Minor Thoughts from me to you

Pastor C. J. Mahaney, on conflict and how to resolve it.

Cravings and Conflicts

I am so glad that when it comes to relational conflict God doesn't provide mere generalities. He gives us so much more information than, "Sin has occurred" and "It's worse than you think." Now that is accurate and even quite valuable, but it doesn't suggest a solution any more than does "Check Engine" or "Error has occurred." No, God provided James 4:1-2 so that we can identify and confess our specific cravings, receive forgiveness, and begin to weaken our cravings and cultivate righteousness.

Douglas Moo, in his commentary on the letter from James, writes the following:

"With penetrating insight ... James provides us with a powerful analysis of human conflict. Verbal argument, private violence or national conflict -- the cause of them all can be traced back to the frustrated desire to want more than we have, to be envious of and covet what others have, whether it be their position or their possessions" (The Letter of James, p. 184).

This passage offers hope. Our lives need not be an endless, inevitable cycle of unresolved quarrels and fights. Instead, God provides insight and discernment so that we can put to death the sinful craving at the root of every relational conflict.

Between Two Worlds: The Dangers of Culture Warfare Imagery

There is a spiritual component to this battle; and therefore, all our intellectual efforts must express our faithfulness to Christ and must be bathed in prayer. We must never use the weapons of unbelief -- dishonesty, slander, name-calling, and so on. The second danger, related to the first, is that we can forget that the unbeliever is not the person we're fighting against; rather, he is the person we are fighting for: that is, the purpose of all this is to free people from their slavery to the Devil. The third danger that arises is that we can forget that any Christian -- and any Christian church -- always has only a partial grasp of a fully Christian worldview; and even those parts that we grasp rightly, we practice only partly. So some of our "warfare" ought to be against our own imperfections!

The Reformed Expository Commentary Series (an interview, from Tim Challies).

There have been a few times in the past few months that I've mentioned the Reformed Expository Commentary Series. This is a growing series of commentaries written from a distinctly Reformed perspective and targeted at both pastors and laypersons. Having used these commentaries for both research and personal devotions, I am very enthusiastic about them and am anxious to spread the word.

To that end I recently took the opportunity to ask the editors, Richard Phillips and Phillip Ryken, a few questions about the series -- who it is for, how it can be used, how it has been created, and what the future holds for it.

I'll have to at least give these commentaries a once over. I've been thinking about building a library of commentaries. I like the sound of these.

Jesus Made in America. Did you know there's a Jesus action figure? And that American Christians are snapping it up, apparently oblivious to what this says about the depth of their faith? Intervarsity Press is publishing a book about the trivialization of Jesus, through commercial culture.

Beliefnet: Are Mormons Christian?. Dr. Albert Mohler and Orson Scott Card are debating whether or not Mormons are Christians. So far, both agree that they think the other side is completely wrong. That's actually refreshing to see. Both are arguing that they're side is the only true form of Christianity. It's truly encouraging to see two people agreeing that someone has to be wrong, rather than trying to pretend that everyone can be right.

Web Space Where Religion and Social Networking Meet - New York Times. Did you know that there's a Christian version of MySpace? Or that there's Muslim and Jewish versions? More evidence that many Christians seek to withdraw from culture (while imitating it!), rather than engaging it.

Texas Supreme Court Backs Pastor Over His Publicizing of Affair - New York Times. The Texas Supreme Court has upheld the concept of church discipline. This is a good precedent. Churches need to be free to discipline their members. If they can't, the entire concept of church membership and church discipline becomes meaningless.

I was given a copy of Pastor John Piper's book -- The Purifying Power of Living by Faith in Future Grace -- for my birthday. Pastor Piper wrote the back as a series of short chapters, intended to be read one a day. I've been attempting to do so.

Over the next couple of weeks, I'd like to blog about my thoughts as I read through the book.

Chapter One -- The Debtor's Ethic: Should We Try to Pay God Back?

In this chapter, Pastor Piper addresses the popular idea that we should obey God out of gratitude for our salvation. Piper calls this the debtor's ethic:

The debtor's ethic says, "Because you have done something good for me, I feel indebted to do something good for you." This impulse is not what gratitude was designed to produce. God meant gratitude to be a spontaneous expression of pleasure in the gift and the good will of another. He did not mean it to be an impulse to return favors. If gratitude is twisted into a sense of debt, it gives birth to the debtor's ethic -- and the effect is to nullify grace.

What's gone wrong? It's not wrong to feel gratitude when someone gives us a gift. The trouble starts with the impulse that now we owe a "gift". What this feeling does is turn gifts into legal currency. Subtly the gift is no longer a gift but a business transaction. And what was offered as free grace is nullified by distorted gratitude.

Piper goes on to demonstrate that nowhere in Scripture is gratitude given as a reason for obedience. Rather, the people throughout the Bible are condemned for their lack of faith -- not their lack of gratitude. (Numbers 14:11; Deut 1:31-32; Psalm 78:15,17,22.) Rather, Piper says, we should obey God out of a faith in future grace.

Faith in future grace is the secret that keeps impulses of gratitude from turning into the debtor's ethic. True gratitude exults in the riches of God's grace as it looks back on the benefits it has received. By cherishing past grace in this way, it inclines the heart to trust in future grace. We might say that gratitude has a strong appetite for the enjoyment of looking back on the outpourings of God's grace. Since God does this future outpouring through faith, therefore gratitude sends its impulses of delight into faith in future grace. This is expressed in the words: lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord (Psalm 116:12-14). Gratitude exults in the past benefits of God and says to faith, "Embrace more of these benefits for the future, so that my happy work of looking back on God's deliverance may continue."

Chapter Two: When Gratitude Malfunctions

A Filipino Insight

Pastor Piper starts chapter two with an anecdote about encountering a missionary to the Philippines. She told about the Filipino concept of utang na loob. She said "To a Filipino, to show a lack of due gratitude is outrageous; being grateful is almost second nature to him. His sense of utang na loob defines his integrity as a person in the context of social relationships." Unfortunately, this debt lasts a lifetime -- it is difficult to measure the extent of the debt, and thus impossible to every pay the debt off. The debtor lives in a constant state of obligation and has no hope of ever being freed from the debt.

Unfortunately, it is all too easy for Christians to fall into this trap. We try to serve God out of gratitude, but know that we can never retire the debt. Thus we are always concerned about what we must do for Him, not what He will do for us.

In chapter one, Pastor Piper demonstrated that faith in future grace is the antidote to the debtor's ethic. Piper uses chapter two to demonstrate that the New Testament is even more more explicit on the subject of future grace than the New Testament is.

Romans 9:31-32; Hebrews 11:7,8,27,33; 1 Thess 1:3; 2 Thess 1:11; Galatians 2:20; 2 Corinthians 5:7; Galatians 5:6; 1 Timothy 1:5; 2 Thess 2:13. None of these passages mention gratitude as an inspirtation for obedience. All mention faith. This truth liberates us forever from the need to repay God through our service. Instead, we can look forward to God providing us with what we need to service Him.

The main problem here is that the past-orientation of the debtor's ethic tends to blind us to the infinite, never-ending, inexhaustible, uninterrupted flow of future grace from this moment to eternity. This grace is there in the future to be trusted and lived on. It is there to give the motivation and power for our obedience. This infinite overflow of God's grace is dishonored when we fail to appropriate it by faith in future grace. Gratitude is not designed for this. Faith is. Past grace is glorified by intense and joyful gratitude. Future grace is glorified by intense and joyful confidence. This faith is what frees us and empowers us for venturesome obedience in the cause of Christ.

How does this play out in actual practice? Chapter three provides a clue. But more on that later.

Earlier this week, Reason Magazine columnist Cathy Young asked why is it still illegal to pay for sex?

Yet prostitution is perhaps the ultimate victimless crime: a consensual transaction in which both parties are supposedly committing a crime, and the person most likely to be charged"”the one selling sex"”is also the one most likely to be viewed as the victim. (A bizarre inversion of this situation occurs in Sweden, where, as a result of feminist pressure to treat prostitutes as victims, it is now a crime to pay for sex but not to offer it for sale.) It is sometimes claimed that the true victims of prostitution are the johns' wives. But surely women whose husbands are involved in noncommercial"”and sometimes quite expensive"”extramarital affairs are no less victimized.

Another common claim is that prostitution causes direct harm by contributing to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS. However, that may be the reddest herring of them all. In Australia, where sex for money is legal, the rate of HIV infection among female prostitutes is so low that prostitution has been removed from the list of known risk factors in HIV surveillance. In the U.S., reliable data are more difficult to come by, but a 1987 Centers for Disease Control study likewise found very low infection rates among prostitutes.

Why is prostitution illegal? From a Biblical perspective, I have a very hard time distinguishing between prostitution and plain old adultery. In one case, one person directly pays another for sex. In the other case, one person indirectly pays another for sex through dinners, compliments, movies, and other outings. Why should it be illegal to pay a someone for a sex, but not illegal to take a co-worker out for dinner and drinks before going back to their apartment for sex?

I think the common answer is that sex should only be enjoyed within the context of a loving relationship -- that it shouldn't be commoditized and sold like any other service. I would agree that sex shouldn't be routinely bought and sold. I'm not at all certain that all prostitution occurs outside of a loving relationship. After all, some women would certainly leave a man if he didn't provide enough expensive gifts. Why should we classify cash payments any differently? I am certain that not all adultery occurs in the context of a loving relationship. Many men and women will commit adultery purely out spite and not because they love the person they are committing adultery with.

Simply put, I think there can be a lot of overlap between prostitution and adultery -- and adultery are equally morally objectionable. I don't see the distinction that makes one worthy of criminalization and the other "merely" worthy of scorn.

I'll talk later about whether I think adultery should be criminalized.

I received another e-mail from Dr. Rick Scarborough today. Once again, I find myself wanting to challenge something he said. He started out today's e-mail by talking about the heretical "Da Vinci Code" movie:

After a brief run of celebrated films portraying the truth about Christ, The Chronicles of Narnia and The Passion, Satan has raised is impish head and initiated the production of a movie that is blasphemous.

Full disclosure here: last week, I read the entire novel. Frankly, it's highly overrated. The writing is pedestrian, the plot is predictable, the ending is childish, etc. Secondly, I wasn't surprised by anything in the novel. Anyone who is familiar with the Gnostic heresies (info from Wikipedia, info from the Catholic church) will be familiar with most of the "revelations" in the book. Given that Gnosticism has been around almost as long as the Church itself, every Christian should be familiar with these heresies. Every Christian should be; unfortunately, most are not.

How does Dr. Scarborough recommend that Christians prepare for this movie?

It is absolutely essential that every Pastor who reads this email alert get familiar with this blasphemous film and prepare your people to refute it while exhorting them not to see it.

How can anyone properly refute something that they are not familiar with? I had read about the heresies in the book before reading the movie, but I wasn't really ready to refute it until I had actually finished reading the book. If no Christian reads the book or sees the movie, how can anyone be prepared to refute it? Obviously some Christian, at some point, had to read the book or else the Christian community wouldn't even be having this conversation.

Is Dr. Scarborough suggesting that Pastors read / watch the story, but that their congregations refrain from doing so? If that's the case, I find it highly ironic. (The central theme of gnosticism is that some people know special, "hidden" knowledge that redeems them. Those that are inducted into the "club" receive salvation, everyone else is left behind.)

Ultimately the message that Dr. Scarborough communicates is that ordinary Christians are not strong enough to face heresy and need to be protected from it. I strongly disagree. The army trains soldiers by exposing them to every hazard they'll face in battle. Soldiers study the combat doctrines of their enemy, study the enemy commanders, and practice fighting every day. What kind of "Christian soldiers" are we preparing if they must be constantly sheltered from the enemy? What kind of "Christian soldiers" do we have if one 2 hour engagement with the enemy will overwhelm their defenses? Finally, what kind of "Christian soldiers" do we have if they're not even familiar with the enemy's oldest stratagems and doctrines?

Hiding from the enemy won't help the Church and it certainly won't help those that we are supposed to be reaching. Read the book. Read The Da Vinci Opportunity (part 1, part 2, part 3). Watch the movie and be ready for the enemy.

Apparently, some modern hymnals are changing the words of Amazing Grace from "how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me" to "how sweet the sound that saved and set me free". Ugh. Apparently we are no longer wretches before being saved. Just chained up, I guess.

The Anchoress penned a marvelous response to this craziness:

But that decision has always seemed to me to be extremely short-sighted and cheap. As with what Deitrich Bonhoeffer called "cheap grace" in The Cost of Discipleship (yes, it is in The Bookshelf, it's one of my faves), these monastics are creating "feel-good" liturgy that is all-grace-and-all-light but which does not permit introspection, does not allow one to read a hard verse and stop to consider - "Lord, is that me?" If you're only looking at the positive, it's very easy to equate any negatives you do encounter as being the fault of "someone or something else." The problem can't be rooted in you, after all - you're all-positive!

At some point in every life, the ugly and dark stuff intrudes. Seems to me the best and healthiest way to deal with it, when it comes, is to have more than a passing acquaintance with it - if you're acknowleding on a daily (or weekly) basis that what is lesser, and baser, exists and resides within our own hearts right next to all of our highest and purest ideals, you're much less likely to be shocked or overwhelmed when you encounter the dark, either within yourself or within others. Or even within your town or your church or your government.

Please, do go and read the entire thing. I read it to my wife before she left for work. We both agree that sometimes spiritual growth requires being exposed to dark truths.

No, there's nothing good about "feel good Christianity". All that's good in this world comes from God. It's impossible to appreciate how good God is until you're aware of how bad this world is -- and how bad we are. Grace is meaningless without an appreciation of my own need for it. Short of God's grace, I am a wretch and can say with Paul "I am the chief of sinners".

About two weeks ago, I stumbled on to an interesting article. The founder of Domino's Pizza is planning on building a town that would be run strictly according to Catholic principles.

Abortions, pornography and contraceptives will be banned in the new Florida town of Ave Maria, which has begun to take shape on former vegetable farms 90 miles northwest of Miami.

Tom Monaghan, the founder of the Domino's Pizza chain, has stirred protests from civil rights activists by declaring that Ave Maria's pharmacies will not be allowed to sell condoms or birth control pills. The town's cable television network will carry no X-rated channels.

The town will be centred around a 100-foot tall oratory and the first Catholic university to be built in America for 40 years. The university's president, Nicholas J Healy, has said future students should "help rebuild the city of God" in a country suffering from "catastrophic cultural collapse."

Monaghan has argued that the owners of the town's commercial properties will be free to impose conditions in leases -- notably the restriction on the sale of contraceptives. But that has been challenged by Howard Simon, executive director of the Florida branch of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Simon said the U.S. Supreme Court had already ruled "ownership [of a town] does not always mean absolute dominion." "If he wants to build a town and encourage like-minded people to come and live there, that's fine. We get into problems where he tries to exercise governmental authority."

Adam and I promptly discussed this idea. Because we were using instant messenger to discuss it, you can read our thoughts.

Adam: Wow. That's fascinating. So what's your reaction?

Joe: I like it. It's going to kick up a huge mess of controversy. Probably spawn a Supreme Court case (or seven). It gets back to the roots of a lot of Constitutional areas that have gone off of the rails, freedom of contract being the most obvious. Jefferson, Washington, Madison, et. al. would have considered it to be constitutional. I'm not sure about Messrs. Scalia, Alito, Roberts, Souter, and Kennedy, Ginsburg, and Breyer. The only person on the court that I know would rule the town legal is Justice Thomas.

Adam: And in the eyes of the LORD?

Joe: Biblically, I don't see anything wrong with it. It's basically the church, writ large. I see it as an Acts 2 type of situation. Only, more formal.

Adam: How is Ave Maria like Acts 2? Not sure I follow.

Joe: It's a bit of a stretch, admittedly. but the early church was a lot more closely knit than the modern church is. I think Ave Maria would do a lot to bring back the centrality of the church, to life. Church members would actually be required to live according to church teaching, which is a fairly radical concept right now.

Adam: But the original church was surely more closely knit because of the oppression it faced and the maturity and belief of its members, not simply because they had people looking over them more. And is centrality particularly important to the work of the Gospel? The Christian church only truly began to grow when its very head was cut off.

Also, if this is ultimately what it seems to be-a haven for Catholics-what does that say for those people's understanding of their mission here on Earth: to go ye out onto all the world and preach the Gospel to every living creature? That is, the Church is a missiological creature, not an institutional one.

Joe: The Great Commission still applies, obviously. And witness in the local town is only a part of the Great Commission. A larger part involves going out into the surrounding region: county, state, nation, etc. This town could provide a valuable (both in the material and non-material sense) base of operations for missions work. A place to raise a family and a place to return to in time of need or when spiritual renewal is needed.

Having the town literally built around a church need not necessarily involve centrality of government (although that will obviously play a role). It will, more importantly I think, emphasize how faith is supposed to be a central defining part of our daily lives. Having the entire town run along those lines will only reinforce that centrality of faith to life.

I think excommunication has always been a vital part of church discipline. Obviously, it's a last line of discipline, but I think it needs to be a valid option. In today's society being excommunicated from a local church doesn't mean a whole lot. Being kicked out of town, certainly would mean something.

I also view the aspect of "people looking over them" with a somewhat benign eye. It's true that the church would have a lot of authority in the town. On the other hand, everyone that lives there does so with the full knowledge and expectation that that will be true. Thus, the "coercive" aspects could be viewed as a form of hyper-accountability.

Adam: Hm. I take issue with the idea that there is any relief from the Commission, or that separation from mainstream society will ever ultimately service it. I am certain at the least that the raising of a man's family is not to be, as conventional wisdom would dictate, done in the most secure place possible. Every man's possession is to be given up freely to the LORD's service, and that includes his family, as horrifying a thought as I know this is (and one day, it will be all the more horrifying to me; I can't know the half of it now, quite literally). Point is: a Christian in NYC has far more opportunity to serve the Master and affect change than a Christian will in this Ave Maria, because all our knowledge and keeping of the law is ultimately of no consequence. As for excommunication, I agree that with far more individual churches out there now, many of which might not look into a new member's history, it might not mean as much-were we the full arm of God. But we discipline to our extent, I think, and should not concern ourselves with anything further. I guess what I'm saying here is that I see $400 million going to the creation of a greater structure-Catholic town for people who are Catholics-which is not an increase in the Church, which would be $400 million going to, say, church planting by Catholics for heathen. Community transformation.

Like Roberts Jr. said: If this Catholic town were wiped off the face of the planet, who would miss it? Catholics. Who does it serve? Catholics. Am I calling this foray selfish? No; but self-centered, yes. And the two are different, I think.

A friend of mine I consider a spiritual father to me has always told me that if you want to grow in Christ, in your faith, the best way to do it is to pray for others and to serve others. We might extrapolate from that and say that the best way for the Church to grow in Christ and in its faith is to pray for and serve others. I'm inclined to think that in focusing solely on such, I neglect myself and leave myself open to corruption by not 'shoring myself up', and perhaps if there is a total imbalance this is certainly the case. But might there not be point to the fact that Jesus's immediate reaction to hearing about John's death was to start ministering to others again?

That is, the recipients are not the only ones to receive. And this seems to me very characteristic of the Gospel.

Joe: Paul grew up in a devout community and learned from the best before beginning his earthly ministry. Jesus was 30 before He began to minister. Samuel grew up in the temple, before beginning his ministry. Moses lived a fairly insulated life before getting kicked out and into reality. These may be isolated exceptions to the rule, but I'm not positive that they are.

I'm also certain that I'm over-simplying the case a bit. Still, I think it's possible that Ave Maria has the potential to become a training ground for evangelists, apologists, ministers. I don't think it's a town that one should necessarily spend one's entire life in. On the other hand, I don't think that living there for a few years would be a negative experience either. I think it would be a good place to be from.

Adam: Moses may be out. He spent nearly 40 years being raised by the royal family, another 40 in Midian, which was pagan. And the royal family wasn't exactly a group of synagogue-lovers. :)

Joe: Well, yeah. My broader point was that ministry didn't always start at a young age. There is precedence for going through a long period of preparation. Of course, the opposite is true as well. Which just goes to show that the Boss likes to mix things up.

Adam: This is true, which is why I'm not outright condemning it; not sure it's possible to condemn any approach when He's that versatile.

What do you think, readers? Please hit the "Comments" link below and let us know your thoughts on this idea.

Recently I've been looking over my notes from an assisted study on the Biblical book of Galatians (The Glory of the Gospel: Studies in Paul's Letter to the Galatians is the name of this thing; I don't have the name of the author). I don't usually enjoy assisted Bible studies; the study guides almost always strike me as insipid and condescendingly vapid. I wouldn't have read The Glory but a good friend recommended it.

And thanks be t'God for him doing so, because The Glory of the Gospel doesn't mess about with peripheral nonsense; the sole subject broached is the central tenet to The Way of the Christ, and it is discussed directly and with intelligence. Which is its stated purpose: the writers of The Glory kick off their whole book with an introduction excerpted from A Passion for God, by Raymond C. Ortlund Jr., who writes,

"Imagine the evangelical church without the gospel... What might our evangelism, without the evangel, look like? We would have to replace the centrality of the gospel with something else, naturally. A number of things, conceivably. An introspective absorption with recovery from past emotional traumas, for example. Or a passionate devotion to the pro-life cause. Or a confident manipulation of modern managerial techniques. Or a drive toward church growth and success. Or a deep concern for the institution of the family. Or a fascination with the more unusual gifts of the Spirit... Or a determination to take America back to its Christian roots through political power... But not only is this conceivable, it is actually happening among us right now...

"Rather than carelessly assume the Gospel, we must aggressively, deliberately, fully and passionately teach and preach the gospel. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ. If we do not intentionally search them out, we will miss them."

I'd like to share some notes and transcriptions from the first chapter of the study (concerning Gal. 1-2:10) with you here.

The Glory of the Gospel supplies as commentary on the first passage Martin Luther's own words, naturally paraphrased and abridged. The Reformer writes as follows (and I'm editing for space):

"Now it is right to be a good citizen, to be loved and respected by your social group, and to be a morally upright person. So all these may be received without danger, if we attribute to them no power to satisfy for sin, to please God, or to deserve grace... These kinds of righteousness are gifts of God, like all good things we enjoy...

"Yet there is another, far above the others, which Paul calls 'the righteousness of faith!'--Christian righteousness... God imputs it to us apart from our works--in other words, it is passive righteousness, as the others are active. For we do nothing for it, and we give nothing for it--we only receive and allow another to work--that is God...

"This 'passive' righteousness is a mystery that the world cannot understand. Indeed, Christians never completely understand it themselves, and thus do not take advantage of it when they are troubled and tempted. So we have to constantly teach it, repeat it, and work it out in practice. For anyone who does not understand this righteousness or cherish it in the heart and conscience, will continually be buffeted by fears and depression.

"Nothing gives peace like this passive righteousness... For human beings by nature, when they get near either danger or death itself, will of necesity view their own worthiness. We defend ourselves before all threats by recounting our good deeds and moral efforts. But then the remembrance of sins and flaws inevitably comes to mind, and this tears us apart, and we think: 'How many errors and sins and wrongs I have done! Please God, let me live so I can fix and amend things.'

"We become obsessed with our active righteousness and are terrified by its imperfections. But the real evil is that we trust our own power to be righteous and will not lift up our eyes to see that Christ has done it for us... So the troubled conscience has no cure for its desperation and feeling of unworthiness unless it takes hold of the forgiveness of sins by grace, offered free of charge in Jesus Christ, which is this passive or Christian righteousness...

"If I tried to fulfill the law myself, I could not trust in what I had accomplished, neither could it stand up to the judgment of God. So... I rest only upon the righteousness of Christ... which I do not produce but receive; God the Father freely giving it to us through Jesus Christ...

"It is an absolute and unique teaching in all the world to teach people, through Christ, to live as if there were no Law or Wrath or Punishment. In a sense, they do not exist anymore for the Christian, but only total grace and mercy for Christ's sake... There is no other alternative to Christian righteousness but works-righteousness; if you do not build your confidence on the work of Christ you must build your confidence on your own work... So you who would be teachers and counselors of others, I admonish to exercise yourselves continually in these matters through study, reading, meditation on the Word and prayer--that in the time of trial you will be able to both inform and comfort both your consciences and others, to bring them from law to grace, from active/works-righteousness to passive/Christ-righteousness.

"For in times of struggle, the devil will seek to terrify us by using against us our past record, the wrath, and law of God... So learn to speak to one's heart and to the Law. When the law creeps into your conscience, learn to be a cunning logician-learn to use the arguments of the gospel against it. Say: 'O law! You would climb up into the kingdom of my conscience, and there reign and condemn me for sin, and would take from me the joy of my heart which I have by faith in Christ, and drive me to desperation, that I might be without hope. You have over-stepped your bounds... You are a guide for my behavior, but you are not Savior and Lord of my heart... So trouble me not!'"

"This then is the argument of this Epistle, which Paul expounds against the false teachers who had darkened the Galatians' understanding of this righteousness by faith."

P. 78 of The Glory of the Gospel adds that "If I am saved by my works, then I can either be confident but not humble... or humble but not confidence... In other words, apart from the gospel, I will be forced to be superior or inferior or to swing back and forth between the two... So I am continually caught between these two attitudes because of the nature of my self-image. But the gospel creates a new self-image. It humbles me before everyone, telling me I am a sinner saved only be grace. But it emboldens me before anyone, telling me I am loved and honored by the only eyes in the universe that really count.

I'm not sure there's a lesson out there which we're more likely to forget or that's more important for us all to remember.