Lifted Veil

New Covenant Person - Joe KrygierNew Covenant Person - Joe Krygier

New Covenant Power - Shane BeckerNew Covenant Power - Shane Becker

“The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One. While he looks at Christ, the very things he has so long been trying to do will be getting done within him. It will be God working in him to will and to do.”
A.W. Tozer from his ‘Pursuit of God’.

From Thomas Brooks. . .
 
“Jacob’s meeting with Rachel, and enjoying of Rachel, make his hard service to be easy and delightful to him; and will not the soul’s enjoyment of God, and meeting with God, render his service to be much more easy and delightful?”
 
“Oh, ‘none but Christ, none but Christ’.  Oh my prayers are not Christ, my hearing is not Christ, my fasting is not Christ. Oh! one smile of Christ, one glimpse of Christ, one good word from Christ, one nod of love from Christ in the day of trouble and darkness, will more revive and refresh the soul than all your former services, in which your souls rested, as if they were the bosom of Christ, which should be the only centre of our souls.  Christ is the crown of crowns, the glory of glories, and the heaven of heavens.”

“So poor souls that see not the excellency of that resting-place that God has appointed for their souls to lie down in, they wander from mountain to hill, from one duty to another, and here they will rest and there they will rest: but souls that see the excellency of that resting-place that God has provided for them, they will say, Farewell prayer, farewell hearing, farewell fasting. I will no more rest in you, but now I will rest only in the bosom of Christ, the love of Christ, the righteousness of Christ.”
 
“God never gave a believer a new heart that it should always lie a-bleeding, and that it should always be rent and torn in pieces with discouragements.”
 
“A sheep may often slip into a slough, as well as a swine. . . there is a great difference between a sheep that by weakness falls into the mire, and a swine that delights to wallow in the mire. “

The following is an objection I received to some of the tenents of ‘Gospel Sanctification’ that I’ve been espousing.  Although I disagree with these objections they are well stated, come from a sincere brother, and represent the very issues I personally struggled with for some time. So here it is as I received it:

- - - -

Hi Shane,

I’m thankful that the Lord has given us many powerful motives in the form of doctrinal truths (indicatives) as reasons why we should obey Him.

However, would you agree that the Bible uses an indicative to motivate only some imperatives? But, other imperatives are given with no motives, just sheer duty?

Do you believe it’s OK to obey God out of duty, with no conscious motive? (No, that’s not “Phariseeism” or “legalism.” Christ rebuked the Pharisees for obeying from sinful motives, not NO motives.)

Can I suggest that much if not most of our obedience is without conscious motives? Every day we obey our Lord from disciplined habits of godliness. And, you know what? That’s not a sin.

Sure, I prefer to stop and think about why I should obey. But, we often don’t have time to think. And, God accepts our obedience in Christ, whether from conscious motives or no motives.

- - - - 

I’ll give my response to these challenges over my next few posts.

Yours in Christ-

Shane.