• Here’s a follow-up to last week’s note which created some questions and confusion. First, that note had (in retrospect) two points: to free people from worrying that if they don’t rightly read the will of God out of their circumstances, they will lose his favor and find themselves “out of God’s will.” My hope was to give relief to some of you who labor under false notions. Second, it was an admonition against living, in effect, by divination. More on this below, but remember, Scripture gives us very little help on what particular decisions to make, what road to choose. But it gives constant and profound counsel on what sort of people we ought to be, what our character should look like (“What sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness?” 2 Pet 3:11). Generally speaking, the more godly our character, the better our decisions. As we live before God in “fear and trembling,” God simultaneously works his will in us “for his good pleasure” (Php 2:12-13).
• Think of it this way. Often the question we are asking is “what does God want me to do?” while the question God is answering is “who does God want me to be?” My point is that the first question has unnecessary fear and weight attached to it. He’s much more concerned about false character than false steps.
• This is where Augustine’s “Love God and do as you please” comes in. If we are genuinely compelled by the love of Christ, and walking in healthy, biblically-informed relationship with him, our conduct and choices are guided by an inherent desire to please God, which is why we exist. We may still make bad decisions as the result of indwelling sin and general frailty, and God may correct our course in his own way, but on the whole we will live for his glory, which is what we are being taught through all our ups and downs.
• But more to what I suspect is the heart of the matter: two thoughts on our experience of the Holy Spirit (I’ll have to save much of this for later this week or next week). It’s impossible to overstate the significance of the Spirit in our lives. If the truths of God’s word can be thought of as a profound and ancient hymn, the Holy Spirit is the music to which the hymn is set. The truth compels us, but music fills our souls with longing and moves us to action in ways that words alone cannot.
• The first point is that you can know the presence of the Holy Spirit as the person through whom you have union with Christ and the Father. The person who is willing to admit that we are indwelt by the Third Person of the Trinity (Jn 14:17), and yet is unwilling to admit any subjective experience associated with God’s presence, is someone who functionally denies the union Jesus describes in Jn 14:20 (“In that day [the sending of the Spirit] you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you”). I’ve noticed that in the more rationalistic Reformed churches where the personal experience of the presence of God is denied, people believe in it anyway, with the exception of a handful of men who are close followers of the pastor. You still hear people saying, “I just felt like God was leading me….” Much more to say here, but this leads to the second point.
• In our experience of the presence of God through his Spirit, we must not claim God’s authority for particular thoughts and actions of ours, as though there were no distinction between the thoughts and acts of the Creator and the thoughts and acts of the creature. Yes, God may work real conviction in you regarding some course of action; but no, you do not perfectly discern his mind or the course before you. God alone “sees the end from the beginning;” we see “but through a glass darkly.” We must have practical language for distinguishing between these two. The person who says, “God told me so-and-so” is offering no distinction between himself and God, making no allowance for his own sin, biases, and emotions. If you disagree with him you must (at least in his mind) disagree with God. No human being should ever assume to himself this position.
• Make note of the sentence, “Yes, God may work real conviction in you….” More on this next week. By the way, Sunday’s sermon is on grieving the Holy Spirit. Looking forward to being with you after a week away!