The Bevans

Prepare The Way For The Lord!

One central aspect of the Spirit’s work is that of the manifesting of God’s holiness within us, for the Spirit is the Holy Spirit of God and life lived by the Holy Spirit is holy life. So any lack of holiness in our lives is a sure sign that in that area we are not living by the enabling power of the Spirit. As the people of a holy God, we are called to live holy lives. For, when the Lord inaugurated His covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai, His desire was for His people to be holy like He Himself is:

As we have seen in an earlier chapter, God’s holiness is His moral goodness, His purity and righteousness. Under the Old Covenant, the Lord gave extensive directions as to how His people should live in order to reflect His holiness in every aspect of their lives. These detailed commands are recorded in the four Biblical books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy and summarised in the ten commandments. Their extent by itself demonstrates the high value God places on holiness in His people.

Holy living is no less of a requirement for the people of God living under the New Covenant. We too are called to be God’s holy people, as these extracts from the New Testament epistles testify:

However, under the New Covenant of grace, the emphasis is no longer on the commandments of the law as such. As the apostle Paul explains, the detailed regulations of the Jewish law, though given by God and so Spiritual, holy, righteous and good, have been replaced under the New Covenant by the gift of the Spirit, and so the law’s time has come to an end. For those living under it, the Jewish law could do no more than inform of God’s standards of righteousness. It was unable to bring about righteousness, neither in terms of a right standing before God nor in terms of behaviour conforming to God’s character. However, now, under the New Covenant, the former (‘justification’) has been achieved for us through Christ’s atonement and our response of faith, and the latter (‘sanctification’) through the work of the Holy Spirit poured into our lives. With the death and resurrection of Christ and the gift of the Spirit everything changed and as a result, the Jewish law is now obsolete. Nevertheless, its standards remain for us for we are still called to a life of holiness. As Paul writes to the Romans, "Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law."

For Paul, life under the law was ‘flesh’-life, belonging to the old nature:

So, what are the implications of this for us? We may not be "under law", but neither are we supposed to live ‘lawlessly’. The commands and precepts of God’s holy law point us to His requirements of righteousness — the righteousness that characterises the Lord God Himself. These requirements are then met in us as we walk by the Spirit. As Gordon Fee has put it, "the power lies not in externals, but in the Spirit, who indwells believers and by grace is renewing the ‘inner person’, transforming us into God’s own likeness." The Holy Spirit turns our hearts towards obedience and enables us to live in such a way as to express the intent of the law in the first place — to create a people for God’s name, who bear His likeness in their character. For through Christ, we have been set free from slavery to sin and have become slaves to God, producing the fruit of holiness.

All this, of course, can be seen foreshadowed in the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, spoken nearly six hundred years before Christ, that talk of a time when the covenant of the written code would be replaced with a covenant of the Spirit, but the standard of righteousness would remain unchanged:

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches concerning the relevance of the requirements of the law for New Covenant living. His words emphasise the high standard involved in true holiness. It is perhaps worth reminding ourselves of Jesus’ own words, the core of His ethical teaching:

What are we to make of such apparently unrealistic commands? Here Jesus presents us with a shocking picture of what true holiness looks like in human form — a seemingly impossible perfection — and with all seriousness He charges us to keep it. How should we react?

When we read elsewhere that the entire law can be summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbour as yourself.", or that "love is the fulfilment of the law", we are inclined to want to interpret this as a watering down of the detailed requirements of the law. But Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount seem to imply the opposite — that true heart-fulfilment and love-based realisation of the law requires an intensification of its demands! We like to think that ‘little’ sins don’t matter very much because ‘love’ is all that is required. Jesus’ criticism of the Pharisees shows that while love absolutely is at the heart of all righteousness, this fact can never be used as an excuse to ignore God’s standards in any area of our lives:

Undeniably, we should not self-righteously and hypocritically focus on the ‘gnats’, and neglect the more important ‘camels’ (the Pharisees’ fault), but neither should we ignore the ‘gnats’ on the false basis that only the ‘camels’ matter. Despite what we might have expected, Jesus did not suggest to the Pharisees that the tithing of a tiny harvest of garden herbs was unnecessary pedantry for them. No, in even the smallest of things, God’s righteousness should be expressed in our behaviour.

When the "royal law of love" is spelt out in detail like Jesus does in the Sermon on the Mount, it seems totally unattainable to us. And yet, not only did Jesus mean what He said, His own actions matched His words. There once was One who did live like this, One who was tempted in every way, exactly as we are — yet was totally without sin. And, as Jesus was, so should we be for we live by the same Holy Spirit Jesus did. As Philip Yancey has written,

This seriousness in Jesus’ ethical teaching conflicts sharply with our modern approach. In our present-day society, the concept of sin is, in general, completely trivialised. Sin is a joke — "naughty, but nice". And, sadly, in many cases, the church has followed the world and unrighteousness is treated very lightly indeed. Many who call themselves Christians behave as if sin really doesn’t matter very much. These days it is very common indeed to find the preaching of a ‘gospel’ message (if it can honestly be called that) in which repentance for sin plays little or no part at all. Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s warnings against preaching a perverted gospel of "cheap grace" have gone generally unheeded since he wrote them sixty years ago:

Cheap grace encourages complacency about sin. A certain measure of sinful attitudes and actions is considered normal and acceptable for the ordinary believer rather than an aberration and grounds for improvement. Failure in others is used to excuse sinful behaviour in oneself. The fact that God loves sinners and forgives the repentant is taken to indicate that we needn’t bother too much if we sin. And when those whose earnest pursuit of holiness threatens the casual approach to sin inevitably fail themselves to live up to the standard they aspire to, this is simply used as an opportunity to reject the challenge of their message outright and criticise them for "moralising". Tony Lane summarises this attitude as follows:

Cheap grace provides no motivation to change. As Bonhoeffer said, the result of cheap grace is that "I can therefore cling to my bourgeois secular existence, and remain as I was before, but with the added assurance that the grace of God will cover me." Such an attitude is now so commonplace in the Christian churches in our land that it can be hard to find a church that doesn’t preach a gospel of cheap grace.

However, in rejecting the false notion of cheap grace, we dare not lose sight of the true grace of God towards us. Our sins are forgiven freely and we are accepted unconditionally as a result of Jesus’ sacrifice in our place, not on account of anything we have done or will do. And it is only through grace that we can be totally free from the mastery of sin over our lives. The message of the free gift of God’s grace to us always will be misunderstood by some as granting them the freedom to continue in sin. Indeed, as Martyn Lloyd-Jones pointed out, if our message is not being misunderstood and misinterpreted in this way then it is unlikely that we are preaching of grace at all. But those of us who have already received the free gift of salvation should, in grateful response, use our freedom to wholeheartedly set ourselves against those of our attitudes and behaviours which are not pleasing to the Lord.

In our society, to renounce and wage war against sin — perhaps especially against covetousness or lust — is to ask to be ridiculed. But sadly, the situation within the church is often not much better. Flannery O’Connor wrote,

But this doesn’t seem to the case any more. To a great extent, the church has simply colluded with the spirit of the age. Our consciences have been atrophied by worldliness and prosperity, ‘success’ has replaced sanctification as the goal, and ‘niceness’ has displaced righteousness as the practical measure of godliness. The desire to appear ‘reasonable’ reigns supreme and so the prophetic voice for purity within the church has been almost silenced. Every kind of sin is tolerated, out of fear of being seen as ‘judgemental’ (or perhaps of having to face up properly to one’s own sinfulness). As immorality that’s as old as history has been re-cycled as the "new morality" for a new generation, the church has in general kept quiet, and even, in certain quarters, condoned blatant sin. Woe to those who have called good that which is evil in the eyes of God, and evil that which is good! Over the last century we have slowly let the world’s moral weaknesses thoroughly undermine the ethical foundations of the life of the contemporary church.

How different from what we see in the Scriptures. From the beginning of Genesis through to the end of Revelation all and every kind of sin is unambiguously and clearly condemned as evil. The importance of righteous living is focal under both the Old and the New Covenants. For example, here are two excerpts from Paul’s epistles in which he addresses practical issues of righteousness among God’s "holy people", the church. Firstly, from Ephesians, a passage listing some of the basic ethical requirements of new life in Christ:

Always tell the truth, deal with your anger, don’t swear or tell dirty jokes, always forgive completely any who offend you, flee all sexual impurity, do not be greedy — the Scriptures are full of such practical teaching. But how often are basic injunctions such as these even taught as part of Christian discipleship today? In seeking to avoid ‘legalism’, elementary teaching on Christian morality seems to have been dropped from the church’s agenda. We can no longer expect Christian morals to be taught in our schools, upheld by those in authority, or portrayed as important or even relevant by the media. Indeed, in many quarters, ethical ambiguity and the rejection of God’s clear standards is seen as a sign of maturity and clear-cut answers written off as immature. As Don Carson has written,

If we, God’s holy people, don’t teach righteousness and seek to educate our consciences, no one else will. To one degree or another, we have all become victims of our sick society’s moral decadence, our consciences battered by continual exposure to messages that mock God’s standards of holiness. An emphasis upon true Christian liberty — which is the freedom, in the power of God, to live a life totally pleasing to God — within the context of clear moral parameters is sorely needed in our churches today. Moral duty may sometimes be difficult to determine, but it is an absolute not a relative matter. When God has spoken, we must obey. We need to educate ourselves to stand against the extreme moral relativism of our modern world. As William Law wrote in the eighteenth century,

In the second passage, from 1 Corinthians, Paul addresses a specific case of unrighteous behaviour within the church he is writing to:

For Paul, being a disciple of Jesus had clear ethical implications, and — quoting the refrain from the law in Deuteronomy — he taught that it was inappropriate even to associate with those who claimed to be believers but did not accept the moral requirements of Christian discipleship. For the presence in the fellowship of someone who opposed Christ’s standard of righteousness was liable to lead to the contamination the whole community. Paul took the purity of the church very seriously. Impurity among God’s holy people required remedial action.

We should note, though, that purity within the church — that is, the daily lives of Christian believers — does not require separation from unbelievers. No, we are expected to be fully involved in the life of our society. As Gordon Fee comments on this passage:

Sadly, however, compassionate church discipline of the persistently unrepentant believer is almost absent in our age — and the church looks more like the world than ever. The false isolationist approach to holiness has, rightly, been rejected, but without internal discipline the church has let the world set the moral agenda, so that now — to give just one obvious measurable example — divorce is almost as common within the church as outside it. Claiming a distorted notion of ‘freedom’, the question for many believers has become, "What can I get away with?", rather than, "How can I live a totally pure life pleasing to God?" We seem to be afraid of being seen as too holy, rather than concerned that we’re not holy enough!

But God’s values haven’t changed simply because our society has rejected them. The purity and uprightness of His character, and His judgements as to what is good and what is evil are fixed and immutable. So, as God’s "temple" in the world, in whom His Holy Spirit dwells, holiness needs again to become a priority in the church. Righteousness as an expression of God’s character in His people’s lives is not an option. We need a radical return to the pursuit of the kind of holiness which pushes us away from a casual view of sin and reawakens in us that lost sense of awe for our Lord who is a "consuming fire". To treat sin lightly is an offence to our Father God whose own valuation of its seriousness can be seen in the agonising death of His Son. As Jim Packer has written,

Are we willing to reject the false values of our society and allow God to build in our hearts and minds and wills His own perspective on sin and righteousness? God loves righteousness and hates unrighteousness as the following selection from Proverbs demonstrates:

If God hates all sin, "condemning sin in sinful man", then so should we. If we love God and are becoming like Him, we will love what He loves and hate what He hates. Our hearts should, like His, be set against all sinfulness. Richard Foster makes the following comment about the seriousness of sin:

Sin brings destruction and ruin to all that God created "very good". So the defeat of sin is high on His agenda. One day Satan, the Destroyer, and all his evil works will themselves face eternal destruction. As yet, however, God withholds His final judgement, for "He is slow to anger." Yet neither will He leave the guilty unpunished.

While judgement is still deferred — because of His abundant mercy — we may have one of two possible reactions: We may become frustrated that God just lets evil abound. If He hates it so much, why doesn’t He do anything about it? This was the basis of Habakkuk’s complaint to the Lord:

However, it is God’s great compassion for the lost that delays Him in bringing judgement. He is patient, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. His forbearance is for our salvation. If we find ourselves frustrated with the abounding of sin, we need to ask the Lord for His heart of compassion towards those who are without hope and without God in the world.

Alternatively, and more dangerously, we may be tempted to deny that God’s judgement against sin is coming at all. This was the problem the Lord had with His people in the time of the prophet Malachi:

Are we too a people who "weary the Lord with our words" while rejecting His basic standards of righteousness — and then complain when He doesn’t answer our prayers? Or do we align ourselves with Him, hating the things He hates and seeking to live holy lives? For the future historical fact of God’s judgement against sin should inform and affect the way we live. The apostle Peter addressed this issue in his second epistle:

As Peter reminds us, on one awful occasion before, man’s rebellion against God led Him to bring widespread destruction on the earth:

And so, in due course, "every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out."

The story of the Flood and the prophecies of end-time judgement provide for us a salutary reminder of the dreadful nature of sin. God abhors all unrighteousness and is totally opposed to all wrongdoing. "Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.", writes Paul to the Romans, echoing the words of the prophet Amos. If we want to live lives pleasing to God, then we will need to detest our own sin with the same kind of hatred that God has towards it.

It is when we consider things in this context that the following strange words of Jesus begin to make some kind of sense:

For, when we begin to hate our own sin as God hates it then living pure lives before Him will become more important to us than having two hands or two eyes. Not that we engage in self-mutilation, but our desire for holiness will make us willing to deal as deeply and drastically as necessary with ourselves in order to root out the sin we see in ourselves. Rather than cutting the flesh, we will be willing to be cut to the heart by God’s word to us which penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and judges the thoughts and attitudes of our hearts.

Having re-examined the high value God places on holiness in His people and the extent of His opposition to sin, the pressing issue for us then becomes that of how we should go about progressing in holiness. Becoming reacquainted with the Lord’s standards — and how far they contrast with much of what is practised in our day — while an essential first step, is unlikely, by itself, to achieve a great deal in our lives. What will motivate us to pursue a life of purity? What will enable us to leave behind sinful actions and desires and thoughts, and replace them with holy attitudes and behaviour?

As in every other area of life, our motivation for purity has to result from our relationship with God. Our being holy pleases God, so if our desire is to give Him pleasure, we will pursue holiness and battle against sin for His sake. Our sin separates us from God — with Him the wicked cannot dwell — so if we place a high value on our relationship with Him, we will be prompt to deal with any impurity in our lives in order to return to close fellowship with Him. By harbouring sin, we limit our intimacy with God. If we truly know God and His unconditional love for us, we will want to do nothing that would break that relationship and isolate us from Him. Philip Yancey, has written the following, commenting on words of the French Catholic writer François Mauriac:

There are many reasons put forward for living a holy life, but being in love with God — loving Him in response to His love for us — is the only thing that comes anywhere close to providing sufficient inducement for declaring total war on our self-will. As Gregory of Nyssa wrote in the fourth century, being God’s friend provides the only truly adequate motivation to pursue a virtuous life:

A true awareness of God’s love for us, and the resultant desire to please Him —and nothing else — will provide the driving force necessary for us to stand against the spirit of the age and the laissez-faire attitude in much of the church. If our hearts have been captivated by His love, His ethical standards will not seem burdensome, but light and easy to us. We will want to do whatever gives Him pleasure, and to avoid anything that would cause Him sorrow. As Rick Joyner has written:

Mike Bickle has written similarly,

Through Christ, and in the power of His Spirit, we can leave behind our old nature and its control over our lives and live in the liberty of grace. In the sixth chapter of his epistle to the Romans, the apostle Paul writes at length on this:

Let us pursue this true Christian freedom — the freedom to live holy lives in the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us!

Having a love-relationship with our glorious heavenly father provides not only motivation, but also conditions for effectively resisting temptation. Being tempted in itself is not sin, for all are tempted — even as the Lord Jesus was. However, entertaining temptation and taking pleasure in it is. Our love for God and His love for us will give us the necessary motivation to say "no" to sin when enticed. We will want to have nothing to do with those things that would hinder our relationship with God and His purposes in our lives. Nor will we want anything to do with those things which would further the purposes of the enemy.

However, Struggling directly with temptations, as many have observed, often has the effect of intensifying them. The reason is that, without the Lord’s help, we are impotent to fight our tendencies towards sin. But if we turn away from the source of temptation to the Lord whom we love and who loves us, we will receive His strength to resist, and our heart’s desire will be for Him. God is faithful; He will not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear. And when we are tempted, He will always provide a way out so that we can stand up under it. Jeanne Guyon wrote insightfully of this:

What a picture of God! The Lord waits for us to turn to Him when we are tempted. Let’s avail ourselves of His help and choose not to toy with temptation when it comes our way.

Genuine righteousness has to do with the heart, for all true holiness is heart-righteousness. External ‘obedience’ counts for nothing on its own. This was the point of Jesus’ repeated charge of hypocrisy against the Pharisees, who appeared so righteous to people on the outside. There can be no true Christian ethics without Christian Spirituality because growth in righteousness is about the transformation of the heart, not about keeping rules. The first commandment is that we should have no gods before the Lord. And the greatest commandment is that we love the Lord our God with every part of our being. It is the attitude of our hearts towards the High King of Heaven that is at the centre of holiness, and it is at precisely this point that the apparently morally upright unbeliever misses the whole point. Right relationship with the Lord God — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — is the essential foundation of all genuinely righteous living.

As the apostle Paul wrote to the Romans, "The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." Richard Foster has expressed it like this:

Unfortunately, in the attempt to avoid destructive external legalisms, many today seem to throw the baby out with the bath-water at this point, replacing God’s clear moral standards with some form of ethical relativism or ‘situation ethics’ in which we, rather than God, decide what is good or bad. What Jim Packer calls "the antinomian idiocy that rattles on about love and liberty, forgetting that the God-given law remains the standard of the God-honouring life" is all too common. Many rail against ‘legalism’ or ‘moralising’ but in doing so leave no secure moral foundation at all. Holiness is about right living. Righteousness requires obedience to the revealed will of God. Our freedom from a law-based approach to ethics is a freedom that enables us, living by the Spirit, to pursue a greater, not a lesser, measure of holiness:

As we see from this passage, ethical life in the Spirit is not opposed to prescriptive lists of appropriate and inappropriate behaviour. The fruit of the Spirit are in contrast to the acts of the ‘flesh’, and godly love for your neighbour implies avoiding such actions and attitudes.

The failure of legalism is firstly that it focuses on the externals rather than on the internal transformation of the heart by the work of the Holy Spirit, secondly that it focuses on rules rather than relationship, legislating where God hasn’t, and thirdly that it lacks any power to enable us to live as we ought. However, many who attack those they see as ‘legalistic’ seem to believe that the deficiency of legalism is that it is too demanding. Nothing could be further from the truth. Commenting on Jesus’ ethical teaching, Philip Yancey has written the following:

So, how do we avoid the dangers of legalism while holding on to the goal of perfection that has been set before us? Surely, the key is, once again, the context of all our discipleship, our love-relationship with God. God’s rules for righteous living do not come to us as edicts from a far-distant God, but from our Father who loves us and is always present with us. They speak not impersonally from the outside but by the gentle ministry of the Holy Spirit to our hearts. Thus, when we read of some ethical requirement in the Scriptures, we recognise in the command our divine Lover’s voice and so obey through a heart motivated by love. And when the Lord speaks to us to redirect our behaviour towards greater purity — whether profoundly or on some apparently ‘trivial’ matter — we know that His loving desire is always for our good. If we take the risk of drawing near to God and granting Him control, He will surely direct us towards and empower us for greater holiness, for He is much more committed to our transformation into His glorious likeness than we’re ever likely to be! As Richard Foster points out, we often set our sights far too low:

With the inauguration of the New Covenant, the fulfilment of the God’s standard of righteousness is now possible through hearts changed by the work of the Holy Spirit. Many of us perhaps believe that the godly life isn’t really a possibility for us. Certainly, there is no power in the external rules of legalism. As Paul wrote to the Colossians,

But, by the mighty power of the Holy Spirit our hearts can be changed so that our desire to be holy is in line with our Father’s, and we no longer have any appetite for impurity. We are to be people who have the law inscribed deep in our hearts. For, those of us who have had our hearts transformed in this way will remain faithful to the Lord’s commands whatever temptations come our way. Sin we will hate and holiness we will pursue for the rest of our days.

But there is a problem. Tragically, for many believers, the whole issue of sin is associated with fear, guilt and condemnation. Perhaps that has been your reaction on reading the first part of this chapter. The fruit of such a negative association in our minds and hearts is an inability to act appropriately when we sin, because feelings of condemnation drive us away from God rather than towards Him. Only too common in many of God’s people is a vicious circle generated by this unhealthy condition. The cycle begins with sin not being honestly acknowledged and repented of. Following in the steps of Adam and Eve in the Garden, we hide from God out of fear, or blame others or our situation for our failings. This then prevents us experiencing the Lord’s gracious love, acceptance, forgiveness, healing and freedom, and causes a barrier to be erected between us and Him. Consequently, God seems far away and so we are then unable to draw on His resources to overcome temptation, leading to further failure and a repetition of the downward spiral.

For this reason, many of us would prefer not to call our sins "sin" at all — "weakness" perhaps, but not "sin". For if these things are not really sin, then maybe we won’t have to face up to them. We con ourselves into thinking that ‘little’ sins don’t really matter, or that God’s high standards have changed and that He doesn’t mind a bit of unforgiveness, bitterness, covetousness, lust, or whatever any more — not that we’d be honest enough to admit that’s what we’re doing! In this way we vainly attempt to assuage our consciences by rejecting God’s evaluation of our behaviour, and as a consequence our ability to distinguish between right and wrong slowly and dangerously shrivels.

If only we knew the pure joy of repentance, the great freedom found in receiving God’s forgiveness, the deep peace that comes through confession — then things would be totally different! Then, when the Holy Spirit brought conviction to our hearts, we would gladly acknowledge our sin and come before our loving Father in confession and repentance. Having been astounded again by His unmerited gift of forgiveness and unconditional love, we would be drawn into ever closer fellowship with Him and, empowered by His Spirit, would seek to resist temptation and grow in holiness, knowing that with His help we could avoid sin, but that if we failed He would remain faithful to His holy nature, loving and forgiving us. This upward spiral (or ‘virtuous circle’) that draws us closer to God and helps us overcome sin is the Lord’s plan and desire for us.

How great a tragedy it is that such a pattern seems to be the experience of so few of God’s children in our day. What has gone wrong? What is the root of the problem? Surely it is that our view of God has become seriously distorted. His desire for us is that we receive His forgiveness. For, while God detests and condemns sin, He also loves, forgives and justifies repentant sinners. But lots of us have trouble believing the second half of this assertion. Indeed, for many it is only too easy to believe the enemy’s lie that God’s attitude towards us is one of condemnation and rejection when we fail Him — rather than one of deep love desiring to confer forgiveness and restoration upon us. Such a misperception of God has drastic consequences. If we believe God condemns us, we will be afraid to own up to our sin, and so to try and get ourselves off the hook will attempt to convince ourselves that the first half of the proposition above is also false. As a result we will end up very uncertain of God’s attitude towards us and insecure in our relationship with Him — not sure whether He hates and condemns us or whether He ‘loves’ us with an inferior kind of ‘love’ that simply disregards our sin as unimportant. Of course, neither of these is the truth, nor adequate to meet our needs: God loves us passionately with a ‘tough’ love that takes our sin very seriously indeed and does something about it. God condemns sin and justifies sinners — not the other way around! His greatest delight is to forgive. And we do not have to make Him willing to do so. Before we ever asked, He put together a rescue plan for us, and He is now at work in us to make us willing to seek His forgiveness.

Surely the lack of seriousness concerning sin, and the pursuit of wholeness without holiness in today’s church is a sign of how little many of us know of the experience of God’s daily forgiveness of our sins and His power available to enable us to live in freedom. If we were secure in the knowledge that God accepts us as we are and always forgives us when we return to Him in repentance, then we would be free to hate and turn away from even the smallest iota of sin we find in ourselves. For only experiential knowledge of God’s absolute unmerited grace and forgiveness can motivate us to pursue God’s absolute standard of holiness. Let us seek to discover the great freedom and joy to be found in pursuing true purity in close relationship with our loving God.

One thing that contributes to the false view many of us have of God is the widespread confusion in distinguishing between the conviction that comes from the Lord and the condemnation that comes from the Accuser. As a result of failing to distinguish Satan’s whining accusations from the loving voice of our Father, many of us are weighed down by a false sense of guilt for past sins and so miss out on the freedom of forgiveness and the close relationship God wants us to have with Him. The father of lies would like to convince us that God’s forgiveness is not available to us and that we sit under His condemnation. But this is deception for there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Jack Deere has written of this as follows:

In writing to the Corinthian believers, the apostle Paul describes the way an earlier letter of his acted as a vehicle for the Lord to bring them under conviction. He distinguishes helpfully between "worldly sorrow" that brings death and "godly sorrow" that brings repentance and leaves no regrets:

There is all the difference in the world between the accusation of the enemy and the conviction that comes from the Holy Spirit. The former is unclean and destructive; the latter holy and beneficial. Discernment of the contrast is not really that difficult. When your thoughts and feelings of remorse drive you from God you are being accused by Satan. Resist and reject the deceit, and return to the arms of your loving heavenly Father. But when your sorrow draws you to the Lord to confess your wrong you are being convicted by the Spirit. Yield to Him through repentance.

"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.", wrote Paul to the Romans. Despite the power of God at work in us, we all fail at times, and the first step in repentance is a realistic recognition of, and owning up to, our faults. But so often we fall at this first hurdle. We don’t like to admit we’re in the wrong. "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. … If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His word has no place in our lives.", wrote the apostle John and such self-deception concerning our sin is very common. Indeed, we would often prefer to "make God out to be a liar" than to confess our sin. This is tragically ironic, for, as Os Guinness has pointed out, one of the defining features of becoming a Christian is a willingness to face up to being totally in the wrong, yet many Christians never seem to admit that possibility again. Christian corrigibility, the openness to being corrected which, in principle, Christians are supposed to have is rarely practised.

Our present culture of excuse-making and scapegoating doesn’t help us at all. Some of those around us never take responsibility for their failings, preferring to place the blame on their upbringing or situation, or simply to deny that they’re at fault at all. Sadly, those in authority over us — whether in government, at work, at school, in the home, or even in the church — are sometimes the worst offenders. For in the eyes of the world, the confession of sin is seen as weakness, rather than as a sign of moral strength, and so is often avoided by those who are concerned about their reputations. And so, within the church, the apostle James’ instruction, "Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.", is widely ignored and the resulting benefits forfeited.

In this context, Kenneth Chaffin has written of the responsibility that parents, and especially fathers, have to acknowledge their weaknesses and failures before their children:

As one nine-year-old wrote, "My dad’s most important quality is his willingness to ask forgiveness from me when he is wrong."

In the light of our propensity for self-deception in this area, we need to make sure that we allow God to show us our faults — because we won’t do the job properly ourselves. If we do not make a practice of laying our souls open before the Lord so that He can enlighten us concerning our sins, we are unlikely to make much progress in growing in holiness. There can be no pretence in confession. We regularly need to make time to invite God to place His finger gently on the specific situations and attitudes in our lives that are currently blocking our relationship with Him so that we can then deal with them before Him. Jeanne Guyon wrote the following about this:

If we are serious about being God’s holy people, then we must make a habit of letting our souls come under His gaze so that, in His love, He can show us those things within us that we need to turn away from and receive forgiveness for. We should be praying for the conviction of the Holy Spirit to come upon us daily to expose any harmful ways in us. Let us allow Him, even now, to search our hearts so that the past will be dealt with and that we may go forward into the present clean and whole, forgiven and released.

Repentance is absolutely central to the Christian life. According to Matthew’s gospel, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." was Jesus’ message. "I have come to call sinners to repentance.", He said to the Pharisees. Then, on the day of Pentecost, Peter’s charge to the people who had been convicted through his preaching was, "Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins." And, ever since, as Jesus said would happen, "repentance and the forgiveness of sins" have been preached in His name throughout the world.

However, despite its foundational place in our faith, repentance doesn’t seem a very popular topic today, even in the preaching of the gospel message to unbelievers. Indeed much modern evangelism seems to try to bypass repentance completely, and falsely offer entrance to the kingdom of God without it. But not only should the call to repentance be focal in our evangelism, repentance should also be central to the daily life of every believer. The first of Martin Luther’s ninety-five theses, nailed to the Wittenburg church door in 1517, declared:

We are called to a life of habitual repentance. As the ancient proverb says, "He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy."

Churches with a liturgical tradition provide prayers of penitence for use at all their services. There is great wisdom in this, for it emphasises the central place repentance should have in our relationship with God. Many other church traditions seem to ignore repentance completely in their meeting together. However, there are also two dangers inherent in a prayer of "general confession". The first is that vague repentance that doesn’t name and take responsibility for the specific sins being renounced hardly deserves to be called ‘repentance’ at all. It is far too easy to avoid our real guilt in a generalised confession. We need to repent of particular sins, particularly. The second danger is that repentance may become a weekly ritual, rather than our automatic reaction when we fall. Now is the day of salvation and we should be clearing the blockages between us and our Father as soon as we become aware of them, not putting it off until the next Sunday!

But what is repentance? In a day when even a simple apology is becoming rare, and the word "sorry" is used almost meaninglessly, this is an important question. Repentance is certainly not just saying we’re sorry. Rather it requires true sorrow of the heart — an abhorrence at having committed the sin and deep regret at having offended the heart of the Father. Repentance also requires that we desire and are determined to be delivered from and leave behind our sinful behaviour, that we yearn for holy living and hate the unholiness we see within. True repentance is the ultimate act of humility, a turning away from sin and a turning to God. As one child put it, repentance is "being sorry enough to stop", for repentance is about changing and being changed, about reversing direction, about renouncing and rejecting part of our past and resolving that, with God’s help, it shall not be part of our future. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said,

True repentance is like a door. On the other side are God’s blessings of forgiveness and cleansing, of joy and freedom, of power and light. The door seems heavy, the price of opening it seems great to us, for it involves dying to our desire to sin. Genuine repentance is never without pain, but the benefits greatly outweigh the cost. If we sow in tears we shall surely reap with shouts of joy! Certainly, at times, sorrow for our sins should indeed cause us to weep — even to be wracked with sobbing like Peter after the cock crowed — at the way we have caused hurt to the Lord or to other people through our words or actions. Sadly, such deep contrition is very uncommon in our day and almost totally absent from our expectations of the Christian life. Oh that we would let the Holy Spirit pierce the very core of our being with His convicting love!

Also entailed in repentance is a deep awareness of our unworthiness to receive absolution. We do not deserve to be forgiven for having offended the Most High God. Our attitude should be like that of the tax collector in Jesus’ parable whose only words were, "God, have mercy on me, a sinner.", like that of the prophet Isaiah who cried, "Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.", and like that of the thief on the cross who acknowledged the justness of his punishment.

However, a life of repentance is not a life of melancholy introspection, depression and misery. Not at all! As Paul Cain and Rick Joyner have said,

Benny Hinn has written similarly:

We can know forgiveness within moments if we pour our heart out before the Lord in true humility and brokenness. Repentance should be our immediate reaction when we become aware of having offended God. Why delay? For the Father longs for us to return to Him so that we can receive His forgiveness. He longs for us to come and, like the prodigal, say to Him, "I have sinned against heaven and against You. I am no longer worthy to be called Your child." Then, He throws His arms around us and kisses us, He says to us, "Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this child of mine was dead and is alive again; was lost and is found." God throws a party for repentant sinners! We can rejoice and celebrate with God every time we return to Him! Confession should always lead us to celebration, for through the door of repentance is sweetness and tranquillity, the experience of God’s forgiveness, and deep feelings of His love poured out within us.

Blessed indeed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted! Blessed indeed are you who weep now, for you will laugh! True repentance speaks from the heart, causing the tongue to tremble and speak aloud, "Lord, forgive me!" And when this question is asked, the Lord gladly responds, breaking the yoke of guilt and condemnation. Oh, the depth of the peace and joy that awaits us in confessing our sins! For if we confess our sins, God is faithful to His nature and will completely forgive us and purify us from all unrighteousness. For, while God’s standards are absolute, His mercy is greater. As the apostle James wrote, "Mercy triumphs over judgement!" The Lord delays His judgement, but not His mercy — how could He? And He quickly forgives any freely acknowledged sin, removing our transgressions from us as far as the east is from the west. He tears up the record of our sins and throws it away. To hear the Lord lovingly say to us, "I forgive you" when we have come back to Him after failing Him yet again is surely one of the sweetest sounds in the universe.

If we reckon our sins as small and think that they are easily forgiven — when in reality they cost Jesus His agonising death — then we are unlikely to experience the depth of the generosity inherent in God’s clemency towards us. But if we do recognise how much we have hurt our Father by our actions and how undeserving of forgiveness we are, then we will be unlikely to take God’s repeated mercy towards us for granted. We will be constantly amazed at the fact that the Sovereign Lord, Holy and True responds to our confession with unconditional acceptance and forgiveness time and time again.

Towards the end of his life, the apostle Paul described himself as "the worst of sinners" and expressed in his first letter to Timothy something of his own gratitude to the Lord for His mercy and grace:

More recently, Geoff Bullock, the Australian songwriter, has also written movingly of his own wonder at God’s continual acceptance of sinners and of his own experience of forgiveness:

Is this our experience too? Are we people who are constantly amazed by God’s faithful acceptance and repeated forgiveness of us? Or do we tend to take for granted what was purchased for us with the blood of Christ? And when we hear of the sin of another, do we recognise that "there, but for the grace of God, go I"? Or do we think that we don’t need God’s grace to avoid failing Him?

The fruit of righteousness is peace; the effect of righteousness is quietness and confidence forever. Obedience to the Lord’s commands brings peace like a river and righteousness like the waves of the sea. Indeed, as the psalmist said, "righteousness and peace kiss each other." The prospect of the righteous is joy, for joy is shed upon the upright in heart, those who love righteousness are anointed with the oil of joy.

Such is the testimony of the Scriptures. Sadly many of us go about this backwards, pursuing joy and happiness mistakenly thinking that it will eventually lead to peace. But this is a dangerous illusion. However, if we set our wills to pursue righteousness first, we will then find true peace and joy in the kingdom of God. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. He who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward.

The following questions and exercises are to help you to respond to what the Lord has been saying to you through what you have read. They can be used in any way you like, either individually, or for discussion in a small group or between friends.

1. Do you find it hard to accept God’s standards of righteousness as taught in the Scriptures? What is your reaction to Jesus’ ethical teaching in the Sermon on the Mount? Are you sometimes tempted to ‘water down’ the biblical teaching on holiness? What part does God’s judgement on sin play in your life? What practically does it mean for you to be one of the holy God’s holy people in a world that rejects God’s standards?
2. How seriously do you take your own sin? Would you say that you hate the sin you see in yourself? Do you make excuses for your ‘little’ sins? Which of your sinful attitudes and habits would you prefer not to call "sin"? Take time to be honest before God about any moral complacency you see in yourself and covenant with Him to let Him change the attitude of your heart.
1. Is the preaching of a gospel of "cheap grace" common in your experience? What about the teaching of Christian ethics? Does such teaching focus primarily on externals or on the transformation of the heart? How seriously does your church take the practice of disciplining those who persistently refuse to accept God’s moral standards? How can you encourage your church to give greater priority to the pursuit of holiness amongst believers?
2. What is it that motivates you to resist temptation and pursue holiness? Do you struggle with feelings of guilt and condemnation? Can you distinguish the enemy’s accusing voice from the conviction that comes from God? What is your experience of the Lord’s total acceptance and abundant forgiveness when you have confessed your sin to Him? Ask God to open your eyes and heart to His great desire to bestow forgiveness upon you and walk in unbroken relationship with you.
3. What is your experience of repentance? Have you ever wept over your sins? Is confession a door to freedom and joy for you? Do you make a habit of repenting immediately you are aware of offending God? Do you know the blessing of pursuing righteousness? Spend time letting the Lord to convict you of any aspects of your life that He is not pleased with, so that you can turn away from them and receive His peace.
4. Use the following words from Psalm 51 as the basis of a time of confession and repentance, naming your sins specifically:

Chapter 10: The Refiner's Fire

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