J. Dean
Puritan Board Junior
..into works-righteousness?
Sometimes I wonder whether or not the evangelical church makes too much of self-examination. Certainly there are times for it. But it seems as if an over-focus on our fruits can turn into a works-oriented pursuit.
For example, I examine myself and find that I'm not always guarding my mind as well as I should. So I make a conscious effort to be more guarded about my thoughts. But in the process, I sin again through failing to guard my thoughts. I then start basing my standing before God based on whether or not I'm guarding my thoughts, and because of this-and not Christ's work on the cross-I'm therefore a good Christian. And if I don't successfully guard my thoughts, then I have to start questioning my salvation. We are saved by grace through faith in Christ, yet we turn around and seem to undermine that by an overzealous pursuit of the law.
Do you see the problem?
We rebuke (rightly) the Arminians for doing the evangelical "bait and switch," but how do we keep from doing this ourselves in our self-examination? How do we keep from simply paying lip-service to sola gratia, sola scriptura, sola fide, and solo christus when we start looking at our lives for examinations? How do we keep from talking out of both sides of our mouths by holding to preservation of the saints while at the same time saying "Hey, if your works aren't measuring up, you might not have faith"?
Because the Word is quite clear on this: if it's at all of works, then grace is no longer grace.
How do you guys deal with this tension between legalism and Antinomianism? Because maintaining the balance isn't as easy as I had supposed earlier on in my Christian walk.
Thank you.
Sometimes I wonder whether or not the evangelical church makes too much of self-examination. Certainly there are times for it. But it seems as if an over-focus on our fruits can turn into a works-oriented pursuit.
For example, I examine myself and find that I'm not always guarding my mind as well as I should. So I make a conscious effort to be more guarded about my thoughts. But in the process, I sin again through failing to guard my thoughts. I then start basing my standing before God based on whether or not I'm guarding my thoughts, and because of this-and not Christ's work on the cross-I'm therefore a good Christian. And if I don't successfully guard my thoughts, then I have to start questioning my salvation. We are saved by grace through faith in Christ, yet we turn around and seem to undermine that by an overzealous pursuit of the law.
Do you see the problem?
We rebuke (rightly) the Arminians for doing the evangelical "bait and switch," but how do we keep from doing this ourselves in our self-examination? How do we keep from simply paying lip-service to sola gratia, sola scriptura, sola fide, and solo christus when we start looking at our lives for examinations? How do we keep from talking out of both sides of our mouths by holding to preservation of the saints while at the same time saying "Hey, if your works aren't measuring up, you might not have faith"?
Because the Word is quite clear on this: if it's at all of works, then grace is no longer grace.
How do you guys deal with this tension between legalism and Antinomianism? Because maintaining the balance isn't as easy as I had supposed earlier on in my Christian walk.
Thank you.