Feeling better about myself...but not really.

I'm almost done with the book "Jesus + Nothing = Everything."  Here are a few more nuggets from the book.

"It's always the gospel of God's free grace that should motivate our right doing; otherwise we're nothing better than Pharisees, making sure we're keeping all the rules, mainly because when we do, we feel better about ourselves - especially when we compare ourselves to those who aren't doing right."  (p. 153)

This little paragraph reminded me of an article/lecture by Ray Ortlund titled "Justification versus Self-justification."  (You can find that article here).  In this article Ortlund writes that the deepest impulse of the fallen human heart is self-justification.  The article is well worth the read and it looks at how the gospel (justification by grace alone through faith alone and in Christ alone) is the only cure for self-justification.

This whole premise (between the two authors) is so clear in my heart.  I may harp on people about the need to make sure that imperatives follow indicatives (commands follow statements of truth), but yet my heart doesn't rest there naturally.  I like to feel like I'm better than other people because I do the right thing.  I know - it's a pretty sick thought when the truth is we are all equally sinners condemned apart from the grace of God in Christ.  I need to realize more in my own life the power of free grace.  I too often can sulk in my failures and that isn't helpful.  It tells me though that my focus is off.  One last long quote from the book.

"One of the reasons we experience so much failure in the Christian life is that we think more about obligations then we do gospel declarations.  We focus on the imperatives, but we pass over the indicatives.  We fail in our doing because we fail to grasp first what Christ has already done.  This leaves us powerless-running on our own steam.  Only when you realize that the gospel has nothing to do with your obedience but with Christ's obedience for you, will you start to obey.  The only Christians who end up getting better are those who realize that if they don't get better, God will love them anyway." (p. 156)