Know to Grow in the Christian Life

Instead of titling this posting "How to Grow...", I entitled it "Know to Grow..."

I've heard a lot of sermons, messages, advice and encouragment dealing with how to live a better Christian life. Almost all of them deal with developing character and moral behavior. However, as I progress in years and look at the Bible more and more, I see the pattern for growth becoming clearer to me.

The key is faith. It is believing the gospel and its promises and receiving by faith the grace that we have been given in Christ. The commands to repent, humble oneself, renounce sinful ways and of the like become just burdens to live up to without faith. Without believing faith and trust in the goodness of the Lord given to us in the gospel, the mandate to live an improved Christian life is just bondage. That is because when we look to ourselves to grow, we will only find shortcommings that breed discouragement.

The secret to growth is to immerse myself into the word of the Lord's grace. This leads to faith which leads to the experience of the Holy Spirit's power in the heart which leads to the only motivation that can make progress past the selfish desires embedded in my heart.

A Righteousness that is not my own

Philippians 3:8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.

This is incredible! It is possible to have a righteousness that is not my own. It is not my righteousness. In other words, I can be counted as righteous yet not really be righteous. Or I can be considered righteous based not on my righteousness but upon a righteousness that comes from God.

I don't think I can interpret this as God turning me into a righteous person. If this happened, then I myself would be righteous. If I became righteous in myself, then I would live up to God's law--the standard of personal righteousness. But the Apostle Paul is saying that this righteousness from God is not by the law. That means my being called righteous is not the result of my obedience to God's law.

If it is not my righteousness, then whose is it?

1 Corinthians 1:30 It is because of him [God] that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."

Amazing. Jesus has become for me my righteousness. This is the essence of what it means to be justified by faith. By having faith in Christ, God credits the righteousness of Jesus to me! His right-standing becomes mine even though I myself am unrighteous.

Romans 4:4 Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. 5However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. 6David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: 7"Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 8Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him."

If God judged me as righteous based upon my good deeds and good character, then it the same as my employer paying me because of the work I did. It would be something I earned and therefore deserved. But here, it is saying that the righteousness that I have is not my own but is a gift given to me through faith.

At one time in my life, I would have thought this to be foolish, cheap grace, not taking responsibility for my own actions. But that was because I pridefully believed that I myself was basically good. I trusted in my own righteousness. But then I came to realize how awesome God was and saw how I was not really that good. It was then that this gift of righteousness became dear to me. Yet another way God is so good--that He would judge me based on Jesus' merits and not my own. Jesus is not only my Lord, but the gift of righteousness from the Father above.

Why is idolatry so bad?

I have read the Old Testament of the Bible a number of times. It is the story of the nation of Israel and their relationship with God--a relationship marred by Israel's sin; that main sin being idolatry. And it was this sin that lead to God sending the nation out of the land of Israel into exile under King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.

Recently I was reflecting on the seriousness of idolatry and why it incurs God's wrath. To really understand it I had rehearse in my mind the history of God's works in the history of the Israelites. During the time of Moses, the children of Israel were enslaved in Egypt under the cruel bondage of Pharoah. They were subjected to forced, bitter labor. But God remembered his covenant with Abraham to bless his offspring. Through mighty miracles of judgment upon Egypt, he delivered them from their ruthless slavery through Moses. He brought his people out with abundance and showed them many amazing acts of kindness and love. He made a covenant with them to be their God and to bless them abundantly. He revealed His gracious, righteous nature through the law that he delivered to Moses to have the people observe. In observing God's statutes, they would be rehearsing the goodness oftheir God and celebrating His covenant of love with them.

However, they soon fell into idolatry that started while Moses was on the mountain receiving instruction from God. They made for themself a golden calf to be their god and go before them:

Exodus 32:1 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, "Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him."

What made this so grevious to the LORD is that it was figuratively a slap in the face of His kindness and love. He could have left them to perish in Egypt yet He set His love upon them. However, in making an idol, they were rejecting Him as their God after all the mercy He had shown them and the gracious promises He had made them.

The process of adopting an idol is to reject the unmerited kindness and love of God. It is like saying, "Yeah, I know all you've done for me and how you've revealed your good nature, but I don't care for all of that. I don't really believe you are that good so I am making my own god they way I like it."

The act of idolatry is not that overt in our era, but it is nevertheless widespread and rampant. God has given us a testimony of His good will toward us through Jesus. We have the gospel proclaimed to us that inspite of our sin, Christ came from heaven to bear our guilt, dying on the cross. And that God raised him from the dead as Lord and Savior with the promise of eternal life for all who receive Him in faith.

Yet in the same way Israel rejected the revelation of God's good will toward them, so it is in our day. Many do not consider the gospel worthy of their time or attention. Sure they have heard of Jesus' death and resurrection but they refuse to see it as any use to them. Instead, they fabricate a god of their own liking in their mind and believe in that one. That god may be the non-existent one. It may be nature. It may be oneself. Or it may be another religion. But the essence is the same--a rejection of the good will and promises offered by God through Christ for all who will believe.