"The Christian gospel gospel insists that the transformation of the human personality is really possible. Never easy. Rarely quick. But possible." [John Ortberg]
I'm reading "The Life You've Always Wanted" again. For the 7th time. It is probably my all-time favorite book. If you have not read it, go and order it on Amazon.
Go ahead, I'll wait...
You got it? Great.
John speaks to me in profound ways. He is a Dallas Willard fan (as am I)...and BTW, if you haven't read "Spirit of the Disciplines" by Dallas you can oder that when you order, "Life." If you read these two books and "The Divine Conspiracy" [Dallas], you basically have heard ever sermon I have ever preached. Well, not literally (although I do tend to steal from them a LOT), but these two books contain my "life theology."
So I've seen a lot of transformation in my life. Both in me and in people around me. I know it is possible. But we want it quick and easy.
My media friends have taught me if you want a project done, there are three factors: quick, cheap and good. Choose 2. If you want it quick and good... it won't be cheap. If you want it cheap and quick, it won't be good. Rarely do you get all three. (They would say "never," but I think they do it all the time at Central...okay... so it isn't quick in that they spend many hours working on it but they often do it in the context of a couple of days.)
So the same thing can be said about transformation...
It's so funny how we in the modern day church understand the concept of grace. NEVER before in all of Christian history has grace been so cheap. We see grace as a passport to everything we want, when we want it. We REFUSE to "work" at our life with God as we cry out, "I don't want to be legalistic!"
But folks... NOBODY understood grace that way until the last 100 years.
Spiritual Disciplines are a lost art. "Denial," never heard of, except for something simple given up for Lent. Means of Grace? We take communion and never think of this amazing gift that Christians died for in the early church.
I guess I really believe I can become more "loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, self-controlled and gentle." And I don't think it's a passive thing. (Ten dollar term: "Cooperative Sanctification"). And I SO want transformation. I'm so amazing at how much growing I need to have in my life. Thankful for what has happened... but I still have so far to go.
I would be interested to hear your thoughts on this. If you feel comfortable, is there an area you want to grow?
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2 comments:
i keep coming back to this, thinking i'll have something profound to say. well, i still don't have anything, but here are a few thoughts from a book i happened to be reading today:
"...[cheap grace] amounts to the justification of sin without the justificaton of the repentant sinner who departs from sin and from whom sin departs. Cheap grace is not the kind of forgiveness of sin which frees us from the toils of sin. Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves.
Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."
also...
"An image needs a living object, and a copy can only be formed from a model. Either man models himself on the god of his own invention, or the true and living God moulds the human form into his image. There must be a complete transformation, a 'metamorphosis' (Rom. 12.2; II Cor. 3.18), if man is to be restored to the image of God. How then is that transformation to be effected?
[...]
To be conformed to the image of Christ is not an ideal to be striven after. It is not as though we had to imitate him as well as we could. We cannot transform ourselves into his image; it is rather the form of Christ which seeks to be formed in us (Gal. 4.19), and to be manifested in us. Christ's work in us is not finished until he has perfected his own form in us. We must be assimilated to the form of Christ in its entirety, the form of Christ incarnate, crucified and glorified."
- from The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
i realize that last part doesn't sound much like cooperative sanctification, but then again it's only a portion of the text.
as far as grace and transformation go, i think we have to scrap two of those factors... it won't be quick, and it ain't cheap: but boy is it good.
It is truly sad how many modern Churches have cheapened grace; actually, I believe that most sell a counterfeit grace. I do believe that God's Grace is a free gift of God, not of works (Eph 2:8&9) to prevent us from boasting of our great works. However, I also believe that true Grace and true faith produces godly works (James 2:18-26).
I've heard it said, "Grace is a free gift of God, but it will cost you everything." While you cannot earn Grace, neither can you receive it until you are willing to let go of what you have.
Transformation can be painful and sometimes in ways that you do not expect. I was raised in a legalistic church, so part of my painful transformation was letting go of the rules and works based beliefs. God transforms man from the inside out, but men attempt to change from the outside in. I see legalism as an attempt to change the outward appearance, while often not properly addressing the inward. Change the heart of a man, and you will change his actions.
I believe we do have a responsibility to change our hearts, to change our minds, to change our views on life to align with what God teaches. Denying ourself begins on the inside, not the outside.
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