Here are five heart-penetrating, insightful, convicting reasons why Calvinists so often live like Pharisees:
1) We are precise, we insist on "getting things right"
2) We are suspicious, especially of other people's joy
3) We are fearful
4) We are angry
5) We are selfish
I highly recommend each of these posts, especially if you embrace the theology that has come to be known as "Calvinism" or "the doctrines of grace." I really appreciated the truth and honesty in each of them, even though they were all hard for me to read because--as I read each one--the Holy Spirit was putting His finger on the sins in my heart. For instance, as I began reading the post about Calvinist Pharisees being angry, I immediately thought to myself, "I'm not angry." But the more I read, the more I realized that I am angry. It just doesn't express itself in loud outbursts but rather in the more quiet, socially acceptable colors. No matter how much I try, I can't escape the words of the One who knows the hearts of all men (John 2:24-25):
For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder [= anger, Matthew 5:21-22], adultery [= lust, Matthew 5:27-28], coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within...And neither can you.
Mark 7:21-23
Even though many of us may deny being Calvinists, none of us can altogether deny being Pharisees, can we?
Tis' so sweet to trust in Jesus. Oh, for grace to trust Him more!
HT: Pure Church
13 comments:
wow...that hit the spot...
I know what you mean by "at heart I'm a Pharisee", but really, you are a Pharisee? We all can't deny being Pharisees? I can search deep and wide into my heart and find mixed motivations at times, and there are times that I don't have pure motives, but I don't see a Pharisee at the center of my soul. I see the Holy Spirit has occupied that space and is working to conform me to Christ. That's not only the truth for me, but it should be the biblical truth for every Christian. If, at the center, you have a Pharisee, then you have a very critical problem that sounds like not being born of the Spirit.
I wouldn't play so loosely with identifying the self as a Pharisee. I appreciate Thabiti's transparency in this matter, but I can't help but to think there's a little bit of character destructiveness here, going a little overboard. Saying "I'm a Pharisee" is no light matter because it suggests serious identity problems. John Piper described going through serious identity problems that sounds similar to this.
"I mean the deranging inability to know any longer who you are. What begins as a searching introspection for the sake of holiness, and humility gradually becomes, for various reasons, a carnival of mirrors in your soul: you look in one and you're short and fat; you look in another and you're tall and skinny; you look in another and you're upside down. And the horrible feeling begins to break over you that you don't know who you are any more. The center is not holding. And if the center doesn't hold—if there is no fixed and solid "I" able to relate to the fixed and solid "Thou," namely, God, then who will preach next Sunday?
When the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:10, "By the grace of God, I am what I am," he was saying something utterly essential for the survival of preachers in adversity. If, by grace, the identity of the "I"—the "I" created by Christ and united to Christ, but still a human "I"—if that center doesn't hold, there will be no more authentic preaching, for there will be no more authentic preacher, but a collection of echoes."
Check out the full text or audio:
http://tinyurl.com/b6j2cg
Rob, I understand the perspective you are coming from. And I appreciate it. I see the dangers if it is taken the wrong way. But the reality of my remaining flesh to me is more than just "at times" not having pure motives. It permeates everything I think and do when I am really honest with myself, even though I do believe I'm being transformed into the image of Christ. In fact, I think it's the fact that I'm being transformed into the image of Christ that makes me more aware of the sins of my heart that I previously was ignorant of because seeing sin requires understanding holiness. The less we experience holiness, the less we are aware of the outrage of sin. That's why only God can fully understand the outrage of sin, even the slightest sins. Because He alone is perfectly holy. None of us takes our sin as seriously as we ought to because none of us is holy enough. This is a bigger conversation that we can continue in person, but I'm just curious, do you think that when Paul describes his divided heart in Romans 7 he is describing who he was as an unbeliever or as a believer?
For what it's worth, knowing the Pharisee that remains in me and always will (whether I call it being a Pharisee at heart or not, it's there!) makes me know more certainly the glory and reality of the gospel and my need for it rather than creating the uncertainty of who I am that you speak of.
Thanks brother.
i read one of the articles earlier this week and was about to go looking for the rest so thanks for having them all easy to access
Chris, you either do something in love or not. Either your just clanging symbols or your doing it in the Spirit. Is everything you doing permeated with the flesh? That would mean that you are doing works of the flesh and not works of the Spirit. I know this sounds black and white, but this is the language Scripture uses to describe obedience. You are either obeying Scripture and working righteousness from a pure heart or not.
There are many Scripture that speak towards this; but consider this one:
"The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. ” (1 Ti 1:5–7)
If flesh permeates everything you think and do, then how is the above Scripture possible for the Christian? If you say that your flesh permeates everything, then you are putting yourself in the latter category, as a person who has swerved, wandered, etc. Not good.
Then I would say I never do anything in love if it's that black and white. Rob, I don't say it lightly when I say that EVERYTHING I do is tainted with sin even though I do believe I do it in love. I mean, do you EVER love the Lord with ALL your heart, soul, mind, and strength? Because I can't say that I ever do. And if we don't then we are sinning because Jesus commands us to.
Back to my question, do you believe that Romans 7 is Paul before or after he was born again? If so, then what do you do with this?
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
Romans 7:21-23
Captive? For one who is a slave to righteousness (Romans 6)? How does that work?
And I don't think it works to say that the evil that lies close at hand is simply evil that is tempting Paul but that doesn't influence his actions. The language he uses to denounce himself is too strong for that, especially in verses 24-25. If these verses only had to do with temptation then we could apply them to Jesus, who was tempted in every way as we are, but Jesus was NOT captive to the law of sin because He didn't have sin dwelling in His members.
Notice what Paul says when he describes what it's like to be captive to sin. He says that he does what he doesn't want to do. So if you are doing something that is not good, then that it sin. But if you are doing something good, from a pure heart, that is good and holy and righteousness! Don't try to complicate things by trying to search for an impure motive in your heart. Keep it simple and do good from a pure heart, don't let little voices in your head convince you that you had impure motives in everything you do and that everything is tainted by flesh.
I'm not certain of my position on this passage in Romans; I have yet to make a final decision and perhaps I never do. John Piper believes Paul is describing the current state of himself as a Christian, but John Piper also admits that perhaps Paul is talking about a temporary captivity to sin as he struggles with indwelling sin.
Check out item #7 from John Piper's lessong on the Divided Man.
http://tinyurl.com/18r
Then read the section "Two things should be deeply rooted in your mind as a Christian:"
http://tinyurl.com/yf7d4jb
"This new man is who you decisively and irrevocably are in Christ. This free man is your deepest and truest identity. Now act on it. Look to Christ, trust his help, and by his Spirit become what you are."
I'll just say this: I don't have to try to search for impure motives, brother. They're just there! Always! When I do good, evil lies close at hand. For me to try to act otherwise would be to totally disconnect myself from reality. Could I be unregenerate? I'll continue to cast myself on Christ and let God be the judge of that.
We can continue this conversation in person. Thanks for the challenge.
Rob and Chris - I really appreciate both of your perspectives on this. I do think there is a danger of over analysis (and "analysis paralysis", which easily follows) for some of us - yet, after much thought, I have to agree with Chris in that, for me as well, there is much more of a chance that my motives are mixed than not. I don't know that there aren't times when my motives are completely pure and unalloyed - but if there are, I know those times are a tiny minority!
Just one example: I continually battle pride, which colors my motives for doing just about everything I do. I believe I will battle pride for the rest of my life, and will thus need to apply Romans 8:13 continually for the rest of my life - though, by God's grace, with increasing victory over time. I will have to put off and put on (Col. 3) for the rest of my life. And where do those things which I have to put off/kill come from? From within me (James 4, Mark 7, etc.) I will be at war with my sin (including mixed motives) until the day when either Christ returns, or God calls me home.
By the way, Piper, when speaking of this warfare, said: "My biggest enemy is not Satan, my biggest enemy is John Piper: fallen, fleshly, rebellious, hostile, selfish, lusting, power-grabbing, fame-loving John Piper is my biggest enemy, and he's the only reason I'll go to hell, not Satan." How to Kill Sin, Part 2, approx. 14:30 in.
Finally, isn't it true that Jesus bridges the gap between our mixed motives and pure obedience while we are being sanctified, just as He bridges the great gulf between us and God when we are justified? Yet we should do everything we can to decrease those gaps when the Holy Spirit brings them to our attention - making sure we are in the faith, etc.
Lord, increase our faith!
I've been memorizing Psalm 19 lately, and am getting close to completing it. I just started on vss. 10-12 yesterday; verse 12 seems relevant here: "Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults." (NKJV)
Again, I agree that we don't need to make things more complicated than they are... However, I think there's much that we let ourselves slide on that the Holy Spirit, over time and with an increase in grace poured out in our lives, will reveal to us as sin - particularly in the realm of motives, attitudes, and things which we rationalize as "personality traits".
Amen. I agree and have come to learn that by experience. Thanks for weighing in Lee.
Rob, I agree with alot of what you say except that there are just some things that you seem to oversimplify.
The Christian life is a strange one because in one sense it is very simple: repent and believe, trust and obey. But in another sense it is completely paradoxical:
Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
1 Corinthians 5:7
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