Over
the time of writing this blog, I have written many posts demonstrating that the
true transformation is brought about by unrestrained grace and not conforming
to the law. One such post, Need,
Rest, and Reasonable Service… was written back in February of 2010. I just
recently received a comment on it and I thought the exchange would be very
beneficial. It was written by someone who thought grace alone was not the
transforming power and posited a view similar to the evangelical party line. I
am going to post the discussion in its entirety. You may want to read the original
post for background.
Anonymous writes:
“I
do not think Christians need to be told to stop "striving to please God,
striving to love each other...". This is all Christians ever hear anymore.
It’s not unloving, legalistic or contrary to the Holy Spirit to "work out
our salvation with fear and trembling"...It is the same Spirit who said
"faith without works is dead"... and "those who love me will
obey my comandments..." not to mention Galatians 5:19-21.
"Faith expressing itself through love" is indeed all that counts but genuine faith is rooted in the indwelling Holy Spirit which "compels" us to obey God's Torah/commands. If we have the Holy Spirit wont we be compelled to strive to please God, love others... and aren't we obligated by the nature of a covenant relationship with God to obey Him whether we feel like it or not? As someone who personally has struggled with addiction in the past, I know that this "God does it all we just wait around for it to happen ("rest") mentality" does not work. In fact I continued to struggle no matter how much I begged God to remove my addiction. It was when I seriously intended to stop sinning that my recognition of my powerlessness over sin could begin to open the door for the Holy Spirit to change me. We are called to strive to align our wills with God's through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. That involves effort on our part and is our "reasonalbe service".
Anonymous continues:
In
other words I think that, in the Spirit of love, that we as Christians should
be warned that our behavior is the only indication of our salvation. What else
is there? Words? Professions of belief? Those are meaningless without concrete
change. There simply can not be a change in heart with out a change in
behavior.
My Reply:
Thanks
for the comments. I intend to turn these into a blog post. What I think you
miss is the idea that the catalyst for obedience is love brought about by
unrestrained grace. I can appreciate that you overcame addiction. The fact is
that Atheists do that also without any faith at all. So overcoming addiction is
not a sign of spiritual transformation, but rather could be merely moral
reformation. What this blog post is driving at is how the gospel will/does
transform people. Yes, gospel not law. You said that the gospel will not work
in that way and I say that you cannot possibly know that because there are no
fellowships that emphasize grace as the transformer. If there were, then
perhaps you could have received help to stop your addiction by brothers and
sisters that would lovingly help you with accountability.
As
it stands now, most fellowships put the addictive personality in a position
where they have to doubt their salvation. They are forced to either change,
hide or leave. That is not the way the bible explains the working of the
Spirit. The Spirit transforms. The read and do mentality brings about
reformation not transformation... it is not trans-formative, and getting free
from addiction by the “read and do” method is not a testament to Spiritual
transformation. No one is saying that people should not obey God from love. The
problem is obedience that comes from a place of fear. It does not promote real
love for God and does nothing to transform lives over the long haul.
The
Christian life should be known for uncommon love and not strict moral
obedience. Certainly a moral, ethical life is an important goal to reach but
not to assure salvation and our eternal station with God.
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