Continuing Tullian Tchividjian’s series on the oft misunderstood Epistle of James. “You can read this book one way and become a Pharisee and read it another way and become a deeper lover of Jesus.”
On a personal note, I’ve been going through what you might call a gospel renewal of sorts the last few years in particular and have recently stumbled across Tullian’s teaching and have found it most helpful in sorting out just what a gospel-driven faith not only looks like, but what makes it tick. Tullian’s preaching just happens to be some of the best preaching I’ve ever heard in 25 years. Between his blog and several messages I’ve listened to now, it’s safe to say Tullian is on to something, something big.
In part 6 of this series, Tullian asks and addresses the question: How does the gospel change the way that we live?… If you are rescued, redeemed and God has raised you from death to life—what will your life begin to look like?
Enjoy.
Psalm 62:12 “Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work.”
Works-based justification is more gracious than grace-bases justification, in that it presents God as placable, able to be pleased. In grace-based salvation God is depicted as implacable, unpleasable, a crazed perfectionist who can think of no better thing to do with an imperfect creation than to burn it in hell forever. But in works-based salvation, God’s forgiveness is able to work together with man’s works without any false dichotomy between the two. The Psalmist here praises God as “MERCIFUL” for rendering to every man “ACCORDING TO HIS WORK.” To the Psalmist, grace would be tyranny. If God could render to an immoral man a great paradise, then he could equally render to a moral man great torment. In such a case, God’s justice would be the opposite of justice. Grace creates chaos and inconsistency: it creates unpredictability, much like a Communist economy. But in a world where God (as in Romans 2:6-10) renders ETERNAL LIFE to those who “by patient continuance in well doing seek glory and honor and immortality” and TORMENT AND ANGUISH to those who “obey unrighteousness rather than righteousness” there is predictability and true justice, and in this predictability and in this consistency there is a MERCY that transcends all the cruelty of that unpredictable and repugnantly inconsistent thing called GRACE.
I will be praying the grace of God becomes alive to you Rey.