Posted on October 5, 2006 - by ericholter

Distortions of a Grumbling Spirit

“The sons of Israel said to them, ‘Would that we had died by the LORD’S hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.’”
Exodus 16:3

It seems impossible that Israel would grumble so soon after seeing such a wonder as the parting of the Red Sea and the wholesale destruction of Pharaoh and the army of Egypt. Within three verses in the text (three days in real time for the Israelites) they go from the heights of praise singing and dancing, to grumbling against Moses for water. And then again, they grumbled about food, and then for water again. As an outside observer reading the story it’s easy to criticize Israel, but guess what? I do the same thing almost every day. Such is the blindness of unbelief. It will not be satisfied with the past works of God. It will not trust in the future works of God. At the moment of need it grumbles and complains rather than trusting in God.

All I have to do to see how much I have in common with Israel is to equate each impulse I have toward grumbling with the same sin of unbelief that Israel demonstrated in the wilderness. Ouch.

I don’t want to be unbelieving but believing. I’d rather act with anticipation waiting patiently by faith to see the gracious provision of God for my needs, than grumble and complain, poisoning my heart, blinding me to His goodness, and dishonoring Christ. 1 Corinthians 10:10 says that this exact passage (noting especially the grumbling of Israel) was written for my instruction, that I might take heed and resist temptation–the temptation in this case to grumbling. So what is there that can help me be more faithful and less complaining?

The passage reveals two things that happen when the grumbling of unbelief rises in my soul. By learning to recognize these two traits of unbelief perhaps I can enact an early warning system in my soul so that when I start to see them I can repent more quickly.

One, the grumbling of unbelief does not see who its accusation is really directed toward, and two, it greatly exaggerates and distorts the circumstances at hand.

First it is misdirected. When I grumble in unbelief it may be at my computer, my children, a client, or some other object of frustration. Yet, the providence of God is behind every circumstance and so my grumbling is really against God. I can just imagine my computer responding like Moses, “who am I, just a bunch of processors and circuit boards–that you complain against me–your grumblings are not against me, but against the Lord.”

Secondly, when I grumble in unbelief my perceptions get distorted. There may very well be a real frustration or need, but in unbelief I exaggerate and mischaracterize the problem. Did Israel really believe that Moses did everything he did with the purpose of getting them out into the desert just to starve them to death? Come on! How could they say that? Yet what do I do when my computer won’t print? “Ahgh, that Bill Gates is out to get me! Microsoft is evil, they are trying to drive me crazy” How exaggerated and distorted! How blind to the hundreds of blessings my computer enables every day! For every software glitch I experience there must be thousands working properly, each designed by an engineer with a genuine desire to make my life better or easier through software. Yet one failure and my flesh is convinced that “they’re all out to get me.”

If I monitor the thoughts of my heart closely, looking out for these two characteristics of a grumbling unbelieving heart, perhaps I will catch myself more often and thereby sin less and trust God more. But what of the dozens of times every day when I don’t catch my grumbles? After all, murmuring and complaining flow so naturally out of a sinful heart like mine. What of all these sins? Thank God, His Grace by the blood of Christ is powerful enough to both change me and to forgive me when I fail–though my failure is as common as breathing. John Owen described so well, the vastness of God’s grace in view of the commonness of my sins,

“How many millions of sins, in every one of the elect, every one whereof were enough to condemn them all, has this love overcome! What mountains of unbelief does it remove! Look upon the conversation of any one saint, consider the frame of his heart, see the many stains and spots, the defilements and infirmities, wherewith his life is contaminated, and tell me whether the love that bears with all this be not to be admired. And is it not the same towards thousands every day? What streams of grace, purging, pardoning, quickening, assisting, do flow from it every day! This is our Beloved, O ye daughters of Jerusalem.” Of Communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost

Beware O my soul, of the misdirection of grumbling and the exaggeration of circumstances. Though they may be toward inconsequential things, like computers, they nevertheless reveal the presence of unbelief in your heart. So repent. Listen to the Word–it is not silicon chips that you vent your rage toward, but the Lord. And He is not out to get you. Far from it, He is out to bless you. When you hear the grumbling of unbelief rising up—be quiet, repent, and remind yourself of what is true and accurate about your circumstances. Put off the grumbling of unbelief and return to the songs of praise which flow from seeing and remembering the glory of the Lord, His goodness, His perfect care, and the millions of ways He blesses you every day. So be it Lord. Amen.

Posted on August 5, 2006 - by ericholter

Christ a Minister of Sin?

“But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be!”
Galatians 2:17

Paul confronted Peter in Antioch for standing aloof from the Gentiles when his fellow Jews arrived from Jerusalem. Paul recalls this story in his letter to the Galatians as a means of defending the gospel. The issues at hand were not small but the truth of the gospel was at stake—and not just the facts of the gospel, but how the gospel is lived out.

Walking in the gospel involves a considerable amount of effort. I want my life to reflect well on my Savior and so I try to please him by avoiding evil as I represent Christ. A good measure of my motivation for holiness is that I would adorn the gospel by my good behavior. But imagine if by my very consistency with such gospel living—by faithfully reflecting Christ—that the result was to make some people think of Christ as a minister of sin. Imagine that!

This is what was happening in Antioch. To a Jew, merely being a Gentile meant being a “sinner.” One might be a very upright, honorable, noble individual, but if a Gentile, he’s a sinner. To the Jews then, what was the net result of the gospel of Christ? It meant that Gentile sinners were being included among the people of God—and that without becoming “Jew-like;” no circumcision, no Law keeping, not kosher. As if this weren’t enough, good Jews (like Peter) were even starting to act less Jewish and more like Gentile sinners. To a Jewish mind this just could not be. If Christ was the messiah and the gospel was true, how could His church be so non-Jewish, so Gentile—so, so sinful!

But Paul would not water down the gospel. Surely, it would have been easier, more politically correct, and more diplomatic to just make some concessions regarding Christian practice so that the reputation of Christ would not be besmirched in the eyes of the Jews. After all we are His representatives and we want to reflect well on Him—if our behavior in the gospel makes some think of Christ as minister of sin—how could that be good?

But no. The gospel of Christ crucified is a gospel of grace. It is of grace and not by works of the Law. The gospel which brings justification by faith may not be entered into, or lived out as if it were by works of the Law. There can be no compromise, even if it means that some, many, or even most look on and think that such a gospel cannot be right. And such is the case even today. For the Western mind is just as opposed to gospel truth as is the Jewish mind. We just substitute a different kind of law. Salvation in Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone—without any basis in my worthiness or effort is inconceivable to the natural human mind. Yet entirely free and solely by grace it is—so that no man may never boast before God.

What does this mean for me today? It means that I should not underestimate how counterintuitive and God-centered is the truth of the gospel. If the effect of the gospel was so perplexing to the Jews and is so foolish to the modern mind I should not assume that my mind has been fully oriented to the radical truth of the gospel of grace. Paul rebuked the Galatians because they started off with the true gospel which was, and only could be, received in and through the power of the Spirit—and quickly departed to another gospel that tried to combine grace with works of the Law. If those Christians could so easily tip toward a version of the gospel that was no gospel at all, I am also susceptible to this kind of error.

The gospel causes me to die with Christ to the Law in such a thorough and complete way that the mere attempt to rebuild even part of the Law becomes itself the height of transgression. For I died to the Law with Christ and if I try to now live by the Law Paul says to me, “you fool, you are cursed if you go back under the law. Having been justified by faith do you now seek to be justified by your own efforts?”

And so I must dwell on the radical, Christ-centered gospel of grace and seek to root out all works oriented motives and efforts from my life. Only grace oriented efforts, gospel worthy motives, and Spirit empowered works are pleasing to God. And if the gospel life is a stench to some—the solution is not to change the gospel, but to pray that the noses that smell it that way would be changed.

Lord Jesus, open my eyes to the ways, both overt and subtle that my life and my heart move not by grace but as though I related to you by works. I have died to such “dead-living.” Reveal the areas of my life that have not been saturated by the gospel of grace and cause me to love only the true gospel of grace of Christ. Amen.

Posted on July 5, 2006 - by ericholter

Beatific Boasting

“Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me–to keep me from exalting myself!”
2 Corinthians 12:7

The apostle Paul was blessed with a glimpse into the glories of heaven. He saw and heard things that cannot be uttered. I would think that such an unobscured view of the glory of God in heaven would have the most positive, sanctifying, God exalting, eternity desiring effects on Paul. Indeed, I’m sure it did. Yet, even so, Paul was also in grave danger as a direct result of these revelations. Embedded in his corrupt flesh was the prideful tendency toward self exaltation. In our perfected state - after death - the glories of heaven will only produce perfect God centered joy. But because of our current corruption these same glories carry with them the potential effects of prideful self exaltation. God knew that Paul’s revelations would inevitably lead him to boasting. So for this very reason God assigned him a messenger of Satan. Some form of constant pain, severe enough that Paul entreated God three times for its removal, was given to him. But it was not removed because God knew that should this man, having received such great heights of revelation, would surely fall into the snares of pride and end up boasting.

It seems a spiritual necessity that great revelations be accompanied with some form of counter balancing affliction in order to keep human flesh from boasting. God knows I cannot bear too much revelation while in this sinful body.

The pattern is frequent in scripture. Was not Peter’s great revelation in stating that Jesus was the Christ the son of the living God followed quickly by his being sternly rebuked for standing in the way of Jesus and the cross? Are not some of the most blessed new covenant promises of adoption, sharing in the Spirit, and eternal inheritance conditioned upon sharing in the fellowship of His sufferings? Are not fiery trials appointed for the refining of faith more precious than gold?

There is a spectrum of experience for the Christian, and I must live along this spectrum moving between one extreme and the other day by day. On the one end is circumstantial and physical ease, usually accompanied by simpler, more modest revelations. And on the other end are the greater revelations of the glory of God in the face of Christ accompanied with burdens borne to counter balance pride. Truly the second state is to be preferred over the first, but who can bear it? No one can bear it, and certainly no one can prefer it except by grace. And joy! His grace is sufficient for bearing all such burdens.

To receive the gift of revelation and grace to bear burdens I must learn - like Paul - to say “therefore I am well content with weakness, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Lord grant me the grace to most gladly prefer pain and weakness if such might afford me a better revelation of Christ. You O God are my soul’s satisfaction. Let me not guard so diligently against all pain and discomfort but rather be ready to receive trouble - if with it also the grace to endure - that the result might be more of you. For Jesus sake, amen.

Serving the Good Master

by ericholter on June 10, 2006