This week in our Life Group we looked at the key distinction between the law and the gospel, both for justification (being right with God) and sanctification (becoming like God). We change not by working hard, but by coming to Jesus again and again.
In chapter three of You Can Change, Tim Chester drives home very forcefully that after salvation we often resort to becoming like God through working hard and trying to do lots of things ourselves (the law). However he shows that this is futile; just as the law couldn’t save us, so it can’t change us, only the gospel can change us. Coming into a relationship with God and having our characters changed to be more like him starts and finishes with repentance and faith.
Chapter Overview: How are you going to change?
Chester starts the chapter by talking about how we try to change ourselves. We think activity will change us; we think we need to do something. Colossians 2:20-23 says that rules and regulations might have the appearance of wisdom, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. Rules are external and therefore they can’t change our hearts, our desires and our motivation, which Jesus says is the problem (Mark 7:20-23). Since sin comes from within, external rules will not help us.
Chester then looks at what the law does do. If it can’t change us, what can it do? Romans 1-8 tells us that it brings us to an end of ourselves and drives us into the arms of Jesus. The law shows us we can’t be perfect and we can’t change ourselves. It shows us we need new hearts; we need the law to be put into our hearts by the Spirit (Jeremiah 31:31-33 and Ezekiel 36:25-27).
So why is trying to change through the law and trying to prove ourselves by what we do appealing. Chester says there are two reasons. Firstly, it makes holiness manageable (rather than a whole life of devotion); and secondly, it therefore makes it an achievement (boxes that I can tick and feel proud about). As part of these two things, it leads to comparison. I look around and see whether I am better or worse than others.
To combat this natural instinct to change and to prove ourselves by our hard work, Chester says we need to repent of our desire to be righteous through our own effort, just as Paul does in Philippians 3:4-9. We have to count everything that we could put confidence in to prove ourselves as loss, for the sake of having a righteousness that comes by faith in Christ. He tells a powerful story of the singer songwriter Bob Kauflin to illustrate the point.
The songwriter Bob Kauflin describes a tree-year period of hopelessness in his life characterised by depression, panic attacks and itching. He confessed his hopelessness to a pastor who, to his great surprise, said “I don’t think you’re hopeless enough. Kauflin thought he was joking, but he explained; ‘If you were completely hopeless, you’d stop trusting in what you think you can do to change the situation, and start trusting in what Jesus Christ has already done for you at the cross.’ ‘A light went on’ says Kauflin. For months afterwards every time he felt anxious or hopeless, he would say to himself ‘I am a hopeless person, but Jesus Christ died for hopeless people’.
Chester then talks about change being something God does in us and helpfully picks out the different ways the Father, Son and Spirit change us:
- The Father disciplines us (Hebrews 12), through the circumstances of life. Hardships weaken our allegiance with the world and cause us to come to Christ.
- The Son sets us free (Romans 6), from both the penalty and power of sin. It is no longer inevitable that I will sin, I can say no and avoid temptation. I am a liberated slave. I am united with Christ. I have a new life. My fruitfulness now comes from my connection with Jesus (John 15).
- The Spirit prompts and guides (Galatians 5), so that we say no to the wrong things and yes to the right things. We need to learn to follow Spirit-prompted desires (BTW The Spirit’s guidance in Galatians 5 and Romans 8 has nothing to do with career path or decision-making on non-moral issues, and everything to do with choosing the godly path each day in our relationships, our behaviour and our words).
Chester ends the chapter with great hope for us to change. Since we have a new life which comes through repentance of sin, faith in Christ and new life through the Spirit, change is now inevitable. Change is in our DNA, we have an in-built tendency towards holiness. When I sin, I can be grateful for forgiveness, embrace Jesus again and then crucify that sin. One day I will be completely changed (1 John 3:2) but for now I am am constantly, quietly, steadily, organically and inevitably becoming more like Christ. Hallelujah!
Here is a quote from JC Ryle that I found particularly helpful when thinking about how I am going to change:
If we would be sanctified, our course is clear and plain – we must begin with Christ. We must go to Him as sinners, with no plea but that of utter need, and cast our souls on Him by faith… If we would grow in holiness and become more sanctified, we must continually go on as we began, and be ever making fresh applications to Christ .
Discussion and Reflections
Here are some of the things that came up as we chatted through the chapter and how we’re going to change. In no particular order:
(1) The law fails us in two ways – firstly it doesn’t change our desires (we still want to sin) and secondly it doesn’t help us change (we feel powerless). We need to go to God for both these things.
(2) Why do we default to self-sanctification – we all spoke about how no matter how much we know that we can’t change ourselves, we always default to self-sanctification. We were amazed at how this happens. It shocked us. We realised we needed each other.
(3) We had all created different lists (mental and physical) of how we would change, and they hadn’t worked. We had given up.
(4) An encouragement, we had all changed – One of us knew the work of the Father to discipline us and one of us knew the work of the Spirit to give us new desires.
(5) Repenting of righteousness – this was a novel idea and hard to get our heads around. But we agreed that we need to say sorry for the things we do for the wrong reasons (to make us acceptable) and run to Christ.
(6) Our motto – one of the group came up with the motto “don’t try to change yourself, go to God and ask him to change you” – this seemed to sum everything up.