Pride of Life Destruction by the Cross of Christ
By Jay Wegter
This section is adapted from F. M. Paul Zahl on sin as self-justification
(Note what Jesus said about self-justification, Luke 16:15). Who or what establishes, defends your intrinsic worth? Unlike sins of the flesh, ‘pride of life sins’ are sins of the spirit and the intellect (2 Cor 7:1).
Paul Zahl opens up the topic of the psycho-genetic characteristics of sin (in other words our cherished carnal defenses). Sin is not purely action because it springs from a sin principle. Original sin is part of our constitution. Our fallen-ness is demonstrated by any period in human history (prison camps, purges, holocausts, genocides) (Paul Zahl, A Short Systematic Theology, p. 54).
Zahl notes the connection to dependency anxiety issuing in trustlessness which expresses itself in a compulsion to control and subdue. Sin produces a chain reaction from fear to control. Sin’s connection with frustration, sexualized aggression, jealousy, coveting—all attempt to capture the deep phenomenon of human self interestedness. Note the deep potential for dominance, criminal behavior, demandingness, conflict, personal tragedy (Ibid, p. 55).
This is the character of our sin—we all have the problem. Self-justification is a proper description of sin which issues from the principle of possession—self-justification says in effect: “I possess intrinsic differentiation from the other.” Self-justification is an attempt to hold our part of differentiated territory of independent, self-possessed, or contained being. (Discussion: Why does this rigid commitment to personal autonomy have to be released in order for us to repent?)
1 Corinthians 4:6-7 is the ‘divine atom bomb’ that devastates the false notion of self-possessed differentiation. Here’s the reason why: all true differentiation in God’s sight, all individual identity is a gift of sovereign grace by which the self is freed from the self by means of a different measure— the measure of God’s grace. In other words, the differentiation recognized by God is the differentiation He affects by bestowing grace and a new identity in Christ. Only God can justify a person; and He does so graciously—basing it entirely upon Christ’s work on our behalf.
Self-justification is the action of securing or defending one’s intrinsic worth. “Self-justification divides the world into armed camps—whether tribal, national, local (warring)” suggests Zahl. The Apostle Paul summarizes the behaviors joined to self-justification in Gal 5:19-21 (“the deeds of the flesh”).
Only Christ can break the grip of original sin. It must be by substitution—the innocent for the guilty (1 Pet 3:18; Gal 3:13; Rom 8:3-4; 2 Cor 5:21). Substitution is a one to one transfer of moral guilt. (See Jn 19:30; Lu 23:46-49). Christ performed this transfer in freedom—He desired to do it (Jn 10:18). The transfer of guilt from one being to another (a divine being) is the content of the concreted good news—for the guilty there has been a burden-bearing transaction (Ibid, pp. 56-57).
Because God is just, He requires the death of innocent life in our place. God requires perfection from His human creatures. We know that the self that we are—exists under judgment—our reasoning plots ways to escape judgment (“if only I were another, etc.” “I have a history as a sinner I cannot escape—but I will try to escape it”). The blood metaphor (Lev 17:11) is based on the concept that blood carries life and transfers life. (i.e. the Mercy Seat under Levitical worship) (Ibid, pp. 60-63).
Robes of the saints are ‘washed in the blood of the lamb’ (Rev 7:13ff.). As we are attached to Christ the benefits of His blood are attached to us. (EX. The Judge finds the accused guilty, pronounces a capital sentence, descends the throne and pays the ultimate price—the Judge dies in place of the criminal.) God is free to undertake such a reversal (Jn 1:29, 36). Only God is able and free to effect a moral transfer (Jn 10:18). Clinical and pastoral counsel experience reveals a gripping paralyzing fear of exposure. Paul says of himself, ‘sold under sin’—that person must pay the price of death (Rom 7:14) (Ibid, pp. 63-67).
The justice of God and depravity of man means that we live in a cul-de-sac, a dead end so to speak— death, separation, suicide, OR a guilt transfer. The existence we live as sinners renders life without Christ a ‘Sword of Damocles’ existence. The result is acute and chronic anxiety. Christ had to therefore die for our sins. Who forgives sin but God alone (Mark 2:7) (Ibid, p. 68)?
The blood implies the incarnation—implies the Trinity—implies God who suffers—who is moved, who feels. The atonement as first principle of theology points to the cosmic suffering of God—the suffering of the “crucified God.” God is touched by the suffering of His people (Ex 3:7-8). The believer is reconciled to the atoned and atoning God. The horrendous case of the human race under judgment requires the sacrifice of blood and substitution. This occurred by means of the cross in time. The law of liberty in James 1:25 is the meeting point of reality (our life as it is)—in our life as God has reconfigured it by means of Christ’s death. This meeting point between life as it is and life as God imputes it to us through Christ is our existence before God in Christian liberty (Ibid, pp. 75-77).
Biblical self-confrontation (self-criticism) is only possible by means of Christ’s atonement (selfconfrontation is another way of saying ‘belief and repentance’). Self-criticism is a mirror of Christian liberty. We meet God in the holy of holies as those who have been forgiven. Thus, we can be ruthlessly honest about our sin (James 1:23-25). Transparency with God in faith and repentance is a function of freedom from judgment. Freedom from judgment is the ground of Christian liberty— which has the potential to deliver us from our cherished defenses (Ibid, pp. 80-81).
Only the gospel can end the fear that keeps our defense mechanisms in place. The gospel literally dismantles the fear that keeps our defenses in place. Our fear generates our fleshly defenses (it is nearly always the fear of judgment). The atonement alone can achieve freedom from judgment. Submission to God’s act at Calvary results in the breaking of our chains. Christ’s shed blood and resurrection are the foundation for self-criticism and repentance (biblical self-confrontation) (Ibid, pp. 82, 94, 100).
The gospel of the cross must not be allowed to slip from its central place
How easy it is to allow the gospel to slip from its central place and status in our lives and into the realm of theory and merely the orthodox entry way into the Christian life. Only when we start each day with the truth of the gospel defining us in Christ will we be spared from “do to be.”
The gospel starts my day with my wretchedness, God’s love, Christ’s substitution. That changes everything about my perspective. It overturns the world’s wisdom—that wisdom from below that is controlled by selfish ambition. The earthy, demonic ‘wisdom from below’ is what comes so natural to us (James 3:13-18)—it is our ‘default wisdom’ unless by the gospel this natural ‘wisdom’ is radically overturned each day.
The wisdom from below is what moves us in our social relations to self-justifying differentiation manifested as: over-under, upsmanship, distinctions (man-made), pecking orders, systems of honoring men, cliques, people grading themselves into groups based on achievement, economic status, power, influence, financial independence. “That which is highly esteemed by men is detestable in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15).
The N.T. church was not exempt from this ‘wisdom from below’ characterized by self seeking. The Cephasite party (of Peter) nearly split apart the Galatian church (Gal 2:11-14). During the earthly ministry of Christ, the apostles argued up until the night of Christ’s betrayal over who was the greatest; the most popular. The Corinthian church broke their loyalties into ‘celebrity cults’ (“I am of Apollos,” 1 Corinthians 1:12). Even repentant Peter after his thrice denial of Christ and his renewed commissioning by Christ, was threatened by Christ’s attention to the Apostle John (Jn 21:21-22).
Your pastors can exhort you all day long to cease and desist from the pride of life: “don’t form cliques; don’t practice a party spirit; don’t buy into a pecking order; don’t give preference to the rich in your midst (James and evil motives); don’t be envious of those who have succeeded enormously in the world; don’t be attracted to systems driven by the honor and approval of men (Jn 12, 5); don’t be controlled by raw, unsanctified ambition; don’t seek to raise yourself by gossip, BUT no lasting change will take place; no heart transformation; no preferring of others over self; no sweetly reasonableness; no being burdened on behalf of others; no looking out for the interests of others more than self; no eschewing of favoritism; no submitting to one another—no, the change will be superficial only BECAUSE, only the cross can put to death your demand to carry, defend, and establish your intrinsic worth at the expense of others.
I know today I am speaking not just to baby Christians, growing Christians; but also to mature Christians; to leaders; servants; scholars; businessmen. You see, only the cross can ‘level us,’ only the cross can produce supernatural community and body life wherein we live above our natural desire for man-made distinctions.
Only the cross can strip us of our natural penchant for man-made distinctions and keep our self-exalting flesh pinioned to the cross’s mortifying power and purposes. The entire worldview of the pride of life is that man-made distinctions count as much as, or more than, the divine distinctions made by sovereign grace. As Paul rebuked the Corinthians, “. . . What do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it” (1Cor 4:6-7)?
The wisdom from below is natural, earthy, demonic—it is bound up in our natures (James 3:14-16). It is our default response—in other words, without a steady diet of the cross-centered life, we will experience a ‘knee-jerk’ return to the wisdom from below. (Note what the Scriptures say concerning the wrath of God being saved up to be poured out on the selfishly ambitious—Romans 2:8.)
Again, apart from a steady diet of the cross and the gospel, one will be pulled into the pride of life approach to ‘managing’ one’s worth. To be driven by the pride of life is to NOT have the Spirit-controlled mindset which sets us free to be burdened on behalf of others. Through the cross applied to the saint, the Lord is building a diverse Body in which differences are a complement producing a dynamic, interdependent organic community (1 Cor 12:12-27). Where the cross, the gospel, and completeness in Christ are not regularly exposited in their dynamic of personal transformation; there will necessarily be a return to pride of life with its self-protective, self-justifying wisdom from below.
As a consequence, differences among the members (in interests, education, income, experience, race, background, maturity) will not be embraced as an essential part of our complementary richness. Instead, the local church will naturally ‘grade’ itself into groups—we’ll find ourselves ‘huddling’ based upon our education, income, etc. “Huddle” we should, but not merely to seek out the most comfortable social arrangements; but for the purpose of confessing our sins to one another and for the purpose of stimulating one another to love and good deeds (Heb 10:23-25).
Christ intends that the diversity of the Body (animated by His Spirit) help drive its commitment to the bond of peace—to unity (1 Cor 12:20-25; Eph 4:1-3). The pride of life suggests that the Body may be divided up between, “those who are achieving God’s standard, and those who are not,” between “those who are the spiritually dependent, and those who are the ‘providers’ needing little or nothing from others”—the spiritual ‘haves’ and ‘have nots.’
We need ruthless honesty at this juncture. Our addiction to honoring men, exalting self, and being honored is at war with the purposes of the cross. Paul dissects this in the lives of the Corinthians (see 1 Cor 4:6-21). Paul’s words would shock and traumatize us today because our triumphalism has little or no place for the radical humiliation, the suffering, and the deprivation of the cross applied to the lives of self-less ministers. (Triumphalism is the mindset which suggests that all the privileges of the coming kingdom of God are ours now and ought to be enjoyed. This sentiment shows up as a ‘health and wealth’ gospel. This is also accompanied by the victorious life view which says, “Don’t let trouble near my door. Those who are suffering are failing and not getting the victory.”)
We commonly see triumphalism in spiritual leaders (as Paul did in the Corinthian believers)—a failure to embrace the lowliness and humiliation of the cross. Christian ministers today are often bubbly, jocular, glib, ambitious, entrepreneurial—but rarely radically identified with Christ and His cross. We normally don’t see them cultivating a lowliness of mind and “always carrying about the dying of Jesus that the life of Christ might be manifested in them” (1 Cor 4:10). We do not hear from them how Christ has been conquering their unsanctified fleshly ambitions—how Christ, with sustained affliction, has been subduing their lower natures, and subjugating them to Himself. Instead it is evangelical sweetness and light in concert with ‘business model’ Christianity (with seldom a mention of the trauma of holiness and the trauma of the cross applied to the believer—starting with the pastors).
By contrast, Paul was radically identified with Christ’s humiliation. He was eschatologically driven. His daily meditations were never void of the constant thought of standing before Christ at any moment and giving an account of himself and his ministry to the Lord (2 Cor 5:9-10). Paul was not a triumphalist. He was willing to be radically identified with Christ’s passion, suffering, rejection, and humiliation. Paul was not a triumphalist, he didn’t demand recognition; he didn’t ride in a gold chariot drawn by white horses. He didn’t shove his weight around claiming kingdom authority and the right to a trouble-free existence. For Paul, his glory and honor could wait. He was controlled by hope, not present ambition. He labored more than all the rest (by the grace of God) but he was no self-aggrandizing empire builder (1 Cor 15:10). Paul, as an apostle and as a preacher of the cross of Christ was identified with His Savior in His condescension, rejection, deprivation, dereliction, suffering, and humiliation. Christ became of no reputation and so did Paul.
All of the Apostle’s labor in building was on the foundation of Christ (1Cor 3:11). As Paul contemplates Christ, he thinks the thoughts of a mature man, and these thoughts are recorded for us in Philippians chapter three verses two through sixteen. He looks back at all he had achieved as a Pharisee (maximum distinction from other men, prominence, power, influence, recognition, reputation), and he pronounces that entire set of achievements as “rubbish,” “barnyard dung” compared with the privilege of knowing Christ. We pretend to be like Paul, but on the inside, our spot in the pecking order is firmly in place. We clutch it with all our might. We have yet to be weaned from our hunger for justifying ourselves through manmade distinctions.
Jesus saw all things eschatologically as well—for a day was coming in which the tables would be turned. Many of the first will be last and the last first (Matt 19:30). The rich man would be in hell’s agonies and poor sore-covered Lazarus would be eternally comforted in Abraham’s bosom. The triumphalists are reluctant to speak of the turning of tables. For they assume that their present status and recognition will enjoy a direct translation into the eternal kingdom of God. Do not envy those who are getting on so well now. Things will be radically different in the next life. It will be the true friends of the cross who will be exalted (Phil 3). It is the lowly who will be lifted up. It will be the meek, not the dominant who will inherit the earth. James warns us with stinging words about the possibility of giving preferential treatment to the wealthy in our congregations (James 2:1-7).
The cross is God’s corrective ‘lens’—it gives us God’s view of the world, of our lives, and of our relationships. The cross is meant to slay our pride of life. The more the cross is in view; the more our man-made distinctions fall to the ground. The cross is the great leveler of men. Apart from the application of the cross, the pride of life comes in and says, “Wow, brother so and so has something to boast about. Look how he has gotten on in life. His position and achievements are certainly enviable.”
Our flesh eschews the cross. We like man-made distinctions and habitually operate by them. Like the Corinthians of old, we envy the wisdom of Athens which heaped esteem on ‘beauty, bucks, brains, and eloquence.’ Yes, we resemble the Corinthians, “Give me a form of Christianity that allows me to keep my distinctions!” Paul warns that the true friends of the cross are not controlled by earthly pleasure, prominence, possessions, and power (Phil 3:17-19).
Let us never forget that the biblical principle of the cross applied to what remains of our depravity is as offensive to us as believers as salvation by the cross alone is to the unregenerate man. Our flesh hates the prospect of co-crucifixion. We chafe at the thought that the cross runs across the grain of all of our plans for self-exaltation and carnally conceived happiness. Paul shows the Corinthians that ALL their problems flow from their affinity for human wisdom instead of God’s wisdom in the cross (1 Cor 1:17-25). Thus Paul runs every Corinthian problem through the wisdom of God in the cross. This is essential for us as well if we are to be transformed by God’s Word and Spirit. Genuine transformation is impossible unless our pride of life is mortified by means of the cross (Gal 5:24).
All too commonly, we exist in a Christian sub-culture which tends to measure its spirituality by its ability to keep, or adhere to, external moral commands. What ought to disturb us is that moral behavior modification may be the rule of the day—all while the pride of life remains unchecked and un-mortified. How we need honesty here—the wisdom from below (James 3:13-18) requires no pact with the devil—the wisdom from below is natural to us—nothing more than ‘being ourselves.’ The cross alone can reverse this trajectory of self-determination; self-protection; and self-advancement. “Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with is passions and desires” (Gal 5:24). The cross exerts a force, which when sustained and applied is what is necessary for us to experience the ‘exchanged life’—Christ’s life for ours—Christ' s virtues for our fleshly behaviors. Only by co-crucifixion will we be made true disciples (2 Cor 5:14-15; Titus 2:11-14.)
Pop culture’s false promises to our teens
Christian parents are rightly concerned about lies that fill our media. Not only are these lies making a bid for the consumer dollars of teens, these lies are also deceiving the souls of our teens. If we are going to build any level of functional cultural discernment in our young people, we must know how to recognize these lies as well as how to counter their precise content:
LIE # 1.) Real freedom is having yourself alone as ‘master.’
Nearly every movie produced by Hollywood, including Disney movies, extols the concept of a master-less freedom. In other words, my highest loyalty and accountability is to myself—I answer to no other master—there is no ultimate truth outside myself. The implied veracity of this proposition is not even questioned by the rising generation.
Our teens, as the objects of relentless marketing have, from the time they were potty trained, been brainwashed into seeing life through the eyes of a consumer. This consumer life view is holistic; everything is a consumable including religious philosophies! The lifelong marketed teen has been told since childhood “Have it your way!” “You can be anything you want. Don’t let anyone hold you back, especially adults.”
‘Master-less freedom’ means that liberty is defined by independence—this plays out as a sustained resistance toward, and suspicion of, any authority outside of self. This lie suggests that real freedom may be achieved by ultimate loyalty to self. Teen stars of the movie screen emulate this lie on film with total consistency. Our teens who profess to be Christians would be horrified if this lie’s disguise were pealed back so that they could see the author and origin of this lie. The author of the master-less freedom concept is God’s enemy, Satan.
The lie began with Lucifer’s arrogance which proposed that he could transcend, or rise above his creaturehood and raise his throne above God’s throne—and then live in utter autonomy from God— with no accountability—no dependency—no submission. Our ‘Christianized’ young people in the grip of this lie of course would never suggest that they want to start a kingdom that rivals God’s kingdom. But what our teens are doing is this—they tend to believe that they know best. Disney has been the devil’s apprentice in this endeavor. Scores of movies have depicted the parents as clueless and the kids as wise. The conclusion in these films is frequently the same: why did it take the parents so long to figure out that it was the kids all along who were right and who were the ones with the wisdom?
Many Christian parents need to be more intentional in regards to teaching the absolute necessity of submission to the Lord. Parents are tempted to say, “My teen’s demand for independence is but a stage through which an adolescent moves toward adulthood.” Granted, adolescents are experimenting with the privileges that come with taking on responsibilities which accompany adulthood. That is not what I am addressing. What I am dealing with is the subtlety by which the lie operates. In our secularized culture the ‘master-less freedom lie’ has been enshrined as a virtue to be pursued. Thus, if we are to impart a degree of biblical discernment to our young people (as well as the fear of God necessary for true repentance), we must be conversant with the origin of the lie, and with its cure.
The ‘master-less freedom lie’ is not an aberration that randomly occurs in humans—it is universal; it is indigenous to our fallen natures. What has changed in the last 80 years is that through the secularization of society the plausibility of the lie has increased until it is generally uncontested. The lie is inseparable from the spiritual darkness that enslaves and destroys every unregenerate soul. The lie drives man’s ignorance of God. When the devil first whispered this lie to our first parents, the evil one intimated that God’s glorious character was antithetical to man’s highest good and wellbeing. In effect, the evil one told a lie about God’s goodness—a lie which was designed to justify human flight from God and its consequent life direction of self-determination.
The lie suggests that God’s goodness is suspect, and that He is not absolutely good and trustworthy. Thus the rationale for believing that the individual knows best—and that the resultant self-directed life is justifiable. Our teens are ‘main-lining’ this lie like heroin. They are blind to the fact that Satan takes captives for his kingdom of destruction by inducing people to believe the same lie he has believed—namely that ‘master-less freedom’ is desirable and possible. Our young people are fooled. They think that because they don’t have a pentagram poster on their bedroom wall that they are not following the devil. They would be shocked to discover that Satan takes captives and makes followers by baiting them with his own lie; the very lie he believed first told himself about master-less freedom.
Scripture stresses the Creator-creature distinction. We are utterly dependent creatures created to bear the image of God. As such, we are created for God’s glory to reflect His moral majesty and to live to praise, obey, enjoy, and glorify Him. As our sovereign Creator, God has an absolute claim upon us to tell us what to believe and how to live. God regards our apathy toward His claim of ownership of us to open defiance and rebellion. Human sin, like demonic sin, does NOT create a new reality. The notion of human autonomy from God is an illusion. We will forever be image-bearers of God. We live in God’s world—we are utterly dependent upon Him. It is impossible in God’s world to take a ‘moral holiday.’ God is moral Governor of His universe. Even after death the image of God is inescapable— man as the image of God in hell (that image cut off from God but tormented in conscience) will be in no small part the source of hell’s agonies. Man as the perfect image of God through Christ in heaven will be the realization and restoration of our created purpose and identity.
Romans 6 drives home the point that there are only two masters; only two types of service; only two destinies. Scripture makes it abundantly clear, your creational identity is that of an image-bearer of God—no human philosophy can change what you were created to be (the image of God). Our young people need to hear these truths. They are too tempted to view the Christian religion as a private subjective category or as a ‘moral code on steroids’ instead of the total truth about all reality. Countless young people who claim to be Christians have never truly believed and repented. They have never seen (by the Spirit’s conviction) that they are alienated from God. Their sentiment for personal change is therefore anemic, heartless, and guilt-driven. What they need to say (instead of, “Yah, I’ll try harder mom”) is, “I am an enemy of God, of His glory and holiness and kingdom. I have been worshipping myself.” “Lord, your condemnation is just, my life of sin and self has cut me off from you. I beg you to grant me repentance; give me a new heart of flesh through Christ that loves and obeys you.”
LIE # 2.) You have the power to craft your own identity and carry your own worth.
This lie of course is the modern version of the self-justification lie described in the introductory pages of this essay. Pop culture announces to our young people that they are the architects of their own identity. The world is but raw material from which one may construct the self. (Of course the language utilized is not so technical—instead it is cleverly cast in ‘kid-speak,’ in consumer-esque vernacular with rigid standards of what is cool in music, fashions, and trends). The media blares at our youth through entertainment, “You have the power to carry your own value; complete yourself; manage your own imperfections; and defend your own intrinsic worth.’
Our young people have no idea just how hostile this is to the biblical gospel. The gospel tells us that it is not the SELF that upholds our value. It is Christ alone who carries the worth of the true believer; Christ is the completeness of the believer; Christ’s righteousness is our covering for our moral deformities; Christ is our Advocate when we fail. The world’s religion of self proposes that one’s identity and uniqueness are maintained and enhanced by demanding to have one’s preferences all of the time.
With self as ‘god,’ the prospect of meekness, deference, and servant-hood are anathema to the person in charge of his own worth. Today’s teens will almost come to blows in an attempt to retain their preferences. They can become enraged when told that a preference must be set aside. What we fail to see as parents is that life-long marketing of our kids has taught them that their identity is bound up in having and asserting their preferences. Isn’t it interesting that Jesus said precisely the opposite of what consumer culture is telling young people. “Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your slave” (Matt 20:27). Relinquishing the demand to “have it your way” is a prerequisite for the honoring God in our human relations—just the opposite of what the marketers have pawned off on our teens.
When it comes to demanding to retain our preferences, recalcitrance is the wisdom from below—and sweet reasonableness is the wisdom from above. Our young people are bringing their hunger for value to a thousand things. As a former life science major in college, I think of the little decorator crab. This little fellow festoons himself with sponges and seaweed and bric-a-brac. He is on an endless search— always on the lookout for more to add to his seashell—his portable house. What our young people need to hear is that the broken image of God cannot be repaired with anything offered by the world. To be fallen and yet bear the image of God is a problem that cannot be repaired by anything in the creation.
Only Christ our Substitute as the perfect image of God can restore us to our created purpose. As Bible students, we know where the problem of our brokenness first began. When our first parents sinned, they lost their standing before God. A palpable ‘nakedness’ filled their consciousness. But this nakedness was not physical alone—they felt an inner shame of soul which made them seek estrangement from God. They could not raise their eyes to heaven. The absence of a covering for their souls plagued them until God graciously ‘sacrificed’ the lambs from which their garments were made. Now since then it has been a universal experience to crave a covering for our naked souls. The pride or life says, “I can provide my own covering!” Each man or woman has their covering of choice: money, power, reputation, atheleticism, morality, education, beauty, youthfulness, etc.
Self-justifiers are driven by the pride of life promises which offer a ‘covering’ from below; from the creation and the creature—instead of from the Creator. Jesus warns us that society has a complex system of spurious values to which men appeal in order to feel complete. Here are the words of Christ regarding self-justifiers, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15). So serious is the matter of ‘what makes us complete’ that Jesus sets into complete antithesis the spiritual outcome (or consequences) of one’s proposed source of ‘completeness.’ To buy into man’s system of completeness is to reject God as the source of one’s acceptance. Again Jesus blisters self-justifiers by proclaiming, “How can you believe when you receive glory from one another, and do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?” (Jn 5:44).
Our Lord’s point is difficult to miss. One is either seeking honor from men by subscribing to their value system, OR, one rejects the world’s value system and seeks honor and glory from God—the two systems are mutually exclusive. Our young people need to see this ‘fork in the road’ in bold relief. To seek a covering from world makes us an enemy of God according to James 4:4. To receive a perfect covering by grace from Christ makes us His possession forever. We become God’s property and are utterly obligated to Him for all eternity. Our first parents were radically humbled before they were graciously covered by God’s provision. There was a moment in time when their fig leaf aprons were discarded and their nakedness before God was utterly humiliating. In essence this is a picture of conversion. We face our inability to cover own souls. We come face to face with our own shame by sin and only then consent to be covered by Christ’s perfect righteousness. This radically different source of covering marks out the true child of God from the worldling.
LIE # 3.) Because everyone has different opinions about life, people’s ideas should remain a personal matter safe from the judgments of others. That’s moral relativism at work. Our young people are so thoroughly relativized by the age of 15, that it is common for them to reject absolute truth and to gravitate toward pluralism instead (though they do not know what these terms mean). “There is no public truth that applies to everyone without distinction” has become the mantra of our day. In our postmodern culture, to think you have the truth makes you a dangerous closed-minded person. Postmodern ways of thinking hold up totalizing worldviews to scorn.
As a consequence, our young people are heavily insulated from the reality that ideas have immense consequences that are far reaching and eternal. Without a unified biblical worldview, there is no real vantage point from which to survey the endless chain of effects that flow from ideas. Our relativized youth are so often blind to the consequences of ideas.
What they do NOT normally perceive is that every person is living out his or her worldview. Ideas are not merely abstract propositions we hold in our heads. Ideas make up our world and life view informs all of our choices. Values, ethics, affections, goals, hopes, dreams, fears, and identity ALL flow from one’s worldview. Thus, to build one’s worldview without the gospel of Jesus Christ as its center is to sentence oneself to a life of idolatry.
Romans one tells us that God unleashes His wrath upon those who choose not to retain a true knowledge of Him in their intellects. Mental idolatry elicits divine wrath (Rom 1:18-23). This is a severe consequence of false ideas our young people need to hear about. Our worldview is inseparable from our religious ideas. Our worldview spells out where we take our deepest yearnings. Our worldview is our lens by which we navigate, and through which we evaluate and interpret all of life.
Central to biblical worldview is the uniqueness of Christ. Now our youth who are trying to straddle Christianity and the world will necessarily distort the identity of Christ in order to retain their détente with the world. Here is the reason why: Christ’s identity as Lord of all; Lord of the cosmos; Lord of all knowledge; Lord of the church—means that all authority is resident in Him (Matt 28:18). Now it goes without saying that our youth cannot affirm Christ’s all-encompassing authority and then affirm the authority of self in the same breath. One source of authority or the other must suffer diminishment. This is the reason why Evangelicalism has gradually reduced Jesus to mascot instead of Lord of all.
Christ has been domesticated to fit the tastes of designer churches and consumer Christians. Our Lord’s vastness, preeminence, burning purity, and supremacy have been systematically hidden from view. The reason why becomes obvious when one realizes that Christ’s lordship cannot be held to theoretically. His lordship demands that every square inch of your human experience be under His authority. That is traumatic for most Christians to hear that. A dualistic, compartmentalized Christianity is easier to accept. A sentimentalized Jesus stripped of sovereignty is too often the Jesus of so many praise songs and seeker services.
The Evangelical church has forgotten that Christ will not save those who will not be ruled by His Word. Therefore to accommodate a form of religion in which discipleship and repentance are optional, many modern churches have settled for a truncated description of Christ as immanent helper. One student of the Christian sub-culture has described the version of religion embraced by many young people today as, “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, sometimes abbreviated MTD, is a term coined by the authors of the National Study of Youth and Religion directed by Christian Smith at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to describe the common religious beliefs among American youth.[1] The team found that many young people believed in several moral statutes not exclusive to any of the major world religions:
- A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.
- God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.
- The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.
- God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.
- Good people go to heaven when they die.
These points of belief were compiled from interviews with approximately 3000 people. [2]
[edit] References (the above article from Wikepedia)
The domesticated Jesus of sub-Christian culture is there to help if one encounters trouble, but this Jesus does not call His followers to take up their cross daily, to deny themselves, and to hate one’s life in the world. Joy through self-denial is considered repugnant to the petulant teen. The life-long marketed teen cannot die to self unless a complete overturning of his value system takes place through the new birth. This overturning of the old value system and the replacement of one’s entire worldview is what is spoken of by Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man is in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature; the old things passed away, behold, new things have come.”
The great deception today is this: if one gives mental assent to the historical facts of Christmas and Easter, then one is a Christian and bound for heaven. Our youth are vulnerable to this reductionistic gospel. ‘Consumer Christianity’ suggests that one may live for self and self’s preferences—and still go to heaven by God’s grace. With the imperious self never de-throned, it is absurd to suggest that this person is submitted to the lordship of Christ. As we will see in a moment, the true gospel is the power of God—it comes bringing the very enablement and heart change needed to trust Christ and follow Him.
The gospel is the power of God—the gospel’s promises are applied by God’s grace—amazingly God gives the sinner what He Himself requires!
Through the gospel of Christ Jesus, the sinner is given faith and repentance and a new heart. The believing sinner is granted the willingness, the desire, and the enablement to meet the requirements of true discipleship. It is the false gospel of easy believism that says, “True discipleship and ongoing repentance are optional—one may have heaven without taking up his cross daily and following Christ.” Jesus set forth this contrast between a true and false believer in no uncertain terms, “He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal” (Jn 12:25).
Our problem today is that we tend to explain away the existence of carnal impenitent people who fill our pews as “simply lacking enough one-on-one discipleship to grow adequately.” This conclusion is fundamentally flawed. It is the cross of Christ applied by the Spirit of God that makes a true disciple. When the blood of Christ is applied to the sinner by the Holy Spirit in true salvation, the attributes of true discipleship follow in the believer (see Titus 2:11-14; 2 Corinthians 5:14-17). The cross slays our demand to live for the preferences of imperious self.
Prior to the new birth, the teen puts his or her faith in the world’s dictum that says, “Your preferences define you, fulfill you, and identify you.” This is an excuse to worship self. When Christ conquers a sinner in salvation it is the conquest of the autonomous mind. Regeneration by the Holy Spirit ‘resets’ the intellect to be tuned to the Word of God. The issue of God’s truth becomes absolutely inseparable from loyalty to Christ. Every true Christian becomes a champion for God’s truth in His Word. The born again individual places his mind under the mind of God by subjecting himself to God’s will found in His Word. The true believer is willing to be searched by Christ and examined by Christ (Ps 139:23-24; Heb 4:12).
The new birth plants in the saved individual a new set of affections; new spiritual eyes able to ‘see’ by the faith the infinite value of eternal realities. The saved soul operates out of the ‘treasure principle.’ Spiritual duties are driven by the religious affections. The true saint ‘navigates’ by the eternal treasure of the kingdom. He sees why he must press on to the Celestial City having exited the City of Destruction (Pilgrim’s Progress).
One of the greatest misnomers in Evangelicalism today is the prospect of ‘walking with Jesus’ without being radically identified with His cross (especially as it is applied to our lower natures). In reality, when we draw near to Christ we are drawing near to His cross and its intended effects. The cross applied keeps us moving in the direction of conformity to Christ through His truth. Scripture places us in a life or death relationship with God’s truth. Here is where our culture is filled with prevarication— suggesting that one may have a casual relationship to the God’s truth and not be in grave danger. Scripture warns that even small movements of drift from the truth can expose us to great danger (Heb 2:1-4). One of the most common aberrations of God’s grace is the idea that somehow Christ has removed the mortal danger of sin for professing believers.
The cost of staying in love with God’s truth is ongoing repentance. David Wells has said it well, “The cost of retaining the transcendence of God is trauma.” In other words, as Puritan Thomas Watson has said (in Heaven taken by Storm), in order to gain the kingdom of God, we will have to ‘do violence’ to our own sinful tendencies. Our relation to the truth is not static. Either we are moving toward transformation by the truth—or we are stalled, or moving away from being transformed by the truth. God’s truth is inseparable from its ethical ramifications. To know and love the truth is to do the truth. If one is not doing the truth he or she does not know the truth (James 1:21-27).
The dynamic of being conformed to the truth can be described in this way. Man cannot live a dichotomized lifestyle (he cannot serve two masters). He cannot profess the truth and live the lie. He will lose the truth in the process. Either God’s truth is ruling us, and our desires are being continually conformed to the truth, OR, we are allowing our desires to set the standard for our behavior and we are distancing ourselves from the truth. Because God’s truth is filled with ethical obligation from top to bottom, there is little room in between these two options. Ongoing repentance, in which our affections are regularly adjusted to and conformed to the truth, is the cost of retaining the truth. The opposite is to have natural affections rule us and consequently, to lose the truth; suppress the truth; ignore the truth; deny the truth; or twist the truth. Our young people have little idea of how alive and dynamic God’s truth is and how impossible it is to maintain a grip on the truth from a distance. God’s truth only benefits us when we are constantly mixing faith and obedience with it (Heb 4:1-2).
Why is biblical worldview so essential in helping us find our place in the battle of the ages?
Christ is Lord of the cosmos and Lord of His people. Christ makes every person He saves a champion of the truth. The saved person is ‘exhibit A’ of the power of God’s truth to liberate from sin (Jn 8:31-32). The redeemed march under Christ’s banner; they take their orders from Christ’s Word. The truly saved understand that truth and error are locked in combat. The truth and error represent two kingdoms with two opposing leaders. The stakes in this battle of the ages is beyond calculation. Those who know their God are ‘of the truth’ (1 Jn 2:21; 3:19). The believer counts the cost of living for; speaking for; and suffering for the truth (Rom 8:16-18; 2 Tim 2:10).
The saint is always welcoming examination of his life by God’s truth. The true believer is on a constant ‘hypocrisy watch’—he guards against the possibility of a growing gap between faith and practice. Through ongoing faith, repentance, and obedience, he is always about the business of closing the gap between what he professes to believe, and how he lives.
Every square inch of our life experience is to be lived under the lordship of Christ. The complete absence of partitions in the life (no sacred-secular categories) is necessary for us to have a unified Christian experience. Biblical worldview is a mighty aid in helping us perceive that Christ rightfully demands first place in every region of our lives.
As a consequence of seeing all of life through the big picture lens of biblical worldview, one is able to view the contours of the battle of the ages. This ‘big picture’ vantage point is essential if we are going to find our place in the battle of the ages. We need the ‘total truth’ of biblical worldview in order to see all things clearly with spiritual discernment (1 Cor 2:12-16). The nature of the battle, the sweep of human history, the coming consummation of the ages—each of these components are spelled out in biblical worldview. We commonly divide the major points of human history into these categories: creation, fall, redemption, consummation.
History is catapulting toward a pre-determined end. The whole world is going to be tested. All imagined middle ground will be snatched away. Loyalties will be revealed (often at the cost of death). Covert enemies of God will come out of hiding and engage in open blasphemy and in persecution of the saints. Only those who follow Christ in self-denial and cross-bearing will overcome. Christ alone can get us past the enemies of our souls: sin, death, hell, the world, the flesh, the devil, and condemnation of God’s law. Those who have ‘seen’ by faith the infinite value of the kingdom of God are clinging to Christ and releasing their grip upon everything temporal. “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, authority, before all time and now and forever, Amen” (Jude 24-25).