Law and Gospel - Part 4

Continuing with Jonty Rhodes discussion of laws and gospel, he addresses how we should live in light of the doctrines of justification and sanctification:

So, does God care or not when I disobey the law? Have you ever heard the illustration where a preacher describes two days in the life of a typical Christian? On Monday, Jeff springs out of bed, brings his beautiful wife Caroline breakfast, has an hour of prayer, nips next door to feed Seamus the neighbor's cat, evangelizes his fellow passengers on the bus, works hard all day, gives some of his bonus earnings to a mission organization, and gets home just in time to lead an inspiring Bible study on Isaiah. The next day, he gets up late, ignores his Bible, swears at his neighbor, is rude to his boss, and skips the prayer meeting to stay in and watch a dodgy movie. "On which day is God more pleased with Jeff?" asks the preacher. "They're both the same!" he answers. "God's love is unconditional! He sees us in Christ! We are justified! Our works no longer matter!" Is he right?

Well, yes and no. This is where recovering a more covenantal way of thinking, with its emphasis on union with Christ, will help us stay balanced. On the one hand, when I remember that I now share Jesus' status, justified and fully pleasing in God's sight, I can rejoice that, no matter how bad I've been today, God still loves me as his child and will accept me into heaven. My justification is unchangeable, unspoilable - and, for that matter, unimprovable.

But if this is my only understanding of how God views me, then I'm likely to get in a muddle when I come across passages in the Bible that suggest God reacts to how I live. There are those passages that talk about God rewarding people who live holy lives, passages that speak of certain actions pleasing him. Conversely, who disobey, and even some where he causes believers to get ill and die because of their unholy lives (1 Cor. 11:17-34). None of these will make any sense if I only ever think of justification; after all, if God sees Jesus and not me, surely it's impossible for his opinion of me to change for better or for worse?

Is this true? We'll take a look at this in more depth in the next post.