Fallen Identity

Connections Session III

March 14, 2021

John Calvin in his most famous work “The Institutes of the Christian Religion” begins this way:

Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.1

1 John Calvin and Henry Beveridge, Institutes of the Christian Religion, (Edinburgh: The Calvin Translation Society, 1845), 1:47.

In other words, to know the truth we have to know who God is and who we are. We have to get those two things right.

That relates well to the topic Dan taught this morning because the biggest way human beings get these two things wrong is we either reduce God’s holiness or we reduce man’s sinfulness, or both. In other words to think less of God than we should and more of ourselves than we should.

In the most recent survey of theology done by Ligonier Ministries to the statement:

Everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature.

46% of people who identified as evangelical Christians said that statement was true.

Do you remember the three broad categories Dan talked about with the circles? What were they?

Man is:

Good - Pelagianism - I’m not impacted by the Fall

Sick - Arminianism - I’m impacted by the Fall but not fatally

Dead - Calvinism - I’m impacted by the Fall completely, Total Depravity

Were you familiar with those categories before today?

How have you encountered one or more of these belief systems in your life as a Christian?

Dan said: “We can only realize a righteous standing with God by putting our complete trust in the work of Christ as our Savior (Romans 3.21-26)”

And the only one of these options that requires us to trust Christ completely is the third one. Each of the other two makes room for what the Bible calls boasting (Ep 2.9) or inserting ourselves into the equation. In other words, the only one that sees the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man in the correct light is the third one. Each of the other two, I would argue, minimizes to some degree our condition and God’s holiness.

Agree or disagree?

What are some other ways we sometimes minimize our sinful condition before the Lord?

By comparing ourselves to others rather than God:

Lk 18.11-14

John Owen in is book “The Mortification of Sin” says:

“If you intend ever to gain the victory in mortification, you must tie your conscience to the law.”

In other words, we must compare ourselves to God’s standard, not that of others or one we’ve made up for ourselves.

How do you remind yourself that your hope of righteousness is found in the gospel and not in yourself?

How does finding your hope in the gospel keep you from minimizing how bad and destructive sin really is?

Dan mentioned a couple of ways people get it wrong when thinking about the basis for our relationship with the Lord (justification), what were they?

He called them “moralizing” and “pschologizing”

The “moralizer” feels accepted by God when obedient but rejected when disobedient.

The “psychologizer” doesn’t see the need for obedience or repentance because “God loves me just the way I am.”

What do each of those get wrong about the gospel?

I see each of them minimizing God’s holiness and elevating man’s ability and righteousness.

How does each approach minimize sin (lower God’s holiness) and elevate man?

The moralizer believes he or she can do enough to satisfy God’s standard while the psychologizer believes God is willing to set aside his standard out love for them. In each case man is raised up and God is lowered.

The gospel approach, Dan says, “sees the truth of what Jesus has done for you as the basis of your transformation in both how you think and how you interpret what happens to you in life.”

God does care how you live if you’re his follower but how you live is not the basis for his relationship with you.

To take a little sidebar here, this is why it’s important for Christians to understand the difference between justification and sanctification. I think some of the confusion on this point, is that we don’t understand the distinction between those two things.

Justification (how we are made right with God) and sanctification (the lifelong process of becoming like Christ) are not the same thing. They never occur apart from one another but they are not the same thing. This is the issue with Roman Catholicism, they conflate justification and sanctification.

When Christians fall into the trap of moralizing their relationship with God, what does that look like?

Legalism. Basing Christianity on a lot of rules, many of which are not scriptural mandates. (Church of Christ & the tabletop example)

How about for psychologizing?

God wants me to be happy. “Your Best Life Now”

How does understanding that we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ empower us to live holy lives?

See: Romans 10:1-4

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes1

1 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ro 10:4.

Christ is the end or the fulfillment of the law for all who believe, allowing us to be considered righteous even though we’re not.

Thomas Cranmer one of the leaders of the English Reformation said:

Christ is now the righteousness of all those who truly do believe in him. He for them paid their ransom by his death. He for them fulfilled the law in his life. So that now in him, and by him, every true Christian man may be called a fulfiller of the law, since that which their infirmity lacks, Christ’s justice has supplied.1 -

1 Elliot Ritzema, 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Reformation, Pastorum Series, (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2013).

Why, then do we still sin?

Would you agree that under every sin is an idol and under every idol is a disbelief in the gospel? Why or why not?

What are some practical ways to keep us mindful of the truths we talked about this morning and to shape our feelings and our behavior based on the gospel and not anything else?