Gospel-Centered Sanctification: April 2005 Archives
"Assurance [of salvation] goes far....It enables you to feel that the great business of life is a settled business, the great debt is a paid debt, the great disease is a healed disease, and the great work is a finished work; and all other business, diseases, debts and works are then by comparison small. In this way assurance makes you patient in tribulation, calm under bereavements, unmoved in sorrow, not afraid of evil tidings, in every condition content, for it gives you a fixedness of heart...." (J.C. Ryle, “Assurance” in Holiness: It’s Nature, Hindrances, Difficulties, and Roots).
The quotation below is from Paul David Tripp's most recent book, Lost in the Middle: MidLife and the Grace of God, 2004. I bought it...well...because I've entered midlife. Yes, I am between 35 and 55! But even though this is a book that specifically addresses midlife issues, it has direct relevance for all who want to learn better how to apply the gospel. So below you will find a little sample that I think you will find very applicable regardless of your age :-).
“You and I are always living out of some sense of identity. The way we answer the ‘who am I?’ question will have a huge influence over all that we say and do. It should not surprise us that high school athletic activities would morph into identity issues. Nor should it surprise us that the struggles of midlife are struggles of identity as well. When you begin to understand this, it becomes enormously helpful in finding your way out of that dense midlife fog. Think about how much of the drama of the biblical story is tied to identity. There is a real way in which the fall of Adam and Eve was about forgetting who they were. They were creatures of God who attempted to take on a whole new identity. Much of the drama of the Old Testament is focused on whether the Israelites would live inside of their identity as the children of God. Would they be wooed by other identities and end up worshipping the idols of the surrounding nations? In the same way, the drama of the later New Testament is about whether the church of Jesus Christ would understand and live out what it means to be ‘in Christ,’ in the middle of a world that trumpets many other identities.
"The biblical story is a story of identity given, identity lost, and identity restored. God wants you to know who you are and to live out the practical implications of the identity he has given you in Christ. That is why Scripture is constantly telling us who we are. As sinners we all tend to suffer from some form of identity amnesia. This is what Peter describes in 2 Peter 1:8-9. He says that there are people who know the Lord but are ineffective and unproductive in their knowledge of the Lord. Such a person is 'nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed form his past sins.' Peter is coupling this blind unfruitfulness with the issue of identity, essentially saying, 'Your lives are not productive because you have forgotten who you are.' I am persuaded that identity amnesia in the body of Christ is doing much more damage than we might assume.
"The problem with identity amnesia is that it gives way to something even more dangerous: identity replacement. If I have forgotten who I truly am, that identity will fail to shape my reponse to the people and situations that I encounter, and I will fill the identity void with something else” (Paul David Tripp, Lost in the Middle: MidLife and the Grace of God, pp. 267-268).
I was reading Paul David Tripp's Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands in preparation for a NT Survey lecture. I was once again reminded of two things: (1) how quickly I turn to finding my identity outside of Christ; and (2) how great is my identity as defined by the story of redemption. Here is the quotation:
"The Bible is a narrative, a story of redemption, and its chief character is Jesus Christ. He is the main theme of the narrative, and he is revealed in every passage in the book. This story reveals how God harnessed nature and controlled history to send his Son to rescue rebellious, foolish, and self-focused men and women. He freed them from bondage to themselves, enabled them to live for his glory, and gifted them with an eternity in his presence, far from the harsh realities of the Fall.
"This overarching story reflects the fact that our problem as human beings is deeper than the individual sins we commit eaach day, creating the specific problems that complicate our lives. Our deepest problem is that we seek to find our identity outside the story of redemption...We need a message big enough to overcome our natural human instinct to live for our own glory, pursue our own happiness, and forget that our lives are much, much bigger than this little moment of life...It is because our sin problem is so pervasive and so deeply ingrained that we need more from Scripture than insight, principles, understanding, or direction. An encyclopedic, problem-solving approach to Scripture is totally inadequate for the true depth of our need. We need something that will change us from the inside out--we need Christ! Only his person and work can free us from our slavery to self and our tendency to deify the creation. Only as we see our story enfolded in the larger story of redemption will we begin to live God-honoring lives. Lasting change begins when our identity, purpose, and sense of direction are defined by God's story (Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands, pp. 27-28).
This is an excerpt from an article by Richard Lovelace entited, "Beyond Self-Improvement."
"The goal of authentic spirituality is a life which escapes from the closed circle of spiritual self-indulgence, or even self-improvement, to become absorbed in the love of God and other persons. The essence of spiritual renewal is "the love of God . . . poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit" (Romans 5:5). 'My love,' said St. Augustine, 'is my weight.'
The substance of real spirituality is love. It is God's love moving into our consciousness in warm affirmation that He values and cares for us with infinite concern. But His is a love which also sweeps us away from self-preoccupation into a delight in the unlimited beauty and transcendent glory of God himself, and moves us to obey Him. It is a love which awakens us to cherish the gifts and graces of others and labor to perfect these.
Paul tells us that this love is a far more reliable measure of spirituality than our gifts or works or theological comprehension, and that this love is one of the few things which lasts forever (I Corinthians 13:8, 13). And Jesus said that the highest fulfillment of the will of God in our lives is to love God with heart and soul and mind and strength, and to care for others as we care for ourselves (Mark 12:30-31)."
If you wish to read the full article, you can find it at http://www.goodnewsmag.org/library/articles/lovelace-nd85.htm.
This has been one of those weeks where I've struggled with excessive introspection, particularly as it relates to my own progress in sanctification. My brother David mentioned something to me yesterday that brought 1 Peter 1:13-21 to mind. I preached a sermon on it earlier this year. It reminded me afresh where I need to be daily fixing my eyes, namely, on the cross. I've heard it said (can't remember who said it) that for every one look within we need to take ten long looks at the cross. I've linked the sermon manuscript below. It's not a full manuscript, but you should be able to "fill in between the lines."
1 Peter 1.13-21 - More Than a Mere Outline of a Human Being
P. S. The sermon has a couple LOTR illustrations in it :-)
