Walking in the Fear of the Lord (Part Three)
By Jay Wegter
Adapted from: Gerhard O. Forde, On being a Theologian of the Cross, Reflections on Luther’s Heidelberg Disputation, 1518,
Eerdmans, 1997, and adapted from: Gardiner Spring, The Attraction of the Cross, Banner of Truth, 1983.
V. The cross and good works
A. Good works begin only when by the cross the old Adam is put to death and the new man
appears (2 Cor 5:17; Col 3:10). The cross must slay the old man’s fleshly orientation that by good works one is going to become righteous. The cross reverses everything—giving us new values; for Christ is the Creator of the new man (our works cannot make a new man). Christ is the Architect; the Builder; and the Blueprint of the new man (Col 3:10).
Being righteous before God without works clears the way for works. When the reality of justification sinks in; preposterous joy hits us—a new day dawns when we understand by the Spirit that the righteousness we have in Christ is complete in itself. It is like the joy and ecstasy of being in love. Justification in Christ is all-sufficient. “But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness” (Rom 4:5) (Ibid, pp. 104-106).
B. Now in Christ good works are God’s works in the believer (Eph 2:10; Gal 2:20). We have all
we need in Christ. For, faith restored by grace plants all new motives in us. A good work is good only if it is done out of faith, hope, and love. The cross of Christ takes away the possibility of doing something meritorious before God.
The power to do good comes from the wild claim that everything has already been done in Christ. The outrageous assertion that in Christ all that God demands has been fulfilled has become the basis for good works. None of our works now are affect our acceptance with God; for Christ dwells in us by faith and works through us (Gal 2:20) (Ibid, pp. 109-111).
C. The believer is aroused to work through living faith in Christ’s work. In the gospel order, the
impetus to do good works comes entirely from being moved, aroused, and motivated by the completed work of Christ who dwells in the believer through faith. Says Luther, “Deeds of mercy are aroused by the works through which Christ saved us.”
Those who find their all and all in Christ are motivated to be imitators of God. “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma” (Eph 5:1-2). It was Augustine who said that Christ must first be a sacrament for us BEFORE He can be an example. His point is that our motive to walk as Jesus did will only be true IF Christ is our righteousness; status; standing; favor; sonship; and acceptance before God. (Note that in all non-evangelical forms of Christendom the order is inverted; Christ is an example to follow first. In so doing human works are made a support of the soul.) (Ibid, pp. 111-112).
D. The cross is the only way of holiness. Christians gain victory over sin by enjoying the favor
of God and by living in communion with the cross. Joy in the cross is evidence of the love of God and the hatred of sin. The cross subdues hearts—making friends out of enemies; for the cross is the refuge of the polluted and the condemned.
The motives and influences whereby persons become holy are not found in a purely legal dispensation. A legal spirit operates by fear—and it awakens no holy affections. Those under the rule of law alone are slaves and not children (Gal 3:21-24; 2 Cor 3:4-11). But the law plays a vital role in leading us to the dispensation of mercy in Christ (Gal 3:24-29).
VI. The truth of the cross is our only theology (Luther)
A. In contrast to instinctive religion, the cross differs from all other methods of changing man.
The cross does not attempt to harness natural inclinations. The cross works AGAINST natural inclinations. For the cross considers nothing accomplished until the living God has displaced every idol and the soul is disrobed of every badge of loyalty to other masters—the power of the cross secures this change. Of course this is another reason why unsaved men hate the cross; for the cross is utterly clear concerning God’s ownership of us (Spring, p. 305).
B. The power, wisdom, and truth of the cross is seen in:
- Its intrinsic excellence as the power and wisdom of God
- Its binding obligations to believe and follow Christ
- Its perfect fitness to reverse man’s ruin
- Its effectiveness in securing everlasting life beyond the grave
- Its power to attach the conscience to confidence in the Son
- Its ability to give the knowledge of self and of God
CONCLUSION: How you view your character (whether objectively or not) is revealed in how
you treat the cross. The cross is the test of character. Christ is appointed for the rise and fall of many (Luke 2:34). To reject the cross is to be an enemy of God. Friends of the cross are those who love God’s character and who therefore serve God. The godly renounce every other confidence but the cross of Christ. Their sole dependence is upon Christ who is able to save them to the uttermost (Heb 7:25-26). Thus, the cross is the test which reveals a person’s source of trust for salvation (Ibid, pp. 205, 209, 306).
Keeping the Gospel on the Throne of Conscience
I. Every true believer knows what a battle it is to labor to enter His rest (Heb 4:11).
A. It is no small effort to consistently enjoy gospel rest in Christ and to make the ‘verdict’ of
heaven at Calvary the verdict of one’s conscience. Everything seems to war against that heavenly verdict: the world; the flesh; the devil; even religion. Each of these pushes for personal performance, measuring up, and achievement as the ground and basis for quieting the conscience. The conscience is a tireless researcher, always collecting evidence of our moral failures and shortcomings—the conscience looks into the smallest details of a person’s life, examining motives and intents of the heart—and frequently accusing the individual of transgressions in the thought life. Our great temptation is to do what is wholly natural to us—namely to do the bookkeeping of conscience by means of law. In the law approach to conscience management, the individual argues for peace of conscience from the vantage point of strengths and performance—as if achievements have the power to outweigh demerits.
So engrained is the attempt to quiet the conscience by means of law, one may accurately say that ‘law works’ is the religion with which we were born. It comes natural to us. We are all self-justifiers by nature (Luke 10:29; 1615).
B. In the law approach to conscience management, we function like the Pharisees of old who
“cooked the books of conscience.” In other words they ‘bribed’ their consciences by selecting things they were good at and then using those isolated areas of achievement as their overall ethical ‘scorecard’. This bribery of conscience is not unique—it is the human condition. Whether your area of achievement is money, charity, theology, health, outward morality, sports, parenting, or community service—each of us is tempted to make our area of achievement our scorecard to offset the accusations of conscience.
It’s like the boy who had filled the side of a barn with arrows he had shot. Each arrow had its own target and each arrow was in the bull’s eye of its target. The amazed farmer asked the boy how he had achieved such a feat. The boy answered, “Easy, I shoot the arrow first and then draw the target around the arrow.”
That’s a perfect illustration of trying to manage the conscience by law. We discover what we are good at; then we ‘draw the target around it’ as if our isolated little standard is the same as God’s universal standard. No wonder Jesus called the Pharisees hypocrites. Jesus said to them, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You tithe mint and dill and cummin, but have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these things you should have done without neglecting the others. You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel Matt 23:23-24). Jesus likens their selective obedience to straining at a gnat while swallowing a camel. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day treated their practice as ‘normal’, but Jesus ridicules it as pseudo-obedience.
C. Attempting to manage the conscience by law is futile because it always involves a radical
departure from universal obedience (all areas of life commanded by God), and a radical dumbing down God’s requirements (Rom 10:1-4). When law is on the throne of conscience there is an accompanying ‘lowering of the market’ in regards to God’s requirements. In other words, the bar is lowered to the level of what carnal man is capable of—this is a patent refusal to submit to God’s righteousness (Rom 10:3). It is an attempt to placate the conscience and offset guilt by appealing to the moral value of things that are humanly achievable.
D. All false religion incorporates the management of conscience by law. People speak false peace to
their consciences; then they take it to the next step. They tell themselves that because they have been successful at quieting their consciences; therefore, they have also been successful at protecting themselves from God. But this is a cruel deception; a day is coming when the conscience will operate in perfect synchrony with God’s holy standards.
On judgment day, God’s law; God’s verdict of damnation; and the sinner’s conscience will all be in perfect agreement. In other words, when the lost person stands before the Lord, the conscience will no longer accept bribes or alibis. The ability to justify self will be altogether absent (Rev 20:11-15). Every mouth will be closed (Rom 3:19). The conscience of the unbeliever will rise up to its full moral stature to take its eternal revenge by ceaselessly condemning its ungrateful host. How we as believers need the gospel constantly applied to conscience. True believers must not slip back into the patterns of self-justification that are so indigenous to our natures. The gospel must remain enthroned in conscience.
When Paul gives a condensed version of his testimony in Philippians 3:3-14, he sets into sharp contrast the false hope of gaining righteousness before God by law-keeping against the true hope of God-given righteousness that comes by faith in Christ (3:9). This vital point that Paul is making is missed by so many—namely that in order to have righteousness by Christ alone; one must repudiate all false sources of righteousness. There can be no admixture of Christ our righteousness with a spurious source of righteousness.
It is not an easy thing to stay free and stand firm in Christ alone (Gal 5:1ff.). Like the Galatians of old, we tend to move away from rest in Christ toward performance-based models of Christian living. Our lower nature has a kind of ‘lust for law’ that makes us hungry for personally accumulated merit. We are inveterate ‘merit-mongers’—always wanting to take every achievement; every virtue; and every personal exponent, and plow it into our bottomless appetite for shoring up our self-concept. Of course this principle of personal value and exoneration by means works is a two-edged sword. The same law that says I may take credit for my achievements becomes a ruthless accuser when I fail. How does the gospel deal with this ‘addiction’ of merit collecting?
E. The cross of Christ pierces our ego-driven, self-justifying motivations. The cross always brings
us back to the freeness of God in bestowing grace—the cross takes us back to our utter inability to obligate God (Rom 11:33-36). When we feed on the truth of the cross it keeps us in a posture of dependency—and for good reason: ongoing faith in Christ involves repeatedly consenting to have Christ labor for us; in our place; as our Substitute—so that God can be infinitely kind to us for Christ’s sake—not our sake. The gospel enthroned in conscience keeps us in that frame of mind where we continually consent to have Christ represent us. I have chosen the word “consent” because, like the apostle Peter, we must consent (against our inner resistance) to have Christ stoop so low as to wash the filth from our person.
“Consent” is a fitting word to describe faith’s submission to Christ. Consent describes how faith desists from self, renouncing self as a source, and turning wholly to Christ for our acceptance with God. This issue of consent is why the gospel is so counterintuitive. It goes against all of our natural instincts about what gives us security, significance, lovability, acceptance. In our carnal reasoning, we demand to carry these things ourselves—at least to some degree. But God has brought us to Himself through Christ, and it is in Christ alone that we stand (Rom 5:1-2). Therefore, our entire status before the Father is held by Christ.
Christ not only holds us up; He holds up the reputation of the Godhead. The gospel of Jesus Christ reveals God’s righteousness (Rom 1:16, 17; 3 24-26). And the gospel, in displaying God’s righteousness, lets ‘God be God’. In the gospel we discover that God makes His own righteousness the cause of our salvation. God’s righteousness, given to us in Christ, places the believing sinful creature in right relation with the holy God of the universe. We can never outgrow our need for the gospel—for in it the glory of God is revealed (2 Cor 4:4-6). And in it is the good news of our relationship with God as it is settled in Christ is unfolded.
II. The gospel goes against all of our religious instincts and habits of self-defense and conscience-bribing. Spiritual discipline is needed in order to keep the gospel enthroned in the conscience.
A. Gospel-based Christian living is of the N.T. model of sanctification, communion, and service.
Paul exhorts his readers, “let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts” (Col 3:15). “The peace of Christ; the word of Christ; and the Word of His grace” are all synonyms for the gospel. Paul wants his readers to have the gospel reigning in their consciences as the uncontested regent; but there is daily opposition to the reign of the gospel (Col 3:15). Think how many circumstances and emotions try to ‘kick down’ the door of peace in our hearts each day.
Only when the gospel is enthroned and allowed to reign in the conscience is it able to consistently speak peace. When the gospel is allowed to ‘rule’, it functions like an umpire; it makes the call as the final arbiter. As such the gospel enthroned puts an end to all internal disputes. It prevents life’s vicissitudes from kicking down the door of peace.
Our problem is that we tire of not measuring up. In our own strength we want to go to war against the inner voice of condemnation and inadequacy. We want to show that we can measure up if given a fighting chance. We have something to prove. The first inklings of pride rise up in us, and alas, we become weary of grace; we want to move past being God’s object of pity, and we grab the reigns, hitch ourselves to law and demand that we carry our own worth through performance.
Working in tandem with this tendency to prove ourselves is the fact that the conscience is wired for strict justice; it is suspicious of mercy and compassion. This is why the conscience needs to be constantly informed by the gospel. The conscience of the believer must frequently behold by faith the historic fact that objective justice has been accomplished against the believer’s sins in the offering of Christ.
B. When the gospel is enthroned in the conscience, it keeps Christ in view as offered by the Father
for all my transgressions. The gospel enthroned makes the knowledge of Christ 3-D to the eye of faith—for the gospel displays Christ as the sum total of all that the Father is toward me. The gospel exhibits Christ as ‘Source Person’. This is why it is true that the gospel alone possesses the power to take me off of the treadmill of self performance—for the gospel takes me off of self-reliance and puts me on Christ.
The actions of resting, leaning, and trusting Christ are not just for forgiveness and eternal life. According to the Galatians 2:20, Christ is living His life through the believer. That means that the gospel exhibits Christ as our very life now (Col 3:3-5; Jn 15:5; Gal 5:25; 1 Jn 4:9). Thus the gospel is not merely our entrance into the Christian life; the gospel opens up the doctrine of the exchanged life—Christ’s life now in power and love exchanged for my weakness and selfishness.
At the moment of salvation, the Spirit of God brings the sinner into union with the Lord so that all of the benefits of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection were applied to the believer. Our entrance into Christianity was accomplished when God the Holy Spirit united us with Christ—at that point of our calling, Christ’s finished work brought life to us (1 Cor 12:13; Rom 6:3-7). The reality of Christ having taken our place at Calvary is set forth in all its grace and power in 2 Corinthians 5:21. “And He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” The only reason I am a saved sinner is because Christ exchanged His life for mine at Calvary—that is the heart of the gospel.
Believers rightly regard this exchange to be the cause of their salvation; BUT most believers do not base their Christian walk and new identity upon this exchange. According to the apostle Paul, believers should be constantly reckoning this exchange (Rom 6:11; Gal 2:20; Col 3:5). The pivotal truth is that the exchange is not only our entrance into the Christian life; but also the source of the Christian life (1 Jn 4:9). The gospel ruling and reigning in the conscience informs us of the reality of Christ living through me now. Gospel reckoning involves contemplating Christ and our position in Him—this is essential if we are to be radically identified with Christ in our walk. By reckoning our co-crucifixion and co-resurrection in Christ, our deadness to sin and our life in God are brought into our daily experience (Rom 6:11-14). It is the exchanged life lived out. It is the value of the cross brought into our most intimate life choices
Now what happens when we allow the law to usurp the rightful rule of the gospel? What takes place in our lives when we permit the law to crawl back up and take its seat on the throne of conscience? First of all, the law calls out to flesh resources—it puts me back upon relying on my efforts. Paul says in Galatians 3:12 that the law is not of faith. In other words the law says do this and live. The law does not tend to push us towards the divine enablement of God’s Spirit. Instead the letter of the law puts our human strength (or weakness) to work.
C. Since the law is not of faith, it shifts our reliance from Christ to self. It tends to blind the heart
to the offices of Christ. Under the reign of law we cease feeding upon Christ as our all-sufficient Prophet, Priest, and King. Israel’s history bears out the fact that law is a woefully inadequate means of managing and controlling the sinful appetites of the flesh.
The law as an external constraint is coercive and demanding; but it fails to supply an adequate motive and power source for obedience. Instead of mortifying sin; the law as a harness to control the flesh tends to stir up truancy (Rom 5:20). It divides a man into two parts: his secret heart affections (which are carnal) and his religious self, which may be outwardly conformed to law. This is a dangerous arrangement; because given a chance (if he thinks he won’t be caught), the man will often give expression to the carnal objects of his heart affections.
D. The law, as an inferior method of controlling the flesh, is answered by the superiority of the new
covenant. The new covenant unites our deepest heart yearnings for happiness to Christ Himself. Unlike the law, the new covenant provides the motive and the power source for obedience. Christ’s infinite love demonstrated at Calvary produces real ontological changes in the believer. The redeemed sinner becomes a new creation (2 Cor 5:17). The love of Christ animates him and controls him (2 Cor 5:14-15). The Spirit of God energizes his obedience (Gal 5:16-25). The law no longer is an irritating straitjacket to externally restrain—it is written on the heart as a new inclination and life principle (Heb 8:8-12). Instead of duty-driven, the believer takes delight in his spiritual exercises.
It is common for N.T. believers to forget the gospel, or discount its total relevance for Christian living. When that happens; we ought to keep in mind that our default response is to manage the conscience by law. Under law as king of conscience, the individual loses sight of Christ’s glory. The wealth of being united to Christ fades from view because under law, the believer has returned to the toil of carrying his own eligibility for God’s acceptance. The conscience becomes a place of turmoil and disputes. Self-loathing reenters—self-recriminations multiply. The individual becomes defensive, self-protective, private, critical, irritable, and controlling. Those sins are costly to our walk with God and our relations with others. These sins are symptoms of demanding to qualify ourselves and carry our own eligibility.
E. The gospel applied is always the answer—it brings integration to the soul in a way that the law
has no hope of doing. The gospel conducts a kind of heart surgery. It brings back together the parts of our soul that sin has broken apart and fragmented. Christ brings completeness; wholeness; healing to sinners (Is 53:5).
When the gospel is on the throne of conscience, we consent to have Christ carry our eligibility and qualification for God’s acceptance of us. The gospel proclaims that Christ, by His propitiation, has cleared away every obstacle that stood in the way of us enjoying the unbroken reception of the Father’s love (1 Jn 4:9-11).
Now we all know that this unbroken enjoyment is contested. We have to fight for joy by means of the gospel. What remains of indwelling sin is always seeking to rob us of peace. Our new transgressions and our old ones are always calling for a courtroom ‘trial’ in our conscience. The conscience wants to schedule new legal trials. The conscience is a kind of courtroom, a place of law, prosecutions, evidence, and verdicts. Our problem is that we are better at listening to ourselves than talking to ourselves. We put the law back on the throne of conscience and then we listen to all its arguments and wind up taking sides against ourselves as if there has been no atonement made on our behalf. We slip into mental passivity and find that the old habits of listening to the accusations of conscience are allowed to hold greater sway over us than the gospel.
The mental ‘tapes’ of accusation play in an endless loop and we wind up giving more authority to the taped messages of condemnation than to the authority of the gospel. Years of self-loathing have cut deep grooves. Like water seeking its lowest level, we easily slip back into the familiar and we find that our thoughts are again flowing in the deep grooves of self-rejection.
F. Preaching the gospel to the self is how to “erase the old tapes and record new ones.” We ought
to be about the business of composing gospel sermons to preach to ourselves—gospel sermons with very precise and specific application. These gospel sermons are designed to display to our conscience that real justice has been done against our sins in the crucifixion of Christ (1 Pet 2:24; 3:18).
These sermons must contain the practical value of justification—that Christ is my eligibility for God’s acceptance, love and favor. Christ carries my lovability! Christ is my completeness. He is my wholeness, my “Okay-ness” if you will. I am a broken wretch united to a perfect Savior. That is the arrangement of God’s grace. I am a broken sinner; but I wear the perfect robe of Christ’s imputed righteousness. To deny that by re-enthroning law is to put oneself into competition with Christ—it pits self against Christ for who will carry out the task of Savior and Source Person.
Only when I keep consenting by faith to rest in Christ as my status; favor; acceptance; sonship; righteousness; and lovability will His love be free to animate my heart affections. God wants my heart affections unhindered by agitations and inner disputes. He desires to be able to pass His hand over my heartstrings to make the spontaneous music of worship. Only when I am living by faith in Him will the lust for law and the demands of self-assertion lose their magnetic pull. The gospel enthroned in conscience keeps displaying the sufficiency of Christ to the eye of faith and to the demands of the justice. There is no other source of pervasive peace.