Sep 08, 2010
The Difference Between Identity and Worship
Posted by Joe Paravisini in Gospel Living - Gospel Identity - Worship | Comments (2)
One conversation I find myself in lately has to do with the relationship of our behavior to our status as a “Christian”. This subject is tricky to address because the correct view lies within tension, so bear with me as I try.
“Nominal” Christianity
I found myself first getting into these conversations when I moved out of what I will refer to as “nominal Christianity”. I spent several years in a weird place where I intellectually believed in Christianity as the valid worldview—to the extent of God being the world’s creator, the Bible being an accurate portrayal of the man Jesus, the idea of Heaven as a free gift, and a loose idea of hell for the really bad people. This knowledge never really affected my life though. The only difference between me, and the average person was that I begrudgingly took a couple hours out of my week (or month) to attend an awkward church service. The details on what happened to change that are a different story.
Crisis followed by more error
The next stage seems to be pretty familiar to many. Raised in some sort of Christian environment; maybe taking it seriously at times, but overall just going through the motions during church time; and getting back into your element the rest of the week away from the religion. Something along the way changes, and all of a sudden the Bible, Jesus, Sin, Heaven and Hell all become very important.
What often seems to be the next step after a bit of repentance is to then dive into unrestrained, performance-driven morality. And the first question that usually surfaces is along the lines of “What makes someone a real Christian?”. Often times, this question is used against others as “wheat” trying to take a stand against the “weeds”.
Identity of Grace
Understanding our adoption is closely related to our understanding of the depths of our sin. We are too screwed up to have any hope in ourselves. When we believe we have something to contribute, we are minimizing our sin. We are adopted as sons and daughters only because God has shown us grace. If we attach any level of moral performance to this, we have lost the heart of Christianity. Let me say this very clearly: Your status as a Christian is NOT a result of how we behave!
Any expectation to receive good things from God must only be rooted in what Christ did for us. If it is ever a result of our performance, we have believed another Gospel. So stop. I know you are eager to move on. You are thinking, “ok, good, he talks about works down there, I’ll skim over this part.” Seriously, stop. Let yourself absorb the fact that you offer NOTHING to your initial salvation, or your continued identity in Christ. You also can’t sin your way out of God’s hands. For one minute in your stressed out life, just rest in an unconditional love. Maybe finish reading the rest of this post tomorrow.
Worship as an immeasurable response
So when does our behavior come in to play? It has to come in somewhere, right? There are so many verses in the bible warning us that we could be fooling ourselves, and could end up having Jesus tell us those dreaded words that he never knew us.
It is true that the behavior of a Christian will progressively change over the course of their life, but it is as unpredictable as the stock market. This is our sanctification. We experience times when we begin to see more love in our actions and attitudes, yet these seem so closely followed by some screw up, often resulting in despair.
Many times, these bumps are not large public moral failures, but internal motives, jealousies, critical attitudes, and selfishness. If we believe we have gone long periods of time without sinning, there’s a good chance we are overlooking the less explicit.
We do see little victories as well. Moments when we decided to sacrifice our time and comfort for someone else. Or, when we allow ourselves to be cut off while driving without throwing a finger up. Often times we may not even see a behavior change unless someone else points it out. The point is that on this side of eternity, we are at constant war with our sin, which does not make for a trustworthy barometer.
The big idea to go home with here is that we worship God because of our identity, not the other way around.
A More Stable Barometer: Repentance
So what about assurance? There has to be some way to know we are truly saved, right? Here is the joy and peace and assurance you are looking for. Remove your scoreboard of daily prayer and bible reading. I did not say stop doing anything, just stop keeping score by what you do. Your understanding of the Gospel depends on it!
Luther ignited the protestant reformation with the words "When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, “Repent” (Mt 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance." Repentance is the eager willingness to hear when we are at fault. It is a humble posture that has no trust in itself, but is constantly adjusting and reevaluating motives and actions as new areas of darkness are brought into the light. We are called to examine ourselves with fear and trembling to see if we are in the faith. Our assurance comes from the Holy Spirit, and his work in us, which is primarily repentance. When repentance is stalled, even if you are outwardly behaving “morally”, your growth has stalled. When repentance seems fully unnecessary, or is generally non-existent, assurance should be absent as well.
Conclusion
So, to clarify, the purpose of this post is not to promote sin, or "free grace". It is for us to become more suspicious of our motives. If we begin in faith, but continue in the law, we have fallen away from grace. The goal is to fight the good fight of faith. It is a struggle to believe that we have nothing to perform to be "acceptable" to God. It is a struggle to believe that Jesus actually did everything for us. It is a struggle to constantly live our lives in light of these two truths, yet essential to our health and growth.
Posted by Joe Paravisini in Gospel Living - Gospel Identity - Worship
