Grace is not opposed to effort
Last week at the Bull Market (which is basically a flea market on campus every Wednesday, minus the guy selling boiled hot dogs and stale pretzels), I got into a conversation with a guy from a local church. He was there checking out the Bull Market because he wanted to come out the following week to "witness" to students there. By "witness", he meant set up an 8-foot high cross, hang a banner from it and then use a bull horn to tell people how much God loves them. Not the way I would personally do things, but I was happy that he planned on telling the students about God's love and grace as opposed to other "Christian" groups who have come out with bull horns to tell students the many reasons they're going to hell (which included smoking and wearing skirts).
He then started asking me questions about Impact. It became clear very quickly that he was measuring my validity as a leader and also the ministry's ability to lead students in the right direction. He asked a number of questions about my personal doctrine and beliefs and also about specific things we do as a ministry. After about 15-20 minutes of interrogation and me telling him some of the ways we're trying to serve the campus and community, he then informed me that I was teaching students to earn salvation by works and compromising God's grace. That was news to me, which of course I completely disagreed with and is not the case. We talked a little while longer about that, the details of which I'll spare you.
That conversation reminded me of a great article on spiritual formation that a friend (it might have been you, Dustin) sent me a link to about a year ago. In it, Dallas Willard and Dieter Zander are asked questions about spiritual formation and the role spiritual disciplines play in that. Because I liked their thoughts so much I printed and saved a copy of the article (titled The Apprentices), but it's still online and I set up a link to it. Here are a couple quotes from Willard that touch on the disagreement I had with the friend of mine at the Bull Market ...
"In most churches, we're not only saved by grace, we're paralyzed by it. We're afraid to do anything that might be a 'work'. The funny thing is we will preach to people for an hour that they can't do anything to be saved and then sing to them for a half an hour trying to get them to do something. This is confusing. People need to see that action is a receptacle for grace, not a substitute for it. Grace is God acting in our lives to do things we can't do on our own. Grace is not opposed to effort; it's opposed to earning."
On the function of spiritual disciplines, Willard says, "As an apprentice of Christ, I may be saved by grace, but I still have years of habitual anger, materialism, lust, and many other things to be dealt with. They're not just going to go away. Like someone who has a bad golf swing and always slices off to the right, I'm going to have to practice hitting the ball in a different way to make it go straight. The slice is in my body; it's how I have been formed. The disciplines help transform my habitual actions. The disciplines are not a substitute for grace, but receptacles for it."
He then started asking me questions about Impact. It became clear very quickly that he was measuring my validity as a leader and also the ministry's ability to lead students in the right direction. He asked a number of questions about my personal doctrine and beliefs and also about specific things we do as a ministry. After about 15-20 minutes of interrogation and me telling him some of the ways we're trying to serve the campus and community, he then informed me that I was teaching students to earn salvation by works and compromising God's grace. That was news to me, which of course I completely disagreed with and is not the case. We talked a little while longer about that, the details of which I'll spare you.
That conversation reminded me of a great article on spiritual formation that a friend (it might have been you, Dustin) sent me a link to about a year ago. In it, Dallas Willard and Dieter Zander are asked questions about spiritual formation and the role spiritual disciplines play in that. Because I liked their thoughts so much I printed and saved a copy of the article (titled The Apprentices), but it's still online and I set up a link to it. Here are a couple quotes from Willard that touch on the disagreement I had with the friend of mine at the Bull Market ...
"In most churches, we're not only saved by grace, we're paralyzed by it. We're afraid to do anything that might be a 'work'. The funny thing is we will preach to people for an hour that they can't do anything to be saved and then sing to them for a half an hour trying to get them to do something. This is confusing. People need to see that action is a receptacle for grace, not a substitute for it. Grace is God acting in our lives to do things we can't do on our own. Grace is not opposed to effort; it's opposed to earning."
On the function of spiritual disciplines, Willard says, "As an apprentice of Christ, I may be saved by grace, but I still have years of habitual anger, materialism, lust, and many other things to be dealt with. They're not just going to go away. Like someone who has a bad golf swing and always slices off to the right, I'm going to have to practice hitting the ball in a different way to make it go straight. The slice is in my body; it's how I have been formed. The disciplines help transform my habitual actions. The disciplines are not a substitute for grace, but receptacles for it."
posted by John V at 1:16 AM
2 Comments:
man, i hate those conversations. those are the worst when someone is sizing you and your beliefs up because regardless of what you say, it's never going to be right.
I remember I had a guy in my small group for one week in NYC who just moved their from Bob Jones University.
At the end of the Bible study he said, "It doesn't seem that you teach very much Southern Baptist Doctrine, why is that?" So I said sparingly, "well, i'm not southern baptist and Jesus didn't tell me to teach southern baptist doctine, he told me to teach about the Kingdom of God." He thanked me, left and I never saw him again.
Yes ,that is a great article.
I'll let you know if I see that guy again at the Bull Market this week. It's our last week before we take a break from it. By the way, don't hate me for my latest post. Here's to hoping Greg Jennings gets shut down for the Eggplants tonight and the Bears defense is absolutely sick!
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