TUESDAY
Yesterday, I told a brief story about how I had wanted to dunk a basketball, so I worked really hard, lifted weights and did a jump program to develop my jumping ability. My workout program was largely a success as I was able to dunk pretty easily at the end of the summer. However, those results were rather short-lived. A bruised rib partway through the season sidelined me for a couple of months and I was unable to lift and jump. When I recovered, I found that I was back to baseline and only able to grab the rim. At least now I knew how to do it and I knew I could do it. So I trained again and developed the muscle again only to be set back again by an ankle sprain, then a bruised quad, etc. The injuries kept coming and each time I kept falling back to the baseline of my natural ability. Then I met a young man, Patrick Atkins, on my college basketball team. Pat was about 5’8” (a full 6” shorter than me) and a Jesse White Tumbler. Pat could fly! He would throw it down with ease. Now I was completely shocked to find out that Pat had never lifted weights before in his life! I helped teach him how to squat because, at that point, I had been lifting and training for six years. As you can imagine, that was the year I gave up squatting (I’m sure you can tell).
The point is that’s just who Pat was, the way his body was designed and his muscles were built. So what came so naturally to him, I worked countless hours to attain and quickly lost when I couldn’t work those countless hours. For many of us in the Christian faith, character formation and spiritual growth feels like me trying to dunk. We take one step forward and two steps back. We still feel like Paul in Romans 7:15, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” We all understand that, but I don’t think we grasp the full weight of what he says next:
Romans 7:24–25 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Romans 8:1–5 1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
The whole story of Scripture reveals that law is not enough for character formation. Of course the law is good and it reveals what sin is, but it is not enough to transform our already formed sinful nature.
Ephesians 2:1–10 1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
The surprising good news of the gospel in regards to life change is less like me working out and more like Pat’s natural ability. Life change in the Christian life begins with God’s new creation of us. Those who are saved by grace, as Ephesians 2:10 reveals, are “God’s handiwork (workmanship in the ESV) created in Christ Jesus to do good works.” Whereas this process is anything but natural (it is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit) in the same way as Pat dunking, it doesn’t begin with will-power and work ethic. Good works come as the consequence or the result of being made new in Christ. It is simply living in light of our new identity in Christ. This is all done by God. We are his handiwork, newly created by God in Christ, and even God is the one who has prepared the good works we are to do in advance for us.
As people who have been formed to believe that we can be and do whatever we want with a little determination and hard work, this is truly surprising. Determination and hard work, of course, are good things but they can only carry us so far in character formation. They can help us change behaviors but they cannot change the heart. Failing to change the heart leaves whatever progress we make more or less like my leaping progress—just waiting for the next injury (failure, sin) to return us to baseline or even a few steps back.
Matthew 12:33–35 33 “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.
Jesus here reveals that our words and good deeds are the result of what is in our heart. So, what we need is a good heart—a new heart. This is precisely what God gives his people in the gospel.
In keeping with the theme of this campaign, in order to see the truly irresistible nature of the gospel of transformation, we must look at the alternatives the world has to offer.