Tullian Tchividjian's Blog, page 38

I'm Concerned: Recovering Christ's Active Obedience

Rarely, if ever, do I make two posts on the same day but this is important.

I'm becoming increasingly concerned about the lack of attention paid to Christ's active obedience in the so-called "Young, Restless, and Reformed" crowd–of which I am a happy part. There's a lot of talk about "Cross-Centeredness" as if the death of Christ (his passive obedience) is more important than the life of Christ (his active obedience). The truth is, however, that our redemption depends not only on Christ's substitutionary death, but his substitutionary life as well. In fact, J. Gresham Machen's last recorded words (sent by telegram to his friend and colleague, John Murray) were, "So thankful for Christ's active obedience; no hope without it!" He understood that apart from Christ's law fulfilling life, there is NO righteousness to impute…and we are, therefore, left dressed in our own filthy rags.

In his excellent book, Redemption: Accomplished and Applied, John Murray writes:

The real use and purpose of the formula (active and passive obedience) is to emphasize the two distinct aspects of our Lord's vicarious obedience. The truth expressed rests upon the recognition that the law of God has both penal sanctions and positive demands. It demands not only the full discharge of its precepts but also the infliction of penalty for all infractions and shortcomings. It is this twofold demand of the law of God which is taken into account when we speak of the active and passive obedience of Christ. Christ as the vicar of his people came under the curse and condemnation due to sin and he also fulfilled the law of God in all its positive requirements. In other words, he took care of the guilt of sin and perfectly fulfilled the demands of righteousness. He perfectly met both the penal and the preceptive requirements of God's law. The passive obedience refers to the former and the active obedience to the latter.

Christ's life, in other words, is just as central to our rescue as his death. As I've said before, we are not saved apart from the law. Rather, we are saved in Christ who perfectly kept the law on our behalf. Michael Horton points this out in his excellent essay "Obedience is Better than Sacrifice":

As important as it is that Christ bore the penalty of our sins on the cross, it is just as important that he triumphed over the powers of evil and recapitulated the history of fallen humanity and Israel. Adam was commanded to obey God's law and failed, Israel was commanded to obey God's law and failed, but Christ came into this world and completed a life of perfect obedience to the law of his Father. Christ the righteous One was indeed the Last Adam, the True Israel…We have not only been forgiven on the basis of Christ's curse-bearing death, but justified on the basis of his probation-fulfilling life.

This is nothing new…it's been a stamp of historic Reformed theological conviction for centuries as Heidelberg Catechism question 60 shows:

God imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of  Christ, as if I had never committed any sin, and myself had accomplished all the  obedience which  Christ has rendered for me.

So, Christ's death is not the center of the Gospel anymore than Christ's life is the center of the Gospel. One without the other fails to bring about redemption. It's much more theologically accurate to say that Christ himself is the center of the Gospel (incarnation, life, death, resurrection, ascension, session, and promised return). I think this is a really big deal because the practical life implications of neglecting the totality of Christ's person and work are disastrous.

I had the opportunity to point this out recently on a panel discussion in Orlando. I think much more work needs to be done in this area.

Just thinking out loud…and raising a warning flag!

I'm Concerned: Recovering Christ's Active Obedience is a post from: Tullian Tchividjian

I'm Concerned

Rarely, if ever, do I make two posts on the same day but this is important.

I'm becoming increasingly concerned about the neglect of Christ's active obedience in the so-called "Young, Restless, and Reformed" crowd–of which I am a happy part. There's a lot of talk about "Cross-Centeredness" as if the death of Christ (his passive obedience) is more important than the life of Christ (his active obedience). The truth is, however, that our redemption depends not only on Christ's substitutionary death, but his substitutionary life as well. Christ's life is just as central to our rescue as his death. Apart from his law fulfilling life, there is NO righteousness to impute. As I've said before, we are not saved apart from the law. Rather, we are saved in Christ who perfectly kept the law on our behalf. This is nothing new…it's been a stamp of historic Reformed theological conviction for centuries!

So, Christ's death is not the center of the Gospel anymore than Christ's life is the center of the Gospel. One without the other fails to bring about redemption. It's much more theologically accurate to say that Christ himself is the center of the Gospel. I think this is a really big deal. And the practical life implications of this neglect are disastrous.

I had the opportunity to point this out recently on a panel discussion in Orlando. I think much more work needs to be done in this area.

Just thinking out loud…and raising a warning flag!

I'm Concerned is a post from: Tullian Tchividjian

Erskine On The Law And The Gospel

This past week during a panel discussion at The Resurgence conference in Orlando, I was asked to articulate the distinctive roles of God's law and God's gospel in the life of the Christian. I've been thinking and writing a lot about this over the last year or so and have come to believe that this is one of the most important theological issues in the church today. Failure to understand the distinct roles of the law and the gospel inevitably leads to moralism. While both law and gospel are good (after all, both come from God), both play different roles.

I found this hymn on the law and the gospel from Ralph Erskine to be both poetic and helpful:

The law supposing I have all,

Does ever for perfection call;

The gospel suits my total want,

And all the law can seek does grant.

The law could promise life to me,

If my obedience perfect be;

But grace does promise life upon

My Lord's obedience alone.

The law says, Do, and life you'll win;

But grace says, Live, for all is done;

The former cannot ease my grief,

The latter yields me full relief.

The law will not abate a mite,

The gospel all the sum will quit;

There God in thret'nings is array'd

But here in promises display'd.

The law excludes not boasting vain,

But rather feeds it to my bane;

But gospel grace allows no boasts,

Save in the King, the Lord of Hosts.

Lo! in the law Jehovah dwells,

But Jesus is conceal'd;

Whereas the gospel's nothing else

But Jesus Christ reveal'd.

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

The Difference Between Legal and Gospel Mortification

The discussion that this article by Jason Hood began last week (generating a response from Dane Ortlund, Mike Horton, Scott Clark, and me) was an important and stimulating one. In fact, these are the kinds of good theological discussions that result in gospel clarity. I desperately want the church to be deeply reformed and re-energized by the gospel. But this comes at great cost because I believe wholeheartedly that the gospel is way more radical, offensive, liberating, shocking, and counterintuitive than any of us realize. Pressing deeper into the uncontrollable, scandalous nature of the gospel is bound to make all of us wince–and I love that!

My mission as a preacher and communicator of the gospel is to help myself and others consider the outrageous gospel in all of its fullness. (I told our church a couple weeks ago that I preach the gospel with life or death passion, not because I believe the gospel fully, but because I don't believe the gospel fully!) So, with my own spiritual need in mind (and yours) I decided to post in full this remarkable piece from Ralph Erskine (1685-1752). He really gets to the heart of the difference between being motivated by the law and motivated by the gospel.

Enjoy…

1. Gospel and legal mortification differ in their principles from which they proceed. Gospel mortification is from gospel principles, viz. the Spirit of God [Rom. 8. 13], 'If ye through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live'; Faith in Christ [Acts 15. 9], 'Purifying their hearts by faith'; The love of Christ constraining [2 Cor. 5. 14], 'The love of Christ constraineth us.' But legal mortification is from legal principles such as, from the applause and praise of men, as in the Pharisees; from pride of self-righteousness, as in Paul before his conversion; from the fear of hell; from a natural conscience; from the example of others; from some common motions of the Spirit; and many times from the power of sin itself, while one sin is set up to wrestle with another, as when sensuality and self-righteousness wrestle with one another. The man, perhaps, will not drink and swear. Why? Because he is setting up and establishing a righteousness of his own, whereby to obtain the favour of God here is but one sin wrestling with another.

2. They differ in their weapons with which they fight against sin. The gospel believer fights with grace's weapons, namely, the blood of Christ, the word of God, the promises of the covenant, and the virtue of Christ's death and cross [Gal. 6. 14] 'God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom [or, as it may be read, 'whereby,' viz. by the cross of Christ,] the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.' But now the man under the law fights against sin by the promises and threatenings of the law; by its promises, saying, I will obtain life; and win to heaven, I hope, if I do so and so; by its threatenings, saying, I will go to hell and be damned, if I do not so and so. Sometimes he fights with the weapons of his own vows and resolutions, which are his strong tower, to which he runs and thinks himself safe.

3. They differ in the object of their mortification. They both, indeed, seek to mortify sin, but the legalist's quarrel is more especially with the sins of his conversation, whereas the true believer should desire to fight as the Syrians got orders, that is, neither against great nor small, so much as against the King himself, even against original corruption. A body of sin and death troubles him more than any other sin in the world; 'O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death?' [Rom. 7. 24]. His great exercise is to have the seed of the woman to bruise this head of the serpent.

4. They differ in the reasons of the contest. The believer, whom grace teaches to deny all ungodliness, he fights against sin because it dishonours God, opposes Christ, grieves the Spirit, and separates between his Lord and him; but the legalist fights against sin, because it breaks his peace, and troubles his conscience, and hurts him, by bringing wrath and judgment on him. As children will not play in the dust, not because it sullies their clothes, but flies into their eyes, and hurts them, so the legalist will not meddle with sin, not because it sullies the perfections of God, and defiles their souls, but only because it hurts them. I deny not, but there is too much of this legal temper even amongst the godly.

5. They differ in their motives and ends. The believer will not serve sin, because he is alive to God, and dead to sin [Rom. 6. 6]. The legalist forsakes sin, not because he is alive, but that he may live. The believer mortifies sin, because God loves him; but the legalist, that God may love him. The believer mortifies, because God is pacified towards him; the legalist mortifies, that he may pacify God by his mortification. He may go a great length, but it is still that he may have whereof to glory, making his own doing all the foundation of his hope and comfort.

6. They differ in the nature of their mortification. The legalist does not oppose sin violently, seeking the utter destruction of it. If he can get sin put down, he does not seek it to be thrust out; but the believer, having a nature and principle contrary to sin, he seeks not only to have it weakened, but extirpated. The quarrel is irreconcilable; no terms of accommodation or agreement; no league with sin is allowed, as it is with hypocrites.

7. They differ in the extent of the warfare, not only objectively, the believer hating every false way; but also subjectively, all the faculties of the believer's soul, the whole regenerate part being against sin. It is not so with the hypocrite or legalist; for as he spares some sin or other, so his opposition to sin is only seated in his conscience; his light and conscience oppose such a thing, while his heart approves of it. There is an extent also as to time; the legalist's opposition to sin is of a short duration, but in the believer it is to the end; grace and corruption still opposing one another.

8. They differ in the success. There is no believer, but as he fights against sin, so first or last he prevails, though not always to his discerning; and though he lose many battles, yet he gains the war. But the legalist, for all the work he makes, yet he never truly comes speed; though he cut off some actual sin, yet the corrupt nature is never changed; he never gets a new heart; the iron sinew in his neck, which opposes God, is never broken; and when he gets one sin mortified, sometimes another and more dangerous sin lifts up the head. Hence all the sins and pollutions that ever the Pharisees forsook, and all the good duties that ever they performed, made them but more proud, and strengthened their unbelieving prejudices against Christ, which was the greater and more dangerous sin.

Thus you may see the difference between legal and gospel mortification, and try yourselves thereby.

The Difference Between Legal and Gospel Mortification is a post from: Tullian Tchividjian

Gospel-Driven Sanctification

In light of the recent discussion regarding the nature of Christian growth and sanctification, I thought I would re-post the helpful quote below from Sinclair Ferguson. In it, he reminds us that any piety and pursuit of holiness not grounded in, and driven by, the gospel will eventually run out of gas:

The first thing to remember is that we must never separate the benefits (regeneration, justification, sanctification) from the Benefactor (Jesus Christ). The Christians who are most focused on their own spirituality may give the impression of being the most spiritual … but from the New Testament's point of view, 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 where our piety forgets about us and focuses on Jesus Christ will our piety nourished by the ongoing resources the Spirit brings to us from the source of all true piety, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Sinclair reminds us that the secret of gospel-based sanctification is that we actually perform better as we grow in our understanding that our relationship with God is based on Christ's performance for us, not our performance for him. In fact, those who end up getting better are those who increasingly realize that their relationship to God does not depend on them getting better. This means, as I said in a post a couple weeks ago, that Christian growth does not happen first by behaving better, but believing better–believing in bigger, deeper, brighter ways what Christ has already secured for sinners (Col. 1:12-14).

Gospel-Driven Sanctification is a post from: Tullian Tchividjian

Two Approaches To Realizing Radical Obedience: My Response To Jason Hood

Because the Bible has so much to say about it, healthy Christian people have always maintained a deep concern for the pursuit of holiness and the practice of godliness. Obedience to God matters to God and it should, therefore, matter to God's people. In fact, one way to gauge our love for God is obedience to his commands (John 14:15, 1 John 5:3). Where there is a profession of Christ without a practice of Christlikeness, concern is warranted.

So the issue is not whether obedience, the pursuit of holiness, and the practice of godliness is important. Of course it is. The issue is how do we keep God's commands? What stimulates and sustains a long obedience in the same direction? Where does the power come from to do God's will and to follow God's lead?

Our answer to these questions is determined by our understanding of the distinctive role of God's law and gospel in the life of a Christian. Therefore, it is crucial that we get this right, biblically and theologically.

When John (or Jesus) talks about keeping God's commands as a way to know whether you love Jesus or not, he's not using the law as a way to motivate. He's simply stating a fact. Those who love God will keep on keeping his commands. As every parent and teacher knows, behavioral compliance to rules without heart change will be shallow and short-lived. But shallow and short-lived is not what God wants (that's not what it means to "keep God's commands."). God wants a sustained obedience from the heart. How is that possible? Long-term, sustained obedience can only come from the grace which flows from what Jesus has already done, not guilt or fear of what we must do. To paraphrase Ray Ortlund, any obedience not grounded in or motivated by the gospel is unsustainable. Or, as I like to put it: imperatives minus indicatives equal impossibilities.

As a pastor, one of my responsibilities is to disciple people into a deeper understanding of obedience—teaching them to say "no" to the things God hates and "yes" to the things God loves. But all too often I have wrongly concluded that the only way to keep licentious people in line is to give them more rules–lay down the law.  The fact is, however, that the only way licentious people start to obey is when they get a taste of God's radical, unconditional acceptance of sinners. As Mike Horton points out here, in Romans 6:1-4 the Apostle Paul answers antinomianism (lawlessness) not with more law but with more gospel! In other words, licentious people aren't those who believe the gospel of God's free grace too much, but too little. "The ultimate antidote to antinomianism", writes Horton, "is not more imperatives, but the realization that the gospel swallows the tyranny as well as the guilt of sin." The irony, in other words, of gospel-based sanctification is that those who end up obeying more are those who increasingly realize that their standing with God is not based on their obedience, but Christ's.

Writing in response to Jason Hood's recent Christianity Today article where Hood voices concern about the lack of emphasis on personal holiness and radical obedience in this generation of Christians, my friend Dane Ortlund (read Dane's full, gospel-drenched response here) shows how there are two ways to address this:

One way is to balance gospel grace with exhortations to holiness, as if both need equal air time lest we fall into legalism on one side (neglecting grace) or antinomianism on the other (neglecting holiness).

The other way, which I believe is the right and biblical way, is so to startle this restraint-free culture with the gospel of free justification that the functional justifications of human approval, moral performance, sexual indulgence, or big bank accounts begin to lose their vice-like grip on human hearts and their emptiness is exposed in all its fraudulence. It sounds backward, but the path to holiness is through (not beyond) the grace of the gospel, because only undeserved grace can truly melt and transform the heart. The solution to restraint-free immorality is not morality. The solution to immorality is the free grace of God—grace so free that it will be (mis)heard by some as a license to sin with impunity. The route by which the New Testament exhorts radical obedience is not by tempering grace but by driving it home all the more deeply.

Let's pursue holiness. (Without it we won't see God: Matt 5:8; Heb 12:14.) And let's pursue it centrally through enjoying the gospel, the same gospel that got us in and the same gospel that liberates us afresh each day (1 Cor 15:1–2; Gal 2:14; Col 1:23; 2:6). As G. C. Berkouwer wisely remarked, "The heart of sanctification is the life which feeds on justification."

Amen!

To some, this will sound like an antinomian (a lawless, obligation free  version of Christianity) cop-out. After all, doesn't the American church need to be shaken out of its comfort zone? Yes—but you don't do it by giving them law; you do it, as Dane points out, by giving them gospel. The Apostle Paul never uses the law as a way to motivate obedience; he always uses the gospel. Paul always soaks the obligations of the law in the declarations of the gospel because God is not concerned with just any kind of obedience; he's concerned with a certain kind of obedience (as Cain and Abel's sacrifice illustrates). What motivates our obedience determines whether or not it is a sacrifice of praise. The obedience that pleases God is obedience that flows from faith and grace; not fear and guilt.

Now, hear me: The law of God has its rightful place in the life of a Christian. It's a gift from God. It's good. It graciously shows Christians what God commands and instructs us in the way of holiness. But nowhere does the Bible say that the law possesses the power to enable us to do what it says. You could put it this way: the law guides but it does not give. The law shows us what a sanctified life looks like and plots our course, but it does not have sanctifying power—the law cannot change a human heart. As John Bunyan memorably put it:

"Run, John, run," the law demands,

but gives me neither feet nor hands.

Better news the Gospel brings,

It bids me fly and gives me wings.

To say, however, that the law has no power to change us in no way reduces its ongoing role in the life of the Christian. We just have to understand the precise role that it plays for us today: the law serves us by making us thankful for Jesus when we break it and serves us by showing how to love God and others. Only the gospel empowers us to keep the law. And when we fail to keep it, the gospel comforts by reminding us that God's infinite approval does not depend on our keeping of the law, but Christ's keeping of the law on our behalf. The gospel serves the Christian every day and in every way by reminding us that God's love for us does not get bigger when we obey or smaller when we disobey. And guess what? This makes me want to obey him more, not less! As Spurgeon wrote, "When I thought God was hard, I found it easy to sin; but when I found God so kind, so good, so overflowing with compassion, I smote upon my breast to think that I could ever have rebelled against One who loved me so, and sought my good."

Therefore, it's the gospel (what Jesus has done) that alone can give God-honoring animation to our obedience. The power to obey comes from being moved and motivated by the completed work of Jesus for us. The fuel to do good flows from what's already been done. So, while the law directs us, only the gospel can drive us.

A friend of mine recently put it to me this way: the law is 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 never gives any power to do what it commands. Only the gospel has power, as it were, to move the train.

Recognizing the continual need of the gospel for Christian people as much as the initial need of the gospel for non-Christian people, J. Gresham Machen wrote, "What I need first of all is not exhortation, but a gospel; not directions for saving myself but knowledge of how God has saved me." The Gospel of amazing grace gets us in, keeps us in, and will eventually get us to the finish line. It's all of grace!

Now, go and spread this defiant, scandalously liberating, counter-intuitive Word around the world…it's waiting!

Two Approaches To Realizing Radical Obedience: My Response To Jason Hood is a post from: Tullian Tchividjian

Two Ways To Realize Radical Obedience: My Indirect Response To Jason Hood

Because the Bible has so much to say about it, healthy Christian people have always maintained a deep concern for the pursuit of holiness and the practice of godliness. Obedience to God matters to God and it should, therefore, matter to God's people. In fact, one way to gauge our love for God is obedience to his commands (John 14:15, 1 John 5:3). Where there is a profession of Christ, in other words, without a practice of Christlikeness, concern is warranted.

So the issue is not whether obedience, the pursuit of holiness, and the practice of godliness is important. Of course it is. The issue is how do we keep God's commands? What stimulates and sustains a long obedience in the same direction? Where does the power come from to pursue holiness, to do God's will and to follow God's lead?

Our answer to these questions is determined by our understanding of the distinctive role of God's law and gospel in the life of a Christian. Therefore, it is crucial that we get this right, biblically and theologically.

When John (or Jesus) talks about keeping God's commands as a way to know whether you love Jesus or not, he's not using the law as a way to motivate. He's simply stating a fact. Those who love God will keep on keeping his commands. As every parent and teacher knows, behavioral compliance to rules without heart change will be shallow and short-lived. But shallow and short-lived is not what God wants (that's not what it means to "keep God's commands."). God wants a sustained obedience from the heart. How is that possible? Long-term, sustained obedience can only come from the grace which flows from what Jesus has already done, not guilt or fear of what we must do. To paraphrase Ray Ortlund, any obedience not grounded in or motivated by the gospel is unsustainable. Or, as I like to put it: imperatives minus indicatives equal impossibilities.

As a pastor, one of my responsibilities is to disciple people into a deeper understanding of obedience—teaching them to say "no" to the things God hates and "yes" to the things God loves. But all too often I have wrongly concluded that the only way to keep licentious people in line is to give them more rules–lay down the law.  The fact is, however, that the only way licentious people start to obey is when they get a taste of God's radical, unconditional acceptance of sinners. The irony of gospel-based sanctification is that those who end up obeying more are those who increasingly realize that their standing with God is not based on their obedience, but Christ's.

Writing in response to Jason Hood's recent Christianity Today article where Hood voices concern about the lack of emphasis on personal holiness and radical obedience in this generation of Christians, my friend Dane Ortlund (read Dane's full, gospel-drenched response here) shows how there are two ways to address this:

One way is to balance gospel grace with exhortations to holiness, as if both need equal air time lest we fall into legalism on one side (neglecting grace) or antinomianism on the other (neglecting holiness).

The other way, which I believe is the right and biblical way, is so to startle this restraint-free culture with the gospel of free justification that the functional justifications of human approval, moral performance, sexual indulgence, or big bank accounts begin to lose their vice-like grip on human hearts and their emptiness is exposed in all its fraudulence. It sounds backward, but the path to holiness is through (not beyond) the grace of the gospel, because only undeserved grace can truly melt and transform the heart. The solution to restraint-free immorality is not morality. The solution to immorality is the free grace of God—grace so free that it will be (mis)heard by some as a license to sin with impunity. The route by which the New Testament exhorts radical obedience is not by tempering grace but by driving it home all the more deeply.

Let's pursue holiness. (Without it we won't see God: Matt 5:8; Heb 12:14.) And let's pursue it centrally through enjoying the gospel, the same gospel that got us in and the same gospel that liberates us afresh each day (1 Cor 15:1–2; Gal 2:14; Col 1:23; 2:6). As G. C. Berkouwer wisely remarked, "The heart of sanctification is the life which feeds on justification."

Amen!

To some, this will sound like an anitnomian (a lawless, obligation free  version of Christianity) cop-out. After all, doesn't the American church need to be shaken out of their comfort zones? Yes—but you don't do it by giving them law; you do it, as Dane points out, by giving them gospel. The Apostle Paul never uses the law as a way to motivate obedience; he always uses the gospel. Paul always soaks the obligations of the law in the declarations of the gospel because God is not concerned with just any kind of obedience; he's concerned with a certain kind of obedience (as Cain and Abel's sacrifice illustrates). What motivates our obedience determines whether or not it is a sacrifice of praise. The obedience that pleases God is obedience that flows from faith and grace; not fear and guilt.

Now, hear me: The law of God has it's rightful place in the life of a Christian. It's a gift from God. It's good. It graciously shows Christians what God commands and instructs us in the way of holiness. But nowhere does the Bible say that the law possesses the power to enable us to do what it says. You could put it this way: the law guides but it does not give. The law shows us what a sanctified life looks like and plots our course, but it does not have sanctifying power—the law cannot change a human heart.

To say the law has no power to change us in no way reduces its ongoing role in the life of the Christian. We just have to understand the precise role that it plays for us today: the law serves us by making us thankful for Jesus when we break it and serves us by showing how to love God and others. Only the gospel empowers us to keep the law. And when we fail to keep it, the gospel comforts us by reminding us that God's infinite approval of us does not depend on our keeping of the law, but Christ's keeping of the law on our behalf. The gospel serves the Christian every day and in every way by reminding us that God's love for us does not get bigger when we obey or smaller when we disobey. And guess what? This makes me want to obey him more, not less! As Spurgeon wrote, "When I thought God was hard, I found it easy to sin; but when I found God so kind, so good, so overflowing with compassion, I smote upon my breast to think that I could ever have rebelled against One who loved me so, and sought my good."

Therefore, it's the gospel (what Jesus has done) that alone can give God-honoring animation to our obedience. The power to obey comes from being moved and motivated by the completed work of Jesus for us. The fuel to do good flows from what's already been done. So, while the law directs us, only the gospel can drive us.

A friend of mine recently put it to me this way: the law is 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 never gives any power to do what it commands. Only the gospel has power, as it were, to move the train.

Recognizing the continual need of the gospel for Christian people as much as the initial need of the gospel for non-Christian people, J. Gresham Machen wrote, "What I need first of all is not exhortation, but a gospel; not directions for saving myself but knowledge of how God has saved me." The Gospel of amazing grace get's us in, keeps us in, and will eventually get us to the finish line.

Now, go and spread this "defiant", scandalously liberating, counter-intuitive Word around the world…it's waiting!

Two Ways To Realize Radical Obedience: My Indirect Response To Jason Hood is a post from: Tullian Tchividjian

Promise-Driven Commission

During Mike Horton's session this past Saturday at our inaugural "Gospel-Centered Life"  conference at Coral Ridge, he asked the audience to say the words of the Great Commission from Matthew 28 out loud. As you can imagine, almost everybody said in unison the words, "Go therefore…". Mike rightly pointed out that the Great Commission actually begins with the words, "All authority in heaven and on earth is given to me" (v. 18). It's only after Jesus says that, that he says, "Go therefore…" (v.19).

This is a super-important, paradigm shattering observation. To miss it, is to miss the gospel. In fact, if we don't see it, our entire understanding of the church's mission will be wrong and weak.

In an article that Mike wrote for Modern Reformation magazine entitled The Great Announcement, he expands on this idea:

Just go. Just do it. "Get 'er done," as they say. Reflection slows you down.

The same thing can happen with the Great Commission. It doesn't really matter if we don't get all the details right as long as we are zealous. It is easy to subordinate the message to the mission, the evangel to evangelism, as if being busy with outreach could trump the content of what we have been given to communicate.

Of course, it can work the other way, too. We can be preoccupied with getting the message right without actually getting it out. The evangelist D. L. Moody once quipped to a critic of his methods, "I like my way of doing it better than your way of not doing it." If "zeal without knowledge" is deadly (Rom. 10:2-3), then knowledge without zeal is dead. The Great Commission doesn't give any quarter to either of these extremes.

"Go therefore into all the world and make disciples." This is the version of the Great Commission that many of us memorized. However, it leaves out a great deal. To begin with, it leaves out the whole rationale for the commission in the first place. Although it sounds a little corny, a good rule of thumb in reading the Scriptures is that whenever you find a "therefore" you need to stop and ask "what it's there for."

When we see an imperative such as "Go therefore," we need to go back and look at what has already been said leading up to it. There is no reason for us to go into all the world as Christ's ambassadors apart from the work that he has already accomplished.

The Great Commission actually begins with the declaration, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me" (Matt. 28:18). This is the rationale for everything the church is called to do and to be. The church's commission is indeed directed by a purpose ("making disciples of all nations"), but it is driven by a promise.

Read the whole thing here.

Mike's excellent point is one that I've made time and time again. Namely, that imperatives – indicatives = impossibilities! Whenever we see an imperative in the Bible (what we must do) we need to look for the indicative that grounds it (what Jesus has done). Because, no matter how hard you try or how "radical" you get, any engine smaller than the gospel that you depend on for power to do what God has called you to do will conk out…most importantly, the Great Commission!

Promise-Driven Commission is a post from: Tullian Tchividjian

Then I Will Go With You

In my book Surprised by Grace: God's Relentless Pursuit of Rebels, I make the point that "those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs" (Jonah 2:8). In other words, when we depend on anything smaller than Jesus for justification, love, mercy, cleansing, a new beginning, approval, acceptance, righteousness, and rescue we consign ourselves to "the restless futility of bewilderment" because nothing and no one but Jesus can provide those things we long for most.

I close the book with a story from Civil War days before America's slaves were freed, about a northerner who went to a slave auction and purchased a young slave girl. As they walked away from the auction, the man turned to the girl and told her, "You're free."

With amazement she responded, "You mean, I'm free to do whatever I want?"

"Yes," he said.

"And to say whatever I want to say?"

"Yes, anything."

"And to be whatever I want to be?"

"Yep."

"And even go wherever I want to go?"

"Yes," he answered with a smile. "You're free to go wherever you'd like."

She looked at him intently and replied, "Then I will go with you."

Jesus has come to the slave market. He came to us there because we could not go to him. He came and purchased us with his blood so we would no longer be a slave to sin but a slave to Christ—which is the essence of freedom.  And now there's no freer place to be in life than going with him—with the one who is himself our true liberty.

Remember: In the person of Jesus Christ, God came into this world, not to strip away our freedom, but to strip away our slavery to self so that we could be truly free.

Then I Will Go With You is a post from: Tullian Tchividjian

Fifteen Books On "The Gospel For Christians"

As I've said before, I once assumed (along with the vast majority of professing Christians) that the gospel was simply what non-Christians must believe in order to be saved, while afterward we advance to deeper theological waters. But I've come to realize that once God rescues sinners, his plan isn't to steer them beyond the gospel, but to move them more deeply into it. The gospel, in other words, isn't just the power of God to save you, it's the power of God to grow you once you're saved. 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.

This idea that the gospel is just as much for Christians as it is for non-Christians may seem like a new idea to many but, in fact, it is really a very old idea.

Well, I've had some great help along the way as I've wrestled with this "new idea." There have been some books (beneath the Bible) which have helped me better understand how God intends the reality of the gospel to mold and shape and liberate us at every point and in every way. The following list of books (not in any particular order) is not exhaustive, but if you read them you will be moving in the right direction toward a better, more Biblical understanding of the Christian's need for the gospel.

1. Transforming Grace by Jerry Bridges

2. The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges

3. The Gospel-Driven Life by Micheal Horton

4. In Christ Alone by Sinclair Ferguson

5. Scandalous Freedom by Steve Brown

6. When Being Good Isn't Good Enough by Steve Brown

7. Because He Loves Me by Elyse Fitzpatrick

8. Christ Formed In You by Brian Hedges

9. Counterfeit Gods by Tim Keller

10. The Prodigal God by Tim Keller

11. The Reign of Grace by Scotty Smith

12. Holiness by Grace by Bryan Chapell

13. From Fear to Freedom by Rose Marie Miller

14. Counsel From the Cross by Elyse Fitzpatrick and Dennis Johnson

15. The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification by Walter Marshall

Fifteen Books On "The Gospel For Christians" is a post from: Tullian Tchividjian