Why You Won’t Keep Your Resolutions

It’s just a crouton. Not that big of a deal, right? Well, maybe a few croutons. Ever since I’d made the unfortunate decision to get a check-up last year to discover that my A1C and my blood pressure were slightly out of tolerance, I’d been working on my diet a bit, trying to clean it up. And here I was with a salad. I loathe salad. Steak and potatoes are my thing, bread too, but salad must become my thing, or so I’ve been told. But what about the croutons?

Do I do what I ought and eat a crouton-less salad, thus rendering the offending dish even less appealing or…

Your Resolutions

The tendency is to focus on the things that we do.

This week, many of you will make New Year’s resolutions. You’ll resolve to exercise more, to lose weight, to quit smoking. You’ll be determined to get organized, earn a new skill or hobby, save more money. You’ll want to spend more time with family and friends, travel more, maybe {gasp} read a book.

You’ll fail. Statistically speaking, you’ll not only fail, you’ll fail sooner rather than later. Most people make it less than a month before giving way to temptation, falling back into old patterns, or even deliberately brushing off their commitments. It becomes too hard.

You just run out of willpower.

Behavior versus Belief

It’s a question of fundamentals.

Behavior is a function of belief. Conduct is a function of conviction. This is a distinctly biblical notion. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians perfectly demonstrates this. He pens three chapters concerning some of the deepest truths in all of Scripture, truths concerning predestination, election, salvation, eternal security etc., all truths about God, about our standing before Him, and how we might be reconciled to Him. He then says, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” (Ephesians 4:1) He then proceeds to tell these Ephesian Christians how they ought to behave as a function of what he just told them.

In other words, right belief always leads to right conduct and conversely, conduct is revelatory of what we actually believe. Conduct is symptomatic of belief.

Yet, conduct is almost always the focus.

The Law and the Gospel

You are a legalist at heart, just like me. You want a list. I want a list.

I’ve been reading the Puritans and most recently read Walter Marshall’s The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification. I want to be sanctified, like all Christians, and I sought a list of things that I ought to do to assist with my sanctification. To my surprise, it’s not until chapter 13 that Marshall gives us anything to do. The first 12 chapters, 231 pages out of 284 or 81%, focus upon the things that we believe, the things that we must know, if we are to ever do the things we ought to do.

Marshall knew what Paul knew, all law and no Gospel guarantees failure.

Just as often as we hear the preaching of a lawless Gospel, today we frequently hear preachers give us all law with very little Gospel, if any at all. To be clear, law is what God requires of us. Gospel is what God does for us. Ultimately, the law and the impossible demands of the law drive us to the Gospel, to Christ for salvation and for sanctification. We’re not antinomians, as Christ sends us back to the law for sanctification, but we never lose sight of the Gospel.

I heard a sermon recently that grieved my heart. The pastor concluded his exhortation, not with the Gospel, but with a list of things that the people needed to do. All law, no Gospel. I can imagine the believers in the crowd leaving with their spiritual rubric in hand. “If I just do x, y, and z then all will be well, I’ll be firmly in the center of God’s will.” I can also envision their despair when they ultimately fail that week, likely that very day.

“Try harder. Do better.” This is the message, but this message, all law and no Gospel, places an unbearable burden upon the shoulders of the believer, heaping up condemnation upon them when they fail, as they assuredly will.

Men and the Law

Men’s ministry seems to be the worst offender. To be fair, I’ve never really been a part of a women’s ministry, but the message to men is as consistent as it is predictable.

Quit being spiritually mediocre.

Quit being a spiritual slacker.

Stand up.

Take charge. Give it your all. Do your best. Seize the day and all that. Be a man, why don’t you? Attend a men’s conference, or a men’s breakfast, or a men’s retreat, or read a book directed toward men and you’ll inevitably hear this message of what you must do.

For the redeemed man, consider the burden. It’s all on your shoulders. The weight of the world, the future of the church, the future of your family, the nation, it all depends upon you, upon what you do, so do what you have to do, for the love of God! Whatever you do, don’t fail, don’t let God down, or your family, or the church.

Now, to be sure, the man ought to do things. We ought to pursue lives of purity and holiness. We ought to lead our families well in pursuing Christ. We ought to lead the church, just don’t leave me in condemnation when I fail, when I come up short. At least remind me that, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)

But before you even get there, teach me the Gospel. Remind me of the Gospel. Remind me of who I am in Christ, that I am a Son of God. Teach me to rest in Christ, to cultivate the work of the Holy Spirit in my life and to let that lead me to right conduct, empowered of Christ, in response to the grace of God. This is the only way. “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit [emphasis mine] you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” (Romans 8:13)

When I finally got to Marshall’s list in chapter 13, I was (un)surprised to find it fairly pedestrian. I mean, this is not exactly a revolutionary list of things to do. Read the Bible. Meditate on the Bible. Hear the preaching of His word. Hold our conduct up the standards of Scripture. Practice the ordinances of communion and baptism. Pray. Have fellowship with the body of Christ under the headship of the local church. These are the ordinary means of grace, God’s recipe from the beginning to conform man into the image of Christ as it follows right belief, right knowledge about God.

The Real Question

Why then do so many men languish, content with spiritual mediocrity?

Maybe they need to be told again. What if we paired the message of what they ought to do with a Christian celebrity or a sports star? As an aside, whenever I see the conflation of sports and Christianity, the hair stands up on the back of my neck, but that’s for another time. But what if we told Christians what to do in another way? What if we yelled at them in seeking to convince them of the veracity of the things they ought to do?

The things we ought to do are really very simple, so why do so many struggle?

Here’s another take.

What if contentment with spiritual mediocrity is actually an indicator of unregeneracy rather than being lukewarm?

The Bible is clear. There’s really no such thing as a carnal Christian. A lukewarm Christian is an oxymoron. Certainly, Christians struggle, and everyone is at a different place in their spiritual walk, but what if we find ourselves preaching the message of “do” to those who “cannot”, the unredeemed? As the attractional model of the western church has populated the church pews with so many who do not practice the faith in any meaningful way whatsoever, this is the only possible conclusion.

“Try harder” or “repent and be saved”? Which is the more appropriate message? The law says, “do this and live,” and the church preaches this message to law-breakers who could never be law-keepers because they don’t know the law-maker.

The Gospel says, “The law-maker became the law-keeper, but then took our place and condemnation as though he were the law-breaker.” (Ferguson 178)

It is this sweetest of messages, the Gospel message that liberates us from the curse of the law, the things that we must do in order to be saved.

Me and My Croutons

Maybe you’re a man of exceptional will. I’ve known some. I’m not one of them.  But maybe you could eat salad for a year, work out twice a day, and read a book every week while living well within your means. In the end, it doesn’t really matter.

Maybe you’re a Christian of exceptional will. Know this, you will never walk the walk God has called you to walk of your own power. And here’s the good news…Jesus already did it for you! You don’t have to, but your new nature in Christ desires to, and now, you have the Holy Spirit of God empowering you. It is no longer you who lives anyway, but Christ in you!

Yes, you ought to do things, but that’s not the point. What do you know? What do you believe? This is what matters most. And if you’re church is preaching you all law and no Gospel, then find another church. It’s that important.

As for me though, I still hate salad and yes, I ate the croutons…and a few slices of meat lovers pizza to boot. Don’t judge me.

I pray the Lord’s blessings upon you in the year to come!