Greetings reader,
My heart is torn with the following fact: that even though Peter in chapter one of his second letter states that God has given us (me) all things pertaining to life and godliness [piety and devoutness--a response to God characterized by a particular life disposition], and that because of God's redemptive work I have escaped the corruption in the world resulting from lust, I still find my life more characterized by corruptions stemming from the power of lust and less from a life hid with Christ in God. What is your own experience? Do you discern and lament what is of your flesh and yet see what God's desire is for you at the same moment? Do you discern His drawing you away from your self to Him? Has He opened your eyes of faith this way and do you see?
Looking at the outer display of your life reveals to some degree, but looking at your inner world (that of your heart and conscience) reveals much more. For the outward is merely a result of the inner. Look inward. Go to your core. God does. He knows, in truth, your mind and your heart. Join Him in His correct and loving evaluation of who and what you are at your core, not what you believe yourself to be. Fear not. For the journey into the center of one's heart is destine to lead to despair, unless one realizes that God is both already there drawing you to see and meet Him there and that God walks with you throughout the pilgrimage. Focus not on your own decay and ugliness, which you will surely see, but focus on His goodness and purity. For you have none of your own. His is yours. Thus, flee what is natural to your self by resting in what He's provided. This is the pilgrim’s journey from what is earthly and of self to what is heavenly and of God. The end is entering into God’s presence and the soul receiving the end of its salvation by means of purification. For what is earthly and fleshly will not enter into God’s kingdom.
As outlined in blog post two, do you see a natural and unwavering movement through the sequence outlined by Peter toward the fruit of love, or do you see yourself as (for all practical purposes) still in your sin? Who would not want nor choose true love? Only what is earthly and of the flesh. What does your life reveal about your relation to God? Again, look not merely at the outward manifestations of your moments, for from these we falsely claim self-righteousness, but look at the seat of your self-existence (your heart and conscience) and speak of that. Do you commune with God at that point? His home is there. That is your heart. Know God from that place continually, and even though you may see and know your fallenness and know that you are a contributor to the world’s corruption by means of lust, you will know more certainly that those things are not what truly define you. That which is from your Father, and He Himself, will be known to you as your true identity and refuge. From such a place can the pursuit of love and its fruits occur.
God's best for you this day,
Carl
Greenies Make No Sense
7 years ago
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3 comments:
Yes, you highlight an incredibly difficult but important message. Very seldom do Evangelicals clearly understand and encourage a Scriptural perspective. It seems too often what we hear, is either a destructive Keswick sort of self conflaguation or a superficial Evangelical flippant notion of repentance and lament.
Lamentations is still found Scripture, howbeit never, or nearly never, preached or taught. Being a Christian for 40 years I have heard only one message on Lamentations. That one was from Doug Groothuis several years ago in a student chapel.
Thanks for the reminder, I need it.
Couldn't agree more, Pat and Carl. Lamentation is all but missing from the pulpit and the church's worldview. However, lest we forget, lamentation over our sin-ridden soul is a means to an end for believers. Could it be that the fact of our awareness of sin actually is a sign of true life? Consider another perspective offered by a wise, elderly seminarian prof to a young, growing believer to encourage a balanced, biblical view toward a healthy end...
“Since becoming a Christian, you have become more and more aware of the sin in your life, and you are discouraged by it. But what discourages you, I see as a sign of life—not the sin itself, but the fact that you are discouraged by it. If you professed faith in Christ and it did not make any difference to your values, personal ethics, and goals, I would begin to wonder if your profession of faith in Christ was spurious (there are certainly instances of spurious faith in the Bible—for instance, John 2:23-25; 8:31ff.).
But if you have come to trust Christ, then growth in Him is always attended by deepening realization that you are not as good as you once thought you were, that the human heart is frighteningly deceptive and capable of astonishing depths of selfishness and evil. As you discover these things about yourself, the objective ground of your assurance must always remain unfalteringly the same: ‘if anybody does sin we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One’ (1 John 2:1). Let your confidence rest fully in that simple and profound truth.
What you will discover with time is that although you are not as holy as you would like to be or as blameless as you should be, by God’s grace you are not what you were. You look back and regret things you have said and thought and done as a Christian; you are embarrassed perhaps by the things you failed to think and say and do. But you also look back and testify with gratitude that because of the grace of God in your life, you are not what you were. And thus, unobtrusively, the subjective grounds of assurance also lend their quiet support.”
From Letters Along the Way, D. A. Carson and John D. Woodbridge, Crossway, p. 23.
May God give us lamentation unto sanctification of our souls!
Spot on, Amen!
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