On several occasions the New Testament makes clear that cheap grace, the attempt to be justified through faith in Christ without commitment to sanctification, is illegitimate and impossible. The thrust of these passages is not really that we should add works to our faith, as if it were possible to advance one step forward into faith but to hesitate before adding a second step into holiness. Faith and repentance are not separable qualities. To have faith is to receive God's Word as truth and rest upon it in dependent trust; to repent is to have a new mind toward God, oneself, Christ and the world, committing one's heart to new obedience to God. Obviously these two factors are so interwoven that they are experienced as one, so that the condition of justification is not faith plus repentance, but repentant faith. In the famous antiphony to Paul's teaching in James, it is clear that works and merit are not being added to the means of justification, but that the root of living faith which produces works is being distinguished from a dead and sterile conceptual orthodoxy: "So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. ... For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead"
(James 2:17, 26)
An unrepentant faith is a theoretical belief which originates outside the sphere of the Spirit's illumination in a heart which is still in darkness concerning its own need and the grace and grandeur of God. Paul points to incomplete realization of truth as the cause of the abuse of grace:
"Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ... We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin."
(Rom. 6:1-3; 6-7)
It is true that justification can only be appropriated on the ground of our union with Christ. But we cannot be in the light about our union with the perfect righteousness which covers our sin without simultaneously being in the light about the power available to transform our lives and displace our sin. We cannot be in union with half a Christ, as the Puritans would say. We must appropriate a whole Christ if we are to remain in light and thus in spiritual life.
Richard Lovelace, Dynamics of the Spiritual Life, 102-103.
If a book is worth reading, it is worth reading multiple times. As I grow in my faith, I find so many books and aids to Christian growth to be "one-time" reads. I have many in my personal library, but as I ponder the mysteries of the faith, I constantly come back to several important books. Richard Lovelace's book is one of these books. It is tough to read, but well worth the effort.
As I read this passage, I find that the human heart is so easily led astray by our flesh. Lovelace, and Paul for that matter, emphasize the need for balance. Our flesh likes to run to extremes and we ignore the need for balance.
On the one side is the tendency to be justified by grace, and then grow in holiness by self-effort. This unbalance is the mark of much evangelical Christianity. I know I was captured by this tendency for years! It leads to frustration and self-righteousness. I have seen this tendency so often in Christian circles that I have written this blog to help move the balance back toward the other direction.
What is the other direction? A strange quietism that denies the need to grow in holiness? Quietism is the belief that "God must do it all." Thus, people deny the need to promote, encourage, and grow in personal holiness. Quietism claims to be God- and Christ-centered, but it does so by ignoring the "holy" part of the Holy Spirit!
In the contemporary evangelical world, if you steer clear of growing in holiness by self-effort, you are often accused of quietism. I would vehemently argue this dichotomy is completely false! The real key is balance.
How do we strike this balance? We learn, remember, and emphasize that true faith is marked by repentant faith. As Lovelace states, "To have faith is to receive God's Word as truth and rest upon it in dependent trust." I am always leery about those who wish to argue that parts of God's Word are mere "cultural expressions" of the biblical writers. If I get to choose what God's Word really means, then I trust in my opinions more than God's Word! This is a clear avenue to allow the world, the flesh, and the devil to determine God's will instead of promote humility and acceptance of God's Word.
Furthermore, we also must remember to walk in repentant faith. As Lovelace states, "to repent is to have a new mind toward God, oneself, Christ and the world, committing one's heart to new obedience to God." As God's Word points out places and areas of our lives and thought that do not match God's thoughts on a subject, we must repent and believe. We should not diminish the realities of our incorrect thoughts or behaviors. We should not try to argue away what God's Word says. Instead, in humble faith we repent and believe.
Such a life is not quietism, but an active life of dependent faith. We ask God to change us. We look to the Holy Spirit to transform us. We also follow the Spirit's leading to walk in the newness of life found in the amazing justification declared by God. In other words, we actively rest in God's Word. We trust in Christ by walking in repentant faith.
May the Lord help us to learn about and rest in this repentant faith!
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