I Quit!

That is what we ought to say when we finish reading Romans 4.4-5: “I quit!”. Read the verses and you will see what I mean:

“Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.”

So you don’t get to quit your job. Sorry! But there is a far deeper sigh of relief to be breathed after reading Romans 4.4-5. As a Christian, there are a lot of things you cannot quit. But the one task you can lay aside forever is the task of trying to work your way into God’s good graces. God does not call on you to work your way to salvation. Nor does He call you, once you have been saved by grace, to work to keep your salvation. And, eternal life secure, He doesn’t even call you to work in order to stay on His good side from day to day. If you want to be right with God, and stay right with God, God simply asks you to stop working and start believing “in Him who justifies the ungodly.”

In fact, if you try to work your way into heaven, or into a better friendship with God … all you can do is drive yourself further away. Because work is exactly what God does not want you to do! Working your way into God’s good graces is the greatest form of pride: ‘I don’t need God to do it for me. I can do just fine myself!’. And God is opposed to that kind of haughtiness, is He not?

So go ahead and say it: ‘I quit! I am not going to rely on myself and my character or my behavior or my morality or my do-betters or my try-harders anymore!’ O, it is important that we do better and try harder. It shows that we are growing in our love for God. But hear this well: Our doing better never, ever, ever causes God to grow in His love for us! I want to say that again to make sure you really get it:

Our doing better in the Christian life is important. It shows that we are growing in our love for God. But our doing better never, ever causes God to grow in His love for us.

How could God love us any more than to give us His Son? To think we could make God love us more than John 3.16 is absurd and, perhaps, blasphemous. So let’s quit trying to do so!

Do you want more logic behind the ‘I quit’? Then ask yourself: Which do I enjoy more? My weekly paycheck (big as it may be) … or an unexpected tax refund? Finding out that you are getting $1000 dollars back (instead of paying $500 in) is quite invigorating, is it not? So here’s the deal: Even if we could earn some sort of points with God by virtue of our works (v.4), there would be very little joy in it. We’d just be getting what was coming to us. But if, by faith in Jesus, we simply receive the free gift of God (v.5) … there is reason for confetti and cake! We’re getting a bonus we didn’t earn. We’re getting a wage we didn’t work for. We’re getting Bill Gates’s salary instead of our own. For, even if we could earn some favor with God … our wage would be miniscule in comparison with what Jesus has earned for us! So working for your heavenly paycheck is like choosing forty hours a week at minimum wage instead of inheriting the Walton family fortune! So do you know what I say to that forty-hours-a-week? I quit!

And here is something even more vital to mull over: Not only is it ludicrous to imagine that we could make God love us more than He already does; not only would it be insane to trade in the Wal Mart fortune for a job at the Snow Cone Shack … it is also rather crazy to toil for the wages that Paul says our works actually do earn. Yes, our works actually do earn a wage – the wage of death! That is what Paul says in chapter 6.23: “The wages of sin is death.” And that is what our works ultimately amount to: sin. For all our righteous deeds are as filthy rags (Isaiah 64.6). And therefore, when we read that “to the one who works” (v.4), “his wage is … credited … as what is due”, we are not reading a good, Midwestern saying about the value of hard work. We are reading a death sentence! Our works are sin. And therefore the "wage" that is “credited … as what is due” is death! So I quit!

UPDATE: Personhood Mississippi

Signatures gathered. Press conference today! It looks as though the citizens of Mississippi will, indeed, get to vote to determine whether or not human life should be defined, statewide, as beginning at fertilization.

Click the link. Thank the Lord. And pray for the upcoming vote!

In case you're wondering why I've posted four times today ...

We're feeling a little cooped up. Disconnected from the outside world. Plus, it's still hard for this southern boy, even after 8 winters in Ohio, not to go running for the camera when it comes down like this!

Nearly 15 inches on the ground. 3 ... 4 ... 5 more inches by tomorrow?

"Where then is boasting?"

When I lived in Kincannon Hall, during my sophomore year of college, I had a full page magazine advertisement cut out and hanging on my wall. The entire page was pink, with the simple words 'NO BELLYACHING' written in white letters in the middle of the page. I don’t remember for sure, but given the unique message and background color, I think it must have been a spot for Pepto Bismol. At any rate, I evidently thought it was quite clever (though I haven’t always obeyed what it said!).

But I’ve been thinking that maybe a new sign is in order for this college student turned 30-something pastor. I need a sign (more in my heart than simply on my wall) that says, in just as memorable a way as that Pepto add, something like: 'NO BOASTING'. For that is a necessary message for me … and one that the apostle Paul proclaims in Romans 3.27. After explaining that men, women, girls and boys can never be made right with God based on their own merits; that men, women, girls and boys have no plea before God except the righteousness of another person (Jesus); that salvation comes only to those who admit that they are moral failures and rest in Jesus alone to save them … Paul makes practical application by asking: “Where then is boasting?”. Answer: “It is excluded.” Boasting is absolutely barred from the Christian life!

In other words, people who understand the gospel of free, unmerited, un-paid-for, undeserved grace are the last people in the world who should ever even think about boasting about anything. More simply: Christians are the last people on earth who ought ever to be in the least bit prideful!

Does that sound obvious? Of course it does. But it must not be as obvious as we think it is … or Paul would have no need to have brought it up! Indeed, though the folly of boasting is obvious, Christians still do it all the time. Simply listen to or read a wide range of Christians talking (or preaching, or Facebooking, or tweeting, or blogging, or Google buzzing) about some ethical issue and you will invariably find that many of them (though not all) write and/or speak from an imaginary moral high ground. They belittle those who are in the ethical wrong and never once give any hint that they are embarrassed at their own struggles with sin. Indeed, Christians often speak without any hint that they are thankful to God that the same grace that He has poured out on them is available to the dead-beat dad, or the homosexual, or the radical feminist, or the politician.

So much of public Christian discourse (especially when it comes to morals) falls afoul, it seems to me, of Romans 3.27 (sadly, you can probably find some examples of that even in searching the archives of this blog). That’s not to say that public discourse on moral issues is somehow faux pas, or that Christians should shy away from it. It’s just to say that Christians ought to sit down at the coffee table, or belly up to the keyboard, or step up to the pulpit with a lot less swagger and a lot more humility than is often done.

Having said that, this very article could fall into the same boastful moralizing (ironically, on the issue of pride!) if I didn’t now say that the reason I chose to write about Romans 3.27 is because I myself desperately need reminding that “boasting" is "excluded” for those who truly believe the gospel of free grace for desperate sinners. Why do I need to hear that? Because, even when I am outwardly humble, I would often like to walk around with my head held high, feeling like I am doing a good job, and being a good person. In fact, just this past week, as I was preparing to preach on the blessing of feeling forgiven, I stopped to examine my own heart. And what was inside was something like: ‘Well, I really like feeling like I don’t need a lot of forgiveness. I’d rather feel like I’ve had a good week than to really blow it so that I need to preach this point to myself.’ Translation: ‘I’d rather feel worthy than forgiven. I’d rather feel like God is pleased with me because I’ve had a good week than to wrestle with the simultaneous high and low of realizing that nothing but what Jesus has done can make God pleased with me.’

And then I was a real jerk on Saturday night … and God forced me to have to preach Isaiah 1.18 to myself on Sunday morning. But I’d have rather boasted – not out loud mind, you. But I’d have rather preached Isaiah 1.18 thinking how badly everyone else needed those words of comfort and forgiveness rather than being in desperate need for them myself. But, mercifully, God allowed me to fall back down to earth. And this morning, as I opened Romans 3, it all made sense. God would rather me live in Romans 3.27 than to have what I call ‘a good week’.

The Road to Bethlehem

UPDATE: Due to the massive amounts of snow we've been receiving ... this series has been moved back to March 7-28 to ensure everyone has equal opportunity to hear all four messages.

Coming this February [now March] ... a four part message series on the book of Ruth. The widow from Moab was converted to faith in the one true God on a road somewhere between Moab and Bethlehem. And her story puts the rest of Old Testament history on the road to Bethlehem, too. Hopefully, Ruth's story will set you and I on that path as well. Join us as we study and worship together in this fascinating little book.