Thursday, March 17, 2005
Forgiven or Forgiving?
Challies had a great post yesterday responding to a speech given by Louie Giglio at the 2005 Purpose Driven Youth Conference. Apparently in the speech he
The "forgiven once and forever" school of theological thought is moving rapidly through the church. I have heard a lot of sermons on it in recent years, most of them centering in one sense or another on the parable of the prodical son. I personally think this stems in large part out of the growing cultural obsession with 'self-esteem.' People in our cultural now hold as their primary value "feeling good about themselves." Subsuquently, if the church wants them to come in, a lot of people have decided we need to preach that God will make you feel good about yourself.
What makes me so very sad is that God does make me feel good about myself, just not like this. The prevailing school of thought seems to operate on the premise of "See you are forgiven, you can feel good about yourself." I think there is a very different premise involved, "See you are pretty much garbage, yet the God of the universe loved you enough to die for you -- feel good about yourself becasue He feels good about you!" What a difference between those two approaches! One is about me, the other is about God.
Seeking forgiveness, confessing repentance, places us in the proper relationship with God. He is the King, we are the petitioner peasants -- we can only approach Him humbly, on our knees, confessing our unworthiness. Because He is good, he will stand us up, put His arm around our shoulders and treat us as family. But that does not change our actual role. If we ever become complacent enough to stroll into His presence like we belong, we run the risk of banishment.
I seem to often harken back to the John Piper address to the Wheaton College chapel service that I posted a few weeks ago.
challenged the youth leaders in attendance to "remix" their prayer lives. He shared four remixed versions of typical cliché prayers many Christians regularly pray. They were: Instead of "Forgive me," pray "Thank you for forgiving me."...Challies does a good job of addressing Giglio's speech, but I think he is missing a bigger picture.
The "forgiven once and forever" school of theological thought is moving rapidly through the church. I have heard a lot of sermons on it in recent years, most of them centering in one sense or another on the parable of the prodical son. I personally think this stems in large part out of the growing cultural obsession with 'self-esteem.' People in our cultural now hold as their primary value "feeling good about themselves." Subsuquently, if the church wants them to come in, a lot of people have decided we need to preach that God will make you feel good about yourself.
What makes me so very sad is that God does make me feel good about myself, just not like this. The prevailing school of thought seems to operate on the premise of "See you are forgiven, you can feel good about yourself." I think there is a very different premise involved, "See you are pretty much garbage, yet the God of the universe loved you enough to die for you -- feel good about yourself becasue He feels good about you!" What a difference between those two approaches! One is about me, the other is about God.
Seeking forgiveness, confessing repentance, places us in the proper relationship with God. He is the King, we are the petitioner peasants -- we can only approach Him humbly, on our knees, confessing our unworthiness. Because He is good, he will stand us up, put His arm around our shoulders and treat us as family. But that does not change our actual role. If we ever become complacent enough to stroll into His presence like we belong, we run the risk of banishment.
I seem to often harken back to the John Piper address to the Wheaton College chapel service that I posted a few weeks ago.
God is the one Being in the entire universe for whom self-centeredness, or the pursuit of his own glory, is the ultimately loving act. For him, self-exaltation is the highest virtue. When he does all things "for the praise of his glory," he preserves for us and offers to us, the only thing in the entire world, which can satisfy our longings. God is for us, and therefore has been, is now and always will be, first, for himself. I urge you not to resent the centrality of God in his own affections, but to experience it as the fountain of your everlasting joy.When we place ourselves at the center of our thoughts, as we do when we use the prayer formulation suggested by Giglio, we disconnect ourselves from the source of joy and happiness, and yes even self-esteem.
