The gospel and the heart.

Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:13).

People tend to think there are two ways to relate to God—to follow him and do his will or to reject him and do their own thing—but there are also two ways to reject God as Savior. One is: by rejecting God’s law and living as we see fit.

The other, is by obeying God’s law, by being really righteous and really moral, so as to earn our own salvation. It is not enough to simply think there are two ways to relate to God.

There are three: religion, irreligion, and the gospel.

In “religion,” people may look to God as their helper, teacher, and example, but their moral performance is serving as their savior. Both religious and irreligious people are avoiding God as Savior and Lord. Both are seeking to keep control of their own lives by looking to something besides God as their salvation. Religious legalism/moralism and secular/irreligious relativism are just different strategies of “self-salvation.”

True Christians may have had both religious phases and irreligious phases in their lives, but through the gospel they have come to see that the reason for both their irreligion and their religion was essentially the same, and essentially wrong.

Christians have come to see that their sins as well as their best deeds have equally been ways of avoiding Jesus as Savior. Christianity is not fundamentally an invitation to get more religious.

The religious only repent of sins. The irreligious don’t repent at all. Christians, however, repent of both their sins and of their self-righteousness.

The differences between irreligion and the gospel are easy to spot. It is often harder to discern the differences between religion and the gospel. Read through the following table, which summarizes the differences between religion and the gospel.
Religion	Gospel
“I obey; therefore, I’m accepted.”	“I’m accepted; therefore, I obey.”
Motivation is based on fear and insecurity.	Motivation is based on grateful joy.
I obey God in order to get things from God.	I obey God to get God—to delight in and resemble him.

When I am criticized, I am furious or devastated, because it is critical that I think of myself as a “good person.” Threats to that self-image must be destroyed at all costs.	When I am criticized, I struggle, but it is not essential for me to think of myself as a “good person.” My identity is not built on my record or my performance but on God’s love for me in Christ.
My self-view swings between two poles. If and when I am living up to my standards, I feel confident, but then I am prone to be proud and unsympathetic to failing people. If and when I am not living up to standards, I feel humble but not confident—I feel like a failure.	My self-view is not based on my moral achievement. In Christ I am simultaneously sinful and lost, yet accepted in Christ. I am so bad that he had to die for me, and I am so loved that he was glad to die for me. This leads me to deep humility and confidence at the same time.

If we give God things in the hope that they will earn us blessings or heaven, then we are really not doing anything for him at all—it’s for ourselves. Only an experience of grace changes us so we do good things for goodness’ sake—for God’s sake.

To become a Christian is, therefore, first to admit the problem: that we have been substituting ourselves for God either by religion (trying to be our own savior by obedience to God’s law,

Paul reminds us of the significance of this very forcefully in Galatians 2:21, “If righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

To become a true Christian, we rely on the remedy: asking God to accept us for Jesus’ sake and knowing that we are accepted because of his record, not ours. This means we change the object of our faith. We have to “believe,” but the belief that receives Christ is not just subscribing to a set of doctrines about Christ. It is not less than that, but it is more. “Saving faith” is transferring our trust from our own works and record to Christ’s work and record.

Galatians 2:16, Paul further reminds us, “A person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. The determining factor in our relationship with God is not our past but Christ’s past.

Christians who know the gospel in principle and who have been changed by it nevertheless continually revert to works-righteousness and self-salvation in a myriad of subtle and not so subtle ways.

A basic insight of Martin Luther’s was that “religion” is the default mode of the human heart. We believe the gospel at one level, but at deeper levels we continue to operate as if we are saved by our works. Luther wrote:

There is not one in a thousand who does not set his confidence upon his works, expecting by them to win God’s favor and anticipate His grace; and so they make a fair of them, a thing which God cannot endure, since He has promised His grace freely, and wills that we begin by trusting that grace, and in it perform all works, whatever they may be.

John Calvin wrote;

I would first ask. … Whether a man is deemed righteous for one holy work or two, while in all the other acts of his life is a transgressor of the law?

“Cursed is he that does not conform to all the words of this law to do them,” (Deuteronomy 27:26.)

We must maintain that of whatever kind a man’s work may be, he is regarded as righteous before God simply on the ground of gratuitous mercy; because God, without any respect to works, freely adopts him in Christ, by imputing the righteousness of Christ to him as if it were his own.

The point on which the world goes astray (for this error has prevailed in almost every age), is in imagining that man, however partially defective he may be, still in some degree merits the favor of God by works.

God reconciles us to himself, not to our works but to Christ alone, and by gratuitous adoption makes us his own children instead of children of wrath.

What makes people honest? Or generous?

Jonathan Edwards said, there are two kinds of moral behavior: “common virtue” and “true virtue.” Let’s look at common virtue, honesty. The vast majority of people are honest out of fear (“Be honest; it pays!” or “If you are not honest, God will punish you!”) or out of pride (“Don’t be like those terrible, dishonest people”). Edwards believed this was the main way God restrained evil in the world.

If the main reason people are honest is due to fear and pride—then what is the main reason people are dishonest? Almost always, it is out of fear or pride. In common virtue, we have not done anything to root out the fundamental cause of evil—the radical self-centeredness of the heart. We have restrained the heart’s self-centeredness, but not changed it.

Their fundamental self-centeredness is not only intact but also nurtured by common virtue.

Edwards asked, “What is ‘true virtue’?”

It is when we are honest not because it profits us or makes us feel better but because we are smitten with the beauty of the God who is all truth and sincerity and faithfulness. It is when we come to love truth-telling not for our sake but for God’s sake and its own sake. That kind of motivation can only grow in someone deeply touched by God’s grace.

True virtue comes when we see Christ dying for us, keeping a promise he made despite the infinite suffering it brought him. It destroys pride: he had to do this for us because we were so lost. it also destroys fear: because if he would do this for us while we were his enemies, then he values us infinitely, and nothing we can do will wear out his love. Consequently, our hearts are not just restrained but changed. Their fundamental orientation is transformed.

Whatever is done … if the heart is withheld there is nothing really given to God. … What is given is given to that which the man makes his end in giving.

The Gospel and the Heart

Religion makes law and moral obedience a means of salvation, while irreligion makes the individual a law to himself or herself. The gospel, is that Jesus took the law of God so seriously that he paid the penalty of disobedience so that we could be saved by sheer grace.

This means that Christians have a unique attitude toward the law of God and moral obedience. We can never see obedience as only an option. Instead, we love and delight in the law of God (“For in my inner being I delight in God’s law” [Romans 7:22]), and yet we are completely free from its condemnation (“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” [Romans 8:1]).

Think of all the ways we can say no to ungodliness. We can say, “No—because I’ll look bad!” We can say, “No—I’ll be excluded from the social circles I want to belong to.” We can say, “No—because then God will not bless me.” We can say, “No—because I’ll hate myself in the morning and have low self-esteem.”

The gospel, if it is really believed, removes neediness—the need to be constantly respected, appreciated, and well-regarded; the need to have everything in our lives go well; the need to have power over others. Paul is saying that if we want to really change, we must let the gospel teach us—that is, to train, discipline, and coach us—over a period of time.

 Religious repentance versus gospel repentance

There are two different ways to go about repentance—religious repentance and gospel repentance. In “religion,” the purpose of repentance is basically to keep God happy so he will continue to bless us and answer our prayers. So, in religion we are sorry for sin only because of its consequences. Sin will bring us punishment—and we want to avoid that, so we repent.

The gospel tells us that as Christians, our sin can’t ultimately bring us into condemnation (Romans 8:1). Its heinousness is therefore in what it does to God: it displeases and dishonors him. Thus, in religion, repentance is self-centered; the gospel makes it God-centered. In religion, we are mainly sorry for the consequences of sin, but in the gospel we are sorry for the sin itself.

In the gospel, we know that Jesus suffered for our sin. We do not have to make ourselves suffer to merit God’s forgiveness. We simply receive the forgiveness earned by Christ.

Moreover, in religion our only hope is to live a life good enough to require God to bless us, so every instance of sin and repentance is therefore traumatic, unnatural, and threatening.

In the gospel, the knowledge of our acceptance in Christ makes it easier to admit that we are flawed, because we know we won’t be cast off if we confess the true depths of our sinfulness. Our hope is in Christ’s righteousness, not our own.

In religion we repent as little as possible, the more we feel accepted and loved in the gospel, the more and more often we will be repenting. The more we see our own flaws and sins, the more precious, electrifying, and amazing God’s grace appears to us.

Gospel repentance involves deep humility (versus pride)

Gospel repentance involves well-guided zeal (versus anxiety)

Reflect on God’s grace until you experience calm thoughtfulness and strategic boldness.

Gospel repentance involves burning love (versus indifference)

Reflect on God’s grace until you show warmth and affection.

Gospel repentance involves a “single eye” (that is, godly motives)

Are you doing what you do for God’s glory and the good of others? Or are you being driven by your need for approval, love of comfort, need for control, hunger for acclaim and power, or fear of other people? Reflect on God’s grace until he becomes your joy and delight.

“The point on which the world goes astray … is in imagining that man, however partially defective he may be, still in some degree merits the favor of God by works.” Why is attempting to merit the favor of God by works a problem?