Kantian divided way of viewing propositional truth becomes the accepted way of thinking.
In addition to the fact/value split, and postmodern relativism, the rising generation has also been force fed the social justice mandate. If a ‘just society’ is defined by diversity, equity, and inclusion (and their quota system), then it is easy to see why Christianity is so often viewed as hostile to diversity and equality. The college student reasons, “Why would I want to become a hardpan Bible buzzard?” “It is so dated, a layover from an age of ignorance and prejudice.” This author heard this objection recently while sharing the gospel in Balboa Park, San Diego.
Without biblical cosmology framing reality, and summarized in Acts chapter 17, the Bible’s message tends to be relegated to a moral tale. The real issue is that every person is born into this world has the Edenic lie firmly attached to the heart, which is why the unregenerate mind suppresses God’s truth. This primeval lie first whispered by the serpent is now attired in 21ˢᵗ Century garb.
Here are its modern sentiments. 1) I have the freedom to choose right and wrong for myself without the risk of eternal damnation. 2) It goes without saying that I ought to be true to myself to be authentic—being the ‘real me’ is my first loyalty.
- The fewer limits on my self-expression the better, and that includes the pursuit of my yearnings and passions. 4) God’s biblical commands are invasive, intrusive, and hostile to liberty.
Only the power of the gospel can evict the Edenic lie from the heart of man. Remember, until the unbeliever comes under the convicting work of the Spirit, through the truth of the gospel, he or she will define freedom in terms of the Edenic lie. Only God’s power can create a new heart and plant a new faculty. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Rom 1:16; Eph 1:19-23). As in the article above which summarizes points from Vos’s book, the trauma of conviction of sin leads to contrition, and contrition is evidence that the heart is being opened to welcome Christ and to welcome being His slave.
We will not press on to know the Lord if we content ourselves with a vague God concept. The humanist god of the weak church does little to inspire awe, wonder, adoration, and reverential fear. A proposed solution is to call disciples and church members to proactively seek the face of God as He is revealed in His infallible Word. Go to the Scriptures with the intent to behold your God. An excellent way to begin would be to pray the Psalms. Equally effective is to pour over the chapters in the Major Prophets which declare God’s character and attributes. Those chapters are as follows, Isaiah 25, 26, 33, 34, 40, 42-46, 48, 49, 51, 52-55, 57, 59, 61-66. Jeremiah 9, 10, 17, 18, 20, 23, 24-27, 29-33, 50, 51. Lamentations 3. Ezekiel 6, 14, 18, 20, 25, 28, 36, 37, 39, 43. Daniel 2, 4, 7, 9, 12. Read and mediate upon these chapters as well as the Psalms until you truly grow in your fear of God and begin to grasp more of His majesty.