Daily Meditation

Cooperating with God

Ligonier Ministries

Martin Luther gave the following analogy: When we are justified, it is as though a doctor has just administered a sure and certain remedy for a fatal disease. Though the patient may still endure a temporary struggle with the residual effects of his illness, the outcome is no longer in doubt. The physician pronounces the patient cured even though a rehabilitation process must still be carried out.

So it is with our justification. In Christ, God pronounces us just by the imputation of the merits of His Son. Along with that declaration, God administers something to us; He gives us the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit begins immediately to work within us to bring us to holy living.

The New Testament contains a ringing paradox with respect to sanctification. The Bible says, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for God is at work within you both to will and to do” (Phil. 2:12b–13a). Notice that there are two agents working here. We are called to work and God promises to work as well. We call this activity synergism. It is a cooperative effort between God and man.

Coram Deo

Are you cooperating with God in the process of sanctification or are you depending on Him to do it all?

Passages for Further Study

2 Corinthians 6:2
Romans 13:11
Philippians 2:12

Daily Meditation

Conforming to the Image of Christ

Ligonier Ministries

The obvious fact that we all sin can create an atmosphere of false security among us, leading us to accept with ease the idea that sin is so commonplace that we ought not to be too bothered by it lest we surrender our mental health to a self-deprecating neurosis. Yet in our desire to console ourselves and maintain a good self-image, we may push to the back burner the mandate of God, “Be you holy, even as I am holy.”

Evangelical Christians are most vulnerable to succumbing to this distortion. We stress the fact that our justification is by faith alone and insist that our righteousness is found in Christ alone. Though these assertions are true, it is equally true that the faith by which we are justified is a faith that brings forth fruit in our lives. The slogan of the Reformation was that we are justified by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone.

The instant true faith is present in the heart of the believer, the process of sanctification begins. Change begins at once. The Christian begins to be conformed to the image of Christ. We are becoming holy. If we are not becoming holy, then Christ is not in us and our profession of faith is empty.

Coram Deo

Reflect on the final statement of this reading: “We are becoming holy. If we are not becoming holy, then Christ is not in us and our profession of faith is empty.”

Passages for Further Study

1 Peter 1:15–16
1 Timothy 2:8

Daily Meditation

Pushing Through Plateaus

Ligonier Ministries

Many of us are satisfied with echoing Christian jargon and subsisting on a spiritual diet of milk instead of growing spiritually. Strong growth requires a healthy diet. It requires what the apostle Paul called “meat.” We need the discipline of study, the discipline of prayer, the discipline of service.

Most of us require being disciplined under the authority or tutelage of another. Self-discipline is merely the extension of discipline learned under another. It does not come by magic. If you desire to break out of the plateau on which you are paralyzed, then it is imperative that you get under the discipline of someone qualified to take you further and deeper into the Christian life. Your pastor is the most obvious person to help.

Refuse to be satisfied with milk. It is possible to break out of stagnation and move ahead into a growing, enriching development. We are called to be disciples, not for one year but for our lives. It is ultimately impossible for the Christian to quit his growth lessons. Our master teacher is God the Holy Spirit. If the Spirit dwells in us, He will not allow us to remain stagnant in our growth.

We must remember, however, that sanctification is a cooperative process. The Spirit is at work within us, yet we are called to work diligently under His divine supervision. The degree of our growth is dependent in large measure on our practice in godly discipline. We still may experience the frustration of getting stuck at various plateaus of spiritual growth. In order to progress beyond them, we need meat and practice, practice, practice.

Coram Deo

What steps can you take to institute a personal program of spiritual growth?

Passages for Further Study

1 Thessalonians 5:23
John 17:17
Hebrews 10:10

Daily Meditation

Growing into Conformity

Ligonier Ministries

The modern distinction between the “carnal Christian” and the “Spirit-filled Christian” is a dangerous one. If a carnal Christian is described as one whose fallen nature has not yet been changed by grace, it is a contradiction in terms. If a person is carnal in the sense that the Holy Spirit resides in him without affecting his constituent nature in any way, then he is simply not a Christian. To view regeneration as not effecting any real change in the person is a serious distortion of regeneration. Here the Holy Spirit indwells but does nothing to effect change in the person.

If a Spirit-filled Christian is defined as one in whom the flesh is absent entirely, then the only Spirit-filled Christians are those now in heaven. Every Christian is to some degree carnal in this world, insofar as the remnants of the flesh are still there provoking warfare. In this sense, the Apostle Paul, after his conversion, was a carnal Christian. Every Christian is also spiritual in that the Holy Spirit indwells him and works in him, through him, and on him.

The biblical view involves the indwelling of a divine person within a human person who has been truly regenerated by the power of the divine person. The human person has changed. His old nature is dying, and by cooperation with the grace of the Holy Spirit, the new man is growing into conformity to Christ.

Coram Deo

Thank God for the ministry of the Holy Spirit working in, through, and on you.

Passages for Further Study

Romans 8:1–4

Daily Meditation

Producing Fruit

Ligonier Ministries

One cannot be a Christian and have no fruit. Indeed, all Christians yield some measure of all the fruit of the Spirit. It is not that one receives the fruit of love and another the fruit of joy. All the fruit is to be manifest in all Christians.

The degree of the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit may vary from Christian to Christian, and even episodically in the individual Christian’s life. The Holy Spirit produces the fruit. The fruit of the Spirit is part of the Spirit’s work of sanctification. Sanctification is not a monergistic work; it is synergistic: It involves and requires the cooperation of the believer. We are working out our salvation while at the same time God is working within us.

All of our labor in sanctification would yield no fruit if God were not working in us. Ultimately, it is His fruit in that He is the source of it and power for it. But the full measure of the fruit of the Spirit requires that we work. We are to work not casually or occasionally. Our labor is to be done in fear and trembling.

Coram Deo

God is at work within you. Are you cooperating?

Passages for Further Study

Hebrews 10:10
Hebrews 10:14
1 Corinthians 6:11

Hypocrisy Versus Integrity

Gallio Cared for None of These Things

Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog

Introduction

In an earlier NQN post, I said that to be a gay Christian was to be a hypocrite, by definition. What could be the basis for saying things like that? The guy who says that he is a gay Christian, although committed to remaining celibate, is a hypocrite? And he is a hypocrite because he doesn’t formulate it precisely the way I said he should, which is to say that he is a Christian who experiences gay temptations? Right. Exactly so.

In short, a gay Christian is a hypocrite while a Christian with gay temptations is not? Correct. Aside from the problems associated with the history of the word gay, that summary is a good enough. 

For some this is an inside baseball debate between American League fans and National League fans debating the value of a designated hitter. But it is not that kind of debate at all.

Or take a scriptural example. The casual observer might be forgiven if he thought to himself that everybody might want to adopt the posture of Gallio. “But if it be a question of words and names, and of your law, look ye to it; for I will be no judge of such matters” (Acts 18:15). Deal me out, in other words.

And this is why you can’t. This is why you have to deal with this issue honestly. Those who do not deal with it honestly will not inherit the kingdom of heaven (1 Cor. 6:98-11; Gal. 5:19-21).

What the Issue is Not

The issue is not whether there can be such a thing as a besetting sin, or a recurring sin, or remaining sin that travels in predictable patterns. Christians are never to be dismissed as hypocrites simply because of a struggle with remaining sin.

Daily Meditation

Climbing out of the Mire

Ligonier Ministries

Our souls cannot climb out of the mire of sin because they are dead. Salvation comes not to those who cry out, “Show me the way to heaven,” but to those who cry, “Take me there for I cannot.” 

Lest we see the sinner’s prayer as mere technique, we must remember that Christ raises the dead that they might walk. We do not mumble the magic words and then wait to die. Christianity is about spiritual growth as well. It is about work, the hard work of sanctification. Regeneration is monergistic, God’s work alone. Sanctification, the process by which we are made holy, is synergistic, God’s work with us. 

God’s part is easy for Him. He needs no shortcuts because He never tires. We, though, must ever fight the temptation to seek the shortcut. No technique will make us holy. No technique of the Devil’s, though, can stop the process of Christ making us into His image. Those whom He calls He sanctifies.

Our sanctification requires the Spirit of God and, because He has so ordered His world, sanctification requires the disciplined and repeated use of the means of grace. Five minutes a day of Bible study smells like technique. Arid, it is sure to fail. We must immerse ourselves in the Word of God. Then, as Jesus promised, we will know the truth and the truth will set us free. Then we will be His disciples (John 8:31–32). 

Coram Deo

Remember, God is at work in you. He never tires. Give thanks for the process that is underway.

Passages for Further Study

John 8:31–32
John 8:36
Psalm 40:2

Daily Meditation

Growing into Conformity

Ligonier Ministries

The modern distinction between the “carnal Christian” and the “Spirit-filled Christian” is a dangerous one. If a carnal Christian is described as one whose fallen nature has not yet been changed by grace, it is a contradiction in terms. If a person is carnal in the sense that the Holy Spirit resides in him without affecting his constituent nature in any way, then he is simply not a Christian. To view regeneration as not effecting any real change in the person is a serious distortion of regeneration. Here the Holy Spirit indwells but does nothing to effect change in the person.

If a Spirit-filled Christian is defined as one in whom the flesh is absent entirely, then the only Spirit-filled Christians are those now in heaven. Every Christian is to some degree carnal in this world, insofar as the remnants of the flesh are still there provoking warfare. In this sense, the Apostle Paul, after his conversion, was a carnal Christian. Every Christian is also spiritual in that the Holy Spirit indwells him and works in him, through him, and on him.

The biblical view involves the indwelling of a divine person within a human person who has been truly regenerated by the power of the divine person. The human person has changed. His old nature is dying, and by cooperation with the grace of the Holy Spirit, the new man is growing into conformity to Christ.

Coram Deo

Thank God for the ministry of the Holy Spirit working in, through, and on you.

Passages for Further Study

Romans 8:1–4

Daily Meditation

Truth Is the Sanctifier

Sanctify them through thy truth.  John 17:17

Charles H. Spurgeon

Sanctification begins in regeneration. The Spirit of God infuses into man that new living principle by which he becomes "a new creature" in Christ Jesus. This work, which begins in the new birth, is carried on in two ways--mortification, whereby the lusts of the flesh are subdued and kept under; and vivification, by which the life which God has put within us is made to be a well of water springing up unto everlasting life.

This is carried on every day in what is called "perseverance," by which the Christian is preserved and continued in a gracious state, and is made to abound in good works unto the praise and glory of God; and it culminates or comes to perfection, in "glory," when the soul, being thoroughly purged, is caught up to dwell with holy beings at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

But while the Spirit of God is thus the author of sanctification, yet there is a visible agency employed which must not be forgotten. "Sanctify them," said Jesus, "through thy truth: thy word is truth." The passages of Scripture which prove that the instrument of our sanctification is the Word of God are very many. The Spirit of God brings to our minds the precepts and doctrines of truth, and applies them with power. These are heard in the ear, and being received in the heart, they work in us to will and to do of God's good pleasure.

The truth is the sanctifier, and if we do not hear or read the truth, we shall not grow in sanctification. We only progress in sound living as we progress in sound understanding. "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." Do not say of any error, "It is a mere matter of opinion." No man indulges an error of judgment, without sooner or later tolerating an error in practice. Hold fast the truth, for by so holding the truth shall you be sanctified by the Spirit of God.

Daily Devotional

Without Holiness, Without Faith

"Having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."
2 Peter 1:4

C.H. Spurgeon

Vanish forever all thought of indulging the flesh if you would live in the power of your risen Lord. It were ill that a man who is alive in Christ should dwell in the corruption of sin. "Why seek ye the living among the dead?" said the angel to Magdalene.

Should the living dwell in the sepulchre? Should divine life be immured in the charnel house of fleshly lust? How can we partake of the cup of the Lord and yet drink the cup of Belial? Surely, believer, from open lusts and sins you are delivered: have you also escaped from the more secret and delusive lime-twigs of the Satanic fowler? Have you come forth from the lust of pride? Have you escaped from slothfulness? Have you clean escaped from carnal security? Are you seeking day by day to live above worldliness, the pride of life, and the ensnaring vice of avarice? Remember, it is for this that you have been enriched with the treasures of God.

If you be indeed the chosen of God, and beloved by him, do not suffer all the lavish treasure of grace to be wasted upon you. Follow after holiness; it is the Christian's crown and glory. An unholy church! it is useless to the world, and of no esteem among men. It is an abomination, hell's laughter, heaven's abhorrence. The worst evils which have ever come upon the world have been brought upon her by an unholy church.

O Christian, the vows of God are upon you. You are God's priest: act as such. You are God's king: reign over your lusts. You are God's chosen: do not associate with Belial. Heaven is your portion: live like a heavenly spirit, so shall you prove that you have true faith in Jesus, for there cannot be faith in the heart unless there be holiness in the life.
"Lord, I desire to live as one
Who bears a blood-bought name,
As one who fears but grieving thee,
And knows no other shame."

Daily Devotional

As Far As Possible, Before Death

On holiness

C. S. Lewis

If He does not support us, not one of us is safe from some gross sin. On the other hand, no possible degree of holiness or heroism which has ever been recorded of the greatest saints is beyond what He is determined to produce in every one of us in the end. The job will not be completed in this life: but He means to get us as far as possible before death.
From Mere Christianity
Compiled in Words to Live By
Mere Christianity. Copyright © 1952, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Copyright renewed © 1980, C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Words to Live By: A Guide for the Merely Christian. Copyright © 2007 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publisher.  Sourced from BibleGateway.

The Sacredness of the Ordinary

Hidden Away

In the novel Gilead, the aging minister, John Ames professes how as the years have passed he has more and more come to see the creation as a wonder--an awe inducing realm of which he is a part.  As he has grown older, he has come to love his own body more and more, confessing it to be fearfully and wonderfully made by God.

Such earthiness has always been a hallmark of Christian orthodoxy.  To believe in "God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth" necessarily requires we hold the creation in reverence and respect, delight and awe.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

Our Doctrinal and Liturgical Bramble Bushes 

Theology - Life in the Regeneration
Written by Douglas Wilson
Monday, 30 April 2012

I am fond of saying that grace has a backbone, but I think it is time to explain what I mean by that. The context of these remarks is the general and current ongoing discussion about the worrisome trajectories of all those incipient legalists and antinomians out there. The incipient legalists are the ones the incipient antinominans are worried about, and vice versa.

Of course, as things stand right now in the Reformed world things are generally copacetic, at least as far as this topic goes. If we lived in a truly confessional age, with great preaching, theological geniuses writing their tomes, and so on, then we would have to worry about the naked Quakers running through Safeway again, and legalistic Anglican bishops cutting off people's thumbs for having broken some stupid rule. But as it is, we are too anemic to get into serious trouble with legalism or antinomianism. We are the bland leading the bland,

Studies in I Samuel

Not Where They Should Have Been

Expository - Book of Samuel
Written by Douglas Wilson
Saturday, July 02, 2011 8:21 am

INTRODUCTION:

God is sovereign and God is gracious, and this means that God takes you from where you are, and not from where you should have been. If we were standing around where we should have been, we wouldn’t need salvation. If we need salvation, we are not where we should have been. A godly response to this is always the same—cry out to the Lord. Trust in Him. Follow Him.

THE TEXT:

“And Samuel said unto all Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice in all that ye said unto me, and have made a king over you. And now, behold, the king walketh before you: and I am old and grayheaded; and, behold, my sons are with you: and I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day . . .” (1 Sam. 12:1-25).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT:

Douglas Wilson's Letter From America

The Right Kind of Bright in Your Eyes

Education - Education
Written by Douglas Wilson
Saturday, June 04, 2011

Here are the remarks, in substance anyway, I gave at the commencement ceremony for the graduating class of New Covenant Schools for 2011. They have just finished their 20th year under God's blessing, and many congratulations.

. . . .  A caged-up thoroughbred might be tempted to lethargy and despair—unless there is a row of those cages lined up across the width of a racetrack. Then the thoroughbreds are all quivering with excitement . . . just like you are right now. You don’t mind this final cage because all you are thinking about is the track in front of you. You might not even notice the cage.

Scripture teaches us that to the pure all things are pure (Tit. 1:15). To the defiled, all things are defiled. The principle can and should be extended. To the dullard all things are dull. One of the central reasons why G.K. Chesterton is such a wonderful thinker and writer is that he had the gift of making us see how extraordinary all ordinary things are. He would cock his head sideways and describe the living room from that vantage, and all of us would learn new things about a place where we had lived for years.

Meditation on the Text of the Week

We Remain Here, Whilst He has Departed, For a Reason

I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. John 17:15

What is Christ's desire for His people?

It is certainly not that they should remain in the world, in its ethical sense. Already they had been given Him out of the world, and therefore they were no more of the world--no more than Christ Himself was. The truth had already been given them (John 17:8), that truth which should free from sin, God's own name had been manifested to and in them (John 17:6)and they were in radical opposition to the world, so that the world hated them (John 17:14).

Accordingly His prayer distinctly is that they should be kept from that evil which constituted the very characteristic of the world, and that their sanctification should be continued in the truth. (John 17:16--17) He does not desire them to remain in the world in this sense. He has instituted a radical contrariety between them and "the world" ethically considered; and He is providing for this contrariety to widen into an ever broadening gulf.

Just as certainly, it is not that they should remain always in the world in its more local sense. The tone of joy with which the Lord notes that the time of His sojourn on earth is over and he is ready to re-enter His heavenly glory is unmistakable (John 17:1-2). Equally unmistakable is the tone of sadness with which he adverts to leaving His followers in the world. (John 17:11) They are in danger there; in danger from the world's hate; in danger from the world's temptation. They are away from their true and proper home there--in the enemy's country--not householders at home, but soldiers on duty, pilgrims on their journey.

He longs for them to enter their rest. And though He leaves them joy and the means of more joy in the word of truth, His desire for them is something higher than they can find there below. Nay, His distinct "will" for them is that they also may be with Him where He is to be; that they may behold His glory; that they may share in that glory. (John 17:24) He wishes for them what His servant afterwards declared to be "far better" (Philippians 1:23), that they too like Him should go out of the world and enter into glory--where Christ is on the right hand of God, where God dwells and His knowledge is, and where love is perfected in all.

But it is that they may temporarily remain in the world, out of which they have in one sense already come, but in which, in the other sense, they are still left, while kept from the evil of it.

Why? Well, for one thing, for their own sakes--that they may be sanctified. God's name has already been manifested to them; God's world have already been given to them; and they have received them; and men hate them for it. The good work is already, therefore, begun with them. Its fruits are already shown it their radical departure from the world and the world's consequent hatred. But the work is not completed. Therefore, the Saviour prays that "they may be sanctified in the truth", just as He had been.

They are to remain in the world then for their own sakes that the good work begun in them may be perfected unto the end. This appears as needful. Not, of course, as if they might not conceivably, like the dying thief, be prepared for heaven in a moment. God's almighty grace can work wonders. But that is not God's ordinary way; the muscles of holiness must grow by practice; hence temptation itself and trials are blessings. Hence, too, it emerges that sanctification is to take place in this life, in the ordinary provision of God. God's children are to remain in the world for their sanctification.

For another thing--(they are to remain here) for other's sake. God's plans need their presence in and work for the world. They are not the whole harvest, but the first fruits only. And that the first fruits may share in the harvest, it is needful to have them stay and labour here. They are to be the seed--"the good seed are they who . . ." And after a while this sowing is to ripen into a good in-gathering. Accordingly, our Lord prays not only for them but for them also who believe--throughout the whole future--on Him by their word (John 17:20). His glance takes in His whole Church, of all the ages; and these are to abide for it.

For still another thing, (they are to remain here) for the sake of the world itself. . . . The world is to be convicted of sin and convinced of Christ's mission and glory. His own are to remain in the world and to propagate and grow into a mighty, unitary Church, in order that the world itself may know that the lowly Jesus whom it has despised and rejected is none other than the Son of God; and that these lowly followers of His, despised and persecuted by it, are loved of the Father even as the Father loves them (John 17:20--23). The mighty testimony of the Church of God! how little we are bearing it! How we ought to bestir ourselves to it!

And then, finally, we must say also, (they are to remain here) for the Son's own sake. For He, too, reaps advantages for their abiding below. So, and humanly speaking, so only, may His mission be vindicated and His glory manifested to the world, in His Church; may His glory be fully manifested to His own, when at last they come to Him; may His love then be perfected in them (John 17:25-26).

For these reasons, at least, it is well that Christ's people remain for a season in this wicked world.