Does Our Effort Nullify God’s Grace?

There has been quite a bit of debate lately, particularly in Reformed Evangelical circles, about the relationship between God’s grace and our effort in sanctification. A while back, there was quite the conversation on The Gospel Coalition blogs about this relationship. I’ll spare you the details, but check out the roundup of the debates if you have time.

God demands that we pursue holiness after being saved. We are not saved to “let go and let God.” Rather, by grace we strive to flee from sin and strive to pursue holiness. This past month, my morning devotions in 1 Timothy have made this clear. In chapter 1, Paul says that all of our effort in the Christian life is by God’s grace. Effort is not equated with earning God’s love; effort simply works out what God has worked in (Phil. 2:14). (For one of the best sermons you will ever hear on grace and effort, watch Doug Wilson’s sermon “Grace and Sweat.”)

Notice how Paul links grace (God’s sovereign role) and effort (our responsibility) in 1 Timothy 1:1-14.

• Faith is a gift of God (1:6).
• God gives us a spirit of power, love, and self-control to overcome fear (1:7).
• We endure suffering by the power of God (1:8).
• We are saved by God’s purpose and grace, not our works (1:9).
• We have life through the gospel, not in our own selves (1:10).
• God guards the deposit in us until we obtain full possession of it (1:12).
• We guard the “good deposit” of the gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit, not our own power (1:14).

We are called to holiness, but God is the one who ultimately does the work. Yet, God works through means: our willful choices. Throughout 1 Timothy, Paul instructs Timothy  to appeal to his flock to believe in gospel truth and live in gospel-shaped ways because of grace. Therefore, the motivation for our “sweat,” as Wilson puts it, is not to be loved and accepted by God. We have gospel motivation: we are already accepted by God in Christ. We have the power of Christ in the person of the Holy Spirit who enables to obey. Our obedience is done out of gratitude for who God is and what he has done in the gospel. Obedience is not done out of a desire to “get God in our debt” or “get him to love us.” And when we fail, we repent, knowing our assurance with God is not based on our performance, but on Jesus’ performance for us.

In saving sinners (1 Tim. 1:15), Jesus bought all the graces of God that I mentioned above with his blood. God justifies us by grace and sanctifies us by grace. Therefore, knowing we are already loved and no longer have the weight of the law bearing down on our shoulders, we are free to pursue holiness. That is why Paul can say to Timothy at the end of his letter, “But as for you, O man of God, flee these things [false teaching and wickedness]. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of eternal life to which you were called” (6:11-12, emphasis added).

These are commands to be active. How does this all happen without believing effort is the root of our acceptance with God? Four words: “Grace be with you” (6:21b). Timothy can flee evil and pursue righteousness because God’s grace is with him. Grace brings joy-filled effort and heart-level obedience that arises from the fact that our standing before God is secure in the strong name of Jesus. That is incredibly freeing, and it always produces a holy sweat.

Does our effort nullify God’s grace? Not one bit. In fact, our pursuit of holiness—even our desire for it—proves that God is the one who gets all the glory. Our pursuit of holiness exalts God’s grace. It exalts the cross because it shows us that we need the gospel—Jesus life, death, and resurrection for us—more than we ever imagined. When we put for gospel-motivated effort, Jesus’ words to Nicodemus become that much sweeter: “Whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God” (John 3:21).

How Martin Luther Interpreted the Bible

History is full of giants of the faith who have immensely helped the church interpret the Bible properly. One giant stands out among them all: Martin Luther. Along with John Calvin, Luther is perhaps most loved for his radical Christ-centeredness when it come to Bible interpretation. He’s prominent because God used him at such a vital crossroads in church history. As one of the driving forces of the Reformation, Luther helped Christians refocus biblical hermeneutics back to the text of Scripture and away from the authority of the church. Let’s briefly look at his hermeneutical method.

Luther’s method for interpretation, if named anything, may be termed “historical interpretation” because he rejected allegory.[1] More accurately, Luther’s method may be labeled Christological. He believed that the sole content of Scripture is Christ. Christ is the incarnate Word of God, therefore the Bible can only be God’s word if it deals with Christ.[2] Luther further held that “all Scripture is interpreted by its relationship to the gospel.”[3] In other words, every text must be seen in light of God’s redemptive work in the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Thus every text relates to the gospel either by promising, foreshadowing, proclaiming, or reflecting upon the person and work of Christ. The modern interpreter is helped by Luther’s Christological hermeneutic because the gospel is timeless. Since Christ lived, died, and rose for believers past, present, and future, the gospel is immediately applicable to the modern reader. The gospel, therefore, is the applicational bridge from the ancient text to the modern reader.

Luther led the charge for what is called sola scriptura (Scripture alone), the “key foundational premise of the Reformation.”[4] Sola scriptura holds that only Scripture holds divine authority for the life and conduct of Christians. Scripture authenticates itself and the church, not the other way around as the papacy supposed. Because Scripture is the final authority for Christians, its message is not regionalized or relegated to a certain time period. Modern interpreters must acknowledge the Bible is authoritative for their life even in the twenty-first century.

As Augustine taught more than a millennium before, Scripture interprets itself which implies that Scripture is clear in itself.[5] Here Luther leads the modern interpreter to be confident that Scripture is living, active, and harmonious.

Finally, one valuable element of Luther’s method of interpretation is that he accounted for the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the interpreter. The Holy Spirit enables Christians to understand accurately what a passage teaches about Christ.[6] Because of this, just like Luther in the 1500s, readers today can be confident that God has provided through his Spirit the ability to objectively understand and subjectively experience the truths of Scripture.

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[1] William W. Klein, Craig L. Blomberg, Robert L. Hubbard, Jr. Introduction to Biblical Interpretation. Rev. ed. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2004), 47.
[2] Graeme Goldsworthy, Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2006), 185.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Klein et al. Introduction to Biblical Interpretation, 47.
[5] Goldsworthy, Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics, 185.
[6] Klein et al. Introduction to Biblical Interpretation, 47.

What is Reformed Theology?

Reformed theology is one expression of historic Christianity. Dead theologians like John Calvin, Martin Luther, John Owen, Jonathan Edwards, and Charles Spurgeon represent this stream of evangelicalism. Modern day theologians and pastors like John Piper, D.A. Carson, Wayne Grudem, R.C. Sproul, Tim Keller, J.I. Packer, C.J. Mahaney, Mark Driscoll, and Matt Chandler fall into this tradition as well.

In his book Bloodlines, John Piper writes how he loves the legacy of Reformed theology:

I speak of love for this legacy the way I speak of loving a cherished photo of my wife. I say, “I love that picture.” You won’t surprise me if you point out, “But that’s not your wife, that’s a picture.” Yes. Yes. I know it’s only a picture. I don’t love the picture instead of her, I love the picture because of her. She is precious in herself.

The picture is precious not in itself, but because it reveals her. That’s the way theology is precious. God is valuable in himself. The theology is not valuable in itself. It is valuable as a picture. That’s what I mean when I say, “I love reformed theology.” It’s the best composite, Bible-distilled picture of God that I have (129-130).

I agree with Piper, and I find myself “at home” in this legacy. What exactly is this “Bible-distilled” picture of who God is? It is very simple—especially if you remember the number five.

The Five Doctrines of Grace

1. Total Depravity. Man inherits a corrupted nature from Adam. We are conceived as sinners and every thought, word, and deed falls short of the glory of God. Therefore we are unable and unwilling to turn to Christ.
2. Unconditional Election. Before the foundation of the world God sovereignly choose people for salvation by his free grace apart from any merit of our own.
3. Limited (better: Particular) Atonement. The death of Jesus secured the forgiveness and redemption of only those whom God had predetermined to save.
4. Irresistible Grace. By the Holy Spirit, God overcomes all obstacles to draw elect sinners to saving faith in Jesus Christ.
5. Perseverance of the Saints. Those who are truly saved by God’s grace will endure and never lose their salvation.

The Five Solas

1. Sola scriptura (scripture alone). The Bible is the only inerrant authority (and therefore the highest authority) for governing life and doctrine.
2. Solus Christus (Christ alone). Salvation is only through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
3. Sola gratia (grace alone). Salvation and justification are only by God’s sovereign and free grace, not by man’s effort.
4. Sola fide (faith alone). Our justification before God is only by faith in Jesus.
5. Soli Deo gloria (glory to God alone). All glory and honor belong only to God.

Stop It!

This hilarious video shows how empty moralistic teaching, preaching, counseling, or parenting is. When there is law (do this, don’t do that) without gospel (someone has done it for you), motivation or power to change is altogether missing. Simply telling sinners to “Stop it!” will not help–no matter how loud we say it.

HT: Tullian Tchividjian

Four Themes in Ruth

Ruth is a literary masterpiece. Death. Suspense. Love. Brokenness. Redemption. Often we think it is mainly about a romantic encounter between a strong man-hunk and an unworthy pauper girl. That’s in there, of course, and it certainly adds to the drama. The author knew what he was doing–it draws us in!

Ruth is, however, mainly about God and his activity and purpose. Here’s four themes to keep in mind as you read the book.

1. God welcomes non-Israelites into his covenant. From the outset of the book, the author makes clear that Ruth is a Moabite (1:4). She is referred to as “the Moabite” throughout (2:2, 6, 21, etc.). God is not anti-Gentile. So long as the non-Israelite is devoted to Yahweh, he welcomes them into the covenant. God does this with Rahab in Joshua and with the Ninevites in Jonah.
2. God works through ordinary means. There is not one mention of a miracle or vision or angels in Ruth. Rather, God works through the everyday means of ancient Israelite culture. Naomi sends Ruth to Boaz’s field and Ruth “happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz” (2:3). God also directs events from behind the scenes through Naomi’s plan for Ruth to seek out Boaz on the threshing floor (3:1-5).
3. God graciously guides a particular family’s life. Naomi was all but hopeless after her husband and sons died, as she may not have an heir to continue her line. Boaz, too, did not have an heir of his own. Yet by the end of the book, after Boaz and Ruth marry, Naomi is redeemed and Ruth’s son becomes Naomi’s heir (4:13). In this way too, Boaz is given a child. Naomi’s friends give God all the glory (4:14-15).
4. God sovereignly works out his redemptive plan. Boaz and Ruth’s son is not merely an heir of Naomi. The son, Obed, becomes the father of Jesse, who is the father of David (4:17). Thus Obed begins the Davidic line, which will eventually bring David to the throne. More than that, God works in the lives of Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz so that David’s greater Son, Jesus Christ, would become the Redeemer of all God’s people.

Image and Social Media

Jonathan Dodson writing about how everyone, male or female, fights for image particularly in writing and social media:

In writing this book, I am tempted to make writing decisions that reflect an intellectual image, instead of writing in a way that will best serve you. We all face the temptation to project false images of ourselves because we find the real image inadequate. This is easily done with social media. Our online image is often different from our offline image. With our Facebook status, we can project how we want others to see us, not who we truly are. Blog posts can be shrouded in airs of intellectualism, edigness, or humility. If we are honest, our real image is nowhere near as attractive as we want it to be. We want to be more beautiful, more successful, more creative, more virtuous, more popular, and more intelligent than we actually are. We all have an image problem. The problem, however, is not that we lack beauty, success, creativity, virtue, popularity, or intelligence. The problem is that we believe the lie that says that obtaining those images will actually make us happy. Believing the lie, we fight rigorously to obtain (or retain) our images of choice.

- Jonathan Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), 54-55.

Anti-Bullying Activist Curses Christians

From TGC:

 As many as 100 high school students walked out of a national journalism conference after Dan Savage, a homosexual activist and anti-bullying speaker began cursing, attacked the Bible, and used a homosexual slur to refer to those who refused to listen to his message. Savage was invited to deliver the keynote address during the National High School Journalism Conference sponsored by the Journalism Education Association and the National Scholastic Press Association. Instead of giving the expected talk about bullying, CitizenLink notes, the students got “an earful about birth control, sex, and Savage’s opinions on the Bible.”

Read the whole thing. You can also watch a 3-minute segment of his speech below.

This video reveals many things about the speaker in particular and aggressive liberals in general (notice I did not say all non-Christians!). Here’s four:

1. Savage reads the Bible as a book of rules and morality (as do many Christians, unfortunately), rather than a contextual story of God’s self-revelation throughout history. (If you are new to the blog, see posts here and here for more on this.)
2. Related to this, Savage thinks that the Bible has a one-to-one applicational principle for us today (e.g. the “stoning” law he sarcastically says the GOP might try to legalize). He says that Leviticus is the place where Christians go for their code of sexuality. Wrongly, some Christians use that. In reality, the law has been fulfilled in Christ for us so that there is not one Old Testament law that has to be obeyed. There are principles to be heeded, of course, but the New Testament gives us the authoritative commentary on the Old Testament. Our “code of sexuality” goes all the way back God’s creative design in Eden, which is affirmed over and over again in the New Testament.
3. Savage wants Christians to be tolerant. Yet, he is quite intolerant of Christians–not just of their beliefs, but of Christians as people.
4. Savage calls Christians “hypocrites.” Yet, he is quite hypocritical as he bullies the Christians who walk out of his “anti-bullying” speech. He justifies his bullying because he has been bullied by Christians. Makes perfect sense.

I pray that God would have mercy on you, Dan Savage. You need his lavish mercy just as much as I do.