This blog was taken from an article written by Jen Wilkin called, "Has Failure Become A Virtue?"
“Christian,
you cannot obey the Law. Your certain failure is a means to show forth the
grace of God when you repent.”
“We
don’t need more lists of how to be a better spouse/parent/Christian. We need
more grace.”
“My
life strategy for today: fail, repent, repeat.”
Sounds
good, doesn’t it? These sorts of statements comprise a growing body of
commentary that finds the Law of the Bible to be a crushing burden, not just
for the unbeliever, but for the believer as well. Enough with “checkbox
Christianity”, these voices tell us. No more “how to‘s” on righteousness. In
the righteousness department you are an epic fail, so toss out your checklists
and your laws, and cast yourself on grace.
failure
gets a makeover
In recent years church leaders have rightly spoken out against moralistic
therapeutic deism, which is really just a fancy name for legalism – the idea
that we earn God’s favor through external obedience to a moral code. Moralistic
therapeutic deism, as in the days of Jesus, pervades our culture and even our
churches. And it’s as harmful today as it was when Jesus spoke against it two
thousand years ago.
As
a response to this skewed view of Law, some have begun to articulate a skewed
view of grace - one that discounts the necessity of obedience to the moral
precepts of the Law. I call this view “celebratory failurism” – the idea that
believers cannot obey the Law and will fail at every attempt. Furthermore, that
our failure is ultimately cause to celebrate because it makes grace all the
more beautiful.
These
days, obedience has gotten a bad name. And failure has gotten a
make-over.
Interestingly,
Jesus battled legalism in a different way than the celebratory failurist does.
Rather than tossing out the Law or devaluing obedience to it, he called his
followers to a
deeper
obedience
than
the behavior modification the Pharisees prized. He called for obedience in
motive as well as in deed, the kind of godly obedience that is impossible for
someone whose heart has not been transformed by the gospel. Rather than abolish
the Law, Jesus deepened his followers’ understanding of what it required, and
then went to the cross to ensure they could actually begin to obey it.
set
free to obey
The
gospel grants both freedom from the penalty of sin and freedom
to begin to obey (Rom 6:16).
And what are we to obey? The Law, that once gave death but now gives
freedom. God's Word teaches us that behavior modification should absolutely
follow salvation. It just occurs for a different reason than it does in the
life of the unbeliever. Modified behavior reflects a changed heart. When Peter
says we have spent enough time living as the pagans do, surely he
means that it is time to stop disobeying and begin obeying. Paul
tells us that grace teaches us to say no to ungodly passions, not
merely to repent when we fail to say no. He goes on to say that we are
redeemed, not from the Law, but from lawlessness (disregard for the Law).
If, as
John attests, all sin is lawlessness (disregard for the Law), ought we not
to love
the Law and meditate on it day and night, as those who desire deeply
to cease sinning? When Jesus
says “Go, and sin no more,” don’t we think he means it?
Any
profession of faith that is not followed by evidence is an empty
profession. And faithful profession without faithful obedience is spiritual
double-mindedness. It is to affirm that God exists and then to turn and live as
if he does not.
Celebratory
failurism asserts that all our attempts to obey will fail, thereby making us
the recipients of greater grace. But God does not exhort us to obey just to
teach us that we cannot hope to obey. He exhorts us to obey to teach us
that, by grace, we can obey, and therein lies hope. Through the
gospel our God, whose law and whose character do not change, changes us into
those who obey in both motive and deed. Believers no longer live under
the Law, but the Law lies under us as a sure path for pursuing what is
good, right and pleasing to the Lord. Contrary to the tenets of celebratory
failurism, the Law is not the problem. The heart of the Law-follower is.
Obedience
is only moralism if we believe it curries favor with God. The believer knows
that it is impossible to curry favor with God because God needs nothing from
us. He cannot be put in our debt. Knowing this frees us to obey out of joyful
gratitude rather than servile grasping.
Imagine
telling your child, “I know you’ll fail, but here are our house rules. Let me
know when you break them so I can extend grace to you.” We recognize that
raising a lawless child is not good for the child, for our family, or for
society as a whole. We don’t train our children to obey us so they can gain our
favor. They already have our favor. We, being evil, train and equip them to
obey because it is good and right and safe. And how much more does our Heavenly
Father love us?
moving
beyond “fail and repent”
We
must not trade moralistic therapeutic deism for celebratory failurism.
Sanctification is about more than “You will fail, but there is grace for you.”
Growing in holiness means that we fail less than we used to, because at
long last we are learning to obey in both motive and deed, just as Christ
obeyed. There is a difference between self-help and sanctification, and that
difference is the motive of the heart.
Earnest
Christians look to their church leaders and ask, “Teach me to walk in His
ways.” We owe them an answer beyond, “Fail and repent.” We owe them, “This is
the way, walk in it.” The way is often delineated by lists – a list of ten
don’ts in Exodus
20, a list of eight do’s in Matthew
5, a list of works of
the flesh and spiritual
fruit in Galatians 5, and so on. These are lists that crush the
unbeliever but give
life to the believer. They make straight the paths of those who love them,
and though the way they delineate is narrow, it is the way that leads to life.
The
Law becomes a gracious means of conforming us to the image of the Savior. We
love the Law because we love the God of the Law, who has engraved it on our
very hearts. We do not start our days planning to fail, nor do we celebrate
failure. Rather, we set
our faces like flint and resolve by the power of the Spirit to obey.
I
delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” Psalm
40:8
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