My article just posted today on Christianity Today's "Building Church Leaders" web site. Click here to read it. I'll let that be my 'post' for the next day or so and on Friday I'll post a follow-up to the article.
If you're linking here from the article, welcome to Piebald Life! Take a look around and if you're interested, take a look at my first publication "Tent Duty" (link to the right) which is also a chapter from my very hypothetical book!
7 comments:
Congrats, AK! Have you emailed the Good Dr. Deddo about your article? I bet he'd be pleased to see it.
Elizabeth - I know that you asked Alex this question, but figured I would put in my two cents, too. I can see your confusion on the distinction between the two, and I don't think that they are really that distinct. I don't think that we should live to earn God's favor nor should we live for the applause of heaven. Now, do I want the Father to say well done? Yes indeed. But, to borrow some thinking from my good friend Macon, how well do I have to do things to have them be "well done?" In school a 90% was pretty good - in God's economy is good 90%? 51%? 30%? 99%? What is good enough and how do I know that I am doing enough or even that my motives are sufficiently bent towards heaven's applause versus man's? I know my own heart and how quickly my best intentions are revealed to be at least 20% about me and my looking good or getting it right (and 20% is probably generous).
Perhaps I am being too picky here, but just as our finding favor with God is tied completely to Christ, so is our receiving the "applause of heaven" tied completely to Christ. Galatians 2:20-21 tells me that I no longer live but Christ lives in me and that the life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me gave Himself for me. If that verse is truly true, then Christ and my abiding in Him is the only way that I receive the applause of heaven, because His life through me is the only life that I have. I get a "well done" not for how well I do or how pure my motives are, but for how fully I trust and abide. When asked "What must we do to do the works that God requires?" (aka get the applause of heaven), Jesus replied, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one that He has sent."
Is this advocating that we do nothing? Certainly not. But our works "for" God will be judged on how we trusted Him and how we asked Jesus to take and perfect our humble offerings of time and talents. I think that even striving for the applause of heaven subtly forces us back into dependence on ourselves, as though our efforts could be good enough, rather than casting our hopes completely on the sufficiency of Christ. God's "well done" to me has nothing to do with me at all. I am given Christ's "well done", one that I could not earn before I knew Him and cannot earn now.
PS I want to say that I undestand the spirit with which you (AK) wrote in your article about the applause of heaven. I am also sorry if I seem like the grace police. I am just hyper aware of how subtly we embrace doing things ourselves rather than dependence on Christ, and we don't even realize it.
A couple thoughts here:
1.) Applause of heaven is probably fine in the context, but it seems to me to be a step beyond "well done good and faithful servant." It definitely feels odd to have the applause coming our way.
2.) BUT, that being said, Jesus didn't shy away from using "reward" language, but not in reference to gettin' in the door.
3.) I can appreciate the grace emphasis by Marshall, and I'd say that our sanctification (not our standing) does require God/grace empowered effort.
I don't know if my comments here are helpful or necessary, but I love putting in my two cents.
Wow, great thoughts, ya'll...and thanks especially to Elizabeth for getting us started with a great question. Here's some random smattering of thoughts:
1. The original concept of 'applause of heaven' is a play off the old Puritan concept of working/'performing' religious duties for an audience of one. I find this to be helpful for me, as I am 'bent' towards people, performance, and working for the approval of men and women rather than God.
2. I thoroughly agree with Marshall's comment that our identity in Christ is first and foremost, the central and essential operating paradigm that must orient all our understanding of our standing before God.
3. Jesus' response to the crowd: "the work of God is to believe in the one he has sent." What this obviously does not mean is that we simply have some sort of mental assent to concepts and therefore call ourselves Christians. My 'kick down v. kick across' image operates in my life as a discipleship tool: Bonhoeffer said that when Christ calls a man, he calls him to come and die. Real deaths, leading to real life. Jesus goes to the cross for the joy set before him. Paul talks about taking off the old ways, the old and dead self and putting on the new ways, the new life we have in Christ. All of this is done in the Spirit, believing in Christ as we do the works he has prepared in advance for us to do.
In other words, our work does not define our identity before God, but the answer is not that our works do not matter. Our Father genuinely delights in giving us work to do--work that is first and foremost a different way to experience him. The work is not primarily a way to impress God, it is primarily a vehicle for enjoying Him. You get to know someone differently over coffee than at a Habitat Project. Similarly in our relationship with God. Our works are not brownie points before the Lord, they are opportunities for us to enter into the fullness of His joy. So we work, and the work we do is done in trusting obedience, with eyes wide open to how God would show himself differently at home, in the office, in my studies, at the grocery store, in my ministry. And all the while I'm having to die to myself, die to fishing for the approval of people and the roar of the crowd.
When I understand ministry especially as an opportunity to go to work with my Father, it re-orients my works from something I do to impress him to something that I get to do alongside him. Work is relational, not duty, not a test I have to pass.
Not sure if any of that hit the heart of Elizabeth's original question, but maybe it's another angle to get some more handles on a healthy view of our work.
i just read your article on CT, very good stuff. I was deeply encouraged and reminded of the importance of Sabbath rest, which gets lost in our church culture today. I hope you will finish your book, i would love to pick it up.
thanks, tim! it's been a bit of a rough ride on the book-front this week, your words are encouraging. i've gotten some positive feedback from folks (like yourself). i've actually just about finished the book, you might see more of it at building church leaders--they've already accepted 2 more chapters for publication but i'm holding off in the hopes that a publisher will actually pick up the book.
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