Esse - Nick Davis

Jan 26, 2010

"When I radiate rightnessFull of incredible light-nessPeople hear Christ-nessBut are left Christ-less"

I realize now more than ever what a difference there is between Christ and doctrine. Being Bible-based and teaching-centred is no guarantee of the softness of heart and firmness of faith that delights God. It generally produces the opposite - superficial relationships, pride and disqualification. Books on marriage do not, at their final chapter, convert your marriage to greatness. Love does. The Bible does not make us great Christians - Christ does, who is the Word of God abiding in us.

I realize it is far easier for me to pursue moral rightness than holiness. It is easier to live than to die. Christian moralism still allows me my private sins; my anger; my pocket idols. It is not too hard to find a church that will celebrate me for my gifts and brilliance, above my fellowship with the Spirit.

We reject the lie that holiness can come through observing the law - we are too wise for that one - but then we can make laws out of grace easily - as easily as we can preach about the gospel without preaching the gospel. As the puritan Thomas Watson put it, "There is as much difference between heavenly comforts and earthly, as between a banquet that is eaten and one that is painted on the wall."

There's no getting away from it (praise God) - the man is his message. This gives us over to the liberty of responding to Jesus in our hearts. Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. I care not whether the man be the apostle Paul or the church janitor, this is the truth. No-one is blessed by a man's rightness. All are blessed by God's righteousness in Christ, finding a home in you and me.

As the law produced animosity towards God and men, so now Christian moralism produces prayer apathy and private scorekeeping. We will be prayerless without private passions to God. Desire and desperation - the stuff of Real Life - drives us to God. Moral rectitude keeps us in neutral. It was the reality of David's fears and desires - coupled with his belief that God was real and rewarding - that drove him to worship and petition. Doctrinal and social rightness is the reward in itself...to have proved myself more right than my fellows. It is the antithesis of love, of self-emptying love.

John 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."