The Anguish of Childbirth
My little children, for whom I am again in anguish of childbirth
until Christ is formed in you! (Galatians 4.19)
My little children, for whom I am again in anguish of childbirth
until Christ is formed in you! (Galatians 4.19)
God’s calling to himself those chosen to be his very own is a pervasive theme in Scripture. From Genesis 3 onward we read of those whom God has set apart for himself. Some have called this the “progress of redemption.” It begins with hearing and responding to the voice of the Shepherd; in John 10.1-16 we read that Jesus identifies himself as the good shepherd who calls for his sheep and his sheep recognize his voice and follow him.
So, like variations on a musical theme, the call and response resurfacing throughout the pages of the Bible. In Genesis 15 God confirms the promise made to Abraham in chapter 12 and Abraham’s response, he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. So, God’s call and the response of God’s true children (1 John 3.1-3) are modeled throughout scripture (cf. 1 Samuel 3.10-11; Isaiah 6.8; Jeremiah 1.4-10; Matthew 4.18-22; Acts 9.3-6 & 15-16; Titus 2.11-14; Hebrews 11.8-39).
Thus, all who confess Christ as their savior are born from above (or again John 3.3,7); their bondage to sin has been broken (Romans 6.22-23); they are new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5.17). So, then, they resolutely set their minds and affections on Christ and have it in their hearts to please him in all that they do (2 Corinthians 7.1; Colossians 3.2-3). They know that it is God’s desire that their lives be conformed to the image of his Son (Romans 8.29) and they have purposefully severed their ties with their former passions (Titus 2.11-14) in order to focus their attention on the things of God (Romans 12.1-2). They endeavor to take every thought captive that they may obey Christ (2 Corinthians 10.3-5). Believers are eager to keep Christ’s word and live in fellowship with him (John 8.51). Thus, their chief activity in life is to honor the Son whom God has glorified (John 8.54; 17.4-5).
GOD’S CALL
Not surprisingly, by endeavoring to be obedient to God’s call Christians often find themselves out of step with the rest of the world. Many godly people in Scripture were also estranged from their contemporaries (e.g. Noah and his ark - Genesis 6; Abraham, who began a new life at 75 - Genesis 12.1; Samson with his Nazarite vows regarding his hair, wine and dead things - Judges 3.5) Sometime after Paul’s conversion he was constrained by the Holy Spirit to become an apostle to the Gentiles and lived out the remainder of his life as an itinerant preacher (2 Corinthians 11.16-33). As strange as some of these behaviors may appear what motivated these believers is the same thing that ought to motivate every Christian. More than anything else, believers are to love God and love his people (1 John 4.19-5.2). There is no force in the world that can compete with the indwelling power of God’s Spirit that prompts this supernatural loving. To be sure, Satan does not ignore believers (Ephesians 6.12), so it is not surprising that Christians undergo trials and temptations, but God does not intend for his children to be overcome by sin (Romans 13.11-14; 1 Corinthians 10.13; James 1.2-4, 12-15). Indeed, the power of darkness cannot overcome the light of Christ (John 1.5). It has been said, “there are two things in the world, power and love, and you cannot have both.” Is it not interesting that the Devil, and the darkness he represents, is frequently associated with power and self-fulfillment (Matthew 4.8; Ephesians 6.12), while the light of Christ is associated with humility, service and sacrifice (John 13.12-17)?
Christ calls men and women to live in a vital, life-dependent relationship with him (Luke 14.26). The call of Christ on one’s life is not an invitation to embrace a new fad or philosophy. Being a follower of Christ requires that the believer be in communication with him. It is not enough to admire, respect or esteem the things Jesus represents; you must love him, and this you cannot do without the Holy Spirit who sheds the love of God abroad in our hearts (Romans 5.5). So too the apostle Peter: Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls (1 Peter 1.8-9). Oswald Chambers writes in his devotional classic, My Utmost for His Highest: “Whenever the Holy Ghost sees a chance of glorifying Jesus, He will take your heart, your nerves, your whole personality, and simply make you blaze and glow with devotion to Jesus Christ.” The love for the Lord Jesus Christ is such that by comparison love for family appears to come in a distant second place (Matthew 10.34). Of course, one’s love for God increases a person’s true love for family (cf. Mark 7.11).
Mankind’s only significance, whether he knows it or not, lies in his relationship with God. If he misses that, he misses everything of importance. Sadly, little thought and even less action is devoted to spiritual virtues. I am not, of course, referring to intrinsic virtue (that is, the virtue of mere physical creatureliness), but that virtue which is the product of being created in the image of God. St. John Chrysostom in his 4th century treatise, None Can Harm Him Who Does Not Injure Himself, observes the horse’s virtue is not in its gold studded bridle but in its strength, speed and courage in battle. So, too, for man; his virtue is not in the possession of riches so that he is immune to poverty, nor health that he should have no fear of sickness, neither in being the object of popular public opinion, nor in a host many other lesser things that men have come to value. It is important to understand the biblical doctrines and holding fast to these eternal truths (cp. 1 Timothy 3.15) and maintaining godly rectitude in life (Hebrews 5.14; 2 Peter 1.10). The person who possesses such things can never be dispossessed of his treasure (Proverbs 4.7-8, 23). “All true needs—such as food, drink, and companionship—are satiable. Illegitimate wants - pride, envy, greed - are insatiable. By their nature they cannot be satisfied” (cp. Herbert Schossberg, Idols for Destruction, p. 107). Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs (Jonah 2.8, NIV).
TRUE AND FALE RELIGION
True religion is completely theocentric because it has its origin in God, not in man. God tells his children what he expects of them: how they are to live and how they are to worship him. The Bible makes it clear that true religion involves a union of the soul with God: this is one of the great themes of Scripture. Henry Scougal commented: “The worth and excellency of a soul is measured by the object and intensity of its love” (Henry Scougal, The Life of God in the Soul of Man, p. 62). The apostle Peter said,His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the dive nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire (2 Peter 1.3-4). Whatever is needed for godliness is available to every Christian; indeed, the image of God is etched upon the soul of each believer. This is why the apostle Paul pleads to God for the church at Galatia that Christ might be formed in them (cf. Galatians 5.19).
As wonderful as this sounds there is a caveat: that is, the true spiritual life has its artificial counterpart. There is an appearance of religion in some people that has no more depth than the skin of godliness. Such person’s souls are vapid and devoid of the Spirit’s presence. Jonathan Edwards writes of this duplicity in his classic workReligious Affections. Scougal likewise writes of a fair imitation of virtue and goodness. Self-love, for example, may be a sufficient force to restrain a man’s baser instincts. So constrained, such a man may observe the rules of moral justice but only to secure his own interests and maintain his credibility among his peers. This kind of natural reason may even take the shape of piety and religion – it might even lead men to pursue the study of Scripture or a religious office. For such people are as curious as any about life after death and a ‘higher order of things.’ Some such people may even be quite eloquent about religion and lead something of a devotional life. Things about heaven may appeal to the carnal mind as well as to the spiritual. The religiously moral person may even have a moderate affection for Christ as a great benefactor of mankind. But all of this may be but an imitation of the true life in Christ.
The love which a pious man bears to God is not so much by virtue of command enjoining him so to do, as by a new nature instructing and prompting him to it. He does not make his devotions as an unavoidable tribute only to appease the divine justice, or quiet his clamorous conscience; but those religious exercises are the proper emanations of the divine life, the natural employments of the newborn soul. (Scougal, p. 36)
There is a law in love evidenced in the believer that is a law unto itself. There is a Latin saying which, when translated, means: Who shall prescribe a law to those that love? Love is a more powerful law that moves them. Regarding the Christian’s life Henry Scougal writes:
"He who is utterly destitute of this inward principle, and does not aspire to it, but contents himself with those religious performances wherein he is prompted only by education or custom, by fear of hell, or carnal notions of heaven, can no more be accounted a religious person, than a puppet can be called a man" (Scougal, p. 38).
Ultimately, it is not demands of doctrinal fidelity that conscripts Christians into service; rather, it is the love of Jesus which inwardly compels them take up their cross (Romans 5.6-11; Galatians 2.20). When viewed from the perspective of heaven the radical demands of Christ are quite reasonable. Christians believe that Jesus died to secure eternal life and salvation for all who put their faith in his redemptive work. Thus all who love Jesus delight in obeying his commands (John 14.15; 1 John 2.3; 5.2).
Let us then stand in awe of this great God! And let us turn from all the trivial resentments and fleeting pleasures and petty pursuits of materialism and merely human “spiritually.” And let us be caught up into the gladness that that God has in the glory of his Son, who is the radiance and image of his Father. There is coming a day when the very pleasure that the Father has in the Son will be in us and will be our own pleasure. May God’s enjoyment of God—unbounded and everlasting—flow into us even now by the Holy Spirit! This is our glory and our joy. (John Piper, The Pleasures of God, p. 40)
Christians depend on God’s word and turn to it for guidance in everything (John 8.31). Their understanding of what it means to be conformed to Christ is based on Scripture. That is not to say that adherence to doctrinal suppositions is all there is (cf. Revelation 2.2-7). It is obvious that one cannot be properly called a Christian whose only claim to faith is that he has not denied the creeds of the church. "What is to be said for the man who professes to be a disciple yet neither trembles, nor thrills, nor hopes, nor dreads, nor desires, nor does any single thing because of his belief" (Alexander McClaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture, vol. 10 p.335). Saving faith is not merely acceptance of the creeds of the church. It is the reliance of the soul on Jesus: it is a heart that is fully committed to him.
John addresses the theme of being formed in Christ in his farewell discourse (John 15.1-16). All true believers are fruitful and they all abide in Christ. There is a living and dynamic relationship between the Father and the Son, and the Son and his disciples. How this relationship is maintained is the focal point of Jesus’ use of the extended metaphor of the vine and its branches (a common image in the Old Testament: Psalm 80.7-13; Isaiah 5.1-7; 27.2-5). Even in a non-viticulture it is easy to understand what Jesus is talking about when he refers to himself as the true vine and his Father as the vinedresser. As branches the disciples are only productive as long as they are attached to the vine. Moreover, all the branches must, at some time or other, be pruned (Hebrews 12.4-11). Though the experience may be painful it is essential. Without it there can be no fruit of Christ-likeness.
So, then, the question is a simple one: how is Christ being formed in you?
HOLY CHARACTER & HOLY HABITS
A few introductory comments about the great need for holy character & holy habits and an encouragement to take to heart the apostle Peter’s exhortation to exert every effort to exercise those spiritual disciplines that give the Christian confidence that he or she is partaking of the divine nature and is being used by God for his glory.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1.3-11).
One of the marks of a Christian disciple is that he bears much fruit by abiding in Christ and having Christ’s words abide in him (John 15.7-8). Precisely how Christians are to live in such a manner that Christ’s abiding presence is evident within them is the subject matter of many of the New Testament letters (e.g., Paul’s repeated reference to being in Christ [over 80 references], Galatians 3.25-29; Ephesians 2.6-10; Philippians 2.1-7; cf. Hebrews 3.14). Peter picks up this same theme in the opening section of his second letter.
God’s saving grace is at work in the life of his church in such a manner that he turns sinners into saints. The distinguishing characteristics of Christians are the work of the Holy Spirit who conforms believers to a likeness of Jesus Christ (Galatians 5.22; 2 Peter 1.3-11). Without these attributes there is no basis for the assurance of one’s salvation. However, this attesting grace of God is evidenced in personal joy, peace, goodness, meekness, love, patience, faithfulness, and self-control. In antiquity the Stoics commended the virtues of temperance, prudence, fortitude and justice. When Paul wrote of Christian virtues, he included temperance as a fruit of the spirit but he demonstrated that love is better than prudence, long-suffering better than fortitude, and kindness better than justice. The attesting grace of the Holy Spirit that works in the life of the believer is a true religious affection that gives evidence of God’s gracious work of salvation.
David Wells has written a number of books to explore the character and function of the church at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century. In his first book,No Place for Truth, he cogently argues that truth, as an absolute has become a foreign concept to Western men and women. Not only have we lost a love for the truth, there is often even an inability to recognize the truth when it is presented. In his second book, God in the Wasteland (an obvious allusion to T.S. Elliot’s work), he persuasively argues for the need to regain a grasp of the transcendent nature of a holy God. Both of these books are worth reading, but it is his book, Losing Our Virtue, that strikes at the heart of the American dilemma. He explores the new definitions of character and morality and how the Christian and the church have capitulated to the prevailing trends of post modernity.
Wells writes that the survival of our culture is contingent upon its citizens obeying that which is unenforceable, that is, the internal law of virtuous character. There are two extremes in society: freedom and law. In between these two ideas resides character, or personal virtue. However, the pursuit of virtue that was prevalent in the 18th and 19thcenturies is now, at the end of the 20th century, being replaced by the subjectivism of personal values. These values have come to be equated with freedom and the pursuit of happiness (something I am not certain is attainable without the pursuit of responsibility). If we have learned anything from history, minimally it ought to be a realization that our personal freedoms cannot continue when they are divorced from virtuous character. Character is the buffer between law and freedom. It keeps these antinomic philosophies in proper balance. When virtuous character is absent then the law must attempt to accomplish externally what character previously accomplished internally. When the courts become the conscience of a society and attempt to constrain by force what ought to be compelled by the spirit, tyranny is born. When personal freedom is unrestrained by the spirit, chaos inevitably ensues. What will not be contained by personal internal restraint must then be contained by law; thus, the more the laws, the fewer the freedoms. The more the ‘freedoms,’ the less there is of social order. By way of illustration, a regional newspaper reported a California girl who came in second in a spelling bee sued the girl who came in first for beating her. The court has become the parent. When character is lacking there is no end to litigation.
David Well’s writes:
"Lying between law and freedom, however, has always been this third domain. It is the domain of character, the practice of private virtue, such as honesty, decency, the telling of truth, and all the other kinds of moral obligation. It is the domain of public virtue, such as civic duty, social responsibility, philanthropy, the articulation of great ideas and good policies, all of those things which might be encompassed in Paul’s statement to the Gentiles, “who have not the law do by nature what the law requires” (Romans 2.14). This third domain is what must regulate life in the absence of legal coercion and governmental regulation. It is where law and restraint are self-imposed" (Losing Our Virtue, p. 63).
As internal discipline becomes less and less of a restraining force, the law must do what was once done by churches, families, and even cultural expectations - namely, compel and constrain individuals in their social intercourse. How can a society long endure when it fans the flames of excessive individualism? People believe they have the right to be left alone, to live in a way that is emancipated from the demands and expectation of others, to be able to fashion their own lives in a way which permits them to resist all authority (cf. Wells, p. 67). People desire to be emancipated from community values. Indeed, with the fragmenting of the family, the evolution of the consumer church, and a populous government manipulated by polls, there is little legitimate authority that remains. We live in the midst of what Zbigniew Brzezinski called a permissive cornucopia. "We are," he argues, "living in a world out of control because of the tremendous preoccupation with material and sensual gratification."
Wells notes that not only have we replaced individual character with a cult of personalities, but also we have replaced thinking about virtues with thinking about values. What was once universally held to be the nature of man has been replaced with a subjective view of the self. That is, in a religious sense, the acknowledgement that man was created in the image of God (moral, spiritual and intellectual); in a secular sense, that all men have an innate understanding of moral oughtness. Today moral absolutes are largely not acknowledged. Men and women no longer find meaning within the community; rather they seek it individually. Thus, when one’s spouse no longer meets his need he is free to find another one. The heart of man is considered benign, and if you can get in touch with the inner ‘god,’ you can find healing. And finally, guilt has been exchanged for shame. This is frighteningly evident in the lives of many. Sadly, the media opens the doors to the private lives of many public figures and repeatedly we hear and read of their confession of shame but there is no mention of guilt. Indeed, those who are guilty of gross sin are at best embarrassed, there is no suggestion that one has sinned and violated the holy character of God.
All of this has come to us because the truth (sadly many are still asking what is truth?) does not weigh heavily upon the American people. Neither does the truth bear heavily upon the courts (they are often more political than judicatory), nor on the legislature, which cares less for truth than it does for popular opinion. Lastly, and most disheartening of all, truth rarely compels the church to speak or act. A constitutional republic is dependent upon a balance between freedom and law. This antinomy is maintained only by virtuous character that is ruled by the invisible internal compelling and restraint of the inner man. When we lose our grip on the truth, we finally lose our hold on virtuous character and when this is lost, the tension between freedom and law will inevitably shred the republic.
From a secular point of view we may commend the Stoics for their appreciation of the classic virtues: temperance, prudence, fortitude and justice. However, the Christian spiritual virtues are infinitely superior because they are born of the Spirit of God. Paul included temperance as a fruit of the spirit but love is better than prudence, long-suffering is better than fortitude, and kindness is better than justice. The attesting grace of the Holy Spirit is like pardon because it involves more than verbalizing forgiveness - it is turning from the old pattern of dealing with others with reciprocity to a new gracious acceptance.
The Bible addresses the moral dilemma of man by recognizing that his fundamental predicament is not his resolve to do right, however strong or weak that might be, but his alienation from God. In order to rectify this moral crisis he must first be confronted with his spiritual vapidity. Then he must recognize and respond to God’s call upon his life. To do otherwise is analogous to treating a medical problem symptomatically when the real problem is systemic. That is he must restore his broken relationship with God not attempt to recover the classical Greek virtues. Only a right relationship with God can permanently solve man’s social and moral sin ‘problem’.
The opening section of Peter’s second epistle attends to this very matter; it gives the Christian some very practical advice for developing virtuous, Christ-like character. It is clear that Peter does not intend for the reader to think that he might, by his own effort, attain to any virtue that is acceptable to God. This is evident because, first, he reminds us that the power we need for godliness comes to us because God has called usby His own glory and goodness (1.3). Secondly, he uses the noun effort and follows this with the two verbs to add, and to apply to stress our participation in the sanctification process he begins with the virtue of faith. He wants the reader to keep in mind that unless he is linked with the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, none of the following virtues is possible (1.5; cp. Col 2.6-7).
“Peter says that we participate in God’s nature, not in God’s being. He has chosen the term nature because it indicates growth, development, and character … Peter borrows the term divine nature from the philosophical vocabulary of the Greeks. To refute his opponents he employs their terminology but gives the words a Christian meaning. Greek philosophers taught that man who is living in a corrupt world of physical pleasure must become like the gods. They advised their followers to share the divine nature. Peter resorts to using the same expression, ‘participate in the divine nature.’ But whereas the philosophers took their point of departure in man and claimed for him a share in the nature of the gods, Peter views our sharing of God’s nature in the light of God’s promises. There is a world of difference between these two concepts. The first is humanistic and reflects the vaulted self-appraisal of natural man. The other is Christian and exalts the gracious provision of God” (Simon Kistemaker, Peter & Jude, NTC p. 248).
The men or women of God who are eager and diligent in their response to the call of God upon their life will have an eye upon a heavenly kingdom. These eight spiritual virtues will increasingly dominate their character.
So, like variations on a musical theme, the call and response resurfacing throughout the pages of the Bible. In Genesis 15 God confirms the promise made to Abraham in chapter 12 and Abraham’s response, he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. So, God’s call and the response of God’s true children (1 John 3.1-3) are modeled throughout scripture (cf. 1 Samuel 3.10-11; Isaiah 6.8; Jeremiah 1.4-10; Matthew 4.18-22; Acts 9.3-6 & 15-16; Titus 2.11-14; Hebrews 11.8-39).
Thus, all who confess Christ as their savior are born from above (or again John 3.3,7); their bondage to sin has been broken (Romans 6.22-23); they are new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5.17). So, then, they resolutely set their minds and affections on Christ and have it in their hearts to please him in all that they do (2 Corinthians 7.1; Colossians 3.2-3). They know that it is God’s desire that their lives be conformed to the image of his Son (Romans 8.29) and they have purposefully severed their ties with their former passions (Titus 2.11-14) in order to focus their attention on the things of God (Romans 12.1-2). They endeavor to take every thought captive that they may obey Christ (2 Corinthians 10.3-5). Believers are eager to keep Christ’s word and live in fellowship with him (John 8.51). Thus, their chief activity in life is to honor the Son whom God has glorified (John 8.54; 17.4-5).
GOD’S CALL
Not surprisingly, by endeavoring to be obedient to God’s call Christians often find themselves out of step with the rest of the world. Many godly people in Scripture were also estranged from their contemporaries (e.g. Noah and his ark - Genesis 6; Abraham, who began a new life at 75 - Genesis 12.1; Samson with his Nazarite vows regarding his hair, wine and dead things - Judges 3.5) Sometime after Paul’s conversion he was constrained by the Holy Spirit to become an apostle to the Gentiles and lived out the remainder of his life as an itinerant preacher (2 Corinthians 11.16-33). As strange as some of these behaviors may appear what motivated these believers is the same thing that ought to motivate every Christian. More than anything else, believers are to love God and love his people (1 John 4.19-5.2). There is no force in the world that can compete with the indwelling power of God’s Spirit that prompts this supernatural loving. To be sure, Satan does not ignore believers (Ephesians 6.12), so it is not surprising that Christians undergo trials and temptations, but God does not intend for his children to be overcome by sin (Romans 13.11-14; 1 Corinthians 10.13; James 1.2-4, 12-15). Indeed, the power of darkness cannot overcome the light of Christ (John 1.5). It has been said, “there are two things in the world, power and love, and you cannot have both.” Is it not interesting that the Devil, and the darkness he represents, is frequently associated with power and self-fulfillment (Matthew 4.8; Ephesians 6.12), while the light of Christ is associated with humility, service and sacrifice (John 13.12-17)?
Christ calls men and women to live in a vital, life-dependent relationship with him (Luke 14.26). The call of Christ on one’s life is not an invitation to embrace a new fad or philosophy. Being a follower of Christ requires that the believer be in communication with him. It is not enough to admire, respect or esteem the things Jesus represents; you must love him, and this you cannot do without the Holy Spirit who sheds the love of God abroad in our hearts (Romans 5.5). So too the apostle Peter: Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls (1 Peter 1.8-9). Oswald Chambers writes in his devotional classic, My Utmost for His Highest: “Whenever the Holy Ghost sees a chance of glorifying Jesus, He will take your heart, your nerves, your whole personality, and simply make you blaze and glow with devotion to Jesus Christ.” The love for the Lord Jesus Christ is such that by comparison love for family appears to come in a distant second place (Matthew 10.34). Of course, one’s love for God increases a person’s true love for family (cf. Mark 7.11).
Mankind’s only significance, whether he knows it or not, lies in his relationship with God. If he misses that, he misses everything of importance. Sadly, little thought and even less action is devoted to spiritual virtues. I am not, of course, referring to intrinsic virtue (that is, the virtue of mere physical creatureliness), but that virtue which is the product of being created in the image of God. St. John Chrysostom in his 4th century treatise, None Can Harm Him Who Does Not Injure Himself, observes the horse’s virtue is not in its gold studded bridle but in its strength, speed and courage in battle. So, too, for man; his virtue is not in the possession of riches so that he is immune to poverty, nor health that he should have no fear of sickness, neither in being the object of popular public opinion, nor in a host many other lesser things that men have come to value. It is important to understand the biblical doctrines and holding fast to these eternal truths (cp. 1 Timothy 3.15) and maintaining godly rectitude in life (Hebrews 5.14; 2 Peter 1.10). The person who possesses such things can never be dispossessed of his treasure (Proverbs 4.7-8, 23). “All true needs—such as food, drink, and companionship—are satiable. Illegitimate wants - pride, envy, greed - are insatiable. By their nature they cannot be satisfied” (cp. Herbert Schossberg, Idols for Destruction, p. 107). Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs (Jonah 2.8, NIV).
TRUE AND FALE RELIGION
True religion is completely theocentric because it has its origin in God, not in man. God tells his children what he expects of them: how they are to live and how they are to worship him. The Bible makes it clear that true religion involves a union of the soul with God: this is one of the great themes of Scripture. Henry Scougal commented: “The worth and excellency of a soul is measured by the object and intensity of its love” (Henry Scougal, The Life of God in the Soul of Man, p. 62). The apostle Peter said,His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the dive nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire (2 Peter 1.3-4). Whatever is needed for godliness is available to every Christian; indeed, the image of God is etched upon the soul of each believer. This is why the apostle Paul pleads to God for the church at Galatia that Christ might be formed in them (cf. Galatians 5.19).
As wonderful as this sounds there is a caveat: that is, the true spiritual life has its artificial counterpart. There is an appearance of religion in some people that has no more depth than the skin of godliness. Such person’s souls are vapid and devoid of the Spirit’s presence. Jonathan Edwards writes of this duplicity in his classic workReligious Affections. Scougal likewise writes of a fair imitation of virtue and goodness. Self-love, for example, may be a sufficient force to restrain a man’s baser instincts. So constrained, such a man may observe the rules of moral justice but only to secure his own interests and maintain his credibility among his peers. This kind of natural reason may even take the shape of piety and religion – it might even lead men to pursue the study of Scripture or a religious office. For such people are as curious as any about life after death and a ‘higher order of things.’ Some such people may even be quite eloquent about religion and lead something of a devotional life. Things about heaven may appeal to the carnal mind as well as to the spiritual. The religiously moral person may even have a moderate affection for Christ as a great benefactor of mankind. But all of this may be but an imitation of the true life in Christ.
The love which a pious man bears to God is not so much by virtue of command enjoining him so to do, as by a new nature instructing and prompting him to it. He does not make his devotions as an unavoidable tribute only to appease the divine justice, or quiet his clamorous conscience; but those religious exercises are the proper emanations of the divine life, the natural employments of the newborn soul. (Scougal, p. 36)
There is a law in love evidenced in the believer that is a law unto itself. There is a Latin saying which, when translated, means: Who shall prescribe a law to those that love? Love is a more powerful law that moves them. Regarding the Christian’s life Henry Scougal writes:
"He who is utterly destitute of this inward principle, and does not aspire to it, but contents himself with those religious performances wherein he is prompted only by education or custom, by fear of hell, or carnal notions of heaven, can no more be accounted a religious person, than a puppet can be called a man" (Scougal, p. 38).
Ultimately, it is not demands of doctrinal fidelity that conscripts Christians into service; rather, it is the love of Jesus which inwardly compels them take up their cross (Romans 5.6-11; Galatians 2.20). When viewed from the perspective of heaven the radical demands of Christ are quite reasonable. Christians believe that Jesus died to secure eternal life and salvation for all who put their faith in his redemptive work. Thus all who love Jesus delight in obeying his commands (John 14.15; 1 John 2.3; 5.2).
Let us then stand in awe of this great God! And let us turn from all the trivial resentments and fleeting pleasures and petty pursuits of materialism and merely human “spiritually.” And let us be caught up into the gladness that that God has in the glory of his Son, who is the radiance and image of his Father. There is coming a day when the very pleasure that the Father has in the Son will be in us and will be our own pleasure. May God’s enjoyment of God—unbounded and everlasting—flow into us even now by the Holy Spirit! This is our glory and our joy. (John Piper, The Pleasures of God, p. 40)
Christians depend on God’s word and turn to it for guidance in everything (John 8.31). Their understanding of what it means to be conformed to Christ is based on Scripture. That is not to say that adherence to doctrinal suppositions is all there is (cf. Revelation 2.2-7). It is obvious that one cannot be properly called a Christian whose only claim to faith is that he has not denied the creeds of the church. "What is to be said for the man who professes to be a disciple yet neither trembles, nor thrills, nor hopes, nor dreads, nor desires, nor does any single thing because of his belief" (Alexander McClaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture, vol. 10 p.335). Saving faith is not merely acceptance of the creeds of the church. It is the reliance of the soul on Jesus: it is a heart that is fully committed to him.
John addresses the theme of being formed in Christ in his farewell discourse (John 15.1-16). All true believers are fruitful and they all abide in Christ. There is a living and dynamic relationship between the Father and the Son, and the Son and his disciples. How this relationship is maintained is the focal point of Jesus’ use of the extended metaphor of the vine and its branches (a common image in the Old Testament: Psalm 80.7-13; Isaiah 5.1-7; 27.2-5). Even in a non-viticulture it is easy to understand what Jesus is talking about when he refers to himself as the true vine and his Father as the vinedresser. As branches the disciples are only productive as long as they are attached to the vine. Moreover, all the branches must, at some time or other, be pruned (Hebrews 12.4-11). Though the experience may be painful it is essential. Without it there can be no fruit of Christ-likeness.
So, then, the question is a simple one: how is Christ being formed in you?
HOLY CHARACTER & HOLY HABITS
A few introductory comments about the great need for holy character & holy habits and an encouragement to take to heart the apostle Peter’s exhortation to exert every effort to exercise those spiritual disciplines that give the Christian confidence that he or she is partaking of the divine nature and is being used by God for his glory.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 1.3-11).
One of the marks of a Christian disciple is that he bears much fruit by abiding in Christ and having Christ’s words abide in him (John 15.7-8). Precisely how Christians are to live in such a manner that Christ’s abiding presence is evident within them is the subject matter of many of the New Testament letters (e.g., Paul’s repeated reference to being in Christ [over 80 references], Galatians 3.25-29; Ephesians 2.6-10; Philippians 2.1-7; cf. Hebrews 3.14). Peter picks up this same theme in the opening section of his second letter.
God’s saving grace is at work in the life of his church in such a manner that he turns sinners into saints. The distinguishing characteristics of Christians are the work of the Holy Spirit who conforms believers to a likeness of Jesus Christ (Galatians 5.22; 2 Peter 1.3-11). Without these attributes there is no basis for the assurance of one’s salvation. However, this attesting grace of God is evidenced in personal joy, peace, goodness, meekness, love, patience, faithfulness, and self-control. In antiquity the Stoics commended the virtues of temperance, prudence, fortitude and justice. When Paul wrote of Christian virtues, he included temperance as a fruit of the spirit but he demonstrated that love is better than prudence, long-suffering better than fortitude, and kindness better than justice. The attesting grace of the Holy Spirit that works in the life of the believer is a true religious affection that gives evidence of God’s gracious work of salvation.
David Wells has written a number of books to explore the character and function of the church at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century. In his first book,No Place for Truth, he cogently argues that truth, as an absolute has become a foreign concept to Western men and women. Not only have we lost a love for the truth, there is often even an inability to recognize the truth when it is presented. In his second book, God in the Wasteland (an obvious allusion to T.S. Elliot’s work), he persuasively argues for the need to regain a grasp of the transcendent nature of a holy God. Both of these books are worth reading, but it is his book, Losing Our Virtue, that strikes at the heart of the American dilemma. He explores the new definitions of character and morality and how the Christian and the church have capitulated to the prevailing trends of post modernity.
Wells writes that the survival of our culture is contingent upon its citizens obeying that which is unenforceable, that is, the internal law of virtuous character. There are two extremes in society: freedom and law. In between these two ideas resides character, or personal virtue. However, the pursuit of virtue that was prevalent in the 18th and 19thcenturies is now, at the end of the 20th century, being replaced by the subjectivism of personal values. These values have come to be equated with freedom and the pursuit of happiness (something I am not certain is attainable without the pursuit of responsibility). If we have learned anything from history, minimally it ought to be a realization that our personal freedoms cannot continue when they are divorced from virtuous character. Character is the buffer between law and freedom. It keeps these antinomic philosophies in proper balance. When virtuous character is absent then the law must attempt to accomplish externally what character previously accomplished internally. When the courts become the conscience of a society and attempt to constrain by force what ought to be compelled by the spirit, tyranny is born. When personal freedom is unrestrained by the spirit, chaos inevitably ensues. What will not be contained by personal internal restraint must then be contained by law; thus, the more the laws, the fewer the freedoms. The more the ‘freedoms,’ the less there is of social order. By way of illustration, a regional newspaper reported a California girl who came in second in a spelling bee sued the girl who came in first for beating her. The court has become the parent. When character is lacking there is no end to litigation.
David Well’s writes:
"Lying between law and freedom, however, has always been this third domain. It is the domain of character, the practice of private virtue, such as honesty, decency, the telling of truth, and all the other kinds of moral obligation. It is the domain of public virtue, such as civic duty, social responsibility, philanthropy, the articulation of great ideas and good policies, all of those things which might be encompassed in Paul’s statement to the Gentiles, “who have not the law do by nature what the law requires” (Romans 2.14). This third domain is what must regulate life in the absence of legal coercion and governmental regulation. It is where law and restraint are self-imposed" (Losing Our Virtue, p. 63).
As internal discipline becomes less and less of a restraining force, the law must do what was once done by churches, families, and even cultural expectations - namely, compel and constrain individuals in their social intercourse. How can a society long endure when it fans the flames of excessive individualism? People believe they have the right to be left alone, to live in a way that is emancipated from the demands and expectation of others, to be able to fashion their own lives in a way which permits them to resist all authority (cf. Wells, p. 67). People desire to be emancipated from community values. Indeed, with the fragmenting of the family, the evolution of the consumer church, and a populous government manipulated by polls, there is little legitimate authority that remains. We live in the midst of what Zbigniew Brzezinski called a permissive cornucopia. "We are," he argues, "living in a world out of control because of the tremendous preoccupation with material and sensual gratification."
Wells notes that not only have we replaced individual character with a cult of personalities, but also we have replaced thinking about virtues with thinking about values. What was once universally held to be the nature of man has been replaced with a subjective view of the self. That is, in a religious sense, the acknowledgement that man was created in the image of God (moral, spiritual and intellectual); in a secular sense, that all men have an innate understanding of moral oughtness. Today moral absolutes are largely not acknowledged. Men and women no longer find meaning within the community; rather they seek it individually. Thus, when one’s spouse no longer meets his need he is free to find another one. The heart of man is considered benign, and if you can get in touch with the inner ‘god,’ you can find healing. And finally, guilt has been exchanged for shame. This is frighteningly evident in the lives of many. Sadly, the media opens the doors to the private lives of many public figures and repeatedly we hear and read of their confession of shame but there is no mention of guilt. Indeed, those who are guilty of gross sin are at best embarrassed, there is no suggestion that one has sinned and violated the holy character of God.
All of this has come to us because the truth (sadly many are still asking what is truth?) does not weigh heavily upon the American people. Neither does the truth bear heavily upon the courts (they are often more political than judicatory), nor on the legislature, which cares less for truth than it does for popular opinion. Lastly, and most disheartening of all, truth rarely compels the church to speak or act. A constitutional republic is dependent upon a balance between freedom and law. This antinomy is maintained only by virtuous character that is ruled by the invisible internal compelling and restraint of the inner man. When we lose our grip on the truth, we finally lose our hold on virtuous character and when this is lost, the tension between freedom and law will inevitably shred the republic.
From a secular point of view we may commend the Stoics for their appreciation of the classic virtues: temperance, prudence, fortitude and justice. However, the Christian spiritual virtues are infinitely superior because they are born of the Spirit of God. Paul included temperance as a fruit of the spirit but love is better than prudence, long-suffering is better than fortitude, and kindness is better than justice. The attesting grace of the Holy Spirit is like pardon because it involves more than verbalizing forgiveness - it is turning from the old pattern of dealing with others with reciprocity to a new gracious acceptance.
The Bible addresses the moral dilemma of man by recognizing that his fundamental predicament is not his resolve to do right, however strong or weak that might be, but his alienation from God. In order to rectify this moral crisis he must first be confronted with his spiritual vapidity. Then he must recognize and respond to God’s call upon his life. To do otherwise is analogous to treating a medical problem symptomatically when the real problem is systemic. That is he must restore his broken relationship with God not attempt to recover the classical Greek virtues. Only a right relationship with God can permanently solve man’s social and moral sin ‘problem’.
The opening section of Peter’s second epistle attends to this very matter; it gives the Christian some very practical advice for developing virtuous, Christ-like character. It is clear that Peter does not intend for the reader to think that he might, by his own effort, attain to any virtue that is acceptable to God. This is evident because, first, he reminds us that the power we need for godliness comes to us because God has called usby His own glory and goodness (1.3). Secondly, he uses the noun effort and follows this with the two verbs to add, and to apply to stress our participation in the sanctification process he begins with the virtue of faith. He wants the reader to keep in mind that unless he is linked with the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, none of the following virtues is possible (1.5; cp. Col 2.6-7).
“Peter says that we participate in God’s nature, not in God’s being. He has chosen the term nature because it indicates growth, development, and character … Peter borrows the term divine nature from the philosophical vocabulary of the Greeks. To refute his opponents he employs their terminology but gives the words a Christian meaning. Greek philosophers taught that man who is living in a corrupt world of physical pleasure must become like the gods. They advised their followers to share the divine nature. Peter resorts to using the same expression, ‘participate in the divine nature.’ But whereas the philosophers took their point of departure in man and claimed for him a share in the nature of the gods, Peter views our sharing of God’s nature in the light of God’s promises. There is a world of difference between these two concepts. The first is humanistic and reflects the vaulted self-appraisal of natural man. The other is Christian and exalts the gracious provision of God” (Simon Kistemaker, Peter & Jude, NTC p. 248).
The men or women of God who are eager and diligent in their response to the call of God upon their life will have an eye upon a heavenly kingdom. These eight spiritual virtues will increasingly dominate their character.