Overcoming Depression (Part Ten): Suicidal Thoughts

If you are reading this article you fall into at least one of three categories. The first includes those who know those who have—successfully or not—attempted to take their life. The second category includes those who will eventually know someone like that. The third category includes those who are contemplating suicide.

Rather than address those in the first two categories I will speak directly with you if you find yourself in the third. Be assured that there a plenty of people in the first two categories who will read this because they care enough to help people like you through this seemingly impossible situation.

Have you had thoughts of suicide? Why are you considering it? Do you face shame because you (or someone close to you) has done things that have created a mess that you are unwilling to face? Maybe you are enduring the pain of a broken body or a broken relationship and do not wish to see what is next in an apparent endless downward spiral. Or perhaps you are very angry at a person or persons who have hurt you and know that this will sting them in ways other forms of revenge never could. You may even have your own reasons and think that your circumstances put you in a category no other person can understand.

If you have had these thoughts, you have likely gone from despair to hope and back again more times than you can count. People stereotype those who take their lives as frenzied and impulsive, but you may know that after numerous crises many people have soberly weighed their options. They have reasoned that suicide is as much a rational choice as buying a red car instead of a blue one.

Because this is a Christian author writing about matters from a biblical perspective you might think an article about suicide would seek to find biblical texts that address the issue directly. But that is not where this article is headed. Certainly there are a few examples of suicide in the Bible and I do agree that taking your own life is no less a sin than taking that of someone else. But I want you to see a bigger picture from the Bible. I beg you to stop and reconsider. The story of history is not about your present circumstances but about redemption.

I’ll explain what I mean by redemption. When you look at the whole story of human history from a biblical standpoint you see three big themes. The first is that creation was a marvelous, hopeful work of God with man as the most privileged creature in the picture. The second is the misery that resulted from man rebelling against his creator. The third is the work of redemption that the creator is bringing. Our trouble is that living in the pain, misery and hopelessness of the second theme can blind us to seeing the third theme at work.

Let me illustrate simply. A child with a painful ear infection does not naturally want a physician poking instruments in his ear or prescribing yucky medicine. But the doctor sees the big picture. What would you tell the child who is so intent on getting away from the treatment and the doctor that he misses the “redemptive” benefit of both? The doctor knows how the ear is designed to look and work as well as what needs to happen to bring it back to full function. The child naturally just wants the pain to go away.

Maybe that’s what you are looking for. I want you to know that there are things much more wonderful in this story than what you feel in this very brief moment of eternity. Christian author C.S. Lewis describes our longings this way:

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. (Mere Christianity)

The pain and dissatisfaction you feel is a reminder that there is something better, but the release does not come when you leave. It comes when you believe. The Bible says that “creation was subjected to futility” (Romans 8:20) but it also says that the creation will be “set free from its slavery to corruption” (Romans 8:21). You may think that what you are considering will set you free. I ask you to consider that you may be very wrong and there will be no way to reverse your decision.

We make the mistake of complicating the Bible because we often have personal agendas that we take into it. We assume that if we cannot find a direct prohibition, for instance, for the use of methamphetamines, God must be okay with it. But the Bible projects a larger and more authoritative view of the past and the future that those of us trapped in time would do well to heed. You may be asking how a loving God could allow so much evil in the world—particularly in your world. You ask why is this happening if God is loving or sovereign. That is a legitimate question. Have you given Him time to answer it? Are you sure?

Imagine the terror of people experiencing a full eclipse of the sun without knowing that eclipses are natural astronomical events. Some would despair of life. You could give them hope. “Just wait,” you’d counsel. This won’t last.

Most people who come close to taking their lives and do not succeed testify that what they needed was just a little time to clear their minds to dissuade them from the act. In other words, because they had a barrier to their momentum toward the act they reevaluated the decision. Let the thoughts I have shared be that barrier for you.

Start here. Are guilt and shame and pain and hopelessness recurring themes in your life? Please stop and consider that the Bible points to Jesus Christ as the remedy for these things. He absorbed in His body—as a substitute—the just death penalty so those who trust Him could be free. If that is hard for you to believe, it gets harder. For centuries men and women have staked their lives and their eternal destinies on the truth that Jesus also came physically out of the grave after He died. What does that mean for you? Among other things it may mean that you could be preparing to surrender to shame and death when God’s Son won the victory over both. I wonder if you have really cried out to Him and begged Him for forgiveness and new life in this world.

There is hope.

Ten articles in this series:
1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 

Pleasant Experience = Preaching in Flip-flops

Happy Mother’s Day! I was able to speak with my mother and my wife today thanks to the thoughtfulness of one of our church members who supplied me with a cell phone that works in Haiti.

The men finished the first exams last night. Most of them did very well, although I need to do a little tutoring to help one fellow who seems paralyzed by written exams.

Today I started teaching through Romans—make that flying through Romans. I was charged with preaching in our worship service to start the day. Guess what text I used? Far be it from me to miss getting an extra session in Romans. The material is far too important. So I skipped through chapter one expositionally and offered an application outline at the end (It took eight weeks to get through chapter one at RLBC).

The big message of chapter one is that les Gentils sont coupables (The Gentiles are guilty). This whole letter has as its theme that God’s righteousness is unattainable by unrighteous men except through faith. His wrath is revealed against all unrighteousness.

To illustrate the unrighteousness of men and the righteousness of God I used a story told by the missionary who wrote Stranger on the Road to Emmaus. When his family lived in a tropical climate in a house on stilts a large rat crawled under the house and died—right under the master bedroom. It was a tight space and not easy to reach. The stench got so bad that he and his wife started sleeping in another part of the house. Finally the man’s son crawled under the house with a plastic bag over his hand and pulled the rotting carcass out by the tail. He ran toward the forest and flung the corpse into the trees as far as he could.

Hard as it is to take, all through Scripture that is the way God looks at sin and those who sin. That’s Adam and that’s me and my wages. Read the Old Testament and see how death was treated in the ceremonies of Israel. No wonder Jesus said that one day sinners will hear, “Depart from Me!” (Matthew 25:41).

Somehow we dead rats need righteousness and nothing we have to offer is something God wants. Our only hope is the performance of another, one Who personally experienced the terror of God’s abandonment (See 2 Corinthians 5:21 for a short synopsis). Rats needs mercy, not performance. Imagine a rat telling God, “I’ll let you into my heart.”

Adventure report: I got a new roommate yesterday. Then I killed him. The corner of my vision caught movement and I saw a healthy-sized roach. Flip-flops are versatile. They can be used to hold your place in your Bible when you are preaching outdoors and as weapons when you decide you do not wish to share your room with large beetles.

Fire Protection Trumps Fire Insurance

            Once as I was outside grilling meat for supper my then four-year-old daughter approached me with a question. She asked, “Is there a special way to get to heaven?” I do not suggest that I have unlocked the mysteries of the four-year-old female mind, but I do think I know what she was asking. I think she was wondering if there is a shortcut to heaven—like the quick route we take to get from our Cameron home to St. Paul. She saw heaven as real place like I do and she reasoned that real places have real roads that lead to them. It is also an indication to me that the seeds of the gospel have been planted in this little one.

            I decided I would rather have her learn something out of the question rather than giving her a trite, fit-for-Sunday-School answer. So I asked her, “What is heaven?” This took the conversation deeper than she had intended, but it is a good question for all of us. The answer is that heaven is the place God lives. The question it prompts is: “How can any of us go there?

            If your answer is, “Ask Jesus into your heart,” you have not sufficiently understood the question. This is not about you finding some secret code or reciting the right mantra to spring you into a pleasant afterlife. You are as unfit for that holy place as you are for the heart of an active volcano. What is more, you have the here and now to worry about. What keeps you from facing judgment as these words reach you right now?

            If you lack something pertaining to getting to heaven it is not spiritual formulas or prayers to recite. Those are available in abundance. Just read the last page of gospel tracts and you will find sample prayers. The problem is that God is so glorious and we are so sinful. I explained to Lydia that the trouble with finding the way to heaven is that we can’t go there as we are now. We are not fit.

            But that is not the end of the lesson. I do not know if she followed all of the conversation after that and, honestly, I do not mind. By God’s grace, when the new birth comes, we make sense of all the information we have collected and not comprehended in the past. What I want those under my charge to understand is that, like a firefighter cannot walk into a burning building wearing street clothes, we cannot walk into the presence of the thrice holy God wearing fig leaves. We need a covering.

            Like you learn from the story of Adam and Eve, the only sufficient covering for sinners that permits survival before the gaze of God requires the death of a substitute.

Don't Be Afraid of Romans Nine

            The ninth chapter of Romans has been the subject of much debate through the centuries because a person’s view of divine sovereignty, human responsibility and the place of Israel in God’s plan may hinge on its interpretation. The exercise of interpreting Romans nine is so disturbing to some that they have opted to ignore teaching it. It is a lot easier to attack the interpretive work of another teacher if you haven’t done the exercise yourself. 

            This blog regularly deals with biblical counseling issues. Embracing what this chapter teaches will bring you to have a God-centered approach to any struggle you could ever bring into the counseling room

            Does God really have the right to do whatever He wants with people, including choosing to save them or leave them in their sins? Later I am going to answer, “Yes,” but let me illustrate.

            I grow rhubarb. I have a thriving stand of it in my garden. It belongs to me. I created a space for it with my tiller. I planted it. My family tends it. We pick some of it and use it for our purposes.

            We can use it for whatever we want. My wife makes killer rhubarb pie, rhubarb torte, rhubarb crisp and rhubarb crunch. I have even sampled some delicious rhubarb punch. I occasionally eat it like a stalk of celery, as disgusting as that might sound to you. Its large leaves, when picked, work well as a mulch to keep down weeds or as a hat to prevent sunburn.

            Rhubarb is valuable to me as long as it accomplishes my purposes. But it tends to shade some of my other garden plants and make them pale. It sometimes encroaches on the territory of other plants. When this happens I have to take action.

            What if rhubarb had a personality? Can you picture those red and green stalks meeting under cover of darkness to plot my overthrow and replace me with the garden rake or the largest tomato plant?

            What if I use my self-propelled Toro lawnmower to take out a section of the rebels? Would those stalks I left complain that the others never had the chance? Would they accuse me of violating the free will of those stalks that really wanted to be in a pie of only they had been given a chance?

            Get this: Even you rhubarb lovers would not take their side against me because the issue is not the free will of the rebels but the free will of the master. It is not what my rhubarb wants but what I want that makes the difference.

            This is where my illustration breaks down. Rhubarb does not have personality. It was not created with a mind, emotions and a will. It has not used its will to replace me. That is why the story of God’s redemption is so much more vivid.

            The story of the Bible is not about great people who achieved great things for God. The story is of a great God, period. We are allowed in His story because He decided to let us in. We belong to Him. He created a space for us. He put us here. He takes care of us and makes us thrive here. He uses us for His purposes.

            Are you ready for this? He has the right to do whatever He wants with us because He is God. Bad thing for us, we have darkened minds, self-focused emotions and depraved wills. Our fallen wills have chosen to replace the living God with anything from statues made of stone to sports to sensuality. Good thing for us, this God does what He wants in complete harmony with His character. And that changeless character is merciful as well as holy.

            The content of the chapter is summarized in verse 18, “So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.” Does this mean that God actively chooses the people who get to be saved while passing others by, or is there another way of looking at it? Two primary views emerge: Either (1) God saves individuals on the basis of His character and sovereign plan or (2) God saves nations on the basis of His character and sovereign plan. The second view leaves open the possibility for God to rescue or condemn nations independent of His dealings with individual people.

            It is true that God judges nations while saving His people inside those nations, but that is not the message of Romans 9. While there are national aspects to the election of God (Deuteronomy 7:7-8), this text will demonstrate that viewing God as the Savior of individuals is the interpretation that best fits the purpose of Paul’s letter. The story of God’s redemptive plan for the nation of Israel is an illustration that directs us to His redemptive plan for individuals, not the other way around. Romans nine contends that God is the sovereign ruler over nations and individuals within those nations for His own good purpose and His own glory.

            We humans, like so much rebellious rhubarb, are not running to submit to God’s rule. People who are troubled with talk of election and predestination have an incorrect view of the nature of man and the nature of God. Men are not crawling over one another to get into the kingdom of heaven and God is not standing outside with a stick, beating those poor willing souls away from the gates.

            God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden because He is God and because we are rebels. As the book of Romans has clearly illustrated, the shocking reality is not that God would dare allow rebels to suffer eternal punishment but that He would dare save any of us.

            Does this make sense to you? Does it make sense that this is God’s world and that He can do whatever He wants? Beware if it does. When you take this point of view you need to be ready to answer some questions. If God is indeed sovereign, every event in His world is subject to the scrutiny of the people in His world.

            How, for instance, do you answer the skeptic who asks you how you can believe in a God who would raise up wicked men like Herod the Great, Adolph Hitler and Osama bin Laden to kill so many innocent people? What kind of God would allow earthquakes and tsunamis and hurricanes to kill children? “If that is God, I choose not to believe in Him,” your unbelieving friends might say.

            You could take the current theological way of escape from hard questions and say that God has limited His knowledge of some future events. Redefining God’s attributes by giving Him this “openness” might make you think you are protecting His reputation from blame for events you cannot explain. But you can never satisfy a sinner whose heart is hard by cutting God down to the sinner’s level of understanding.

            There are some questions we can never answer. Can you be satisfied with that and still run to your Savior even when He has left you hurting and weak?

            The Gospel of Luke (13:1) records an instance where some men questioned Jesus about a horrible crime Pilate reportedly committed against some Galileans in the Temple. Jesus replied reminding them of yet another tragedy in which a tower fell and killed eighteen people. We cannot know why they asked Him about this but we can know what our response to such events needs to be. Jesus said that such events call us to repentance. Catastrophes are a reminder that our lives are short and unpredictable and that we are accountable to God. While men are shaking their fists at the Creator they should be kneeling in shame, pleading for forgiveness.

            So this begs the question: Do you want a God without a plan and without control over His creation? If He is not in charge, the alternative rulers deserve more fist-shaking than God is currently getting. Do you want a God Who chooses not to control nature or Who is surprised by the wicked plans of wicked men? When your unbelieving friends look at a sin-cursed world and seek to accuse God of wrongdoing, turn the tables like Jesus did. The burden is on them. Unless they repent they will perish in similar fashion.

            This is Paul’s argument in Romans nine. Man says, “That’s not fair.” God says, “Don’t ask for what’s fair.” Man says, “What about my free will?” God says, “What about my free will?”

            Consider some thoughts that may help you as you approach what has been called “the most neglected chapter in the Bible”:

            There are some things you can know for sure when you approach this difficult chapter:

1.   It does not contradict what the Bible says elsewhere. The Bible has proven itself immune to the charges of its critics. This does not mean that there are no difficult passages, only that those passages are part of a unified body of revelation from God.

2.   It presents God as He is, whether you like it or not. Romans nine does not seek to accommodate those who seek to create a lesser god.

3.   God is never confused or in error. Whenever there are charges of wrongdoing, God is never the defendant.

4.   It is possible to correctly understand the hard texts. Your confusion over circumstances or biblical texts does not change God’s character or His word. The emotions stirred by a difficult text should never determine your interpretation of that text. Your theology or system of belief must bend to the plain reading of any Scripture text, not vice versa.

5.   The safest action for hurting or confused people is to run into the presence of God, never away from Him.

A Response to the News

The news.

The response.

The Cross and My Trouble

What do you do when life doesn’t go your way? What do you think when an ordinary day or week or life turns into a nightmare? Let’s imagine, for the sake of illustration, that you’re living in circumstances that look like the part of a great American novel where the hero gets in trouble and the trouble is getting worse.

·         You uncover a shameful truth about your spouse or one of your children.

·         You face unexpected and overwhelming expenses at a time when your income it at its lowest.

·         You get bad news from the doctor about yourself or a family member.

How will you think and behave at a time like this? What will determine how you will think and behave? Can you prepare yourself to respond biblically to such circumstances or must you wait and see what comes out?

Then there are the questions about God’s perspective. What kind of reaction does He expect of his children when they are suffering? Does He say, “It’s okay to be mad at me” or does He say, “Suck it up. It could be worse”?

Our trouble is that we tend to gravitate toward one of those extremes. Either we crumble under the pressure and enter a mindless, faithless despair or we become bitter and cold, steeling ourselves against further hurt by refusing to feel emotion.

Many in the Church have attempted to answer the problem of pain. Some say our pain is as much a surprise to God as it is to us. Others say you suffer because you do not have enough faith. Still others blame territorial or ancestral spirits.

The world has its own answers. We are told there are predictable stages of grief—that anyone outside the pattern is likely in denial. We are taught to pamper ourselves when we hurt, to take a break from responsibility until the hurt goes away. To suggest that there might be a wrong way to respond to suffering is to be labeled judgmental. Among people “in the know” there is no consensus of what “normal” is, so almost anything goes, which raises an interesting question: Is there a “normal” way to respond to suffering? Is there for a follower of Jesus Christ a pattern which, if lived out, makes you God’s kind of sufferer?

Without hesitation we must say, “Yes. Normal is Jesus.”

Mark 10:45 (ESV) records these words of Jesus: “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” What is your task as a follower of Christ who is suffering? It is to serve and to give. That is what Jesus did.

Take special care in noting all the people Jesus ministered to as he hung on the cross:

 

·         To his tormentors

·         To the repentant thief

·         To the unrepentant thief

·         To John

·         To Mary

·         To the people he died to save

 

Developing an “other-focus” in prosperous times will prepare you for lean times.

To his tormentors (“Father, forgive them…”), He served a healthy portion of grace. He could have had them destroyed by the angels under his command, but He prayed for them. Following His own counsel to “pray for your enemies,” Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34, ESV).

In our nation of religious freedom it may be hard for you to imagine someone having a murderous hatred for you because you are an outspoken Christian. It isn’t hard to imagine the rolling eyes and verbal jabs that come toward Christ’s evangelists.

To the repentant thief, He granted a pardon (Luke 23:43, ESV), saying, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”

When you are hurting it is often because of the sins of others. To refuse forgiveness to them when they honestly repent is to say that what Jesus did on the cross was an insufficient price. The words “I forgive you” are a ministry to a repentant sinner.

If you are hurting because of your own sin, you need to view yourself as guilty as the thief hanging next to Jesus.

To the unrepentant thief, He offered common grace. This ministry was not in what Jesus said or did but in His silence. That is, Jesus allowed the man to live even in the midst of his blasphemy. He was witness to the same things as the repentant thief, yet he persisted in unbelief. Luke 23:39 (ESV) records it this way: “One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, ‘Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!’”

Common grace is what God gives every man—even the worst among men—by allowing him life, sustenance and pleasure. You may have lived long enough to have had someone wrong you terribly. You cannot grant them full forgiveness without their repentance, but you can give up the right to become bitter. You can grace them by refusing to take revenge—even if they sorely deserve it.

To Mary, He ministered material provision. As the eldest son of Mary, Jesus took the responsibility to secure her a place to live. As Mary and John stood at the foot of the cross, He said (John 19:26, ESV), “Woman, behold, your son!”

As with everything else Jesus said and did at the cross, His focus here was on others. Facing unimaginable pain, He considered what His widowed mother would need to sustain her into old age.

To John (giving ministry is a ministry), He entrusted the care of His mother. John 19:7 (ESV) “‘Behold, your mother!’ And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.”

Suffering people might be tempted to give a job to everyone available to help themselves. Jesus commissioned John to carry out a task he would be unable to carry out.

To the people he died to save, He gave a completed work. He said, “It is finished” (John 19:30). He absorbed God’s wrath toward their sins. He purchased them from slavery to sin with His blood. He secured eternal life for them. He became sin so that they could be declared righteous in God’s sight. He washed their sins away.

This you cannot do. If you are one who has realized personally the washing away of sins, you can use the suffering of your master as a pattern for your own suffering, but you can add nothing to a work that perfectly satisfied the Father’s righteous demands. With these words of Jesus, yours is but to joyfully bask in the light of a completed work you had no part in.

If you are a stranger to this pleasure, yours is to see the unspeakable disparity between the holy Lamb of God and your helpless, guilty soul—to see yourself as an object of wrath. This is no exaggeration of the facts. Run to Him now for mercy.

Perseverance of the Saints: How God Demonstrates the Rescue

Finally, that doctrine called “Once Saved Always Saved,” right?

Not so fast. A common error in Christendom and Blogdom is to take off with a little bit of information on something we find distasteful and create a target that is easy to knock down. The biblical doctrine of Perseverance frequently falls prey to that kind of attack. Please don’t do that. Just listen before you jump to conclusions.

The first article from the Synod of Dordtrecht’s teaching on Perseverance of the Saints says:

Those whom God, according to His purpose, calls to the communion of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and regenerates by the Holy Spirit, He also delivers from the dominion and slavery of sin, though in this life He does not deliver them altogether form the body of sin and from the infirmities of the flesh.

The greatest number of arguments I have heard against the biblical doctrine of Perseverance find their foundation in anecdotes rather than Scripture. Most of us know people who made convincing professions of faith, even achieving leadership positions in the church only to abandon the faith by joining some cult or living immorally. Think Judas.

Maybe our trouble is that we assume “saved” means “claims to believe.” We rightly point out that people are either saved or lost with no middle ground, but some assume that people who appear saved and turn permanently away have lost their salvation. Arminian theology contends that men are saved and lost based on the choices of their free will. Please understand that this is more than semantics. Denying the doctrine of Perseverance guts the power of the cross to change sinners and enthrones the will of man.

Please hang with me here. We may differ on what it means to be “saved.” Paul told the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 1:18) that the message of the cross is “the power of God” to those of us who are being saved. He meant that the cross of Christ actually rescued people from the bondage of sin (Romans 6:1-7). The cross did more than provide a choice at a fork in the road for sinners. It delivered those for whom it was intended. Saved people do not possess entire practical sanctification but they are fundamentally different from lost people.

I pointed out in the article on “Limited Atonement” that salvation is not a miracle cure for a deadly disease available for those who are smart enough to take the treatment. It is a voice calling corpses in a graveyard to life (Ephesians 2:1). Those who are alive in Christ possess eternal life now (John 3:36; 5:24) based on the performance of Messiah instead of their own (2 Corinthians 5:21).

If you are an Arminian, we agree on at least one thing, my friend in Christ: We should not give the benefit of the doubt to professing believers who are living for the devil. You say they had it and lost it. I say they never had it. Jesus called people out of darkness into a new kingdom (Colossians 1:13-14) where the subjects of the King receive a new nature (2 Corinthians 5:17). Lordship salvation is the only kind of salvation. “Once saved always Saved” is better worded, “if saved, always saved.”

Those who have been bought by the blood of Christ are kept saved by the power of God and will persevere in the Christian faith (John 6:37; 10:27-29; 17:11; Romans 8:29-30; Ephesians 1:13-14; Philippians 1:6; Hebrews 7:25; 1 Peter 1:3-5; Jude 24).

Jesus did not die to provide a potential salvation. The “plan of salvation” goes from foreknowledge all the way through glorification (Romans 8:28-39). We do not need to live in despair, thinking we have to whip up some works-based righteousness in order to stay in God’s family.

Believing this makes a difference in “real life” because we know it is possible to live differently by God’s grace. You live a holy life because you have been rescued from a horrible life (and death), not because you are afraid of losing your spot. Parents do not produce obedient children by the constant threat that they will be kicked out of the family if they do not measure up. We give them their family identity by loving them and disciplining them (See all of Hebrews 12). Believing in this completed work of salvation delivers us from fearing we have not met the expectations required to survive the judgment of God. It also delivers us from fearing the extra-biblical standards of church people.

Irresistible Grace: How God Applies the Rescue

Many years ago after an incident in which my minivan became hopelessly stuck on a frozen Wisconsin lake in February (long story, feel free to ask for details), I saw an illustration of an important biblical teaching. Preachers do that (look for illustrations, not drive on snowy lakes).

Back to the story. Through the darkness, the driver of a very powerful four-wheel-drive Chevy truck saw my overheated vehicle and drove through deep snow to rescue me. He hooked a chain to my chassis and dragged me to the main road that crossed the lake. I didn’t flag him down. I could say I cooperated, but my spinning wheels were useless until he dragged me to the place where my wheels could work.

The bottom line is this: my rescue was all about his decision to come and get me. My contribution to the process, if you call it a contribution, was being obviously in trouble.

Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:44). Why did he say that? He said that because he was pointing out (see more in verses 26-46) that God’s people will be saved at the time and by the means he has ordained. They will repent and believe, but even those are gifts. In other words, Jesus was articulating the doctrine that would later be called “Irresistible Grace”.

Many of those who oppose this doctrine do so because of a faulty caricature. They testify of their own resistance to the gospel’s call to repentance. People say, “If this is true, then why did I resist so long before I turned to Christ?”

Of course everyone resists God. Stephen spoke of this in Acts 7:51, as did Paul in Ephesians 4:30 and 1 Thessalonians 5:19. This is our nature. Total depravity, right? So then, spiritually dead people can only exercise faith when a work of God called “regeneration” frees their will. Faith comes after the new birth (John 1:11-14; John 3:3-8; Titus 3:4-5; 1 Peter 1:3, 23; 1 John 5:1). The Canons of Dordt used these words to defend this doctrine:

Moreover, when God carries out this good pleasure in his chosen ones, or works true conversion in them, he not only sees to it that the gospel is proclaimed to them outwardly, and enlightens their minds powerfully by the Holy Spirit so that they may rightly understand and discern the things of the Spirit of God, but, by the effective operation of the same regenerating Spirit, he also penetrates into the inmost being of man, opens the closed heart, softens the hard heart, and circumcises the heart that is uncircumcised. He infuses new qualities into the will, making the dead will alive, the evil one good, the unwilling one willing, and the stubborn one compliant; he activates and strengthens the will so that, like a good tree, it may be enabled to produce the fruits of good deeds.

So are we puppets, unwilling people dragged into the family of God? No more than Lazarus resisted coming forth from that tomb. No more than I fought the guy in the Chevy truck. The Canons of Dordt coupled this doctrine with Total Depravity:

…this divine grace of regeneration does not act in people as if they were blocks and stones; nor does it abolish the will and its properties or coerce a reluctant will by force, but spiritually revives, heals, reforms, and--in a manner at once pleasing and powerful--bends it back. As a result, a ready and sincere obedience of the Spirit now begins to prevail where before the rebellion and resistance of the flesh were completely dominant. It is in this that the true and spiritual restoration and freedom of our will consists. Thus, if the marvelous Maker of every good thing were not dealing with us, man would have no hope of getting up from his fall by his free choice, by which he plunged himself into ruin when still standing upright.

Because man is spiritually dead, only a gracious work of God can change his condition. This work, then, does not force unwilling people into the kingdom but makes unwilling people willing. This is what happened to Saul on the road to Damascus. It is what God did when he granted Gentiles faith. It was the experience of Lydia, whose heart God opened.

The suggestion that this doctrine is anti-evangelistic cannot stand up against the facts. Evangelist John R. Rice wrote, “Satan uses this doctrine of ‘Irresistible Grace’ to lull Christians to disobedience and lack of compassion and burden to get people saved.” In reality, believing this promotes aggressive evangelism. We do not need manipulative altar calls, a great band or funny cartoons to woo more people to salvation. God uses means and his chosen means of rescuing sinners is the preaching of the gospel. Ours is not to dress it up but to spread it thick. As one preacher said, “We stand in the service of the all-sovereign God of the universe whose words do not fall to the ground, whose purposes must be accomplished and whose people will be saved.”

Do not be impatient today with those who have not yet discovered what you learned yesterday.

Warning: this entry is, without apology, a theology lesson. What does theology have to do with depression, self-mutilation, fear, anger and marriage problems? Everything. What you believe is more important than what you do because what you believe determines what you do. This biblical counselor believes every counseling problem is a theological problem.

People captive to sinful habits are active worshippers at the wrong altar. The false deities of people in sin promise to give them their good feelings without consequences. These idols offer control and ease and never send things that hurt. In short, people in sin only love gods that are less than sovereign.

Now the theology lesson. I am a monergist. That is, I recognize the biblical teaching that salvation is all of God rather than a cooperative effort between God and man. I believe that regeneration is what produces faith in us (John 1:13; 3:3; 1 Peter 1:3) and that both grace and faith fall into the category of "and that not of yourselves" (Ephesians 2:8-10). For lack of a simpler word, that makes me a Calvinist (see a little chunk of my Romans 8 exposition for a biblical description).

It has been a refreshing discovery for me to finally realize that my salvation from start to finish is a work of God. My delight is increasingly found in the author and finisher of my faith instead of in my great choice. My service is increasingly motivated by the desire to see the purposeful work of Christ on the cross bear its certain fruit in the lives of those who are called to faith when I preach the gospel. I have not only learned what it is to rest in Christ, I have learned the right motivation to work hard for Christ.

Having said all that, the balance of this entry is going to chastise some of my theological allies. It is even going to chastise me. Here is a hard question: Do people who, apart from grace, are empty-headed fools have any business saying "Raca" or "Thou fool" (see Matthew 5:22)?

Of all the issues I face in the counseling room, the most destructive is pride. Those of us who embrace the Doctrines of Grace are not in danger of being right. We are in danger of being proud that we are right.

We Calvinists know how to pronounce (and some of us can even correctly spell) Arminian with a tone of disdain. My trouble is this: how can a pride-crushing theology produce pride in the people who embrace it? If the grace of God alone brought me to faith and I cannot boast in the quality of my faith or the smartness of my choice, how can I take any credit for discovering the system of theology that recognizes those truths? "Proud Calvinist" is an oxymoron.

Please remember that your system of theology is more than what you claim to believe. You can answer the delightful question 11 from the Westminster Shorter Catechism, saying, "God's providence is His completely holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing every creature and every action" and then live a life that proves you would rather not have a sovereign God tell you how to love your wife, submit to your husband or manage your money.

I do not write these things because I have somehow won this battle myself. Let me take this instruction as I give it. Do not be impatient today with those who have not yet discovered what you learned yesterday. Those who celebrate the free will of man to the exclusion of celebrating the free will of God are in error, but they are not necessarily the enemy. They may be deceived by the enemy.

Yes, there are those who need to be directly confronted. Sharp rebuke may often be in order, but being quarrelsome is never in order. Paul taught Timothy another way of dealing with error: "with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will" (2 Timothy 2:25-26).

Here is my challenge to you who have been released from the bondage of a man-centered theology:

1. Live life in your home and in your workplace like one who has been rescued from slavery and set free to serve.


2. Take as much credit for your system of theology as you do for your salvation.


3. Present the glorious truths that humble you before the sovereign God with the gentleness that logically springs from your theology.

A man questioning his fundamentalist upbringing, part 4

George:

What do you have to prove? Becoming sinlessly perfect is good enough for God. You have to be better than the people around you. That is why Jesus’ words “unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven” must have been an initial shock to the ordinary people to whom he wrote.

Micah said that what is good and what God requires is to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God. The Old and New Testaments both demand holiness like God’s holiness.

Does that sound like some of the “legalism” you saw while growing up? If calls to performance make you restless, they should.

I love the way God brings his people to despair over their souls before they realize what grace is. The whole point of the despair is not to be mean to us but to show us that faith is the casting of our entire sinful bulk at the feet our Intercessor, Jesus Christ, the Righteous, and pleading for mercy. I try and try to be good and finally I cry out, “I can’t play this game anymore!” At that point I either run away in confusion or run to the one who set the standard in the first place.

I memorized a poem years ago that says:

To run and work the law demands,
But gives me neither feet nor hands.
Better news the gospel brings;
It bids me fly and gives me wings.

You will note that confusion (“unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you”) is precisely what happened to anyone who encountered Jesus (especially when he told parables). As John MacArthur says, Jesus had a way of discouraging half-hearted disciples. Like the pillar of cloud/fire in the Red Sea or Jesus’ parables, one side provided refuge (not necessarily answers) and the other provided confusion and judgment.

The call to holiness is not like the moral codes that exist elsewhere—even in some fundamentalist churches. This holiness is free and the performance of it is achieved through the working of another who lives inside us. I prove my faith by my works (trusting God, praying, kindness, studying Scripture, fellowship with Christians, serving in church…), but I do it as a loving response to him for what I already have.

Man-centered religion (including some forms of Christianity) calls on people to decide whether or not they want to pay the dues and live the life. To biblical Christianity there is no decision. I must not decide for Christ, I must run to him.

Christians should look at flood-ravaged New Orleans and rather than saying this was God’s judgment on commercialism or riverboat gambling, should echo Jesus words, “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” A few hymnals still include the "Rock of Ages" verse that says, “Foul, I to the fountain fly. Wash me, Savior, or I die!”

And he never turns away from those who come his way. You will not find that kind of grace in the religions that have evolved in the world.

I was not saying that we have to defend Christianity. Yes, propositional truth must be accepted by faith (“thus saith the Lord”). I said it is defensible, i.e., faith in Christ is not a step into the darkness to one among many options. Our world says, “Whatever works for you” and “Whatever is truth to you.” Jesus said “I am the truth.”

The God of the Bible is there and he has not been silent. The one who set the universe in motion told us how he did it and how he sustains it. Science confirms, not proves, the designs of God.

The big difference between Christianity and the religions of the world are twofold: (1) A living Savior and (2) a way to become different. The deliverance from the basic human cussedness that honest people (Christian or Buddhist) have to admit is only offered by a person who can give you the righteousness you do not have.

Too long… time to throw this south.

Blessings as you ruminate.

A man questioning his fundamentalist upbringing, part 3

George:

First, the defensibility of Christianity. What I mean is that we have answers. People ask, “Why are we here?” and we have answers. We have answers about why homosexuals ought not to marry, why animals do not have rights, why people fly airplanes into buildings, why tsunamis kill children and why there are so many people groups. You find answers to those questions just in the first eleven chapters of Genesis.

The world also has answers, but its answers change as its authority shifts with new moods, new trends and new information.

One of the foundational parts of Christian belief is the origin of the universe. No, the six-day creation is no more reproducible in a lab than is the evolutionary model. Either position springs from the worldview of its proponent. What we have, however, is trust in the word of a God who has backed up everything he says (starting with his promise of death to Adam if he ate of that tree).

The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ was not only witnessed by more than five hundred people, its reality has been shown in the dramatic change in the lives of those witnesses as well as those of us who, having not seen, still love him. Jesus did offer a personal touch to Thomas, but pronounced a blessedness on those who have not seen and yet believed. Even the famous American agnostic Charles Templeton, who denied the deity and lordship of Christ, claimed to adore Jesus (The Case for Faith, Lee Strobel). I wonder where he got his information about Jesus?

I’m not telling you that God could never speak to you audibly, but can you love him and trust him if he does not? The qualifications required for such an appointment are pretty rough, as Job, Moses and Elijah would tell you. Confidence comes from trusting the one you cannot see. Peace of mind comes from obeying the one you cannot see (the reward of a clear conscience). Seeing God in the everyday comes from believing that he is, and that he is the rewarder of those who earnestly seek him.

Consider this: God was not absent when the priests carrying the ark of the covenant stepped into the flooded waters of the Jordan. I do not think you can even say that his action was dependent on their action (good theology forbids such a man-centered approach). But God had decreed not to part the waters until they obeyed and stepped in. Likewise there was perceived risk for three young men in a fiery furnace and a pregnant teenager who had never slept with a man looking at a sentence of stoning. Here is the point (here I go prying): Is it possible you are wanting God to perform when the burden of proof should be on you?

The providential acts of God in human history demonstrate that he is no absentee landlord. Did you ever consider that if there is even one renegade molecule (R. C. Sproul’s words) in the entire universe outside of the sovereign control of God, we cannot trust him?

No, I do not think the problem here is that God is too silent. He left us Moses and the prophets (and the rest of a unified 66 books). I can honestly tell you that I have too much delight in getting to know him by delving through what he has already said to go looking for more.

A man questioning his fundamentalist upbringing, part 2

George:

I am curious about the healing you said you are seeking. If God responded just the way you like, how would he do it?

One of the most comforting texts of Scripture for me during a doubt storm is where Job (Job 23) is proclaiming that he cannot see God anywhere. He is saying, “I wish I could argue my case before God, but I can’t find him.” His comfort did not come when God appeared. His comfort came when he understood that, while he could not see God, God saw him (23:10).

You asked for something personal… My upbringing was likely similar to yours in that I stumbled over some of the external trappings of Christian fundamentalism that I thought would bring me sanctification. Developing a very feelings-based view of my relationship with God, I decided that I could find those feelings in a variety of settings (e.g., feeling after answered prayer = feeling of a babe who thinks I’m cute). I clung to the shallow theology I knew, but did what I pleased within self-appointed boundaries (don’t take God’s name in vain, witness to others once in awhile). I know there may have been a number of Pharisees in our church, but I’ll chalk the rebellious behavior of my teen years up to the hardness of my own heart.

Bible college was a good experience in that I was challenged to develop my worldview based on the Bible. You may know people who interpret information based on the views of a Christian leader, a famous philosopher or which direction the wind of public opinion is blowing. I was still greatly influenced by my teachers, but learned that it was O.K. to challenge them if I had God’s thoughts behind me.

I wound up pastoring a tiny church in northwest Wisconsin when I was twenty-four, far from the Bible college "plantation" and its pressures. I made many foolish errors (and still do), but studying Scripture gradually brought me to a better understanding of grace. I came to understand what the framers of the Westminster Confession of Faith understood three hundred years earlier when they articulated that man’s primary purpose is “to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.”

I am progressively learning to seek a “truth-based” existence rather than a “feelings-oriented” existence.

A man questioning his fundamentalist upbringing, part 1

George:

Our mutual friend told me about your struggles. I do not want to pry, but I would love to correspond with you—even connect you with someone close to your area—if you are willing. Pepper me with questions if you like.

You need to know that you are not alone with your doubts. You probably know enough Bible to remember the lean times experienced by people like Elijah and John the Baptist. Christianity is not only reasonable and defensible, its strong refuge is the best place to run when in doubt. During storms of doubt I have often run to what I know for sure.

Let me recommend a couple of books by Lee Strobel: The Case for Faith and The Case for Christ. This is from a man who started with unbelief and turned to Christ.

I would recommend a church or Christian ministry in your area but I am not sure what part of town you are living in. I will wait to find out.

One thought and I will leave the ball in your court: Faith is not a quality we feel first and foremost. It—even in its weakest form—must have a reliable object or it is worthless (e.g., people put great faith in untrustworthy leaders, security systems, cars, etc.). Tiny faith in a great God is all that is necessary.

We are living in a sin-cursed world and are consequently like the married woman who complained to her husband that the two never sat close in the car anymore. From behind the wheel he asked, “Who moved?”

The glory of God is his constant, heavy presence that does not change when we ignore it or even rebel against it. He is there whether you like it or not. He is faithful though we are faithless.

I have asked God to show himself to you. I hope you are looking for him.