Striving After Godliness Should Not Be So Controversial: Responding to the CT Reviews

I was surprised to learn on Monday that Christianity Today was running four reviews of my new book The Hole in Our Holiness. I consider it a sign of respect that they think the book deserving of this kind of analysis. I’m grateful too for the invitation to round out this week of reviews with a response of my own. Though I’m hesitant to respond—because rejoinders often appear (or are!) defensive and thin-skinned—I’ll venture a few thoughts on each review.

Erik Raymond has written the sort of review every author enjoys. He understands the book, appreciates the book, and recommends the book. I’m particularly grateful that Raymond sees, and agrees with, my emphasis on grace-based effort and my use of various confessions. Since both of these points were criticized by others in this series, it’s good to see not everyone considered these elements to be mistaken. I’m thankful for Raymond’s kind, encouraging review.

Mark Labberton and Tyler Braun hit on different themes, but both have written the same sort of review. They like a lot about the book, but would have said more or less in some areas. Since the book was short, 146 under-sized pages, there is certainly more that could have been said about a number of important issues. Labberton wishes I would have said more about what lies beneath the biblical call to holiness (and our dismissal of it) and the public implications of a holy life. It’s hard to know how to respond to this criticism except to say I addressed some of both, but could have done more. I could have talked more about consumerism and social justice and (especially) the kingdom, as Labberton suggests. I also could have talked more about abortion, statism, and religious liberty. Holiness touches on all of life, so almost any topic would have been fair game. As a pastor, I addressed the sorts of issues I see people struggling with most and the issues talked about most directly and most frequently in the New Testament. That leads us to recurring concerns with sexual immorality, relational sins, and vices associated with the breaking of the Ten Commandments.   Continue at Kevin DeYoung

The Activity of Self-Discipline

God’s holy calling for the believer in Christ includes personal responsibility for self-discipline, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to live in a manner worthy of his or her high position as a new creature in Christ. God’s vision of discipleship, moreover, requires recognition of the war that rages within the believer as indwelling sin fights to maintain the dominance it once enjoyed prior to conversion. Therefore, we must recognize that the transformation the Holy Spirit continues to make in our lives involves the renewing of the mind by the Word of truth, the repenting of inner desires by the indwelling Spirit’s power, and the replacing of sinful habits by the practice of godliness. In a nutshell, a return to the apostolic pattern of maintaining a connection between sound doctrine and the discipline of godly living is indispensable to the ongoing process of sanctification. However, the late James Montgomery Boice observedthat Christians are lazy and unwilling to persevere on the hard road of godliness. Instead, we tend to look for the easy way out. As a result, spiritual growth is often lacking. Boice suggested three ways in which we try to avoid the struggle against sin.

1. We tend to seek out formulas, simple recipes for spiritual success. Slogans such as “Let go and let God” or “Just let Jesus take control” are attractive to our spiritual slothfulness.
2. We are prone to look for a new experience, a charismatic-type of “second work of grace” that immediately transforms us from being a defeated Christian to a victorious one.
3. Total avoidance of the struggle against sin is a common response.

All these have one thing in common: they are ways of seeking to find spiritual victory in the Christian life without the daily grind of discipline, but that will never happen. Scripture repeatedly links progress in godliness to the disciplined effort of the disciple:   Continue at Paul Tautges

Religious Deople are Dangerous to the Church

Religion and Christianity just don’t mix. Look at what happened when Jesus began his public ministry. The religious community resisted him the most! I realize that Christianity is classified among the religions of the world but I am quite certain the founder would not want any association with religion. The main reason is that religion is about man’s effort to seek God and to try to appease a deity through human effort. Christianity is first about God seeking man and making a way (based on unmerited grace) for humans to be forgiven and restored to fellowship with their Creator. 

 

According to Christianity, if we seek God, it is only because He first pursued us. Check out the way the New Testament summarizes it: “We love because he first loved us” (I John 4:19). The moment we reverse this and make our love for God prerequisite to God loving us, we’ve left Christianity and entered religion! The essence of Christianity is that, “… God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).   Keep Reading...

Why We Must Pursue Holiness

59 Things Every Christian Should Know (and do!)

The Mystery of Godliness

"The Practice of Godliness" By Jerry Bridges

How much we appreciate God's love is conditioned by how deeply we fear Him. The more we see God in His infinite majesty, holiness, and transcendent glory, the more we will gaze with wonder and amazement upon His love poured out at Calvary. But it is also true that the deeper our preception of God's love to us in Christ, the more profound our reverence and awe of Him. We must see God in the glory of all His attributes...His goodness as well as His holiness...if we are to ascribe to Him the glory and honor and reverence that is due Him. The psalmist caught this truth when he said to God, "If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness..therefore you are feared" (Psalm 130:3-4). He worshipped God with reverence and awe because of His forgiveness. In our practice of godliness, then, we must seek to grow both in the fear of God and in an ever-increasing comprehension of the love of God. These two elements together form the foundation of our devotion to God. Read the rest HERE