Godward Thinking

The Struggle

I have been struggling for a couple of weeks now. The struggle has been against an invasive thought that crept into my mind through several teachings and sermons that I heard. The message that came creeping was this: grace is not enough. You are too concerned with being and not enough with doing. You cannot rely solely on the finished work of Christ.

Forensic Evaluation

I guess the first question that must be answered is why I tolerate this. If I could answer that question, doubt would never be a problem. When I can clearly keep law and gospel separated as black and white in my mind, all is well. But when I allow a little bit of law to bleed into the gospel or vice versa, I find that Paul’s advice to the Galatians rings true today; a little leaven leavens the whole lump. I must learn to struggle against this with all my might, because it just shipwrecks my faith. All of the confidence that I have in Christ - my true identity in Christ - comes crashing down and I am left with just my pathetic self again.

If I study the problem forensically, I can see how it compounds in my life. First, I am exposed to some little bit of law which is preached as grace. The tiniest check comes in my spirit that whispers, “See, I told you it wasn’t all about Christ”. Of course that is the voice of the accuser who wants nothing more than for me to believe it. I immediately begin to lose my boldness. I find myself unable to speak with confidence of the things of God. I find that preaching the gospel to myself - even hearing the pure gospel preached by others - does not remove that seed of doubt. I even find myself not wanting to fellowship with others; becoming very short-tempered and self-absorbed. This is not the worst of it.

The worst of it is this; the Word of God starts sounding to me like law, law, law. I go to the scripture in the morning and I find absolutely no comfort there. I read “I am the Lord your God” and all I hear is thunder and rumbling and trumpet blasts. I find myself once again trying to dodge the lightning bolts from Sinai. My most trusted source of security – the very place I go to be reassured that I an accepted and secure in my relationship with God only through faith in Christ – becomes a hammer that tries to smash me to pulp at every turn. I find that I cannot rightly divide the Word of truth in thought or living.

Man-ward Thinking

This is man-ward thinking. This is what happens when we view God from our own sin-stained, guilt-ridden human perspective. When our minds are set on the idea that righteousness comes by the law we never have a moment’s peace or rest. The relationship with God becomes a tremendous burden to us. I shudder to think that I lived this way for nearly 20 years!

I am grateful that I was able to share this with a group of my brothers and sisters. Admitting it lifted a burden from me. I don’t need to try and fake it with these folks. I can tell them that I am struggling. I can admit that I am no spiritual giant; that my spiritual life is completely reliant upon Christ and that when I allow law to creep into that relationship it is spoiled. Maybe that doesn’t sound like much of an admission, but it set me free again. Yesterday morning when I turned to the scriptures I found the words “I am the Lord your God” not as a threat but as a promise. Grace covered the pages again.

Guarding Faith

We must be very choosy about what we allow into our minds. There is much teaching out there today that mixes law and grace (as there always has been). If any teaching or preaching lays a burden on you without also clearly telling you that Christ has taken that burden, that teacher is not rightly dividing the word of God. Good teaching and preaching should cause you to want to run to the light of Christ, not hide in the darkness from the violence of Sinai. Again, Paul’s warning to the Galatians serves as good advice to us:

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. (Gal 1:6-8, ESV)

Each of us should train ourselves to sense when we are hearing a different gospel – one that is not rooted in the grace of Christ. Learn to turn it off, regardless of who is preaching. When you hear that little whisper of the enemy that tells you Christ’s work on Calvary is insufficient to cover your sin, shut it down. It may sound silly, but confront him. Ask him this; if Christ’s work is not sufficient, what is? What can I do that the Son of God could not? What can I add to my justification that the Son of God has not already provided? If Christ is not enough, what work must I do to be saved? Even the enemy must answer that there is nothing that can be done.

We must guard our faith jealously from any who would try to steal it. They don’t do it intentionally, but often because they are ignorant or deceived. We then must take responsibility for our own faith and learn to rightly divide the word so that we can develop a God-ward way of thinking that can resist the attacks of the enemy. That is the gospel truth.