Blind Man's Fancy

I’ve been waiting a long time to read something like the following selections from Tullian Tchividjian’s book Jesus + Nothing = Everything.  Of course, regular immersion in Scripture will lead to the same conclusions, but you never know what you’ll run across in some downtime reading.

Expressing his disdain for “accountability groups” Tchividjian writes, “All parties involved believe that the guiltier we feel, the more holy we are” (p180).  I’ve found this to be generally true among the next generation of Puritan-reading, Reformed theology junkies.  (Although, its not the Puritan’s fault, but a faulty reading of them.)  If they’re not always downcast and bothered by some sin then, in their minds, they’re not taking sin seriously.  And soon the attention is “on our sin, and not on our Savior” (ibid.).  Ironically, those who champion justification by grace alone seem the least content in being justified by grace alone!  It’s as though total depravity swallows up irresistible grace.

“When the goal becomes conquering our sin instead of soaking in the conquest of our Savior, instead of growing stronger and more mature, we actually begin to shrink spiritually” (ibid., italics his).  Of course, Tchividjian and we are against sin.  We hate it and want it overcome.  But there is too often the trend in “accountability groups” to attach spiritual progress with how much sin we’re not committing anymore.  ”Because of this, these groups breed self-righteousness, guilt, and the almost irresistible temptation to pretend” (ibid.).  That is to say, too much of this navel-gazing and we “boast” more in how bad we are than in how great Christ is.

When we (or our friends) focus mostly on our need to get better, we actually get worse.  We become neurotic and self-absorbed.  Preoccupation with our guilt (instead of with God’s grace) makes us increasingly myopic and self-interested.  Real Christian growth, according to the seventeenth century Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs, ‘comes not so much from our struggling and endeavors and resolutions, as it comes flowing to us from our union with him’” (p181).

We become so consumed with examining or testing ourselves to see if we’re in the faith, that we rarely rest in the unchanging, unrivaled, immovable work of God to justify sinners.  That inevitably leads to an undue emphasis on what we’re doing for Jesus rather than enjoying what Jesus has already done for us.  The more we can gather at the Lord’s Table, the more we are graciously reminded that God works outside-in, not inside-out.  Ingesting the elements is a confession that my body and  blood are insufficient means of God’s grace.  Christ’s body and blood alone have become mine and therefore have reconciled God to me.

The sin that gives rise to our sinful behavior is a preoccupation with ourselves.  That’s the root sin that needs to be mortified.  That’s the under-the-surface sin that gives birth  to our misdeeds.  The first sin that needs to be rooted out and attacked is not immoral behavior; it’s immoral belief–the belief that my Christian life is all about my moral and spiritual progress (ibid.).

Again (I can’t stress this enough), it’s so important to understand that Christianity is not first about our getting better, our obedience, our behavior, and our daily victory over remaining sin–as important as all these are.  It’s first about Jesus! It’s about his person and substitutionary work–his incarnation, life, death, resurrection, ascension, session, and promised return.  We’re justified–and sanctified–by grace alone through faith alone in the finished work of Christ alone (ibid.).

Is there a witness in the house?

So, instead of trying to fix one another, why don’t we ‘stir one another up to love and good deeds’ by daily reminding one another, in humble love, of the riches we already possess in Christ? (p182)

Our greatest need is to look at Christ more than we look at ourselves, because the gospel is not our work for Jesus, but Jesus’s work for us.  As Sinclair Ferguson has said, ‘The evangelical orientation is inward and subjective.  We are far better at looking inward than we are at looking outward.  Instead, we need to expend our energies admiring, exploring, expositing, and extolling Jesus Christ’ (p184).

And finally:

The bottom line is this, Christian: because of Christ’s work on your behalf, God doesn’t dwell on your sin the way you do.  So, relax, and rejoice, and you’ll actually start to get better.  The irony, of course, is that it’s only when we stop obsessing over our own need to be holy and focus instead on the beauty of Christ’s holiness that we actually become more holy!  Not to mention that we also start to become a lot easier to live with.”

Amen and amen.

I recently perused a popular church‘s doctrinal statement, in which the article on “Eternity” read:

“Man was created to exist forever.  He will exist either eternally separated from God by sin or in union with God through forgiveness and salvation. To be eternally separated from God is Hell.  To be eternally in union with Him is Heaven.  Heaven and Hell are places of eternal existence.”

I also found this confession to quite popular (word-for-word so) among churches influenced by this particular ministry.  Therefore, it’s not an irrelevant confession but one with substantial influence.  With the resurgence of attention on hell from Rob Bell and the like, we do well to consider what hell is or if it is at all.

This confession about eternity should be commended where credit is due.  It certainly is brief and demands expounding but it is concisely helpful in two ways.  One, God did create man to live forever in either one of two places: heaven or hell.  And, two, they are indeed places of eternal existence.  Thankfully, this confession says far more than many churches are willing to say.  But does it go far enough?

Again, the confession does not go into much detail about the nature of heaven or hell.  Therefore, I’ll not take issue with what it does not say.  What it does say particularly about hell is that “To be eternally separated from God is Hell.”  In other words, Hell is the eternal absence of God or Hell is where God is eternally not.

At first blush, perhaps we shouldn’t concern ourselves too much with this definition of hell.  Being one for hair-splitting, I hope not to cast any aspersion on those who wrote it or now espouse it.  I simply want to interact with it at face value.  Is Hell eternal separation from God or is it the eternal vengeance of God?  Again, if the latter is indeed meant then I simply apologize but ask that we be clearer in our language.

Hell is not the eternal absence of God or eternal separation from God.  Rather, God is very present in hell but present in the entirety of his wrath.  In other words, God will not eternally leave the unbelieving in Jesus to their own devices, but will for eternity pour out his contempt on them for their rebellion against the universe’s Risen King.  This is to say, and perhaps contrary to mainstream opinion, Satan does not rule hell.  God rules hell as surely as he rules heaven.

We have hints of this in the Old Testament.  David confessed that no matter where he went he could not escape God’s presence (Ps 139.7-12).  Whatever one decides about the nature of Sheol (v8) we know in David’s mind (1) it stood opposite of heaven and (2) God was there, too, just as he was in heaven.

Contrasting the eternal state, God spoke through Isaiah about a new heavens and earth where God unleashes his blessing (Is 66.22-23).  This over against an unnamed place where those who have transgressed against God will suffer eternal fire, unsatiated worms, and hatred forever (v24).  Hell is not a party where Satan is the master of ceremonies.  Hell is the place where God pours out his unmitigated wrath on all who have transgressed him.

As we come to the New Testament, hell comes into sharper focus.  Jesus clears some of the fog that rested on the OT authors in regards to the eternal state.  In Matthew 10.28, Jesus warned:

“Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

While an argument could be made the “him” who is able to destroy body and soul in hell is Satan, the context clearly suggests God is to be feared over men.  Don’t fear what men can do to you for confessing Christ, but fear what God will do to those who don’t.

At the cross, Jesus did not endure the Father’s absence.  He endured the fullness of the Father’s wrath.  We see this in one sense by the imagery of the “cup” Jesus drank.  The OT speaks of those who suffer God’s wrath as drinking his cup of anger (e.g. Is 51.17, 22).

Correcting the Sons of Thunder, Jesus assured James and John they were not able to drink the cup Jesus was soon to drink (Mt 20.22).  The cup of the Father’s wrath came with only one straw.  And there was only one who could down that gall to its dregs.

The reality of the Father’s forsaking Jesus wasn’t merely that Jesus was separated from the Father.  He was forsaken in that Jesus became before the Father all that He despised, hated and cursed.  He wasn’t forsaken in that he was left alone, but that he left devoid of all mercy and subject to all wrath.  God’s face, so brightly shining at the Son’s  baptism, became a dark, frown as the Son became sin for us.  Jesus went through hell in that he endured the fullness of the Father’s wrath on all sin and sinners for all time for all those who would believe.

The author of Hebrew described the fate of those whose sins are not covered by Christ (Heb 10.26-31).  Those with no sacrifice for their sins can only expect “THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES” (v27; cf. Is 26.11).  He then argues that if disregard for Moses’ Law merited a merciless eternity then how much more severe an eternity awaits those who disregard Christ’s gospel (v29).  God’s vengeance is sure (v30) and it is a “terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (v31).  In other words, if you die without Christ you die with no sacrifice in your place.  That doesn’t mean you slip into a Godless eternity, but into a eternity where God repays his vengeance on those who, by their unbelief, “trampled under foot the Son of God” and “regarded the blood of the [new] covenant unclean” and “insulted the Spirit of grace.”  God will be as present in hell in his wrath as he is present in heaven in his blessing.

God let the Apostle John in on the clearest vision of the nature of hell.  He saw the beast and false prophet “thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone” (Rev 19.20).  He then saw the devil himself (Satan) “thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Rev 20.10; emphasis mine).  He then saw all those whose names were not written “in the book of life” were “thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev 20.15).  Drawing images together, John earlier saw those dying in Satan’s kingdom as eternally “drink[ing] of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of his anger.”

Oh, friend, consider that God will treat unbelievers just like he will Satan for all eternity!  Oh, dear Christian, that means that God will treat all believers just like Jesus for all eternity!

Hell is not the unbeliever’s eternal party where Satan bartends and deejays.  It is where God serves up the cup of wrath (drank by Jesus at the cross for all believers) for eternity.  Satan is not in charge of torment in hell.  He himself is suffering torment and that from the hand of God himself.

Again, Satan is not in charge of hell.  God is.  And God takes out his full, unmitigated wrath on all unbelievers along with Satan himself.  God does not leave hell in the hands of Satan to do what he wills with those there.  Hell is God’s hell and where he unleashes his eternal punishment on rebellious sinners who refused to worship Jesus.

Eternal separation from God would be a relief.  But such is not the case when speaking of hell.  Hell is not eternal separation from God.  In fact, it’s quite the opposite.  It is eternal suffering from the hand of God.

Hear, in closing, the Belgic Confession (1619):

Finally we believe, according to God’s Word, that when the time appointed by the Lord is come (which is unknown to all creatures) and the number of the elect is complete, our Lord Jesus Christ will come from heaven, bodily and visibly, as he ascended, with great glory and majesty, to declare himself the judge of the living and the dead. He will burn this old world, in fire and flame, in order to cleanse it.

Then all human creatures will appear in person before the great judge – men, women, and children, who have lived from the beginning until the end of the world.

They will be summoned there by the voice of the archangel and by the sound of the divine trumpet.

For all those who died before that time will be raised from the earth, their spirits being joined and united with their own bodies in which they lived. And as for those who are still alive, they will not die like the others but will be changed “in the twinkling of an eye” from “corruptible to incorruptible.”

Then “the books” (that is, the consciences) will be opened, and the dead will be judged according to the things they did in the world, whether good or evil. Indeed, all people will give account of all the idle words they have spoken, which the world regards as only playing games. And then the secrets and hypocrisies of men will be publicly uncovered in the sight of all.

Therefore, with good reason the thought of this judgment is horrible and dreadful to wicked and evil people. But it is very pleasant and a great comfort to the righteous and elect, since their total redemption will then be accomplished. They will then receive the fruits of their labor and of the trouble they have suffered; their innocence will be openly recognized by all; and they will see the terrible vengeance that God will bring on the evil ones who tyrannized, oppressed, and tormented them in this world.

The evil ones will be convicted by the witness of their own consciences, and shall be made immortal – but only to be tormented in the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

In contrast, the faithful and elect will be crowned with glory and honor. The Son of God will “confess their names” before God his Father and the holy and elect angels; all tears will be “wiped from their eyes”; and their cause – at present condemned as heretical and evil by many judges and civil officers – will be acknowledged as the “cause of the Son of God.”

And as a gracious reward the Lord will make them possess a glory such as the heart of man could never imagine.

So we look forward to that great day with longing in order to enjoy fully the promises of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus.

What a difference one letter makes!  Repentance is one “t” away from wholesale gospel distortion.  Without its “t” repentance is re-penance, which is often what we consider repentance to be.  However, repentance is not repeated penance,  but one’s change of mind toward sin and its empty promise of life eternal.

What we often demand from others in the name of repentance is really acts of penance that prove they’ve overcome their sin.  We want proof they’ll not offend us again.  We want sufficient evidence they’ve paid for their sin(s) against us.  We care less about Christ being enjoyed by the offender than we being made “whole” by their so-called repentance.  Repentance means repayment . . . re-penance.

While a lifestyle of repentance is definitely part-and-parcel of the Christian life, we can weight it so heavily we focus more on sin than on Christ.  We gauge spiritual maturity by how much sin one is repenting from.  This is not to say there are no particular sins from which we should be repenting (for example, see Eph 4.29-31; Col 3.9), but when the yoke of repentance becomes heavier than the yoke of Christ (Mt 11.28-30)we’ve tipped the scales of grace.

Our men’s discipleship group is reading Charles Spurgeon’s All of Grace, in which the “prince of preachers” wrote:

Remember that the man who truly repents is never satisfied with his own repentance.  We can no more repent perfectly than we can live perfectly.  However pure our tears, there will always be some dirt in them; there will be something to be repented of even in our best repentance.  But listen!  To repent is to change your mind about sin and Christ and all the great things of God.  There is sorrow implied in this, but the main point is the turning from the heart from sin to Christ.  If there is this turning, you have the essence of of true repentance even though no alarm and no despair should ever have cast their shadow on your mind (All of Grace, Whitaker House, 1983: 74).

Spurgeon later comments:

Repentance will not make you see Christ, but to see Christ will give you repentance.  You may not make a Christ out of your repentance, but you must look for repentance to Christ . . . Look away, then, from the effect to the cause, from your own repenting to the Lord Jesus, who is exalted on high to give repentance (Ibid., 76).

“You may not make a Christ out of your repentance.”  And yet that precisely what we do when measuring one’s Christianity by how much sin one is repenting of.  The truly godly, the true Christian, is one always going about weighed down by sin and the demand for repentance.  Rather than applying the balm of God’s grace in Christ to wounds, we salt them with the sting of so-called repentance testing how strong one is to endure God’s discipline as God’s child.

There is a godly sorrow which marks God’s children (2 Cor 7.8-10).  But that sorrow leads to a repentance without regret (v10).  As necessary as godly sorrow is, we do not live in it.  It is a means to end.  It is one vehicle among many by which we’re led to greater faith in and enjoyment of Christ.  We can so enforce repentance on everyone such that we care more about how bad they feel about their sin than how much they love and apply Christ.  We simply want others (namely, those who’ve offended us) to feel as bad as possible about offending us rather than enjoying Christ’s work to forgive them.  Like the older brother (dare we say, “progidal” himself) in Luke 15.11-32, we don’t like grace lavished on sinners.  We want sorrow, and lots of it.

Let’s be honest.  We will never repent from every single sin we’ve ever committed.  One reason for that is because we don’t know every sin we’ve committed.  We’ve assuredly committed more sins we don’t know about than those we do know about!  So repentance cannot be the lifelong making-up-for every sin we’ve ever committed.  Repentance is the lifelong change-of-mind toward our sin.  We hate it and by God’s grace will never consider it a means of God’s blessing or eternal life.  Once converted, we’ll never think of the sins we commit affectionately or lovingly.   We commit it again and again (1 Jn 1.10), but we do not return to it as a means of salvation or of quenching our soul’s thirst. We will never abandon the narrow road for the wide road.  Our sin will always be heinous to us and Christ will always be the One to whom we run for comfort.  We will always return to Christ.

There will be victory over particular sins and others will nag us to death.  In the end, our repentance is always tethered to our faith in Jesus Christ alone for righteousness. Sure, I commit sins.  And how do I know I’m repenting of those sins?  I refuse to return to the “city of destruction” but press on toward the Celestial City.  I take my sins to the cross where they’re forgiven and ultimately defeated.  Christ will not let me “sin unto death” (1 Jn 5.16-18) but will see to it Satan’s plan to squash my saving faith fails again and again and again.

Laying aside every encumbrance and entangling sin (Heb 12.1) is not stopping the race to untangle sin’s web.  It is to fix our eyes on Jesus and our entangling sin will be loosened by the power of the gospel (Heb 12.2).  Too often we demand that those in sin get themselves untangled before they continue the race.  They must prove again and again that they are indeed qualified contestants.  But its continuing the race, with eyes fixed on Christ, that is the essence of repentance.

How do I know I’m repenting from sin?  It’s not how much I mope around about it or how many hoops I jump through to restore fellowship.  The proof of repentance is my continuing the fight.  I get up from the mat and keep swinging.  I keep seeing my sin in the shadow of the cross.  And I refuse to leave my Jesus who bought me.  The fruits of repentance will blossom from the soil fertilized by the gospel, not from superficially imposed acts of penance.

We don’t live the Christian life together by trying to help one another become perfect.  We don’t go about making sure everyone is making sufficient restitution for their sin (re-penance).  We live such that we help one another pursue the Perfect One.  When someone stumbles we don’t kick them to the curb until they can get untangled.  We lift their heads to Christ and keep them churning with the power of the gospel.