The Cart and the Horse of Personal Holiness

One of the most common Christians struggles is the knowledge that believers stand before God already forgiven and holy even though our actions do not always reflect that reality. This causes a real tug-of-war within our hearts as we try to live the way that we know we should.

1 Peter 1:16 contains the very convicting command "to be holy because God is holy." How can that be? Isn't that some sort of works-based salvation?

I don't think so, at least not if we understand the proper order of salvation (the horse) and Christian living (the cart). Jerry Bridges explains it like this "God wants us to walk in obedience -- not victory. Obedience is oriented toward God; victory is oriented toward self."

Anyone who studies mathematics will tell you that it matters how you lay out the equation. For Christian living the equation should look something like this. First God loved us. Therefore He made a way to save us from our sins. Next we accept His gracious offer for forgiveness. This causes us to love God. Our love for God results in a desire to obey God. This is very different from legalism which teaches people to obey God to make God love us.

Practically speaking, the more we love God the more we will want to obey God. The more we obey God the more we will be holy like God.

- Aaron

Change is Hard, Change is Good

Over the last two years there have been a lot of changes in my life. First there were all the things that you don't learn in seminary about being a pastor. Then there were the many things that have changed at Franconia Baptist Church. Finally there was the really important changes, the deep down Holy Spirit changes that have been transforming my spiritual life.

One thing that I can tell you from personal experience is that most people do not like change. I can certainly understand and even appreciate that. Changes makes us uncomfortable. It challenges our sense of security.

That makes it doubly hard when I tell people that change is both inevitable and required from the Christian life. The Bible tells us that we are not to "be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." (Romans 12:2)

These words alert us that for the transformed Christian life, change is coming. This is a different kind of change though. It comes from the power of the Gospel administered by the Holy Spirit and it is something that we should want very much. So even though change is hard, Gospel-driven heart change is very good.