Chapter Ten: Instruments of Grace

In applying the power of Christ to us, however, the Holy Spirit uses means or, as I prefer to call them, instruments of grace. And though they are His instruments, it is our responsibility to take advantage of them. I have a treadmill and a set of weights that I use to try to maintain a reasonable level of physical fitness. These pieces of equipment are instruments of physical fitness, but they will not accomplish their intended purpose if I do not use them. In the same manner, the Holy Spirit’s instruments of grace will not accomplish their purpose if I do not take advantage of them. The way we take advantage of them is through what is usually called the practice of spiritual disciplines.

Right away some well-meaning people bristle at the mention of spiritual disciplines. They associate such practices with a spirit of legalism or, as I prefer to call it, a performance attitude. It is true that many of us start out practicing these disciplines because we genuinely want to grow. But over time we gradually slip into a performance mindset toward God in which we think the practice of these disciplines earns God’s favor and the failure to practice them earns His disfavor. There is a danger of this attitude creeping into our practice of the disciplines, but we can help avoid that mindset if we think of them as instruments of grace and understand the nature of God’s grace as His favor to us through Christ.

Also keep in mind that though the practice of these disciplines involves our activity, we must always depend on the Holy Spirit to make them effective in our lives. As someone has so well said, grace does not make our effort unnecessary but makes it effective. So the same activity is both an instrument of grace from the Holy Spirit and a discipline we practice.

At the same time, we should note that Paul’s words “Be strengthened by His grace that is in Christ Jesus” is an imperative. Timothy is to do something. He is to be strengthened. True, he cannot strengthen himself, but he can actively draw on the grace that is in Christ, and the means God has given for doing that is through the instruments of grace He has provided.

Now that we have cleared away the underbrush of confusion regarding the relationship of grace and discipline, let’s consider the necessity of the spiritual disciplines.

It is a self-evident truth that skill or competency in any area of life is accomplished only by training and discipline. It doesn’t matter whether it is the professional areas — such as law, medicine, and engineering — or the mechanical and building trades, or fine arts, or athletics; competence can be developed only through training and discipline. We accept this obvious fact in all temporal areas of life but give little attention to it in the spiritual dimension of our lives.

Yet Paul’s words to Timothy — “Train yourself for godliness” (verse 7) — are just as applicable to us today and just as urgent as they were to Timothy. Why? Because as Paul continued in verse 8, “While bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” Godliness is valuable for both this life and the life to come. No other discipline can make such a claim. When the most brilliant heart surgeon in all the world dies, his skill dies with him. He can’t carry it into eternity. The same is true for the world-class concert musician or the top pro athlete. But godliness is valuable for all eternity!

Godliness is basically God-centeredness. It means to live all of life in awareness of our absolute dependence on God and our accountability to Him in both the spiritual and temporal dimensions of life. So it really is at the heart of spiritual transformation. And it is through the practice of the spiritual disciplines that we become more God-centered in our everyday lives.

Any discipline in the temporal realm involves lots of hard work and usually repetitive practice. What is it that keeps a person going in his or her discipline? Obviously, it is the goal of becoming a competent professional, or a skilled craftsman, or a medal-winning athlete.

By contrast, the spiritual disciplines for a Christian should be a source of joy and delight. We should desire to practice them rather than think we “ought” to practice them. Someone once wisely observed that “discipline without desire is drudgery.” What is it then that will give us the desire? It is, first of all, the gratitude that grows out of a daily embracing of the gospel. Remember, he who is forgiven much loves much. Second, all of these disciplines in some way involve time with God. Think about what that means! We who are sinful creatures get to spend time with the Creator of the universe, who loved us so much that He sent His Son to live and die in our place. All of us enjoy spending time with someone we love and who loves us. This is the privilege we have in the practice of the spiritual disciplines.

So what are these disciplines or, better, instruments of grace that we should practice?

First, consider the privilege. We have seen in earlier chapters that God is the infinitely holy One who hates sin because it is rebellion against His sovereign authority and a despising of His holy character. You and I are still practicing sinners whose very best deeds are, in the eyes of God, no more than a “polluted garment” (Isaiah 64:6). Yet through His Son’s sinless life and death on the cross, which God has credited to us, He regards us as righteous and accepts us as His children. He gives us the privilege of addressing Him as “Abba” or “Daddy” or “Dear Father.” Think of this! The infinite sovereign and holy Creator of the universe gives us the privilege of entering into an intimate relationship with Himself though we are still practicing sinners every day.

In the earliest chapters of the Bible, we read of a man named Enoch who was the seventh generation from Adam. He was commended by God as one who “walked with God” (see Genesis 5:22-24). The expression “walked with God” is descriptive of a close personal relationship with Him. The fact that the Holy Spirit, who guided the mind of Moses as he wrote Genesis, would single out Enoch from all his ancestors by the expression “He walked with God” indicates to us the importance God attaches to our developing this kind of a relationship with Him. And you and I have the privilege of developing the same kind of relationship with God as Enoch had. In fact, living as we do in the light of God’s full revelation in Christ and having at our disposal that revelation in the form of the completed Bible, we have an even greater opportunity and privilege than Enoch did.

Sadly, so few of us take advantage of this privilege. Too often we choose to stay up late at night to watch the ten o’clock news or the late-night television talk shows rather than going to bed at a reasonable hour so we can get up early enough in the morning to spend this time with God. And some who do get up for this time see it more as a duty to earn favor with God or avert His disfavor than the privilege it really is.

I don’t want to seem legalistic on this subject by appearing to say that the early-morning hour is the only appropriate time for fellowship with God. I realize some people, such as myself, are “morning people” and others are “night people.” But I will say this to those who are “night people.” Skip the evening news and the late-night television talk shows and spend that time developing a relationship with God. Why spend time thinking about events that are temporal when you can use that time to think about things that are eternal? (And for those who, because of shift work or being mothers with small children, find neither early morning nor late night suitable, try to find some time during the day when you can have a dedicated amount of time to spend with God.)

Consider Paul’s word to the Colossian believers in Colossians 3:1-2: “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” Paul did not write those words to a group of super-spiritual Christians; he wrote them to very ordinary people, many of whom were slaves (see verses 22-24). No, Paul was addressing all of us, regardless of our temporal position in life. He was saying that all of us should “set [our] minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” Paul was not trying to lay a guilt trip on these Colossian believers, nor us. No, he was saying, “Think of who you are! You have been raised with Christ. The things of this life are not where you find joy and fulfillment. That comes only in a genuine relationship with God through Christ and by the Holy Spirit. Put your priorities in eternal things.”

Let me hasten to point out that time alone with God sometime during the day is not the total fulfillment of what Paul was saying to us in Colossians 3:1-2. Far too many of us can have that dedicated time with God and then go out into our workaday worlds and forget about Him for most of our waking hours. I will address this issue later, but for now let me say that our dedicated time with God provides the foundation for our relationship with Him throughout the day.

This dedicated time with God each day should be the object of our desire, not a duty to perform. Consider the words of the psalmists:

The reality for most of us is that we do not experience this longing. For some believers, the idea of spending time with God each day is not even in their thinking. Others will have their quiet time, read a daily Bible reading, say a few prayers, but never really enjoy actual fellowship with God. I suspect that only a small minority of believers experience the longing for and joy of an authentic time with God each day, but this should be the goal of every Christian.

Two questions arise at this point: How do we get this intense desire, and what, on a practical level, does time alone with God look like? Let’s try to answer those questions by looking at a suggested structure for this time.

I believe our time with God should begin with the gospel, but because the gospel is only for sinners, we start with acknowledging ourselves as still-practicing sinners. I use the tax collector’s prayer in Luke 18:13, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” I acknowledge that God has already been merciful to me but that I live by His mercy every day. Following this, I review and pray over different gospel Scriptures. My three favorites are Isaiah 53:6, 2 Corinthians 5:21, and Philippians 3:9. Isaiah 53:6 assures me that my sins are forgiven, Philippians 3:9 reminds me that I stand clothed in the righteousness of Christ, and 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells me why both are true.

Dwelling on the gospel, however, should be far more than simply a five- or ten-minute introduction so that we can get on with our Bible reading. It is a significant instrument of grace in its own right that deserves a significant place in our time with God.

We read in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” As I have already mentioned, this is one of two places in the New Testament where the word transformed is used to denote our growth in Christlikeness, the other being Romans 12:2. In both cases, the verb transformed is in the passive voice — that is, something is being done to us, not by us. Yet in both instances, we have a part to play. In Romans 12:2, our part is to bring our minds under the renewing influence of the Word of God. In 2 Corinthians 3:18, our part is to behold the glory of the Lord. What does that mean?

I believe that the glory of the Lord — that is, of Jesus — is in this context His glory as revealed in the gospel. I say that because in 2 Corinthians 3:7-11, Paul contrasted the glory of the law given by Moses with the far greater glory of the gospel. Then, in 2 Corinthians 4:4, he spoke of “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ,” and in verse 6, he wrote of “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Philip Hughes, in his commentary on 2 Corinthians, wrote, “To gaze by faith into the gospel is to behold Christ.… And to contemplate Him who is the Father’s image is progressively to be transformed into that image.”

In the same vein, John Calvin wrote, “[Paul] declares that through the gospel, with uncovered face and no veil intervening, we behold God’s glory with such an effect that we are transformed into His very likeness.”

Christ is glorious in all His attributes as the eternal Son of God, but it is His glory as revealed in the gospel that is preeminently in view in this Scripture. So as we behold the glory of the Lord as reflected in the gospel, the Holy Spirit uses the gospel as one of His transforming instruments.

How does this work? For one thing, the gospel frees us up to honestly face our sins and our sinfulness. If we believe we are in a performance-based relationship with God, we will either live in denial about our sin or live under a continual sense of guilt. In the former instance, we see no need for change. In the latter, we will not experience the motivation to change that the gospel brings.

And then, as I developed more extensively in chapter 6, the love of Christ for us as revealed in the gospel will help us want to change for the right reason. God wants us to desire to do what is our duty to do, and only the gospel will produce that desire.

Finally, it is through the gospel that the Holy Spirit testifies to our adoption as God’s children. Apart from the gospel, we view God as our judge rather than as our heavenly Father. And when we view Him as our judge, we tend to obey, to whatever extent we do, out of fear rather than out of love. And we will never be transformed as long as we live by fear instead of love.

The important role of the gospel in our spiritual transformation is not an idea that has been developed in the last twenty to thirty years. In the annals of church history, I have traced it back as far as John Calvin in the sixteenth century. We have read John Owen’s words in the seventeenth century (see chapter 5). Consider these from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries:

Now we are ready for Bible reading and prayer.