Christians should have a burning passion to be righteous, to be worthy of God in all that they do. Those who have such a longing to be holy will see their great need for God’s grace. They will quickly realize that in themselves they cannot do what God commands. Christians who have no fervent desire to please God will settle down in complacency, and see no great need for the Lord’s grace in their lives. These people are blind to how sinful their nature really is. The desire we should all have to overcome sin is often compared to hunger and thirst in the Bible: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness” (Matthew 5:6). This attitude of heart is utterly inconsistent with complacency. Jesus promised in the same verse that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness “will be satisfied.” Christians who just coast along never experience this.
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2 comments:
Mike, it was good for the soul to read this from you this morning. I agree wholeheartedly that our sanctification is a result of grace from first to last, and our sense of need for God's grace comes from understanding how far we fall short of the holiness of God - so short that we can never "work" this out. The flesh profits us nothing. It is all of grace. The grace of God that saves us is the very same powerful grace that 'works in us [as believers] to [both] will and to do' His revealed will. Grace is the power of God in us that literally enables us to both will and obey.
In your thoughts today, you say that lack of desire for personal holiness results in complacency in the Christian, so this desire for holiness is a prerequisite to progressing in sanctification. Desire for holiness grows by seeing one's great need for grace (which is based on see how sinful one really is). This is something that every Christian should be concerned about in their daily walk. The question I am hoping that you can address sometime is... where does this desire for holiness come from? How is it produced in the Christian? It seems to me, based on observation, that many Christians today fall into this "complacent" category.
Bob, I just saw your comment on Wednesday morning. Your question is right on target. Jonathan Edwards spent his lifetime pondering how spiritual desires are created in the human heart. I hope to dig into this more in the future. The basic answer is that a desire for holiness can only be created by seeing the moral beauty and glory of God. This happens only by faith.
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