Understanding Grace-Driven Sanctification

UNDERSTANDING GRACE-DRIVEN SANCTIFICATION

The role of the Gospel in our ongoing spiritual renewal

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the very “food” of the Church (Jn 6:53-58). The Gospel, or as Paul describes it at times, the “word of grace,” or “word of truth” is the sphere in which the church operates (Acts 20:32). It is her life breath and atmosphere. For it is by the Gospel that the Church worships, progresses in her knowledge of God, wars against her soul’s enemies, maintains purity, pursues unity, and fulfills her mission to the world.

The Gospel is “our canon within the canon.” It was the Apostle Paul who said, “For I determined, while among you, to be unconscious of everything but Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2).

Those who disbelieve the Gospel are literally at war with who God is. They show themselves hostile to God’s self-revelation; and consequently hostile to the knowledge of God (2 Cor 10:3-6; Rom 1:18-20). The only way to know God, and therefore to be saved, is to become a friend of the cross (for the Gospel of the cross reveals the glory of the knowledge of God in the face of Christ—2 Cor 4:6).

True believers literally love the way God has saved them. They love the truth and feed upon it; they “preach the Gospel to themselves.” They cherish Christ as revealed in the Gospel. They meditate upon the word of God’s grace, marveling at God’s wisdom in the cross. Therefore the Gospel is their constant meeting place with God; for it is the revealer of the heart of God toward us (1 Jn 4:9-10).

Our boldness to draw near to God in prayer and the confidence that we are heard is because the Father has graciously called us to meet Him at the altar of the slain Lamb of God (Heb 14:8-15).

The Gospel is the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:30). Oh how the Gospel towers over the human intellect. Consider that God has taken man’s salvation into His own hands—for the love of God and the wisdom of God have carved out a hiding place for believing sinners by means of the justice of God in the cross—so that by the sovereign calling of God the sinner may take refuge in the mercy of God from the wrath of God.

The fruits and dividends of preaching the Gospel to ourselves are immense. It will greatly help us keep a godly perspective that focuses our attention upon the cross of Christ. It will enable us to understand our life in the world and our identity in Christ. It will give us a vantage point by which we interpret everything; for the cross puts all things in true relation to each other. It will fill us with peace, hope, and joy in believing (Rom 15:13). It will cause us to live upon Christ by faith. In a word; it will exert a sanctifying force upon us.

I. Ongoing faith in the Gospel is the source of our spiritual renewal.

As Luther said, the fiends of sin and guilt are always beating up the believer and assaulting his conscience. How the saint needs to see that Christ was given for his sins. Renewal by means of the Gospel is our constant need.

Those who are willing to continually drink deeply from the well of the “word of grace” (the Gospel) are never bored with God. On the contrary, they are renewed by fresh views of God—views which produce awe, adoration, wonder, fear, and amazement. That’s why the Gospel is central to worship. For it is by the Gospel that God exalts, preserves, makes known, and glorifies His holy character in the face of Christ (2 Cor 4:6). The saint is renewed and transformed as He continues to behold God in Christ (2 Cor 3:18).

By nature even saved men and women are prone to live by sight and sense. Like silt settling to the bottom of a lake, our thoughts find the lowest common denominator and eventually return to a temporal value system and a system of legal working. Only the Gospel can renew us, and lift us to another “dimension” by which we live grace-based, “God-ward” lives.

Just as gravity causes water to flow downward so that it eventually finds the bottomland, the swamp, and the stagnant slough, so also the old nature tugs at the saint, pulling him away from faith living. It takes energy and a plan to move pure water uphill to the water tower at the hilltop. So also, feeding on grace is a matter of intentionality.

In order to rebound from spiritual declension, one must assess the spiritual malnutrition in his own soul. He must stir himself past the carnal apathy that has left him contented with spiritual dryness and a lukewarm disposition toward Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ as He is revealed in the Gospel answers all of our spiritual hunger. We must keep feeding upon Him and not upon the dry husks offered to us by the world. Isaiah warned his readers about seeking to feed the soul on ‘bogus bread’ (Is 55:2).

The believer must take seriously the fact that Christ sharpens His rod of discipline to chasten believers who exhibit more complacency than zeal. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore, and repent (Rev 3:19-21).

The believer is frequently confronted by the gap that exists between what the N.T. requires of him, and what his actual obedience consists of. The true believer is always to be about the business of closing the gap by ongoing repentance. But, his efforts to close the gap must be by means of evangelical repentance, not legal repentance.

Evangelical repentance is grounded upon the fact of our union with Christ. Evangelical repentance looks to Christ as our completeness, our entire eligibility for God’s acceptance and favor, for our right-standing with God, and for our qualification to be sons of God.

Our efforts in pursuing holiness MUST flow from grace motives that stimulate evangelical repentance. Ongoing repentance for the true believer flows from his foundation of union with Christ. (Every single sub-Christian cult practices the opposite—they all practice legal repentance; which is an effort, through religion and moral effort, to measure up and be approved and accepted by God so as to win His favor.)

Paul guarded against all forms of legalism; he consistently anchored N.T. commands upon the foundation of the gospel truths of grace and redemption. His arguments for obedience were soundly developed from the believer’s union with Christ.

Without that connection, Christians are left with free-floating exhortations that have the hollow echo of “be-good, try harder, just do it.” A discipleship approach, or ministry pattern, of attempting to improve the Christian life by right attitudes and behavior modification falls woefully short of the grace-based pattern set by the Apostle.

If the precepts we teach are disconnected from the word of grace, the struggling believer is frequently left with the impression that his Christian life is a non-stop effort to measure up. To keep our sanctification gospel-driven, the exposition of biblical principles must be joined to a glorious exhibition of the majesty of the Savior who loves the redeemed to the uttermost.

The Apostle Paul’s controlling burden for his converts was that they would be granted (by the Holy Spirit) a “spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ” (Eph 1:17ff.). This prayer request for his converts involved a Spirit-imparted understanding of the doctrines of God’s sovereign grace and calling in a way that would penetrate their hope and affections.

The Christian life is a life of walking worthy of our calling (Eph 4:1). The first three chapters of Ephesians set forth the infinite riches and glory of our calling. The believer who understands, and highly esteems his calling by the Gospel of grace is in the best position to obey his Lord from right motives. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Pet 3:18a).

Our sanctification progresses as our knowledge of God increases. We mature in the knowledge of God as we keep on considering the Lord’s saving work toward us as it is spelled out in the Gospel of God’s grace (Eph 1:15-23; Phil 3:8-12).

When the saints are awakened to the all-pervasive spiritual reality that they owe their life, their future, their sonship, their status, and their favor with God in Christ solely to the unobligated sovereign mercy of God, it has a life-transforming and renewing effect. (The Holy Spirit keeps renewing us by ongoing faith in the Gospel of God’s grace given to us in Christ.)

II. Ongoing faith in the Gospel produces a passion for God’s glory.

Once the saint begins to understand (by means of a spirit of wisdom and revelation, not just academically, but in his deepest affections) that God’s sovereign mercy is not just how God is taking poor sinners to heaven, but it is the very center of God’s plan to glorify Himself—then the saint begins to see things from a different perspective; a perspective which we could designate the Divine View Point (DVP).

A believer operating from Divine View Point takes to heart the message of Ephesians one; God’s glory is exalted in the entire salvation of the sinner. God is lavishing grace on the sinner for His Name’s sake! (Ez 36:22, 23.)

When the believer is stuck in patterns of spiritual defeat, it is frequently because he had not lifted his eyes above his own struggles. Unbelief keeps us focused upon our own circumstances and performance. As long as the saint is stranded in a Human View Point (HVP) perspective, he has little incentive to exercise passion for the glory of God.

By contrast, living by Divine View Point produces a kind of “grace awakening;” it elevates our thinking to live in compliance with Colossians 3:1-3.

“If this be so; if you were raised with Christ, if you were translated into heaven, what follows? Why you must realize the change. All your aims must center in heaven where reigns the Christ who has thus exalted you, enthroned you on God’s right hand. All your thoughts must abide in heaven, not on the earth. For I say it once again, you have nothing to do with mundane things: you died, died once for all to the world: you are living another life” (Expanded paraphrase of Col 3:1-3—J. B. Lightfoot’s Commentary, p. 208).

In the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the believing sinner discovers to his utter astonishment that God has planned from all eternity to join His matchless glory to the unending blessedness and welfare of the believing sinner. (God’s glory is forever joined to His plan to make you glorious in Christ.)

In response to such infinite grace Calvin says, now let us fall down before the majesty of our good God, with acknowledgement of our sins, praying to Him to make us perceive them more and more. And may He enliven us with the doctrine of the Gospel that we may see our own sins and shamefulness and be ashamed of ourselves, and also behold the righteousness which has been shown us in our Lord Jesus Christ, and lean upon it with the endeavor to be fashioned thereafter, so that daily we may come nearer and nearer to it, until we cleave thoroughly to it (Calvin’s Sermons on Ephesians, pp. 445, 446).

By God’s design, the glorious effect of grace—namely to be taken up and “intoxicated” with God (hungering and panting after Him and delighting in communion with Him) is the prerequisite for selfless ministry to others (including a zeal for evangelism—genuine ministry is the overflow of worship).

The Gospel of grace alone can make us leave our comfort zones on behalf of the needs of others. Grace alone can move us past self-protection. Transforming grace is what is needed in order for us to be lifted out of self concern and to be taken up with God. Apart from Divine View Point, our tendency is to settle into a relational life characterized by personal interests, independence, guarded privacy, prickly defenses, and cherished masks.

The saint “stranded” in the HVP perspective of things tends to operate from the carnal vantage point of self concern. His vantage point turns upon his self-ordered world of personal peace, protection, and prosperity. (EX. When God had extended Hezekiah’s life, the Judean king had settled into an HVP mindset of personal peace and prosperity—don’t let trouble or the troubled near my door—Is 39:8.)

HVP is a truncated “keyhole” vision of things which has no picture window to see what God is doing in the world. In spiritual practice he lives in a dingy hut, contenting himself with the “bread and water” of carnal security and comfort. Though seated in the heavenlies, he doesn’t stir himself to see past the tiny walls of his little stick hovel of HVP.

Religion has become a spiritual compartment characterized more by deadening duty than delight. Instead of glorying in an all-pervasive relationship with Christ that dominates exceptionally in his life, his heart is smothered in layers of guilt, obligation, and fear. He is like a prisoner in his grey castle of self.

The Gospel of grace is the cure. The kind of grace thinking enjoined by Paul is what is necessary to raise us from a state of spiritual lethargy to a pervasive consciousness of all that God is toward us in Christ. Only by a grace awakening can we be lifted out of carnal self concern to function from a DVP vantage point (Divine View Point) laid out by Paul in Ephesians 1-3.

And what a vantage point it is! Meditate for a moment upon God’s plan revealed in the Gospel. Consider what it means to be taken from dust to glory: “What is [God’s] goal? What does He aim at? . . . His ultimate objective is to bring [redeemed mankind] to a state in which they please Him entirely and praise Him adequately, a state in which He is all in all to them, and He and they rejoice continually in the knowledge of each other’s love—men rejoicing in the saving love of God, set upon them from all eternity, and God rejoicing in the responsive love of men, drawn out of them by grace through the gospel” (J. I. Packer, Knowing God, p. 81).

This is God’s glory and man’s glory bound up together in a setting in which the whole created order has been transformed (Packer, pp. 81-82).

Oh how the Church needs to feed on the grace of the Gospel. A passion for God’s glory in our lives is the blessed byproduct of walking through the gates of Ephesians chapters one through three, and (by the Spirit’s enablement) understanding what God is doing in the world—He is glorifying His grace, and He desires that the saints align their entire lives with His plan.

III. Ongoing faith in the Gospel produces a series of sanctifying “Grace Awakenings.”

The maturing saint has numerous “grace awakenings” as his Christian life progresses over time. The spiritual cycles of these awakenings bear a strong resemblance to one another. Every time, it is the Gospel order—first there is a withering and stunning view of our weakness, sin, pride, inadequacy, smallness, pettiness, unbelief, unmortified lusts, and frigid love for God. Exposure precedes clothing (as with Adam when he hid). We become utterly disillusioned with our Christian lives.

Then, just when we are ready to write ourselves off as useless to God, as unfruitful and failures as Christians, then the Holy Spirit inspires us to exercise “mustard seed” faith in a passage of Scripture, or a promise from the Word.

Even a single line of living Scripture believed anew with struggling faith can be a staging area from which God can give us fresh revelations of His faithfulness (and from which He can do new things in our lives).

Amidst our self-loathing, the Holy Spirit “shows us the blood” yet again. We feed our faith again upon the grace of God in Christ. We fall at Lord’s feet and consent to be loved by Him for Christ’s sake alone. Suddenly duty becomes delight—we move all the way into renewed enjoyment of all that God is towards us in Christ.

It is through the lens of the Gospel that we see that we are God’s possession. Our identity as sons of God is drawn directly from the word of grace. To the degree that the saint defines himself by the Gospel, literally drawing his identity from what God says about him, to that degree his life will demonstrate eternal values.

By contrast, the saint adrift in the dwarfed faith of HVP tends to define himself primarily by temporal things. His job, his income, his possessions, his friends, his status, his hobbies, his appearance – all these define the HVP saint in his own mind, more than his holy, God-possessed status in Christ.

Preaching grace truths to ourselves regularly is not an option. Without a steady spiritual diet of the word of grace, of Christ and Him crucified, the lower nature will assert itself. Performing, pretending, self-protection, and a passionless spirit will dominate our lives if we are not feeding upon Christ as He is revealed in the Gospel.

Here is the unbreakable truth, if your own identity in Christ, as defined by the Gospel, is your controlling identity, then you will see the Gospel as your life. The Gospel through Christ’s constraining love will animate you; it will determine how you see everything. It will mark out your value system.

“Grace-awakenings” have a sanctifying effect upon the Christian life. As Pastor Al Martin noted, the inescapable repetitive theme of Scripture from cover to cover is sin and grace. As pastors, we have the often unappreciated task, but awesome privilege of persuading folks that God loves people by

His active confrontation of their sin followed by the application of grace.

By His Word, His Spirit, and His ministers, God continually brings people to the crossroads of repentance. We are heralds of a message that is always timely: Repent, confess, mortify sin – experience renewed cleansing and restoration. Delight in God again, find new wonder and gratitude as you commune with Him; have the joy of your salvation restored. Experience joyful integration (as the Psalmists) when you come out of hiding and walk in the light again; living a sin-judged life of transparency before God.

But how do most of our parishioners live in the private world of their spiritual lives? What lies behind the guarded shutters of their souls? Beneath their quiet desperation and patterns of spiritual defeat is a fear that if their rebellion, and weakness, and failure were to come into the full light of God’s gaze, they would be devastated.

As a result, they shore up the little hovel that conceals their depravity with self-protective strategies to defend against judgment. Beneath that stiff upper lip is a proud, but fearful spirit that won’t take the “risk” of running to the atonement one more time.

The flesh works overtime to shield itself from any feelings of condemnation, shame, diminishment, and failure. Chutzpah becomes the rule of the day—the posture that is maintained says, “I have it all together.” Prickly defenses are employed to keep others from drawing too close. Personal brokenness is kept at arm’s length as a repugnant thing too filled with weakness to be considered beneficial.

What is needed is a grace awakening (a series of renewals in the Christian life). When Mike Horton wrote the book, Putting the Amazing back in Grace, he was addressing a pervasive problem—it’s all too common for believers to lose their wonder and awe of God’s grace. Why does this happen?

Amazement at God’s grace is a function of being conversant with our ill desert and ruin by reason of sin. The greater our apprehension of our need for Christ, the more we will marvel at God’s grace. The reverse is also true—without a deep awareness of our ill desert and ruin by sin, we will unintentionally devalue divine grace.

It’s needful, but humbling to wake each day with the intent of facing our utter dependency upon Christ. The alternative is choosing to be managers of our own depravity. When we lose our amazement at God’s grace, it’s generally because we have drifted into a lifestyle of managing our own dereliction and depravity with something other than the grace of God in Christ. Preaching the Gospel of God’s grace to ourselves each day is the solution! Do you do the ‘book keeping’ of your soul and conscience by the Gospel?

IV. Ongoing faith in the Gospel shows us that sanctification is driven by relationship more than rules.

Historically, the Church has always found it a battle to keep the doctrines of justification and sanctification joined (and operating in their logical relation—especially as set forth in the Pauline epistles). Pietism separates the two cardinal doctrines; as does quietism. Legalism and antinomianism militate against their unity as well.

Of all the groups in church history, the Puritans seemed to have best understood the essential and practical relationship between justification and sanctification (many of the Reformers did as well, but they did not write on it as prolifically as the Puritans).

As servants of Christ, our anthropology ought to reflect an extremely keen insight into the hearts of our hearers. We’re preaching to people who carry in their bosoms the seeds of the Galatian error. We should never be shocked at how religious the flesh of man can be. We should always keep in mind how enormous our capacity is to forget the Gospel.

Orthodoxy can be a forum for the flesh. We are preaching to folks like ourselves who carry in their souls an internal enemy of God’s grace, even though they are believers!

Carnal sense has no trouble understanding moral obligation, ethical responsibility, duty, performance, reward, merit, production, and law, BUT, it requires the ongoing work of God’s Spirit to understand and live by the grace of the Gospel. The flesh loves control more than grace.

The flesh of man prefers a formal, manageable approach to religion. True religion always tends to
degrade in the direction of heartless orthodoxy which is characterized by formalism and
compartmentalization. (See essays: Orthodox Formalism and Thoughts on Church Renewal,
www.frontlinemin.org).

Only fresh acts of faith take us off of ourselves and dislodge self from being at the center (even Christians would rather do some work of service than do the work of believing—note Heb 4. Christ was witness to this propensity in hearers; a tendency to work rather than believe—Jn 6:27-29).

Due to this bent in all of us, the challenge is to keep before the brethren the union of justification and sanctification. And the fact that grace is not primarily a principle or a possession; grace is a

relationship; it is relational.

God has made us His possession that we might know and enjoy Him and in so doing glorify Him—all flows from Christ, our “Source Person.” We are saved to commune with the Trinity and in so doing ultimately realize (that is be transformed into) our true identity in Christ.

Grace is a love relationship with our Heavenly Father through Christ our Lord in the power of the Spirit. Sanctification is the outworking of this love relationship. When the believer maintains his relationship with the Lord, he is living a “separated unto God,” or “sanctified” life. Thus sanctification involves caring for our relationship with God (David Peterson, Possessed by God). Grace is relational throughout.

FOR DISCUSSION:

1. Why does preaching the gospel to ourselves renew us?
2. Is it true that we will do more for God when we consistently hear what Christ has done for us rather than hearing what we ‘ought’ to be doing for God?
3. Why is repentance so closely associated with renewed fellowship with Christ? (See Rev 3:19-21).
4. Explain what is meant by, “The gospel takes us ‘off of ourselves’ by filling our minds with the Divine Viewpoint of life.”
5. What has to happen in our Christian walk in order for us to take delight in our spiritual duties?

6. What does it mean that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the very ‘food’ of the church?
7. What is the difference between legal and evangelical repentance?

8. How would you define a grace awakening?
9. How do these renewals and awakenings cure our fleshly tendency to be weary of the things of God?

UNDERSTANDING GRACE-DRIVEN SANCTIFICATION

How abiding in Christ fits us for love, fellowship, and ministry

Our relationship with God is manifested in our relationships with others (1 Jn 4:7-13; 19-21). As John Piper says, “It is my greatest joy to experience the in-filling grace of God overflowing from me for the good of others.” This is ‘reflexive love’—which overflows from our satisfaction in Christ (1 Jn 4:19). The habitual consciousness of who God is toward us in Christ in all His mercy and love is a major part of our equipping to love the brethren (Col 3:12-13).

Through ‘the word of His grace’, and union with Christ we are made “fit” to wear the garments of grace in order that we might serve the Body. The “garments of grace” are described especially in Ephesians 4-5 and in Colossians 3-4. The “garments of grace” are the Christian virtues and behaviors which constitute our Christ-like behavior toward one another in the Body of Christ.

The language used by the Apostle in these chapters is “put on” (put on like a garment the character qualities of Christ). Put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience (Col 3:12b). Our practical sanctification is lived out by replacement behaviors as we put off the old behaviors and choose to “wear” the garments of grace in our relationships with believers.

In this way, others see that we have become partakers of Christ and of grace. The Gospel of grace provides the rationale for us to love sacrificially; to be spent on behalf of the brethren; to live for the edification of others. (Illustration for put off; put on: the college student who was sprayed by a skunk had to put off the defiled clothes and put on fresh clothes before he could enter the house.)

The word of grace gives us the reasons why we are to identify ourselves completely with Christ’s purposes: The believer is a member of Christ’s Body; as such each member is to contribute his part to the maturation of the Body of Christ as a whole (Eph 4:15, 16; Col 2:19).

Each member of Christ’s Body is to commit himself or herself to the Great Commission which is not only directed at evangelism, but equally at discipleship. And we proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man that we present every man complete in Christ (Col 1:28). (See the book, Instruments in the Hands of the Redeemer: People in need of Change helping People in need of Change, by Paul David Tripp). The mindset is, “The Lord placed me in the Body so I can be here for others.”

Such radical identification with Christ and His purposes requires that our affections be captive to the grace of God in the Gospel (to be captivated with the Gospel of God’s grace is synonymous with having a Divine View Point perspective. Only then does the believer gladly make the purposes of Christ his own purposes and his life’s direction.)

Without the Gospel of grace as our focus, there can be a tendency to preach principles and then recruit volunteers for ministry while the sense of obligation is weighing heavily upon the consciences of our listeners. As a consequence, church members can easily interpret ministry activity and “orthodox output” as the very soul and heartbeat of the Christian life (our ‘bottom line’).

Indeed, a form of this busyness for God is what happened at the church of Ephesus (Rev 2:1-7). Productivity “ate up” devotion to Christ as the highest value. If we are to be faithful to the logical relationship between justification (the Gospel) and sanctification, then we will want to follow the pattern set by the Apostle Paul. An understanding of “who we are in Christ” and our devotion to Him will have to precede “what we do for Christ” (Eph 4:1-3; Col 3:12ff.).

The Gospel of God’s grace is our constant corrective; it keeps liberating us from the pressure to “measure up” in order to be loved and accepted by God. Preaching Christ in the Gospel of grace is the key to an “identity-based” ministry that puts who we are in Christ ahead of what we do for Christ.

When we preach the Gospel to ourselves daily, it keeps reminding us of the holy character of God, of the loving heart of God toward us in Christ, of who we are in ourselves as sinners, and of who we are in Christ. The beauty of reckoning our union with Christ is a growing recognition of His Person (Phil 3:10ff.). With that growing realization of Christ comes our willingness to be radically identified with Him. In other words, as we know Christ better, our desire is to live out His purpose for us.

Our life as a disciple of Christ has far-reaching effects. Fulfillment of the biblical ‘plan’ for the Church to reach the world depends upon individual believers reckoning and living out their vital connection to Christ as it is unfolded in the Gospel. We could outline this in the following manner:

UPWARD: Gospel-centered abiding in Christ (fellowship with the Lord by the Word—Jn 15:5)

INWARD: The Body of Christ edifying itself (spiritual growth through discipleship—Eph 4:14-16)

OUTWARD: Outreach in evangelism and missions (fulfill The Great Commission—Matt 28:18-20)

V. Ongoing faith in the Gospel allows us to reckon Christ’s righteousness imputed to our account (2 Cor 5:21).

To be fallen, and yet bear the image of God, is a problem that cannot be repaired by anything in the creation. Our carnal bent is to dress in fig leaves instead of reckoning our righteousness in Christ. The Apostle Paul reminds believers in Galatians 3:27 that, “You have clothed yourselves with Christ.” When Christians lose their wonder at God’s grace, it’s often because they have been seeking to clothe their souls with something other than Christ.

Only Christ our Substitute as the perfect image of God can restore us to our created purpose (Col 1:15). As Bible students, we know where the problem of our guilt, brokenness, and nakedness of soul first began. When our first parents sinned, they lost their standing before God. A palpable ‘nakedness’ filled their consciousness. But this nakedness and embarrassment 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 (See The World According to God, by Greg Johnson, p. 140).

The absence of a covering for their souls drove our first parents into hiding and plagued them until God graciously ‘sacrificed’ the lambs from which their garments were made. Now since the fall, 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 is drawn to the covering of their choice: money, power, reputation, pleasure, atheleticism, morality, education, beauty, youthfulness, etc. (1 Jn 2:15-17).

Closely associated with the pride of life is self-justification. Self-justification is the action of seeking to secure or defend one’s intrinsic worth. “Self-justification divides the world into armed camps—whether tribal, national, local (warring)” (Paul Zahl, A Short Systematic Theology, pp. 54-56). The apostle Paul summarizes the behaviors joined to self-justification in Gal 5:19-21 (“the deeds of the flesh”).

Self-justification is a proper description of sin which issues from the ‘principle of possession’ (that is ‘I demand to control my own value’)—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 (Paul Zahl, A Short Systematic Theology, pp. 54-56).

This is of course the polar opposite of experiencing the gospel each day—experiencing the gospel daily involves: Understanding the seriousness and guilt of my sin—which leads me to treasure the grace of Christ—which causes me to abound in gratitude— which produces goodness and obedience in my life. This daily experiencing of the gospel engenders new love in me which gives strength against sin and love for the brethren. This is the word of His grace at work in me performing gospel formation (Acts 20:32).

Paul dealt with the fleshly wisdom manifested by the Corinthians’ pride of life. 1 Corinthians 4:6-7 is the ‘divine atom bomb’ that devastates their 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 (1 Cor 1:29-31).

Only Christ can break the grip of original sin. It must be by substitutionary atonement—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).

The 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. The message of divine grace is amazing: 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)—He is able and free to effect a moral transfer (Jn 10:18).

Clinical and pastoral counsel experience reveals a gripping paralyzing fear of exposure (judgment). Paul says of himself, ‘sold under sin’—that person must pay the price of death (Rom 7:14) (Ibid, pp. 63-67). Biblical self-confrontation (self-criticism) is only possible by means of Christ’s atonement (self-confrontation 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—defenses which harm our relations in the Body of Christ (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 generates our self-protective devices. 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 the resurrection are the foundation for self-criticism and repentance (biblical self-confrontation). The result is personal courage and heroism in dealing with what remains of our indwelling sin (Ibid, pp. 82, 94, 100).

The gospel of the cross must not be allowed to slip from its central place in our lives. 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. How may we prevent this? Answer: Live upon Christ by faith as He is offered in the Gospel. 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 continually overturned by the power of the gospel.

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).

Only the cross can strip us of our natural penchant for man-made distinctions and keep our self-exalting flesh pinioned to the cross. The pride of life believes 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)?

Overflowing gratitude for the grace of Christ was the cure for the Corinthians’ penchant for making human distinctions. Thus to be gospel-driven is to eschew the pride involved in comparing self with others (2 Cor 10:12). Instead of our distinctions being a basis for ‘over/under’ differentiation; in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 our differences are treated as the very ‘glue’ that makes the Body of Christ function in interdependency.

Through the cross applied to the saints, the Lord is building a diverse Body in which differences are complementary producing a dynamic, interdependent organic community (1 Cor 12:12-27). Where the cross, the gospel, and completeness in Christ are regularly exposited in their dynamic of personal transformation; it will guard against a return to pride of life with its self-protective, self-justifying wisdom from below (James 3:14-16). Only the gospel can keep that tendency in check.

Differences among the members (in interests, education, income, experience, race, background, maturity) ought to be embraced as an essential part of our complementary richness. Without that knowledge, we may find ourselves ‘huddling’ based upon our education, income, and interests. “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 (James 516; 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 is destructive to body life because it 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 spiritual ‘providers’ needing little or nothing from others”—the spiritual ‘haves’ and ‘have nots.’

The cross is meant to slay our distinction-loving pride of life. The cross is God’s corrective ‘lens’—it gives us God’s view of the world, of our lives, and of our relationships. 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” (James 2:1-9).

The pride of life envies 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 up an antithesis between proposed sources of ‘completeness’. To buy into man’s system of completeness is to reject God’s work in Christ as the source of one’s acceptance with God. 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) (Article, “Pride of Life Destruction” by Jay Wegter).

The behavior of the self-deceived Laodiceans of Revelation 3:14-22 typifies the universal tendency of seeking a counterfeit clothing of the soul. They boasted that were rich, wealthy, in need of nothing. What a shock it must have been when Christ the Lord, with eyes like a flame of fire (Rev 1:14ff.), peered into their hearts and declared them to be wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.

The mindset of the Laodiceans was the polar opposite of utter dependency upon Christ. Their boast was in things which they imagined would clothe their souls. As a result, not a small part of their blindness involved abject ignorance of their desperate need of daily divine grace. The mirror of God’s Word alone can keep us from self-deception in this matter.

How does God deal with our sinful tendency to seek “clothing” for our souls in things other than Christ our completeness (Col 2:10)? The answer is that God through His Spirit and His Word exalts Christ in all of His offices (Prophet, Priest, and King; Logos, Lawgiver, Loving Redeemer, Lion of Judah). In the gospel, the Father displays His Son to the saints so that they will come to understand that in all of His offices, Christ ever lives to represent us and bring us to God. The Father convinces us that apart from Christ we are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.

The safest place for the believer is to be constantly undergoing a “grace awakening.” Welcome views of personal sin, of personal depravity, dereliction and utter dependency—let them drive you to Christ. Invite the Sunrise from on high to shine upon your life (Luke 1:77-79). When you consent to be clothed by Christ alone; you will find the exit to the “grey castle of self.” (Yes there is some pain involved; but it is primarily to our pride. How fortifying this is to spiritual health to be scraped down to bedrock so that we are motivated anew to build upon Christ alone from grace motives.)

Paul placed all of the Corinthians’ carnal behaviors under the microscope of God’s wisdom in the cross and found each one of them to be symptomatic of the world’s wisdom; a wisdom antithetical to the cross of Christ (James 3:13-18). The Apostle stated in his Corinthian letters that the message of the cross-centered life is the spiritual diet of the mature. But only those who are sick of the world’s wisdom are ready for this diet (1 Cor 2:15-3:3).

The cross, the diet of the spiritually mature, produces substantial spiritual growth. The cross-centered believer increasingly perceives that his relationship with the Lord is the foundation for all of his other relationships.

Thus, the man or woman constrained by Christ’s love will have all of his relationships transformed because his motives will not be dominated by self-protection and self-enhancement (the flesh by natural instinct is committed to protection from judgment, criticism, diminishment, as well as to self-advancement). Instead of an agenda issuing from a self-directed life; the controlling, constraining love of Christ will equip the believer to love God and others (2 Cor 5:14-15).

If we are to excel in love and servanthood; if we are to be characterized by honesty and realism; and by heroism in dealing with personal sin, we will have to be in that habit of preaching the Gospel to ourselves. Only the man or woman who is constrained by Christ’s love and who lives a cross-centered (Gospel-centered) life is capable of dealing with personal sin at the depth enjoined in Scripture—the depth commanded of the true disciple of Christ (1 Jn 1:6-10).

Any attempt to “manage” our remaining depravity by a means other than the Gospel will produce destructive side effects. To seek to clothe our own souls by carnal strategies will tend to produce a host of masks, defenses, and personal agendas that keep us from being unhindered vessels of Christ’s love to the Body of Christ. As the Scotsman said, “There’s a stone in the pipe”—Christ’s love will not be free to pass through us to others.

Jesus said that His true disciples would not love their lives in this world (Jn 12:24-26). (The carnal love of one’s own life in this world includes all of the community-destroying, cherished, fleshly defense mechanisms employed to guard ourselves from others.)

By contrast, that man or woman who lives a sin-judged life by walking in the light will stand out amongst those who do not live in this way. Only the cross-centered life has the guaranteed power to transform our relationships (Phil 2:1-8; Rom 15:1-6).

The message of sin and grace is the starting place. 500 years ago Luther wrestled to the point of weariness with the problem of how a totally depraved person could be completely accepted by God. Once by God’s mercy he discovered the wonder of justifying love—Luther could exclaim with uncontainable joy that the believer is justified, yet a sinner.

This is precisely where so many believers are still stuck. “Justified, yet a sinner” has never taken hold of them in a life-transforming manner. Therefore they cannot be heroic in dealing with personal sin and failure. Why? Because deferring judgment, defending against condemnation, and protecting from perceived criticism is still a higher priority than fellowship with God and the saints.

Only the person secure in Christ’s justifying love can face his sin with courage; only the individual who solidly appropriates the word of justification can afford to hear the worst things about self. Apart from deep confidence in Christ’s justifying love—judgment, condemnation, and criticism (perceived or real) make our defense mechanisms go ballistic. Figuratively speaking, we are ready to cut off, attack, or “kill” the person who brought our failure to light and made us feel diminished.

This non-evangelical response to hearing about our sin is a destructive force that can tear fellowships apart (Gal 5:15). The foolish, and frequently the immature, cannot tolerate admonishment; it is the wise man that welcomes correction and shows gratitude for it (Prov 9:8).

For this very reason, the saints are in constant need of taking the good word of justification into their souls. If the Gospel is not their “food,” the temptation will be overwhelming to manage fear of judgment by carnal methods (the world is more than happy to oblige our longing to clothe our souls—it has a thousand counterfeits and “scorecards” by which we may pronounce ourselves “O.K.”).

If we are not made whole by Christ’s righteousness imputed, then we will attempt to find our completeness in other things. This self-deception must give way in order for the gospel to transform us. In order for gospel formation to take hold, the members of the Body of Christ must determine to be examined by the proclamation of God’s Word. Apart from the news of redemption in the cross, we tend to shoot the messenger. If the atonement is not our daily hiding place, we will have false refuges from judgment—and every false refuge has its social consequences (note how destructive the Corinthian “fig leaves” were to true community in that local church).

The believer who preaches the Gospel to himself each day will be equipped for heroism in dealing with personal sin. He will gladly make it his daily practice to ‘consent’ to be clothed by Christ’s righteousness, and thereby live by faith in Christ (Gal 2:20). As a consequence, his relationships will be characterized by supernatural love, humility, and unity.

“Ask God to change your heart so that, like Paul said in Galatians 6:14, you can say, ‘May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ’” (C. J. Mahaney, The Cross-centered Life, p. 23).

Christ’s fulfillment has decisively met my failure. I daily exercise faith in the Word of His grace, the gospel, instead of trusting in my flesh. Living by faith in Christ exerts a powerful effect in equipping me for ministry in the Body. Again I affirm the ‘Gospel order’:

• What God expects and requires of me (Christ-like love and service)
• Why I can’t and won’t do it in my own strength and resources
• What I am, can be, and should be by His grace (Christ fulfilled perfect righteousness for me)

FOR DISCUSSION:

1. What must happen in our Christian walk before we are willing to see ourselves as ‘instruments in the hands of the Redeemer’ for changing lives?
2. What will alter our perspective so that we begin to see all of our relationships as opportunities to move people closer to Christ?
3. How does consenting to be clothed with Christ each day equip me for Body life?
4. Why does feeding upon the gospel produce a willingness to confess our sins one to another?
5. What biblical truths constitute the spiritual diet of the mature?

6. How would living upon Christ’s love motivate us to wear the ‘garments of grace’?

7. Only the gospel can disarm our fear of judgment. How does liberation from the fear of judgment (through the gospel) equip us for transparent, trusting relationships in the Body of Christ?
8. How does the gospel impart the courage to practice ongoing self-confrontation and repentance in the believer’s life?
9. Can you identify areas in your own life where the pride of life draws you away from the gospel alone as your standing, acceptance, and status before God?