As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
“Can we please God? Should we try to? Is there a place for striving in the Christian life? Can God be disappointed with the Christian? Does the gospel make any demands? These are good questions that require a good deal of nuance and precision to answer well.” - Kevin DeYoung
“Such daily showing up, Dyck argues, may not look like much at first glance, but it is quietly revolutionary. It is the key for healthy marriage and family life, for building friendships, and for growing spiritually.” - Mere Orthodoxy
I recently wrote a brief defense of the importance of personal effort (or “trying harder”) in God’s gracious design to transform His saints. My central claim was that we put ourselves at odds with the NT if we understand or teach the dynamic of sanctification in a way that devalues or strongly cautions against hard work.
But that doesn’t mean emphasizing hard work has no attendant hazards.
Bob Hayton wrote of one of these pitfalls in a post: Particular Pitfalls of Independent Baptists: Performance-Based Sanctification.
Work hard, feel good; blow it and feel terrible. Where is the confidence in God’s grace in this model? The secret to living victoriously for Christ is gritting your teeth, doing more, and not doing the things you shouldn’t do. Try, try, try. Harder, harder, harder! Don’t quit. Keep going. We say that salvation is by grace, but growing in Christ is about the will power, the commitment and the determination.
This can lead to despair or a terrible form of pride.
The solution Bob advocates (citing Terry Rayburn and Tim Kellar, in part) is to reject trying harder, and focus exclusively on faith. Several Reformed leaders have emphasized a similar perspective in recent years (with a burst of back and forth on the Web beginning in the summer of 2011, see the table posting tomorrow), Tullian Tchividjian and Sean Lucas among them.
My purpose here is to explore the problem Bob and others have described. Perhaps we can come to more fully understand it.
“The first category is books to read slowly….The third category is books to read for fun….The second category sits between them: books to read quickly.” - Challies
“I wonder if we’ve made it a little too abstract, a little too inactive, and perhaps a little too solitary. What is meditation? Meditation is pondering the words of the Bible with the goal of better understanding and sharper application.” - Challies
“Regardless of our circumstances, we must rejoice in the Lord: ‘Though the fig tree should not blossom … yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. (Hab. 3:17–18)’” - Ligonier
“After the fall, outside the garden, work is not a pretty picture. Yet that’s the context in which we all work today. Every fallen weakness described above is present in every workplace every day.” - Common Good
“Dr. George H. Guthrie has written … A Short Guide to Reading the Bible Better. In this book, he provides helpful tools and guidance to help God’s people read and enjoy God’s Word.” - Lifeway
“God wants us to live. He wants us to make our own decisions. He provides the boundaries of his will in those matters the Bible makes clear, but then leaves it to us to operate according to wisdom and desire.” - Challies
“As one who greatly benefited from those in this role following the untimely death of my wife of 50 years in December 2021, here are a few suggestions based on what was most helpful to me.” - Lifeway
Discussion