Genuine Church Community vs. Atomization and Individualism in American Culture

Image: www.goodreads.com

One of the most important priorities for the church right now is recovering genuine community. The health and effectiveness of church community for doing what the church is supposed to do has been severely weakened. Here are some examples and perspectives on this I have shared in the past from Rod Dreher and Carl Trueman and from Chris Martin (discussing Pew Research results on what Christians think is essential to spiritual life). It's why Mark Dever recently wrote a book devoted to community. Two major obstacles to forming Christian community are the trends of atomization and individualism. Here's an explanation of both:

Atomization refers to the trend of people disconnecting and living apart from one another and apart from the social and community groups they once regularly attended. It is a breakdown of connections and relationships on a community level, and some have noted it is particularly strong in America. Sociologist Robert Putnam drew attention to this phenomenon in 1995 in his essay "Bowling Alone" and captured the basic image: where people once used to seek regular community and do things together in groups, many people prefer now to do everything on their own terms. Putnam also identified some of the reasons this is harming America's social fabric, weakening both the productivity of the community and the ability of people to form relationships. He concluded it resulted in less civic engagement, and also in less trust between average people. Here's a longer explanation from a recent perspective.

Individualism describes the obsession of people in our day with living out their own unique, personal journey of self-discovery. It is characterized by an idea that the self-fulfillment and development of a person's individual identity is the supreme value. As a consequence, many people resist being influenced by groups and institutions that try to form common ideas in a community because they do not want to be shaped by something outside of themselves. If they join, they do so while standing apart and avoiding any adoption of group ideals unless it aligns with their personal identity. For instance, instead of letting church shape your thinking on God, you come to church convinced of your own personal take on spirituality and you only stay if the church seems to fit with that. Where American society used to be composed of many institutions of people coming together for common goals or values, which would form a united mindset and set of ideas among those people, today people often insist on figuring out who they are by looking within and by their own experiences rather than being taught or shaped by a community. Here is a useful discussion by Tim Keller and Russell Moore for more context.

Contrast this with the way Dietrich Bonhoeffer described the essential Christian community in his important work Life Together:

Not what a man is in himself as a Christian, his spirituality and piety, constitutes the basis of our community. What determines our brotherhood is what that man is by reason of Christ. Our community with one another consists solely in what Christ has done to both of us. This is true not merely at the beginning, as though in the course of time something else were to be added to our community; it remains so for all the future and to all eternity. I have community with others and I shall continue to have it only through Jesus Christ. The more genuine and the deeper our community becomes, the more will everything else between us recede, the more clearly and purely will Jesus Christ and his work become the one and only thing that is vital between us. We have one another only through Christ, but through Christ we do have one another, wholly, and for all eternity. (Life Together, p. 26).

Taking Bonhoeffer's observations, Christian community is not about what kind of spirituality or identity you or I bring to the mix. It is about what Christ has done for us, and what we are because of Christ. Identity is not something personally determined and established by us as individuals; it is something that derives from and depends on the work of Christ. We could say that the more we know Christ, the more He reveals to us our true identity. But Bonhoeffer emphasized that meeting Christ in private and learning to know him by ourselves is only half of the process. He explained that community is not optional for the Christian; it is essential to the way we are formed and the way God feeds us. We need one another to speak the Word of God to each other, to hear each other's confessions and cries for prayer, to minister forgiveness to one another, and to display to each other in the flesh the love that Christ has put into our hearts through His Spirit.

Image: http://livingwatercommunitychurch.org/

Therefore knowing God requires humbling yourself to be shaped and taught by the community. You cannot come to Christian community and participate authentically while still insisting upon maintaining a personal identity not shaped or influenced by the community. One of Bonhoeffer's main points about Christian community is that it must be established by God. We do not have the option of taking or creating community on our own terms. All real Christian community is established by the Holy Spirit, not by our plans and expectations. "Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate." (Id. p. 30)

That is why Bonhoeffer states: "He who loves his dream of a community more that the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial." (Id. p. 27). We cannot make the community to fit our expectations. We must receive it. This necessarily requires humbling ourselves, because we are not in control and we must accept what God creates. I will note that this is not to be confused with simply accepting anything we are given by other men and women, for if they are also engaged in setting up their own idea of community, it may be equally detrimental. But it also means we have no excuse to just stiff-arm what we receive from others in community solely because we don't happen to like it or prefer it.

So how do we tell the difference? One of the reasons Bonhoeffer's book Life Together is so engaging and powerful is that it gives us a detailed breakdown and discussion of the aspects of community that come necessarily from our being united through Christ. These are the things natural to a genuine Christian community, the basic vital signs of the spiritual life. Bonhoeffer shows why these things are necessary to our life in Christ and how they nourish and maintain it. If the dynamics of your Christian community fulfill these purposes and serve to bring people closer to God and closer together in Christ, then they may be just what we need. That does not mean they will always be comfortable. Detecting the difference between the two - community created by God versus community dictated by other people - may take careful discernment. But either way, there is no question that the real community must be received. We cannot set the terms.

Instead, we love people the way the Scriptures teach, and we accept them for Christ's sake, and then we take the community that God develops out of that. Bonhoeffer gives us a peaceful picture of what kind of growth in grace and joy is available to us if we will humble ourselves and just receive what God is giving. Consider how liberating and relieving it is to not be ruled by a pressure to fix and tinker with the community in every place where it isn't developing according to your expectations. Simply receiving is a gracious privilege:

Christian community is like the Christian's sanctification. It is a gift of God which we cannot claim. Only God knows the real state of our fellowship, of our sanctification. What may appear weak and trifling to us may be great and glorious to God. Just as the Christian should not be constantly feeling his spiritual pulse, so, too, the Christian community has not been given to us by God for us to be constantly taking its temperature. The more thankfully we daily receive what is given to us, the more surely and steadily will fellowship increase and grow from day to day as God pleases.

(Life Together, p. 30)

Spiritual Coffee: Barnabas Piper Leadership Podcasts (Spiritual Disciplines) - Sports Community Replaces Church - Richard John Neuhaus, Liberal and Orthodox?

Catching up on a week of interesting developments. Here are three of the most useful things I've come across to stimulate and sharpen your Christian thinking. As always, prior selections are under Spiritual Coffee.

5 Leadership Questions podcast: Spiritual Disciplines and Leadership, Todd Akins and Barnabas Piper (with Kevin Spratt)
The bonus here is discovering this podcast by Akins and Piper, which has weekly episodes where they "ask five questions of different guests or about different leadership topics. The aim of the podcast is to inform and encourage Christian leaders whether they serve in the pastorate, the business world, non-profits, or on a volunteer basis." This one has a valuable perspective on why we can't take the spiritual disciplines for granted, or get tired of them. Kind of like we shouldn't get tired of breathing or eating. Some things are so basic that you just can't opt out of them if you want life to work.
In addition to a useful concept, Akins and Piper have quotes from each episode posted below the player so you can skim what they talk about.

“Many times the delta between our knowledge and our application is immense.”“Without the fundamentals you don’t have anything to build off of.”
“There are some things that there simply isn’t a newer better way to do.”
“Character is as valuable now as it ever has been, and there aren’t different versions.”
“You can’t really innovate spiritual disciplines.”
“You can’t lead people in a direction you’re not going yourself.”

Check out the episode with Jon Acuff too. Good thoughts on developing yourself for success and staying away from moral failure.

“I try to surround myself with people who have the kind of lives I want to live.”“Hustle is an act of focus, not frenzy.”

Lessons from Cleveland's Religious Devotion to Its Teams, Ed Uszynski (Athletes in Action)
This is a remarkably well-written comparison that identifies the community-bonding and identity-formation aspects of the investment people have in their cities' sports teams. It contrasts how those aspects used to be served primarily by church community. There are some valuable observations here about what may be missing from our churches, as well as what we need to make sure we are getting from church instead of simply from sports and other recreational friendships.

"They actually fill a void previously filled by church attendance and the experience of being a church member. With the decline of institutional religion as an influential reality in communities across America, a key component of human development and one of the primary areas that Christian education used to fill—identity formation—has been taken over by sport culture."

The Liberalism of Richard John Neuhaus, Matthew Rose (National Affairs)
Neuhaus was founder and editor of the Christian magazine First Things, a commentary on religion and public life, up until his death. He is probably one of the most well-known voices addressing the absence of religion in the public square and civil government. He coined the phrase "the Naked Public Square" with his book in the 1980s, describing what had happened to social and civic discussions by the exclusion of 'religion' as an accepted aspect of those discussions. He was a great champion for the importance and appropriateness of religious thought being applied in society, politics, law, and education, but also a very wise and reasonable thinker who didn't suffer from the extremes that some Christians do in trying to 'put the Bible back in school.' He is a man well worth studying and knowing. It's only fair that I include a link to the reminiscences of First Things writers about Neuhaus as well. This article is by no means the definitive portrait of Neuhaus, but it is a great picture nonetheless.

"At the time of his death in 2009, Richard John Neuhaus had been a public figure for nearly four decades. To admirers and friends, he was arguably the most influential American Christian intellectual since Reinhold Niebuhr or John Courtney Murray. The New York Times described him as a 'theologian who transformed himself from a liberal Lutheran leader of the civil rights and anti-war struggles in the 1960s to a Roman Catholic beacon of the neoconservative movement of today.' It was a conventional biographical arc — Neuhaus's life was defined by exchanging the ideals of liberalism for the dogmas of religious traditionalism."

"But that story is misleading, if not worse, since it distorts the convictions of a man wholly defined by his convictions. Neuhaus spent his life contending for the soul of the liberal tradition. Conversions great and small marked his career, and he often quoted Cardinal Newman, saying that 'to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.' But his commitment to political liberalism, far from being a youthful error he later repudiated, was one of his life's few consistent threads. The other was his orthodox Christian faith."

The Narrow Road Between Arrogance and Obscurity in Leadership

Whenever a leader falls publicly because of sin, there is a deafening chorus of criticism, judgment, and "I told you so" declarations. This time it is Darrin Patrick, who was lead pastor of The Journey church in St. Louis and vice-president of Acts 29 church planting network (he has now been removed from both roles, and has been removed from The Gospel Coalition council webpage). This is a time to mourn and grieve over the brokenness that has been caused in The Journey church community and in Patrick's family. Our prayers for them all should outstrip our comments and judgments by at least 10 to 1.

We do want to know what went wrong. Being respectful and mourning with those who mourn doesn't mean we don't learn anything. The main reason I am posting anything is that Scot McKnight has set us a gracious example in how to reflect on what happened. More on this below. I understand that a lot of the anger and disgust in the comments that surge up at a time like this comes from past experiences of seeing church leadership act too slowly in restraining and correcting a leader who is abusing his office or the trust of his congregation. This multiplies the tragedy for the leader and his family and for the people he has betrayed. There is a swell of frustration from people who feel they have watched those with a responsibility to act do nothing, and the comments give vent to that.

Yesterday I was engaged on Twitter by some people about this news. I tried to respond with moderation. My main concern is that when a church does act to remove a leader who is abusing his office, this storm of comments and criticisms has an unintended consequence: the more intense and explosive we make it when a leader is removed, the more hesitant and reluctant churches and ministries will be to actually take action. When we slam churches and their leadership over and over on social media when they announce a leader's removal, we are encouraging exactly the opposite of what we want. We encourage them to avoid such controversy and humiliation for their church and the person they are removing by keeping things quiet and private. If you want public accountability in the church, don't make doing it such a fierce and angry experience.

Accountability: What Went Wrong

Before public accountability, however, there should be private accountability among leaders to prevent things from getting this far. We want to mourn over this now, but also learn how to prevent more of this in the ministries we love. I don't think it could be done more wisely than Scot McKnight's analysis here. I'm sharing some excerpts that I hope will encourage you to read it all. McKnight does three things that make this article worth saving and using: 1) he gets the facts and doesn't hide from the realities of what has been going on, but he also doesn't get detoured by spending a lot of time criticizing; 2) he chooses a positive and compelling example of how to be a servant leader and do accountability right, using the contrasts to make his point (instead of just talking about what someone else did wrong); and 3) he gives us a very wise and solid model summarized from Kent Keith for what kind of heart and development a leader must have in order to faithfully and humbly serve the church.

As McKnight observes, the problem is not simply that people around a leader should be paying more attention or should have acted sooner. The problem is a fundamental difference in the whole pattern and philosophy of leadership. That's what has to change. This is core training for any leader. Bookmark it. Keith's Paradoxical Commandments of Leadership at the end are also brilliant.

McKnight identifies the style of leadership that led to Patrick's crash this way:

In one simple term, authoritarianism. The solution to this requires ... a gradual growth into a leader who fosters the life of others instead of himself. This isn’t something that can be fixed by reading a new book, nor can it be learned over a weekend retreat. It requires working under a skilled servant leader who can supervise the development of new patterns.

People enter into leadership for a variety of reasons, including passion and skills and gifts and a desire to lead and a desire to control and — here comes our theme — a desire to serve. I believe many today who are leaders have gifts and skills and passion but too often are dominated by a desire to control and lead and not a desire to serve and lead through empowering others.

Gospel-shaped leadership is servant leadership, not control leadership and not dominating leadership.

Comparing servant leadership with authoritarianism (or the "power model"):

The servant model of leadership counters the power model, which is focused on “how to accumulate and wield power, how to make people do things, how to attack and win. It is about clever strategies, applying pressure, and manipulating people to get what you want” (19). That is, it is realpolitik — a theory that is distant from a theory of ethics. Servant leadership theory is first established in ethics and then works out that ethic through leadership.

Here are the key practices of servant leadership?

1. Self-awareness.
2. Listening
3. Changing the pyramid.
4. Developing your colleagues.
5. Coaching, not controlling.
6. Unleashing the energy and intelligence of others.
7. Foresight.

McKnight is quoting principles that have been tried and tested over many decades. The crux of servant leadership is that it doesn't try to control or manipulate the outcomes. It isn't about getting what you want by getting everyone to do it your way. It is about serving the people around you, investing in them, setting an example of humble submission to Christ, and helping others reach their greatest potential. The glorious truth is that when you lead like this, you encourage more success and growth from everyone around you and you often reach the right goals as well.

This makes many leaders uncomfortable because it seems like a loss of control. They associate success with having enough power to make things the way they believe they should be. Being a servant leader seems like putting all the power in other people's hands, and ending up following their needs instead of charting the course. In short, it feels like surrendering the power to lead and sinking into obscurity.

The truth is that leaders who serve this way are often the most successful. People support them and follow them because they are supporting and investing in others. People will work much harder with you if they know you care about them and support them than they will if you just order them around and use power to control and direct them. This is how Jesus led His disciples, straight out of Mark 10 and John 13. It is how Paul and the other Apostles served and led. It is even recognized in the secular business world as being the solid road to success. That's the lesson of books like Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... And Others Don't. Some of the most successful leaders - in terms of the health and prosperity of their businesses - are some of the humblest and most unassuming.

The model of power and control appears to many to be the quicker and easier way to achieve their goals, but like most things that appear that way, it ends up being a more unstable and ultimately destructive path. Shortcuts taken at the beginning result in a foundation of sand.

Built-in Accountability

Just as importantly, the path of servant leadership is a path of accountability and cooperation with others. People who lead this way are much more open to correction and to having people look at their lives and decisions and offer input. They value and listen to the advice of others, following the repeated theme of Proverbs: "Plans are established by counsel; by wise guidance wage war." (Proverbs 20:18) and "in abundance of counselors there is victory." (Proverbs 24:6). And they heed the warning: "Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment." (Proverbs 18:1). They determine to get the most out of being challenged or corrected, believing that they grow wiser and stronger by listening. (Proverbs 13:18; 15:32).

This style of leadership comes with built in accountability. People don't have to chase after you and press you to get you to let them take a look at what's going on in your life. Servant leaders are wise enough to invite that kind of attention and input. For that reason, they often last a long time as successful leaders instead of rising high and then suddenly crashing. What McKnight has pointed out is that this model is not only biblical and effective for leadership, it is also the model best designed to prevent disasters like what happened to Darrin Patrick. In a multiplicity of counselors, there is safety. (Proverbs 11:14).

Forgiveness Is Free; Sincerity and Repentance May Take Some Work

Easter should leave us all with fresh enthusiasm for the freedom from guilt and shame that Christ paid for on the cross. I hope the last few days have been filled for you with hearing the free grace of God preached and proclaimed. The forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ, and not through trying to work off a debt or earn acceptance, is one of the greatest joys we will ever know.

However, when anyone preaches the free grace of God that removes all the guilt of your sins, sooner or later people get nervous and uncomfortable with this lavish, free forgiveness of every wrong. If forgiveness is that easy, then what will keep us from giving into temptations when they come up again? Some people start to think this is too simple to be true: that people could just take advantage of God and keep indulging whatever desires they wanted if this were so. Just run back to God afterward to say “I’m sorry,” and you’re in the clear. Some people mock Christianity for this very reason, thinking it is too shallow and naïve for letting people get right with God by just apologizing after they do wrong. This also convinces some Christians that it can’t be that easy, that there must be more required of us in order to prove our real regret and repentance to God.

But it’s not as simple as it appears. Forgiveness is free to everyone who confesses what they have done wrong and wants to be healed. But if you do not have a heart that is sorry for doing wrong, forgiveness is absolutely unaffordable. It is completely out of your price range if you aren’t sincere in repenting of sin. There’s no way for you to purchase it. What people miss when they mock the free grace of God in forgiving sins, or when they doubt it and try to earn forgiveness instead, is that God judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart. He knows whether you mean it. He doesn’t need proof. He doesn’t weigh your efforts to earn forgiveness, but He does weigh the sincerity of your regret and desire to change.

The new covenant Christ brought about by His death and resurrection has been called the “covenant of grace,” compared with the "covenant of works" that required perfect obedience under the Mosaic law. Richard Sibbes describes the new measure of obedience: “The law is sweetened by the gospel, and becomes delightful to the inner man (Rom. 7:22). Under this gracious covenant, sincerity is perfection.” (The Bruised Reed, Ch. 6). God established a new covenant for exactly this reason: no one was capable of keeping the law without sin. But God does give us the ability to choose sides with Him against sin, and to renounce our sinful actions. The new covenant only requires that we sincerely turn away from sin.

 

The words used for repentance in Scripture contain the idea of turning away from one thing to embrace another. We turn from sin to God. We turn from evil to good. Kevin DeYoung described it like this: "Some of us become Christians and just go on our merry way, never thinking of sin, while others fixate on our failings and suffer from despair. One person feels no conviction of sin; the other person feels no relief from sin. Neither of these habits should mark the Christian. The Christian should often feel conviction, confess, and be cleansed." Or as DeYoung says more simply: "Repentance is more than a repeated apology." It must be a change of heart.

Luther’s first statement in the 95 Theses is: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent’ (Mt 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”

 

A life of repentance doesn’t have to look impressive outwardly to be sincere. Expecting people to give something up or do something difficult to prove their sincerity doesn’t guarantee sincerity. Yes, if you are sincere and really want forgiveness, you will probably be willing to make sacrifices to receive it. But insincere people are often just as likely to do this. This is exactly what the Pharisees and scribes did, and what Jesus rebuked them for doing. They had figured out that if they made all the right motions of worship, they could get a reputation for holiness and obedience without actually having to live by it. But it gave them no traction before God.

 

If you just go before God seeking forgiveness because you want Him to pay off your tab so you can go sin again without consequences, well, Jesus predicted rather terrifying things for those who thought this was working for them: “You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” (Matthew 15:7-9)

 

This kind of insincere, two-faced worship is utterly rejected by God. No one sneaks a free pass on sin by just saying, “I’m sorry.” There is no way to cheat on this. Those who think the free grace of God is too simplistic misunderstand the importance of the heart. God is not after people who can make a good show of religious devotion. He is after people’s hearts.

 

The reason I say sincerity and repentance may take some work is that they don’t always come naturally after failing. Sometimes it is very hard to be ready to approach God with genuine sorrow over sin. All the wrestling and lamenting and self-reproach of so many remarkable Christians, from John Owen, Richard Baxter, John Bunyan, Richard Sibbes, John Newton, Charles Simeon, Charles Spurgeon, and J.C. Ryle to John Piper, Kevin DeYoung, Tim Keller, Jerry Bridges, and J.I. Packer is simply this: pursuing sincerity in repentance; working the heart toward devotion to God and away from the coldness and selfishness of sin. Not a bit of it is meant to earn forgiveness or prove ourselves. It is all directed at being genuine in heart and sincere in our affections for God.

As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. (2 Corinthians 7:9-10)

But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. (Luke 18:13-14)

This is the Gospel. Don't let anyone talk you out of it. Sometimes this may cost us much in tears, the dismantling of pride and self-admiration, admitting our faults, humbling ourselves to apologize to others, and destroying the illusions of our own goodness. But it has this precious difference between it and the futile pursuit of earning forgiveness: this working of the heart into repentance is accepted by God even at its most feeble, as long as it is genuine. You don’t have to try to work up a pure heart to be accepted. Those who truly desire to change, even if they are powerless to make any progress, are accepted by God, and then He provides the power for change Himself.

 

But it is the grace of the Gospel, which is so hard for the pious to understand, that it confronts us with the truth and says: You are a sinner, a great, desperate sinner; now come, as the sinner that you are, to God who loves you. He wants you as you are; He does not want anything from you, a sacrifice, a work; He wants you alone. 'My son, give me thine heart' (Prov. 23:26). God has come to you to save the sinner. Be glad!

(Bonhoeffer, Life Together, p. 110, HarperOne edition, 1954).

 

Jesus is a greater Saviour than you think him to be when your thoughts are at the greatest. My Lord is more ready to pardon than you to sin, more able to forgive than you to transgress. My Master is more willing to supply your wants than you are to confess them. Never tolerate low thoughts of my Lord Jesus.

(Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, August 22).

Penance Is Not the Same as the Mortification of Sin - One Punishes, the Other Purifies

I gladly proclaimed in my previous post that God does not demand penance after you sin. It is simply not true that “you should feel bad about yourself for a suitable and respectable period of time before you are permitted to be hopeful and encouraged again.” Put another way, you do not have to punish yourself in order to gain God’s acceptance again. He is not waiting for you to work off a debt. God is ready to embrace you again right now. The only thing you must bring is a heart that is sorrowful over sin and repentant.

But we have to be careful that we understand what that means, or we could easily throw out a great deal of Christian teaching and literature that emphasizes the mortification of sin or mourning over sin, thinking that stuff is all the same as penance. What I have described as 'penance' is not how everyone would use the term, but it is the most common perception today. In contrast, the mortification of sin or the pursuit of holiness is not self-punishment, but a quest to purge the heart of sinful desires. Quite a few Christians have written powerfully over the years of the need to prick our own consciences and rend our hearts over the wrong desires within us and the sins we are prone to commit. Richard Sibbes, in his immensely comforting work The Bruised Reed, nonetheless says:

There is a dangerous slighting of the work of humiliation, some alleging this for a pretence for their casual dealing with their own hearts, that Christ will not break the bruised reed; but such must know that every sudden terror and short grief is not that which makes us bruised reeds… but a working our hearts to such a grief as will make sin more odious unto us than punishment, until we offer a ‘holy violence’ against it. (Sibbes, Chapter 2)

By ‘humiliation’ Sibbes does not mean ‘embarrassment’ or putting ourselves to shame. He means the work of humbling ourselves; the act of putting off all of our pride and our desire to look good, and instead being very vulnerable and honest before God about our faults. (This is, in fact, how 'penance' has been understood by some saints in Christian tradition, but it is so often interpreted as I have described it so far that I think it is clearer to draw the distinction between penance as self-punishment and mortification of sin as purification.) One of the things that transformed Martin Luther's understanding of Christianity from a religion demanding we work off our sins under the fear of punishment into embracing the Gospel of justification by faith alone was learning from Erasmus "that the Greek word metanoeite meant ‘to repent’ not ‘to do penance’” – for example, in Matthew 4:17. "[T]his insight was reflected at the first of his 95 Theses." (See Timothy George, Erasmus Before the Storm.) 

 

How is this different than punishing ourselves over sin? The difference is easy to miss, but is crucial for your faith and your joy. First, the difference is the order in which things happen: the common understanding of penance is that after you turn away to sin, you are expected to do something humbling and uncomfortable for a suitable time before you are fully accepted by God again and all is forgiven; but with repentance, God accepts you immediately when you come to him seeking forgiveness, and He restores you completely. Then you can continue the work of humbling your heart and learning to hate the sin. But you are not expected to put yourself through a ritual of shame and self-punishment first before God will receive you back. He receives you back first.

 

The second difference is in how God helps you during the process of restoration. With repentance and the free gift of forgiveness made possible by Jesus taking your place on the cross, God embraces you as soon as you turn to Him in regret and then He helps you do the work of searching and purifying your heart. You get restored first, and do the work together. The idea of penance, however, is generally that you have to prove your repentance by working your way back into God’s favor. Instead, the Gospel ensures you don’t face your sins alone. God never stands far off, as if to say, “You got yourself into this mess, now get yourself out.” God is your Savior. All He wants you to do when you get yourself into a mess is to cry out to Him and plead for His mercy, because He loves to be merciful to you and show His goodness. In Psalm 50 the Lord tells Israel that all their burnt offerings don't please Him nearly as much as this:

"Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” (Psalm 50:14-15).

Third, penance implies that if you make yourself feel bad enough, or punish yourself enough, God will forgive you. This is a gross perversion of the Gospel. God does not forgive you because you have beat yourself up enough to convince Him you’ve paid for your mistake. God forgives you because Christ already took the punishment for your mistake. There is nothing more you can add to that. Your efforts to “work off” the guilt of your sin are pointless, and worse, they are prideful or distrustful. Either you doubt that Christ’s death really paid for all your sins, and therefore think you have to do more to pay them off (as if the cross wasn’t enough), or you have a prideful desire to be independent, which makes you resist the idea that you can’t add anything to Christ’s sacrifice. You want to pay some of the debt yourself so you feel like you earned your way and did your share.

 

The Gospel doesn’t leave you any room for this: it proclaims that Christ’s death once for all was a total satisfaction of all judgment and punishment for all our sins. You can’t wear it out, no matter how many times you fail and sin. But you also have to accept it as a free gift, one you didn't do anything to earn. You can’t pay your own way. The only way to receive forgiveness is to be completely dependent on God to give you what you don’t deserve, all because He is that glorious and generous.

 

You can't make yourself more accepted by God through acts of penance than you are already accepted through Christ. Instead, you can embrace God's gift of forgiveness and then sincerely pursue the humble grief over sin and prayers to be healed that will lead to mortifying (killing) the desire for sin, replacing it with a desire for holiness and deeper intimacy with God. There is no shame to fear in this pursuit of holiness, because Sibbes also wrote: "if we have this for a foundation truth, that there is more mercy in Christ than sin in us, there can be no danger in thorough dealing. It is better to go bruised to heaven than sound to hell."

You Do Not Need to Punish Yourself Over Sin

This morning I linked to an article full of wise, helpful, and encouraging things you can do in the moments after you have failed and fallen into sin, so that you can receive God's grace and focus on making sure you resist temptation next time. For some, just the use of the word "encouraging" related to what to say to someone after sinning seems out of place and inappropriate. There is a common attitude that if you have fallen into sin, you should feel bad about yourself for a suitable and respectable period of time before you are permitted to be hopeful and encouraged again. I am thankful to say that's not how God deals with us. Further, it doesn't even work.

God Does Not Demand Penance
 
God does not expect penance, a specific time of self-punishment and self-denial set aside to suffer for your sins. You aren't required to do something before you can be accepted and forgiven. Before the coming of Christ and His placing Himself between our sin and us, taking the full weight and punishment of our guilt on the cross, there was a system in the Hebrew temple for bringing sacrifices before God to atone for the guilt of sin. God set that up through Moses, but He was teaching the people and preparing them for something better: one sacrifice that would take away the guilt of sin forever. The offering of doves and goats on the altar never actually removed the guilt of sin; it was symbolic. (See Hebrews 10:1-18). It pointed the way to the real sacrifice that removed all guilt: Christ. (Hebrews 9:11-15).
 
Now that Christ has borne our guilt and iniquity, and taken all the penalty of sin onto Himself, there is no purpose for sacrificial offerings anymore. (Hebrews 9:25-28). "For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified." (Heb. 10:14). "Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant." (Heb. 9:15). "He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself." (Heb. 7:27).

Therefore, there is nothing at all to pay. No penance is needed to compensate for sin. Christ already paid it. And as Charles Spurgeon brilliantly said, God is not unjust: what has been paid already, He will never demand to be paid twice. You are not expected by God to take part in paying some of the penalty for your sins. Not even an ounce.

Our biggest difficulty in accepting this is usually that it simply seems too easy. We find it hard to believe that after we've done something shameful or hurtful, God forgives us completely for free. It simply makes more sense to our worldly minds that we should have to pay to get it. Otherwise, can't we just take advantage of God's kindness and do whatever we want? No, because God does expect a couple of things, things that are impossible for people trying to take advantage of His kindness. They are not penance or payment. They are regret and repentance.

Instead, Bring a Broken and Contrite Heart

David makes it clear: "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." (Psalm 51:17). The only thing you must bring is a heart that is sorrowful over sin and repentant. You don't have to do something to be forgiven. But it is necessary that you feel something and believe something. If you regret your sin and desire to be healed, you're ready to come to God. But if you are making a show of asking for forgiveness, while smirking on the inside that you're getting away with something, you're in serious trouble. (I examined what it means to have sincere repentance here.)

If you have any doubt that having a repentant heart is enough to be healed even from serious or destructive sins, consider when David wrote Psalm 51. It was after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband Uriah, a faithful soldier serving David, murdered in order to cover it up. Christ did not die on the cross only for little sins. He paid for it all.

Even knowing that, many of us still feel that some period of shame and penance is needed just to be decent and respectful. It feels scandalous to turn around and embrace God's mercy so quickly. It doesn't seem to take sin seriously enough. Part of this is a confusion of emotions. Feeling ashamed and beating yourself up isn't helpful or necessary, but it is perfectly appropriate to feel sorrow and to mourn over sin. We should take the evil of sin seriously, and give thought to how we have dishonored God and harmed or betrayed others by choosing to sin. Sometimes our heartbreak over sin should be very deep and intense, leaving a lasting impact that makes us see sin more clearly and be repulsed by it. But that should not mean we sit far off from God, feeling ashamed to enter His presence until we have grieved long enough. You can remain sorrowful and regretful over sin without waiting before receiving the gift of mercy and comfort from God. The only thing we should slow down for is making sure our heart is actually repentant, so that we come to God sincerely.

How Long Does God Imply We Should Wait Before Seeking Forgiveness? 

If that doubtful feeling that it's not okay to ask God for forgiveness right away still lingers, consider this: God's ordinary way of dealing with us when we confess our sins is immediate acceptance and restoration.

The prodigal son returns home, and doesn't even get the words "Father, I have sinned..." out of his mouth before his father grabs him and embraces him. When he does make his plea to be accepted as a servant and work for his bread, his father ignores it completely and immediately restores him as a son and celebrates his return. (Luke 15:11-32). This is Jesus describing God the Father's heart for sinners.

Stop and reflect on how overwhelming this love and acceptance is: the father doesn't even pause to talk it over. He rushes on so that they won't waste a moment when they can be comforting each other and taking joy in being reconciled again.  

 

It is very important to the Lord that you not be in doubt about His love and His readiness to accept you. The Gospels and letters in the New Testament are full of invitations to come and be healed. God's love is so great that He does not want His children to bear the sorrow of their sin alone; He comforts us even over our sins against Him. This is what Paul tells us to imitate in how we forgive others. "Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness." (Galatians 6:1). He tells the Corinthian church, regarding one who had been confronted about sin, "you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him." (2 Cor. 2:7-8).

Paul even says that forgiving everything and releasing this person from sorrow is necessary "so that we would not be outwitted by Satan[.]" (2 Cor. 2:11). Keeping people divided by sin and unsure of forgiveness is a demonic mission. One of the biggest problems with thinking you need to put yourself through a period of isolation and shame after having sinned, beating yourself up about how bad you are, is that it does nothing to make you stronger in resisting sin. Instead, it cuts you off from the source of your strength and resilience. Letting this person linger in sorrow any longer is dangerous: it makes him vulnerable. We can't afford to lock ourselves in a dungeon away from God until we feel we have suffered appropriately for sinning. What we need in that very moment is His strength to lean on.

God does not stand far off when we have sinned. He is right next to us, longing to pick us up again. Jesus displays His heart and empathizes with our failures: "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:15-16). Don't hesitate. Run home with confidence.

Get Started on Experiencing Your Greatest Joy Forever

I'm addicted to sugar. I eat or drink way too much sugar every day. This is not a good thing, but my appetite still craves it. When I'm tired, or just want to take a break to relax, or when I'm looking at the menu, my body is telling me that sugar is an essential element for being satisfied.
 
What does this have to do with the image at the right? It's a bit of a testimony. Although my mind and body are convinced that sugar is necessary for me to enjoy my day, they're deceived. It's just not true. What's more, the things that really would make my body feel better and more energetic don't usually appeal to my appetite. My body isn't just mistaken about sugar; it's got the whole order of what's good for it and not so good flipped backwards.
 
I still remember the point in life where I discovered I was doing the same thing with my relationship with God. I had been worshiping God and learning the Bible and a lot about Christian faith and doctrine for years, but there was a point where I realized I was trying to be Christian but still find my satisfaction in the typical things most people think make for a good life: having a good marriage, enjoying time with friends, doing productive things, and hoping that the coming days of your life will be more and more successful and filled with fulfilling achievements as they go along. And like most people, I often felt empty and unsatisfied, and I would gravitate to things that promised immediate satisfaction. All of this got turned upside down when I read through John Piper's book Desiring God. For the first time, the central truth that being Christian meant treasuring God Himself as your greatest joy and pleasure was demonstrated for me.
 
Piper convinced me from the Bible and from quoting the experiences of dozens of Christians over the centuries like C.S. Lewis, Jonathan Edwards, Blaise Pascal, Augustine, George Muller, Charles Spurgeon, Hudson Taylor, and dozens of other missionaries, teachers, authors, and philosophers that the point of Christianity is to enjoy God and treasure Him above everything else. Just as important, he convinced me that this works. That may sound silly, but I know it is all too common for people to hear and be persuaded that we are supposed to love and enjoy God, but to have no idea how to do it and to find the effort disappointing. It isn't enough to be told you need to be satisfied by the experience of God Himself. We have to be shown that this really will satisfy us, so that we don't get discouraged and quit before we experience it. We also have to discover what it is about God that brings us joy.
 
This is primarily because, just like my sugar cravings, we are very used to finding comfort and satisfaction in small things that provide some immediate pleasure. We become dependent on that habit and cycle, so dependent that changing our habits to seek our satisfaction in something else at first feels like self-denial and a loss of pleasure. It has taken me a long time to find satisfaction in eating real fruit instead of sugary foods and drinks. I had to stick with it in order to change my tastes and appetite and to convince my body that this really was more satisfying. In the same way, it took time and patience in sitting and reading the Word of God alone and praying for God to make my soul delight in Him before I really began to experience it. I had to establish a new diet, and I had to feed myself by reading the Scriptures just for enjoyment and closeness to God, as well as praying just in order to be near God more often than praying to get needs met. The more I practiced this and consistently sought God Himself rather than turning to something lesser to get comfort, the more I received satisfaction and comfort from God. 

"One of our obstacles to enjoying God is that we don't really have a good idea of what that means."

I have shared much more about this journey on this blog under the tag Finding Joy. You can find a lot more detail there if you're interested. The main purpose of this post today is to illustrate that one of our obstacles to enjoying God is that we don't really have a good idea of what that means. This is where the book shown above may be a blessing. The Scriptures tell us over and over that what we will enjoy for all eternity is God's glory. Glory is often referred to as the reward in heaven, both beholding the glory of God and receiving glory ourselves. Yet we tend to have a very vague idea of what that means, and so we don't have a real vision of how that will satisfy us. We understand it must be good, but it is hard to have your appetite whetted for something you haven't tasted. God's Glory Alone: The Majestic Heart of Christian Faith and Life (David VanDrunen) is a book that promises to give us not just a taste, but a feast of glory. If you want to truly enjoy God, learn as much about His glory as you can. The more you train yourself to desire and look forward to that which will bring you your greatest possible joy, the more you will enjoy it now. I hope this book helps many Christians discover the depth and potency of being satisfied in God.
 
There is an excellent and detailed review of the book up at The Gospel Coalition. It sounds like some people may find more immediate application in the book if they start with the second section first. Read on and see for yourself! "Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!" Psalm 34:8