Part
6
Grace invites presumption.
For example, a starving man asks you for food and you
feed him. He is exceedingly grateful and profuse in his expressions of
gratitude. So you offer him the opportunity to eat regularly at your table. He
is incredulous that you would be so generous. Later you offer him the chance to
become part of your family. Delirious with appreciation he accepts. Within
three months be is telling you how to run your family.
This is the nature of man, and so it is in our
relationship with God. We are overwhelmed with gratitude to God for His
sa1vation, but not long into our new relationship with Him we begin to tell him
how to run His business.
We take exception with certain of His commands,
suggesting they were relevant and applicable for the day in which the Bible was
written but certainly not for today. We seek to protect Him from the
irresponsible way in which He dispenses His grace. In short, we are a highly
presumptuous people!
For this reason I want to take the next three issues on
grace and elaborate more fully on the problem of presumption and how it
influences our lives. Because I have done a great deal of thinking on the issue
of relativism, you will see an overlapping between grace, presumption and
relativism. It seems to me that one of the symptoms of presumption is to appeal
to reason when questioning revelation and thus to consider God’s commands
relative. When the Christian does this, he presumes on God’s grace.
Another possibly more frequent manifestation of
presumption is the assumption that grace means a life free from restraint.
Since grace means I don’t pay for my sin, then restraint may be nice, but not
essential, in my relationship with God.
Freedom from sin is not license but slavery to Christ.
In salvation we didn’t experience autonomy but a change of masters. The life of
grace is a life of self-denial. If gratitude is the believer’s first line of
defense against presumption, self-denial is a close second.
Let’s begin by exploring self-denial in the life of one
whom is the object of God’s grace. Paul cautions the Corinthians in I
Corinthians 6:12,
“All things are lawful unto me, but all things are
not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under
the power of any.”
This statement is obviously limited by what the Bible
calls wrong. This Paul makes clear in verses 9-10. It is wrong to break the
specific commands of God.
So also, Paul warns in verse 13, it is wrong to be
enslaved to any appetite. If this is so, what does he mean when he says that
“all things are lawful”? Is Paul not taking back with his left hand the grace
that was offered by his right hand?
Deciding the difference between what is “lawful” and
what is “expedient” is what self-denial is about. Self-denial is not
specifically called for in the Old Testament, because the people were under the
law. Jesus introduces the idea of self-denial in the Gospels. For example,
Jesus says in Luke 9:23, “And he said to them all,
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross
daily, and follow me.”
The rest of the New Testament writers in general and
Paul in particular (in passages such as I Corinthians 6) argue that grace does
not mean license. Freedom in Christ does not lead to a life of prolifacy. The
believer is to live a life of restraint. But in what areas of his life? What
does this look like? This is the difference between law and grace.
When under the law the limits of man’s personal action
were determined by God. Under grace the believer is free to determine his own
limits, with the exception of the few commands contained in the New Testament,
as already indicated. Both law and grace restrict the behavior of the believer.
Self-denial is a common duty, but it differs from law in
that it is free to express its application according to one’s own convictions.
An exact standard of self-denial is the same as being under the law.
For example, if you say that I must deny myself by
eating one meal a day, never owning an auto and memorizing 100 verses each
week, you put me under the law. But if I say that I will deny myself by doing
these very same things, this is not law but self-denial. Both law and
self-denial are obligatory, but law originates from a source outside of self
while self-denial originates from within one’s own convictions.
In I Corinthians 6 Paul further develops his argument of
self-denial by noting that we belong to Christ, body and soul. Although both
body and soul belong to Christ, and both are eternal (we believe in the
resurrection of the body), nevertheless body and soul are different.
So also, mind is different than matter, ideas are
different than action, and thought is different than deed. But all meet in the
body and soul. This is why self-denial is so important.
For example, a baby does not reason with its appetites.
When hungry, he cries for food. With the urge, he defecates. With maturity, the
bodily appetites cease to be mere animal instincts. The mind controls matter,
thought controls deed, and ideas control action. In other words, the soul
controls the body. This is maturity.
The marriage of the soul and body is eternal, and this
is why self-discipline is necessary. We are best prepared for heaven by
disciplining our bodies to do what our souls know they ought to do. In this we
see the need for restraint and self-denial even while living under grace. It is
in our own best interest! I do not allow my body to rule my soul, but rather
the soul the body.
CIRCUMSTANCES
In seeking to define self-denial in general terms let us
note that there are, broadly speaking, two kinds of circumstances: (1) Those
over which you have no control, and (2) those you control, i.e. you can say
“yes” or “no” to them.
You return from the office after a day’s work and meet
your wife who tells you that she has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. This
is a circumstance over which you have no control.
You return from the office after an-exhausting day’s
work and meet your children who want your time. You feel like taking your shoes
off and reading the paper in some quiet corner and have to decide whether you
will do this or give the children the time they want. This is a circumstance
over which you do have control.
There are advantages and disadvantages to each kind of
circumstance. In the first kind the disadvantage is the fact that, more often
than not, such circumstances are hurtful. That is, they are contrary to how you
would naturally want things to happen. The advantage is, you are not asked by
God to vote on them. There is no self-denial in that, like the law, it is
forced upon you from without. Therefore, the only decision you must make is how
you are going to respond to the circumstance.
The disadvantage to the second kind of circumstance is
seen in the fact that you must decide whether you will vote against yourself in
an expression of self-denial and meet the needs of those asking, or whether you
will listen to your flesh and read the paper. The advantage is, you, in the
grace of self-denial, get to decide. The decision is not forced upon you from
some external source.
When called upon to deny yourself, you wrestle with the
question, “Does this call come from God or does it come from some other
source?” To what degree do you allow these calls to be viewed in the same way
as circumstances over which you have no control, i.e. providence?
Or possibly more importantly, if you do not respond in
self-denial to circumstances over which you do have control, will God force
self-denial on you through circumstances over which you have no control? This
is the “downside” to the self-denial of grace. It is the reason law is so
attractive. With law there is no ambiguity, no uncertainty. Everything is
clear, straightforward and easily understood.
In Matthew 10:39 Jesus said: “He that findeth his
life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.”
Again, our Saviour said in John 12:24-25:
“Verily, verily, I say unto
you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but
if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it;
and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.”
This is the theme of Paul in Romans 6-8. Romans 8:6-8 is merely illustrative;
“For to be carnally minded is death; but to be
spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against
God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So
then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”
To be carnally minded, to live after the flesh, is to
seek to save one’s life rather than lose it. It is allowing the body to control
the soul rather than vice versa.
What does living after the Spirit, losing one’s life, and
living in self-denial look like? It can be defined in general terms, but any
attempt towards specificity is to leave grace for law. Law is specific and has
a source outside of self. Self-denial, the fruit of grace, is not specifically
defined in the Bible and has as its source the Holy Spirit living within self.
Most people think of self-denial in terms of
stewardship. “If I am a good steward of the temporal possessions entrusted to
my care, I will deny myself by giving liberally of them to others.” We tend to
see self-denial in terms of sacrificial financial giving.
Knowing that life is hard on most people, e.g. famine,
natural disasters, disease, etc., does self-denial for the financially
privileged play a special role? Most would answer with an unequivocal “yes.”
Accepting this answer, we are still faced with the
question of how much. Assuming that God does not want us to live on either
extreme of giving everything and giving nothing, where is the balance? This
again is the difference between law and self-denial. The answer must come from
within one’s own conscience.
JEREMIAH 45:5
As important as the sacrificial giving of our physical
possessions is, I suggest that it is only part of a much broader picture. It
seems to me that a more profound expression of self-denial is found in death to
self, the willingness to view my life in its totality as a resource in the hands
of God for the meeting of people’s needs.
When comparing the difference between how the world and
God perceive greatness, Jesus said in Matthew 20:26-28,
“But it shall not be so among
you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister, And
whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of
man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a
ransom for many.”
Jesus came to give His life in exchange for the needs of
others and suggests that His disciples should do the same.
This is the same theme found in Jeremiah 45:5 where
God says to his servant,
“And seekest
thou great things for thyself? Seek them not: for, behold, I will bring evil
upon all flesh, saith the LORD: but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey
in all places whither thou goest.”
There is a lot
of confusion regarding this verse because of the word prey.” It is the thing
hunted and devoured by the hunter. Greatness, as the world defines greatness,
is not the route to go, warns the Lord. For He will destroy all the works of
man’s hand. But God’s servant can have the privilege of giving his life as
Jesus gave His --- as a prey in meeting the needs of others.
Blending this with the “two kinds of circumstances,” to
be a prey means to vote against self in meeting the needs of others when you
have legitimate reason to say no. For example, you return from an exhausting
trip, having suffered from sleep deprivation. At 11 p.m. you are awakened from
a sound sleep by someone who is emotionally hemorrhaging and needs your help.
You suggest tomorrow, and he insists that he needs you tonight. It is at times
like this you have opportunity to decide the degree to which you want people to
“devour” you.
This is the life of self-denial. This is what it means
to say no to the flesh and die to self. It may be argued that financial
self-denial was of central importance in the ministry of Jesus, but finances
are merely illustrative of a larger issue.
Most see finances as the means to control circumstances.
Financial independence is first and foremost independence from God. It is
symptomatic of an unbiblical value system. The question is not, “Am I willing
to drive a Chevrolet rather than a BMW?” Rather, the question is, “Am I willing
to live for a cause greater than I, and am I willing to allow God to choose
that cause for me?”
It is for this reason that God links self-denial to
grace. It is gracious of God to allow us to live for something other than temporal
mediocrity. That God gives us the opportunity to exchange our lives for the
same thing for which He gave His life is grace.
The beautiful thing about the grace of self-denial is,
although it is not optional, it is also not forced upon us. It is a decision
that we make of our own volition. Not only so, it is unlike law in that we get
to decide what it looks like in our own lives.
“All things are lawful, but not all things are
expedient.” You are free to live for self, but the expedient thing is to die to
self.
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain
what he cannot lose.” (Jim Elliott)
Yours
for a life of self-sacrifice,