by Pastor James Lee

Jesus questioned, “But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go work today in the vineyard.’ And he answered, ‘I will not’; but afterward he regretted it and went. The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, ‘I will, sir’; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. (Matt 21:28-31).

While no one can ever be saved by good deeds or their own meritorious performance (for even our best is but filthy rags – Isaiah 64:6), our obedience by faith, demonstrated by what we “DO” is partial evidence that we are truly His and that we genuinely have affection for Him, not just for His gifts. Jesus rebuked the self-righteous pride of the chief priests and elders of the people, by illustrating heart obedience is manifested in a way that doing is not equivalent to saying. Likewise, James 1:22 exhorts us, “Prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.” This in no way is to say that simply doing is sufficient to please God, lest we forget the cries of those who will say “Lord, Lord, did we not do such and such in Your name” and then suffered righteous judgment (Matthew 7:21-27). Instead, a response of humbled obedience reveals what the religious elite did not have, but many of the tax collectors and prostitutes were divinely given – a repentant recognition of their spiritual bankruptcy and a desperate plea that God would forgive their treason and rescue them from their lawless propensities. The first son may not have initially obeyed, but he was the one who ultimately obeyed, and the second… really, not at all.

Michael Riccardi points out, “Holiness does not simply mean bringing our outward behavior into conformity to an external standard. You do not need supernatural power of the indwelling Holy Spirit to do that; you just need strong willpower. Hypocrites can conform to the external trappings of religion while remaining destitute of holy desires. But certainly that is not the sanctification to which we are called… We want to have sanctified affections as well as sanctified actions – because God commands us not only to behave righteously; He also commands us to be holy. Therefore, the truly holy person does not merely “do what God commands”, though he certainly does that; the holy person “loves what God loves’, and then acts in keeping with a new heart… Now if this were not so, and sanctification were simply a matter of performing external duties, then ‘Nike-sanctification’ would make sense. You know: Just Do It. Try harder and be better… And what you have there is the kind of moralistic externalism that depends – not on the power of the Spirit of God working within you – but on the strength of your own willpower, whether your heart is properly engaged or not.”

Thomas Watson adds, “A man has no more power to change himself than to create himself.” Biblical change today and in the new year does not start with your unique will power that can morph into nothing more than the arrogant boast of man, it starts with repentance and bears fruit with the humble obedience of faith in God, not self. We must take note that in our striving and persevering by faith that true humility senses that humility is a gift beyond our human reach. Because if humility is the product of our reaching alone, then we will instinctively feel proud about how successful we are at reaching. It is a gracious gift we must pray for and cultivate by our faith and obedience.

John Piper warns us of the pastel vainglories that yet reside in our hearts, “There is the fact: God is above. We are beneath. We are not worthy to tie His shoes. The distance between God and us is infinite. His greatness, His power, His wisdom, His justice, His truth, His holiness, His mercy and grace are as high above ours as the heavens are above the earth. Besides the fact that God is above and we are beneath, there is the heartfelt sense of the fact. Besides truth there is the sinking in and the feeling of the truth. That is as crucial here as knowing the truth. Do we feel this distance between God above and us beneath? Are we really humbled by it, or do we paradoxically even take pride in knowing that we have seen that it exists. Oh, how subtle is the creeping contamination of pride!”

So as you and I rightly make resolutions and goals in the coming year (it is a good, wise, and biblical thing to make plans!), let us bow in utter subordination to the Preeminent One, the Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Passive, neo-antinomian, semi-gnostic, Keswick “let go and let God”, pietistic, “gospel-centered”, Tchividjian-esqe nonsense is not biblical sanctification. Embrace together in sweet unity the overarching sovereignty of God and your ordained human responsibility to obey Him and exercise the means of grace He’s given, and escape the arrogance of independently trying to decide the nitty-gritty of your daily planning and living. Rest in the tough and tender decrees of God’s loving and revealed wisdom. Do not be arrogant and say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.” (James 4:13-16) But in humility, then DO in obedience by faith, “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.” (James 4:17) Those who are truly humbled will work and labor and suffer by faith to glorify the Lord. This must be the starting point of our doing in the new year. Our focus must not simply be on what we are to do, but for who are to become for His glory alone by our doing in the strength that He provides. My prayer is that we will not simply have accomplished this goal or that goal, but that we will be truly loving, truly serving, truly worshipful, and truly unashamed. In other words, that we will become godlier people not just doing godly things.

Kevin DeYoung challenges us to embrace an aggressive, Spirit-empowered, gospel-driven, faith-fueled effort in our spiritual maturing, “It’s all too easy to turn the fight of faith into sanctification-by-checklist. Take care of a few bad habits, develop a couple good ones and you’re set. But a moral checklist doesn’t take into consideration the idols of the heart. It may not even have the gospel as part of the equation. And inevitably, checklist spirituality is highly selective. So you end up feeling successful at sanctification because you stayed away from drugs, lost weight, served at the soup kitchen, and renounced Styrofoam. But you ignored gentleness, humility, joy, and sexual purity. God has not really gotten to your heart…This sort of exhortation seems promising at first, but it proves ineffective in the long run. Mere rule keeping is not the answer because holiness cannot be reduced to a little ethical refurbishment.”

Let us not content ourselves with only making a show of godliness like contemporary white washed tombs, but let us hold fast the commandment of Deuteronomy 6:5 to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” And in that, by faith, let us pursue His promised Christlikeness by obedience to His revealed will by disciplining ourselves for the purpose of godliness, “for bodily discipline is only of some profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” (1 Timothy 4:7-8)

As the new year begins and we resolve to make practical goals to glorify God with our lives, let’s remember that both small and big changes go a long way in our sanctification. If a ship’s navigation, crossing the Atlantic Ocean from New York to Liverpool, were off just 1 degree, that ship would be way off course to the degree it traveled. It would not land in Liverpool. But just as one degree error can put a ship off course, conversely one or a few degrees correction over the course of time can make a real difference to bring us to where we desire. Of course, some things in our lives require more drastic measures. A man with severely clogged arteries might need major bypass surgery, but a 30 year old with elevated cholesterol may only need to make some minor dietary adjustments. But when either is neglected, there are consequences. And either way, we need help from God and His people in some form. We cannot cling to pride and depend upon our own privatized strength. Bad habits are hard (not impossible) to break, but good habits can last a lifetime. As we evaluate areas of our lives, we must prayerfully assess what degree of changes are required and commit ourselves to act accordingly in a way that produces longterm Christlikeness and fruitfulness. Crash diets eventually leave us 10 pounds heavier than before we started, but godly habits established and maintained, by faith in God and not in ourselves, will reap enduring benefits of spiritual health long after quick fixes filled the bargain bins.

There are joyful opportunities to make fresh commitments in our devotional life, intentionally yet dependently work on our hearts, plan how we can regularly teach and shepherd our homes through daily family worship, strategize how we might love and witness to our next-door neighbor, reassess our personal budget and stewardship of His resources, cultivate good habits to improve our physical health so we can have more energy to serve Christ, commit ourselves to labor for His church in fresh ways, or even take up a new hobby. Schedule some personal time this week to pray and write down some spiritual goals, and don’t leave it to chance or convenience. Life can get quite busy, and I imagine all of us are, regardless of how well we might each organize ourselves. Therefore, the core concern is always priority. But the wonderful news is that though we might not be able to do all that we desire to do, we can always focus and do what we’re each called to do. Our Lord ensures and provides for this, and present and future grace should encourage and embolden us to continue to persevere, trusting in the Father’s wise bestowment and His every good assignment to each of us. May we heed Paul’s hopeful exhortation in Philippians 2:12-13, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”