Tullian Tchividjian's Blog, page 37

The Gospel According To Jonah

On Monday, my friend Collin Hansen (editorial director for The Gospel Coalition) posted an interview he did with me on the gospel according to Jonah.  He writes, "We're accustomed to describing the book of Jonah as that book about the guy who survived three days in a big fish. What if we began to understand it as a remarkable testimony to God's extravagant, persevering grace, supremely demonstrated in the gospel of Jesus Christ?"

Those are the questions I seek to answer in my book Surprised By Grace: God's Relentless Pursuit of Rebels. As part of The Gospel Coalition's commitment to Preaching Christ in the Old Testament, Collin asked me questions on how to see the gospel in the story of Jonah.

Why do you say Jonah is one of the best books for helping us get a better grip on the gospel?

Surprised by Grace started out as a series of sermons on Jonah that I preached during the hardest year of my life. Preparing those sermons and preaching them proved to be a functional lifeline for me, not because of things I learned about Jonah (everything we learn about Jonah we learn by way of negative example), but because of things I learned about God's amazing, sustaining, pursuing grace.

I learned that God's capacity to clean things up is infinitely greater than our human capacity to mess things up. I learned about the "stubbornness" of God to accomplish his will, regardless of how hard we may try and thwart it. In fact, as I reflect on that painful season of my life now, I can honestly say that I am genuinely thankful for all the ache I experienced. For it was during this trying time that God helped me recognize, through the story of Jonah, the practical relevance of the gospel—that everything I need and long for, in Christ, I already possesses.

How does the book of Jonah reveal the contrast between God's heart and ours?

We can't escape a stark contrast in this story—the tribal heart of Jonah versus the missionary heart of God. These two mindsets involve fundamentally different values. The highest value of a tribal heart is self-preservation. A tribal heart exists solely for itself, and those who nurture it keep asking, "How can I protect myself from those who are different from me?" A tribal heart typically elevates personal and cultural preferences to absolute principles: If everybody were more like me, this world would be a better place. But for a missionary heart, the highest value isn't self-preservation but self-sacrifice. A missionary-hearted person exists not primarily for himself but for others. It's a heart willing to be inconvenienced and discomforted for the well-being of others. A tribal mindset is antithetical to the gospel. The gospel demands that we be missionary minded, because the gospel is the story of God sacrificing himself for his enemies.

Both these approaches are robustly present in Jonah's story. Jonah represents the best of a tribal mindset, the absolute best. He's like the trophy-winner for tribalism. And God—ever-gracious, ever-pursuing, ever-compassionate—carries the trophy for mission-mindedness. Jonah runs from his enemies; God runs toward his enemies.

How does Jesus' treatment of Jonah help us teach it today?

Jesus says that he is "greater than Jonah." He is the greater-than-Jonah who succeeded where Jonah failed. For instance, in sending Jonah as his messenger to sinful Nineveh, God showed his boundless grace and faithfulness. But centuries later, God sent another messenger to sinful mankind. Only this messenger went willingly and joyfully because he knew the heart of God. In fact, he was the heart of God. He would be called "the Word" because he himself was God's message. He was everything God wanted to say to the world—all wrapped up in a person.

Instead of fleeing from God's call in rebellion and running away from his enemies, this new messenger ran toward his enemies, in full submission to his Father's will, despite what it would cost him. For "we were enemies" of God (Rom. 5:10)—all of us—so much so that we rejected and crucified his Son.

Fully knowing that this death was his destiny, this new messenger nevertheless pursued God's rescue mission with a totally engaged heart. "For the joy that was set before him," the Bible tells us, he "endured the cross" (Heb. 12:2) so that God's enemies, you and I, could become God's friends.

Like Jonah thrown overboard, this new messenger would be a sacrifice, with the result that others were saved.

This new messenger, like Jonah, would spend three days in utter darkness. But unlike Jonah, he would emerge with wholehearted determination to pursue his enemies with life-giving love. He went on this mission because he wanted to—not because he had to.

When God's mercy was shown to Jonah and to his enemies, Jonah was intensely angered. But this new messenger was the happy extension of God's grace toward his enemies—not angry and embittered, but "anointed . . . with the oil of gladness" (Heb. 1:9). Jonah is all about self-protection; this new messenger is all about joyful self-sacrifice. So Jesus and his Good News, rescue of sinners, is all over this story of Jonah.

How did you see your congregation respond when you preached the gospel from Jonah?

Most people inside the church, including ours, assume that the gospel is something non-Christians must believe in order to be saved, but after we believe it, we advance to deeper theological waters. The truth is, however, that once God rescues sinners, his plan isn't to steer them beyond the gospel, but to move them more deeply into it. After all, the only antidote to sin is the gospel—and since Christians remain sinners even after they're converted, the gospel must be the medicine a Christian takes every day. For our church, it was through probing the story of Jonah that we came face-to-face with the fact that the gospel is not just for non-Christians but also for Christians.

We also came face to face with our own idolatry. Jonah was just as much in need of God's grace as the sailors and the Ninevites. But the fascinating thing about Jonah is that, unlike the pagan sailors and wicked Ninevites, Jonah was one of the "good guys." He was a prophet. He was moral. He was a part of God's covenant community. He was one who "kept all the rules" and did everything he was supposed to do. He wasn't some long-haired, tattooed indie rocker; he was a clean-cut prep. He wasn't a liberal; he was a conservative. He wasn't irreligious; he was religious.

If you've ever read S. E. Hinton's novel The Outsiders, than you'll immediately see that the Ninevites and the sailors in the story were like the "greasers" while Jonah was like a "soashe." It's easier for Christians to identify worldly idols such as money, power, ambition, greed. It's the idols inside the church that we have a harder time identifying. For instance, it was easy for Jonah to see the idolatry of the sailors. It was easy for him to see the perverse ways of the Ninevites. What he couldn't see was his own idolatry, his own perversion. Idolatry is not just a problem for non-Christians; it's a problem for Christians too. For instance, we know it's wrong to bow to the god of power—but it's also wrong to bow to the god of preferences. We know it's wrong to worship immorality—but it's also wrong to worship morality. We know it's wrong to seek freedom by breaking the rules—but it's also wrong to seek freedom by keeping them. We know God hates unrighteousness—but he also hates self-righteousness. The book of Jonah wrecked all of us by revealing our idol-making hearts. Thankfully, while our idolatry reaches far God's amazing grace in the story (and ours) reaches farther.

What do you mean by saying Jonah is a storied presentation of the gospel?

It is a story of sin and grace, of desperation and deliverance. It reveals the fact that while you and I are great sinners, God is a great Savior, and that while our sin reaches far, his grace reaches farther. This story shows that God is in the business of relentlessly pursuing rebels—a label that ultimately applies to us all—and that he comes after us not to angrily strip away our freedom but to affectionately strip away our slavery so we might become truly free.

What books, articles, sermons, etc., helped you preach Christ and the gospel from Jonah?

I consulted almost every commentary on Jonah. Some were helpful (such as Calvin's), some weren't so helpful. Bryan Estelle's book in The Gospel According to the Old Testament series entitled Salvation Through Judgment And Mercy: The Gospel According to Jonah was very helpful. But it wasn't so much material specifically on Jonah that helped me see the gospel in and through the story as much as preachers and teachers who have taught me over the years to read the Bible Christocentrically: my professors at Reformed Theological Seminary like Richard Pratt, Mark Futato, Reggie Kidd, and Steve Brown, along with men such as Ed Clowney, Tim Keller, Scotty Smith, Jerry Bridges, Paul Tripp, Mike Horton, Sinclair Ferguson, Bryan Chapell, and so on.

I would recommend that preachers soak their hearts and minds in robust gospel theology, because only then will they be able to see the Christ-centered plotline that runs throughout the entire Bible and therefore be able to preach the gospel from every text.

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For more resources on preaching and teaching Jonah, visit The Gospel Coalition's site Preaching Christ in the Old Testament.

The Gospel According To Jonah is a post from: Tullian Tchividjian

The Gospel Is For Christians

B. B. Warfield (1851 – 1921) on why the gospel is necessary for Christians:

There is nothing in us or done by us, at any stage of our earthly development, because of which we are acceptable to God. We must always be accepted for Christ's sake, or we cannot ever be accepted at all. This is not true of us only when we believe. It is just as true after we have believed. It will continue to be trust as long as we live. Our need of Christ does not cease with our believing; nor does the nature of our relation to Him or to God through Him ever alter, no matter what our attainments in Christian graces or our achievements in behavior may be. It is always on His "blood and righteousness" alone that we can rest.

The Gospel Is For Christians is a post from: Tullian Tchividjian

I'm Addicted

I'm addicted to the gospel. It burns inside of me. And it seems to get hotter ever day. I can't stop thinking about it, talking about it, writing about it, reading about it, wrestling with it, reveling in it, and thanking God for it. For better or for worse, my focus has become myopic. My passion has become singular. Lesser things don't distract me as easily. I'm not as anxious as I used to be. I don't fret over things as much. I'm more relaxed. What others think of me (either good or bad) doesn't matter as much as it used to. I'm enjoying life more. The pressure's off. I actually think I'm beginning to understand the length and breadth of the freedom Jesus purchased for me.

Jesus plus nothing equals everything–the gospel– is daily becoming for me more than a theological passion, more than a cognitive reality. It's becoming my functional lifeline! And it's this rediscovery of the gospel's power that is enabling me to see that,

Because Jesus was strong for me, I am free to be weak;

Because Jesus won for me, I am free to lose;

Because Jesus was Someone, I am free to be no one;

Because Jesus was extraordinary, I am free to be ordinary;

Because Jesus succeeded for me, I am free to fail.

This is beginning to define my life in brand new, bright, and liberating ways. I believe God wants this liberating truth to define your life as well…and the life of the church corporately. Because I'm telling you right now, when you begin to understand that everything you need and long for, in Christ you already possess—it enables you to live a life of scandalous freedom, unrestrained fearlessness, and unbounded courage. When you don't have anything to lose, you discover something wonderful: you're free! Nothing in this broken world can beat a man who isn't afraid to lose! And when you're not afraid to lose you can say crazy, counterintuitive stuff like, "To live is Christ and to die is gain!" That's pure, unadulterated freedom.

This is why I tweet as much as I do. I'm processing the  gospel all day long in 140 characters. Therefore, from time to time I post some of my more recent tweets to show you how God is working the gospel deeper into me and what I'm learning. Twitter has become for me an online personal journal. I hope you can benefit from the things God is teaching me.

Enjoy…

The banner under which Christians live reads "It is finished."


Our security is in Christ's achievement for us, so now we're free to admit our weaknesses without feeling like our flesh is bring ripped off our bones


Only when you realize that the gospel has nothing to do with your obedience but Christ's obedience for you, will you start to obey!


At no point in time, either before God saves you or after, does your behavior determine God's love for you.


Since a Christian's value and identity is anchored in Christ and is not anchored in being right, the gospel frees us to admit we're wrong.


The gospel frees us from trying to impress people, prove ourselves to people, and make people think we're something that we're not.


The gospel transforms us precisely because it's not itself a message about our transformation but Christ's substitution.


The gospel frees us to realize that while we matter, we're not the point.


"Doing" will become instinctive and spontaneous only when our hearts become deeply gripped by what's been done!


Only the gospel can liberate us from the miserable, unquenchable pursuit to make something of ourselves by using others.


Because everything we long for we already possess in Christ, we're now free to love people, not use them.


Our improvement comes from God's approval; God's approval does not come from our improvement.


Christ fulfilled all of God's conditions on our behalf so that our relationship with God could be unconditional.


The gospel frees you from the pressure of having to make something out of yourself.


Christian, the level of passion with which God loves you is not determined by the level of passion with which you love him. The Son's passion for you secured the Father's passion for you.

I'm Addicted is a post from: Tullian Tchividjian

Berkhof On The Two Parts Of God's Word

I found the following paragraph from Louis Berkhof (1873-1957) helpful as I come to greater grips with how to read (and preach) the Bible. I hope you find it helpful too:

The Churches of the Reformation from the very beginning distinguished between the law and the gospel as the two parts of the Word of God. This distinction was not understood to be identical with that between the Old and the New Testament, but was regarded as a distinction that applies to both Testaments. There is law and gospel in the Old Testament, and there is law and gospel in the New. The law comprises everything in Scripture which is a revelation of God's will in the form of command or prohibition, while the gospel embraces everything, whether it be in the Old Testament or in the New, that pertains to the work of reconciliation and that proclaims the seeking and redeeming love of God in Christ Jesus.

Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, 4th ed. 1941, pg. 612)

Berkhof On The Two Parts Of God's Word is a post from: Tullian Tchividjian

More On "Accountability Groups"

A little over a week ago I posted an article about accountability groups. In that article I talked about my disdain for the kind of "accountability groups" where the primary (almost exclusive, in my experience) focus is on our sin, not on our Savior. These types of groups, I argue, breed self-righteousness, guilt, and a "do more, try harder" moralism that robs us of the joy and freedom Jesus paid dearly to secure for us. They start with the narcissistic presupposition that Christianity is all about cleaning up and getting better–it's all about personal improvement. But it's not!

You can, and should, read it here. You won't fully understand what I'm about to say unless you read that article first.

Well, as you can imagine, it stirred up quite a discussion. It was apparent to me that some people read the opening paragraph and didn't carefully read the rest of the post and specifically what I was calling for. So, I wanted to do a follow up post to simply reiterate, firmly stand by, and perhaps clarify the main point I was trying to get across.

In order to do this, I thought it would be best to paste a portion of a comment I made (with some minor editing) in the comment section of the original post to some who were quite distressed over what I was saying.

I wrote:

I wholeheartedly believe in the beauty and necessity of Christian friends who love us enough to correct us when we need it and also friends who we can share our needs and struggles with. That's precisely what I'm hoping for. We would all be in big trouble without them. In fact, God calls us to live in community for that very reason.

As I mentioned in my post, it's not accountability in general (I mention the friends and family that continue to help me grow) but the kind of accountability groups like the ones I specifically mentioned (believe it or not, these are much more commonplace than you may realize!) that end up being more of a hindrance to our growth, than they are a help. These groups foster the kind of guilt, narcissism and morbid introspection that are antithetical to growth in the gospel.

I call for accountability in this post, but a certain kind of accountability–the kind that forces us to reckon with the scandalous nature of God's unconditional love for us because of Christ's finished work on our behalf. I believe in the need to repent and to confess our sins to one another (James 5:16). But it is only this reckoning with God's unconditional love that can lead to genuine, heart-felt confession of sin and repentance. It is, after all, "the kindness of the Lord that leads to repentance" (Romans 2:4). Or, as the Puritans used to say, "Guilt may lead to legal repentance but only grace will lead to evangelical repentance."

Nowhere in this post do I reject the concept of "accountability". Rather, I'm calling for a gospel-centered approach to Christian fellowship and accountability that serves as a much needed alternative to the type of groups I describe. My greatest need and yours is to look at Christ more than we look at ourselves. I need to be held accountable to do this.

In an excellent article entitled "Does Justification Still Matter?", Mike Horton raises the same concern I raise with regard to our natural tendency to focus inward more than Christ-ward. He writes:

Most people in the pew, however, are simply not acquainted with the doctrine of justification. Often, it is not a part of the diet of preaching and church life, much less a dominant theme in the Christian subculture. With either stern rigor or happy tips for better living, "fundamentalists" and "progressives" alike smother the gospel in moralism, through constant exhortations to personal transformation that keep the sheep looking to themselves rather than looking outside of themselves to Christ… The average feature article in [Christian magazines] or Christian best-seller's is concerned with "good works"-trends in spirituality, social activism, church growth, and discipleship. However, it's pretty clear that justification is simply not on the radar. Even where it is not outright rejected, it is often ignored. Perhaps the forgiveness of sins and justification are appropriate for "getting saved," but then comes the real business of Christian living-as if there could be any genuine holiness of life that did not arise out of a perpetual confidence that "there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1).

Because we are so naturally prone to look at ourselves and our performance more than we do to Christ and his performance, we need constant reminders of the gospel. As Horton says, there can be no genuine holiness of life that does not arise out of a perpetual confidence that "there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1). The only way to deal with remaining sin long term is to develop a distaste for it in light of the glorious acceptance, security and forgiveness we already posses in Christ. I need to be reminded of this all the time, every day. Because the fact is that guilt doesn't produce holiness; grace does.

As I said at the conclusion of my original post, the bottom line is this, Christian: because of Christ's work on your behalf, God does not 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!

More On "Accountability Groups" is a post from: Tullian Tchividjian

Every Story Whispers His Name

Contrary to what many Christians have concluded, the Bible does not tell two stories: the story of Israel in the OT and the story of the church in the NT or the story of law in the OT and the story of grace in the NT.  No, the Bible tells one story and points to one figure: it tells the story of how God rescues a broken world and points to Christ who accomplishes this. In the OT God revealed himself through types and shadows, through promises and prophecies. In the NT God reveals himself in Christ who is the substance of every shadow and the fulfillment of every promise and prophecy. The OT predicts  God's rescuer; the NT presents God's rescuer. In all of its pages and throughout all of its stories, the Word of the Lord reveals the Lord of the Word. The plot line of the Bible, in other words, is Jesus-centered. He is the rescuer sent by God to right all wrongs, mend all that is broken, and reconcile separated, fallen human beings like you and me to God.

Even though it's a children's Bible, The Jesus Storybook Bible is, in my opinion, one of the best beginner resources available to help both children and adults see the Jesus-centered story line of the Bible.

In the Introduction of that book, author Sally Lloyd-Jones rightly explains what the Bible is not before she beautifully explains what the Bible is. She writes:

Now, some people think the Bible is a book of rules, telling you what you should and shouldn't do. The Bible certainly does have some rules in it. They show you how life works best. But the Bible isn't mainly about you and what you should be doing. It's about God and what he has done.

Other people think the Bible is a book of heroes, showing you people you should copy. The Bible does have some heroes in it, but (as you'll soon find out) most of the people in the Bible aren't heroes at all. They make some big mistakes (sometimes on purpose), they get afraid and run away. At times, they're downright mean.

No, the Bible isn't a book of rules, or a book of heroes. The Bible is most of all a Story. It's an adventure story about a young Hero who comes from a far country to win back his lost treasure. It's a love story about a brave Prince who leaves his palace, his throne–everything–to rescues the ones he loves. It's like the most wonderful of fairy tales that has come true in real life!

You see, the best thing about this Story is–it's true.

There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling on Big Story. The Story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them.

It takes the whole Bible to tell this Story. And at the center of the Story, there is a baby. Every story in the Bible whispers his name. He is like the missing piece in the puzzle–the piece that makes all the other pieces fit together, and suddenly you can see a beautiful picture.

My hope and prayer for all is that we would come to a bigger, better, deeper, and brighter understanding of this remarkable Story and its infallible Hero!

is a post from: Tullian Tchividjian

Horton On The Law And The Gospel

This is probably the best shortest explanation of the all important distinction between God's law and God's gospel that I've read. It's from Mike Horton's new book The Christian Faith:

In the Reformed tradition, the law-gospel distinction was interpreted within the historical context of distinct covenants in history. The covenant of creation (also called the covenant of works or law) was based on the personal performance of all righteousness by the covenant servant. The covenant of grace is based on the fulfillment of all righteousness by our representative head and is dispensed to the covenant people through faith in him. There is still law in the covenant of grace. However, it is no longer able to condemn believers but directs them in lives of gratitude for God's mercy in Christ.

As I've said here before, the commands in the Bible are like a set of railroad tracks. The tracks provide no power for the train but the train must stay on the tracks in order to function. The law, in other words, never gives any power to do what it commands. It shows us what a sanctified life looks like but it has no sanctifying power. Only the gospel has power, as it were, to move the train. This is why the Bible never tells us what to do before first soaking our hearts and minds in what God in Christ has already done.

Horton On The Law And The Gospel is a post from: Tullian Tchividjian

Reminders Are More Effective Than Rebukes

Are you tired of being told that if you're really serious about God, you must be in an "accountability group?" You know the ones I'm talking about. The ones where you and a small group of "friends" arrange for a time each week to get together and pick each other apart–uncovering layer after layer after layer of sin? The ones where all parties involved believe that the guiltier we feel the more holy we are? The ones where you confess your sin to your friends but it's never enough? No matter what you unveil, they're always looking for you to uncover something deeper, darker, and more embarrassing than what you've fessed up to. It's usually done with such persistent invasion that you get the feeling they're desperately looking for something in you that will make them feel better about themselves.

Well, I hate those groups!

The reason I hate them is not only because I don't like accountability. Of course, I don't–none of us really do. We like to do our own thing without anybody correcting us or telling us we need to change. But God has been gracious to me by giving me a remarkable Italian wife, three children who aren't afraid to tell me I'm wrong, a nosy–albeit loving–mother, a professional counselor for a father (although he died last year), a vast array of close-knit siblings (six to be exact), some very good friends, and a group of church elders who all know me better than I know myself. They all keep me grounded and keep me real. They all know when something's wrong. They correct me when I need it. I don't like it, but they do. And I thank God for all of them!

The real reason, however, that I hate "accountability groups" is because the primary (almost exclusive, in my experience) focus is always on our sin, not on our Savior. Because of this, these groups breed self-righteousness, guilt, and the almost irresistible temptation to pretend–to be less than honest. I can't tell you how many times I've been in "accountability groups" where there has been little to no attention given to the gospel whatsoever. There's no reminder of what Christ has done for our sin–"cleansing us from its guilt and power"–and the resources that are already ours by virtue of our union with him.  These groups engender a "do more, try harder" moralism that robs us of the joy and freedom Jesus paid dearly to secure for us. They start with the narcissistic presupposition that Christianity is all about cleaning up and getting better–it's all about personal improvement.

But it's not!

When the goal becomes conquering our sin instead of soaking in the conquest of our Savior, we actually begin to shrink spiritually. Sinclair Ferguson rightly points this out:

Those who have almost forgotten about their own spirituality because their focus is so exclusively on their union with Jesus Christ and what He has accomplished are those who are growing and exhibiting fruitfulness. Historically speaking, whenever the piety of a particular group is focused on OUR spirituality, that piety will eventually exhaust itself on its own resources. Only when our piety forgets about us and focuses on Jesus Christ will our piety be nourished by the ongoing resources the Spirit brings to us from the source of all true piety, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ironically, 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 my guilt over God's grace makes me increasingly self-centered and morbidly introspective. Real Christian growth, according to Jeremiah Bourroughs (1600-1646), "comes not so much from our struggling and endeavors and resolutions, as it comes flowing to us from our union with him."

To be sure, we are called to "mortify the flesh", "put to death the misdeeds of the body", and to "cut off our hand" and "gouge out our eye" if they cause us to sin–and we need the help of other people to get this done. Sanctification is a community project.

But–and this is the point–our holiness is NOT what Christianity is all about! If it were, I and every other sinner out there would be in big, hopeless trouble.

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 subsitutionary work–his incarnation, life, death, resurrection, ascension, session, and promised return. We are justified–and sanctified–by grace alone through faith alone in the finished work of Christ alone. So that even now, the banner under which Christians live reads, "It is finished."

The accountability I need, therefore, is the kind that corrects my natural  tendency to focus on me–my obedience (or lack thereof), my performance (good or bad), my holiness–instead of on Christ and his obedience, performance, and holiness for me. We all possess a natural proclivity to turn God's good news announcement that we've been set free into a narcissistic program of self-improvement. We need to be held accountable for that (grin)!

Our calling is not to fix one another! So stop trying! You stop trying to fix me and I'll stop trying to fix you. Instead, 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. All the "good stuff" that is ours already in Christ settles at the bottom when we focus on ourselves more than Jesus (after all, Peter only began to sink when he took his eyes off Jesus and focused on his performance). Therefore, it takes the loving act of our Christian brothers and sisters to remind us everyday of the  gospel–that everything we need, and look for in things smaller than Jesus, are already ours "in Christ." When this happens, the "good stuff" rises to the top.

The Puritans used to say that far too many Christians live beneath the level of their privileges. Therefore, I need to be told by those around me that every time I sin I'm momentarily suffering from an  identity crisis: forgetting who I actually belong to, what I really want at my remade core, and all that is already mine in Christ. The only way to deal with remaining sin long term is to develop a distaste for it in light of the glorious riches we already posses in Christ. I need my real friends to remind me of this–every day. Please tell me again and again that God doesn't love me more when I obey or less when I disobey. Knowing this actually enlarges my heart for God and therefore shrinks my hunger for sin. So, don't let me forget it. My life depends on it!

In her book Because He Loves Me, Elyse Fitzpatrick writes about how important remembrance is in Christian growth:

One reason we don't grow in ordinary, grateful obedience as we should is that we've got amnesia; we've forgotten that we are cleansed from our sins. In other words, ongoing failure in sanctification (the slow process of change into Christlikeness) is the direct result of failing to remember God's love for us in the gospel. If we lack the comfort and assurance that his love and cleansing are meant to supply, our failures will handcuff us to yesterday's sins, and we won't have faith or courage to fight against them, or the love for God that's meant to empower this war. If we fail to remember our justification, redemption, and reconciliation, we'll struggle in our sanctification.

Christian growth, in other words, does not happen first by behaving better, but believing better–believing in bigger, deeper, brighter ways what Christ has already secured for sinners. I need my family and friends to remind me of this all the time.

Realizing the Colossian Christians were being tempted to buy counterfeit versions of salvation (self-improvement and freedom through rule-keeping being the main ones), Paul repeatedly reminds them of the treasure they already have in Christ. His point: don't buy false versions of what you already have. In 1:9-14, Paul sums things up by saying, essentially, "You will grow in your understanding of God's will, be filled with spiritual wisdom and understanding, increase in your knowledge of God, be strengthened with God's power which will produce joy filled patience and endurance (v.9-12a) as you come to a greater realization that you've already been qualified, delivered, transferred, redeemed, and forgiven (v.12b-14).

Paul understood that Gospel-driven change is rooted in remembrance. What Paul did for the Colossians is what we all need our Christian brothers and sisters to do for us as well: remind me first of what's been done, not what I must do. So, while rebukes are sometimes necessary, reminders are far more effective in the long run. Constant reminders of our Savior and the benefits he secured for sinners help us get better more so than constant rebukes of our sin.

The bottom line is this, Christian: because of Christ's work on your behalf, God does not 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, we start to become a lot easier to live with!

Will someone please keep reminding me of this?

Reminders Are More Effective Than Rebukes is a post from: Tullian Tchividjian

Transforming Grace

My whole theology of gospel preaching rests on the foundation of truth that the quote below illuminates. God's grace is a beautiful, and scandalously freeing, thing!

My observation of Christendom is that most of us tend to base our relationship with God on our performance instead of on His grace.  If we've performed well—whatever 'well' is in our opinion—then we expect God to bless us. If we haven't done so well, our expectations are reduced accordingly.  In this sense, we live by works, rather than by grace.  We are saved by grace, but we are living by the 'sweat' of our own performance.  Moreover, we are always challenging ourselves and one another to 'try harder'.  We seem to believe success in the Christian life is basically up to us; our commitment, our discipline, and our zeal, with some help from God along the way. The realization that my daily relationship with God is based on the infinite merit of Christ instead of on my own performance is very freeing and joyous experience.  But it is not meant to be a one-time experience; the truth needs to be reaffirmed daily.

Jerry Bridges, Transforming Grace

Transforming Grace is a post from: Tullian Tchividjian

Mercy Always Comes Running

I know that illustrations always break down at some level but I still think the following one makes a good (albeit, not perfect) point. At the very least, it's kind of funny in a corny way!

A friend of mine recently told a silly story about a man standing at the gates of heaven waiting to be admitted. To the man's utter shock, Peter said, "You have to have earned a thousands points to be admitted to heaven. What have you done to earn your points?"

"I've never heard that before: but I think I'll do alright. I was raised in a Christian home and have always been a part of the church. I have Sunday school attendance pins that go down the floor. I went to a Christian college and graduate school and have probably led hundreds of people to Christ. I'm now an elder in my church and am quite supportive of what the people of God do. I have three children, two boys and a girl. My oldest boy is a pastor and the younger is a staff person with a ministry to the poor. My daughter and her husband are missionaries. I have always tithed and am now giving well over 30% of my income to God's work. I'm a bank executive and work with the poor in our city trying to get low income mortgages."

"How am I doing so far", he asked Peter.

"That's one point," Peter said. "What else have you done?"

"Good Lord…have mercy!" the man said in frustration.

"That's it!" Peter said. "Welcome home."

My friend who used this silly illustration ended it by saying, "Teach the law. The Psalmist called it perfect. Teach it until people are sick of it and cry out for mercy…Mercy always comes running."

Indeed it does!

Mercy Always Comes Running is a post from: Tullian Tchividjian