I agree with you that Christians should live a holy and righteous life, set
apart from this world. d But I would encourage you to trust in the grace of
God in their lives. I often think about how patient the Lord has been with
me over the years and how I do not deserve His grace and mercy. d A
puritan preacher, Christopher Love, once wrote:
A tree, you know, in Winter-season, the fruit and leaves fall off, and it
seems as if it were dead, but there is life in the root; so it is in Christians,
their beauty and blossom may fall off, their fruit dry up, their leaves drop
off, the beauty, the exercise and the fruits of grace may cease for a time,
and yet the root of the matter is in them.[1]
Now, I am not justifying sinful behavior. d But I am thankful that “As a father
shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those
who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust”
(Ps. 103:13-14 ESV). Yet, you are right that people within the church need
to understand conversion, that the Lord saves His people and changes them
in the power of the Holy Spirit. d I am thankful that God the Father sent His
only Son to accomplish the work of redemption and the Father and Son
sent the Spirit to apply the work of the Son to our lives. d Salvation is the
work of our Triune God from beginning to end. d Our holiness is the work of
the Holy Spirit conforming us into Christ’s image “from glory to glory” (2
Cor. 3:18). d “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the
surpassing power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Cor. 4:7 ESV). d So, I
trust that anyone who God calls to Himself, He will sanctify by the power of
His Spirit. d Thank you again for your post, and may the Lord bless your
studies at Liberty.
I am not surprised that your church does not participate in church discipline
because many churches do not. d Dever notes that church discipline is good for
both the church and the one who is being disciplined.[1] d Unfortunately, in our
current evangelical milieu, we do not recognize the horrendous nature of sin and
the great length to which our God went to propitiate and eradicate it. d We also
do not realize that sin is like cancer that infects and spreads. Many people
believe that it is just church people being nosey or gossiping, but that is not how
church discipline works. d Jesus laid out the basic rubric for church discipline when
he said to first go to your brother alone first and tell him his sin, then take
witnesses with you, if he does not listen, tell it to the church, and finally “let him
be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector” (Matt. 18:15-17). d Thank you again
for your post, and may the Lord bless your studies at Liberty.
[1] Christopher Love and Edward Davies, Grace: the Truth and Growth and
Different Degrees Thereof (London: W. Baynes and W. Button, 1810), 110.
