Reading Classics Together: The Discipline of Grace, Chapter 3

I’m reading along with Tim Challies as he reads yet another Christian classic for his Reading Classics Together program.

This week’s reading in The Discipline of Grace is the third chapter, Preach the Gospel to Yourself. It’s a reminder that the believer’s pursuit of holiness is carried out “in the atmosphere of the gospel.” We should be constantly reminding ourselves of the truth of the gospel, and to do this we need to understand what the gospel is and how it applies to our lives as believers.

The biblical statement of the gospel that Bridges uses in this chapter is Romans 3:19-26. From this passage he draws these seven truths: 

1. No one is declared righteous before God by observing the law (verses 19-21). As believers, we know this, at least as far as it applies to our salvation. We know that we could never be good enough to be saved on account of our own obedience. Yet as believers, we sometimes “act as if we can live lives acceptable to God,” when we can’t! The first step in preaching the gospel to ourselves is to stop thinking like this.
2. There is a righteousness from God that is apart from the law (verse 21). Christ perfectly fulfilled God’s law on our behalf, and so, in our justification, “He declares us righteous on the basis of the real, accomplished righteousness of Jesus Christ, which is … credited to us through faith.” As believers, we must live our lives by daily trust in Christ’s righteousness.
3. This righteousness from God is received through faith in Christ Jesus (verse 22). The nature of this faith is a “complete renunciation of any confidence in our own righteousness” and wholehearted reliance on Jesus—his obedient life and sin-bearing death. We must live our lives in daily dependence on Christ for our righteous standing before God.
4. This righteousness is available to everyone on the same basis, because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (verses 22-23). Believers should keep on confessing their guilt before God because of their sin.
5. All who put their faith in Jesus Christ are justified freely by God’s grace (verse 24). Bridges writes: “Justification is like the two sides of a coin. On the one side we are declared “not guilty” before God, and on the other we are positively declared to be righteous through Christ.” As believers, we continue to sin, so it’s only natural that we sometimes feel that God must be against us. When this happens, we can remind ourselves of our two-sided justification and know that we stand before God counted righteous in Christ. It’s on this basis that he is never against us, but always on our side.
6. This justification is “through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (verse 24). It may be free to us, but Christ paid for it. The claims of justice have been met, something we can think on when our consciences are bothering us because of our sin: “the penalty has been fully paid by Him.”
7. “God presented [Jesus] as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood” (verse 25). We should appropriate it daily, over and over, to cleanse our consciences. 

These seven truths encompass the gospel that we must preach to ourselves. When we pursue holiness, we will see our sinfulness more and more clearly, and without a constant reminder of the righteousness from God received through faith we might lose hope. One of the doctrines I love most is the doctrine of imputed righteousness, because it is knowing that Christ’s own righteousness is counted as my own that keeps me sane. I think I’d be in a constant state of discouragement without it.

Theological Term of the Week

polytheism
The belief that there are many gods; the worship of multiple deities. 

• Scripture teaching against polytheism:

“You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD,

“and my servant whom I have chosen,

that you may know and believe me

and understand that I am he.

Before me no god was formed,

nor shall there be any after me. (Isaiah 43:10 ESV)

For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,
but the Lord made the heavens. (Psalm 96:5 ESV)

Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”—yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. (1 Corinthians 8:4-6 ESV)

• From the Second Helvetic Confession, Chapter 3:

Truly we detest many gods because it is expressly written: “The Lord your God is one Lord”(Deut.6:4). “I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me” (Ex. 20:2-3). “I am the Lord, and there is no other god besides me. Am I not the Lord, and there is no other God beside me? A righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me” (Isa. 45:5, 21). “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Ex. 34:6). 

• From God Is Love by Gerald Bray:

When speaking about pagans to the Romans, Paul described them in these words:

What can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, the did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. [Romans 1:19-23]

The picture is hardly flattering, but [this passage] tell[s] us something of great importance about so-called “primitive” or pagan [or polytheistic] religious practices. The pagans knew God in their hearts, and God continued to speak to them by the providential care that he lavished on them. They went wrong because they had no access to spiritual knowledge and found themselves looking for substitutes within the material universe. 

Learn more:

1. Theopedia: Polytheism
2. Gotquestions.org: What is polytheism?
3. Blue Letter Bible: What Is Polytheism?

Related terms:

• deism
• henotheism
• idolatry
• monotheism
• panentheism
• atheism
• Trinity

Filed under Isms

Do you have a term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it, giving you credit for the suggestion and linking back to your blog when I do.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms in alphabetical order.

Round the Sphere Again: Thinking about Prayer

A Cure
for a common prayer malady.

So, how are we to cure The Affliction of a Failure of Concentration [in prayer], if indeed we are afflicted in this way? Not principally by displaying our knowledge to God, but by heart-felt desire, which is one of the fruits of the Spirit.

Paul Helm at Helm’s Deep.

An Explanation
While it’s true that we don’t need to inform God when we pray, 

there’s a value in explaining our petitions to God, not because he doesn’t already know what we need better than we do, and not because we can cajole God through our powers of persuasion, but because it’s a way of thinking aloud and thinking through, not merely what we want, but why we want it, or whether we should.

Steve Hays at Triablogue

A List
Here’s an essay on public prayer that reviews several different public prayer traditions. Especially useful is the list of all the prayers found in scripture (Steve Hays at Triablogue again).