we tell them. “I don’t act this way because I am a good person. I act this way because Jesus is my King and my righteousness.” And you will be laughed at and you will get despised and scorned but you will be doing Acts 3. And some, gloriously, will see the miraculous work God has done in us and will hear the explanation and they will repent and turn to him just as we have done.
Read moreRepentance and Praise = Sanity
A great quote from Jack Miller (in The Heart of a Servant Leader):
Not only endure in ministry but blossom with thankfulness and praise...I like to think of repentance and praise as allied to each other - both forms of sanity. Repentance is a return to God as my centre. Praise is the lifting up of God in honour as my centre. But to move away from the centre without repentance or praise is to be eccentric, irrational and insane. But what a simple thing it is to humble the heart and return to sanity by repentance and praise.
When is holiness a bad thing?
When I exalt myself I am no longer utterly dependent on Christ. And that is which is rebellion. The shock of Luke 18 is that even our attempts at holy lifestyle are unimpressive to God. There are attempts at holiness that need to be repented of! There are moral lifestyle choices that actively cause us to not trust Christ, because we think they are what constitute our righteousness.That's not an argument for immorality, but it is for not trusting in your morality, still less your sincerity. Non-Christians too readily say "God will accept me because I am sincere." Christians too readily say "God will accept me because I am morally pure." Wrong on both counts.
Read moreRelative Morality
If relative morality tends to the negative precisely because it is relative, biblical holiness is awe-inspiringly beautiful and positive precisely because it is not relative. God is the most beautiful being. People are morally beautiful to the degree that we submit to him, delight in him and model his character.
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