LIVE YOUR CHRIST-MADE GRACE
25/05/24 09:14
I don’t know any Believers who live from cheap grace, although some possibly do. Like the public figures who demonstrate a disconnect between the Christ and their policies. Many of us have probably come to Christ because we desire to be a better person, so we will not be looking for excuses to continue in un-righteousness or even wickedness. However, if we are not living from a true Gospel, we may gravitate to making our own grace out of contract and formulae or become bogged in a legalistic faith that does much to ruin our lives and harm those we love.
KELLER’S WITNESS
Tim Keller passed away last year. Before he died of cancer, he found himself tortured by regret over the way he had treated some people among other things. Nevertheless he comforted himself in the fact that Jesus is the stand-in for us and stands for us. In a deep way Jesus is us. This is the foundation of the Gospel.
CHRIST IS US
In his book on Galatians Keller writes, “The gospel of justifying faith means that while Christians are, in themselves still sinful and sinning, yet in Christ, in God's sight, they are accepted and righteous. So, we can say that we are more wicked than we ever dared believe, but more loved and accepted in Christ than we ever dared hope--at the very same time.” For glib Christians this means that we are worse than we think and for those of a humbler disposition we can be better than we ever imagined.
THE WAY TO A BETTER YOU
“This creates a radical new dynamic for personal growth. It means that the more you see your own flaws and sins the more precious, electrifying, and amazing God's grace appears to you. But on the other hand, the more aware you are of God's grace and acceptance in Christ, the more able you are to drop your denials and self-defences and admit the true dimensions and character of your sin.
NEGATES HUMBUG
“This also creates a radical new dynamic for discipline and obedience. First, the knowledge of our acceptance in Christ makes it easier to admit we are flawed because we know we won't be cast off if we confess the true depths of our sinfulness. Second, it makes the law of God a thing of beauty instead of a burden. We can use it to delight and imitate the one who has saved us rather than to get his attention or procure his favour. We now run the race "for the joy that is set before us" rather than "for the fear that comes behind us."
Christ who is our life, is the reality that is the Real Gospel as opposed to the moralistic, legalistic parodies that have their source in the knowledge of good and evil and a self-serving form of entitlement.
THE GREAT EXCHANGE
We need not live the febrile thing that we call our faith when the Real Gospel is so robust. “That the eternal Son took what was ours that we might have what is his was not merely a central theme in Patristic thought. It lay at the heart of John Calvin’s account of the mirifica commutatio (the wonderful exchange manifest in the incarnate Son) and it would become a central affirmation in the soteriologies of Karl Barth, Hans Urs von Balthazar, and T. F. Torrance as also the many contemporary theologians influenced by them.” (1) These teachers do more to heal the soul than the healers of blind eyes and crooked limbs. This Gospel heals our being.
(1) McSwain, Jeff. Simul Sanctification: Barth’s Hidden Vision for Human Transformation (Princeton Theological Monograph Series Book 232) . Pickwick Publications, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.
KELLER’S WITNESS
Tim Keller passed away last year. Before he died of cancer, he found himself tortured by regret over the way he had treated some people among other things. Nevertheless he comforted himself in the fact that Jesus is the stand-in for us and stands for us. In a deep way Jesus is us. This is the foundation of the Gospel.
CHRIST IS US
In his book on Galatians Keller writes, “The gospel of justifying faith means that while Christians are, in themselves still sinful and sinning, yet in Christ, in God's sight, they are accepted and righteous. So, we can say that we are more wicked than we ever dared believe, but more loved and accepted in Christ than we ever dared hope--at the very same time.” For glib Christians this means that we are worse than we think and for those of a humbler disposition we can be better than we ever imagined.
THE WAY TO A BETTER YOU
“This creates a radical new dynamic for personal growth. It means that the more you see your own flaws and sins the more precious, electrifying, and amazing God's grace appears to you. But on the other hand, the more aware you are of God's grace and acceptance in Christ, the more able you are to drop your denials and self-defences and admit the true dimensions and character of your sin.
NEGATES HUMBUG
“This also creates a radical new dynamic for discipline and obedience. First, the knowledge of our acceptance in Christ makes it easier to admit we are flawed because we know we won't be cast off if we confess the true depths of our sinfulness. Second, it makes the law of God a thing of beauty instead of a burden. We can use it to delight and imitate the one who has saved us rather than to get his attention or procure his favour. We now run the race "for the joy that is set before us" rather than "for the fear that comes behind us."
Christ who is our life, is the reality that is the Real Gospel as opposed to the moralistic, legalistic parodies that have their source in the knowledge of good and evil and a self-serving form of entitlement.
THE GREAT EXCHANGE
We need not live the febrile thing that we call our faith when the Real Gospel is so robust. “That the eternal Son took what was ours that we might have what is his was not merely a central theme in Patristic thought. It lay at the heart of John Calvin’s account of the mirifica commutatio (the wonderful exchange manifest in the incarnate Son) and it would become a central affirmation in the soteriologies of Karl Barth, Hans Urs von Balthazar, and T. F. Torrance as also the many contemporary theologians influenced by them.” (1) These teachers do more to heal the soul than the healers of blind eyes and crooked limbs. This Gospel heals our being.
(1) McSwain, Jeff. Simul Sanctification: Barth’s Hidden Vision for Human Transformation (Princeton Theological Monograph Series Book 232) . Pickwick Publications, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.
