The Indicative/Imperative and Gospel Change

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”
- John 10:27

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
- Philippians 2:12,13

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
- Colossians 3:1-3

“All my hope is naught save in Thy great mercy. Grant what Thou dost command and command what Thou wilt.”
- Augustine, Confessions, Book 10:XXIX

“Therefore, just as Adam did not die for himself alone, but for us all, so it follows that Christ, who is the antitype, did not rise merely for Himself. For He came to restore everything which had been brought to ruin in Adam…. The cause of death is Adam, and we die in him; therefore Christ, whose function it is to restore what we have lost in Adam, is the cause for life in us.”
- John Calvin, quoted in Calvin and the Atonement by Robert Peterson, pp. 61, 62

Dear Christ Our Redeemer Family and Friends,

If you’ve ever experienced the gnawing low-grade discouragement of besetting sin you may have asked the question, ‘Will I ever change?’ Or you may have wondered if there is any hope for the nagging patterns of sin in your spouse, friends or children. The power for real and lasting change is resident in the objective reality of the person and work of Christ. Let me say it a different way - real and lasting victory over sin is achieved only through trust in Christ’s objective victory over sin. Christ achieved real victory over real sin. The frequent encouragement in Scripture is towards certain behavior, but that behavioral change is always rooted in the person and work of Christ in His real, historical, objective, and effective victory over sin. Theologians have called this the indicative (that which is objectively true) and the imperative (that moral action which God requires). The imperative of gospel behavior is rooted in the indicative of gospel truth. God declares something so based upon His righteous action, and right behavior is a moral action based upon this declaration and action of God. In other words, what God has accomplished in an historical event and has declared to be so is the impetus of my obedience. I work out my salvation because God has already worked and not vice versa. This gives true hope for gospel change.

Thanking God today for His indicative that enables His imperative,

Pastor Dan

Christ's Active Obedience and Bread Truck Mondays

“For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.”
- Romans 5:19

“What is justification? A. Justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.”
- Westminster Shorter Catechism 1:33

“(Christ’s) Obedience, therefore, is not something that may be construed of artificially or abstractedly. It is obedience that enlisted all the resources of his perfect humanity, obedience that resided in his person, and obedience of which he is ever the perfect embodiment. It is obedience that finds it permanent efficacy and virtue in him. And we become the beneficiaries of it, indeed partakers of it, by union with him.”
-John Murray, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, p. 24

Dear Christ Our Redeemer Family and Friends,

Last year at a conference pastor Mark Driscoll referred to some of his Mondays as ‘bread-truck Mondays.’ He and his wife coined this phrase to describe those funk-filled Mondays that followed a full Sunday and the oft-times inevitable post-Sunday let-down. For a pastor Mondays can be a day of critical self-evaluation and second-guessing. For Driscoll these were the Mondays when he felt like driving a bread truck. Here he could turn on sports radio and mindlessly deliver loaves of bread throughout downtown Seattle. Oftentimes the pastor is his own worst enemy. There is a realization of not doing or not saying everything he should have. There can be a sense of overwhelming inadequacy in the task. Smarter men than me have coined the phrase ‘Christ’s active obedience.’ This is simply theological shorthand for describing the continual, conscious, unfettered, compliant, glad, and actual obedience of Christ at all times to the will of God. There was never a time when Christ did not obey the Father. One of the wonderful aspects of our salvation is the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to us. Christ’s righteousness in His active obedience to the Father has become my righteousness. In my trust in Christ His continual, conscious, unfettered, compliant glad and actual obedience have become mine. In Him there was never any want of conformity to, or transgression of, the Law of God (Westminster Shorter Catechism Q. 14). Understanding the imputation of Christ’s righteousness will help us when we fall woefully short. To consider that Christ has fulfilled all righteousness for me is my only hope on bread-truck Mondays.

Thanking God for the imputation of Christ’s righteousness in His active obedience,

Pastor Dan

Christ's Altogether Loveliness

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
- Philippians 4:8

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God….”
- 1 Peter 3:18a

“He is altogether lovely in his birth and incarnation. He is altogether lovely in the whole of his life, in his holiness and his obedience, which in the depths of poverty and persecution he showed by doing good, receiving evil, blessing others, and being cursed all his days. He is altogether lovely in his death, especially to sinners. He was even more glorious and desirable than when he was taken down from the cross, broken and lifeless. He carried all our sins to a land of forgetfulness. He made peace and reconciliation for us. He procured life and immortality for us. He is altogether lovely in his work, in his great undertaking to be the Mediator between God and man, to glorify God’s justice, to save our souls, to bring us to the enjoyment of God who were at such an infinite distance from him by reason of our sin. He is altogether lovely in the glory and majesty with which he was crowned. Now he is seated at the right hand of the majesty on high. Though he is terrible to his enemies, yet he is full of mercy, love and compassion to all his loved ones. He is altogether lovely in all those graces that he pours out to people by the Holy Spirit. He is altogether lovely in all the tender care, power, and wisdom by which he protects, safeguards, and delivers his church and people in the midst of oppositions and persecutions to which they are exposed.”
- John Owen, Communion with God, p. 76

Dear Christ Our Redeemer Family and Friends,

When we think of Christ we don’t likely think of Him as lovely. John Owen is one of my favorite Christian pastor/writers, and although separated by hundreds of years I find he speaks to me like a contemporary counselor. Owen’s affection for and description of Jesus Christ draws desire for Christ from me. One cannot long read Owen unmoved and in this way he is much like Jonathan Edwards. After reading either Owen or Edwards I find my parched soul again thirsting to know Christ better. As we think about the Philippians passage from this past week I was reminded of Paul’s all-consuming Christology. Seeing Christ in all of His loveliness by His holiness, obedience, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, graces, judgments, compassion, and tender care will change us. This beatific vision of Christ will inflame our desire to know Christ more and better. After all, the heart of the gospel is God Himself as revealed in Christ. May we be drawn to Him in all of His loveliness.

Pursuing Christ’s loveliness with you.

Dan