Tag Archives: Fruit

Rethinking Christian Progress!

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The one thing the bible promises us regarding life in this world is that it will be hard and filled with trials, temptations and tribulations. Nowhere does the bible promise that we’ll have our best life now (as popularized by Joel Osteen). in 2 Timothy 3:12 Paul tells Timothy, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”

This morning I tweeted an important phrase from pastor Tullian Tchividjian’s book Jesus + Nothing = Everything and it is the idea of an “over-realized eschatology”. I want to use this term to say, too many Christians live with an “over-realized eschatology” expecting  now on earth what God has promised only later for eternity. This causes us to live with unrealistic expectations for what we will and won’t face in this world.

In light of this how do we approach growth and progress in our faith?

The Gospel didn’t just ignite my faith but it’s the fuel that keeps it going and growing me everyday. The Gospel has “delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col 1:13-14). Progress begins with understanding that in Christ, we’ve already been qualified, delivered, transferred, redeemed and forgiven. Working out your salvation with fear and trembling is focusing on working out what Christ has already given to us and worked into us by his will and for his pleasure.

Our natural instinct as believers is to almost exclusively measure Christian growth around behavioural improvement but the greater issue is what is behind the good or bad fruit of our behaviour? Bad behaviour happens when we fail to believe that everything we need, in Christ, we already have. On the other hand, good behaviour happens when we daily rest in and receive the finished work of Jesus in deeper and deeper ways, destroying any need to secure for ourselves anything beyond what Christ has already secured for us.

The hard work of growth we are called to is to believe again and again the gospel of God’s free justifying grace everyday and resting in what Christ has finished on our behalf. I think real spiritual progress happens when our natural understanding of progress is rooted out and it’s not about first behaving better but believing more fully what Jesus has already accomplished.

Gerhard Forde, in his work, Justification by Faith, once said, “It’s not our movement toward the goal but the movement of the goal on us” that helps us progress in the Christian life. Pastor Tullian (Pg173) says, “Sanctification involves God’s daily attack on our unbelief – our self-centered refusal to believe that God’s approval of us in Christ is full and final.”

When we stop narcissistically focusing on our need to get better, that is what it means to get better. The more we focus on our need to get better, the more neurotic and self-absorbed and worse we actually get. I have to admit that I’ve been too pre-occupied with myself for most of my life and my pre-occupation with my performance over Christ’s performance makes me increasingly self-centered and distant from God and others.

Christian progress is forgetting about yourself! So, aim for progress but remember what it isn’t, your personal improvement and moral progress. Progress is washing your hands of you and resting in Christ’s finished work for you, which will inevitably produce personal improvement and spiritual growth.

Grace! 

Identity and your Call!

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Hidden roots of brokenness prevent people from being able to do what God has designed them for. We are unique by God’s design and intention, however, our uniqueness is distorted when hidden roots, of sin, offense and pain undermine the unique call of God upon our lives.

When there are blockages in the root system of our lives, it stops the flow of the Spirit moving through our call. We need God to help us identify the blockages and have them removed. The primary function of roots is to hold a plant in place and supply it with nourishment from the soil to help it grow. Likewise, roots are found in the hearts of each one of us and if these roots are infected with deep hurts, wounds, fears and insecurity, then we will not grow as we should. We are known by our fruits. Healthy tree, healthy fruit. Unhealthy root system, unhealthy fruit.

If we suffer from a distorted identity (all of us as fallen beings do in some way), we need to enter a process of healing and restoration so that the Spirit can move freely through the root system of our lives. Your identity is who you are, not just your perception of who you are. Someone once said, “We are three people. We are who others think we are. We are who we think we are and we are who we actually are.” The challenge is to live out of who we actually are in Christ, as God has designed us and intended for us.

In Scripture we see that God would give a new name to certain people to symbolize a new identity or a sign of God’s promise in their lives. God renamed Abram, Abraham and Jacob to Israel. God renamed several of the disciples, including Peter, whom originally was Simon. These new names represented significant God encounters in these people’s lives and were marks of God’s call upon them.

Your identity is linked to your call. Your call is limited by a lack of self-worth and false perception of who you are. We need to know who we are in Christ and how God sees us before we can move freely in our calling. Whatever you and others have thought about you in your past, God wants to declare new things over your life that positions you to move powerfully in your call in the future. Bring your hurts to Jesus and allow the healing process to begin. As you do, your identity will be restored as God intends for you and your call will carry more weight as you live it out from who you really are in Christ.

Insight!