Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Is Your Faith Too Practical?
Most recent Warnie receipient GospelDrivenLife (hmmm, could that be a shot at Warren?) had a great post just yesterday.
What is so right is that God changes me, I do not change myself. What is so right here is that I cannot earn anything when it comes to God, it is purely a grant of grace. But there is a danger in pronouncements of this sort, a danger that I will continue to sin that grace may abound, waiting for God to change me.
The conversation developed and her client offered these words, after describing her pursuit of the Lord, "I hope the Lord is pleased with the sacrifice I have made." My wife was instantly struck with how that sort of comment is 1.) common, 2.) self-focused. Her immediate reply was this, "I don't know if he is, but I know he is pleased with the sacrifice of his Son."...I am first struck that it is possible to accept the "bleeding charity" and still want something to do, to want our faith to be practical. In fact, I want my faith to be the most practical possible - I want it to change the very essence of who I am.
...We are deeply self-promoting. We do not want "bleeding charity" as Lewis says it so well in The Great Divorce. Give me something to do. Be practical. Gospel-centerdness means I rest in the pleasure of God in the sacrifice of his Son.
What is so right is that God changes me, I do not change myself. What is so right here is that I cannot earn anything when it comes to God, it is purely a grant of grace. But there is a danger in pronouncements of this sort, a danger that I will continue to sin that grace may abound, waiting for God to change me.
