Living Story Grace

“Hello, my name is Elizabeth Turnage, and I’m a performance addict. Performance-based living draws me, and acceptance not based on what I do baffles me.”
Thankfully, for the most part, that was then, this is now. I will probably always struggle to some degree to simply rest in the reality of salvation — that the finished work of Christ is ENOUGH, but at least I know it in my mind and heart, and many days or moments, I live in this hopeful reality. Why not take a moment and rest, whether reading the rest of these words or just closing the computer, closing your eyes, and breathing in the good news of the gospel.

Sing, O Daughter of Zion;
shout aloud, O Israel!
Be glad and rejoice with all your heart,
O Daughter of Jerusalem!
The Lord has taken away your punishment,
he has turned back your enemy.
The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you;
never again will you fear any harm.
On that day they will say to Jerusalem,
“Do not fear, O Zion;
do not let your hands hang limp.
The Lord your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing.” Zephaniah 3:14-17

“…it is the gospel that continues to remind us that our day-to-day acceptance with the Father is not based on what we do for God but upon what Christ did for us in his sinless life and sin- bearing death. I began to see that we stand before God today as righteous as we ever will be, even in heaven, because he has clothed us with the righteousness of his Son.
Therefore, I don’t have to perform to be accepted by God. Now I am free to obey him and serve him because I am already accepted in Christ (see Rom. 8:1). My driving motivation
now is not guilt but gratitude.”
Jerry Bridges, “Gospel-Driven Sanctification” (Bridges 2003)

Prepping for the workshop at General Assembly next week, I reread the article The Centrality of the Gospel by Tim Keller — a great explanation of how both irreligion or religion (legalism) are ways of avoiding Jesus as Savior. Here’s an excerpt. Check out the whole article:

“They are both ways to avoid Jesus as Savior and keep control of their lives. Irreligious people seek to be their own saviors and lords through irreligion, “worldly” pride. (“No one tells me how to live or what to do, so I determine what is right and wrong for me!”) But moral and religious people seek to be their own saviors and lords through religion, “religious” pride. (“I am more moral and spiritual than other people, so God owes me to listen to my prayers and take me to heaven. God cannot let just anything happen to me–he owes me a happy life. I’ve earned it!”) The irreligious person rejects Jesus entirely, but the religious person only uses Jesus as an example and helper and teacher–but not as a Savior. (Flannery O’Connor wrote that religious people think “that the way to avoid Jesus was to avoid sin…”) These are two different ways to dothe same thing–control our own lives.” Tim Keller

Last night, I asked what seemed like a rather innocuous question of my son’s good friend: “Are you all ready for the New Year?” His response startled me, not because it was startling but because it made me nervous. He said, “Yeah, I still have to work on my resolutions. I have one, but I want to think of a few others.” (Well, okay, it was also startling because the young man who said this is only 21, and he is doing some deep reflecting about his future. Then again, Will goes to M.I.T.)

Here’s the part that made me nervous. Resolutions. I don’t usually make them. Every now and then, maybe, but not usually. Why? Because they make me anxious. Because they feed right into my performance mentality. Because I get real busy trying to accomplish them for a few days, then fail, then feel bad about myself, then try to work up the gumption to try again.

I thought about this review I read in Christianity Today yesterday. Christopher Benson, writing about Philip Cary’s new book: Good News for Anxious Christians, said

Because “experience is formed from the outside in,” the goal of the book is to get nail-biting, brow-wrinkled, and sleep-deprived Christians outside of themselves to hear: “The good news of the gospel is that God has already decided to do something about our lives—whether we let him or not, whether we do anything about it or not, whether we believe it or not.” God is italicized here to emphasize that our transformation is always divinely wrought, not humanly contrived. That’s why Martin Luther prayed, “I will remain with thee of whom I can receive but to whom I may not give.” Cary submits that the Lutheran doctrine of sola fide (faith alone) offers a powerful corrective to the strangely Catholicized and psychologized evangelicalism that oppresses us.

How do we follow the commandment to not be anxious about anything (Phil. 4:6)? The gospel, Cary argues, gives us permission to ignore anxiety-producing techniques because Christ is enough, period. Finding ourselves in Christ, as opposed to finding Christ in ourselves, means we’re equipped—through the flesh of Christ, the Word of God, and the life of the church—to persevere in “the trial by existence,” invoking the title of Robert Frost’s poem. Instead of “bearing it crushed and mystified,” as the poet says in the final line, we can bear any vicissitude with the love, obedience, wisdom, virtue, and beauty of our Savior. (To read the rest, go to Christianity Today)

There are patterns of my heart, tongue, and mind that need change. I would like to resolve to change them. But something in this article draws me not to be passive, but to actively pursue Christ, to urge him to change me, and to remember that nothing I do or don’t do can stand in his way. And nothing I do or don’t do can keep him from loving me. AMEN!

“…it is the gospel that continues to remind us that our day-to-day acceptance with the Father is not based on what we do for God but upon what Christ did for us in his sinless life and sin- bearing death. I began to see that we stand before God today as righteous as we ever will be, even in heaven, because he has clothed us with the righteousness of his Son.

Therefore, I don’t have to perform to be accepted by God. Now I am free to obey him and serve him because I am already accepted in Christ (see Rom. 8:1). My driving motivation now is not guilt but gratitude.”

This was a great article that really helped me in thinking about my “acceptance” in God.  If you want to read the whole thing, check here:

Jerry Bridges, “Gospel-Driven Sanctification” in Modern Reformation, May 2003.

“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. 4Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” Romans 12:3-5, NIV

Living with a westernized worldview, we struggle to understand what Paul means when he says to use the “measure of faith” God has given us.  Tim Keller, in his study on Romans, helps us with this thought.

Paul is saying: “All of you have been given your saving faith in Christ crucified, and that is how you are to measure yourself.”

That means we are first to realize we are all the same. Regardless of our background, abilities, etc., we are all saved in Christ. God loves us equally “in Christ.” So we should also think of ourselves. This is then a very direct command to start our self-appreciation by remembering who we are in the gospel. The first “measure” by which we evaluate ourselves is the gospel in which we believe.

Secondly, we are to think of ourselves as having distinct gifts and abilities within the Body of Christ. In other words, we are all different as well. We are not “clones.” Paul elsewhere says that “you are God’s workmanship, created in Christ for good works that God has prepared beforehand for us to do.” Isaak Dinessen put it: “Pride [good pride] is faith in the idea God had when he made you.” We have each been given distinct personalities and temperaments and histories and abilities that equip us for doing a particular set of good works in the world that God has created us to do. So the second way to get a good “self-image” is to get to work in ministry, find out what God has equipped you to do best, and do it with all your might!”  Tim Keller, Romans study