Reading Challenge: The Imperfect Disciple
So it begins. The first
review is here. I have labored through four books to this point. It’s been a
big challenge to get the books I’ve been reading finished (I picked four books,
one over 400 pages, another at 330, one at 320, and another 240), but it has also
been a lot of fun. (If you don’t know what my plan is, you can read the goal
for this blog over on my “About
Me”
page.) Without further delay, let’s get to the first book of the year!
(You
can find this post’s book over on Amazon.)
Reading Challenge: The Imperfect Disciple: Grace for People Who Can't Get
Their Act Together by Jared
Wilson
I don’t think I could
have started the year off with a better book. Jared Wilson does an amazing job
writing an honest take on being a disciple of Christ. This book is for those
tired of all the to-do lists for being a perfect disciple. It’s for us losers.
It’s for the sinners. This book is for those of us who fail Every. Single. Day.
I loved (and it was
probably my favorite part of the book) his take on Romans 7 and 8. Here’s a
small section:
“Every day, I wake up into Romans
7. Every dadgum day. My alarm goes off and I sit up in bed, my uncoffeed
consciousness groggily gearing up for sins—both of omission and of commission.
I’m engaged in the flesh before I even get my feet on the carpet.
And yet, right there beside me,
laid out like the day’s outfit for school are new mercies. Romans 8 lies right
there, spooning Romans 7 in a full-size bed, no wiggle room.
"There is therefore now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of
life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God
has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do." (Rom. 8:1-3)
How do we get out of this mess? We
can’t. But God does what we cannot do. So while Romans 7 rages inside us, the
truth of Romans 8 has us safe and sound. Within the spiritual ecosystem of
God’s saving sovereignty, in fact, our struggle is like the little squall
stirred up in a snow globe.
God is collecting all those little
storms. He is doing something beautiful with us and even in us and through us.
This is the great light that overcomes the shadow world of Romans 7. It is the
good news for all of us who can’t get our act together. We are exactly the kind
of people God is looking for. We are exactly the kind of people God is using.
We are exactly the kind of people God loves.”
What
it Taught Me
This
book gave me hope of growth. I’m a sinner and I fall into sin, but God doesn’t
leave me in Romans 7. He brings me out of that into Romans 8. When I’m living
in Romans 7, I’m trying to do it all myself and the result of my own striving
is death. I can’t do it in the flesh. (“For the
mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and
peace.”) But, thank God, He helps me. He gives me life (Romans 8:11).
Everyday
I need grace. God overcame me with His grace when He brought me to life and
resurrected this rebel sinner from spiritual death. But I’m not perfect. I
still need to be continually overcome by His grace (sanctified) so that, by
grace, I can overcome sin in my life. I do not overcome on my own. That’s when
I fail, when I try to do it all on my own! I need to be daily brought into
Romans 8, where God’s grace is to show me that my sin has been paid for on the
cross by Christ. I am no longer under to power of sin!
Christ.
Has. Conquered. My. Sin.
“Therefore
there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). As one who is in Christ Jesus, I have been set free from sin.
Our
Forgetfulness
But I
am so forgetful. Wilson says, “Every day you drift naturally into Romans 7. You
don’t need any help with that.” I see the allurement of sin and run to it,
forgetting the glory of my Savior’s face. I fall for the temptations of sin
forgetting what Christ has done on the cross. I forget that my Savior suffered,
bled, and died for my sin. And I forget how this sin will grieve the Holy
Spirit within me. I’ve done it again. I’ve slipped into Romans 7 once again.
For some crazy reason I’m trying to live by the law again. I can’t do that! I’m
a sinner and I will never, ever fulfill that law!
Grace Again
So I
need the grace of God to see again Romans 8. When I see what He has done
through Christ, how He has taken away the condemnation of sin and how Jesus has
perfectly fulfilled the law, why would I want to go back to condemnation?!
Thank God that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! I
thank Him for His unending grace to someone like me. And I thank God that “We
are exactly the kind of people God is looking for. We are exactly the kind of
people God is using. We are exactly the kind of people God loves.”
One
Last Quote
One last
thought from Jared Wilson:
“…what’s wrong
with you and me is that we’re still on this side of glory, and so long as we’re
on this side of glory, there will always be more sanctifying to go through. I’ve
met some people who think they’re all good-and-sanctified already, and I like
to tenderly suggest to them that they have much further to go than they
realize.
“When we die or
the Lord returns, whichever comes first, we will be instantly glorified—made
like him, like whoosh, in the blink of an eye—but until that moment, we’re
trekking across Romans 7 in a three-legged race with our pride through thigh-deep
mud. But Romans 8 turns the boosters on. Romans 8 is like walking on water.”
We
aren’t perfect. We never will be in this life. But by God’s grace we are being
sanctified and made more like Christ every day. Always remember and dwell on
Romans 8. Let the truth found there (and in all of Scripture) permeate your
life. Remember:
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