You Must Be A Christian

Transcription

1 True Spirituality - The Law and The Law of Love Lecture Notes On Francis Schaeffer's Book True Spirituality A Book Study By Dan Guinn (Revised Sept, 2013, June, 2015) Edited by April Cervinka and Laura Muckerman All Rights Reserved, with the following exception: The Author hereby grants the reader the right to download, distribute and share online, as long as the content herein remains intact and unmodified from its original version. As we begin, we need to mention that Dr. Schaeffer starts the chapter with two important questions for us. First, "What is true spirituality?", and second, "How can it be lived out in a twentieth-century setting?" To clarify, the "twentieth century setting" that Dr. Schaeffer is referring to is the time and the culture in which we live. For us at this point, we are of course talking about the 21st century. Our challenge in living out true spirituality today is that our culture is far less accommodating to Christianity now than in the past, less than even when Dr. Schaeffer wrote this work. In fact our culture is now identified by some, including Dr. Schaeffer, as "post-christian." The movement toward a "post-christian" culture has been brought about by many forces in concert, yet primarily by the influences of Religious and Philosophical Liberalism. It is important to note that much of Dr. Schaeffer's aim throughout the book is to address and provide answers to the problems Christians face as they live in the a post-christian setting. While speaking very practically to Christianity, he also presents us with an apologetic against Liberalism. Thus, I think you will find as we study the book that it's answers both instruct and equip us to live out Christianity before a watching world. In Chapter 1, "The Law and The Law of Love," we are given a basic framework for learning the foundations of true spirituality. It is helpful to analyze the system Dr. Schaeffer presents to understand its value. However, we should understand that while it can be seen as systematic, it is not a mechanism. Dr. Schaeffer explains in a later chapter that "It is not possible to say, 'read so many chapters of the Bible every day, and you will get this much sanctification.'" Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality. Just as in our earthly relationships, we can follow guidelines, but there are always other factors involved. If we are just going through the motions or proceeding with the wrong motives, we will soon be off the course and will not achieve our desired end. The same applies to our relationship with God. You Must Be A Christian The first point which we must make is that it is impossible even to begin living the Christian life, or to know anything of true spirituality, before one is a Christian. And the only way to become a Christian is not by trying to live some sort of a Christian life, nor by hoping for some sort of religious experience, but rather by accepting 1 Christ as Savior. While it might seem a "given" that you must be a Christian in order to practice true spirituality, there are many in our culture who think otherwise. Liberalism has taught our society that even things which had an absolute definition in the past, are now relative in meaning. So the term Christian, which has always meant a follower of Christ, and his teachings alone, can now be loosely defined as a person following any combination of 1 Schaeffer, A. Francis, The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: Volume Three, A Christian View of Spirituality (Book: True Spirituality), Westchester, IL, Crossway Books. 200.

2 religious ideas. Moreover, many even think that it is arrogant for the Christian to claim that being a Christian requires exhibiting a faith in Christ alone. However, our basis for teaching faith in Christ alone, and His Word alone, is founded on the whole of scripture, including the words of Jesus Himself. Scripture is clear that there is an obstacle for the non-christian: understanding. Unless one s eyes are opened, one cannot see God. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. -1 Corinthians 1:18 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. -Romans 1:21 2 The rebellion is a deliberate refusal to be the creature before the Creator It is important to realize that in our day, that the exclusivity of Christianity is often mistakenly labeled as "hate." This unfair evaluation is the natural result of Religious Pluralism and Liberalism in our culture. This system claims that all religious ideas are equal and teachings should be tolerated as equally valid opinions. This is a naive treatment of religion which naturally breaks down religion and logic itself. If we believe that all religious ideas are equally true, then there really is no basis for determining whether any religions are true. Moreover, at this point we are not far removed from the opinion of those who claim that all religions teach basically the same thing. The situation of humanity that requires all men to bow before God is being found legally and morally guilty. True Moral Guilt...all men are separated from God because of their true moral guilt. God exists, God has a character, God is a holy God, and when men sin (and we all must acknowledge we have sinned not only by mistake, but by intention) they have true moral guilt before the God who exists. That guilt is not just the modern concept of guilt-feelings, a psychological guilty feeling in man. It is a true moral guilt before the 3 infinite-personal, holy God. We should note that sometimes non-christians may exhibit spiritual behavior, but it is only that: behavior. Behavior without the heart change brings a simple surface level appearance of spirituality. Again, you must be a Christian. You must have accepted Christ into your heart and acknowledged Him as your Savior, or this study will mean very little to you. I invite you to do so. It is simply a matter of talking to God and beginning a life-long commitment to true spirituality in your life. A non-mechanical, genuine prayer might sound something like this: "I am alone without You, God, and I have sinned; I need Your help. Please forgive me and 2 Schaeffer, A. Francis, The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: Volume Three, A Christian View of Spirituality (Book: True Spirituality), Westchester, IL, Crossway Books ibid, 200.

3 come into my life. Show me who You really are, and what it truly means to be human as you have created me. Make me Your disciple and teach me what it means to live in true spirituality by the aid of Your Spirit. I truly want to know You. Amen." While such a prayer is simple, do not let anyone tell you that true spirituality is necessarily easy. When you come to faith in Christ you begin to change from the inside out, and others around you might not understand what is going on. You will very likely have to make hard changes in the life you have been living, especially if you have made a habit of living in ways that are against God and others (we will talk about that later in this chapter). Yet, the amazing part is that you are not alone. God is with His children, and He teaches and instructs them. He also gives them inner fulfillment and answers to the problems of life. It is my prayer for you that you will seek Him and find the answers you are seeking! Christ Plus Nothing Only the finished, substitutionary work of Christ upon the cross as the Lamb of God in history, space, and time is enough to remove this. Our true guilt, that brazen heaven which stands between us and God, can be removed only upon the basis of the finished work of Christ plus nothing on our part. The Bible s whole emphasis is that there must be no humanistic note added at any point in the accepting of the gospel. It is the infinite value of the finished work of Christ, the second person of the Trinity, upon the cross, plus nothing, that is the sole basis for the removal of our guilt. When we thus come, believing God, the Bible says we are declared justified by God; the guilt is gone, and we are returned to fellowship with God the very thing 4 for which we were created in the first place. If we assume we can add anything to the Christ's work for our redemption, we are in fact saying that Christ's work was insufficient. We must believe that Christ's death entirely accomplished our redemption. The gift of faith changes the heart and produces the outward actions rooted in Christ's love. If we strive to do good works outwardly without the inward change we are only serving ourselves. Doing good works to satisfy our own pride does not satisfy God. Not Living By List Dr. Schaeffer notes that so many people think the Christian life is living by a set of lists. Depending on your background, you may have all sorts of lists of objectionable actions and taboos that you have been told are wrong. Some of these actions might even have little to do with actual Christianity. However, as Dr. Schaeffer points out, there is much more to Christianity than just following a list. If we are considering outward things in relation to true spirituality, we are face to face not with some small list, but with the whole Ten Commandments and all of 5 God's other commands. Moreover, if we try to live by list we will fail. The Law itself is perfect and holy, we are not. God wishes to transform us in this, but it will not be perfect in this life. We will talk about this further in later chapters. The Law of Love 4 Ibid, Ibid, 203.

4 I am also face to face with what we might call the Law of Love, the fact that I am to 6 love God and I am to love my fellowmen. For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. (Romans 14:15 ESV) In the context of the Biblical perspective Paul is making in this passage we must also take into context the Judaizers Paul addresses in Galatians. This passage is not about us bowing to the legalist when they are offended, but rather about being sensitive to our brothers as they are growing in knowledge and understanding of living the Christian life. A careful balance of truth and love with the aid of the Holy Spirit is needed in resolving such matters among Christians. Longing in Love This further produces in the Christian life a "l onging in love " for God and others. In 1 Corinthians 10:23, 24 I am told that my longing in love should be to seek for the other man s good and not just my own: Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." -1 Cor Not Outward But Inward...eventually the Christian life and true spirituality are not to be seen as outward at 7 all, but inward. 8 The commandment not to covet is an entirely inward thing. As Dr. Schaeffer explains, the Law of Love is not outward but inward. It begins with learning not to covet. Dr. Schaeffer wishes us to understand that God's command not to covet is deeper than its "thou shalt not" aspect. Rather, we should not only stop envying, but we should also start giving. We should seek the good of God and man, which is really the basis of the entire law. Positive and Negative Aspects In referring to Christ's words on the greatest commandment, Dr. Schaeffer says, 9 Coveting is the negative side of the positive commands. I believe it is helpful to see how Schaeffer likely arrives at this idea. We need to understand that in the Ten Commandments each command also implies the opposite. "Thou Shalt Not Murder" also implies "Thou Shalt Preserve Life." Therefore in the same way, "Thou Shalt Not Covet" also implies, "Thou Shalt Seek the Good of God and Others." Let's read the 6 Ibid, Ibid, Ibid, Ibid, 205.

5 commandment with this in mind. You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's. -Exod 20:17 And he said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. -Matt 22:37-29 Clearly, Christ's gives us the positive side of the commandment. The negative is implied by default. Meaning that coveting is the opposite of loving God with all your heart. Not Outward But Inward Continued Living in the law of love through grace and through Christ brings about a "heart change" that transforms us from the inside out. Sin falls away because the changed heart begins to desire God. "No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God." -1 John 3:9 "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?" -Rom 6:1-2 Even though we are free from the curse of the Mosaic Law, we are not lawless. Since we are under a new covenant, we are under the law of Christ's priesthood. Christ's law is a law of faith and love, full of grace, written on our hearts. It is a law within us. I have added a few verses here not mentioned by Dr. Schaeffer to assist us in our understanding of this concept. "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people." -Jeremiah 31:33 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. -John 13: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. -1 John 5:1-3 So now we desire to follow our new covenant priest, Jesus, who desires us to keep His commandments. " If you love me, you will keep my commandments. " -John 14:15 " Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him."

6 -John 14:21 Contentment & Thankfulness In practice, the life of love without coveting produces contentment and thankfulness. For Dr. Schaeffer this is some of what he means to imply is the reality of the Christian walk. The beginning of men s rebellion against God was, and is, the lack of a thankful heart. They did not have proper, thankful hearts seeing themselves as creatures before the Creator and being bowed not only on their knees, but in their stubborn 10 hearts. "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." -Phil 4:6 "Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" -Eph 5:20 "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." -Rom 8:28 So those who do not live in thankfulness corrupt their own hearts. "For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened." Rom 1:21 Negative Sweeping to Positive Finally, this entire process is what it means to die to oneself (negative aspect) and to live in Christ (positive aspect). "4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." -Rom 6:4 "20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." -Gal 2:20 Dr. Schaeffer notes that the phrase "crucified with Christ" is negative, but it rolls over to a positive. Therefore, we were buried with him by baptism into death. [Rom. 6:4a] This is negative...when I accepted Christ as Savior, when God as judge declared me 11 justified, these things became legally true. 10 Ibid, Ibid, Ibid, 212 These negatives must never be overlooked, either in justification or the Christian life, 12 or we will not be able to understand the following positives. I have been crucified with Christ (break) nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ

7 liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. So although there is a negative, it sweeps over to a positive, and to stop at the negative is to miss the whole point. The true Christian life is not hating life, in the way that we are apt to do when we get into despondency or other psychological problems. The Christian negative is not a nihilist negative; there is a true Biblical negative; but the Christian life does not stop with a 13 negative. There is a true life in the present as well as the future. Closing Remarks To summarize, true spirituality begins inwardly with the law of love. As we begin to live out the type of love that desires the good of God and others, we begin to change more and more inwardly until we find contentment and thankfulness. These things produce a longing for God and a transformation. While it is a negative aspect of the Christian faith that we must die to self, the greater positive ultimately is that we live in Christ and find the true meaning of the life we were created to live. This is the beginning of true spirituality. 13 Schaeffer, A. Francis, True Spirituality (1971 Printing), Westchester, IL, Crossway Books. 15.