I promise I am still alive. the past couple of weeks have been a little hectic. I'll be posting more often in the next week, I hope. :)
in the meantime, I want to see if I can get some interaction or discussion. one of my friends posted an interesting article by Kurt Willems. in it, Willems vehemently declares he's done with living like a Christian. I'll let the article speak for itself.
personally, I'm only a little conflicted upon reading this. I agree that simply acting like a Christian doesn't do any good. my grandmother was a dedicated Sunday school teacher, but she didn't believe Jesus Christ was alive in heaven. however, the whole mystic feeling to his "being" spiel makes me a little leery.
perhaps the best way to describe the reason for my suspicions is to turn to James:
"But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does." James 1:22-25 (NASB).read the article and then use the comments: do you think Willems is mystifying the Christian walk a bit too much? since the law (perfectly fulfilled in Christ) explicitly commands us as believers to do the deeds Willems claims he won't do... is he encouraging Christians to be only hearers of the word?
or... is he onto something? clearly, it's not enough to just do works, especially for the wrong motive. however, clearly we are supposed to do Christ-like actions, as Christians.
feel free to comment. by all means. this is why I make the comments available to the public!
So, Mr. Willems, is grace infused or imputed? Does conversion make us a better person? Do we have Christ's righteousness infused into us, or are we judged righteous entirely according to His works? The means of grace are prayer, worship, Bible reading and the ordinances and through these the Holy Spirit does His work of sanctification in us. As Christ did a work of fighting temptation in the desert through the means of grace, so we know that we can too. That event was a sign of His divine authority, but it was also a moment to identify Himself with us in His mortality.
ReplyDeleteWhere do you see in scripture that we are commanded to "be the man who will _____"? Nowhere. But Scripture is full of imperatives to do and to will and to work according to the work of the Holy Spirit within us.
Get off your mystical high horse -- stop trying to BE someone you can't be and DO what Christ has called you to do.
Jonathan Edwards on Obedience versus Self-Righteousness:
"Some may possibly object, That for persons to do deeds of charity, in hope of obtaining spiritual blessings and comforts in this way, would seem to show a self-righteous spirit, as though they would offer something to God to purchase these favours. But, if this be a good objection, it may be made against every duty whatsoever. All external duties of the first table will be excluded by it, as well as those of the second. First-table duties have as direct a tendency to raise self-righteous persons’ expectations of receiving something from God, on account of them, as second-table duties; and on some accounts more, for those duties are more immediately offered to God, and therefore persons are more ready to expect something from God for them. But no duty is to be neglected, for fear of making a righteousness of it. And I have always observed, that those professors who are most partial in their duty—exact and abundant in external duties of the first table, and slack as to those of the second—are the most self-righteous."
—Jonathan Edwards “Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival…”